As the war between Australian brick-and-mortar retail operations and their illegitimate e-commerce children heats up, the Australian government appears poised to intervene on behalf of the traditional stores. The Productivity Commission recentlyreleased its draft reportthat looked into the issues afflicting Australia’s brick and mortar retail operations, primarily on two fronts — the increasing number of Australians heading to online stores before actual storefronts, and theeffects of price-gougingby offshore electronics, software and digital goods retailers in Australian markets....

Australian ISP Internode todayreleasedits pricing for plans running on the National Broadband Network, the nation-wide government fibre-optic broadband network that intends to bring lightning-speed Internet to 97% of Australian premises. But Internode managing director Simon Hackett said that these prices are “vulnerable to upward pressure” due to flaws in the way NBN Co’s wholesale program is structure and the ACCC’s decision to require 121 points of interconnect. The plans are slightly superior to Telstra Bigpond’s current unbundled ADSL2+ in value for money, and more expensive than iiNet’s current offerings, provoking mixed feelings as to whether the NBN is really fulfilling the goal of making broadband more affordable for everyday Australians....

Facebook may soon have to comply with legislation that forces it to provide parents with more control over their children’s Facebook accounts, theSydney Morning Herald reports. Australian MP Dennis Hood is drafting a bill that would allow parents to receive updates on Facebook interactions by their children, giving them more control over the information that is posted to the site. Action comes after an Australian mother raised issues over the way Facebook handled requests to intervene after her child had posted updates to the site....

The email accounts of the Australian Prime Minister and at least nine other senior government ministers have been hacked in suspected espionage attempt, the country’s Daily Telegraph newspaperreports. The report claims that government sources believe a number of foreign groups, including Chinese intelligence agencies, are considered suspects in the case which it’s said involved thousands of emails being accessed.The BBCadds that the alleged attack may have been targeting information of Australia’s mining industry....

A publisher can be held responsible for defamatory comments readers leave on its Facebook pages, the High Courtruled today, in a decision that could have far-reaching consequences for social media users throughout Australia. This decision may mean anyone who runs a social media page can theoretically be sued over disparaging comments posted by readers or random group members — even if you aren’t aware of the comment. High Court 5-2 in the Voller case has held that media publishers are liable for defamatory third party comments posted on their social media pages, because by facilitating and encouraging the comments they assist in their publication....