Australians are paying up to 400 per cent more than viewers in the US and UK to watch popular digital programs, consumer group Choice says.

Choice said the mark-up on Foxtel for programs like Orange Is The New Black and The Walking Dead is between 300 and 400 per cent more than accessing the programs on the US streaming-service Netflix.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull will today host a public forum to discuss ways to reduce online piracy.

Choice chief executive Alan Kirkland said consumers are being hit with the "Australia tax" on digital content and that it should not be considered illegal for Australians to access shows on US-based Netflix.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-09/consumers-paying-400pc-more-for-digital-programs-choice/5729928

Of course should Foxtel prices be lower, there could be less piracy and my feeling is that piracy is only a small problem of the equation. This is one of the reason Uncle Rupe does not want the fast NBN in this country. Malcolm and Tony oblige...

The Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, spoke by phone to the US president, Barack Obama, on Tuesday, but Washington has not yet articulated a “specific” request for Australia to intensify its current contribution in northern Iraq.

Obama is expected on Thursday to outline America’s overarching strategy to combat the strategic threat posed by Islamic State (Isis) militants in the Middle East – having used a recent Nato summit to establish a core coalition of partners, including Australia.

Obama and Abbott spoke by phone on Tuesday, according to a spokesman for the Australian prime minister.

The two men agreed to “coordinate closely on efforts to address the continuing humanitarian crisis in Iraq and on the steps the international community needs to take to degrade and ultimately destroy Isis.”

The president welcomed Australia’s “strong” support but “did not make any specific request for additional Australian military assistance to that which the Australian defence force is currently providing to humanitarian and logistical operations.”

The Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, has argued the contribution of Arab League nations will be critical to addressing the Isis threat. Bishop told the ABC in a breakfast radio interview on Tuesday her expectation was that Arab states would join an American-led effort in northern Iraq, and that regional contribution would be “absolutely vital

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/09/abbott-talks-to-obama-but-gets-no-specific-request-for-extra-military-help-in-iraq

If no attack is imminent and Abbott says it is not, then why bother to make the announcement? asks Greg Barns.

Today's announcement by Prime Minister Abbott that he is raising Australia's terror threat level from medium to high should be treated warily. Politicians have a habit of raising fears of terrorist attacks on Australian soil when the evidence suggests that this is a case of rhetoric and reality not meeting eye to eye.

Back in November 2005 former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks and Police Commissioner Christine Nixon announced that an imminent terrorist attack on Melbourne had been thwarted by the arrest of a number of young men and a self-styled sheikh in Melbourne. I acted for one of those men in a subsequent Supreme Court trial in 2008 and can tell you that the evidence presented to the court in that case suggested nothing of the sort. There was no planned terrorist attack by members of this group, just chatter and some bonding activities that made the police and ASIO nervous about their intentions.

Simply because ASIO and police might have heard some talk about terrorism and terrorist attacks by individuals does not mean that those individuals have any means of carrying out an attack. But it will be enough for ASIO and police authorities to jump and tell the PM that a terror alert ought to be issued, because these organisations are suspicious by nature and often read more into things than might actually be the case.

The Prime Minister says that there are people with the "intent and capability" to carry out a terrorist attack in Australia. Of course there are. There always have been and there always will be. Whether that intent amounts to anything and whether the capability is actual rather than simply perceived by jumpy spooks is the question. If no attack is imminent and Abbott says it is not, then why bother to make the announcement?

For political reasons that's why. Nothing like panic and fear to trample liberties and freedoms. 

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-12/barns-beware-the-politics-of-panic-in-terror-alerts/5740570

Travellers are being warned to expect tighter security measures at airports and public events as the country's intelligence agencies try to combat the threat of a so-called "lone wolf" terrorist attack.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-13/terrorism-alert-level-could-stay-high-for-long-time/5741474

So if the threat was so "real" why did Tony Turdy remove the federal police from Hobart airport...?  Idiot...

"Существует нет более опасный человек, чем лидер, который думает, что спасти мир, это пойти на войну ..."

My Rusky is a bit rusty but in short it should mean:

"There is no more a dangerous person than a leader who thinks that saving the world is (demands) to go to war..."

Great-grand mamma Leonisky (Джейн Leonisky).

The present "leader" of Australia, Tony Turd Abbott, is such an idiot.