4 ms·

Whilst I agree with your sentiment as a legal permanent resident of Australia, I think it is dangerous (if very seductive) to blame Mr Abbott. He's been the par

by crdb 11y ago

Whilst I agree with your sentiment as a legal permanent resident of Australia, I think it is dangerous (if very seductive) to blame Mr Abbott. He's been the party attack dog for so long that people focus their energy on making it personal with him (much as the Democrats focus on Bush and the Republicans have a thing for Obama). First, from the little I've been tracking this issue, it appears it was the "relatively moderate", friendly, centrist, old guard Turnbull that was behind these moves. Chances are it's done as a favour to someone in Washington who needed something from someone connected to the Hollywood lobbies. Not the strongest of motives and the kind of thing that popular opinion can reverse. Second, legislation doesn't magically happen in a vaccuum when the PM says so. Australians, you MUST get in touch with your local politician, both to let them know (politely) how you feel about certain issues, and to give them arguments to use in Canberra if you want any chance of legislation being passed the way you like it. It's not about Labour vs Liberals. Whoever has been locally elected, is now responsible for listening to you. They also don't do much thinking so it helps to do it for them: "This proposed legislation infringes individual rights like this, this and this; moreover, as per the Constitution, that" goes much further than "I am pissed at you for letting the PM get away with it". This is of course not a personal response to your comment, but a general note that I thought about and that was triggered by your Tony note. I've found Australians relatively politically disengaged, with the general opinion - at least in Sydney - basically being "they're all scumbags anyway, things will work out in the end", followed by some expletives about Gillard, Rudd or Abbott depending on where the Australian leans...

tacticus 11y ago
Turnbull is certainly not centrist nor friendly.
- programmernews3 11y ago
  Turnbull is a hoop snake in drop bear clothing.
PebblesHD 11y ago
A very good point, and well written. My only observation is this: politics doesn't happen in a vacuum, but the current government has set about ignoring polls and comments from the public on a range of other issues making me less inclined to believe they will shift for this one. That being said Labor isn't innocent of this either. My local member has on several occasions refused to even answer calls or meet me to discuss this, based only on the fact that as a young adult my opinion must not be valid.
- crdb 11y ago
  That's pragmatic, he/she made the calculation that you have little political weight. Chances are there are people who contributed to his/her campaign or who are members of the community with more pull, and that you and your family aren't part of that group, and current members of that group disagree with you on the topics you brought up to your member. Or maybe he just did the maths and decided that an hour's meeting would have a higher return on investment with someone else. There's no easy solution: either you earn influence and use it to further your agenda (a la George Soros), or you try and build influence in some other way, such as publishing reasoned arguments in an easily shareable format, which is what the EFF is very good at. It's never been easier to have some impact.
  - prawn 11y ago
    There have been a number of web campaigns* initiated in Australia that have gained some traction. As you suggested, that's the best bet for the average person with technical skills and a way to get a concept to resonate with people. * This is one example: http://howfastisthenbn.com.au/ http://howfastisthenbn.com.au/
- vacri 11y ago
  Send a registered, written letter. There are legal requirements for written letters that mean MPs have to respond to them. I'm told that you should also ask a couple of disparate questions in the letter, as this means they can't simply respond with a form letter. letter-to-MP tips https://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/lobby.html#tipsletter https://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/lobby.html#tipsletter
triggercut 11y ago
>First, from the little I've been tracking this issue, it appears it was the "relatively moderate", friendly, centrist, old guard Turnbull that was behind these moves. Chances are it's done as a favour to someone in Washington who needed something from someone connected to the Hollywood lobbies. Not the strongest of motives and the kind of thing that popular opinion can reverse. With Netflix, Fox backed Presto (and the possibility of HBO) all starting up their streaming services over here in the past 6-12 months, It makes commercial sense to get rid of the free competition.
- crdb 11y ago
  Yes, but these are American companies, not Australian. The move is a favour to Washington, not Australian businesses. Australia has been an extraordinary cash cow for global businesses for a few years [1] although the AUD being hammered more recently has diminished the advantage somewhat. The reason it's important is that politically, local stuff is always much more valuable than scratching the back of foreigners. Take the JSF: it was pure lobbying genius by Lockheed to locate its supply chain in what, 47 states (and 9 countries). If you want to try and make that supply program more efficient, you're going to have to ask a representative to tell his electorate that 2,000 jobs are about to get axed in his state. These kind of things need to be killed before they get started, they are impossible to stop afterwards. But then you get things like Rick Santorum trying to stop the National Weather Service from publishing data publicly for free after getting just $11,000 from AccuWeather (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Weather_Service_Duties_Act_of_2005 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Weather_Service_Dutie...). [1] I know a large, publicly listed retailer who made 40% of their GLOBAL profits from Australia in 2012. RRP was 50% higher there, and they offered free shipping. That company was present in at least 20 countries and based in Europe. The AU office was a couple of guys to answer any questions with local shipment companies - they didn't even have an Australian warehouse...

by crdb 11y ago

tacticus 11y ago

Turnbull is certainly not centrist nor friendly.

programmernews3 11y ago
Turnbull is a hoop snake in drop bear clothing.

PebblesHD 11y ago

A very good point, and well written. My only observation is this: politics doesn't happen in a vacuum, but the current government has set about ignoring polls and comments from the public on a range of other issues making me less inclined to believe they will shift for this one. That being said Labor isn't innocent of this either. My local member has on several occasions refused to even answer calls or meet me to discuss this, based only on the fact that as a young adult my opinion must not be valid.

crdb 11y ago
That's pragmatic, he/she made the calculation that you have little political weight. Chances are there are people who contributed to his/her campaign or who are members of the community with more pull, and that you and your family aren't part of that group, and current members of that group disagree with you on the topics you brought up to your member. Or maybe he just did the maths and decided that an hour's meeting would have a higher return on investment with someone else. There's no easy solution: either you earn influence and use it to further your agenda (a la George Soros), or you try and build influence in some other way, such as publishing reasoned arguments in an easily shareable format, which is what the EFF is very good at. It's never been easier to have some impact.
- prawn 11y ago
  There have been a number of web campaigns* initiated in Australia that have gained some traction. As you suggested, that's the best bet for the average person with technical skills and a way to get a concept to resonate with people. * This is one example: http://howfastisthenbn.com.au/ http://howfastisthenbn.com.au/
vacri 11y ago
Send a registered, written letter. There are legal requirements for written letters that mean MPs have to respond to them. I'm told that you should also ask a couple of disparate questions in the letter, as this means they can't simply respond with a form letter. letter-to-MP tips https://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/lobby.html#tipsletter https://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/lobby.html#tipsletter

triggercut 11y ago

>First, from the little I've been tracking this issue, it appears it was the "relatively moderate", friendly, centrist, old guard Turnbull that was behind these moves. Chances are it's done as a favour to someone in Washington who needed something from someone connected to the Hollywood lobbies. Not the strongest of motives and the kind of thing that popular opinion can reverse. With Netflix, Fox backed Presto (and the possibility of HBO) all starting up their streaming services over here in the past 6-12 months, It makes commercial sense to get rid of the free competition.

crdb 11y ago
Yes, but these are American companies, not Australian. The move is a favour to Washington, not Australian businesses. Australia has been an extraordinary cash cow for global businesses for a few years [1] although the AUD being hammered more recently has diminished the advantage somewhat. The reason it's important is that politically, local stuff is always much more valuable than scratching the back of foreigners. Take the JSF: it was pure lobbying genius by Lockheed to locate its supply chain in what, 47 states (and 9 countries). If you want to try and make that supply program more efficient, you're going to have to ask a representative to tell his electorate that 2,000 jobs are about to get axed in his state. These kind of things need to be killed before they get started, they are impossible to stop afterwards. But then you get things like Rick Santorum trying to stop the National Weather Service from publishing data publicly for free after getting just $11,000 from AccuWeather (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Weather_Service_Duties_Act_of_2005 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Weather_Service_Dutie...). [1] I know a large, publicly listed retailer who made 40% of their GLOBAL profits from Australia in 2012. RRP was 50% higher there, and they offered free shipping. That company was present in at least 20 countries and based in Europe. The AU office was a couple of guys to answer any questions with local shipment companies - they didn't even have an Australian warehouse...