[grecy]

I recently flew to Australia, and from experience I can tell you virtually nobody knows about these laws being changes. The one discussed here, the new "hacking" powers given to the government, the money being paid to Murdoch by FB and Google.

The very vast majority of Aussies have no clue about any of it, and the media is keeping silent.

[SturgeonsLaw]

Yes, this is the key point that people are missing when they wonder why there isn't an uproar. Most Aussies don't have a clue what the government is really up to. The media here is complicit and extremely consolidated - essentially all commercial media companies are sympathetic towards a single (conservative) party, Murdoch's media is openly partisan and has a dominant market share, the public broadcaster has been gutted and the board stacked with LNP stooges. The end result is all media narratives in lock-step pushing a pro-LNP message.

The media boardrooms are a popular revolving door for politicians to get the post-politics payday, and the media has been known to give politicians favourable treatment when they want legislation in their interests to be passed. [0]

The whole time, the media is telling the public not to worry, everything is ok - unless a Labor government is in power, in which case the messaging is that the sky is falling, tax and debt is skyrocketing, and they want to steal pensioner's benefits.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/business/dealbook/austral...