Censoring criticism of government policies
On October 1st, new laws came into effect in Australia that censor government officials from criticising government policy.
Censorship push raises ire of MPS
It’s the result of the Auditor-General’s criticism of a $300 million parliamentary entitlements scheme. All government handouts now need to be cleared by the Department of Finance before being distributed. The problem is, that the Department of Finance are including the editing of material to prevent criticism of government policies.
Since most of these government handouts are used to educate people about government mismanagement, by censoring them they’re preventing Australians from becoming aware of potential issues or problems within government policy.
How do you feel about this?
Where is it likely to go? If it’s now illegal for the government to criticise government policies, how soon will it become illegal for the public to criticise government policy?
Holiday time is almost here
In December, I’ll be going for a drive around Victoria, ending up in Adelaide, and then back home again to Canberra. This image (below) shows the route I’ll be taking over 10 days.
I’ll be traveling along the coast for most of it, but coming back via the River Murray. I’m hoping for some very nice scenic shots along the way, with beaches, cliffs, lakes, rivers, mountains and miscellaneous scenery…
It’s going to be exciting! I’ll be doing it by myself too, although that just might change, depending on what the near future holds.
I’ll be departing on 12th December, returning home on 22nd December. If you can think of interesting places along that route that you think I’d like to see and take photos of, please tell me about them in the comments section.
A question for you
I’ve seen talk on another blog that the author decided to end their blog and use Facebook instead. It allowed them to provide daily status updates that would complement any blog posts they might write within Facebook, include photos, videos, and links to other interesting sites.
So I thought about it and I thought I would ask you, my readers.
Would you follow me on Facebook to keep up to date with my writings and things I share, or would you prefer I keep the blog format and post infrequently?
Please provide your answers in a Comment, thank you.
Freedom. Who needs it?
Freedom. Who needs it?
Obviously not most people in the western world. They keep demanding less freedom, and they support the punishment of freedom, and taking freedom away.
Why?
Because they feel safer if there’s less freedom. The media and the governments hype up fears about terrorism and other criminal activities, and encourage people to believe that freedom comes at the price of… well, freedom.
It blows my mind that people can so naively believe that they will be free when they have no freedom. But there’s one serious flaw in their desires to limit freedom.
The only people it affects are law-abiding citizens. Terrorists and criminals operate outside the law. They always have, and they always will. So how will imposing greater restrictions on the general populace help prevent criminals from doing what they do?
Laws about photography in public
As so often happens, I write some good stuff when I email with friends (sometimes even strangers!). Today’s example is the below information about photography laws in Australia, which I thought I’d turn into a blog post as well.
There’s a lot of people in Australia that think it’s illegal to take photos of people in public, without their permission. It’s actually not.
Photographing you in public is the same as being able to look at you in public. If they can see you and you have no expectation of privacy, then they can take photos of you. They can even publish your photo on the web or in books. The only restriction is that they cannot use your photo to sell something without your permission. They can use your photo in a model shoot without your permission, but they cannot use your photo in line with men’s aftershave, for example. (It is also illegal to use photos of people taken in public in ways that can demean or defame those people.)
