Prime Minister claims laws of mathematics 'do not apply'

[cronus]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/malco ... 42946.html

Prime Minister claims laws of mathematics 'do not apply' in Australia

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said the laws of mathematics come second to the law of the land in a row over privacy and encryption.

Under new legislation proposed by the Australian Government, messaging apps like WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage would be forced to hand over the contents of encrypted messages.

When challenged by a technology journalist over whether it was possible to tackle the problem of criminals using encryption – given that platform providers claim they are currently unable to break into the messages even if required to do so by law – the Prime Minister raised eyebrows as he made his reply.

“Well the laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia," he said.

(continued, the best explanation for kangaroos I've heard...)

[JimC]

Most politicians do not understand tech issues...

[NineBerry]

If you make a law that says bacon must not have calories, I will move to Australia. In spite of the spiders.

[Rum]

They really don't understand do they. They best thing they could do would be to leave the internet alone to give 'undesirables' a false sense of security.

[pErvinalia]

Sadly, this is the state of politics in Australia. I'm fairly certain Turnbull understand encryption. He's actually very tech savy and has run a large ISP (I think it was) before. In reality he's a very moderate liberal, but he is beholden (for reasons I can't quite fathom; might be to do with marginal seats or something) to the nutjob conservative wing of his party. He's also a spineless sack of shit, something which doesn't help his cause. He gives idiotic responses like this all the time, as that's what conservatives like hearing. Politics is a real shambles here.

[Alan B]

Sadly, this is the state of politics in Australia.

And not just Australia.

Mention 'science', 'evidence' (and even 'maths') to most politicians and, particularly conservatives, they will mentally hold up a cross and start muttering about 'the Devil and all his works'. Bunch of technological morons. The truth is probably that they see any suggestion of 'evidence' is a veiled threat to their tax-haven donations...

Or something.

[Hermit]

Sadly, this is the state of politics in Australia. I'm fairly certain Turnbull understand encryption. He's actually very tech savy and has run a large ISP (I think it was) before. In reality he's a very moderate liberal, but he is beholden (for reasons I can't quite fathom; might be to do with marginal seats or something) to the nutjob conservative wing of his party. He's also a spineless sack of shit, something which doesn't help his cause. He gives idiotic responses like this all the time, as that's what conservatives like hearing. Politics is a real shambles here.

There's a parallel in the Labor Party. It seems to be beholden to fundamentalist Christians of all things. When Julia Gillard, an atheist, was leading it, she not only failed to axe John Howard's scheme to let fundy Christian evangelists disguised as counsellors loose on children in government owned and run schools - she actually increased funding for the program after she won the election. And it is not the only arch conservative policy she committed her government to. Opposition to same sex marriage was one of the others. Her craven sucking up to reactionaries was a pain to watch. Here is a summary:



Nothing has changed since Bill Shorten became the leader of the Labor Party. A few weeks ago Tanya Plibersek, the current deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party, promised Labor will restore every dollar that has been cut from Catholic and public schools by Prime Minister Turnbull, adding an extra $17bn into the education system on top of the Turnbull government’s newly passed $23bn Gonski 2.0 funding package "irrespective of the budget situation".

At the heart of Australian politicians sacrificing their own principles when it comes to practising them is branch stacking. In Labor and the Coalition the respective right wing factions have had the upper hand in that behind-the-scenes infighting, and they have had it for decades.

It is because politicians keep sacrificing their principles in order to maintain their position of power that voters become cynical and apathetic.