We’re a nanny state, the government is just going to use it to track us
https://www.tobaccotactics.org/article/countering-industry-a...
Sure, because most people h ave no idea where the term originates from and it now has a life of its own. It's the standard term for this sort of thing.
They have access to your location estimate, URLs of sites you've visited, people you talk via email/phone etc. And we know that this dataset is shared to the Five Eyes.
So if you are concerned about being tracked I would strongly recommend leaving Australia.
It’s not bad enough to leave, better to engage with the politics and try to get some rights before it spreads further outwards
They have no culture, and that’s the opinion of Australians: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_Country
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/freest-co...
Higher than UK and the US.
Not according to https://rsf.org/en/index or https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Freedom_Index
I assume that other indices that show “data” that fits whatever narrative one wants are easy to find…
Which makes things like this meaningless in isolation.
We also had some of the longest/harshet COVID lockdowns in the world in my state.
[1] - https://www.dw.com/en/australia-man-convicted-for-performing...
Also known as doing a Nazi salute.
And on mandatory voting: yes, in one way, that's a curtailment of freedom, but in another way, it's enshrining freedom.
We have so many issues, but compulsory voting is not one of them, in my opinion. If you feel so strongly to not vote you can abstain by an informal vote like roughly 5% of the country does on any given election (https://www.aec.gov.au/Voting/Informal_Voting/) or simply pay the AU$20 (roughly US$13) fine like apparently around 5-10% of Australians do on any given election (https://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/non-voters.htm).
In my view, and in the view of many Australians, people encouraging further "freedom" to not vote are attempting to suppress votes, a major issue in the United States and other countries with optional voting.
But that aside, although Australia doesn't require any ID on election day, Australians do register with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) with their name, address and date of birth. AEC workers have a printed copy of these records on election day. Obvious anomalies like someone with a different age can be reported. Otherwise anomalies like multiple votes from the same address are investigated, I imagine by interviewing the person at that address.
The AEC provides transparency about how it detects fraud and the penalties that can be imposed for people who are caught doing it. The point is that this is quite rare. The AEC's aim is to lower barriers to voting in the first place so that all people can. By detecting anomalies and using tipoffs the AEC estimates the impact of voter fraud and takes a scientific approach to recommend against raising barriers to vote.
Being required to vote in all of them would be a large burden.
An example of this is that Australia is sorely in need of tax reform, but any party that pushes for it at state or federal level is damaged at the polls, often fatally.
If you are going to cite sources about 1960's Australian culture, back in the oppressive dark ages of 'White Australia', make sure you compare it with other 1960's cultures. Or try some sources from this millennium that have come to terms with not being part of the British Empire.
Forced voting is a net benefit, the biggest being that it forces parties to the center rather than having to say/promise stupid stuff to appeal to the fringes that have firm political positions (see: USA). Mandatory voting + preferential voting, alongside a well-run independent election commission has resulted in very high trust in our democratic process.