I barely have time to look up these days but when I do it's normal to discover Australian Politicians finding new ways to waste public money on inefficient and unecessary things. The '
data retention' scheme is one such, with the added of bonus of highlighting what an oppressive communist country we have become. It's back in the news because our government has estimated the cost - they want to spend over AUD$400 Million to systematically retain national communications 'metadata'¹ for a period of two years. Exactly which element about the proposal most offends me
is difficult to determine ... possibly that whoever has the motive to circumvent the monitoring will definitely have the means to do so, and that for the most part the ability to track all this stuff is already in place and can be obtained
should the target be important enough. The cost is apparently an ongoing one, in terms of sheer economic brilliance it's right up there with Kevin Rudd in 2008 giving out free 'stimulus' money to everyone including backpackers and some on temporary work visas.
