I think they are in a better state compared to the US and most of the world.
Do you have examples of countries that are better are being free and open than Australia?
The key to being free and open is not putting up with corruption, not having too much of an ideological divide, and good investigative journalism that people care about.
I do not agree with this position at all.
The people can be easily manipulated into caring about only things the government allows them to care about - as is seen in the case of Australia's recent war crimes, for example, where the warrior culture has effectively suppressed any legitimate discussion of Australia's involvement in committing crimes against humanity with its ADF - who, incidentally, do not answer to the Australian people, but rather their sovereign - and she can do whatever she wants without oversight.
>Ideological divide?
The very definition of a free society is the allowance for, encouragement of, and accomadation for, ideological divides. Who gets to determine 'too much'?
The Australian Parliament needs permission from the Governor General to investigate the ADF - it doesn't have that oversight by default.
EDIT: downvote all you want, but Australia's totalitarian bent is very clear in these incidents.
It sure is a but troubling, but I think unfortunately countries are spying on each other all the time. NSA spied on G20/G8 in 2010 that we know of - and nothing really came of it either.
There aren't really any enforceable laws against spying on other countries either. But there are laws regarding leaking intelligence.
It's a very dangerous game dealing with intelligence services of any kind.
In a situation like this, it would have been best to whistleblow anonymously, and also notify the government that is being spied on - then it's up to them to secure their shit.
But to attempt to embarrass a countries intelligence services and seek some kind of penalty against them is really a dead-end game.
That governments are doing this with impunity, and probably have been since the dawn of "civilization".
That whistleblowing will make any difference to those responsible.
Edward Snowmen cops it (admittedly it seems this viewpoint is decreasing) for "not following official channels". Official Channels is voluntarily putting your future in the toilet.
The purpose of Official Channels is akin to HR Departments: to minimise the damage to the parent entity. More people need to be aware of this for their own good.