Australia is often used as a testing ground since it's part of five eyes and a) people there don't have many legally enshrined rights (no bill of rights) besides stuff like right to political expression and religion, and b) the population is complacent and won't kick up a fuss about the immoral crap the government enacts.
... this is such nonsense ... do you pay any attention at all to the politics of the US, Canada, NZ or the UK? Do you really think they're in a dark room coordinating their laws with Australian government, deciding who will go first?
Purely by result I don't think you couldn't make out a difference if they did that or not.
Easy to see that the war on terror dominated security policies for the last two decades in many countries, not only the five eyes. Officials build their image on that, being tough on X.
Problem is that there isn't any effective opposition because people are afraid of everything these days.
