Australia passed anti encryption laws in 2018 that compels companies “to create a technical function that would give them access to encrypted messages without the user's knowledge.”

It seems they have recently increased pressure on signal to comply with these existing laws.

I doubt most people even those in Aus that care about privacy even remember these laws being passed.

Laws get passed, there is initial pushback and then we move on to the next thing forgetting about all that we have lost.