5 ms·

Why is it that 90% of the stories we hear involving Australia and technology are about stupid moves by the government? Is there something unique about Australi

by pg 16y ago

Why is it that 90% of the stories we hear involving Australia and technology are about stupid moves by the government? Is there something unique about Australia?

bootload 16y ago
"... Why is it that 90% of the stories we hear involving Australia and technology are about stupid moves by the government? Is there something unique about Australia? ..." Yes. Australian cultural DNA is a weird hybrid of the US, UK with it's own particular mutation. Despite being blessed with a large land mass, Australia is devoid of imagination and cannot successfully combine technology and entrepreneurship like the US. It has the smarts but lacks the sophistication of public relations and finance of the UK. At a political and business level we seem to get stuck with leaders who revel in being 50 years behind the times.
- antipaganda 16y ago
  Yes, our finance system lacks sophistication, uhuh... which is why we banned credit default swaps BEFORE the financial crisis, and our banks were never in danger of collapse because of the currency reserves we make them hold. And our foreign debt is miniscule. So call us primitive if you like, but look at what your sophistication has brought you.
  - bootload 16y ago
    "... Yes, our finance system lacks sophistication, uhuh... ..." By lacking sophistication, I mean a system of alternative capital (VC) that fully recognises Startups as a serious way to generate wealth instead of say lending money for property development, mining or agriculture. "... So call [us] primitive if you like, but look at what your sophistication has brought you ..." I'm Australian ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157601280899273/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157601280899273...
    - antipaganda 16y ago
      My mistake, I was thinking macroeconomic instead of microeconomic. You're right, it's yet another aspect of the "Australian invents something, Australia refuses to invest, Australian goes overseas and makes tons of cash" phenomenon.
    - willcannings 16y ago
      "By lacking sophistication, I mean a system of alternative capital (VC) that fully recognises Startups as a serious way to generate wealth" That's definitely changing, e.g Innovation Bay, Startmate, the Sydney Angel Sidecar Fund, and others. VC/Angel investing is not at the same maturity as overseas yet, but it's definitely changing.
  - math 16y ago
    I think the fact our housing bubble hasn't popped yet goes a long way to explaining why our banks look to be in such great shape. I'm not sure all the patting ourselves on the back is necessarily warranted. For example, the leverage of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is about 19:1, where most of their assets are residential mortgages : http://www.intelligentinvestor.com.au/articles/Commonwealth-Bank-Of-Australia-CBA/The-bottom-line-on-CBA-s-balance-sheet.cfm http://www.intelligentinvestor.com.au/articles/Commonwealth-... I find a little scary if charts of house prices such as the following are correct: http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/IMG0031_46434765.PNG http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2009/0...
    - bootload 16y ago
      "... I think the fact our housing bubble hasn't popped yet goes a long way to explaining why our banks look to be in such great shape. I'm not sure all the patting ourselves on the back is necessarily warranted. ..." I walked 240km (Canberra to Kosciuszko) earlier this year on a bet made on the housing bubble ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/collections/72157623796440209/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/collections/7215762379... and the most interesting thing I learned was how broken economic models really are.
    - Estragon 16y ago
      Yes, the Australian economy depends heavily on China's at the moment. If China proves unable to maintain its current growth rate, Australia is likely to suffer a pretty severe downturn.
TomOfTTB 16y ago
They're what we would consider a "free country" yet in regards to the Internet they act like a Totalitarian Government. Which puts the focus on those actions.
- joshd 16y ago
  It's also worth pointing out that Australians don't have constitutionally protected free speech.
  - sandGorgon 16y ago
    hmm.. this is interesting. Someone once quoted that India is the only ex-Commonwealth country (including Canada AND the UK itself) that has the most iron clad constitutional guarantees on free speech. I'm not sure how accurate that is though - India has on occasion banned books (like Salman Rushdie's work) to prevent potential civil unrest. But there are similar precedents in the USA.
    - solutionyogi 16y ago
      Indian constitution is a mess. Few notes: The Indian Penal Code, framed by the British in colonial times, contains a number of laws that make giving offence a crime, and throttle free speech. For example, there’s Section 295 (a), which makes it a non-bailable offence to “outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.” There’s Section 153 (a), which seeks to punish “any act which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities”. There’s Section 124 (a), which prescribes life imprisonment for anyone who “by words or expression of any kind brings or attempts to bring or provoke a feeling of hatred, contempt or disaffection towards government”—something that any critic of any government could be accused of. The constitution, framed not by the British but by the freedom fighters who got us independence, cops out when it comes to free speech. While Article 19 (1) (a) pays lip service to it, Article 19 (2) lays out “reasonable restrictions” such as when it applies to matters such as “public order” and “decency or morality”, matters which are, of course, open to interpretation. I’d love it if we had something like the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which contains no such caveats—but sadly, we don’t. From: http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/such-a-wrong-journey/ http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/such-a-wrong-journey/
etherael 16y ago
We have a particularly stupid government, even with the caveat that governments are particularly stupid. That said, it's somewhat interesting this is being linked from here now, it gives the impression that this is an attempt at damage control over cablegate on the part of our idiot politicians, but if you look at the release date of the linked article this is completely unrelated to the recently released cables.
neckbeard 16y ago
Story is from 2009, old news is old (not that the issue is completely dead and buried).
Dramatize 16y ago
Hence why I'd like to move to America where there are no crazy politicians.
- riobard 16y ago
  Seems you'd be really disappointed if you go there :D
  - Dramatize 16y ago
    Really? :)
  - cherring 16y ago
    Sarcasm Alert?
tomjen3 16y ago
Selectivity bias. Australia doesn't do much else that would be worth mentioning in these circles (when was the last time an Australian startup did anything interesting) while the actions of the government are exactly the kind of news that gets posted here.
- anthonyb 16y ago
  > when was the last time an Australian startup did anything interesting How about Wireless networking? http://www.csiro.au/science/wireless-LANs.html http://www.csiro.au/science/wireless-LANs.html You're welcome.
  - skeletonjelly 16y ago
    Wireless you say? I think that'll catch on.
  - angusgr 16y ago
    This is a good example of Australian innovation (far from the only one), but CSIRO not really a "startup", it's a national research institution.
    - anthonyb 16y ago
      It was developed by a team of five researchers: http://www.csiro.au/news/CSIRO-wireless-team-wins-top-Aussie-science-award.html http://www.csiro.au/news/CSIRO-wireless-team-wins-top-Aussie... Maybe not a startup in the strict sense of the word, but pretty close - especially when you consider the limited funding available to most scientists.
- hartror 16y ago
  Two recent high profile examples http://www.atlassian.com/ http://www.atlassian.com/ http://www.adioso.com http://www.adioso.com There are plenty of awesome things happening in the Australian tech scene. Unfortunately the tyranny of distance and lack luster investment and government support means we can struggle a bit to get our message out. I know of a bunch of people with fantastically profitable businesses servicing international user bases that you won't ever hear about. Because they're not in the "scene" they don't get talked about but they're plugging away at their businesses making serious $$.
ra 16y ago
It's not 90%, it's more like 99%. 1. Australia has a history of communications ministers who are simply inappropriate for the role (google: "worlds biggest luddite"). 2. The latest minister, Senator Conroy, and his government choose to focus their political will and energy on attempts to censor information and apply control over what Australians can and can't see on the Internet. 3. This is largely because the sitting government has an interest in pleasing an organisation called "The Australian Christian Lobby", who have openly, publicly and repeatedly called for censorship of the Internet. The ACL influence a significant voting block across a large number of constituencies. 4. The news from down here regarding the intersection of Government and technology seems bad because there isn't any good news to plug the gaps between the bad news. 5. The government does very little to foster an environment to encourage entrepreneurship or technical innovation by start-ups and micro-companies. 6. Finally, Australia doesn't have a bill of rights. Unlike the US and England, the High Court doesn't always have the final say on matters. The government is relatively free to introduce laws where it needs to in order to continue it's agenda (getting reelected). And to end on some good news, the government did recently open a new fund to be managed by local VCs, of which at least some of it will trickle through to Internet technology startups: http://delimiter.com.au/2010/11/08/80m-splash-carr-fills-up-vc-engines/ http://delimiter.com.au/2010/11/08/80m-splash-carr-fills-up-...
- sdcfvbnjkllkj 16y ago
  Why is it that when you move white people to somewhere hot and sunny they become rapid bible-bashers? Is it something to do with a vitamin D overdose?
- geoffbp 16y ago
  RE points 2 & 3, part of the Australian government's agenda for the NBN is probably for nationwide Internet censorship.
thisrod 16y ago
The Australian government will fail to censor the web next year. It has failed every year since 1996, when it first announced its intention to do so. This is smart politics. The government tells Australia's religious kooks that it's on God's side. Meanwhile, the civil liberties mob focuses on something the government can't do, and it gets up to worse bastardry with less embarrassment.

by pg 16y ago

Why is it that 90% of the stories we hear involving Australia and technology are about stupid moves by the government? Is there something unique about Australia?

bootload 16y ago

"... Why is it that 90% of the stories we hear involving Australia and technology are about stupid moves by the government? Is there something unique about Australia? ..." Yes. Australian cultural DNA is a weird hybrid of the US, UK with it's own particular mutation. Despite being blessed with a large land mass, Australia is devoid of imagination and cannot successfully combine technology and entrepreneurship like the US. It has the smarts but lacks the sophistication of public relations and finance of the UK. At a political and business level we seem to get stuck with leaders who revel in being 50 years behind the times.

antipaganda 16y ago
Yes, our finance system lacks sophistication, uhuh... which is why we banned credit default swaps BEFORE the financial crisis, and our banks were never in danger of collapse because of the currency reserves we make them hold. And our foreign debt is miniscule. So call us primitive if you like, but look at what your sophistication has brought you.
- bootload 16y ago
  "... Yes, our finance system lacks sophistication, uhuh... ..." By lacking sophistication, I mean a system of alternative capital (VC) that fully recognises Startups as a serious way to generate wealth instead of say lending money for property development, mining or agriculture. "... So call [us] primitive if you like, but look at what your sophistication has brought you ..." I'm Australian ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157601280899273/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157601280899273...
  - antipaganda 16y ago
    My mistake, I was thinking macroeconomic instead of microeconomic. You're right, it's yet another aspect of the "Australian invents something, Australia refuses to invest, Australian goes overseas and makes tons of cash" phenomenon.
  - willcannings 16y ago
    "By lacking sophistication, I mean a system of alternative capital (VC) that fully recognises Startups as a serious way to generate wealth" That's definitely changing, e.g Innovation Bay, Startmate, the Sydney Angel Sidecar Fund, and others. VC/Angel investing is not at the same maturity as overseas yet, but it's definitely changing.
- math 16y ago
  I think the fact our housing bubble hasn't popped yet goes a long way to explaining why our banks look to be in such great shape. I'm not sure all the patting ourselves on the back is necessarily warranted. For example, the leverage of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is about 19:1, where most of their assets are residential mortgages : http://www.intelligentinvestor.com.au/articles/Commonwealth-Bank-Of-Australia-CBA/The-bottom-line-on-CBA-s-balance-sheet.cfm http://www.intelligentinvestor.com.au/articles/Commonwealth-... I find a little scary if charts of house prices such as the following are correct: http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/IMG0031_46434765.PNG http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2009/0...
  - bootload 16y ago
    "... I think the fact our housing bubble hasn't popped yet goes a long way to explaining why our banks look to be in such great shape. I'm not sure all the patting ourselves on the back is necessarily warranted. ..." I walked 240km (Canberra to Kosciuszko) earlier this year on a bet made on the housing bubble ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/collections/72157623796440209/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/collections/7215762379... and the most interesting thing I learned was how broken economic models really are.
  - Estragon 16y ago
    Yes, the Australian economy depends heavily on China's at the moment. If China proves unable to maintain its current growth rate, Australia is likely to suffer a pretty severe downturn.

TomOfTTB 16y ago

They're what we would consider a "free country" yet in regards to the Internet they act like a Totalitarian Government. Which puts the focus on those actions.

joshd 16y ago
It's also worth pointing out that Australians don't have constitutionally protected free speech.
- sandGorgon 16y ago
  hmm.. this is interesting. Someone once quoted that India is the only ex-Commonwealth country (including Canada AND the UK itself) that has the most iron clad constitutional guarantees on free speech. I'm not sure how accurate that is though - India has on occasion banned books (like Salman Rushdie's work) to prevent potential civil unrest. But there are similar precedents in the USA.
  - solutionyogi 16y ago
    Indian constitution is a mess. Few notes: The Indian Penal Code, framed by the British in colonial times, contains a number of laws that make giving offence a crime, and throttle free speech. For example, there’s Section 295 (a), which makes it a non-bailable offence to “outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.” There’s Section 153 (a), which seeks to punish “any act which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities”. There’s Section 124 (a), which prescribes life imprisonment for anyone who “by words or expression of any kind brings or attempts to bring or provoke a feeling of hatred, contempt or disaffection towards government”—something that any critic of any government could be accused of. The constitution, framed not by the British but by the freedom fighters who got us independence, cops out when it comes to free speech. While Article 19 (1) (a) pays lip service to it, Article 19 (2) lays out “reasonable restrictions” such as when it applies to matters such as “public order” and “decency or morality”, matters which are, of course, open to interpretation. I’d love it if we had something like the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which contains no such caveats—but sadly, we don’t. From: http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/such-a-wrong-journey/ http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/such-a-wrong-journey/

etherael 16y ago

We have a particularly stupid government, even with the caveat that governments are particularly stupid. That said, it's somewhat interesting this is being linked from here now, it gives the impression that this is an attempt at damage control over cablegate on the part of our idiot politicians, but if you look at the release date of the linked article this is completely unrelated to the recently released cables.

neckbeard 16y ago

Story is from 2009, old news is old (not that the issue is completely dead and buried).

Dramatize 16y ago

Hence why I'd like to move to America where there are no crazy politicians.

riobard 16y ago
Seems you'd be really disappointed if you go there :D
- Dramatize 16y ago
  Really? :)
- cherring 16y ago
  Sarcasm Alert?

tomjen3 16y ago

Selectivity bias. Australia doesn't do much else that would be worth mentioning in these circles (when was the last time an Australian startup did anything interesting) while the actions of the government are exactly the kind of news that gets posted here.

anthonyb 16y ago
> when was the last time an Australian startup did anything interesting How about Wireless networking? http://www.csiro.au/science/wireless-LANs.html http://www.csiro.au/science/wireless-LANs.html You're welcome.
- skeletonjelly 16y ago
  Wireless you say? I think that'll catch on.
- angusgr 16y ago
  This is a good example of Australian innovation (far from the only one), but CSIRO not really a "startup", it's a national research institution.
  - anthonyb 16y ago
    It was developed by a team of five researchers: http://www.csiro.au/news/CSIRO-wireless-team-wins-top-Aussie-science-award.html http://www.csiro.au/news/CSIRO-wireless-team-wins-top-Aussie... Maybe not a startup in the strict sense of the word, but pretty close - especially when you consider the limited funding available to most scientists.
hartror 16y ago
Two recent high profile examples http://www.atlassian.com/ http://www.atlassian.com/ http://www.adioso.com http://www.adioso.com There are plenty of awesome things happening in the Australian tech scene. Unfortunately the tyranny of distance and lack luster investment and government support means we can struggle a bit to get our message out. I know of a bunch of people with fantastically profitable businesses servicing international user bases that you won't ever hear about. Because they're not in the "scene" they don't get talked about but they're plugging away at their businesses making serious $$.

ra 16y ago

It's not 90%, it's more like 99%. 1. Australia has a history of communications ministers who are simply inappropriate for the role (google: "worlds biggest luddite"). 2. The latest minister, Senator Conroy, and his government choose to focus their political will and energy on attempts to censor information and apply control over what Australians can and can't see on the Internet. 3. This is largely because the sitting government has an interest in pleasing an organisation called "The Australian Christian Lobby", who have openly, publicly and repeatedly called for censorship of the Internet. The ACL influence a significant voting block across a large number of constituencies. 4. The news from down here regarding the intersection of Government and technology seems bad because there isn't any good news to plug the gaps between the bad news. 5. The government does very little to foster an environment to encourage entrepreneurship or technical innovation by start-ups and micro-companies. 6. Finally, Australia doesn't have a bill of rights. Unlike the US and England, the High Court doesn't always have the final say on matters. The government is relatively free to introduce laws where it needs to in order to continue it's agenda (getting reelected). And to end on some good news, the government did recently open a new fund to be managed by local VCs, of which at least some of it will trickle through to Internet technology startups: http://delimiter.com.au/2010/11/08/80m-splash-carr-fills-up-vc-engines/ http://delimiter.com.au/2010/11/08/80m-splash-carr-fills-up-...

sdcfvbnjkllkj 16y ago
Why is it that when you move white people to somewhere hot and sunny they become rapid bible-bashers? Is it something to do with a vitamin D overdose?
geoffbp 16y ago
RE points 2 & 3, part of the Australian government's agenda for the NBN is probably for nationwide Internet censorship.

thisrod 16y ago

The Australian government will fail to censor the web next year. It has failed every year since 1996, when it first announced its intention to do so. This is smart politics. The government tells Australia's religious kooks that it's on God's side. Meanwhile, the civil liberties mob focuses on something the government can't do, and it gets up to worse bastardry with less embarrassment.