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Australian here: I think we have a cultural high degree of trust in our institutions. That trust is frequently unearned or betrayed in the modern era, but it re
by fphhotchips 6y ago
Australian here: I think we have a cultural high degree of trust in our institutions. That trust is frequently unearned or betrayed in the modern era, but it remains nonetheless.
I don't have a great definitive answer on why that's the case, but I do have suspicions. One is around the (perceived?) strength of our democracy, driven by mandatory voting and a well designed parliamentary system. Also, we don't have the American history of revolution - distrust for government just is not part of the thinking.
The other is that, for the most part of the last 50 years, our more public institutions have done a good job. The ABC (think the BBC, but Australian) is a trusted news source, Medicare largely "just works" for most people, our public/private education system mostly works, etc.
When it comes to law enforcement, I think the general perception is that while they're far from perfect, they tend to be well governed and as a result given a generous amount of power.
Again, whether this perception is justified or not is a different thing, especially if you're not of Anglo descent.
- dav43 6y agoMy learned view is that most Australians don’t dis-trust the government, they just think it’s a bunch of morons gather around to do a fairly shit job at leading the country.
- roenxi 6y agoI agree, although the quality of the ABC collapsed a few years ago after serious budget cuts and they will probably lose that trust over time. But the other thing to note about Australia is that the country is a bit of a demographic and cultural misfit in SEA, and reliant on the US umbrella to have unquestioned security against the countries just to the north including two superpowers and any number of countries with the potential to be economic and military powerhouses. It would be strategically justifiable for Australia to get serious about building up a powerful intelligence system, in a way that it just doesn't for Canada. I imagine if Canada wanted to become the next US State it probably could. Australia is much more isolated and it is foreseeable that the US might withdraw from the Pacific in the next 50 years.
- 0xy 6y agoSure it "just works". Culture of war crimes (ADF regularly executed civilians), metadata retention (bipartisan support), anti-encryption (bipartisan support), raiding journalists, letting multiple newborns die because of coronavirus travel restrictions, university censorship kowtowing to China, police brutality, no free speech, no free expression and repeated attacks on the IT industry (many companies incl Microsoft yanked data and compute away from Australia after the bi-partisan laws rammed through parliament allowing the government unfettered access to data). All of the above has wide bi-partisan responsibility. Most of it has happened in the last 5 years.
- hans789 6y agoGlad someone sees the problems most Australians turn an blind eye to while keep condemning other cultures.
- fphhotchips 6y agoYou won't get any argument from me that those things are bad. They're total rubbish and I'm still pissed that my local member voted for metadata retention and data access laws from the opposition bench. That said, they wouldn't be able to if the majority of Australians didn't trust the government enough. There's been an election since those laws were passed.
- 0xy 6y agoMetadata retention has already been repeatedly abused, including by police and intelligence who use it to spy on girlfriends and random civilians. I don't hear any parties talking about it (because they don't care and issued full-throated endorsements of the practices). In Australia, both parties sell you down a river and tell you they're the best party because of some irrelevant policy minutiae, meanwhile supporting war crimes and the evisceration of the IT industry and our rights.