What is going on in Australia? I mean really what the hell is going on?

Earlier today Duncan wrote about the Australian government looking to crack down on offensive material on the web. By the web they mean places like Facebook

This morning, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said he will consider the introduction of an “online ombudsman” that would be tasked with “cracking down on offensive material on the internet.” The emphasis is mine, but it’s the key: not material that is already illegal, but material that may be legal but which the Government deems “offensive.”

Last week, Minister for Censorship Stephen Conroy attacked Facebook, saying that “I think there is a situation where people take Facebook with an enormous amount of trust and they’ve got to clearly explain what went wrong with their security systems, how this was able to happen (and) importantly, how they’re going to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.” In a later report, Conroy was quoted to have demanded that Facebook overhaul security.

As bad – and stupid – as that whole idea is it pales in comparison to what the Australian government – specifically the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations – has up its sleeve. It is a new program which will end up falling under the My School program that will see each student being given a unique identifying number that will follow them through their entire school life.

A program in which every school child in Australia would be given an identity number so their academic progress could be tracked through their school life is expected to be announced by the federal government as early as today.

The Herald understands the number, to be known as a ”unique student identifier”, will be annexed to the My School program, which publishes the performance of individual schools on the internet.

The number would allow the performance of individual students in each of the core subjects to be monitored for the duration of their school life so their progress could be measured.

The Education Minister, Julia Gillard, is expected to announce the proposal in a speech today at the National Press Club where she will also canvass a draft of the new national curriculum to be released next Monday.

The curriculum, a plank in the government’s so-called ”education revolution”, will apply to maths, English, history and the sciences and be taught at all schools, starting next year.

The ”unique student identifier” is expected to cause controversy and raise privacy concerns.

Source:The Sydney Morning Herald

For country that prides itself on the reputation of fierce independence it seems to be turning into more of a country of government intervention and control over its citizens. I honestly can’t believe the amount of blatant attacks on individual rights that is going on in Australia, and here I thought England was leading the charge on this.

Come on you Aussies, don’t you think the time has arrived where you stand up and tell your government exactly what it can do with all these plans to control your lives?