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Unfortunately tech policy in Australia seems to have a history of being poorly thought out and this doesn't appear to be an exception to the trend. The thing I

by JanisL 8y ago

Unfortunately tech policy in Australia seems to have a history of being poorly thought out and this doesn't appear to be an exception to the trend. The thing I find so disconcerting is just how little expertise seems to be present in the legislative space around tech in Australia compared with other countries, how did this come to be? It's not as though there's a complete lack of legislative skill either, in other areas things seem to be a whole lot better.

ludston 8y ago
I think that this government knows exactly what it is doing with regards to tech laws in Australia, but the current government is serving needs other than the economic success of the tech industry in Australia. An example of this is the monopoly internet infrastructure project that was gutted: This project is an existential threat to the television and news media organisations that enabled the current government to be elected. Another example of this was the introduction of DNS filters to block sites that are commonly used for piracy: These sites are an existential threat to the television and news media organisations that enabled the current government to be elected. Given the history, it is fairly likely that this legislation is also being made to satify some third party interest.
- A2017U1 8y ago
  The Australian government is trailing badly in the polls, they also just announced some of the biggest income tax cuts in history after campaigning on a platform of dramatically reducing the budget deficit. Policy in the Western world has become about what focus groups like rather than evidence.
AndrewDavis 8y ago
>The thing I find so disconcerting is just how little expertise seems to be present in the legislative space around tech in Australia There is expertise. Our Prime Minister knows tech, Turnbull is a millionaire from seeing the potential of the internet in the 90s and heavily invested in an ISP and took on role of chairman. Half a decade later he'd turned 500k into $50 million when Ozemail was acquired. The policies aren't because of incompetence, they're actively malicious against the publics best interest in favour of the elite set to make bank.
- thundergolfer 8y ago
  While Turnbull can at least claim entrepreneurial success in the tech space, is he not an exception? I can't think of another prominent politician with a background in computer science, IT, or even technology entrepreneurship.
- stephen_g 8y ago
  I don't believe Turnbull had anything to do with the technical side of Ozemail (which was only ever a dial-up network and mail provider), he was just on the business side. Clearly when he became the communications minister I think he demonstrated that while he was willing to ignore experts and destroy things maliciously for political gain, I believe he also demonstrated he didn't actually understand recent tech or broadband networks much at all through a lot of it either. There were things that I think he actually believed that were rubbish.

by JanisL 8y ago

ludston 8y ago

I think that this government knows exactly what it is doing with regards to tech laws in Australia, but the current government is serving needs other than the economic success of the tech industry in Australia. An example of this is the monopoly internet infrastructure project that was gutted: This project is an existential threat to the television and news media organisations that enabled the current government to be elected. Another example of this was the introduction of DNS filters to block sites that are commonly used for piracy: These sites are an existential threat to the television and news media organisations that enabled the current government to be elected. Given the history, it is fairly likely that this legislation is also being made to satify some third party interest.

A2017U1 8y ago
The Australian government is trailing badly in the polls, they also just announced some of the biggest income tax cuts in history after campaigning on a platform of dramatically reducing the budget deficit. Policy in the Western world has become about what focus groups like rather than evidence.

AndrewDavis 8y ago

>The thing I find so disconcerting is just how little expertise seems to be present in the legislative space around tech in Australia There is expertise. Our Prime Minister knows tech, Turnbull is a millionaire from seeing the potential of the internet in the 90s and heavily invested in an ISP and took on role of chairman. Half a decade later he'd turned 500k into $50 million when Ozemail was acquired. The policies aren't because of incompetence, they're actively malicious against the publics best interest in favour of the elite set to make bank.

thundergolfer 8y ago
While Turnbull can at least claim entrepreneurial success in the tech space, is he not an exception? I can't think of another prominent politician with a background in computer science, IT, or even technology entrepreneurship.
stephen_g 8y ago
I don't believe Turnbull had anything to do with the technical side of Ozemail (which was only ever a dial-up network and mail provider), he was just on the business side. Clearly when he became the communications minister I think he demonstrated that while he was willing to ignore experts and destroy things maliciously for political gain, I believe he also demonstrated he didn't actually understand recent tech or broadband networks much at all through a lot of it either. There were things that I think he actually believed that were rubbish.