The idea of the Senate as a rubber stamp is perhaps the worst thing that could happen, in this country. As I am from country New South Wales, where Telstra has a basic monopoly on some places, I am opposed to the sale of Telstra, and our local member Schultz crossed the floor, last time this was voted on, but for me it is the concern for two things,
1. relaxation of cross media laws, call me a cynic and perhaps even a little cliched, but I realy think that the control of the media in this country is basically among two men anyway, and for me to give these men more control over the thoughts of the ordinary people of this country is perhaps a little dicey, and might present a slight conflict of interest on the governments part, who does rely on the conservative media for much of its support.
2. of more concern to me is the idea of the government with total control over national security, and with a free reign to do as it pleases. Reading the SMH this morning, I read this. "Surveillance of emaisand mpbile phone text messages." Now i'm not totally sure about this and for me to make to many assertions would be a bit ironic given what i've said in number 1, but for me this just seems to smell bad. I mean under a government which has admitted that it increased the threat of terroism by invading Iraq, and not to mention conducted a signifigant scare campaign about it pre election, I just hope we see no Patriot Act style legislation passed here because noone can do anything about it.
