[LINK] Labor caves in, Fascist Dutton wins the day

David dlochrin at key.net.au
Fri Dec 7 10:27:13 AEDT 2018


On Friday, 7 December 2018 09:20:13 AEDT Roger Clarke wrote:

> This morning's news says:
>> Australia’s law enforcement agencies have a wide range of new encryption-busting powers after Labor dropped all opposition to a highly contentious bill and let it pass without extra changes it claimed all day were needed. ...
> 
> [Just when you think Australian politics can't lower its standards any further, Labor manages to behave in the most cowardly way imaginable.

But there were good reasons for this, even if they were "political" in nature.  Can you imagine the manic theatre Morrison would have mounted in the event of a terrorist attack over Christmas?  Rationality would go overboard and Morrison's chances of re-election would be improved.

I'm comfortable with Labor's strategy, and the Coalition has agreed to consider amendments when Parliament resumes for what that's worth.  As Michelle Gratton pointed out in The Conversation this morning regarding their proposed "divestiture" legislation:  'Even if [it] gets through the Senate next year, a likely Labor election victory would mean we’ll probably never see this particular “big stick” wielded.  It’s highly doubtful the threat will have been worth the angst, or the trashing of Liberal principles.'

DL





More information about the Link mailing list