Do Australians care that their country is turning into an authoritarian police / surveillance state?
reddit: the front page of the internet 2019-11-14
Warrantless strip searches, silencing whistleblowers / journalists, de facto bans on protesting or assembling (this might not be the best example, see another one I posted below in the second edit), working toward prohibition of boycotts, widespread rollout of CCTV and facial recognition, removing people's access to encrypted data, the outright sale of publicly-owned land or assets to China, etc.
These are all things that've happened in the last couple years -- we won't even get into the prior years / decades of slippery-slope erosion of people's rights or the increasing prevalence of cameras, fines, regulations, searches, etc. From what I see on the news / hear on the radio, there's very little criticism of these sorts of policies. The mainstream view of what it means to be 'Australian' seems to push (without openly saying it) for a blind acceptance of any and all police or regulatory infringements into people's personal lives.
I'm surprised we don't see more journalism seeking to establish correlation between all these increases in gov't infringement and the growing coziness between politicians / regulators and the corporate lobbies and foreign interests they deal with... primarily China, Big Coal, and the mining industry.
I've only lived in Australia for a few years, but even in that small span of time, I've noticed so much of a progression toward authoritarianism that it's a little alarming. Why is it that this isn't really discussed by your average Aussie? Do people not care? do they support authoritarianism?
EDIT to add that it seems a LOT of Aussies do care a lot about this, which is encouraging. I've been trying to read everyone's comments and have learned a great deal, and gotten much more context and history on some of these issues. Thanks to the people who awarded me gold / platinum - it's encouraging that so many people are willing to engage in these sorts of conversations!
EDIT 2 to add a spot for links to articles about other issues that commenters have brought up:
Search / Seizure of personal electronic devices:
Shutting down protests / gatherings on public lands:
Warrantless searches of homes (yes, I know it's for drug criminals, but some slopes be slippery):
To top it off.. they're gouging us on our beer!