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It's scary how fast one of the most liked and trusted governments in the world can lose the trust of its people. Previous governments were not perfect but they

It's scary how fast one of the most liked and trusted governments in the world can lose the trust of its people. Previous governments were not perfect but they had worked hard to earn that public trust (John Howard years and earlier) and now it's been abused. I think the reason that the Australian public is so passive about all these draconian rules is that they always (somewhat rightly) felt that they could trust their government and that their government had their best interests at heart. I think it may have been one of the best governments in the world. Most people who lived there could attest that the tax code is simple, not much bureaucracy, high quality internet services (almost all government services are available online), welfare system is good, public medical insurance was good (and private insurance very affordable), good education system (top universities are accessible to regular people), opportunities for all (there are plenty of well paid blue collar jobs). It's a shame to see them abuse this trust.

ostenning 5y ago
"High quality internet services" are you kidding me?! I remember I couldn't get a wired broadband connection to my apartment in Melbourne because the local exchange ports were all filled up and the ISP refused to invest more because of the NBN (fiber optic roll out) that never ended up happening. I literally checked every-day for many months to see if I could get an internet connection. Australian high speed fiber optic internet was sabotaged by the Liberal government and Murdoch empire and now the infrastructure probably wont be improved for a very long time to come, another example of blatant corruption in which the people end up suffering for.
- cryptica 5y ago
  >> "High quality internet services" are you kidding me?! I was mostly referring to government websites, online banking, retirement accounts, etc... For example, in Germany, a lot of stuff is still done by paper mail. I've lived in other countries which had web portals but they were often terrible and didn't work properly. It's only after living outside of Australia for a few years that I understood how smooth all the processes related to the government were over there. In Europe, to get anything done (like to get a national ID card), you have to run around to all sorts of different agencies to collect different paper documents and forms which depend on each other and nobody explicitly tells you what order you're supposed to get them in... It's only when you physically go to one agency that they then ask you to fill out a Form1234 and Form5678 which you were supposed to get from two different government agencies... As an example, in Australia, to prove my identity, they had a score system so I could bring in different documents like a bank credit card, driver's licence and a passport and they would add up all the scores and it had to exceed a threshold. That was convenient. In Europe, to do some administrative procedure, they may often ask you for a specific document like a certified copy of your birth certificate which is less than 3 months old to prove your identity; it doesn't matter that you have a passport, a credit card, a driver's license, bank statements, a national ID card; they only want to see the birth certificate, there is no flexibility in the process and it's easy to get stuck; and if you do, it takes ages to resolve.
  - ostenning 5y ago
    Ah, sorry I misunderstood. I totally agree with you, I live in Germany so I know perfectly well how superior the ATO and MyGov services are compared to my local Finanzamt
ikerdanzel 5y ago
The real reason is that Aussie start to view themselves as Asian as a whole. Demographically they are more and more Chinese+Indian than Europeans. They are also way closer physically to majority of Asians than any Western countries. Turning into police states or abandoning majority of Western ideals for "safety" is expected. I would say by 2050 Australian will have more than 50% paliamentary and government staff consist of non-whites.

ostenning 5y ago

"High quality internet services" are you kidding me?! I remember I couldn't get a wired broadband connection to my apartment in Melbourne because the local exchange ports were all filled up and the ISP refused to invest more because of the NBN (fiber optic roll out) that never ended up happening. I literally checked every-day for many months to see if I could get an internet connection. Australian high speed fiber optic internet was sabotaged by the Liberal government and Murdoch empire and now the infrastructure probably wont be improved for a very long time to come, another example of blatant corruption in which the people end up suffering for.

cryptica 5y ago
>> "High quality internet services" are you kidding me?! I was mostly referring to government websites, online banking, retirement accounts, etc... For example, in Germany, a lot of stuff is still done by paper mail. I've lived in other countries which had web portals but they were often terrible and didn't work properly. It's only after living outside of Australia for a few years that I understood how smooth all the processes related to the government were over there. In Europe, to get anything done (like to get a national ID card), you have to run around to all sorts of different agencies to collect different paper documents and forms which depend on each other and nobody explicitly tells you what order you're supposed to get them in... It's only when you physically go to one agency that they then ask you to fill out a Form1234 and Form5678 which you were supposed to get from two different government agencies... As an example, in Australia, to prove my identity, they had a score system so I could bring in different documents like a bank credit card, driver's licence and a passport and they would add up all the scores and it had to exceed a threshold. That was convenient. In Europe, to do some administrative procedure, they may often ask you for a specific document like a certified copy of your birth certificate which is less than 3 months old to prove your identity; it doesn't matter that you have a passport, a credit card, a driver's license, bank statements, a national ID card; they only want to see the birth certificate, there is no flexibility in the process and it's easy to get stuck; and if you do, it takes ages to resolve.
- ostenning 5y ago
  Ah, sorry I misunderstood. I totally agree with you, I live in Germany so I know perfectly well how superior the ATO and MyGov services are compared to my local Finanzamt

ikerdanzel 5y ago

The real reason is that Aussie start to view themselves as Asian as a whole. Demographically they are more and more Chinese+Indian than Europeans. They are also way closer physically to majority of Asians than any Western countries. Turning into police states or abandoning majority of Western ideals for "safety" is expected. I would say by 2050 Australian will have more than 50% paliamentary and government staff consist of non-whites.