[LINK] Oz hackers face prison

[Bill D'Arcy]

Greg wrote:
>They've been working on the new Criminal Code for some years.  This week's
>events just made for a good "photo opportunity" and happened to coincide
>with the recent completion of the Computer Offences Discussion Paper, which
>might otherwise have never been newsworthy ;-)
And Iain in another posting mentioned his concern over the lack of critical
analysis in the media of much that is done by this government.
For whatever the reason, Vanstone's release of this on a Saturday and from
Adelaide is highly suspicious -- could it be that a herring has been
dragged across the trail of The Brothers Howard? Nothing is put out by this
or any other government on Saturdays - the state and federal press
galleries are virtually empty on this day, with most scribes taking rest
from their labours of telling me how to think.
As the Crimes Act already covers most of the things Vanstone has announced,
that she made her announcement from Adelaide thereby avoiding any
possibility of immediate gallery analysis, and that she did so on a
Saturday, suggests she's following the increasingly used government path of
the beatup -- compare Alston's media release on e-commerce
<http://www.dcita.gov.au/cgi-bin/graphics.pl?path=4824> with the report on
which it's supposed to be based, E-Commerce - beyond 2000
<http://www.noie.gov.au/ecom/HOME/Policy/Economic_Impacts_Study/economic_impacts
_study.html> and you'll see what I mean.
Whatever the underlying reason, Vanstone got away with it on television
news last night (I haven't seen how the Sunday papers handled it). Bulletin
editors were suckered by a deluge of buzz words and uncritically headlined
this alleged crackdown, repleat with its overtones of a government of
action. Johnny and Stan would have been most pleased.
Bill D'Arcy