[ux-app]

> soured my view of him forever. He’s revealed himself to be a man of no principles.

I don't have a strong opinion of Shorten one way or the other, but I've read a lot of people express a similar POV and it strikes me as extremely naive.

If you went into politics with a view to die on your sword rather than compromise any of your values you'd have a very short career. Losing the battle to win the war is the only way to achieve anything.

I mean, be realistic. If the ALP had blocked the bill it would be political suicide for them. For now some nerds (us) are debating the issue on an obscure forum. The alternative would be for every man and his dog having our corrupt media ram the "Labor has made it easier for terrorists to kill you" story down their throat for the next few months.

[stonith]

> If the ALP had blocked the bill it would be political suicide for them.

They opposed the bill over the weekend and then backflipped because if there's an attack over Christmas they'll look like fools. I don't think that risk was worth selling out 25 million people, but maybe that's just me. They get attacked constantly in the media anyway, it's not going to make much difference.

[strken]

> The alternative would be for every man and his dog having our corrupt media ram the "Labor has made it easier for terrorists to kill you" story down their throat for the next few months.

In some ways that would be a good thing, because it would force a public debate about warrantless surveillance at a time when relatively few people trust the LNP government or its law-and-order rhetoric.

[int_19h]

If you sell out your principles to get that power, what's the purpose of having it? By the time you get there, you're no better than the person you ousted.