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Australia is a highly compliant/obedient society. It’s also highly litigious, lots of fines for anything and anything. It’s the defamation capital of the world.

Australia is a highly compliant/obedient society. It’s also highly litigious, lots of fines for anything and anything. It’s the defamation capital of the world. Yes this will be enforced, it’ll be enforced selectively against critics of the current government. There is a video of the announcement with the current PM grinning and smirking in the background like a little kid when this is discussed https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/r3qh1m/the_way_scomo_is_smirking_through_this_press/ https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/r3qh1m/the_way_s.... The current pm is coming under a lot of criticism recently as well as other mp’s. There’s an election coming up in May so this is convenient timing. Recently a popular YouTube comedian / journalist had the anti terror police let loose on him for criticising mp’s with accusations of corruption. https://www.michaelwest.com.au/tamed-estate-arrest-of-friendlyjordies-producer-attests-to-dangerous-state-of-democracy/ https://www.michaelwest.com.au/tamed-estate-arrest-of-friend... Australia has no bill of rights for its citizens and the current government seem extremely self serving for personal gain. The new Amazon documentary Burning about the 2019 bushfires goes on bit of an attack of the current Australian PM. Australia is still very much the “Lucky country” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_Country https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_Country

SturgeonsLaw 5y ago
Yeah that's a pretty fair assessment of the state of play here in Oz, and I'll add the point that most Australians have no idea this stuff is occurring. The media landscape in Australia is extremely consolidated, to the degree that there are only a few major media players, and they are almost completely aligned in their agenda and messaging. There is an incestuous relationship between the media and the politicians - the hyperconsolidated media acts as kingmaker, which gives an incentive for the government to coddle them. In return for favourable legislation, the media runs stories (or doesn't run them) to the benefit of their favoured political party. That party is almost always the conservative LNP, if you're ever wondering why Australia has such a prominent right-wing authoritarian streak, know that the Murdoch media has a dominant print market share, a monopoly on cable TV, and a large majority of the free to air TV market is ideologically aligned. I would bet real money that any random HNer who has clicked on the recent posts regarding Australia's incursions into digital freedom has heard more about it than the average Aussie.
- mrjangles 5y ago
  > There is an incestuous relationship between the media and the politicians this is indeed correct, but then you say >hat party is almost always the conservative LNP, if you're ever wondering why Australia has such a prominent right-wing authoritarian streak, know that the Murdoch media has a dominant print market share, a monopoly on cable TV, and a large majority of the free to air TV market is ideologically aligned. The fact that people make statements and believe things like this should make it clear just exactly who is in control of the Australian media, and what the propaganda is pushing. First let's look at the facts. Murdoch owns 25% of the Australian print media and 1 cable news network. They own zero, (yes zero) of the 5 major TV networks. Yes that is all! The remaining 75% of the Australian print, and almost all the free to air channels are controlled by mostly ideologically left wing groups and they try desperately to push their views on the Australian people, yet the Australian people refuse to listen, and continue buying Murdoch papers, then switching off the free to air channels, and paying their own money to watch the Murdoch owned sky news. It is a good thing too because the only news media putting any effort into resisting the Authoritarian lockdowns and other authoritarian measures being taken by the state governments are the Murdoch owned media (yes you wouldn't know all the authoritarian measures have been taken by the left wing state governments and not the right wing federal government from listening to the media would you, why is that?). The Authoritarian streak is being pushed almost entirely by the left wing media, and I have personally seen people who consume this media become radicalized by it. They push, non stop, the idea that freedom of speech is bad, that working class people are stupid and don't know what is good for them, and the country needs people from the professional classes to take control (and therefore systems like China's would be better). They have been pushing for and, in the left wing controlled Melbourne succeed in, instigating the harshest lockdowns in the entire world. Melbourne is Australia's version of San Francisco - that is where the video of the police beating up and pepper spraying the 70 year old lady came from. They also try to inflame a lot of racial hatred and get people to fight among themselves. Thankfully, Australian is a very down to earth, working class culture, and most people don't fall for it. Despite the endless propaganda being pushed on most channels and media, they switch it off. Unfortunately, as the parent commenter does correctly point out, it comes with a downside, that people don't really know what is going on. They don't care because life is good. Most people don't watch news at all and that is how the government can get away with a lot of the things it does.
dools 5y ago
Australia litigious? No it's not.
- mdoms 5y ago
  Yes, it absolutely is.

SturgeonsLaw 5y ago

Yeah that's a pretty fair assessment of the state of play here in Oz, and I'll add the point that most Australians have no idea this stuff is occurring. The media landscape in Australia is extremely consolidated, to the degree that there are only a few major media players, and they are almost completely aligned in their agenda and messaging. There is an incestuous relationship between the media and the politicians - the hyperconsolidated media acts as kingmaker, which gives an incentive for the government to coddle them. In return for favourable legislation, the media runs stories (or doesn't run them) to the benefit of their favoured political party. That party is almost always the conservative LNP, if you're ever wondering why Australia has such a prominent right-wing authoritarian streak, know that the Murdoch media has a dominant print market share, a monopoly on cable TV, and a large majority of the free to air TV market is ideologically aligned. I would bet real money that any random HNer who has clicked on the recent posts regarding Australia's incursions into digital freedom has heard more about it than the average Aussie.

mrjangles 5y ago
> There is an incestuous relationship between the media and the politicians this is indeed correct, but then you say >hat party is almost always the conservative LNP, if you're ever wondering why Australia has such a prominent right-wing authoritarian streak, know that the Murdoch media has a dominant print market share, a monopoly on cable TV, and a large majority of the free to air TV market is ideologically aligned. The fact that people make statements and believe things like this should make it clear just exactly who is in control of the Australian media, and what the propaganda is pushing. First let's look at the facts. Murdoch owns 25% of the Australian print media and 1 cable news network. They own zero, (yes zero) of the 5 major TV networks. Yes that is all! The remaining 75% of the Australian print, and almost all the free to air channels are controlled by mostly ideologically left wing groups and they try desperately to push their views on the Australian people, yet the Australian people refuse to listen, and continue buying Murdoch papers, then switching off the free to air channels, and paying their own money to watch the Murdoch owned sky news. It is a good thing too because the only news media putting any effort into resisting the Authoritarian lockdowns and other authoritarian measures being taken by the state governments are the Murdoch owned media (yes you wouldn't know all the authoritarian measures have been taken by the left wing state governments and not the right wing federal government from listening to the media would you, why is that?). The Authoritarian streak is being pushed almost entirely by the left wing media, and I have personally seen people who consume this media become radicalized by it. They push, non stop, the idea that freedom of speech is bad, that working class people are stupid and don't know what is good for them, and the country needs people from the professional classes to take control (and therefore systems like China's would be better). They have been pushing for and, in the left wing controlled Melbourne succeed in, instigating the harshest lockdowns in the entire world. Melbourne is Australia's version of San Francisco - that is where the video of the police beating up and pepper spraying the 70 year old lady came from. They also try to inflame a lot of racial hatred and get people to fight among themselves. Thankfully, Australian is a very down to earth, working class culture, and most people don't fall for it. Despite the endless propaganda being pushed on most channels and media, they switch it off. Unfortunately, as the parent commenter does correctly point out, it comes with a downside, that people don't really know what is going on. They don't care because life is good. Most people don't watch news at all and that is how the government can get away with a lot of the things it does.

dools 5y ago

Australia litigious? No it's not.

mdoms 5y ago
Yes, it absolutely is.