No, George Brandis, telcos still don't want you taking the console in their networks

Australia's telcos are still, by and large, unhappy with the idea that Attorney-General Senator George Brandis wants to play uber-sysadmin. In submissions to the government's inquiry into telecommunications security legislation, carriers are saying that the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 creates …

[Pompous Git]

Some years ago, the Git's niece was married in the old Senate gardens bringing back some fond memories of a visit to the lunatic asylum Canberra in the 1970s*. On this occasion, when wandering outside the dining room for a cigarette on the balcony, the Git detected a distinct whiff of human excrement in the air. Upon remarking this, he was told by the locals it wasn't a remnant from the old days of the Senate sitting there, it was all the new stuff rolling down the hill from the new place.

* In particular a pretty young Irish lass who told me one Sunday night "Yer not to fuck me until after midnight!" Ever the gentleman, the Git complied with her wishes. The frustration of the last hour of waiting was well worth it!

[Adam 1]

I don't understand all the hate

This is clearly the guy you want in charge of your networking decisions

[Pompous Git]

Re: I don't understand all the hate

Give the guy a break. It's obvious one of his sycophants was brown-nosing him while another was playing the bed-flute and he became a little distracted!

[Cincinnataroo]

There was a time that "people in charge of things"™ were expected to have a clue.

[Pompous Git]

Speaking with my historian's hat on, that belief has rarely been justified. Read Barbara Tuchman's March of Folly for an excellent overview from Troy through to the Vietnam War.

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for the book tip!

[GrumpyKiwi]

Hmmm. Haven't all previous Australian governments taken care to stack the deck in favour of their chosen child Telstra anyway? This is just giving them a new excuse to make sure that the goose keeps delivering those golden eggs without having to worry too much about competition.

[Frank Oz]

Right ... like the paranoid technological troglodytes who currently rule over us would be likely to exhibit even the faintest hint of common sense.

Ideology trumps technology in Brandis World, and he is ably assisted by a legion of politicised,much much worse than average, lawyers who couldn't get a job anywhere else.

The innovation nation my ass.

[FozzyBear]

Seriously why is this legalisation even being considered. Why are the responses so measured and formal, when "fuck off dipshit" summarises everything so nicely.

The whole premise of this being used to stop terrorism is fucking ridiculous. The AG department are not the experts on terrorism and they certainly don't have the knowledge to make informed decisions on basic networks, never alone national telecommunication networks that use everything from basic copper to satellites.

This is the first step in turning Australia into such a big brother state it would make hard core communists spasm in ecstasy

Brandis you fucking tool, get back under that mouldy rotten log you crawled out from.

[Anonymous Coward]

The bill should really be called the Huawei Avoidance Bill 2016, because that's precisely what it is.

The old "Cold War warriors" on the corner of Russell and Kelliher Drive fear Chinese networking kit manufacturers like they feared the onward march of Communism in the 1950's, and they've whispered in Brandis' ear accordingly.

Canberra wants to give itself the power to direct telcos to not buy equipment from the likes of Huawei and ZTE. That's the main motivation behind this bill. Not terrorism, or anything else.

[Anonymous Coward]

The clueless

In charge of the deceitful.

Surely there's a small banana republic we can ship these guys off to.