On Queensland elections and geography

Chris O’Regan writes: Re. “NSW Labor has to go Green or go home” (yesterday). Alex Mitchell’s claim that the Greens directed preferences to the ALP in the 2015 Queensland election “in all 89 seats” is wrong — mystifyingly so, when it’s a matter of public record that the Greens non-direction of preferences in Mount Ommaney very likely cost Labor that seat and with it the prospect of majority government.

Tom Richman writes: The last time I looked, Springwood is in the south of Brisbane not the Gold Coast.

Bypass and encrypt

Paul Hampton-Smith writes: Re. “Razer: why you, yes YOU, should care about data retention” (yesterday). Enough.  We’ve complained enough about its impact and have been ignored.  It will go ahead, even though no pedophiles or terrorists above the level of imbecile will be exposed. A new form of action on this data retention scheme is warranted: converting widespread concern into mass resistance. Concerned about privacy?  Don’t like having your intimate details available to law enforcement agencies without need for a warrant?  Want to guard against the inevitable event when that juicy store of data is breached by super-hackers?  Actively living life within the law as you know it, but concerned that some innocent connection could set the dogs on you?  Dislike the scenarios in which data records can be used to identify journalistic sources and whistleblowers? Answer: subscribe to a VPN.  You will add to the estimated 200,000 VPN users masquerading as US residents to access Netflix.  Collectively we can neuter the effectiveness of any data retention scheme.