Comment by roenxi | Hacker News Reader

Comment by roenxi | Hacker News Reader

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> The other blatant hypocrisy is Labor jumping on the #righttoknow bandwagon.

And encryption, same deal. Consider the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Bill 2018 (the one that makes it illegal to have secure end-to-end encryption in Australia) [0].

The Labor party managed to work in with the government's tight timeframe and get the bill passed in a single day on the 6th of December [1] after a very short timeframe for consultation and gathering opinions. Labour did note that when introduced a two and a half months before that they didn't like the bill, but frankly it is obvious that they were working with the government to rush it through without scrutiny. No serious debate as far as I'm aware.

The bipartisanship on these issues is frankly miserable. Labour is in no position to claim that they support free and open communication. I honestly havn't figured out why these issues get such unanimous support by the political class. I do wish that Australian's would take it more seriously, our laws surrounding free speech and civil liberties are in a really bad state.

[0] https://www.wired.com/story/australia-encryption-law-global-...

[1] https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislat... - see Progress heading

> I honestly havn't figured out why these issues get such unanimous support by the political class.

I think its because too few Australians care enough for this to matter to politicians and the parties, who respond to incentives like everyone else.

This doesn't absolve pollies of responsibility for passing these draconian measures, but it is an important fact to acknowledge if we want to successfully change the culture around security issues in Australia.

Picking on end-to-end encryption; if my messages are insecure then the messages of the politicians are also insecure. They have a lot more to hide than I do.

It isn't obvious to me why they think the incentives align for making Australians less secure. If nobody cares, why not write laws that protect everyone including politicians?

The Liberals literally called the Federal Police down on the AWU and notified the press before the raid. For those who aren't Australian the AWU is a union that is basically part of the Labor party organising body. Are federal politicians really so stupid as to think this stuff isn't going to be used against them at some point? Police enforcement actions are clearly entering the world of the political federally and probably in Victoria. There is a lot of talk about ICAC. China is breathing down our necks to gain more access to our computer networks, our University networks were hacked just the other week. This is not hypothetical stuff for our politicians; these are all actions targeting people like them.

I can all but guarantee that there is a technician at any Australian digital-communication company who can be bribed by a foreign actor to hand over all communication a given politician has made on that service.

"Are federal politicians really so stupid as to think this stuff isn't going to be used against them at some point?"

Yes. They are. "Stupid" is often a straight-talking way to say they are "lacking sufficient wisdom to fully understand the implications."

Some people really do need to learn by getting burnt. Others need multiple burns before they think it is serious. There are people who need to be on fire before they will agree that being burnt is a possibility.

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