It may be government incompetence, but it might also be a plan to identify everyone online.
* The Labor government's failed 2010 internet filter policy, [1] "Those who claim the government's approach is akin to the sort of political censorship practiced by authoritarian regimes are simply misleading the Australian public."
* The Liberal government's passed 2015 mandatory metadata retention laws, [2] "Critics say Australia’s data retention scheme is mass surveillance, and metadata is used to track where people go."
because it doesn't seem like you do. I could also point to the UK's full-take surveillance apparatus, or the US, from around about the same time-frame.
This is a long term project.
[1] https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/internet-filter-is-not-c...
[2] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-17/metadata-retention-pr...
The argument you’re making is “freedom at all costs” the trouble with all of this is, can we even trust ourselves with this freedom. Your big brain might be immune to l the cruft out there but that’s not universal.
I honestly don’t know what the answer is but we’re in trouble. The reason China does what it does it not just because it’s an authoritarian hell hole, but because they know the games they play on others and don’t want it to happen to them.
I’m not sure if you’ve read 1984, but having our children brainwashed online is a great way to get us close to total authoritarianism, on the other hand you’re arguing that by having to ID yourself when logging on (let’s face it, that’s already happening) means we’re already in 1984?
It's exactly the same kind of problem that we've always had here, summed up in 1964 by Donald Horne, "Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise."
I guarantee this will be the response when this doesn't work - surprise. They'll claim it was a sure thing, that they did everything right (even though they went through multiple rounds of sham "public consultations" and ignored all the expert testimony)...
There was frustration around the globe about pandemic policies. Specifically lockdowns, mask mandates, check-ins, and "no jab no job" ultimatums, which have since been identified in many places as excessive abuse of power that went beyond public health all the way into the social coercion manipulation zone.
On immigration, is it not worth listening to the concerns of locals on rising immigration numbers? On associated social unrest? Or do we label them "100% liars" and censor their words with mandated face-scanning and digital check-ins.
The Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Act 2021 (SLAID Act) introduced new powers for Australian law enforcement to combat serious cyber-enabled crime. These powers include data disruption warrants, network activity warrants, and account takeover warrants.
https://theconversation.com/facebook-or-twitter-posts-can-no...
There was the push to intercept all chat traffic with ChatControl legislation.
And with Digital ID will come to identify all users on net.
Luckily the WHO takeover got push back in USA and many other states, don't know for Australia
They argue vaccines don't work and the reality is Japan's immigration numbers a minuscule and basically the only way to be in Japan as an immigrant is to have a visa and a job, or you're out. They don't have any "illegals".
Do you have any idea how important vaccines are in a country with a predominately old population and some of the lowest birth rates in the world?
Do you have any idea how important immigrant worker are in a country which is basically running out of workers?
These people don't really care about outcomes, they manipulate fools en masse to vote for them so they can get into power do corrupt / cruel shit. It's populism with zero practical implementation plan except being an asshole to the most vulnerable people in the country to keep xenophobes happy.
But the point still stands that what you're implying you want to see - a broad Government-run censorship campaign cracking down on free speech - is not the solution, and probably will only make things worse in the longer term.
I'm not saying your wrong, nor am I saying "free speech bad", I'm saying something needs to be done to at lest protect children from ideas like, "Winston Churchill started WW2 and Hitler was just a victim".
Personally, I'd be taking issue, serious issue, if the plan by the Australian government was to block access to libraries and history books, but that's not what I see happening here, they're to do something about foreign propaganda poising kids brains and because the companies would never regulate themselves, they're trying to do something but it seems futile.
Often these opposition parties might use theatrics, exaggeration and outlandish claims to attract attention. In some ways, this might reflect the official channels who spray a lot of fear-based propaganda initially. So there might be an overcompensatory reaction to an overcompensatory action. Not trying to excuse blanket anti-vax theories.
Vaccines are of course great inventions, but sometimes the waters get murky with pharmaceutical companies and their ethically poor track records, suddenly making huge profits and frantic politicians calling the shots on public health. Throw free-speech crackdowns in the mix, and now we have a problem worth talking about without emotion.
That's not the solution. The prevailing theme taught to kids these days is "question everything". Not taking things at face-value, or believing memes and one-line theories, forms part of the young person's toolbox these days. It really does. Their teachers are drilling into them the dangers of online misinformation.
You and I wouldn't have known the difference between misinformation and disinformation in our school days (I'm assuming you're grown up), but kids these days know all about it. That should give you some comfort.
If certain Japanese political parties are making wild claims, let the dust settle and the ridiculous stuff eventually is exposed. Don't ignore subtle variation and nuance when for example we examine the claims made about the covid vaccine and protection from transmission. Or effectiveness of masks, etc. In Australia, police were literally tackling people to the ground outside for not wearing masks. So let's not trust government issued health advice so blindly either. Let's find a middle-ground of analysis & discussion.