# Australia just became a National Security State



## Warrigal (Oct 12, 2014)

From the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...tralia-just-became-a-national-security-state/
Comments invited



> Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had some “regrettable” news. It was late last month, Australia had just thwarted an Islamic State plot to behead random Australians, and the prime minister’s tone was somber. “Regrettably, for some time to come, Australians will have to endure more security than we’re used to, and more inconvenience than we would like,” he told the country’s parliament. “Regrettably for some time to come, the delicate balance between freedom and security may have to shift.”
> 
> Consider the balanced shifted. Since those remarks, Australia has endowed its nation’s intelligence agencies with their most significant expansion of powers in 35 years, legalized the surveillance of the entire Australian Internet with one warrant, threatened whistleblowers and journalists with 10-year prison terms if they publicize classified information, and is mulling a new law that makes it easier to detain Australians without charge and subject them to “coercive questioning.”
> 
> ...


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 13, 2014)

Hmm, you could be getting a knock on your door...


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## Warrigal (Oct 13, 2014)

Yep, I reckon I'm on the list. 
Have been ever since I wrote  a letter to PM John Howard urging him not to commit us to war in Iraq.


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 13, 2014)

Well then, get ready for some "coercive questioning."  Do you like water?


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## Pappy (Oct 13, 2014)

Ralphy, you're too much.:sentimental: Do you like water?


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## Ameriscot (Oct 13, 2014)

Uh oh.  My husband has a lot of relatives in Oz and none of them like Tony Abbott.  Hope they don't get harassed.


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## rt3 (Oct 13, 2014)

its called Martial Law-- welcome to the new world order


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 13, 2014)

Dick Cheney is heading over to show them how to implement their new policy...


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## QuickSilver (Oct 13, 2014)

Ralphy1 said:


> Dick Cheney is heading over to show them how to implement their new policy...



Here's hoping they keep him!!!


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## rt3 (Oct 13, 2014)

nope, no oil wells there


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## Ameriscot (Oct 13, 2014)

QuickSilver said:


> Here's hoping they keep him!!!



NOOO!  I have inlaws there.  Send him to North Korea or one of those places.


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## QuickSilver (Oct 13, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> NOOO! I have inlaws there. Send him to North Korea or one of those places.



Where he should be is in Prison..


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## WhatInThe (Oct 13, 2014)

Love how the guy describes it as an "inconvenience" which is much softer way of saying you are screwed, we can do what we want.

 It's ISIS today tomorrow it could be Disney characters. And right now all the intelligence and tactics are being to fight the big bad of ISIS but what becomes of those same tactics and intelligence stock pile of information when there is no ISIS. Don't think they'll be put on a shelf someone where. Even worse are the current crop of government types early in their career, these will be on the only tactics and policy they know, they literally won't know any better.


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## SifuPhil (Oct 13, 2014)

Welcome to _our_ world!


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## Ameriscot (Oct 13, 2014)

QuickSilver said:


> Where he should be is in Prison..



True. Along with his puppet Bush.


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## Warrigal (Oct 13, 2014)

Ameriscot said:


> Uh oh.  My husband has a lot of relatives in Oz and none of them like Tony Abbott.  Hope they don't get harassed.



:rofl: Don't worry, Ameriscot. 
Tony has a lot of people who don't like him but that's nothing unusual over here. 
Pollie bashing is just another sport and no Aussie has ever been locked up for taking part in a national sport.

At the moment the people complaining most bitterly about the new legislation are the journalists and civil libertarians. 
Muslims are worried but they have been for a long time. They really shouldn't be.

After all the raids that went on recently, just one man was charged with something, and it wasn't terrorism.
Storm in a teacup really although I still think the police had cause and probably did disrupt something.


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## drifter (Oct 13, 2014)

What's that going to do for the land of the 'fair go'?


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## Warrigal (Oct 13, 2014)

We had some fairly draconian legislation passed after 911. It was never used.
I don't expect we will be feeling the jackboot on our necks any time soon.


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 14, 2014)

Don't be too sure.  Once Cheney gets get there to consult "the gloves" could be coming off and a Gitmo may be coming to OZ soon...


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## JustQuinn (Oct 14, 2014)

we have the G20 here next month.  Putin is  coming and Tony Abbott just threatened  to  "shirtfront" him.   How  bizarre


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 14, 2014)

This just goes to prove that you Aussies are a stranger lot than I thought...


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## QuickSilver (Oct 14, 2014)

What is "Shirtfront"  ??


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## Warrigal (Oct 14, 2014)

Shirt front is something that occurs in Aussie Rules football. 
"Shirtfront" is an AFL term used to describe a collision between two players, where one player is hit "front-on" by another player coming from the opposite direction. It is usually performed in an aggressive manner, often with the aggressor leaping into the air to forcefully collide with an unsuspecting and unprotected victim.

Sometimes the victim will have his head down trying to gather the ball when he is suddenly hit.
The effects or injury of the illegal act can be significant for the victim, while the aggressor gives away a "free kick" during the game and also runs the risk of being suspended for multiple games by the AFL tribunal system.

The term "shirtfront" is now considered old-fashioned, with all collisions of that nature evolving into a general category called "the bump".


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...imir-putin-20141013-115hfz.html#ixzz3G7PDee8t


Tony Abbott is from NSW and knows little about AFL (or anything else for that matter). He probably thought that it meant grabbing Putin by the front of his shirt and glaring at him with menace.

Either way, it was a ridiculous thing to say. The Russian Ambassador over here is quite nonplussed and I gather he thinks Putin would put TA on the canvas quicksmart.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...hirtfront-vladimir-putin-20141014-115pp0.html


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 14, 2014)

Your PM is a sook and Putin would tear him a new one...


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## QuickSilver (Oct 14, 2014)

meh.... Putin has manboobs


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## Warrigal (Oct 14, 2014)

Ralphy1 said:


> Your PM is a sook and Putin would tear him a new one...



Sorry Ralphy but you are incorrect.
First, he's not a sook. He is, in reality, a very spoiled sook with a Messiah complex.
Second, Putin couldn't tear him a new one because he's already a total a*sehole.

Our PM is  living proof of the Peter Principle.


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 14, 2014)

Wow!  Bring back the hussy!


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## QuickSilver (Oct 14, 2014)

Ah..... the Peter Prinicle... Everyone rises to the level of his own incompetence


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## Fern (Oct 14, 2014)

WhatInThe said:


> Love how the guy describes it as an "inconvenience" which is much softer way of saying you are screwed, we can do what we want.
> 
> It's ISIS today tomorrow it could be Disney characters. And right now all the intelligence and tactics are being to fight the big bad of ISIS but what becomes of those same tactics and intelligence stock pile of information when there is no ISIS. Don't think they'll be put on a shelf someone where. Even worse are the current crop of government types early in their career, these will be on the only tactics and policy they know, they literally won't know any better.


So what do you suggest,? sit back & wait & see how big & bad Isis is or could be.


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## Debby (Oct 14, 2014)

The beginning of a spreading epidemic of lost freedoms?  Will North Korea begin to look 'normal' one day?

Gee whiz, and just think, our generation grew up with hearing stories of Russia's feared KGB's knocking at doors in the dark of night and here we are seeing another democratic country beginning to employ similar tactics, as in arresting without charges, etc.,


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## Warrigal (Oct 14, 2014)

Ralphy1 said:


> Your PM is a sook and Putin would tear him a new one...



Thought you might enjoy this cartoon about the Showdown at the G20 Saloon.

The pianist with the Shreklike ears is our treasurer, the bar floosie is our foreign minister and, well, you can guess the main protagonists.


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 15, 2014)

You are a sick lot...


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## Warrigal (Oct 15, 2014)

Some are sicker than others


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 15, 2014)

Yike!  Enough, enough!


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## Warrigal (Oct 15, 2014)

All of a sudden the G20 Leaders Summit is getting very interesting. 
A bit like a political Hunger Games.

At least, one can hope.


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 15, 2014)

You should stick to visits from Oprah...


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## Warrigal (Oct 15, 2014)

She won't come back. We stranded her on top of the Harbour Bridge for half an hour.
Like Queen Victoria, she was NOT amused.

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Sydney-Harbor-Bridge-Climb-Mishap-Video


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 15, 2014)

You must be careful, should she return, to treat the most important American woman better...


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## Warrigal (Oct 15, 2014)

What do you mean? That was better.
Most asylum seekers end up on Nauru.


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 15, 2014)

Do I have to Giggle Nauru or can you just tell me about it?


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## Warrigal (Oct 15, 2014)

Nauru is a small island that consists almost entirely of guano.
It's tropical. 

That's all there is to tell.


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 15, 2014)

Doesn't that pretty much describe OZ?  That's what we were taught in school...


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## Warrigal (Oct 15, 2014)

Hmmn Nauru





Australia






You could have a point there. Both are penal colonies when it is all boiled down and both are islands.


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## Ralphy1 (Oct 15, 2014)

My geography teacher did well by me...


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## QuickSilver (Oct 15, 2014)

Speaking of Penile..... Wonder if Putin does the Brazilian...   OH.... you wrote Penal....  My bad


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