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This one seems a bit random, but there's been pretty good reasons for Australia to be relevant in the global tech news in the last few years. Our government is

This one seems a bit random, but there's been pretty good reasons for Australia to be relevant in the global tech news in the last few years. Our government is burning down as many freedoms as they can get away with in the tech space, and setting a dangerous precedent for other western countries to follow. It can't hurt to have everyone reminded of that every now and then. Also, I'd guess Melbourne and Sydney are probably trending upwards in both startups and VC available, which would result in more visitors here from these parts.

King-Aaron 7y ago
> Our government is burning down as many freedoms as they can get away with in the tech space Not just the tech space. Australia has enjoyed a practically hardship-free society since it's inception, and as such people are increasingly and shockingly blasé about the dangerous potential of governments encroaching on various freedoms. I feel the government knows they can do whatever they want to follow the international community, because the general voter here either doesn't care, or doesn't know enough to form an educated opinion on [insert topical subject].
- jacobush 7y ago
  "Australian government has enjoyed..." (The aboriginal didn't exactly have it hardship-free.)
xfitm3 7y ago
Chinese influence.
skrebbel 7y ago
It seems to me that Australia is the first Western government imposing some authoritarian-style control on its population. I wonder what the common opinion about this is among people more familiar with the matter than me: Is the geographical proximity to China related to this? I can imagine that Australia might be slowly shifting from the USA's sphere of influence to China's sphere of influence, and as a result could be gradually adopting more Chinese-style governance measures.
- ajdlinux 7y ago
  I don't think it's that, at all. Right now, there's a _lot_ of anti-China rhetoric from the government and in the press, and insofar as China is attempting influence operations here they're targetting both sides - the opposition has been caught up in it too. No, I think it's your regular Western right-wing conservatism, perhaps with the Overton window shifted a bit thanks to people like Trump making it easier for Australian hard conservatives.
- NamTaf 7y ago
  No, China if anything is making us take a second look at this creeping authoritarianism and maybe push back on it. Their authoritarian influence on our politics and in other spheres (e.g. universities) is a hot-button politician topic currently. The main cause, as far as I’m concerned, is the overwhelming apathy of the common voter. People simply don’t care. We’ve had it way too good for way too long, so as long as it isn’t an immediate threat to Barry’s ability to buy a case of booze and watch Friday night footy with the boys then he doesn’t care. We avoided the GFC largely with minimal pain. Housing has been a sustained boom that has made generations really wealthy. Our economy has basically not undergone recession in 13 years, and has only twice in the last two decades. The social security nets we have in place, whilst being eroded, have yet to really show obvious signs of strain unless you actively look for them. It’s really hard to adequately describe just how easy Australia has had it in general for the last several decades. As a result of all of this, both major parties have had to do little to continue these good times, so politics becomes very samey to most people. For the large majority of the population, it doesn’t really matter which party is in with respect to their day-to-day lives. All this means that Joe Average voter has it really easy. They become apathetic as fuck, and unless an issue directly impacts them they basically do not even register it. Creeping erosion of free speech/privacy either slides under the table or becomes a “well I’ve got nothing to hide” argument. I mean for god’s sake, our current government proposed the idea of using Webcams to facially recognise porn viewers to confirm their age. It sounds so ridiculous that most people just scoff at the idea rather than consider the attitude of ‘fuck your privacy’ behind it. It’s really frustrating because it’s so wide-spread. The depressing part is that I don’t see that apathy changing before many of our hard-fought freedoms, or carefully-built systems that give us such high quality-of-life get destroyed. There will be a substantial lag time between them being ruined and it finally impacting the voting public enough that they actually stop, consider it, and maybe do something about it.

King-Aaron 7y ago

> Our government is burning down as many freedoms as they can get away with in the tech space Not just the tech space. Australia has enjoyed a practically hardship-free society since it's inception, and as such people are increasingly and shockingly blasé about the dangerous potential of governments encroaching on various freedoms. I feel the government knows they can do whatever they want to follow the international community, because the general voter here either doesn't care, or doesn't know enough to form an educated opinion on [insert topical subject].

jacobush 7y ago
"Australian government has enjoyed..." (The aboriginal didn't exactly have it hardship-free.)

xfitm3 7y ago

Chinese influence.

skrebbel 7y ago

It seems to me that Australia is the first Western government imposing some authoritarian-style control on its population. I wonder what the common opinion about this is among people more familiar with the matter than me: Is the geographical proximity to China related to this? I can imagine that Australia might be slowly shifting from the USA's sphere of influence to China's sphere of influence, and as a result could be gradually adopting more Chinese-style governance measures.

ajdlinux 7y ago
I don't think it's that, at all. Right now, there's a _lot_ of anti-China rhetoric from the government and in the press, and insofar as China is attempting influence operations here they're targetting both sides - the opposition has been caught up in it too. No, I think it's your regular Western right-wing conservatism, perhaps with the Overton window shifted a bit thanks to people like Trump making it easier for Australian hard conservatives.
NamTaf 7y ago
No, China if anything is making us take a second look at this creeping authoritarianism and maybe push back on it. Their authoritarian influence on our politics and in other spheres (e.g. universities) is a hot-button politician topic currently. The main cause, as far as I’m concerned, is the overwhelming apathy of the common voter. People simply don’t care. We’ve had it way too good for way too long, so as long as it isn’t an immediate threat to Barry’s ability to buy a case of booze and watch Friday night footy with the boys then he doesn’t care. We avoided the GFC largely with minimal pain. Housing has been a sustained boom that has made generations really wealthy. Our economy has basically not undergone recession in 13 years, and has only twice in the last two decades. The social security nets we have in place, whilst being eroded, have yet to really show obvious signs of strain unless you actively look for them. It’s really hard to adequately describe just how easy Australia has had it in general for the last several decades. As a result of all of this, both major parties have had to do little to continue these good times, so politics becomes very samey to most people. For the large majority of the population, it doesn’t really matter which party is in with respect to their day-to-day lives. All this means that Joe Average voter has it really easy. They become apathetic as fuck, and unless an issue directly impacts them they basically do not even register it. Creeping erosion of free speech/privacy either slides under the table or becomes a “well I’ve got nothing to hide” argument. I mean for god’s sake, our current government proposed the idea of using Webcams to facially recognise porn viewers to confirm their age. It sounds so ridiculous that most people just scoff at the idea rather than consider the attitude of ‘fuck your privacy’ behind it. It’s really frustrating because it’s so wide-spread. The depressing part is that I don’t see that apathy changing before many of our hard-fought freedoms, or carefully-built systems that give us such high quality-of-life get destroyed. There will be a substantial lag time between them being ruined and it finally impacting the voting public enough that they actually stop, consider it, and maybe do something about it.