Chelsea Manning to be barred from Australia

MayCaesar

It is strange that in the 21st century there are still visa requirements applied in one First World country to citizens of another First World country. I can understand, say, a French government not trusting a random Ghana citizen to enter their state unchecked... But an American traveling to Australia? Yes, I know, they only need an electronic visa which can be quickly applied for online, without the need to go to the embassy, but still.

That said, the Australian and New Zealand immigration systems in particular are pretty bizarre, and visa rejections seem to be quite arbitrary and random. I met a person who was accepted into a Master's program in Oakland, NZ, and had a visa rejection and could never begin his studies. At the same time, he had no problem getting visas to anywhere else in the world.