ASIO is no more - an explanation
Mongoosier
Afternoon, fellow Aussies.
This has been a contentious subject and there’s enough bickering going on elsewhere to sate any fans of that sort of thing so I will try to keep this factual.
There will necessarily be some in the below that people find disagreeable but my intention here is not to start a fight, but to detail a de facto major change in Australian policy that some non-Senators will not be aware of.
I considered not publishing this but, there are enough people outside of Congress that may not be aware of the situation that I believe we need to discuss this.
And sorry if this bores you – if it does, cut down to the conclusions bit as you should probably read that.
Background
ASIO (aka the Department of Immigration) was set up to vet all citizenship (CS) applications. The process involved applicants completing a simple form stating their reasons for wanting to join Australia, list any references from their old country or AU, etc. etc. ASIO would then check out each applicant and either approve or reject their application.
The point of ASIO was to protect our shores from a political takeover and to stop multi accounts and trouble-makers from getting in.
Days of Dictatorship
When the Dictator arrived, ASIO played no part in making CS decisions.
There was instead, on occasion, some discussion at Congress level but all CS passes were handed out by the Dictator.
This is of course the game mechanics so to argue against that would be madness – those were the rules and that’s what happened.
Coup Revolution Time
Love it or hate it, the coup revobloodylution took place and was successful. The CP was returned into power and CS decisions returned to the hands of Senate.
Our CP, Rusty D, asked me to re-start ASIO so we could return to the tried and tested method of vetting applicants.
What happened next?
Like I say, I will stick to simple facts:
ASIO was reinstated on 15th April, this was announced by CP and Senators were told to use the ASIO process which was explained in the Congress thread.
Without going into a blow by blow account (although I can in anyone is having trouble sleeping and needs some dull reading material to help them out), 19 CS passes have been approved since that point.
Of these, 4 were ASIO approved and 15 were not ASIO approved; please note: not rejected – we were not given time to look into the applicants.
Of the 15 applications that were approved without ASIO, all 15 were approved by either a BS or BS affiliated Senator.
This despite repeated calls from me and more importantly from our elected CP for this to stop and for the rules to be observed.
Conclusions
Something like ASIO only works if all parties agree to uphold the rules. When one group goes against them, there seems little point in pretending a job exists to uphold the rules for the rest.
So, I can conclude as follows:
1. Australia now has a free for all CS policy whereby anyone that applies for CS can be accepted without reference to Congress, CP, or Cabinet – there is no vetting and no checks for any applicant. ASIO has been abolished.
2. The decision to change this rule and abolish ASIO was taken by one political bloc within Congress, the Varnishist International Party, without any consensus or discussion and without any vote taking place
Whether this is a good or bad thing, I’ll leave you to decide. Personally, it will give me more time to troll JT in the Senate thread so I'm probably ok with it.
Thank you Guag and JT for your help over the months.
Good luck Australia.
Comments
Damn... Welcome to eAustralia, the same as the rest of the world...
Haha, yeah there will be some that say that ASIO did bugger all anyway - and I wouldn't completely disagree with that! It's whether you agree or disagree with the way this was done I guess.
"Of these, 4 were ASIO approved and 15 were not ASIO approved; please note: not rejected – we were not given time to look into the applicants."
:?
What isn't clear there, mate?
Wasn't the firsts applications of BS members rejected?
Nope - they were approved without us ever saying yes OR no. There was a point where we asked for everyone to stop accepting CS requests until we sorted things out - but sadly that was ignored
I think it's a complex situation because the game doesn't allow to have any type of guarantees.
We can rely only on the respect of written agreements by the players involved (all eAustralian players).
The ideal would be to know the real goals of each party and military unit.
By itself, the entrance of players with a good ability in battle (BS, in this case), is great.
I think it's natural that if there are players with real citizenship and residence in Australia, they want to maintain some control over their in the game country. As it's the only reference in the game that allows them to recognize and accommodate new players who came from Australia too.
I continue to ignore all the old facts and discussions.
It seems to me that there are no limitations for BS participation in the community life (initiatives, newspapers, political parties). I talked a lot with XenthuS. I am working from 3 days with ZanarkandL in the project of Mentors. It seems to me that there is the desire to do something together.
But maybe I start to see some limits on this availability, imposed by both sides.
We should try to remove these limits, or there is likely to continue with distrust.
Choose a method (such as the Democratic majority) and commit all to respect it, might be a good solution. It's possible? If not, why?
Unfortunately some peoples opinion of democratic decision is based on if it they like it or not.
Yes.
For that reason it would be desirable to define each law/decision content before starting vote. So that everyone has to accept it before the voting session. Became unable to get back.
And if all we decide to follow this rule of the majority, when someone transgresses the rules, there are penalties of this type:
- Suspension from public office and prohibition of candidacy.
- If necessary, enter in a list TO, prohibition to run for public office.
Not ever possible. But at least it has been clear from the start.
So less opinions, more objective rules. Not?
It's more you have to have everyone play by the rules. There are no way of enforcing it. In RL a member of parliament can be dumped by his party or come under censorship, ban. But the game doesn't allow that, so it will remain a free for all if people want.
About party, you can give a lower position in CM elections and not select CP candidate (or choose another CP as official)
Naturally transgresses action transfer also to PP of the patry that make him candidate. So you can identify, by the time, all not involved players In community rules... I'm not saying it's easy. In the case, will be better this try than close all activities...
Y'know, I'm inclined to agree with you in hindsight.
ASIO may have kept us safe from PTO for a long time, but it's kept a lot of creative mixing of people out too.
Every Aussie kid will tell you that you can't swim against a rip. We might as well relax and see if where we end up is anywhere we can survive from. We've done the alternative, which is splash and waves whole hoping a lifeguard pulls you out.
We will surely try that, in the fact there are no sure in anything, where there are so many, and different, peoples. 😃
Christ sake MG, are you a noob or what?
Where are the bloody pictures???????????
You done a great job in the position, was nice to see that when I passed over reigns you kept ownership and didn't flounder in the role
LOL! I didn't want to pollute a really, really boring post with anything that would make it vaguely interesting!
That's why I'm here in my natural spot on page 2 - it's where I feel happy hehe.
It is what it is - it's now become irrelevant. I think I'd not necessarily argue with the outcome had it been done a different way.
Sometimes there's an easy way to do things in the short term. Whether that works long term, we'll see.
Don't be hard on yourself!
From what I can tell, all you need is a dozen pairs of boobs to make international top news... Easy to fix, if you can live with yourself afterwards.
Tsk, task, tsk... I think we've really dun goofed in the last few months.
Would be good to hear you elaborate on that JR?
You tried to do the job Mong, but unfortunately due to things you had no control over, ASIO became a Ineffectual government support group. And this is just one of the government groups that will fail shortly.
You did well and sorry it came to this
Just a question please, is not mong a pejorative word? just asking from my ignorance as a forig but I remember that in UK people used it as an insult.
On the other hand thanks Mongooosier for your time and service for Australia, lad.
You're right, but Australians use insulting nicknames for their friends. "Fat Stu", "Penis" and "Dickhead" are all insults, but have been adopted as nicknames by people I know or have known.
It's one of our weirder national traits, and causes a lot of worry amongst visitors and migrants.
Thanks a lot for the explanation ma'am.
In Australia it would be Mongo and it would be the expression it is used in and to who it was said to whether it is termed derogatory or not. Unless of course person A has something against person B who said it and then of course person A would not like anything person B said
Yep, the intention and context are very important in the comunication process. Thanks for your explanation too, sir. Here in Spain is pretty similar too, the reaction will not be the same if I say to a friend "MF" or "bastard" while drinking, joking or whatever than if I say the same to a completely unknown who is walking on the street. Thanks a lot again for your time to both of you. 🙂
Also Mong is an ethnic group in Vietnam, highlighted in the Clint Eastwood movie recently. But I do understand your question, but I do believe Mongoosier realises it is a shorten version of his name, however as you pointed out, from an outside perspective it might seem weird.
Hope we have help clarify it. 🙂
Aye Hmongs, from the Mike Forces during the 'Nam war too. 😛
[removed]
"Coup Time
Love it or hate it, the coup took place and was successful. The CP was returned into power and CS decisions returned to the hands of Senate."
Coup is what put the dictator in charge. Revolution took him out again 😛
Whoops. I farked up 🙂 This is why I hide on page 2 dammit.
Good effort anyway, MG. Where is the giant oreo in the news feed this time? Oh never mind. 😃
Don't lie. You liked it 😛
Votes don't (usually) lie. 🙂
Made me kind of sick to see that. First thing after everyone was elected those 15 were approved. Its another of their dirty tricks for PTO.
mmmm we need the crazy cat lady again
binda where the fuck are ya bitch
I won't belong to any organization that would have me as a member.
Groucho Marx