Search Results: surveillance
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ECONOMICS
A commonly heard phrase, or rather media cliché, is that after the COVID-19 crisis ‘things will never be the same.’ It is an understandable sentiment, given the seemingly unprecedented nature of recent events. But how novel is what happened, and how much will actually change?
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AUSTRALIA
- Samantha Floreani
- 21 May 2020
8 Comments
Over the past few weeks we’ve seen the government pull out all the stops in an attempt to convince the Australian public to download the COVIDSafe App. There are plenty of issues with the app itself, including its technical flaws, and valid concerns around data privacy, security and the normalisation of surveillance. But the other fascinating aspect of COVIDSafe has been the commentary surrounding the app.
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AUSTRALIA
The new ASIO Powers Amendment Bill 2020 is being rushed through Parliament in a time of pandemic, guaranteeing that it will lack even the minimal level of scrutiny normally accorded to legislation dealing with ‘national security’.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Ramona Wadi
- 30 April 2020
After building a reputation for foreign intervention and collateral damage — the most recent example being Libya — the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is asserting its influence during the COVID-19 pandemic, this time by exploiting the humanitarian paradigm.
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AUSTRALIA
- Justin Glyn
- 20 April 2020
7 Comments
The question remains, however, is there a straight binary trade-off between granting the state power (to organise lock-downs, track its populace and coerce the people) and keeping its people safe?
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ECONOMICS
- David James
- 01 April 2020
4 Comments
The world-wide chaos caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus has underlined a lesson that was only partly learned in the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. In a more interconnected world the understanding of system-wide risk needs to be much better than it is.
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ECONOMICS
- David James
- 03 March 2020
10 Comments
We live in an era of hyper-transactionalism, whereby most of what we do is subject to the exchange of money and market pricing. Whereas in the past much of humanity was bound to a political system, now most of us are bound to a globalised monetary system.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Andrew Hamilton
- 03 December 2019
5 Comments
If China spies upon Australia, Australia spied on East Timor. If China detains Uighurs in harsh conditions, so has Australia detained people in brutal and demeaning conditions on Manus Island. If China lays out money to nations on our region to secure its national interests, so does Australia, most notably to Nauru and PNG.
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AUSTRALIA
- Kate Galloway
- 08 October 2019
6 Comments
If government is concerned for citizens' wellbeing, it should properly resource services — drug and alcohol support, parenting support, subsidised childcare, education and so on. Instead, it is generating a system of social credit: rewarding those who toe the line and punishing those whose 'score' falls below that of the 'good citizen'.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Devana Senanayake
- 30 September 2019
4 Comments
With Widowo's decision to reconsider the proposed updates, policymakers should seek to initiate balanced and nuanced reforms that help liberal lifestyles and conservative values coexist. While appeasing the conservative portion of the electorate is a good tactic, ignoring a diverse electorate is a recipe for disaster in the long term.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Andrew Hamilton
- 26 August 2019
11 Comments
The democracy movement in Hong Kong, with its ideal of political freedom and its embodiment of it in spontaneous and decentralised organisation, is one of many such revolutions, most of them short lived. It is inspiring because of its idealism, and poignant because its precedents demonstrate the power of the forces arrayed against it.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Ramona Wadi
- 23 August 2019
4 Comments
Opting for surveillance of migrants instead of rescue operations will result in death by drowning, or torture and possible deaths in Libya. For both scenarios, the EU has cultivated its own brand of impunity. Looking away has become politically acceptable, and the bloc can focus on funding the Libyan Coast Guard to do its dirty work.
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