[someotherperson]

> Australians have got it too good to care about this sort of thing. Like western society and climate change, taking any kind of action gets in the way of enjoying the fucking weekend; don't be such a fucking downer. More sunshine I say!

Nonsense. The problem is that the minority parties who oppose overreach like this are treated as dirty (Liberal Democratic Party) and the major parties all support crap like this. And we'll stay in this situation until the focus turns away from trying to ban recreational fishing[0] and steers back towards civil liberties. Of course, any mention of civil liberties today has you called an extremist in Australia by almost every single political party from Labour to the Greens.

[0] http://www.sportingshooter.com.au/latest/proposed-animal-cru...

[conz]

For the record, the Greens are the only major party to oppose this overreach. (Major in the sense that they are the 3rd largest party outside of the ALP and the Liberal parties, and larger than the National party.[*])

From the article:

  Green Senator Lidia Thorpe described the bill as “terribly flawed” and “problematic”, cited comments in the Richardson review that existing powers were adequate, and criticised the lack of time to consider the government’s amendments.

  “Unsurprisingly, the two major parties are in complete lockstep with each other and they are leading us down the road to a surveillance state,” she said.

[*] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Party_of_Australia

[stevenjohns]

The Greens do not support civil liberties. Opposing a single piece of the puzzle (digital surveillance, for now) doesn't change the ongoing assaults that the Greens party has been carrying out since their inception. The whole coal dependence Australia has is a direct consequence of the Greens rejecting alternatives like nuclear[0].

The entire political position of the Greens starts and stops at the 'think of the children' line and regularly makes deals with the major parties even though they have hostile positions. This is most clearly demonstrated in the ongoing attacks on trivial things like recreational fishing and the extremist positions the Greens takes on firearms ownership. Keeping in mind that this position on firearms includes supporting draconian-level surveillance powers being given to police, which essentially vetos their at-face position against digital surveillance today.

Some of their other positions include wanting to tax fast food, additional taxes on alcohol and forceful reacquisition of private service providers. This goes as far as giving the UN powers over Australian legislation and directly reducing Australia's sovereignty -- even for military defence[1]. Again -- hardly interested in civil liberties.

[0] https://greens.org.au/policies/nuclear-and-uranium

[1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-28/lapkin---the-greens27...

[techdragon]

Given how little rights we are guaranteed in Australia by our constitution, I wouldn’t mind our government getting less sovereign and having higher powers to appeal to. The UN is a little dysfunctional at times with things like the rock paper scissor game of who on the security council will veto it this time, but the various UN departments tend to produce pretty decent stuff when it comes to “Human Rights” it’s not like we don’t have the lessons to learn after decades of watching the way the EU worksz

[BLKNSLVR]

major parties all support crap like this

That's because the major parties represent what they think the people want, and the people aren't motivated enough (or actually don't give a shit) to get a different message through. Cue my commentary.

Every democracy gets the government they voted for.