Our spy laws are out of date (again)

It appears that ASIO is unable to bring about the prosecution of an unamed former politician who betrayed Australia because no laws were broken. Had the betrayal been committed after the introduction of the National Security Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Act 2018 (EFI Act), it might have been a different story.Shadow Home Affairs Minister, James Paterson, provided a sober assessment of calls to out the politician who committed the betrayal. As the EFI Act (and therefore no crime) existed at the time, a defamation action from the traitor would be highly likely. While everyone wants to know who the traitor is, doing so would ultimately compromise ASIO’s operational tactics.This is not the first time in ASIO’s history that those who wish to harm our nation could not be charged because no law was broken

Eshays, imported riots – are water cannons next?

Whether it’s antisemitic pro-Palestinians or a gathering of ‘eshays’ in Logan in Queensland, our police forces have lost control of the streets. We’ve used up our smugness and we can no longer say, ‘We are so lucky that doesn’t happen here.’Well, now it does

Connecting the Nation:An historical institutionalist explanation for divergent communications technology outcomes in Canada and Australia

Australia's slow rate of progress in rolling out broadband technologies became a major election issue in 2007, resulting in the National Broadband Network (NBN), the largest public infrastructure investment in Australia's history. Numerous international comparative reports reveal that Australia's lag in the deployment of broadband technologies in relation to Canada, another geographically large, sparsely populated federal system, is significant. Nevertheless, Australia's poor broadband performance is no different than the sluggish adoption of many other forms of electromagnetic communications technologies since the time of the telegraph. This thesis adopts an historical institutionalist approach to explain why Australia trails behind Canada in the take-up of communications technologies. The thesis identifies the different approaches to enabling, coordinating and regulating communications technologies in each country. Importantly, different federal powers for communications technologies have resulted in longstanding differences in the deployment of communications technologies. The Australian government's exclusive powers to legislate for communications technologies resulted in a series of centralised, top-down, single national solutions. Conversely, Canada's decentralised, bottom-up, provincial and municipal solutions approach stems from the provinces' powers to legislate for communications technologies within the provinces. Constitutionally, the Canadian government's powers are for the most part restricted to issues of interconnection between the provinces. Australian policy-makers favour standardised national systems designed to provide equality of service provision which invariably takes longer to deliver services to citizens. While Canada's approach leads to different standards of service provision, the approach is faster in delivering communications technology services to citizens. In explaining why a decentralised approach to deploying communications technologies results in faster take-up of new communications technologies, the concept of varieties of particularism is developed. The term 'varieties of particularism' refers to the unique social, political, economic, technological and geographical peculiarities that exist at the nexus of government, business and communications technologies. These various characteristics differ for each region, jurisdiction, provider and user and present a complex series of challenges for the deployment of new communications technologies. In the broadband era, the traditional monolithic telecommunications carrier model is increasingly obsolete. The research finds that single national solutions designed to meet citizens' communications technology requirements (such as those adopted by Australian policy makers) do not adequately address the varieties of particularism and therefore are slow to be deployed and to be taken-up by citizens. Further, the centralisation of political power in the communication industries prevents many citizens from participating in policy development - a 'build it and they will come' scenario - which neglects the human element of the 'network society'. Consequently, the centralised approach results in policy focused on particular technologies or devices predetermined by government, rather than user functionality which can be delivered by a mix of available technologies. The research finds that Australia's centralised approach discourages innovative uses of available technologies, whereas the Canadian decentralised approach enables citizens to be active policy and network participants where political issues are resolved at the regional or local level. In light of the NBN, the comparison with Canada demonstrates that Australia's centralised approach has important ramifications for future communications technology deployment

Taiwan and Australia:She’ll be right, mate?

From Taipei: One of the first things that struck me about Taiwan is that I felt like I was in Cairns. The monsoon rain, the dark skies… You are wet, but you are also hot and sweating and you just have to settle into it. It’s a good thing the local drop is good and cheap, as any Aussie who as lived in Australia’s north would appreciate.After travelling from Shanghai to Seoul to Taipei in succession, it took a few days to work out which apps I could use to navigate and pay for food, and which language I should use for the normal courtesies. Restrictions in each country require one to be flexible. It was certainly a journey along a spectrum from the highly regulated to the less regulated society.While the two Koreas seem to be further away than ever from ‘reunification’, the threat to Taiwan is the opposite: reunification itself

North Korea trash politics sky-high while our pollies are distracted

From Baengnyeongdo, South Korea: Here at what the Americans call PY-Do in the Yellow Sea, we are closer to North Korea’s capital than we are to the South’s capital, Seoul. PY-Do is an ‘island outpost at freedom’s frontier’. It is home to over 4,000 South Koreans and exists in an administrative afterthought of the Korean Armistice Agreement in an area known as the Northwest Islands.The United Nations Command (UNC) established a Northern Limit Line (NLL) in 1953 at a time when the North’s navy was barely existent. In effect, South Korea stays below the NLL while North Korea does not recognise it. The five Northwest Islands, of which PY-Do and Yeonpyeongdo (YP-do) are a part, remain a flashpoint for hostilities between the two nations

Woke tropes informing Australia’s Gaza response

ACT Senator David Pocock wrote about Australia’s response to the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza recently. The next day, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong reinstated $6 million in funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).Staff at UNRWA had allegedly assisted Hamas in their brutal attacks on unsuspecting and innocent Israeli civilians. In response, the Australian government ‘paused’ funding to UNRWA. UNRWA’s response was to sack those allegedly involved, and after a period of seven weeks, the Australian government has decided to reinstate the funding