[AusNOG] Dutton decryption bill

[Ross Wheeler]

On Thu, 16 Aug 2018, Bradley Silverman wrote:

> It's incredibly short sighted to say, we should give the government full 
> access to monitor anything and everything I do, which is what this is 
> leading towards, because only bad people need privacy.

One of the major objections (apart from the obvious ones about a persons 
reasonable right and expectation of privacy within the realms of legal 
activities), is that governments at all levels, and public servants at all 
levels, have proven they cannot be trusted with peoples private 
information. Not all of them, sure, but enough of them to create a very 
real problem. Trust is hard-won and easily lost.


On Thu, 16 Aug 2018, Paul Julian wrote:

> Where do you even start ?
>
> I would love to be able to comment on these things properly but how do 
> you structure a response that isn't just a whinge and saying
> that it's not fair and blah blah, it would need to offer alternatives or 
> suggestions on how else this could be accomplished or why it
> shouldn't be in the first place.

Completely agree.

I also add, somewhat reluctantly and with an element of shame, that having 
attempted this on countless "government initiatives" from censorship and 
filtering, privacy, access restrictions, anti-piracy, restraint of trade, 
interception, anticompetetive practices, spectrum reallocation and dozens 
more - I (and probably the majority of others) am simply burned out. 
"They" just keep shuffling new people through the revolving doors of 
political office with increasingly hair-brained, ill-conceived, 
unreasoned, impractical demands, requirements and legislation - but with 
constant zeal of new blood. Industry is by and large the same few, with 
too much work, too little time, far too much (and ever-growing) unpaid 
government "regulatory compliance" work... to even THINK about yet another 
paper to read, much less think about and reply to.

In almost every case, regardless of how many industry players have made 
well-reasoned representation against whatever "todays" issue is, there 
have been few (if any) changes of any substance and eventually the 
futility of making submissions takes its toll.

... or am I the only one here feeling this way?