6 ms·

What else did you have in mind? Onerous rules against charming, delightful Nazi imagery?

PrimeMcFly 3y ago
There was their attempt at the Great Firewall of Australia, while mostly censorship was not just censorship. But honestly there were so many things, it sounds funny but I can't even think of particular examples right now. Oh, smoking is a good example. Doing their best to push adults out of being able to smoke. You can argue it's as justified as you like, but it's still nannying. There's a lot the country restricts because it thinks it knows what's best for its citizens.
- drekipus 3y ago
  [dead]
- potbelly83 3y ago
  The crazy thing with smoking is that now organized crime have taken over selling cigarettes causing more crime. God forbid they actually help people by doing things like providing affordable living accommodation! Though I think Australians only have themselves to blame as they do tend to worship the self proclaimed experts, and look down on the US for our tendency not to.
  - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
    Funny thing to me is how so many Australians insist it's the best country in the world to live in, when most have barely traveled anywhere.
    - rstuart4133 3y ago
      > Australians insist it's the best country in the world to live in, when most have barely traveled anywhere. Australian here. A couple of international trips ago I visited Berlin and went on one of those free walking tours. I was the only Australian in the tour from what I could tell. The tour took in the Bundestag (German Federal Parliament). The guide proudly pointed out its glass roof as to demonstration the Germany's post Nazi commitment to a transparent democracy. He said that a staircase spirals up the roof. He then joked that in practice, this means when the federal parliamentarians look up, what they see is a bunch of Australian's gazing down on them. I thought it was funny. It had a eery ring of truth to it as no matter where you go, you meet fellow Australians. To put this in perspective, Australia has 0.3% of the worlds population and most of us, as you say, are home. So it's downright weird to keep hearing Australian accents no matter where you go. BTW, have you travelled anywhere, or is this "most have never travelled anywhere" just something you've heard?
      - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
        > So it's downright weird to keep hearing Australian accents no matter where you go. No stranger than hearing English or French accents IMO. Or Canadian. etc. > BTW, have you travelled anywhere, or is this "most have never travelled anywhere" just something you've heard? I've been to just over 60 countries so far, and spent about 7 years basically backpacking straight, and plenty at hostels. That's what colored my cynicism of "Australians travel so prolifically" - most of the time they just had short stops in a city and were there to get drunk. Maybe doing some guided tours as you point out, but rarely going off-road or actually traveling, meeting locals, learning about the culture, etc. You could say many Australians are tourists few are actually 'travelers', if that makes sense.
    - matt_trentini 3y ago
      I'm an Aussie, have travelled pretty widely, am aware of Australia's flaws but, despite them, still think it's one of the best countries to live in.
      - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
        One of the best, sure. It's still a first world country that's safe and has good resources and opportunities. It's different from claiming it's the best country to live in, as so many claim while grilling and nursing a beer.
    - threeseed 3y ago
      In 2019, 26.5% of Australia had travelled overseas with the percentage growing y/y: https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/australian-population-growth-powers-travel-industry# https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/australian-population-gro... And the reputation of being the best country in the world comes from city/country rankings which routinely have our cities in the top ten: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2023/06/21/ranked-20-best-cities-to-live-in-the-world-according-to-a-new-report/?sh=3eebe66b225b https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2023/06/21/ran...
      - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
        > In 2019, 26.5% of Australia had travelled overseas with the percentage growing y/y: Yeah, that doesn't matter. Most of that percentage is young Australians who buy a $2000 'round the world' ticket with 8 stops or whatever, and they just get drunk in every place. Most of them are not really bothering to explore the countries or cultures, and have no context to claim Australia is 'the best country in the world to live in'. > And the reputation of being the best country in the world comes from city/country rankings which routinely have our cities in the top ten: There are plenty of different lists, but sure, Australian cities often make it into the top 10. But not 1st place, sometimes not even the top 5. Which means Australia is among the best, but certainly not the best, which is the claim many Australians insist upon. Hell, there are plenty of countries with all the same advantages but less censorship and less jacked up prices, so that disqualifies Australia right there IMO.
    - seattle_spring 3y ago
      Sounds exactly like the USA?
      - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
        It's certainly common behavior to citizens of both countries. The difference is Americans who bother to travel are normally self-aware enough not to claim it, while the Australians that do, are not.
        defrost 3y ago
        You seem to have a very selective memory on this. Out and proud USA #1 folk aren't hard to come by, abroad or at home in the US, the notion of American Exceptionalism is championed proportionally just as much (likely more) than a blind adherance to Australia the Lucky Country. On those two phrases alone the pro American Exceptionalism crowd do seem at their core to be true believers while the majority of those flying the flag of Australia the Lucky Country are all too aware that Horne coined the phrase with a sneer as a back handed complement.
        PrimeMcFly 3y ago
        > You seem to have a very selective memory on this. I wouldn't say it's selective. Just the result of spending extensive time in both countries. Is it not just as possible you're being defensive? > Out and proud USA #1 folk aren't hard to come by, abroad or at home in the US, Right, and my point was the minority of Americans who travel tend to learn the world is a bigger place and their country has a lot of issues. > while the majority of those flying the flag of Australia the Lucky Country are all too aware that Horne coined the phrase with a sneer as a back handed complement. Not my experience at all. They say it just as seriously as the Out and proud USA #1 folk you refer to, maybe with a little more awareness and less zealotry, but not that much less.
- threeseed 3y ago
  > Doing their best to push adults out of being able to smoke As they absolutely should. Australia has a free health care system and smokers are disproportionate in their use of limited resources.
  - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
    > As they absolutely should. No, they shouldn't, lol. No excuse for it at all. > Australia has a free health care system and smokers are disproportionate in their use of limited resources. Many countries have a similar health system, and there are other solutions that don't impact liberty like taxing cigarettes and putting that money back into the health system. Which is already done of course, making your argument moot.
  - alwayslikethis 3y ago
    > smokers are disproportionate in their use of limited resources. Do they? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Finance_Balance_of_Smoking_in_the_Czech_Republic https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Finance_Balance_of_Sm... This seems to suggest by killing the smokers earlier, the government avoids paying expensive pensions, among other things people need later in life. Obviously I don't support smoking, just nitpicking here.
    - threeseed 3y ago
      In Australia at least the biggest issue with the health sector is the lack of talented staff e.g. nurses. Smokers despite being a net-positive contributor to the government's tax revenue doesn't change that they are a net-negative drain on society.
    - stubish 3y ago
      The first claim in the article states that early death and taxation that is the cost saving (and other claims refute that). Taxation is probably the major method of discouraging cigarette usage. So even if you accept the argument that smokers are paying their way through taxes and dying young, they only do so because of onerous government policies.
hooverd 3y ago
The West fell the day Australia banned No Game, No Life. Lolicons are truly the most oppressed class.
- claudiawerner 3y ago
  Pithy comment, but it's a shame that the state is regulating comic materials in the interest of 'child safety' without anything to back it.
llm_thr 3y ago
How about a ban on all communist symbols while were at it? After all China is currently conducting a genocide against its Muslim minorities.
esperent 3y ago
Here's a few: * Extreme drug and supplement regulations (in Ireland I can't even get melatonin or St John's Wort without prescription) * Extreme focus on safety at the expense of freedom. Again in Ireland, it'll take minimum one year but more likely 18 months to get a driving license, and we're subjected to endless government messaging about driving safety even though we have one of the highest levels of road safety in the world. Correlation maybe but if that's the case, they've succeeded and should stop nannying us now * Strict control of public venue closing times. It's frustrating being at a festival and everything shutting down at 11pm because it's a Sunday night * extreme levels of control in the form of bureaucracy - I'd say Germany is the winner here. Getting anything legal or administrative done is a struggle There's a lot more I could list, some big, some small. But the overall feeling is that the state has decided how you should live and wants to control all sorts of minor insignificant parts of your life that they shouldn't have any say in. How dare the government decide whether I can take melatonin or not? It's a small thing, but one of hundreds that add up.
- tstrimple 3y ago
  > * Extreme focus on safety at the expense of freedom. Again in Ireland, it'll take minimum one year but more likely 18 months to get a driving license, and we're subjected to endless government messaging about driving safety even though we have one of the highest levels of road safety in the world. Correlation maybe but if that's the case, they've succeeded and should stop nannying us now This makes absolutely no sense. If the additional instruction has lead to one of the highest levels of road safety in the world, you're proposing that they should become less safe because it's more convenient for people?
  - esperent 3y ago
    It's not 18 months of instruction. It's about 3 weeks of instruction and between 11 and 17 months of waiting.
verve_rat 3y ago
Lack of access to abortions?

There was their attempt at the Great Firewall of Australia, while mostly censorship was not just censorship. But honestly there were so many things, it sounds funny but I can't even think of particular examples right now. Oh, smoking is a good example. Doing their best to push adults out of being able to smoke. You can argue it's as justified as you like, but it's still nannying. There's a lot the country restricts because it thinks it knows what's best for its citizens.

drekipus 3y ago
[dead]
potbelly83 3y ago
The crazy thing with smoking is that now organized crime have taken over selling cigarettes causing more crime. God forbid they actually help people by doing things like providing affordable living accommodation! Though I think Australians only have themselves to blame as they do tend to worship the self proclaimed experts, and look down on the US for our tendency not to.
- PrimeMcFly 3y ago
  Funny thing to me is how so many Australians insist it's the best country in the world to live in, when most have barely traveled anywhere.
  - rstuart4133 3y ago
    > Australians insist it's the best country in the world to live in, when most have barely traveled anywhere. Australian here. A couple of international trips ago I visited Berlin and went on one of those free walking tours. I was the only Australian in the tour from what I could tell. The tour took in the Bundestag (German Federal Parliament). The guide proudly pointed out its glass roof as to demonstration the Germany's post Nazi commitment to a transparent democracy. He said that a staircase spirals up the roof. He then joked that in practice, this means when the federal parliamentarians look up, what they see is a bunch of Australian's gazing down on them. I thought it was funny. It had a eery ring of truth to it as no matter where you go, you meet fellow Australians. To put this in perspective, Australia has 0.3% of the worlds population and most of us, as you say, are home. So it's downright weird to keep hearing Australian accents no matter where you go. BTW, have you travelled anywhere, or is this "most have never travelled anywhere" just something you've heard?
    - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
      > So it's downright weird to keep hearing Australian accents no matter where you go. No stranger than hearing English or French accents IMO. Or Canadian. etc. > BTW, have you travelled anywhere, or is this "most have never travelled anywhere" just something you've heard? I've been to just over 60 countries so far, and spent about 7 years basically backpacking straight, and plenty at hostels. That's what colored my cynicism of "Australians travel so prolifically" - most of the time they just had short stops in a city and were there to get drunk. Maybe doing some guided tours as you point out, but rarely going off-road or actually traveling, meeting locals, learning about the culture, etc. You could say many Australians are tourists few are actually 'travelers', if that makes sense.
  - matt_trentini 3y ago
    I'm an Aussie, have travelled pretty widely, am aware of Australia's flaws but, despite them, still think it's one of the best countries to live in.
    - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
      One of the best, sure. It's still a first world country that's safe and has good resources and opportunities. It's different from claiming it's the best country to live in, as so many claim while grilling and nursing a beer.
  - threeseed 3y ago
    In 2019, 26.5% of Australia had travelled overseas with the percentage growing y/y: https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/australian-population-growth-powers-travel-industry# https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/australian-population-gro... And the reputation of being the best country in the world comes from city/country rankings which routinely have our cities in the top ten: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2023/06/21/ranked-20-best-cities-to-live-in-the-world-according-to-a-new-report/?sh=3eebe66b225b https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2023/06/21/ran...
    - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
      > In 2019, 26.5% of Australia had travelled overseas with the percentage growing y/y: Yeah, that doesn't matter. Most of that percentage is young Australians who buy a $2000 'round the world' ticket with 8 stops or whatever, and they just get drunk in every place. Most of them are not really bothering to explore the countries or cultures, and have no context to claim Australia is 'the best country in the world to live in'. > And the reputation of being the best country in the world comes from city/country rankings which routinely have our cities in the top ten: There are plenty of different lists, but sure, Australian cities often make it into the top 10. But not 1st place, sometimes not even the top 5. Which means Australia is among the best, but certainly not the best, which is the claim many Australians insist upon. Hell, there are plenty of countries with all the same advantages but less censorship and less jacked up prices, so that disqualifies Australia right there IMO.
  - seattle_spring 3y ago
    Sounds exactly like the USA?
    - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
      It's certainly common behavior to citizens of both countries. The difference is Americans who bother to travel are normally self-aware enough not to claim it, while the Australians that do, are not.
      - defrost 3y ago
        You seem to have a very selective memory on this. Out and proud USA #1 folk aren't hard to come by, abroad or at home in the US, the notion of American Exceptionalism is championed proportionally just as much (likely more) than a blind adherance to Australia the Lucky Country. On those two phrases alone the pro American Exceptionalism crowd do seem at their core to be true believers while the majority of those flying the flag of Australia the Lucky Country are all too aware that Horne coined the phrase with a sneer as a back handed complement.
        PrimeMcFly 3y ago
        > You seem to have a very selective memory on this. I wouldn't say it's selective. Just the result of spending extensive time in both countries. Is it not just as possible you're being defensive? > Out and proud USA #1 folk aren't hard to come by, abroad or at home in the US, Right, and my point was the minority of Americans who travel tend to learn the world is a bigger place and their country has a lot of issues. > while the majority of those flying the flag of Australia the Lucky Country are all too aware that Horne coined the phrase with a sneer as a back handed complement. Not my experience at all. They say it just as seriously as the Out and proud USA #1 folk you refer to, maybe with a little more awareness and less zealotry, but not that much less.
threeseed 3y ago
> Doing their best to push adults out of being able to smoke As they absolutely should. Australia has a free health care system and smokers are disproportionate in their use of limited resources.
- PrimeMcFly 3y ago
  > As they absolutely should. No, they shouldn't, lol. No excuse for it at all. > Australia has a free health care system and smokers are disproportionate in their use of limited resources. Many countries have a similar health system, and there are other solutions that don't impact liberty like taxing cigarettes and putting that money back into the health system. Which is already done of course, making your argument moot.
- alwayslikethis 3y ago
  > smokers are disproportionate in their use of limited resources. Do they? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Finance_Balance_of_Smoking_in_the_Czech_Republic https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Finance_Balance_of_Sm... This seems to suggest by killing the smokers earlier, the government avoids paying expensive pensions, among other things people need later in life. Obviously I don't support smoking, just nitpicking here.
  - threeseed 3y ago
    In Australia at least the biggest issue with the health sector is the lack of talented staff e.g. nurses. Smokers despite being a net-positive contributor to the government's tax revenue doesn't change that they are a net-negative drain on society.
  - stubish 3y ago
    The first claim in the article states that early death and taxation that is the cost saving (and other claims refute that). Taxation is probably the major method of discouraging cigarette usage. So even if you accept the argument that smokers are paying their way through taxes and dying young, they only do so because of onerous government policies.

hooverd 3y ago

The West fell the day Australia banned No Game, No Life. Lolicons are truly the most oppressed class.

claudiawerner 3y ago
Pithy comment, but it's a shame that the state is regulating comic materials in the interest of 'child safety' without anything to back it.

llm_thr 3y ago

How about a ban on all communist symbols while were at it? After all China is currently conducting a genocide against its Muslim minorities.

esperent 3y ago

Here's a few: * Extreme drug and supplement regulations (in Ireland I can't even get melatonin or St John's Wort without prescription) * Extreme focus on safety at the expense of freedom. Again in Ireland, it'll take minimum one year but more likely 18 months to get a driving license, and we're subjected to endless government messaging about driving safety even though we have one of the highest levels of road safety in the world. Correlation maybe but if that's the case, they've succeeded and should stop nannying us now * Strict control of public venue closing times. It's frustrating being at a festival and everything shutting down at 11pm because it's a Sunday night * extreme levels of control in the form of bureaucracy - I'd say Germany is the winner here. Getting anything legal or administrative done is a struggle There's a lot more I could list, some big, some small. But the overall feeling is that the state has decided how you should live and wants to control all sorts of minor insignificant parts of your life that they shouldn't have any say in. How dare the government decide whether I can take melatonin or not? It's a small thing, but one of hundreds that add up.

tstrimple 3y ago
> * Extreme focus on safety at the expense of freedom. Again in Ireland, it'll take minimum one year but more likely 18 months to get a driving license, and we're subjected to endless government messaging about driving safety even though we have one of the highest levels of road safety in the world. Correlation maybe but if that's the case, they've succeeded and should stop nannying us now This makes absolutely no sense. If the additional instruction has lead to one of the highest levels of road safety in the world, you're proposing that they should become less safe because it's more convenient for people?
- esperent 3y ago
  It's not 18 months of instruction. It's about 3 weeks of instruction and between 11 and 17 months of waiting.

verve_rat 3y ago

Lack of access to abortions?