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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 abou

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.
- friendlybus 7y ago
  Is that apathy, or trust? The reason politics is quite samey is because our system is set up to generate more centrist politicians that the rest of the world. Mandatory voting and predictable seats gives a good idea of what the populace actually wants and cares about without having to beat down the voter's house to get voters to vote. The swing voters matter more and are a much smaller proportion, building a bunch of stability into the system. When abbott and turnbull came to a political fight old-gold liberal voters turned against the party in a way that basically never happens. The voting population cares, blaming it on apathy is to interpret silence as a negative outcome when it is not.
friendlybus 7y ago
Authoritarianism isn't a Chinese property. John Howard has said recently that authority going forward in the future is going to be one of the most important things. I think the rise of authority is particularly valuable to Australia precisely so we can maintain a sharp and effective boundary against the Chinese government's control. There is serious thought going in to policy leading up to the 2030's and the challenges it will bring. Australia has banned 5G as it is sourced from china and is looking seriously into making big military purchases and discussing alliances in the region. The left/right split will become less relevant in a few decades as we lean into an up/down perspective, where a top down authority will maintain our values better than a liberal perspective.
- BigJono 7y ago
  > Australia has banned 5G as it is sourced from china What does this even mean?
  - friendlybus 7y ago
    https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45281495 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45281495

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.

friendlybus 7y ago
Is that apathy, or trust? The reason politics is quite samey is because our system is set up to generate more centrist politicians that the rest of the world. Mandatory voting and predictable seats gives a good idea of what the populace actually wants and cares about without having to beat down the voter's house to get voters to vote. The swing voters matter more and are a much smaller proportion, building a bunch of stability into the system. When abbott and turnbull came to a political fight old-gold liberal voters turned against the party in a way that basically never happens. The voting population cares, blaming it on apathy is to interpret silence as a negative outcome when it is not.

friendlybus 7y ago

Authoritarianism isn't a Chinese property. John Howard has said recently that authority going forward in the future is going to be one of the most important things. I think the rise of authority is particularly valuable to Australia precisely so we can maintain a sharp and effective boundary against the Chinese government's control. There is serious thought going in to policy leading up to the 2030's and the challenges it will bring. Australia has banned 5G as it is sourced from china and is looking seriously into making big military purchases and discussing alliances in the region. The left/right split will become less relevant in a few decades as we lean into an up/down perspective, where a top down authority will maintain our values better than a liberal perspective.

BigJono 7y ago
> Australia has banned 5G as it is sourced from china What does this even mean?
- friendlybus 7y ago
  https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45281495 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45281495