[zakary]

I’ve lived in Sydney most of my life. I suspect that it genuinely is partly because Australia, particularly NSW, did start off as a prison colony, and as a consequence our police force and legislature has always tended towards the conservative and oppressive. NSW is known is Aus as almost always having the most draconian rules for a given thing, compared to other states. NSW is the most populous state and has an outsized influence on federal politics.

Given that we’ve had a conservative (it was the “Liberal” party, but they’re basically like the US republicans) government for most of the last 25 years, it’s not surprising that these factors have come together to make Australia much more of a surveillance state than many of our neighbours.