Poll of the Day > What is wrong with Australia?

(+) Yeah! (+)

7:30? Seriously, what the hell?

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Is it me or does it look like Queensland is giving us the finger?

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Having a half-hour time zone in the middle is indeed kind of odd. Canada's got one on either end (Newfoundland and Yukon time), but those are extremes, not the middle. I guess that's just how the borders here line up, since they're generally going to use existing borders rather than have time zone transitions running through the middle of the state.

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Silly me, I thought this topic might be in reference to their new "surveillance" bill.

https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/australia-surveillance-bill/

The Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020 gives the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) three new powers for dealing with online crime:

Data disruption warrant: gives the police the ability to "disrupt data" by modifying, copying, adding, or deleting it.
Network activity warrant: allows the police to collect intelligence from devices or networks that are used, or likely to be used, by those subject to the warrant
Account takeover warrant: allows the police to take control of an online account (e.g. social media) for the purposes of gathering information for an investigation.

The two Australian law enforcement bodies AFP and ACIC will soon have the power to modify, add, copy, or delete your data should you become a suspect in the investigation of a serious crime.

FYI: Apparently a "serious crime" is a crime w/ a 3+ year jail sentence. What a high bar....

The Human Rights Law Centre criticizes that there are "insufficient safeguards" and that the government ignored "crucial recommendations of the bipartisan Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security that stronger safeguards are needed to protect the privacy of all Australians" while rushing the amendments through parliament on August 25th.
"It is alarming that, instead of accepting the Committees recommendations and allowing time for scrutiny of subsequent amendments, the Morrison Government rushed these laws through Parliament in less than 24 hours."
What makes this legislation even worse is that there is no judicial oversight. A data disruption or network activity warrant could be issued by a member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, a warrant from a judge of a superior court is not needed.

When presented with such warrant from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Australian companies, system administrators etc. must comply, and actively help the police to modify, add, copy, or delete the data of a person under investigation. Refusing to comply could have one end up in jail for up to ten years, according to the new bill.
Required hacking activities could include: altering, copying and deleting data; intercepting and modifying communications; surveilling networks; and changing account credentials.

End of Human Rights

The new Australian surveillance bill signals the end of respect for Human Rights in Australia.
For lawyer Angus Murray, Chair of Electronic Frontiers Australias Policy Team, the hacking powers pose a serious risk to our civil liberties.
"This is now a regime in Australia where we have conferred power on law enforcement agencies to hack Australians, and potentially overseas persons, computers and to take over accounts and modify and delete data on those accounts," he told Information Age.
"Australia doesnt have constitutionally enshrined rights to political speech and other human rights, but if were going to give law enforcement these powers, that should be checked and balanced against a human rights instrument at Federal level."
Murray warns that there could come a point where this power is used against society. In theory, at least, the police could put something like child exploitation images onto your computer. While something like this is not the intention of the bill, there are also no significant safeguards against it.

Oh I thought this was going to be about how if theyre in quarantine they have to report in via selfie if theyre contacted by health authorities within five minutes, or else they show up at their door.

To be fair, theyve been lost for years. This is what happens when you lean the way they do.

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Only the Eastern states really matter.

The rest of Australia is a bunch of yobbos in the middle of Woop Woop. =P

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zebatov posted...

To be fair, theyve been lost for years. This is what happens when you lean the way they do.

I hope you know that despite its name, the Liberal Party of Australia is actually conservative. All their last few PMs have been conservatives that's why they have such strict immigration laws etc

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adjl posted...

Having a half-hour time zone in the middle is indeed kind of odd. Canada's got one on either end (Newfoundland and Yukon time), but those are extremes, not the middle. I guess that's just how the borders here line up, since they're generally going to use existing borders rather than have time zone transitions running through the middle of the state.

Yukon is Pacific time, but yeah, there is a 30 min timezone in NFL

There is a 45min timezone somewhere also I believe
https://www.timeanddate.com/time/time-zones-interesting.html

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captpackrat posted...

7:30? Seriously, what the hell?

cuz the planet is more curved closer to the poles? ?????

idk, i got nothing

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MeteoricBurst posted...

I hope you know that despite its name, the Liberal Party of Australia is actually conservative. All their last few PMs have been conservatives that's why they have such strict immigration laws etc

If theyre anything like our Conservatives, thats not saying much. Would like to know what their definition of strict is.

Kind of similar to Japans Liberal Democratic Party, which is strangely conservative.

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zebatov posted...

If theyre anything like our Conservatives, thats not saying much. Would like to know what their definition of strict is.

Kind of similar to Japans Liberal Democratic Party, which is strangely conservative.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_immigration_detention_facilities

It's been a long running saga the last years with their treatment of asylum seekers and illegals. The Aus government has been borderline authoritarian for sometime it's just that now you're more seeing it turned to citizens themselves with the quarantine stuff, rather than outsiders.


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trodi_911 posted...

The rest of Australia is a bunch of yobbos in the middle of Woop Woop. =P

You've seen Welcome to Woop Woop?!?


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Bugmeat posted...

You've seen Welcome to Woop Woop?!?

Nope. Just some Aussie slang.

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It's the emus

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They're crazy because British people aren't supposed to be in a hot place for that long.

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theyre bad at knifey-spoony

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We could explain, but the topic has a 500 post limit.

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Australia has an entire state that is Not Safe for Work.

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Juicemedia explains shit fairly well.

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captpackrat posted...

Australia has an entire state that is Not Safe for Work.

Which one?
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Its upside down

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whoever came up with it needs to get booted
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Revelation34 posted...

Which one?

New South Wales. NS(f)W.

It was a joke. I enjoyed it for what it's worth.

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trodi_911 posted...

New South Wales. NS(f)W.

It was a joke. I enjoyed it for what it's worth.

I forgot which one banned small breasts in porn.
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