> it passed with broad support across the political spectrum
The Labor (historically centre-left, but now neoliberal centre-right), Liberal (classical liberal, right-centre-right) parties rammed it through parliament and National (right-wing agrarian socialist - i.e. handouts for farmers, exploitation for imported farm labour). Most of the cross-bench, including the Greens, rejected it or at least wanted more time for scrutiny.
Here's my rough idea of the political spectrum:
------------X-----0---X--X-----X---------
Greens |Labor | One Nation
Centre Coalition (= Liberal+National)
Labor is playing small target and ensuring that no daylight is visible between them and the Liberal party. The policy is something that Murdoch's News Corp has been pushing for months [1]. With a federal election coming next year, Labor are keen to comply with Murdoch's wishes in the hopes that it will protect them from unfavourable media coverage. After all, Murdoch owns 70% of the print media in Australia. It also has to be said that Labor are cosy with the Catholics and somewhat authoritarian on freedom of speech (remember Labor's attempt at internet censorship?).
From Murdoch's perspective, this is a form of reprisal against his new-media competition. From the perspective of the billionaire oligarch class, it's a handy way to unmask anonymous commenters so they can be sued into oblivion for defamation.
Only 13 votes against in the 151-member Australian house. The 5 member-green block was the only organized opposition. 77% of Aussies support the bill in a recent poll. This is about as close as the modern Western world gets to unanimity.
The Labor (historically centre-left, but now neoliberal centre-right), Liberal (classical liberal, right-centre-right) parties rammed it through parliament and National (right-wing agrarian socialist - i.e. handouts for farmers, exploitation for imported farm labour). Most of the cross-bench, including the Greens, rejected it or at least wanted more time for scrutiny.
Here's my rough idea of the political spectrum:
Labor is playing small target and ensuring that no daylight is visible between them and the Liberal party. The policy is something that Murdoch's News Corp has been pushing for months [1]. With a federal election coming next year, Labor are keen to comply with Murdoch's wishes in the hopes that it will protect them from unfavourable media coverage. After all, Murdoch owns 70% of the print media in Australia. It also has to be said that Labor are cosy with the Catholics and somewhat authoritarian on freedom of speech (remember Labor's attempt at internet censorship?).From Murdoch's perspective, this is a form of reprisal against his new-media competition. From the perspective of the billionaire oligarch class, it's a handy way to unmask anonymous commenters so they can be sued into oblivion for defamation.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8SkLRxFRVM The media campaign to ban social media for teenagers | Media Watch