Comment by potato3732842
1 month ago
It does this because "the purpose of the system is what it does"
It ain't no different than the king's men occasionally cutting down a peasant that didn't remove his hat quickly enough when the king rode by. By screwing people on a whim the system sends a "don't cross me, I hold complete power" message which acts as a force multiplier (until it doesn't but Aus isn't there yet).
you wrote a lot of words to mean "they want to send a message"
and that's what's happening to plutonium joe over there: a not so gentle reminder to the rest of the country not to import shit you shouldn't.
and often in cases like these they do a quite "good behavior" release a year later or something. sometimes, anyway.
What's the recommended way to handle being in such a Kafkaesque situation?
No, Australia has a very rigid import control system for biosecurity purposes, because the country is currently free of various animal and plant diseases which are endemic in other countries. One infected piece of fruit could, they believe, destroy an industry.
If they fine someone $3k for a chicken sandwich, https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/fined-3300-for-chicken-sandwic... , what are they going to do with plutonium?
Arguably plutonium guy is being hit with the book precisely to remind everyone who wants to come to Australia that they take import control very, very seriously.
(as well as, you know, the xenophobia that gets involved in any discussion of borders)
A chickend sandwich is probably more dangerous to Australia than a tiny vial of plutonium. Not that I'm saying the 3k fine for what clearly seems like a mistake is reasonable, just that this is even more unreasonable.
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