We don't talk about Taco Bell.
shirro
joined 2 years ago
Time to kick these fuckers out of the Commonwealth. Make them our 7th state. Or slap a 150% tariff on maple syrup. Where the fuck is Albo on this?
It looks like it will be handled by third party verification services in Australia. You will likely provide some form of ID with age which is likely to be government id and the service will check it then inform the social media company you pass. The legislation doesn't allow direct government involvement in running the verification service and the verification companies have to conform to privacy laws.
It is certainly a flawed system. If kids want to access things they will and there is potential for abuse. However when considering harm mitigation you need to look at the whole population.
A lot of the more extreme libertarian views on the Internet originate in the US where their "freedoms" of speech and firearms have obviously just been a distraction while they were robbed blind. They couldn't even protect their school kids from mass shootings because they put ideology and theoretical bullshit ahead of morality, empathy and the survival of their families. I used to buy into the Internet libertarian stuff in a huge way in the days of IRC and Usenet before the mega rich tech bros moved in and turned the Internet into a shitshow of scams, mass-surveillance and brain washing. Still a big proponent of free software and agree with a lot of stuff from the EFF but the oligarchs ruined it. Now I want to burn it down. Anything to keep these nonses away from our kids is good with me.
Just follow the money. Don't even need to do that, its very obvious which industry group benefits from attacking the Greens. It is the same companies, majority foreign owned who aren't paying their fair share of taxes.
It is hard to understand how anyone would fall for these corporate propaganda campaigns but then you think about the number of phone and internet scams and see all the fraud and weird cults around and I guess you just have to influence enough people to shift the goal posts. They must be spending a fortune per vote. Must be nice to have a licence to steal our countries wealth and not give anything back.
The idea in Australia is to place the responsibility on the social media companies.
The government isnt filtering traffic or enforcing behaviour. It is fining companies if they don't implement a form of age verification that is compliant with privacy laws.
We can't even make these companies pay tax and obey other laws so I am not very optimistic but at least it raises awareness of the problem.
These systems are based on the flawed assumption that poor people and minorities are less able to manage money that others. It is hugely discriminatory and treated poor people (and specifically the most disadvantaged racial group in the country) like criminals and addicts. It removed personal agency and forced people to use specific retailers, preventing them buying used goods and fresh market produce. The program was expensive and the only people who benefited were the company running it. It is populist divisive nonsense.
Anyway the point is digital payment systems can absolutely be used in democratic states to enforce spending behaviours and you can even see how it starts with people here believing such a system is justifiable. Then it gets extended to other minorities. The elderly, veterans, disabled, unemployed.
Fortunately in a democracy we can educate people as to why overly simplistic solutions that appear to protect vulnerable people are in actuality a really bad idea.
Sadly not entirely true. The incredibly shitty previous government in Australia widely trialed a racist, classist cashless welfare card for indigenous people. Recipients got 80% of their welfare on it and it could not be used for alcohol, gambling or cash incase they spent it on drugs or porn or other "sinful" things.
As we become more dependent on digital systems there are new ways for our privacy and freedoms to be eroded which makes participatory democracy all the more important.
Almost all my transactions are contactless payments and it pisses me off that they all go through VISA when there is a perfectly good local network for debit card payments.
A lot of the deficiencies with Australian health care are due to tight budget control. Insufficient staffing etc. Health care is expensive but I believe our government health care spending is less per person than the US despite having a more equitable system.
Some of the cost pressures on our system are likely due to increasing use of private services. You can feel the dream of universal health and education slipping away here as bits are carved off for the private sector.
Commented this elsewhere as an Aussie. It makes a quick buck for some NZ business person but it kills your reputation. Great country. Should be great products. I would buy 100% made in NZ above anything but local. It's crazy not to promote local content when you have such a strong national brand.
Public hospital care is free and very good in my experience but we have a mixed public/private system and there is usually a gap between private fees and public compensation. So for most people going to a doctor or specialist isn't free (it can be but generally isn't) but it is subsidised.
Prescriptions are the biggest win. Trump wants to take those away. It will be over my dead body.
I love our labelling so much in Australia. Nutrition and origin. The only crap one is health star which is misleading. I occasionally buy NZ products and think we should be closer to an economic union like the EU but their labelling is much worse and I worry that they repackage products of different origin which hurts their reputation for the sake of some quick profits.
Independents are really good in theory. Particularly for local representation, if you get a good one. But without a party platform and well developed policies you often don't know what you are getting. Parties aren't always a bad thing.
Some of the independents are people who were too shitty even for Family First, PHON, Trump, Liberal Party so went solo. People need to do their research carefully.