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Build to Rent will produce more homes for tenants, but not for those most in need

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Pawson, Professor of Housing Research and Policy, and Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney

Part two of the government’s stalled housing legislation finally passed federal parliament on Thursday. The Build to Rent tax reform bill aims to boost investment in apartment blocks designed and constructed for rental occupancy and retained in single ownership.

Other than as purpose-built student accommodation, this form of development remains rare in Australia.

Instead, our private rental market continues to be dominated by small-scale “mum and dad investors”. Only since around 2017 have Build to Rent projects begun to appear in some Australian capital cities.

By mid-2024, just 5,000 had been completed with 11,000 under construction.

Australian governments now see expanding this form of housing as appealing. In the long term, that might bring Australia more into line with countries such as the United States and Canada, where large-scale institutional investment in rental housing is long-established.

How does the bill work?

Under the new bill, the 30% withholding tax rate for foreign funders of residential Build to Rent developments is equalised with that for commercial and industrial property, at 15%.

At the same time, the Build to Rent capital works tax deduction rate is increased from 2.5% to 4%. This allows expenses to be depreciated for tax over a 25-year span, rather than 40 years as at present. This brings Build to Rent into line with the Australia Tax Office’s treatment of serviced apartments, making projects more viable.

In attempting to step up Build to Rent development, high significance is attached to enabling overseas investment.

Because they already invest at scale in Build to Rent development in other countries, many large international players are already familiar with this type of development. Pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds are attracted by its low risk and reliable returns.

More housing that’s more secure

As argued in a recent official report, Build to Rent housing could help fulfil several significant housing policy objectives.

First, when developers can diversify away from solely focusing on building to sell, there could be an overall increase in housing supply.

Second, homes are likely to be more secure for tenants. This is because the prime motivation of Build to Rent investors is often long-term rental income.

Small landlords, on the other hand, are usually motivated by capital gain that can be realised only through sale.

Third, multi-unit buildings commissioned to be kept by a single owner should incentivise utility, durability and energy efficiency in design and construction.

Finally, Build to Rent could be relatively resistant to housing market downturns. This benefits both the development industry and the national economy.

It’s not that simple

At the same time, Build to Rent does not inherently contribute to affordable housing.

At least in its initial form in Australia, it is typically a “premium product”, mainly in well-connected locations and targeted at moderate to high income earners.

In early 2024, for example, two bedroom apartments were advertised in Sydney and Melbourne at weekly rents in the $800-$950 range, according to my own survey at that time.

The bill will apply retrospectively, bringing thousands of tenancies to the market.
Shutterstock

But eligibility for the new (and lower) rate of withholding tax offered in the Build to Rent bill is conditional on a proportion of apartments in qualifying projects being made available as “affordable prices” – that is, a rent discounted from the market rate.

While appealing in principle, the detailed proposal sparked controversy around the proposed definition of “affordable housing”, the projects that would be covered and the way that designated “affordable” units would be managed.

As amended in the Senate, qualifying developments will need to include 10% affordable tenancies, with rents set at 74.9% of market value or no more than 30% of household income, whichever is the lower.

Affordable units (including a minimum proportion rented to low income earners) will be managed by community housing providers for at least 15 years.

Given the Property Council’s estimate that the new framework could yield a total of “over 80,000” Build to Rent apartments over the next decade, this could generate 8,000 good quality units affordable to moderate income earners.

The government also agreed to the retrospective application of the new tax regime for projects already under construction or recently completed.

But this is not a free gift. It’s similarly conditional on 10% of the units being designated as affordable. These will form an “advanced package” of around 1,200 sub-market price tenancies coming online over the next 12 months.

Last-minute negotiations also saw the addition of the pledge that all units – affordable and market price – will come with five-year tenancies and a ban on no grounds evictions.

More could be done

Like the Help to Buy initiative, when viewed within the context of the wider housing crisis, this scheme is another micro-measure.

It has little or no relevance to headline concerns around home ownership affordability, low-income rental stress and homelessness.

But, in combination with significant state tax changes enacted in recent years, it should help in establishing a new component in our rental market. One that – at least for moderate to high income tenants – will widen choice and improve quality.

And, if proponent boasts are valid, could be a more customer-centric form of market rental than the traditional Australian norm.

However, the requirement for including affordable units in this new and, as yet, financially marginal form of development raises other possibilities. Why don’t such obligations exist for the vast bulk of housing constructed as build to sell? A proposal for just such a framework, sometimes known as “mandatory inclusionary zoning”, is in development.

Even if imposed at an extremely low rate (like 5%) on homes built in high land value areas (Sydney and Melbourne, for example) this could generate a vastly greater affordable housing gain.

Hal Pawson receives funding from the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Fund, the Australian Research Council, the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, and Crisis UK. He is affiliated with Senator David Pocock as a part time (unpaid) policy advisor. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Community Housing Canberra.

ref. Build to Rent will produce more homes for tenants, but not for those most in need – https://theconversation.com/build-to-rent-will-produce-more-homes-for-tenants-but-not-for-those-most-in-need-244655

Climate protests to continue despite 170 charged in Newcastle ‘protestival’

Despite Australia’s draconian anti-protest laws, the world’s biggest coal port was closed for four hours at the weekend with 170 protesters being charged — but climate demonstrations will continue. Twenty further arrests were made at a protest at the Federal Parliament yesterday.

SPECIAL REPORT: By Wendy Bacon

Newcastle port, the world’s biggest coal port, was closed for four hours on Sunday when hundreds of Rising Tide protesters in kayaks refused to leave its shipping channel.

Over two days of protest at the Australian port, 170 protesters have been charged. Some others who entered the channel were arrested but released without charge. Hundreds more took to the water in support.

Thousands on the beach chanted, danced and created a huge human sign demanding “no new coal and gas” projects.

Rising Tide is campaigning for a 78 percent tax on fossil fuel profits to be used for a “just transition” for workers and communities, including in the Hunter Valley, where the Albanese government has approved three massive new coal mine extensions since 2022.

Protest size triples to 7000
The NSW Labor government made two court attempts to block the protest from going ahead. But the 10-day Rising Tide protest tripled in size from 2023 with 7000 people participating so far and more people arrested in civil disobedience actions than last year.

The “protestival” continued in Newcastle on Monday, and a new wave started in Canberra at the Australian Parliament yesterday with more than 20 arrests. Rising Tide staged an overnight occupation of the lawn outside Parliament House and a demonstration at which they demanded to meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

News of the “protestival” has spread around the world, with campaigners in Rotterdam in The Netherlands blocking a coal train in solidarity with this year’s Rising Tide protest.

Of those arrested, 138 have been charged under S214A of the NSW Crimes Act for disrupting a major facility, which carries up to two years in prison and $22,000 maximum fines. This section is part of the NSW government regime of “anti-protest” laws designed to deter movements such as Rising Tide.

The rest of the protesters have been charged under the Marine Safety Act which police used against 109 protesters arrested last year.

Even if found guilty, these people are likely to only receive minor penalties.Those arrested in 2023 mostly received small fines, good behaviour bonds and had no conviction recorded.

Executive gives the bird to judiciary
The use of the Crimes Act will focus more attention on the anti-protest laws which the NSW government has been extending and strengthening in recent weeks. The NSW Supreme Court has already found the laws to be partly unconstitutional but despite huge opposition from civil society and human rights organisations, the NSW government has not reformed them.

Two protesters were targeted for special treatment: Naomi Hodgson, a key Rising Tide organiser, and Andrew George, who has previous protest convictions.

George was led into court in handcuffs on Monday morning but was released on bail on condition that he not return to the port area. Hodgson also has a record of peaceful protest. She is one of the Rising Tide leaders who have always stressed the importance of safe and peaceful action.

The police prosecutor argued that she should remain in custody. The magistrate released her with the extraordinary requirement that she report to police daily and not go nearer than 2 km from the port.

Planning for this year’s protest has been underway for 12 months, with groups forming in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra Sydney and the Northern Rivers, as well as Newcastle. There was an intensive programme of meetings and briefings of potential participants on the motivation for protesting, principles of civil disobedience and the experience of being arrested.

Those who attended last year recruited a whole new cohort of protesters.

Last year, the NSW police authorised a protest involved a 48-hour blockade which protesters extended by two hours. Earlier this year, a similar application was made by Rising Tide.

The first indication that the police would refuse to authorise a protest came earlier this month when the NSW police successfully applied to the NSW Supreme Court for the protest to be declared “an unauthorised protest.”

But Justice Desmond Fagan also made it clear that Rising Tide had a “responsible approach to on-water safety” and that he was not giving a direction that the protest should be terminated. Newcastle Council agreed that Rising Tide could camp at Horseshoe Bay.

Minns’ bid to crush protest
The Minns government showed that its goal was to crush the protest altogether when the Minister for Transport Jo Haylen declared a blanket 97-hour exclusion zone making it unlawful to enter the Hunter River mouth and beaches under the Marine Safety Act last week.

On Friday, Rising Tide organiser and 2020 Newcastle Young Citizen of the year, Alexa Stuart took successful action in the Supreme Court to have the exclusion zone declared an invalid use of power.

An hour before the exclusion zone was due to come into effect at 5 pm, the Rising Tide flotilla had been launched off Horseshoe Bay. At 4 pm, Supreme Court Justice Sarah McNaughton quashed the exclusion zone notice, declaring that it was an invalid use of power under the Marine Safety Act because the object of the Act is to facilitate events, not to stop them from happening altogether.

When news of the judge’s decision reached the beach, a big cheer erupted. The drama-packed weekend was off to a good start.

Friday morning began with a First Nations welcome and speeches and a SchoolStrike4Climate protest. Kayakers held their position on the harbour with an overnight vigil on Friday night.

On Saturday, Midnight Oil front singer Peter Garrett, who served as Environment Minister in a previous Labor government, performed in support of Rising Tide protest. He expressed his concern about government overreach in policing protests, especially in the light of all the evidence of the impacts of climate change.

Ships continued to go through the channel, protected by the NSW police. When kayakers entered the channel while it was empty, nine were arrested.

84-year-old great-gran arrested, not charged
By late Saturday, three had been charged, and the other six were towed back to the beach. This included June Norman, an 84-year-old great-grandmother from Queensland, who entered the shipping channel at least six times over the weekend in peaceful acts of civil disobedience.

The 84-year-old protester Jane Norman . . . entered the shipping channel at least six times over the weekend in peaceful acts of civil disobedience. Image: Wendy Bacon/MWM

She told MWM that she felt a duty to act to protect her own grandchildren and all other children due to a failure by the Albanese and other governments to take action on climate change. The police repeatedly declined to charge her.   

On Sunday morning a decision was made for kayakers “to take the channel”. At about 10.15, a coal boat, turned away before entering the port.

Port closed, job done
Although the period of stoppage was shorter than last year, civil disobedience had now achieved what the authorised protest achieved last year. The port was officially closed and remained so for four hours.

By now, 60 people had been charged and far more police resources expended than in 2023, including hours of police helicopters and drones.

On Sunday afternoon, hundreds of kayakers again occupied the channel. A ship was due. Now in a massive display of force involving scores of police in black rubber zodiacs, police on jet skis, and a huge police launch, kayakers were either arrested or herded back from the channel.

When the channel was clear, a huge ship then came through the channel, signalling the reopening of the port.

On Monday night, ABC National News reported that protesters were within metres of the ship. MWM closely observed the events. When the ship began to move towards the harbour, all kayaks were inside the buoys marking the channel. Police occupied the area between the protesters and the ship. No kayaker moved forward.

A powerful visual message had been sent that the forces of the NSW state would be used to defend the interests of the big coal companies such as Whitehaven and Glencore rather than the NSW public.

By now police on horses were on the beach and watched as small squads of police marched through the crowd grabbing paddles. A little later this reporter was carrying a paddle through a car park well off the beach when a constable roughly seized it without warning from my hand.

When asked, Constable Pacey explained that I had breached the peace by being on water. I had not entered the water over the weekend.

Kids arrested too, in mass civil disobedience
Those charged included 14 people under 18. After being released, they marched chanting back into the camp. A 16-year-old Newcastle student, Niamh Cush, told a crowd of fellow protesters before her arrest that as a young person, she would rather not be arrested but that the betrayal of the Albanese government left her with no choice.

“I’m here to voice the anger of my generation. The Albanese government claims they’re taking climate change seriously but they are completely and utterly failing us by approving polluting new coal and gas mines. See you out on the water today to block the coal ships!”

Each of those who chose to get arrested has their own story. They include environmental scientists, engineers, TAFE teachers, students, nurses and doctors, hospitality and retail workers, designers and media workers, activists who have retired, unionists, a mediator and a coal miner.

They came from across Australia — more than 200 came from Adelaide alone — and from many different backgrounds.

Behind those arrested stand volunteer groups of legal observers, arrestee support, lawyers, community care workers and a media team. Beside them stand hundreds of other volunteers who have cleaned portaloos, prepared three meals a day, washed dishes, welcomed and registered participants, organised camping spots and acted as marshals at pedestrian crossings.

Each and every one of them is playing an essential role in this campaign of mass civil disobedience.

Many participants said this huge collaborative effort is what inspired them and gave them hope, as much as did the protest itself.

Threat to democracy
Today, the president of NSW Civil Liberties, Tim Roberts, said, “Paddling a kayak in the Port of Newcastle is not an offence, people do it every day safely without hundreds of police officers.

“A decision was made to protect the safe passage of the vessels over the protection of people exercising their democratic rights to protest.

“We are living in extraordinary times. Our democracy will not irrevocably be damaged in one fell swoop — it will be a slow bleed, a death by a thousand tranches of repressive legislation, and by thousands of arrests of people standing up in defence of their civil liberties.”

Australian Institute research shows that most Australians agree with the Council for Civil Liberties — with 71 percent polled, including a majority of all parties, believing that the right to protest should be enshrined in Federal legislation. It also included a majority across all ages and political parties.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that it is a fear of accelerating mass civil disobedience in the face of a climate crisis that frightens both the Federal and State governments and the police.

As temperatures rise
Many of those protesting have already been directly affected by climbing temperatures in sweltering suburbs, raging bushfires and intense smoke, roaring floods and a loss of housing that has not been replaced, devastated forests, polluting coal mines and gas fields or rising seas in the Torres Strait in Northern Australia and Pacific Island countries.

Others have become profoundly concerned as they come to grips with climate science predictions and public health warnings.

In these circumstances, and as long as governments continue to enable the fossil fuel industry by approving more coal and gas projects that will add to the climate crisis, the number of people who decide they are morally obliged to take civil disobedience action will grow.

Rather than being impressed by politicians who cast them as disrupters, they will heed the call of Pacific leaders who this week declared the COP29 talks to be a “catastrophic failure” exposing their people to “escalating risks”.

Wendy Bacon is an investigative journalist who was the professor of journalism at University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She worked for Fairfax, Channel Nine and SBS and has published in The Guardian, New Matilda, City Hub and Overland. She has a long history in promoting independent and alternative journalism. She is a Rising Tide supporter, and is a long-term supporter of a peaceful BDS and the Greens.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Opposition Senate leader Simon Birmingham announces surprise retirement at election

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Opposition leader in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, has announced he will retire from parliament at the election, to take up a “new, commercially oriented” career.

Birmingham, 50, the most senior Liberal moderate and the shadow foreign minister, leaves a hole in the Coalition team only months out from the election.

He has represented South Australia in the Senate since 2007, and served in a number of portfolios including finance, education and trade in the Coalition governments. In 2020 he replaced Mathias Cormann as Senate leader. In elections he often had an important role as campaign spokesperson.

Telling the Senate he had turned 50 this year, he said: “Now is the right time for me, for my family, and for new career pathways”.

“It is always better to go when there are some wishing you to stay, and none of us is irreplaceable.”

He was not specific about what job he will take up, saying just “I’m excited that next year I will step into a new commercially-oriented direction”.

But he gave the assurance: “You can all be relieved to know that it has nothing to do with lobbying, government relations or commentary”.

Senate leader Penny Wong said Birmingham was a “thoroughly decent person” and thanked him for his “constructive engagement”. She referred to how he had shown kindness to her after Labor’s election loss in 2019.

In his speech Birmingham said he was proud of “my small role in securing marriage equality in Australia, having been the first Coalition frontbencher to publicly back marriage reform”.

He also said he did not accept “the perceptions peddled by some in this building of it being a universally toxic workplace. There are many staff and members of parliament of all political persuasions who not only work hard and achieve much but they actually enjoy their time here too”.

He told the Senate he was troubled by “the global rise of populism and divisive tribalism peddled by ideological extremes.

“It risks social cohesion in countries like ours and jeopardises the economic wellbeing of countries like ours. I am confident that Australia is a country whose values sit at the centre and the parties of government forget that at their peril.”

His speech was followed by long applause, reflecting his popularity across the chamber.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said: “Birmo has a young family, and I know he’s going to be looking forward to spending more time with them, and he’s given an enormous amount to our country”.

Birmingham’s place as opposition leader in the Senate will be taken by his deputy Michaelia Cash.

The Conversation

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. Opposition Senate leader Simon Birmingham announces surprise retirement at election – https://theconversation.com/opposition-senate-leader-simon-birmingham-announces-surprise-retirement-at-election-244834

A new report links being homeless in Australia to dying 40 years early

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Wood, Associate Professor, School of Population and Global Health, University of Notre Dame Australia

shutterstock Steve Lovegrove/Shutterstock

Homelessness has now taken the lead as Australia’s largest and most damning disparity in life expectancy.

A landmark report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare looked at the deaths of those seeking help from specialist homelessness services in their last year of life between 2012-2022.

The sheer number of deaths – around 12,500 over the ten-year period – is staggering, as is the upward increase over time. But so are the disparities.

The average age of death for the general population in Australia is 83. That’s more than three decades longer than the homeless population in this data – they average just 46 years.

And the main causes of death – suicide and accidental poisoning (including by drug overdoses) – show the issue goes beyond housing. It is about the opportunities for hope and good health many Australians take for granted.

What gets counted counts

For too long, the death toll and enormous life expectancy gap associated with homelessness has been largely invisible in national data.

Deaths of people who have experienced homelessness rarely make it into newspaper death notices or obituaries, nor in national mortality data.

Their invisibility in death is linked to the invisibility in life of people who are homeless. It symbolises wider systemic abandonment and policy inertia on homelessness.

A landmark snapshot

The report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare is the first of its kind in Australia and confronts us with a sobering snapshot.

The figure of almost 1,500 deaths in the 2021-2022 financial year (the most recent year of data reported) is confronting. It is higher than Australia’s annual road toll death.

The report shows the main causes of death were suicide (12-15%) of all deaths over the ten-year period) and accidental poisoning (14-20%).

This population accounts for one in 20 suicides in Australia, and one in six deaths by accidental poisoning.

Yet the most recent national strategy on suicide prevention makes no mention at all of homelessness.

Deaths of despair

These latest statistics reflect what has been described in international literature as “deaths of despair”.

This term refers to deaths from drug overdoses, suicide and alcohol-related disease among people with compounded social and economic disadvantage.

What lies behind these figures are lives often marked by awful adversity, trauma, poverty and exclusion.

In my research, I have spent time with people in Perth trying to survive on the streets, often with multiple health conditions. Their despair was palpable. The longer people remain homeless, the more their health and hope erodes.

However it’s important to note they are also lives of incredible survival and resilience. In this context, living beyond age 50 is literally survival “against the odds.”

Compounding health conditions

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report shows a litany of other preventable conditions are also killing those who have experienced homelessness. These include coronary heart disease, lung cancer and diabetes.

Diabetes is a classic example of how homelessness affects management of a common chronic disease. What can you do when a hospital discharge summary says “store your insulin in the fridge” but you don’t have a kitchen?

This is a population left behind on many of Australia’s public health and preventive health successes, such as the downward trends in smoking and bowel and cervical cancer screening success.

UK research found almost one in three homeless deaths were attributed to conditions that could have been prevented or treated. This is likely conservative.

For people who have endured homelessness, the medically documented “cause” of death can mask many factors and the complexity of multiple health conditions.

Our research

Sadly, these statistics do not come as a surprise.

They echo evidence from recent studies in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Similar life expectancy gaps are seen in our own monitoring of deaths among people who have experienced homelessness in Perth. Our data shows there are on average two deaths a week in this population, in Perth alone.

Are we getting better or going backwards?

We can’t reverse the trend revealed in this gloomy new data unless we also challenge the increasing “normalisation” of homelessness in our country.

Yes, there is a housing crisis. But we are also not turning off the tap of drivers of homelessness, such as domestic violence, poverty, and intergenerational trauma.

This latest report is a good first step in countering the invisibility of homelessness.

It adds further weight to homelessness sector calls, to not only monitor and report annually on homeless deaths, but also to ramp up investment in ending homelessness in this country.

But we hope this won’t be a one-off report. The data should be updated annually. In England, Wales and Scotland — where deaths of people experiencing homelessness are publicly reported each year — a recent open consultation revealed the value of these data.

Future reporting should not be limited to deaths of people who sought assistance from a specialist homelessness service within the last year of their life. There is considerable evidence, including recent Australian research that any lifetime experience of homelessness increases the risk of premature death.

Housing is health, and rapid access to housing is fundamental to reducing life expectancy gaps and restoring hope.

If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Dr Andrew Davies from Homeless Healthcare contributed to this article.

The Conversation

Dr Andrew Davies also contributed to this article. He is Medical Director at Homeless Healthcare.

ref. A new report links being homeless in Australia to dying 40 years early – https://theconversation.com/a-new-report-links-being-homeless-in-australia-to-dying-40-years-early-244743

This summer will likely be wetter and warmer for most Australians, bureau forecast says

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew King, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science, The University of Melbourne

After this spring’s heat, humidity, rain and storms across Australia, you may be wondering what summer has in store.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s long-range summer forecast, released today, gives some indication of how the coming months are likely to unfold. Notwithstanding the challenges of making these forecasts, seasonal prediction can be very valuable for climate-sensitive industries such as agriculture, as well as being of great public interest.

The latest outlook from the bureau suggests we’re in for more of the unsettled weather we’ve been experiencing during spring. On average, hotter night-time temperatures and higher rainfall are expected over summer.

Meanwhile, this summer’s seasonal bushfire outlook shows an increased risk of fire across large parts of Australia, such as southeastern South Australia and western Victoria, central Australia around Alice Springs, and southern stretches of Western Australia.

Unseasonal November weather in the southeast

This spring has been a mixed bag, with wetter than normal conditions through much of northwestern Australia, as well as swings between hot and dry weather and cooler, wetter conditions elsewhere.

There were several severe weather events, starting with record-breaking heat across the north and floods in Tasmania.

In recent days, eastern Australia experienced severe storms with unusually high humidity in states such as Victoria.

So what can we expect over the next three months? That’s a simple question with a not-so-easy answer.

How reliable are long-range forecasts?

Long-range seasonal forecasting is challenging, as the science is still developing rapidly. In contrast, short-term weather forecasting has been around much longer.

For daily weather forecasts, the skill lies in knowing the recent weather conditions very well. Having more observations of properties such as temperature, wind and rainfall helps to improve these forecasts. This information is then fed into weather models, which in most places are accurate for seven to ten days.

How can meteorologists predict chaotic weather systems further in advance? They rely on the fact that while the climate is variable, it is possible to predict this variability by looking at larger-scale drivers.

In Australia, our climate is strongly influenced by drivers of variability such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, which have some predictability. This lends some accuracy to seasonal outlooks.

These climate drivers have their own seasonal cycles. This means there are times in the year when seasonal outlooks are more accurate than others. El Niño and the Indian Ocean Dipole both have strong relationships with Australia’s climate in spring. As a result, spring outlooks tend to be more accurate than predictions for other seasons.

Over summer, more of our rainfall comes from thunderstorms. That means rainfall is more variable between places even just a few kilometres apart and also less predictable. Overall, this makes seasonal predictions for summer much harder.

How’s summer shaping up?

While it is harder to forecast summer, we can watch the climate drivers to gauge what’s likely to happen.

When the El Niño–Southern Oscillation is in an El Niño phase, the climate tends to be hotter and drier. In a La Niña, the climate tends to be cooler and wetter. But it can also be in betweeen, or “neutral”, as it has been since April. It looks likely to stay neutral over summer, though there’s a chance it might develop into a weak La Niña event.

In summer, the Indian Ocean Dipole, which can bring rain to southeastern Australia in its negative phase, tends to weaken and have less influence on Australia’s climate.

Locally, the seas around Australia remain warmer than normal, which increases evaporation and makes more moisture available for rainfall.

Map showing the chance of higher than average rainfall across Australia from December 2024 to February 2025
Another wet summer is likely for eastern Australia despite the lack of a strong La Niña signal.
Bureau of Meteorology

Taken together, this is why the outlook is pointing towards wetter-than-normal conditions for much of Australia over summer. But we can’t be sure because when the ENSO climate driver is in the neutral phase, the effect on our weather is weaker.

In many places, there’s a roughly 2-in-3 chance of a wetter than average summer. But that means there is still a 1-in-3 chance of a drier than normal summer.

Accompanying the wetter summer outlook is a prediction for warmer nights and, to a lesser extent, warmer days. Night-time temperatures tend to be higher when there is cloud and rain.

Most seasonal outlooks point to warmer than average conditions these days. That’s partly because we’re comparing the coming season to the average of all the summers from 1981–2018. It was cooler then.

Remember, Australia’s climate has already warmed by 1.5°C since 1900.

A summer of fire for some?

The National Council for Fire and Emergency Services draws on the bureau’s long-range summer forecast to develop its own seasonal outlook of bushfire risk, which was also released today.

Such seasonal bushfire outlooks are also challenging to make. Complex combinations of weather and fuel (dry vegetation) characteristics shape whether a fire is likely to occur and spread if there is an ignition source (such as lightning). But these outlooks are important when planning for managing one of Australia’s major hazards. They are also useful in raising public awareness of fire risks as the southern Australia fire season gets under way.

Areas most at risk include Western Australia’s southeastern coastline, South Australia’s lower Eyre Peninsula around Port Lincoln, and the lower southeast including Mount Gambier, stretching over the border into southwestern Victoria around Horsham.

Parts of northeast Victoria and the Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne are also at higher risk, as well as northern and central southern New South Wales.

In northern Australia, the areas most at risk include long-unburnt areas in the southern half of the Northern Territory through to north of the Barkly Highway and across to the Queensland border.

Some of these areas are also regions where rainfall has been below normal in recent weeks and months. The continuing stormy conditions and potential for heavy rain over parts of Australia will hopefully reduce the risk of fires in these areas.

Map of Australia showing areas of highest bushfire risk in summer 2024
Areas shown in red have an increased risk of fire, meaning there’s a higher chance of more significant bushfires occuring in these areas this summer compared to average.
AFAC

Be prepared

In any summer, parts of Australia will experience periods of extreme heat, risk of fires, and stormy weather that can bring hail and flooding rains. Being prepared for severe weather, keeping an eye on the forecast and following any weather warnings that are issued is important to minimise your risk.

The Conversation

Andrew King receives funding from the ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather and the National Environmental Science Program.

ref. This summer will likely be wetter and warmer for most Australians, bureau forecast says – https://theconversation.com/this-summer-will-likely-be-wetter-and-warmer-for-most-australians-bureau-forecast-says-244520

Can we end racism in Australia? Yes, according to the first-ever national plan

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fethi Mansouri, Deakin Distinguished Professor/UNESCO Chair-holder; Founding Director, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University

Shutterstock

The Australian Human Rights Commission this week launched the National Anti-racism Framework.

It’s an important moment. For the first time, the country has a comprehensive approach to tackle, if not eliminate, racism in all sectors of society and across different levels of government.

The ten-year road map includes 63 recommendations acknowledging the ongoing impact of colonialism on First Nations people and the persistent racism that minority communities experience.

The goal of ending racism is highly ambitious, yet necessary. Here’s how the plan wants to do it.

What does the plan say?

This framework is a major policy document that will complement and strengthen the Racial Discrimination Act.

To date, Australia has not had a national approach to addressing racism. This is despite the numerous calls from many communities that have endured its damaging effects every day.

This framework promises to deal with this historical legacy of racism against Indigenous people, as well as its contemporary manifestations.

Anti-racism underpins the new approach. This means it aspires to more than simply “not being racist”. Rather, anti-racism involves identifying, challenging and dismantling racism at the individual, structural and institutional levels.

It outlines plans from a whole-of-society approach rooted in human rights. Indeed, one of its key recommendations is a national human rights act to lay the legislative foundations for such interventions.




Read more:
An inquiry has recommended Australia legislate a Human Rights Act. Here’s why we need one


The document identifies seven priority areas, including:

  • legal protection and reform

  • workplaces

  • education

  • justice

  • media

  • health

  • data.

This acknowledges the widespread nature of racism.

The framework recommends legal reforms to include minimum requirements to counter racial discrimination. This includes embedding First Nations cultural safety across sectors.

It also includes recommendations for the education system to implement cultural safety and anti-racism reforms, and for workplaces to develop and implement various internal anti-racism strategies. One such suggestion is mandatory cultural safety and anti-racism training for all workers, including parliamentarians.

The plan involves strategies for recruiting and retaining staff from First Nations and other minority communities in leadership and senior roles.

It also calls for media organisations to adopt guidelines based on an anti-racist approach to reporting. To lead by example, parliamentarians and staff should adhere to a zero-tolerance approach to racism.

The framework recommends that the government establish a National Anti-racism Taskforce to develop separate implementation plans. One of these would focus on First Nations people; the other on the general population.

A group of Aboriginal men in traditional dress perform a dance
The framework focusses on combatting racism against First Nations people.
Shutterstock

Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman says the national plan must be centred on First Nations people, because “there can be no racial justice in this country without racial justice for First Nations peoples”.

It therefore emphasises the importance of truth-telling and self-determination as crucial features of meaningful anti-racism action. This includes incorporating the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into Australian laws.

Why do we need a plan like this?

The anti-racism framework comes at a time of intensifying hate speech and exclusionary nationalism.

For the past few years, nations have faced increasing political division and social fissures.

Disinformation, misinformation and identity politics are all fanning the flames of racism across Australia, from schools to public events.

The Diversity Council Australia reports that 59% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have experienced racial discrimination in workplaces.

In addition, the 2024 Scanlon Foundation Mapping Social Cohesion survey reveals that 17% of Australian adults reported experiencing discrimination based on skin colour, ethnic origin or religion over the past year.

This figure is notably higher among overseas-born Australians from non-English-speaking backgrounds, with one in three (34%) reporting similar experiences.

What compounds these recent forms of social division and political polarisation is the amplification of racism in key institutions.

Since its founding, Australia has grappled with systemic racism in its institutions and structures.

Systemic racism leads to poor outcomes for those affected. The poor quality of life standards for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is an example of this. The over-representation of African-Australian youth in the justice system is another.

Yet acknowledging and confronting the painful colonial history and its enduring legacy continues to be a significant challenge.

The evidence from various studies, including our own research, shows systemic racism in Australia is mounting. The urgency of a coordinated approach across the whole of society has never been clearer.

Racism cannot be addressed by few individuals, one community, agency, or government body. An adequately funded, resourced and coordinated anti-racism approach is necessary.

In its calls for reform in key systems and structures, the framework acknowledges this.

What difference will it make?

If fully implemented, these recommendations have the potential to drive transformative change in Australia.

Policies and programs affecting First Nations communities would become better coordinated and integrated. With robust monitoring and evaluation, anti-racism initiatives would be more effective at tackling deeply entrenched racism.

A sign that reads real Australians say welcome.
Eliminating racism will require a whole of society approach.
Shutterstock

Achieving a racism-free society will require sustained political will, meaningful action and a commitment to dismantling the structures that perpetuate inequality.

This means the real challenge lies in securing bipartisan support and implementing the necessary strategies to turn this vision into a reality.

The Australian Greens have already indicated support for the plan. But the government and the opposition are yet to respond.

Will this end racism?

The road map is ambitious and much needed vision for improving race relations, especially at a time of growing division and intolerance in our society.

The ten-year timeframe for achieving its goals is undeniably challenging. Racism is a deeply entrenched problem and will also need longer-term strategies to resolve.

The success of the framework hinges on the commitment and support of all Australians, from policymakers and community leaders to media organisations and everyday citizens.

Ending racism require increased individual awareness, stronger collective action, persistence, and an unwavering dedication to dismantling racism at every turn.

The Conversation

Fethi Mansouri receives funding from The Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with UNESCO.

Amanuel Elias is affiliated with the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship & Globalisation, Deakin University.

ref. Can we end racism in Australia? Yes, according to the first-ever national plan – https://theconversation.com/can-we-end-racism-in-australia-yes-according-to-the-first-ever-national-plan-244734

‘Unprecedented’ climate extremes are everywhere. Our baselines for what’s normal will need to change

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney

Thomas Rosenzweig/Shutterstock

Extreme temperature and rainfall events are increasing around the world, including Australia. What makes them extreme is their rarity and severity compared to the typical climate.

A region’s “climate” is defined by a 30-year average of mainly rainfall and temperature. Increasingly, these climate definitions have become less appropriate – we need to look at events over shorter time periods to gain a more accurate picture.

We can see this in the recent worldwide proliferation of extreme flooding and prolonged heatwaves.

Using southern Australia as a prime example, our newly published research in Academia Environmental Sciences and Sustainability shows that machine learning techniques can help identify key climate drivers, supporting a redefinition of climate in a warming world.

Increasing ‘flash’ events

In Australia, eastern coastal regions of Queensland and New South Wales continue to receive record downpours and flash floods, interspersed by dry periods of a few months to a few years.

In stark contrast, southern coastal regions are drying and facing more extreme heatwaves. With already parched vegetation and catastrophic fire dangers, this region is experiencing drought conditions due to decreased cool season rainfall and increased temperatures.



Notably, flash droughts and flash floods have adversely affected both agricultural crop yields and grazing pasture quality. Flash droughts greatly reduce moisture for germination. Flash floods ruin crops close to harvest time.

The problem with these “flash” events is just how difficult they are to forecast. To make more accurate seasonal and annual predictions for rainfall and temperatures, we need to update our climate models. But how do we know which climate drivers need to be included?

Seeking a new normal

To keep track of typical climate conditions and provide context for weather and climate forecasts, the World Meteorological Organization uses a set of data products known as climatological standard normals.

They define climate as averages of monthly, seasonal and annual weather-related variables such as temperature and rainfall, over consecutive 30-year periods.

Climate normals can be used to assess how typical of the current climate a particular event was in a given location. It’s how we arrive at temperature anomalies.

For example, to tell whether a year was relatively “hot” or “cool”, we look at the anomaly – the difference between the average temperature for the calendar year in question, compared to the climate normal.

But extreme variations are now occurring in periods of ten years or even shorter. Consequently, multiple increases and decreases can cancel each other out over a 30-year period. This would hide the large changes in statistics of weather variables within that period.

For example, large rainfall changes in average monthly, seasonal and annual amounts can be hidden within 30-year averages. Global warming often amplifies or diminishes the impacts of multiple climate driver phases within approximately ten-year periods. When averaged over 30 consecutive years, some information is lost.

What did we find?

Over the past decade or so, machine learning (where computers learn from past data to make inferences about the future) has become a powerful tool for detecting potential links between global warming and extreme weather events. This is referred to as attribution.

Machine learning techniques are simple to code and are well-suited to the highly repetitive task of searching through numerous combinations of observational data for possible triggers of severe weather events.

In our new study, machine learning helped us untangle the dominant climate drivers responsible for recent flash flood rainfall on the east coast of Australia, and a lack of rainfall on the southern coast.

Along the southern coast, the cool season from May to October is typically produced by mid-latitude westerly winds. In recent years these winds were farther away from the Australian continents, resulting in the recent drought of 2017–19 and flash drought of 2023–24.

In contrast, after the 2020–22 La Niña, the east coast continues to experience wetter conditions. These come from generally higher than average sea-surface temperatures off the east coast and Pacific Ocean, due to the presence of onshore winds.

Machine learning identified the dominant drivers of the scenario above: the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the Southern Annular Mode, the Indian Ocean Dipole, and both local and global sea surface temperatures.

The Southern Annular Mode concerns the mid-latitude westerly winds.

A key finding was the prominence of global warming as an attribute, both individually and in combination with other climate drivers. Climate drivers and their combinations can change with increasing global warming over shorter periods that contain extremes of climate. Hence, the use of 30-year periods as climate normals becomes less useful.

Finding regional attributes for better forecasting

Climate models often disagree on the climate drivers likely to be relevant to extreme events.

A key feature of machine learning is the ability to deal with multi-source data by identifying regional attributes. We can combine possible climate-driver predictors with high-resolution climate model predictions, especially after the climate model data are downsized to cover specific regions of concern. This can help with extreme event forecasting at a local scale.

Scientists are continuously developing new methods for applying machine learning to weather and climate prediction.

The scientific consensus is that global warming has dramatically increased the frequency of extreme rainfall and temperature events. However, the impacts are not uniform across the world, or even across Australia. Some regions have been more affected than others.

Currently there is no single alternative definition to the traditional 30-year climate normal, given the variable impacts across the planet. Each region will need to determine its own relevant climate time period definition – and machine learning tools can help.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. ‘Unprecedented’ climate extremes are everywhere. Our baselines for what’s normal will need to change – https://theconversation.com/unprecedented-climate-extremes-are-everywhere-our-baselines-for-whats-normal-will-need-to-change-244298

There are 2 main ways to stretch – the one you should choose depends on what you want your body to do

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia

interstid/Shutterstock

Picture this: you’ve just woken up and rolled out of bed. Your feet hit the floor, and your legs buckle. They are in absolute agony – that run yesterday has really come back to haunt you.

And then you remember you forgot to stretch before and after your run. Surely that’s the reason you’re so sore today. Or is it?

We’ve all heard about the importance of stretching before and after exercise. But does it really make a difference? Here’s what the science says.

What is stretching?

There are many different types of stretching, but the two most common are static and dynamic stretching.

Static stretching involves moving a muscle (or muscles) into a lengthened position and holding this for a short period of time – often anywhere between 15 and 90 seconds.

A common example of this would be keeping your heels on the ground while leaning forward to touch the ground with a straight knee to stretch your hamstring muscles.

Meanwhile, dynamic stretching involves actively moving your muscles and joints back and forth through their available range of motion.

Common examples include swinging your legs back and forth, from side to side, or swinging your arms in circles.

Static stretching involves holding one position for a period of time.
Ground Picture/Shutterstock

Stretching before exercise

The main reasons people stretch before exercise are to increase flexibility, improve performance, and reduce the risk of injury.

While we know stretching increases flexibility, its effect on performance and injury is less clear. But let’s look at what the evidence says for each one.

Flexibility

Both static and dynamic stretching increase flexibility, although static stretching seems to have a slightly larger effect.

Short-term static stretching inhibits your sympathetic nervous system (your fight or flight system), which reduces the stiffness of your muscles and tendons. This makes you more flexible straight after stretching.

In the long term, static stretching is thought to make you more flexible by increasing the length of your muscles and tendons or by simply making you more tolerant to the discomfort caused by stretching.

Performance

When it comes to improving performance, this will depend on the type of physical activity you’re doing.

If you are about to move your body through large ranges of motion – something like gymnastics or dancing – then the improvements in flexibility following stretching will likely result in better performance.

On the flip side, research has shown static stretching may impair performance by up to 5% in activities that rely on maximum strength and power, such as shotput and powerlifting.

This might be because of the reduced nervous system activation we mentioned earlier, making it more challenging for your muscles to produce force.

However, significant impairments only seem to occur when stretching for more than 60 seconds. Stretching for less than 60 seconds appears to impact performance minimally (by around 1%).

Stretching might not always help with performance.
Victor Freitas/Pexels

On the other hand, dynamic stretching increases muscle temperature and the speed at which your nerves send messages to your muscles, which might improve muscle performance.

Dynamic stretching has been shown to enhance strength and power by a small amount. This might make it a better option before activities that are performed explosively, such as sprinting, jumping, lifting weights or playing team sport.

Injury and soreness

When it comes to reducing injury, whether stretching before exercise is beneficial remains unclear.

Many studies have shown stretching doesn’t have an effect. But a lot of these look at the effect of stretching on all types of injuries, which might not show its true effect.

For example, a broken arm from a tackle would be grouped with a calf strain, but it seems logical that stretching is more likely to reduce the risk of the calf muscle strain than the broken arm.

A recent review did explore the effect of stretching on different types of injuries and found static stretching may reduce the risk of muscle, but not tendon, injuries. To date, there’s no evidence to suggest stretching would reduce the risk of broken bones and contact injuries.

There’s very little research exploring whether dynamic stretching alone can reduce injury risk. One study showed dynamic stretching can improve joint stability, which might reduce the risk of joint injuries (such as ankle sprains). But more research is needed to make any conclusions with confidence.

Many people also stretch before exercise to help prevent muscle soreness after exercise. However, research has shown stretching before exercise has no meaningful impact on muscle soreness after exercise.

Stretching after exercise

The main reason people stretch after exercise is to improve recovery and reduce muscle soreness. The most common approach is static stretching.

However, like stretching before exercise, research doesn’t indicate stretching after exercise reduces muscle damage or soreness.

It has also been suggested really intense stretching can damage your muscles, which might even make muscle soreness worse. But this isn’t a consistent finding, and may only happen to certain people.

However, stretching does promote relaxation. So gentle stretching could be a nice way to wind down after an intense exercise session.

Many people stretch after a workout.
Jacob Lund/Shutterstock

So, what should you do?

Maybe a lack of stretching isn’t the reason you were sore after you run after all. Your legs are probably aching because you simply ran further, or harder, than you normally do.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stretch.

The available evidence suggests doing some dynamic stretching before exercise will increase flexibility and improve your performance, whether you’re planning to go for a run, play a team sport, or lift weights.

Static stretching can be great if you want to increase your flexibility, just don’t do it right before intense exercise. And after exercise, some gentle static stretching can help transition the body to a more relaxed state.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. There are 2 main ways to stretch – the one you should choose depends on what you want your body to do – https://theconversation.com/there-are-2-main-ways-to-stretch-the-one-you-should-choose-depends-on-what-you-want-your-body-to-do-244048

The pink elephant test: what your visual imagination predicts about your ability to control your thoughts

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Derek Arnold, Professor, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland

Gunter Nuyts/Shutterstock

Tell a man he shouldn’t think of a pink elephant and he can’t get that beast out of his mind!

This quote, from Curt Siodmak’s 1974 novel City in the Sky, describes how hard it can be to suppress our thoughts. “Don’t think of a pink elephant” has become a classic example of how difficult it can be to intentionally avoid visualising.

Research suggests many of you, having read about a pink elephant, will have imagined seeing one.

However, some people, like us, have aphantasia – we cannot visualise. So we are a little confused at the idea other people can imagine seeing things that aren’t there.

In a new study, we have found evidence the pink elephant problem is not universal. Some people – including people with aphantasia – can block involuntary visual thoughts from their minds.

What is aphantasia?

People with aphantasia cannot voluntarily imagine seeing things in our mind’s eye. So if you ask us not to think about a pink elephant, we won’t visualise one, because we can’t.

Aphantasia is typically described as a deficit. When people first learn they have aphantasia they are often upset, as they realise other people can do things they cannot. It might be nice to imagine seeing the characters described in a book, for example, or to visualise an absent loved one.

When people are told not to think of a pink elephant, those with more vivid visual imaginations find it difficult to comply.
Loren Bouyer, CC BY-SA

However, deficits are often balanced by benefits. There are suggestions people with aphantasia (or aphantasics, as we’re sometimes called) may have a heightened resistance to involuntary intrusive thoughts.

Another way to look at it is that aphantasics are one portion of a natural diversity of human minds, with people having different capacities to visualise. Where aphantasics have no capacity, most people would have an average ability, and a small number of people would have an extremely strong ability to visualise.

Vivid mental imagery and involuntary visualisations

In our new study, we looked at links between the intensity of people’s visual imaginations and their tendency to visualise, even when they try not to. People with vivid visual imaginations were more likely to have involuntary visualisations, and we could predict these outcomes by measuring brain activity.

Some people might enjoy being able to imagine seeing detailed scenes whenever they wish. However, this seems to come at the cost of not being able to shut down these experiences.

Most people have less vibrant imagery, but they seem to be more able to suppress these thoughts.

Do aphantasics have peaceful minds?

Aphantasics are unlikely to have involuntary visualisations. Does that mean they have peaceful minds?

In our study people who reported having weak imagery were less likely to imagine seeing things they were trying not to think about. However, they were more likely to report mind-wandering.

If this describes aphantasics, instead of visualising things we are told not to think about, we may turn our minds to other thoughts, such as what’s for dinner. So we would not have more peaceful minds, just a resistance to think about things we are trying to put out of mind.

If aphantasics do not visualise, do they have daydreams?

From our own experience, we can confirm at least some aphantasics have minds that wander. But when our minds wander, neither of us imagines seeing things. Our experiences are different.

When Derek’s mind wanders he imagines hearing and engaging in purely audio conversations. As daydreaming is typically associated with vision, he did not realise until very recently these imagined conversations could be described as his experience of daydreaming.

Loren cannot visualise or imagine hearing things. She experiences her thoughts as different sensations of texture and imagined feelings of movement – and these are what she experiences when her mind wanders.

Are aphantasics resistant to trauma from re-living events?

Perhaps.

While our evidence suggests aphantasics are resistant to involuntary visualisations, more research will be needed to work out if we are resistant to reliving traumas, or if these will simply trigger different types of imagined experience.

What is clear is that Siodmak was wrong. If you tell people they shouldn’t think of a pink elephant, some of us will happily put that beast out of our minds, and turn our thoughts to other matters. What’s for dinner?

Derek Arnold receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Loren N. Bouyer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. The pink elephant test: what your visual imagination predicts about your ability to control your thoughts – https://theconversation.com/the-pink-elephant-test-what-your-visual-imagination-predicts-about-your-ability-to-control-your-thoughts-244274

Hīkoi day 7: Significant disruption expected when thousands converge on capital

RNZ News

New Zealand’s hīkoi against the Treaty Principles Bill could be one of the largest rallies that the capital has seen for years, Wellington City Council says.

The Hīkoi mō te Tiriti will arrive in Wellington tomorrow, and locals are being warned to expect disruption and plan ahead.

Yesterday, about 5000 people filled the square in Palmerston North before the convoy headed south, stopping for a rally in Levin.

Thousands of supporters were then welcomed at Takapūwāhia Marae, in Porirua, north of Wellington.

They will have a rest day in Porirua today before gathering at Wellington’s Waitangi Park on tomorrow morning, and converging on Parliament.

“There is likely to be some disruption to roads and highways,” the council said in a statement.

‘Plan ahead’ call
“Please plan ahead if travelling by road or rail on Tuesday, November 19, as delays are possible.”

The Hīkoi will start at 6am, travelling from Porirua to Waitangi Park, where it will arrive at 9am.

It will then depart the park at 10am, travelling along the Golden Mile to Parliament, where it will arrive at midday.

The Hīkoi will return to Waitangi Park at 4pm for a concert, karakia, and farewell.

State Highways 1 and 2 busier than normal.

Police said no significant issues had been reported as a result of the Hīkoi.

A traffic management plan would be in place for its arrival into Wellington, with heavier than usual traffic anticipated, particularly in the Hutt Valley early Tuesday morning, and on SH2 between Lower Hutt and Wellington city.

Anyone living or working in the city should plan accordingly, Wellington District Commander Superintendent Corrie Parnell said.

Police ‘working with Hikoī’
“Police have been working closely with iwi and Hīkoi organisers, and our engagement has been positive.

“The event as it has moved down the country has been conducted peacefully, and we have every reason to believe this will continue.

“In saying that, disruption is expected through the city centre as the hīkoi makes its way from Waitangi Park to Parliament.

“We’ve planned ahead with NZTA, Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, local schools, retailers and other stakeholders to mitigate this as best possible, but Wellingtonians should be prepared for Tuesday to look a little different.”

Riders on horseback have joined the Hīkoi along the route. Image: RNZ/Pokere Paewai

Wellington Station bus hub will be closed, with buses diverted to nearby locations.

Metlink has also added extra capacity to trains outside of peak times (9am-3pm).

Police said parking was expected to be extremely difficult on Tuesday, especially around the bus hub, Lambton Quay and Parliament grounds.

Wellingtonians were being to exercise patience, particularly on busy roads, Parnell said.

“We ask you to allow more time than normal to get where you are going. Plan ahead by looking at how road closures and public transport changes might affect you, and expect that there will be delays at some point throughout the day.”

PM: ‘We’ll wait and see’
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he was playing his approach to the Hīkoi “by ear”.

He has been at his first APEC meeting in Peru, but will arrive back in New Zealand today.

He said he was open to speaking with members of the Hīkoi on Tuesday, but no plans had been made as yet.

“We haven’t made a decision. We’ll wait and see, but I’m very open to meeting, in some form or another.

“It’s obviously building as it walks through the country and gets to Wellington, and we’ll just wait and see and take it as it comes.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

For the sake of our democracy, Australia urgently needs a whistleblower protection authority

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By A J Brown, Professor of Public Policy & Law, Centre for Governance & Public Policy, Griffith University

As federal parliament rushes to a close, it’s become clearer that a dedicated agency to enforce the nation’s various whistleblower protection laws will be an important priority for the 48th parliament, after the next election.

Widely recognised as the biggest missing link in Australia’s national integrity systems, such a body would support employees who speak up about wrongdoing. It would also help employers and regulators resolve claims of detrimental action. Finally, it would help make legal protections real by shouldering the huge costs of securing compensation for impacts suffered by those doing the right thing.

This month, the landmark parliamentary inquiry into the PwC scandal, led by Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill and Green Barbara Pocock, was unanimous in its clear imperatives for reform:

  • Ensuring whistleblower protections apply across all sectors and types of organisations. Because they are “partnerships” rather than “corporations”, large audit, accounting and consulting firms are one example of employers that escape current protections.

  • Aligning whistleblower protection laws across the public and private sectors. The inquiry noted at least ten federal laws provide different, confusing standards of protection across different entities and sectors.

  • Greater practical support for whistleblowers. Key to this is the establishment of a Whistleblower Protection Authority, covering “both the public and private sectors”.

These calls should help focus the two efforts the federal government has underway to review existing laws. The first is a consultation by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus on fixing our failing public sector whistleblowing laws, which is yet to bear fruit. The second is a new statutory review of the main whistleblowing regimes that apply to the private sectors, overseen by Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones.

This week, federal independent MPs Andrew Wilkie, Helen Haines, David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie upped the ante by taking further steps towards their own Whistleblower Protection Authority bill.

This follows recommendations dating as far back as the Senate Select Committee on Public Interest Whistleblowing in 1994, and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services in 2017.

A body to protect whistleblowers could make a real difference

While any actual reform is unlikely before the next election, all these developments point to a growing consensus for action.

But with new integrity agencies coming under scrutiny, how do we expect a whistleblowing protection body – whether stand-alone or built into an existing body – to make a difference?

In a stark reminder of what is needed, Australian Taxation Office whistleblower Richard Boyle lost a bid earlier this month to have the High Court intervene in his six-year-long prosecution for speaking up against oppressive debt collection practices by his agency.

The High Court ruling demonstrated the gaping holes in federal whistleblowing laws. For example, they fail to cover reasonable preparatory or supporting actions that a whistleblower may need to undertake, not just the actual act of disclosure.

In a technical tactic to avoid the whistleblowing law, the ATO and Director of Public Prosecutions charged Boyle with improperly recording information – not with revealing it. This enabled them to pursue him criminally, despite having already sacked him for complaining too much.

In my view, far from serving any public interest, this prosecution was and is simply malicious. It should have been stopped long ago.

This loophole in the law needs to be fixed. But in addition, a whistleblower protection authority would have a crucial role to play as an extra check-and-balance, by acting as a block on any such prosecutions unless they truly are necessary.

And that is especially the case when agencies seek to punish whistleblowers after failing to first deal properly with their internal disclosures about wrongdoing. This situation applies not only to Richard Boyle, but also to Afghan Files whistleblower, David McBride.

In October, McBride won the right to appeal his five year, eight month prison sentence for providing defence documents to the ABC about the military justice response to alleged Afghan war crimes by Australian special forces.

The Commonwealth’s tactics in suppressing all evidence relating to his internal complaints about perceived injustices were central to his inability to raise a public interest defence as a whistleblower. These were never recognised by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force for what they actually were: protected public interest disclosures.

Again, a whistleblower protection authority would ensure federal agencies honour the principles underpinning our whistleblower protection law. If they fail to recognise and manage internal disclosures properly, a whistleblower should then be entitled to raise a statutory public interest defence in a fair and open court.

Many agencies and companies fulfil their responsibility to have good whistleblowing policies. They are listening to whistleblowers and learning to properly support and protect them. These are fundamental goals of our laws.

Commonwealth public servants need particular protection

But as well as lots of loopholes and inconsistencies, there are too many agencies simply not implementing the laws, and doing nothing to support and compensate whistleblowers. This again proves why a dedicated enforcement agency is necessary.

The Robodebt scandal proved the problem on a wide scale. Despite Services Australia officers such as Jeannie-Marie Blake objecting to the scheme, none of their complaints were recognised for what they were: concerns about serious maladministration (or worse) requiring independent monitoring and rights to protection, under the Public Interest Disclosure Act.

Indeed, our research compiled for the attorney-general’s review of public sector protections highlighted that when a federal public servant raises concerns about wrongdoing, they are four times less likely to be recognised and protected as a whistleblower than in the New South Wales government. And seven times less likely than if the disclosure was made in the Queensland public service.

Small wonder, then, that protection and support does not flow, and that whistleblowers are left flailing for support and compensation for any damage done.

A whistleblower protection authority to change this situation, will only be as good as the powers and resources it is given, and the people tasked to lead it. The laws it enforces also badly need upgrading and simplification.

Thankfully, as momentum builds towards Australia’s next parliament, there is increased hope that within the next three years, this necessary reform will come to pass.

The Conversation

A J Brown AM is Chair of Transparency International Australia. He has received funding from the Australian Research Council and all Australian governments for research on public interest whistleblowing, integrity and anti-corruption reform through partners including Australia’s federal and state Ombudsmen and other regulatory agencies, parliaments, anti-corruption and private sector bodies (see https://whistlingwhiletheywork.edu.au/). He was a member of the Commonwealth Ministerial Expert Panel on Whistleblowing (2017-2019). He was also a proposed expert witness in public interest defence proceedings by David McBride.

ref. For the sake of our democracy, Australia urgently needs a whistleblower protection authority – https://theconversation.com/for-the-sake-of-our-democracy-australia-urgently-needs-a-whistleblower-protection-authority-244387

Fiji police have ‘patriarchal mindset’, lack training over gender violence, says Ali

By Nacanieli Tuilevuka in Suva

Some police officers are unable to effectively investigate cases of gender-based violence, claims Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre coordinator Shamima Ali.

Ali said many officers lacked the training and knowledge to properly handle such cases, leading to significant challenges for victims seeking justice.

“There is a lack of training that used to happen in Fiji before 2006, and we are facing this as a huge challenge,” Ali said.

While speaking on issues of officers refusing to take statements of domestic violence victims, she said some officers refused to acknowledge cases of gender-based violence, despite the laws in place.

“There are some officers who do not respond to it, and at times, the justice system does not support the interests of women.”

She said if authorities did their job, men would be a bit more scared.

“There’s a reluctance to address domestic violence because of the patriarchal mindset, and this attitude often comes from within the force itself.”

In response, Police Commissioner Juki Fong Chew said the actions of a few were not representative of the way the organisation perceived cases of gender-based violence.

“We have disciplinary measures in place to deal with officers as claimed by Ms Ali, and we encourage the sharing of information so that the officers can be dealt with,” he said.

Fong Chew said these issues could be addressed promptly.

Republished from The Fiji Times with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Caledonia’s Great Chief Boarat found dead in Koumac – arrest made

By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific Desk

New Caledonia’s Great Chief William Boarat has been found dead and police have arrested a 24-year-old man as investigations continue.

Great Chief Boarat was found dead in the early hours of yesterday in circumstances described as involuntary homicide.

Public prosecutor Yves Dupas said in a statement that initial findings on the crime scene in the village of Ouaco pointed to an initial assault from a 24-year-old man on a woman he was in a de facto relationship with.

Chief Boarat, 66, who was present at the scene, reportedly tried to stop the man from hitting his partner in their village residence.

The young man, believed to be under the influence of alcohol, is then reported to have grabbed a wooden post and hit the chief on the head.

A medical team later found the old chief unconscious, with severe head wounds.

Attempts to revive him proved unsuccessful.

The suspect has been taken into custody, and investigations are ongoing.

He faces charges of murder and assault against his de facto partner.

Witnesses are also being questioned as part of the inquiry.

A post-mortem has been ordered to further establish the exact cause of death.

The Boarat clan is the main chiefly entity of the Koumac area, which itself belongs to the chiefly area of Hoot ma Waap (one of the eight chiefly areas represented in New Caledonia’s Customary Senate).

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

20 people in a two-bedroom apartment: the growing health and safety risks of ‘hot bedding’

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zahra Nasreen, Postdoc Housing Researcher, the University of Sydney, Macquarie University

Rental costs have hit record highs across Australia – in Sydney, for example, tiny two-bedroom apartments can fetch weekly rents well beyond $700.

The housing crisis is forcing some people into an impossible choice: homelessness or sharing not just an apartment but a bedroom with strangers.

“Hot bedding” – sharing the same beds in overcrowded rooms – has become a common reality for some tenants.

For marginalised populations, these housing arrangements become a survival strategy.

People living in severe overcrowding are considered to be a homeless group in Australia.

But what happens when shared housing, marketed as an affordable solution, fails to meet tenants’ basic needs and creates serious health and safety risks?

The realities for vulnerable renters

My recently published work reveals the hidden realities of people sharing rooms in Sydney.

Through a survey of 103 tenants and in-depth interviews with 35 of those, I discovered concerning patterns of overcrowding, poor housing conditions and health and safety risks.

In some cases, up to 20 people lived in two-bedroom apartments. Around 28% of tenants were sharing a bedroom with two or more people and 66% shared a toilet/bathroom with more than two people.

Living rooms were also partitioned (18%) for additional sleeping spaces.

One international student explained:

It felt asphyxiating, lonely and overcrowded at the same time. After dividing the rooms, there remained very little space for us to move or cook.“




Read more:
Tracking the rise of room sharing and overcrowding, and what it means for housing in Australia


Health and safety risks

Health and safety risks are serious concerns. Tenants faced life-threatening fire risks when “head tenants” deliberately removed smoke alarms to avoid penalties for false alarms triggered by cooking.

There are different types of head tenants: tenants who share costs through subletting, and people leasing properties solely to profit from overcrowded subletting.

One tenant explained, ahead of an inspection, their head tenant removed unsafe modifications made to the dwelling, while tenants were forced to leave during inspections to hide the true extent of overcrowding from authorities.

He had all these curtains on the bunk beds, so he removed the curtains [during the inspection] […] because [they were] obstructing water sprinklers that were for safety issues.“

Tenants told me poor ventilation, mould and overcrowding led to respiratory issues, depression and headaches.

Hygiene was also a major concern: bed bugs, cockroaches and bathroom drainage issues all impacted tenants’ mental and physical health.

Poor sleep was common too, as bedroom sharers navigated different schedules and disruptive sounds. Emotional distress also built up from constant negotiation and conflicts over space and resources.

The thing is […] he coughs throughout the night very loud, and with that kind of coughing I cannot sleep […] when I go to work, I was very tired.”

‘I know it’s illegal, but…’

Beyond the physical constraints of overcrowding, tenants faced restrictions from live-in head tenants or landlords that affected their daily routines and autonomy.

Cooking large meals was entirely prohibited for some tenants, while many were not allowed to use heaters or air conditioners, even during extreme weather.

Like, you’re not allowed to use the living room, you’re not allowed to talk loudly or laugh […] he mentions the time that you take in the shower, and that’s kind of awkward.

The problems go beyond inconvenience and discomfort of home: tenants reported deeply concerning patterns of exploitation and vulnerability.

Nearly half the tenants interviewed had no written lease and paid rent in cash – leaving them exposed to sudden eviction and financial exploitation. Some landlords did not return bond deposits.

Some landlords just say “I’m increasing your rent next week”[…] I know it’s illegal but you want to keep the relationship with the landlord because if he’s going to kick me out I just need to find another property and I may not be able to find it in such a short time.

Most alarming is how these tenants rarely seek help from tenancy and advocacy services, even in serious cases when they experienced exploitation and evictions.

A tenant alleged sexual assault by housemates, followed by bullying and forfeit of her bond deposit from the live-in head tenant.

When she finally sought justice through official channels, she endured a five-year tribunal battle just to reclaim the bond because she had no written lease to prove her tenancy.

A problem that must be solved

Sydney’s housing crisis is evolving into a hidden health crisis and as rents soar, some residents face an impossible choice: unaffordable housing or unsafe living conditions.

These housing conditions extend beyond Sydney and escalated during and after COVID and the cost-of-living crisis.

Precarious housing conditions are not just about comfort – they are key social and built environment factors that directly impact health outcomes, daily routines and economic productivity.

Solving this systemic failure will not be easy, but real solutions require:

  • Extended rental assistance programs
  • Purpose-designed co-living models with better amenities
  • Dedicated dispute resolution services for shared housing tenants
  • Affordable and safe housing alternatives
  • A careful approach for regulatory enforcement – a flawed response can result in increased homelessness.

The Conversation

Zahra Nasreen has received funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), Hope Housing, and Australian Coastal Councils Association. Zahra’s PhD has been supported by an Australian government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship.

ref. 20 people in a two-bedroom apartment: the growing health and safety risks of ‘hot bedding’ – https://theconversation.com/20-people-in-a-two-bedroom-apartment-the-growing-health-and-safety-risks-of-hot-bedding-244279

NZ urgently needs more psychologists – changing an outmoded training model would help

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Willow Sainsbury, Lecturer, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

It will come as no surprise to anyone that New Zealand needs more trained psychologists. Shortages have been reported across the country, increasing wait times and making it harder for people to get the help they need.

The government has promised to create more training positions, but the issue may lie in how we are training these specialists, rather than a lack of interest from students.

Currently, students who wish to be psychologists face years of theory before being allowed hands-on experience in their final year of training.

New Zealand should, instead, be following international examples from the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, where applied training is completed alongside theoretical coursework.

Training psychologists

In New Zealand, someone can only call themselves a psychologist if they are registered with the New Zealand Psychologists Board-Te Poari Kaimātai Hinengaro o Aotearoa.

Registration requires a masters degree and a postgraduate diploma (six years), or doctorate (seven years). This presents two problems.

First, students who start their masters are mainly taught theory, often by academics who are not practising psychologists.

The students are also not eligible to register as intern psychologists and experience what it’s like to practice until they’re admitted to the postgraduate diploma.

The second, and arguably more substantial, issue is that students are whittled down from large cohorts on the masters programme to the approximately ten to 15 spots available on each university’s diploma.

This diploma takes a year and involves 1,500 hours of supervised practice or internship. Students who take up these spots have had no direct exposure to psychology practice in their masters degree.

Essentially, on the two-year masters, there is no practice; on the one diploma there is minimal learning and theory.

Expensive to fund

The post-grad diploma is also expensive to fund. Students essentially require three different forms of supervision: a “clinical” supervisor in the field, who is already stretched and is liable for the student’s practice, and two university staff.

In a cost-saving environment, with so few students and such high staff-to-student ratios, universities have questioned the need for such an expensive diploma.

The universities only teach the students for three to four week-long block courses. But academic staff are also responsible for the students reaching the standards that allow them to register as a psychologist with the New Zealand Psychology Board.

A 2023 Employment Relations Authority case established these students as fixed-term employees rather than students. The Ministry of Education is now required to pay the students for their 1,500 hours of supervised practice.

This means students are now recognised as both a full-time employee (with a wage paid through the ministry) and a full-time student (with the related education costs).

As a consequence, it has become very expensive for the government to fund more training positions.

Alternative training options

Other countries blend practice and theory at a much earlier stage of training.

According to a study from the US, only one of the 106 providers the authors looked at waited until the last year to give students an opportunity to experience some sort of practical component.

In Australia, students complete a four-year undergraduate degree in psychology before completing a masters degree, which includes practical training.

The hours of practice incrementally increase over the course of the masters degree but begin in the first year. The Australian psychology masters is taught by registered psychologists and is integrated with the university’s teaching.

Students are registered with the Australian accrediting body as intern psychologists over the two-year masters. On graduating, they qualify to work as psychologists where they are carefully monitored and build a portfolio towards a scope specialisation.

A better training model

So why doesn’t New Zealand train psychologists over a two-year applied masters with integrated practice components, who then work full time under the careful watch of our accrediting body?

It would lead to faster, better trained psychologists with the foundations of learning, research and real-world experience.

It would be cheaper for students, universities and the government. It would also be kinder and more empowering for students who otherwise often embark on a dream to be a psychologist, only to be told after their masters that they can’t do the diploma because there are no places.

In the UK, an extra year on their applied masters gives psychologists their doctorate, which again contrasts with our model of separating the streams of training.

No matter which way you look, our system does not train fairly, faster or as well. To improve this, the country needs to change the entire training structure rather than try to solve the problem with a few more training positions.

The Conversation

Willow Sainsbury is a registered educational psychologist with the New Zealand Psychologists Board and the Chair of Read NZ: Te Pou Muramura. She is currently working with the University of Auckland to create a new training pathway for educational psychologists in Aotearoa.

ref. NZ urgently needs more psychologists – changing an outmoded training model would help – https://theconversation.com/nz-urgently-needs-more-psychologists-changing-an-outmoded-training-model-would-help-243259

Royal gardens: how queen bees and wasps set our backyards abuzz in readiness for summer

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Jandt, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, University of Otago

Getty Images

As we transition to warmer weather in the austral summer, many changes take place. Domestic dogs and cats may shed winter coats. Fish such as bass and trout prepare fat reserves for migrations to deeper waters. And social insect queens emerge from hibernation in search of a place to start their nests.

Most people won’t be surprised that bumble bees and ground-nesting wasp colonies have queens. What is surprising, though, is that those big bees and wasps we see in the spring are the queens – not the workers – building their nests all on their own.

A bumble bee foraging for nectar.
Jennifer Jandt, CC BY-NC-SA

Bumble bees and yellowjacket wasps typically nest in the ground (though you might see some nesting in trees or buildings). To locate the perfect nest site, both species search for abandoned rodent holes (the perfect cosy size to insulate a big queen and a small nest).

After they find their spot, the queens forage and defend their young from the perils of life as an insect – predators, pesticides and pathogens. If the queen can’t find a nest site and gather enough resources, or perishes before workers emerge, the colony will fail before it even gets started.

Life of the larvae

Like butterflies, wasps and bees start life as helpless larvae. Wasp and bee larvae are essentially big stomachs with a mouth. They have no legs, and are stuck in place until they’re grown. Larvae rely entirely on older generations to survive.

Wasps collect pulp to smooth into hexagonal paper cells (similar to the inside of a honey bee nest) where the defenceless larvae will grow. They usually collect this pulp from untreated wood – the wasp that landed next to you on the park bench is just gathering building materials. She won’t take much, and she won’t stay long.

Bumble bees produce wax that they mould into honey pots (to store food) and balls (where they nestle their eggs). The bees need enough nutrition to produce this wax, which they’ll get from the flowers in your garden.

Wasp larvae are primarily carnivorous, getting protein from live prey or carrion. Bees get protein from floral resources like pollen, although adults of both species feed on nectar.

Wasp queen licking honey dew from aphids on rose leaves.
Jennifer Jandt, CC BY-NC-SA

After a few weeks, larvae will spin silken cocoons and pupate (just like butterflies). This is a chance for the queens to take a break from feeding those hungry larvae (which are insatiable before they pupate), and focus on raising more young.

The queens still continue foraging, though – no one is coming to feed them until their daughters are adults.

Once the offspring emerge from their pupae as adults, they won’t leave the nest just yet. They will need a day (at least) just for their exoskeleton (their body and wings) to harden. Until the exoskeleton is set, bees and wasps can’t fly to forage, or sting to defend.

They also need time to develop a circadian rhythm. This ensures when they emerge from the underground nest, they do so when it’s light outside (wasps and bees don’t forage too well in the dark).

Division of labour

We are now nearing the end of spring in Aotearoa. There are still a few queen wasps and bumble bees flying around, but we are also starting to see small foragers. These are the “first cohort” of workers. The queen – who did all the chores on her own – was limited in terms of what she could feed her young.

In early spring, food might be scarce. Once the first cohort of workers emerge, things outside and inside the nest begin to shift. Floral resources and insect prey numbers increase – meaning foragers have an easier time finding food.

Because workers are foraging, the queen can remain in the nest where she primarily lays eggs and incubates her developing brood.

Workers also subdivide the chores in the nest. Some will forage for protein, some for sugar, and others (like wasps) will forage for nest material or water. Some workers might remain in the nest to keep the temperature and humidity constant, others might remain in the nest to watch for invaders or predators.

Bumble bee queens are much larger than the workers (number tags help identify individuals from the nest and don’t affect their behaviour).
Jennifer Jandt, CC BY-NC-SA

Queen bumble bees and yellowjackets only live for about one year. They emerge as adults in autumn, mate, then hibernate over the winter months. After emerging from hibernation in spring, they start a new colony on their own and watch as it grows to hundreds (bumble bees) or thousands (yellowjackets) of workers.

At some point, the queen will stop laying eggs. She’ll often leave the nest on her own when she knows her time is up. The workers will make sure the larvae in the nest are raised as new queens, and the cycle starts anew.

Among royalty

In the North Island, there have been a number of “frighteningly large” perennial yellowjacket nests reported.

Wasps (like this yellowjacket queen) can be as effective as bees at transferring pollen between flowers.
Jennifer Jandt, CC BY-NC-SA

As our climate changes, warming temperatures may extend the season of social wasp nests, leading to more of these large nests. Although the original queen dies, the new queens may choose to join an established nest of workers and take over as the new queen (skipping that period of hibernation).

Yellowjacket wasps sometimes receive a bad rap, particularly due to their very effective nest defence strategies, with the potential to butt heads with gardeners.

But wasps – just like bees and butterflies – are important pollinators in our floral ecosystems, and also help keep annoying pest bug populations down. So, if you’ve noticed the huge wasps and bumble bees flying around this spring, just remember – you’re among royalty.

Connal McLean is affiliated with The Moths and Butterflies of New Zealand Trust and The Entomological Society of New Zealand.

Jennifer Jandt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. Royal gardens: how queen bees and wasps set our backyards abuzz in readiness for summer – https://theconversation.com/royal-gardens-how-queen-bees-and-wasps-set-our-backyards-abuzz-in-readiness-for-summer-242110

Mosquito-borne diseases are on the rise. Here’s how collecting mozzies in your backyard can help science

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cameron Webb, Clinical Associate Professor and Principal Hospital Scientist, University of Sydney

Cameron Webb/NSW Health Pathology

Warm weather is here and mosquitoes are on the rise in Australia. Unseasonably large swarms are causing problems in some parts of Sydney already.

Health authorities track mosquitoes across the country to provide an early warning of mosquito-borne disease risk, but they can’t be everywhere. Citizen scientists can step in to help – with excellent success.

Our latest research explored the value of an Australian program called Mozzie Monitors, not just as a surveillance tool but an educational one too.

Citizen scientists are everywhere

Citizen science – when non-scientists help scientists collect data – has become a powerful tool in environmental research. With appropriate training, the community can contribute to scientific discoveries alongside professional scientists.

By combining citizen science data with professionally collected data, everyone benefits. With a greater quantity of reliable data, authorities are more informed when making decisions about environmental protections, wildlife conservation and human health.

People are often drawn to “charismatic” wildlife such as cute mammals, birds or frogs. But our project shows that helping scientists track mosquitoes can improve community understanding of these pesky insects and the public health risks they bring.

Mosquitoes and mosquito-borne disease in Australia

There are hundreds of types of mosquitoes in Australia. Only a dozen or so pose pest and public health risks – but these risks are serious.

Ross River virus infects around 5,000 people every year. The disease it causes isn’t fatal but can be debilitating. There are other viruses spread by mosquitoes that, while very rare, can be deadly.

There are limited opportunities for mosquito control. To prevent disease, raising awareness of mosquito risk and avoiding being bitten are key strategies.

To provide an early warning of elevated public health risks, most state and territory health authorities monitor mosquito and virus activity. But they can only operate so many mosquito traps each season, leading to gaps in coverage.

This is where citizen scientists come in.

With hundreds of different types of mosquito in Australia, knowing what’s biting helps determine local health risks.
Cameron Webb/NSW Health Pathology

What’s the Mozzie Monitors program?

Scientists at the University of South Australia started Mozzie Monitors in 2018 to offer an innovative approach to mosquito monitoring. It collects valuable data on mosquito populations and provides participants with useful knowledge.

Participants use low-cost mosquito traps in their backyards to capture mosquitoes. They photograph the collections and send them to researchers for identification.

Citizen scientists also contribute observations through the existing online platform iNaturalist. The beauty of tapping into this platform is that it captures observations by both active participants and casual citizen scientists.

More than 200 people have participated in Mozzie Monitors to date, capturing more than 15,000 mosquitoes and uploading some 8,000 photographs online.

It’s already been shown to be a cost-effective complement to traditional mosquito monitoring programs in Australia. This approach has also been adapted overseas.

Scientists identify and count mosquito species to assist local health authorities.
Cameron Webb/NSW Health Pathology

Monitoring mosquitoes and picking up knowledge

We compared data collection by Mozzie Monitors participants in South Australia and Western Australia. There were differences in both the types of mosquitoes collected and their numbers.

While the Australian backyard mosquito (Aedes notoscriptus) and the southern house mosquito (Culex quinquefasciatus) were the most common across both areas, the citizen scientist data also provided insights into the coastal wetland mosquitoes unique to each area.

Mosquito collections were just the start.

We surveyed 26 people about their experience participating in Mozzie Monitors. Their mosquito identification and technical skills significantly improved while taking part in the program. They successfully learned to identify the most common mosquitoes in their backyards while improving their photography skills.

For scientists who received the data, better photos resulted in better specimen identification.

Perhaps most importantly, the study highlighted behavioural changes in citizen scientists that will have public health benefits for themselves, their families and neighbours.

Citizen scientists only need a smartphone to collect valuable information on the local environment.
Larissa Braz Sousa (University of Sydney)

Before their participation in Mozzie Monitors, the citizen scientists we surveyed stopped mosquito bites around their properties only by using insect screens. After participating in the program, they were more likely to check their backyards for mosquitoes and eliminate their source (for example, by tipping out water-filled containers).

This change in attitude highlights the program’s power to translate knowledge and skills into actions that can protect participants, and their households, from the health risks of mosquitoes.

Participants had a range of motivations for joining the program. Many were driven by concerns about nuisance or mosquito-borne diseases, while others were motivated by a general interest in science and volunteering.

They appreciated the program’s ease of participation and the opportunity to contribute to valuable research. They also reported improved understanding of mosquito species.

Seen mosquitoes around your home?

Mozzie Monitors shows how citizen science can empower communities to identify common local mosquito species, understand their impact on human health, and take proactive measures to avoid mosquito-borne disease.

By combining knowledge, technical skills and action, the program helps safeguard local communities from the health threats of mosquitoes.

If you’re noticing more mosquitoes around your home, consider sharing photos with scientists by uploading them to iNaturalist. This database makes scientific observations freely available to all. Identifying mosquito species helps us better understand disease risks and nuisance biting, enabling more effective prevention and control efforts.

Mosquitoes may not be the most charismatic of Australia’s wildlife. But by participating in citizen science projects such as Mozzie Monitors, learning about these pests may be the secret to keeping your family safe from their bites this summer.

Cameron Webb and the Department of Medical Entomology, NSW Health Pathology and University of Sydney, have been engaged by a wide range of insect repellent and insecticide manufacturers to provide testing of products and provide expert advice on mosquito biology. Cameron has also received funding from local, state and federal agencies to undertake research into mosquito-borne disease surveillance and management.

Craig Williams receives funding from the NH&MRC and the South Australian Department of Environment and Water.

Larissa Braz Sousa received funding from the Australian Technology Network (ATN-LATAM) Research Scholarship during her PhD research at the University of South Australia. She is a co-founder of the not-for-profit Ferox australis and a Management Committee member at the Australian Citizen Science Association.

Stepen Fricker is Operations Manager for Medical Entomology, Public Health Unit – Centre for Disease Control and Environmental Health Office of the Chief Health Officer, NT Health and co-founder of the not-for-profit Ferox australis.

Katherine Baldock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. Mosquito-borne diseases are on the rise. Here’s how collecting mozzies in your backyard can help science – https://theconversation.com/mosquito-borne-diseases-are-on-the-rise-heres-how-collecting-mozzies-in-your-backyard-can-help-science-244511

We’re quick to limit kids’ screen time. Parents can also benefit from setting boundaries for themselves

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Wheeler, Physical activity researcher, Deakin University | Lecturer in science communication, The University of Melbourne

Nicoleta Ionescu/Shutterstock

In many households, screens are part of daily life – from work to entertainment.

But for parents, setting boundaries around screens isn’t just about kids; it’s also about modelling a balanced approach to screen use. Our research shows parents who spend excessive time on screens may unconsciously encourage similar habits in their children.

Excessive screen time in young children is linked to developmental delays in communication and problem-solving. One explanation is that screen time displaces parent–child interactions that are crucial for development. This is often framed as the child’s screen time displacing these interactions.

But when parents use their smartphones a lot, this is associated with lower responsiveness and attention towards their children, particularly when this screen time occurs during routines such as meal time.

Parents don’t need to ban screens to be more present with their kids. If parents watch age-appropriate TV with their kids, this has a positive effect on literacy – possibly due to conversations about the content of the show.

There is a lot parents can do to foster healthier screen habits in the family through positive role-modelling and thoughtful management.

Managing screen time is also important for a parent’s own physical and mental health.

The health impact of sedentary screen time

Screen time often means sitting for long stretches, which can be bad for our physical and mental health.

Our work has shown prolonged periods of sitting can impair blood sugar regulation, blood pressure, brain blood flow and cognitive function.

But that doesn’t mean you should you feel guilty every time you retire to the couch for some well-deserved Netflix.

Some of these effects can be eliminated by either exercising before a prolonged bout of sitting or breaking up sitting every 30 minutes with some light activity – ideally both.

Break up prolonged sitting with a walk or other actvity.
Maxim Ibragimov/Shutterstock

You don’t even need to pause the TV to fit in these activity breaks. One study found that breaking up a sedentary evening of watching TV every 30 minutes with short bursts of bodyweight exercise (squats, calf raises and hip extensions) increased sleep duration by 30 minutes. This is important because sleep boosts your immune system, which helps maintain good physical and mental health.

While exercise and sleep helps, screen content also matters. Mentally passive screen use – such as scrolling through social media – has been linked to higher risks of depression and even dementia, whereas mentally active screen use (problem-solving and work tasks) may actually protect you.

While almost two-thirds of parents think they can reduce their sedentary screen time, for the remaining third, swapping passive for mentally active screen time is another option.

Our eyes and brain need a break too

Our eyes and minds aren’t designed for constant screen time. Staring at a screen for too long can give us dry eyes, headaches and blurred vision – all symptoms of eye strain.

Screens also affect our brains. Research has found excessive and disordered screen use is linked to deficits in cognitive function. Our brains need breaks to consolidate information and recharge. Without regular breaks, we risk cognitive burnout, which makes it harder to stay productive, focus and potentially even manage screen time.

Our bodies struggle with constant screen time.
Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

What can we do?

Guidelines recommend adults limit recreational sedentary screen time. But the message to simply “limit your screen time” may be unhelpful to many, especially when screens are embedded into modern life.

Here are some other ways to reduce the negative consequences of excessive screen time:

  • avoid digital eye strain. Follow the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, give your eyes a break by looking at something 20 feet (6 metres) away for 20 seconds

  • move regularly. Exercise regularly and break up sedentary screen time with activity every 30 minutes for metabolic and cognitive benefits

  • limit passive screen time. Try swapping some passive screen activities (doom scrolling) for mentally engaging ones, such as puzzles, creative projects or educational content

  • modelling balanced screen use for kids. This might mean viewing educational shows together and discussing them.

Finally, we can’t solely blame a lack of self-control for poor management of screen time. The content on our screens is designed to be addictive for parents and kids.

One parent reported that their child would avoid going to the toilet to the point of wetting themselves when playing the online game Roblox, because they didn’t want their character to die.

Many parents can relate – albeit with better bladder control. We have all experienced doom scrolling where time seems to disappear, and we can’t even recall what we saw.

If you are at risk of doom scrolling right now, one idea is to listen to some tips on how to stop. Consider going for a walk and giving yourself a break. You’ll feel better for it.

David Dunstan has previously funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council and the Heart Foundation of Australia.

Lauren Arundell receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Paddy Dempsey receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). He is also on the Leadership Group for the newly-developed Australian 24-hour Movement Behaviour Guidelines for Adults and Older Adults (due for release in 2025).

Mats Hallgren and Michael Wheeler do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. We’re quick to limit kids’ screen time. Parents can also benefit from setting boundaries for themselves – https://theconversation.com/were-quick-to-limit-kids-screen-time-parents-can-also-benefit-from-setting-boundaries-for-themselves-240904

Australia’s electricity market is getting a big makeover – and these 3 changes will make it future-proof

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Skarbek, CEO, Climateworks Centre

Shutterstock

The federal government this week tasked an expert panel with making Australia’s largest grid, the National Electricity Market, fit for our changing energy system.

Reform is badly needed. Australia is trying to transition to renewable energy using rules established in 1998 – when the energy mix was dominated by coal-fired power and energy use was more predictable.

The review is welcome. But unless its scope is sufficiently broad, it risks failing to address all the issues plaguing Australia’s electricity system. Below, we outline three priorities for the panel to include in its work.

Getting this right is important. It could secure jobs, lower bills, shore up industries, and help Australia unlock its full potential in a net-zero economy.

Rules governing Australia’s electricity system are outdated.
Shutterstock

An electricity system fit for the future

The National Electricity Market is both a wholesale electricity market (where electricity is bought and sold) and a physical power system (including generators, transmission lines, poles and wires). It operates everywhere in Australia except Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

The government-appointed panel is tasked with examining the wholesale market. Its remit covers matters such as:

  • electricity reliability
  • how the system interacts with governments’ renewable energy policies
  • decarbonising electricity to reach Australia’s emissions reduction targets.
  • how the reforms might be implemented.

This remit risks missing a window to expand Australia’s export economy.

Our research shows Australia’s energy grid needs to be double the size of what’s currently planned if we’re to expand industries that run on clean energy, and start exporting renewable energy and products. Such expansion would help Australia thrive in a net-zero world.

That’s why we recommend the expert panel expand its review to the following three areas.

Australia’s energy grid needs to double in size.
Shutterstock

1. Match design with economy-wide ambition

Every two years, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) releases a 20-year roadmap for Australia’s electricity market. It’s formally known as the Integrated System Plan.

Currently, the market operator must base the plan on a scenario “most likely” to eventuate. This constraint risks tracking towards an energy grid half the size of what Australia needs.

Instead, the plan should be based on what could, and should, be done to meet the country’s climate ambition, while ensuring reliability and affordability.

The federal government wants new industrial activity – and its policies to achieve this will profoundly transform the energy system. At the heart of the planned Future Made in Australia policy, for example, is an ambition to become a “renewable energy superpower”.

Such intentions and policies should be included in Australia’s energy system planning. The current review is an opportunity to do this.

2. Pair national and local plans

Heavy industries contribute around 44% of Australia’s total emissions. They can get to net-zero by investing in cleaner technology, matched by new investment in renewable energy generation, transmission and storage.

The demand for electricity in these sectors is set to rise, so the time to act is now.

To help manage this shift, we have previously advocated for new “net zero industrial precincts” – physical clusters of investment in renewable energy and low-carbon technology. Businesses could share resources, talent and clean energy, creating efficiencies and reducing costs.

But such precincts require an energy system that meets future demand. Any solutions proposed by the expert panel should address this need.

Australia’s heavy industries can achieve net-zero emissions, with a little help.
Daniel Munoz/AAP

3. Supercharge energy performance

So-called “energy performance” is also key to the energy transformation. It involves energy efficiency, electrification, and managing when energy is used.

These measures can help lower energy costs for consumers, ensure reliable energy and reduce the need for expensive new power infrastructure.

The current rules for the National Electricity Market are ill-suited to a system where energy is generated and stored in diverse locations, such as car batteries, rooftops and community battery facilities.

This risks stalling the deployment of new technologies, driving up costs and missing opportunities for consumers to access cleaner, more efficient energy solutions.

Energy performance is currently managed across different governments, departments and energy system players. Responsibility vested in a single body can ensure effective oversight. And rules around energy performance should be updated to recognise the need to rapidly decarbonise and decentralise energy systems.

Australia’s energy sources are becoming increasingly distributed. Rooftop solar is case in point.
Shutterstock

Australia powering ahead

There is no escaping the energy transition ahead. Getting the settings right will define Australia’s role in a decarbonised global economy.

It would also lower energy bills. Poorly designed energy markets too often result in consumers paying more than they need to.

The panel should be allowed to fully consider how best to align the national energy system with Australia’s renewable energy and climate ambitions.

Anna Skarbek is on the board of the Centre for New Energy Technologies, the Green Building Council of Australia, and the Asia-Pacific Advisory Board of the Glasgow Financial Alliance on Net Zero. She was a member of the Net Zero Economy Agency Advisory Board, and is a member of the Grattan Institute’s energy program reference panel and the Blueprint Institute’s strategic advisory council. Anna Skarbek is CEO of Climateworks Centre which receives funding from philanthropy and project-specific financial support from a range of private and public entities including federal, state and local government and private sector organisations and international and local non-profit organisations. Climateworks Centre works within Monash University’s Sustainable Development Institute.

Matthew Benetti does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. Australia’s electricity market is getting a big makeover – and these 3 changes will make it future-proof – https://theconversation.com/australias-electricity-market-is-getting-a-big-makeover-and-these-3-changes-will-make-it-future-proof-244739

Black Friday sales are on again. To score a genuine bargain, it helps to go in with a plan

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Park Thaichon, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Southern Queensland

Tomorrow is Black Friday, the official beginning of one of the biggest sales events of the year.

With so many consumers still feeling the cost-of-living pinch, it’s expected to once again bring bargain hunters out in droves.

While some sales have already started, market research company Roy Morgan estimates Australian shoppers will spend a record $6.7 billion over the four-day shopping window. That’s up more than 5% on last year.

For Australians, it’s one of three big annual sales events. The others take place at the end of each financial year (EOFY) and on Boxing Day.

Despite being a recent entrant to Australia, Black Friday has quickly become one of the most important shopping days of the year.

For consumers, navigating these sales and dodging the marketing tricks played by retailers is no mean feat. Here’s what you should know.

What exactly is Black Friday?

Black Friday as a major sales event originated in the United States. It falls on the day after Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November each year.

A four day sales window then typically runs over the weekend after Thanksgiving, including “Cyber Monday” – a similar event that was set up more recently to encourage online shopping.

Black Friday originated in the US but has become popular around the world.
Nelson Antoine/Shutterstock

But as you might have noticed, this official start date doesn’t prevent retailers from discounting products earlier, something many do.

Australians don’t officially celebrate Thanksgiving. Nonetheless, the sales event has gained significant traction here over the past decade or so.

This was initially driven by big US companies operating here, such as Apple and Amazon. But it was soon adopted and ultimately embraced by Australia’s own big retailers.

Some Australian retailers now say Black Friday has already overtaken Boxing Day to become their most important sales event, a standing it could well cement further this year.

It’s been a similar story across much of the world. Countries including Canada, Brazil, France and the UK all now mark the occasion with their own big sales events.

How do big sales work?

Black Friday and other big sales events are designed to create a sense of urgency. They lean heavily into the phenomenon known as fear of missing out – called FOMO for short.

Retailers know that shoppers feel the pressure to buy when they think they might miss out. This is called scarcity marketing.

Retailers have ways of creating artificial scarcity, which can pressure us to make purchase decisions that aren’t in our best interests.

You’ve probably seen phrases in stores and online such as “only two left!” or “today only”. These tactics are designed to make you act.

The extent of savings can also depend on retailers’ dynamic pricing tactics. Many businesses use algorithms to adjust discounts in real time based on customer demand, inventory levels and competitor trends.

Popular items may start with small discounts, while less popular products get larger price cuts to attract interest.

How to be a savvy shopper

With these factors in mind, there are a few strategies that can help you you keep a clear head.

One tactic is to create a shopping list and understand the importance of sticking to predetermined purchase decisions and a predetermined budget. Prioritise needs over impulsive wants.

For example, if you need to replace an old keyboard amid a big sale, set a budget before you start looking, and try to avoid buying an entirely new computer just because it’s discounted in-store.

Shoppers should prepare for fluctuating prices, while being cautious of tactics such as artificially inflated “fake” discounts, where original prices are exaggerated to make savings seem more appealing.

Our previous research has shown price promotion can trigger customer emotions such as surprise and lead to anticipated regret, influencing their purchase decisions.

Our previous research has examined how emotions caused by discounts can evoke anticipated regret.
Kardasov Films/Shutterstock

Go in with a plan

Another tactic is to do some window shopping in the days or weeks beforehand. This allows you to check and research the products you’re interested in. Note down their non-sale prices for future reference.

Create a list of where to buy, along with a few alternatives. For shoes and clothing, try things on if you can and note down your size. That can help you act quickly once the sales go live.

And in the excitement of all the sales, don’t forget: if you don’t actually want or need anything, there’s always the option of not shopping at all.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. Black Friday sales are on again. To score a genuine bargain, it helps to go in with a plan – https://theconversation.com/black-friday-sales-are-on-again-to-score-a-genuine-bargain-it-helps-to-go-in-with-a-plan-244509

Who really was Māui, the demigod portrayed in Moana? And did Disney get him right?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mike Ross, Head of School, Te Kawa a Māui, School of Māori Studies, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Disney

I enjoyed Disney’s 2016 film Moana. My relatives and I attended the Reo Māori release here in Aotearoa, in a packed theatre of Māori language supporters. Watching the film in our own language was emotional and powerful.

Moana is a seagoing adventure portraying the courage of its Pacific characters. I see many aspects of Māori communities represented in the film: our elders, our voyaging history, our language and culture, our ability to adapt, our sense of spirituality and our hope.

I see the characters in my own whānau (extended family). My nephew is similar to the character of Māui, the demigod voiced by Dwayne Johnson. He’s a likeable “big-boned” fulla with a quick wit – an overly confident rascal who draws others to him with a playfulness that gets him into (and out of) trouble.

At the same time, movies like Moana – in which non-Indigenous creators try to tell Indigenous stories – raise sensitive questions about authenticity, cultural appropriation and veiled forms of continuing colonisation.

Disney’s bottom line is to develop characters and storylines that suit a global market and will ultimately be financially viable. Perhaps this is why it missed so many key characteristics of Māui as he is known to the Polynesian people.

Māui returns to the big screen in Disney’s Moana 2.
Disney

In Moana, there is a mystique around Māui’s demigod status; he sits in the space between the gods and humanity. Like the Māui of Polynesia, he can shapeshift, wields a magic hook and is courageous.

Yet this Hollywood Māui would have no chance against the Māui of Polynesia, who is not a god to be worshipped, but a spirit – a set of characteristics identified through the actions of a person. Māui’s spirit lives today and can be activated by his descendants to do extraordinary things.

Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia make up the Pacific islands.
Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

A Māori view of Māui

Māui’s biggest muscles were in his head and stomach (where Māori believe the core being of a person is located). However, there is no record of him having an appearance that made him stand out in the community.

When Māui decided to rejoin his birth family as a young man, he lined up with his brothers, and his mother was unable to see a difference between the siblings’ physical builds. This is in contrast with his unusually large build in Moana.

He also wasn’t the playful, reckless larrikin depicted in Moana. He saw the world through clear eyes and calculated his way forward, courageously approaching challenges as opportunities to demonstrate his mastery.

He was innovative, intelligent, confident and resourceful – and most of what he did would benefit the whole community. That said, he could also be devious, cruel and jealous as he pushed to achieve his goals.

One of his names is “Māui-pōtiki”, or “Māui the youngest sibling”, which signals the characteristics of someone who challenged the status quo – a free thinker and a clever trickster.

Supernatural power leads to supernatural deeds

Māui faced a series of challenges. Some were forced on him, such as surviving his infancy. At birth he was presumed dead (or near death) and was abandoned to the sea. His grandfather rescued and raised him, teaching him skills, knowledge and karakia – the spiritual means to bend the laws of the universe in his favour.

In Māori lore, Māui is said to have used his fish hook to pull up the pacific islands, including New Zealand.
Wilhelm Dittmer/Wikimedia

He faced many challenges in his world, and his responses conveyed important social and life lessons. For instance, the days were too short and people were unable to complete their work before nightfall. So Māui’s answer was to slow the Sun’s journey across the sky. He convinced his sceptical brothers to help him and they went to the pit where the Sun rose each day.

Armed with plaited ropes, infused with spiritual power to hold the Sun, as well as the sacred jawbone of his ancestor (which he also used as a hook), they stationed themselves around the pit and waited.

As the Sun rose into the morning sky, the brothers pulled their ropes to form a tight net, trapping the Sun. Māui quickly climbed onto the Sun and began to beat him (the Sun is personified and thought to be masculine in Māori belief) with his ancestor’s jawbone.

Dazed and battered, the Sun asked Māui the reason for the attack, who then gave him an ultimatum: “Slow your movement across the sky (or I’ll be back)!” The Sun, from fear and injury, slowed down, providing a useful length of daylight for the people.

While violence may not be a justifiable approach to change, there’s still much to learn from this incident. When you need to get something done, you should have a plan, build a team, make use of the resources available to you, be courageous and go for it.

Stories spread across the seas

Māui is credited with many other exploits. He hauled islands up across the Pacific. He spoke with the gods and creatures of the Earth. He even brought fire to the world from the goddess Mahuika and came close to conquering death.

Māui and the fire goddess, 1952, Wellington, by E Mervyn Taylor. Purchased 2004. Te Papa (2004-0026-1).
Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa, CC BY-SA

Each story contains layers of knowledge, explaining important aspects of the world and human behaviour. This information was so significant that these stories have been passed down through generations for hundreds of years – spread with our voyaging ancestors across the Pacific, the largest continent in the world.

As such, Māui pops up in stories all across Polynesia, reaching into Melanesia and Micronesia. While the tales about the character, attitude, aptitude and mana (the spiritual lifeforce) are similar, variations exist across Polynesia.

Moana aims to entertain and speak to us and our children. Perhaps the sequel will now reawaken Māui-based discussions on marae (Māori communal spaces) and other Pacific forums. Or perhaps the spirit of Māui will see this “harmless rascal” persona as a launch pad to galvanise his descendants into addressing the ills that face them today.

Kia ara ake anō te kawa a Māui – let the spirit of Māui arise. And enjoy the movie.

Mike Ross receives funding from Victoria University of Wellington, The Waitangi Tribunal,

ref. Who really was Māui, the demigod portrayed in Moana? And did Disney get him right? – https://theconversation.com/who-really-was-maui-the-demigod-portrayed-in-moana-and-did-disney-get-him-right-223971

Record renewables go into the grid in 2024, generating 45% of electricity in 2025

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

This year will set a record for the addition of renewables to the grid, according to figures to be released on Thursday by the Clean Energy Regulator.

It projects the average annual renewable share of the electricity market will be 45% in 2025. The Albanese government’s target is 82% by 2030.

Total added capacity of renewables is expected to be 7.2 to 7.5 gigawatts in 2024, says the CER, which is responsible for accelerating carbon abatement.

Large scale power station approvals this year are expected to exceed a capacity of 4.2 GW, after the approval of Australia’s largest wind farm, MacIntyre wind farm in Queensland at 923 MW.

The new generation capacity is mainly wind (70%) and “will result in a material step up in the share of renewables as these new power stations reach full generation in the second half of 2025”.

An extra 1.2 GW of capacity has been applied for and is expected to be approved early next year.

The CER also expects a 3.15 GW increase in small-scale rooftop solar capacity.

The Australian Energy Market Commission, which makes the rules for the electricity and gas markets, will release residential energy price trends projecting that over the next decade residential electricity costs will decline, while delays to renewables would increase costs.

The AEMC suggests a household that is fully electrified could reduce its annual energy spending by 70% (or $3500 a year).

Energy Minister Chris Bowen will use his Thursday climate statement to parliament to warn against shifting course away from renewables, arguing they will bring down prices.

In a speech released in part ahead of delivery, Bowen says the AEMC data confirms that more renewables in the system “will continue pushing energy bills down over the next ten years”.

He says the Clean Energy Regulator “is explicit in its finding that delays to renewables would in fact increase costs”.

Bowen says just under half of the 7.5 GW new renewable capacity “will come front rooftop solar, a sign that households and businesses are getting real value from the economic benefits that come when you harness free sunshine”.

He says the “world-beating uptake” means there is now more rooftop solar capacity in the system “than the entire fleet of coal-fired power stations across the country.

“That means households and businesses are winning on two fronts – looking after our future generations by bringing down emissions, and bringing down power bills today, and for years to come.”

“Suggestions that Australia should turn its back on advancements such as these and revert to a system dominated by fossil fuels will be the nail in the coffin to Australia reaching net zero by 2050.”

With a burst of hot weather this week, the NSW government on Wednesday urged businesses and households to conserve power between 3pm and 8pm. It suggested delaying the use of non-essential appliances such as dishwashers and pool pumps and if possible setting air conditioners to a higher temperature.

This followed the Australian Energy Market Operator forecasting there could be insufficient generation available to meet demand.

Questioned in parliament, Bowen played down the situation saying it was “not an unusual circumstance”.

The Conversation

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. Record renewables go into the grid in 2024, generating 45% of electricity in 2025 – https://theconversation.com/record-renewables-go-into-the-grid-in-2024-generating-45-of-electricity-in-2025-244746

View from The Hill: An ugly fracas in the Senate leads to suspension of Lidia Thorpe

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Wednesday saw an ugly incident that brought shame on the Senate. It was shocking – full of provocation, accusations of racism, and what was described by Senate president Sue Lines as “physically threatening behaviour”.

Three women senators were at the centre of the uproar, which culminated in the maverick Lidia Thorpe being suspended, after she had earlier thrown torn-up paper at One Nation’s Pauline Hanson.

It started when Hanson moved to question the eligibility of former Labor senator Fatima Payman, now a crossbencher, to sit in parliament. Payman, who came from Afghanistan as a child, had trouble trying to renounce her Afghan citizenship because of the Taliban regime.

It is generally accepted she made every reasonable effort to do so.
But that is not enough for Hanson, who claims Payman hasn’t provided sufficient documentation. She wants a committee to look into the matter, a proposal rejected by everyone except One Nation and UAP senator Ralph Babet.

Hanson’s raising the matter prompted a passionate speech from Payman. She told Hanson “you’re not just vindictive, mean, nasty. You bring disgrace to the human race.

“I kept on giving you the benefit of the doubt, Senator Hanson, despite your repetitive attempts to be racist to anyone who does not look like you.

“Senator Hanson has worn the burqa in this place. Maybe it’s time that she pack her burqa and go to Afghanistan and talk to the Taliban about this,” Payman said.

Thorpe supported Payman, calling Hanson a “convicted racist”. During the fracas she tore up Hanson’s motion and tossed the paper at her.

Thorpe said outside parliament, “It’s a clear example of why we need much better standards around racism in parliament, which can be such a violent, racist place”.

To say Thorpe has form in causing disruption is a considerable understatement. Hanson used to be seen as the most inflammatory figure in the Senate but she has been outdone, if that’s the word, by the Victorian Indigenous senator whose mantra is the pursuit of “blak sovereignty”.

Thorpe recently made national headlines when she disrupted the parliamentary reception during the visit of King Charles. Less than a fortnight ago, the Senate censured her for that.

On Monday this week she referred to Labor Indigenous senators senators as “native police”, and only withdrew under protest a day later.

By the end of Wednesday most senators once again had had enough, resolving to take action. Lines, who’d already called out Thorpe’s latest conduct, told the chamber that following talks with the leaders of the parties, she had written to Thorpe indicating she should be present at 6pm, when Lines intended to make another statement on the incident. Thorpe had advised her she would not be there.

Moving for Thorpe’s suspension – which is only until the end of Thursday when the parliament is due to rise for the year – Senate leader Penny Wong said: “All Australians have a right to be safe at work”.

Wong said debate in the Senate too often was “turning to aggression, to hateful and personal attacks”.

She said there had been “multiple instances of Thorpe making inappropriate, sometimes abusive comments towards other senators and then disrupting proceedings by refusing to withdraw”.

“This fortnight alone, the senator has been censured by the Senate, swore in the chamber repeatedly, made offensive gestures when leaving the chamber and made comments resulting in First Nations senators from across this chamber feeling culturally unsafe.

“And all of that was prior to today’s incident.

“This behaviour would not be tolerated in any workplace and we cannot tolerate it in our workplace.”

The motion to suspend Thorpe was voted on without debate. Only the Greens opposed it – the colleagues whom Thorpe had deserted in 2023, for the freedom of being an independent.

Greens senator Larissa Waters said Thorpe’s behaviour was not appropriate. But it was “in the context of a debate that had racially charged overtones”.

The Conversation

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. View from The Hill: An ugly fracas in the Senate leads to suspension of Lidia Thorpe – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-an-ugly-fracas-in-the-senate-leads-to-suspension-of-lidia-thorpe-244754

Cynical politics reported on world stage damage NZ’s reputation

COMMENTARY: By Gavin Ellis

“Flashpoint” in a foreign news story usually brings to mind the Middle East or the border between North and South Korea. It is not a term usually associated with New Zealand but last week it was there in headline type.

News outlets around the world carried reports of the Hīkoi and protests against Act’s Treaty Principles Bill, with the overwhelming majority characterising the events as a serious deterioration in this country’s race relations.

The Associated Press report carried the headline “New Zealand’s founding treaty is at a flashpoint: Why are thousands protesting for Māori rights?”. That headline was replicated by press and broadcasting outlets across America, by Yahoo, by MSN, by X, by Voice of America, and by news organisations in Asia and Europe.

Reuters’ story on the hikoi carried the headline: “Tens of thousands rally at New Zealand parliament against bill to alter indigenous rights”. That report also went around the world.

So, too, did the BBC, which reaches 300 million households worldwide: “Thousands flock to NZ capital in huge Māori protest”.

The Daily Mail’s website is given to headlines as long as one of Tolstoy’s novels and told the story in large type: “Tens of thousands of Māori protesters march in one of New Zealand’s biggest ever demonstrations over proposed bill that will strip them of ‘special rights’”. The Economist put it more succinctly: “Racial tensions boil over in New Zealand”.

In the majority of cases, the story itself made clear the Bill would not proceed into law but how many will recall more than the headline?

An even bleaker view
Readers of The New York Times were given an even bleaker view of this country by their Seoul-based reporter Yan Zhuang. He characterised New Zealand as a country that “veers sharply right”, electing a government that has undone the “compassionate, progressive politics” of Jacinda Ardern, who had been “a global symbol of anti-Trump liberalism”.

Critiquing the current government, The Times story stated: “In a country that has been celebrated for elevating the status of Māori, its indigenous people, it has challenged their rights and prominence of their culture and language in public life, driving a wedge into New Zealand society and setting off waves of protests.”

Christopher Luxon may have judged “limited” support for David Seymour’s highly divisive proposed legislation as a worthwhile price to pay for the numbers to give him a grip on power. For his part, Seymour may have seen the Bill as a way to play to his supporters and hopefully add to their number.

Did either man, however, consider the effect that one of the most cynical political ploys of recent times — giving oxygen to a proposal that has not a hope in hell of passing into law — would have on this country’s international reputation?

Last week’s international coverage did not do the damage. Those outlets were simply reporting what they observed happening here. If some of the language — “flashpoint” and “boiling over” — look emotive, how else should 42,000 people converging on the seat of government be interpreted?

The damage was done by the architect of the Bill and by the Prime Minister giving him far more freedom than he or his proposal deserve.

Nor will the reputational damage melt away, dispersing in as orderly manner like the superbly organised Hīkoi did last Tuesday. It will endure even beyond the six months pointlessly given to select committee hearings on the Bill.

Australia’s ABC last week signalled ongoing protest and its story on the Treaty Principles Bill would have left Australians bewildered that a bill “with no path forward” could be allowed to cause so much discord. Image: AJ screenshot APR

Alerted to the story
International media have been alerted to the story and they will continue to follow it. Many have staff correspondents and stringers in this country or across the Tasman who will be closely monitoring events.

Australia’s ABC last week signalled ongoing protest and its story on the Treaty Principles Bill would have left Australians bewildered that a bill “with no path forward” could be allowed to cause so much discord.

“The Treaty Principles Bill may be doomed,” said the ABC’s Emily Clark, “but the path forward for race relations in New Zealand is now much less clear.”

So, too, is New Zealand’s international reputation as a country where the rights of its tangata whenua were indelibly recognised by those that followed them. Even though imperfectly applied, the relationship is far more constructive than that which many colonised countries have with their indigenous peoples.

We are held by many to be an example to others and that is part of the reason New Zealand has a position in the world that is out of proportion to its size and location.

Damage to that standing is a very high price to pay for giving a minor party a strong voice . . . one that will be heard a very long way away.

Gavin Ellis holds a PhD in political studies. He is a media consultant and researcher. A former editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Herald, he has a background in journalism and communications – covering both editorial and management roles – that spans more than half a century.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

56 Year 12 exams in Victoria have been compromised, including maths and biology. What does this mean for students?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Lewis, Associate Professor, Australian Catholic University

LBeddoe/Shutterstock

After more than a week of uncertainty, we now know the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) results. Not for Victoria’s Year 12 students who sat the exams, but the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority responsible for running them. And the results are not good.

We now have the list of Victorian Year 12 exams that were compromised when questions and exam materials were accidentally posted online before students sat their assessments.

The exams include major subjects such as mathematics, biology, economics and legal studies. They also include ancient history, dance, drama, food studies, geography, media, physical education and English.

The new head of the assessment authority Marcia Devlin said information revealed about English exams was already in the public domain and didn’t contain any of the exam questions.

What does this list, and the ongoing confusion, mean for students?

What has happened so far?

Last week, the Victorian government confirmed 56 exams had been affected by a breach this year. This is out of 116 exams for 2024.

We also saw Kylie White, the head of the Victoria’s assessment authority, resign after only 12 months in the job.

The breach happened when exam questions were mistakenly published online before students did the exams, in a “hidden” section of sample assessments.

Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll has apologised for the error and has ordered a review into what happened. On Wednesday, he said:

I would like to again apologise to every single student, parent, carer that have been affected by this publication.

The bungle has led to concerns from schools some students could lose marks or get an unfair advantage in the process.

Exams are now being marked and the results are due to be released on December 12.

What happens now?

This is the second consecutive year of VCE testing turmoil. In 2023, thousands of students sat exams that contained errors. In March 2024, a review into the exams made six “high-level recommendations” to improve the exam process.

But more changes are obviously needed. While the new review will seek to address these issues for next year, current Year 12 students and the community are anxious to know what happens next.

The assessment authority will use a process called “anomalous grade checking”.

It will review student responses in the 56 compromised VCE exams and identify where exam errors might have affected student marks. If student marks have been affected, the process can invalidate “faulty” questions or can award all students who sat the exam question a full mark.

How can we support students?

For Year 12 students and their families, VCE exams are already a time of considerable stress. So, supporting Year 12 students as they wait for their results is the most important thing.

Carroll has previously said the exam authority will ensure “all students are treated fairly and no student is disadvantaged”.

But students with specific concerns should speak first with their teachers, as all schools have been in regular contact with the assessment authority.

It is also a useful time to put Year 12 results and ATAR scores in context.

While these exam marks are important, they are certainly not all that matters. Completing Year 12 is an immense achievement itself. For many, this will be in spite of significant personal hardship or disadvantage.

Also, learning is a lifelong endeavour that extends far beyond school. Year 12 scores might measure performance at school, but they do not define or predict future success or happiness in life.

Focusing only on narrow definitions of success can condition current and future Year 12 students to think these marks are all that matters. Amid the current (and deserved) close scrutiny on these exams, it is also important to remind students they are always more than their exam scores.




Read more:
‘Practically perfect’: why the media’s focus on ‘top’ Year 12 students needs to change


What are the compromised VCE subjects?

Arts and humanities

Ancient History
Art Creative Practice
Art Making and Exhibiting
Australian Politics
Classical Studies
Dance
Drama
Geography
Global Politics
History Revolutions
Media
Music Composition
Music Contemporary Performance
Music Inquiry
Music Repertoire Performance
Religion and Society
Text and Traditions
Theatre Studies

English and languages

English
Aboriginal Languages Victoria
Chinese First Language
Chinese Second Language
English as an Additional Language

Science and mathematics

Biology
Environmental Science
Foundation Mathematics
Mathematical Methods 1
Mathematical Methods 2
Psychology
Specialist Mathematics 1
Specialist Mathematics 2

Health and physical education, design and technologies

Food Studies
Health and Human Development
Outdoor and Environmental Studies
Physical Education
Product Design and Technology
Systems Engineering

Business and economics

Accounting
Business Management
Economics
Industry and Enterprise
Legal Studies

Digital technologies

Applied Computing Data Analytics
Applied Computing Software Development

Vocational and technology studies

VCE VET Business
VCE VET Community Services
VCE VET Equine Studies
VCE VET Engineering
VCE VET Furnishing
VCE VET Health
VCE VET Hospitality
VCE VET Hospitality Cookery
VCE VET Information and Communications Technology
VCE VET Integrated Technologies
VCE VET Music Sound Production
VCE VET Sports and Recreation

Steven Lewis receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

ref. 56 Year 12 exams in Victoria have been compromised, including maths and biology. What does this mean for students? – https://theconversation.com/56-year-12-exams-in-victoria-have-been-compromised-including-maths-and-biology-what-does-this-mean-for-students-244741

What is Bluesky? Why tens of millions of people are heading for a ‘decentralised’ social media platform

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jean Burgess, Professor and Associate Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, Queensland University of Technology

Mamun Sheikh/Shutterstock

After Elon Musk bought Twitter (now rebranded X) in 2022, disaffected users began to seek alternatives. Alongside Meta’s Threads and the open source project Mastodon, Bluesky was one of several contenders.

Threads benefited from Meta’s existing user base but has failed to capture the popular imagination. Mastodon has proven complicated and difficult to grasp for most ordinary users and so use remains fragmented. Bluesky seemed promising but was in invite-only mode at the time and growth was muted.

But in recent weeks, the migration to Bluesky from X seems to have reached a tipping point, as large parts of the user community finally got fed up with X’s toxic culture and management. Following the recent US presidential election, in which Musk appeared to manipulate X’s algorithms to increase his own influence, these users found Bluesky’s doors wide open.

Since then, the user base has grown to more than 20 million users, a number that continues to climb. As others have noted, at least for the moment it feels a bit like early Twitter – a sandpit to explore new tools, a playful connection to the broader internet, and a relatively safe place to share personal thoughts and experiences, or to connect with friends and colleagues.

How is Bluesky different from X?

Bluesky looks very similar to X. Its azure butterfly icon bears obvious resemblances to Twitter’s blue bird, which Musk replaced with a stark white-on-black X.

Bluesky uses hashtags and users address one another using the @ symbol. Replies, quotes and reposts all work much as they do on X. This comforting resemblance is likely one explanation for the remarkable popularity of Bluesky in comparison to other decentralised platforms such as Mastodon.

Bluesky distinguishes itself from X through a rich set of features through which users can control their experience and shape the culture of the platform as a whole.

You can build multiple custom feeds based on your own interests and relationships then publicly share these feeds with others. This is a powerful mechanism to avoid the one-way “push” of algorithmic feeds and represents a more democratic approach to content curation.

Bluesky offers the ability to create custom “starter packs” – curated lists of suggested accounts related to topics, interests or locations. Starter packs can be shared publicly to help new users find people to follow. This is a novel feature that feels friendly and welcoming, and again doesn’t really rely on a top-down algorithm.

Bluesky’s settings menu also includes powerful content moderation tools that users can control. For example, you can create custom keyword lists to mute some types of content, and control who can interact with you.

This means if you don’t want to listen to certain political views, you don’t have to. It also means you can have a pleasant and sociable time without being subject to hate speech, bullying and harassment.

Critics argue these kinds of user controls will lead to “echo chambers” so the overall public sphere (or public square) is no longer a place for an exchange of differing views. But as I have previously argued, a public square owned by a billionaire that is full of shouting bullies does nothing to enable equal participation either.

How decentralised is Bluesky?

Bluesky began life in 2019 as an experimental project within Twitter, led by co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey.

The idea was to implement for social media a decentralised protocol – a system that prevents complete control by a single organisation and enables developers or users to build improvements. This would also enable Twitter to connect, or “federate”, with other decentralised platforms and services such as Mastodon.

Rather than being adopted by Twitter, Bluesky eventually became a standalone project and then corporation (Dorsey is no longer involved). There are debates as to how truly decentralised and interoperable it is: Bluesky uses its own AT Protocol (ATP), rather than the ActivityPub protocol commonly used throughout the broader “fedisphere” of decentralised social media. Critics argue this choice could limit Bluesky’s reach and hinder interaction across platforms. For example, a “bridge” is needed to connect Bluesky and Mastodon accounts.

Still, like other federated platforms, it is possible for users to host their accounts on their own servers or nodes. At least in principle, the platform, content, users and their relationships could continue to exist even if the Bluesky company were to disappear, or “exit”, in technical terms.

This is a big shift away from one private company owning all the servers, controlling all the algorithms and making all the rules, and so the next phase of Bluesky’s development will depend substantially on the actions of its users.

Blue skies ahead?

As Bluesky rapidly grows larger, familiar questions are beginning to emerge.

How will a small team relying primarily on community-led content moderation handle adversarial swarms of political bots or child sexual abuse material? Will it accept responsibility for the spread of harmful misinformation or manipulation of political opinion? The company is already investing more in trust and safety but more will be needed if Bluesky’s popularity continues to grow.

The organisation’s funding largely comes from libertarian-leaning cryptocurrency investors. The company has been clear advertising will not be part of the mix and has mentioned introducing paid services as an alternative revenue source. It is unclear whether such strategies will be enough to support a far larger operation, and whether the investors will remain neutral as difficult decisions on platform governance have to be made.

Growth may also bring more government interest. If Bluesky reaches more than 45 million EU users per month, it may be categorised as a “very large online platform”, and will face increased scrutiny.

Questions also remain about whether the “Xodus” to Bluesky will stick. A growth in new sign-ups is one thing, but a vibrant community that is actively posting, sharing and commenting is another matter entirely.

It is doubtful we will ever see a full replacement for Twitter in its heyday, and maybe that’s OK. As long as there is some interoperability between platforms and a healthy exchange of ideas, it may be better if we never again put all our little blue eggs in one basket.


Follow The Conversation on Bluesky.

The Conversation

Jean Burgess receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada).

ref. What is Bluesky? Why tens of millions of people are heading for a ‘decentralised’ social media platform – https://theconversation.com/what-is-bluesky-why-tens-of-millions-of-people-are-heading-for-a-decentralised-social-media-platform-244508

‘A dose of nature’: each time you visit a national park, you save the health budget almost $100

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick O’Connor, Associate Professor in Natural Resource Economics, University of Adelaide

Jakub Maculewicz, Shutterstock

Visiting a national park is good for our health and wellbeing. But the benefits are not shared equally across the community. Often the people who need it most are least able to access a high-quality dose of nature.

We wanted to quantify the benefit to the health system, in dollar terms. After all, health budgets are steadily growing while urban green spaces with high biodiversity are often degraded and squeezed by development.

Our new research puts a dollar value on the health benefits of visits to national parks within reach of the city of Adelaide in South Australia. We estimate every visit saves the health budget almost A$100 ($96).

Scaled up across the country, this means the 22 million day trips to national parks in 2019 could shave more than $2.1 billion off the nation’s health bill every year. This estimate assumes visits and benefits are similar across the country. It can pay to look after nature.

How did we estimate this?

Past research shows spending time in nature may reduce stress, depression, anxiety, obesity, type II diabetes, heart disease and lung disease. The health benefits of access to green space are often cited to support the conservation of biodiversity, particularly in cities.

But it’s hard to calculate the economic value of these benefits. There’s a lack of data on the number of people who benefit and it’s difficult to estimate how big the benefit is. For instance, how do you calculate the “dosage” of urban green space as a health treatment and measure the amount of health gained from a given dose?

To find out more, we examined the health benefits of access to nature in 20 national parks within 60 kilometres of central Adelaide over the 2018–19 financial year.

Locator map of 20 national parks within reach of the city centre
Study sites (royal blue) relative to the Adelaide general post office in the city centre (starred).
Author provided

To work out how many people visited each park, and how far they travelled to get there, we used de-identified mobile phone “ping” data.

A ping is what happens when one of the apps on your phone sends a message to the nearest phone tower to check for updates. We obtained app ping data for each of the 20 national parks, which gave us the result of 1.45 million visitors over the 2018–19 year.

We combined the ping data with information from a survey of more than 1,000 park visitors about attitudes towards and use of South Australian parks. It was also combined with general Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data on South Australia’s population health.

We then estimated a health benefit from access to parks for citizens across various socioeconomic groups.

To work this out, we compared self-reported health rating data from people who did or did not visit these parks. This showed people who visit parks are much more likely to report their health as “very good” or “excellent” compared to those who don’t. We also looked at the shifts in health status for different socioeconomic groups.

We were able to control for the differences in underlying health of the people who answered the survey. This gave us a result: the difference in positive self-reported health between park visitors and those who don’t visit was between 2% and 5%.

We then used 2018-19 data on the cost of treating ten categories of major long-term chronic disease – such as diabetes, arthritis and cancer – to estimate savings to the health budget.

How much good does a visit do?

We analysed the health benefits of more than 1.45 million visits to national parks during the course of our study.

We found access to these green spaces could be worth $140 million a year in reduced healthcare costs. This is equivalent to around 4% of the total South Australian healthcare budget.

Dividing $140 million by 1,453,271 visits works out to $96 per visit.

Access to nature is not equal

We found people living in lower socioeconomic areas have to travel about three times as far to visit a national park than people in higher socioeconomic areas.

As a result, people from lower socioeconomic areas tend to make fewer visits to national parks. We found the number of visits for people from these areas was about 20% of the number of visits from people in higher socioeconomic areas.

This means the share of health benefits flowing to people in relatively disadvantaged areas is much lower. Health problems can have a greater financial impact for relatively socioeconomically disadvantaged people. So this group stands to benefit most from increasing access to nature, with greater potential savings for the health budget.

Supporting equal access to nature (Green Adelaide)

Spending on health and the environment

In total, Australia spent around $241.3 billion on health goods and services in 2021–22. That’s about $9,365 per person, on average. Health costs such as hospital spending continue to grow.

Commonwealth public hospital spending alone is expected to grow by $2 billion a year.

At the same time, spending on protecting nature makes up less than 0.1% of the Commonwealth budget and falls short of what Australians want. Almost all Australians (97%) want more action to prevent extinctions and more public investment to protect the environment and natural places (72%).

Our research suggests making nature more accessible by restoring urban biodiversity and increasing access to our protected areas can be a win for people, governments and the budget.

Health benefits for all

To fully realise and share these benefits, we need better integrated budgets which recognise how the natural world benefits our health and the broader economy. This requires being able to measure nature and our use of it in ways we have not been able to before.

Our research has attracted interest from policymakers in the recreation and wellbeing sectors. These sectors are becoming more prominent at the national level, as well as in South Australia, when it comes to valuing national parks and wildlife services.

As we come to better understand the relationships between contact with nature and health outcomes we stand a greater chance of investing well, and equitably, so everyone can benefit from improved physical and mental health.

The Conversation

Patrick O’Connor has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the South Australian, Victorian, New South Wales and Australian governments including the South Australian Department for Environment and Heritage. He is a board director of the Nature Conservation Society of SA, a committee member of the Restoration Decade Alliance and a councillor of the Biodiversity Council.

Adam James Loch has received funding from the South Australian Department for Environment and Water. He has also received ARC and ACIAR funds for both domestic and international projects.

John Maclean has received funding from the South Australian Department for Environment and Water.

ref. ‘A dose of nature’: each time you visit a national park, you save the health budget almost $100 – https://theconversation.com/a-dose-of-nature-each-time-you-visit-a-national-park-you-save-the-health-budget-almost-100-243916

Ceasefires are not a panacea. Here are 4 reasons to be concerned about the Israel-Hezbollah deal

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne

The announcement of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah is welcome news for a region torn apart by more than a year of warfare. Hopefully when implemented, the ceasefire will offer some respite for both Lebanese and Israeli civilians.

The deal came into effect at 4am local time on Wednesday. However, the previous 24–48 hours had seen a dramatic increase in violence on both sides. This is part of a well-established pattern in warfare in which fighting increases in intensity just before a ceasefire comes into force.

My research has shown that while ceasefires may be the least-worst option we have to reduce violence during wartime, they are certainly not a panacea.

Specifically, I study the terms and power dynamics of ceasefires to better understand some of their less obvious consequences. Here are four questions and concerns I have about the current Israel–Hezbollah ceasefire.

1. What happens after 60 days?

The ceasefire agreement reportedly has 13 points that aim to stop the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah for 60 days.

This would, in theory, allow for more than a million people displaced from southern Lebanon and more than 60,000 people displaced from northern Israel to return to their homes.

Returning Israelis to their homes in the north has been one of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s explicit war aims. Thousands of Israelis from the north have been housed in hotels across the country for more than a year at great expense to the government, so there is also a large economic incentive to make this deal happen.

However, given the relatively short timeframe and the fragile nature of the ceasefire, it remains to be seen whether civilians on both sides will take the opportunity to return home.

Additionally, the destruction in southern Lebanon is extensive, making it difficult for people to return within the relatively short timeframe of the truce.

While US President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have said the ceasefire will provide the basis for a “lasting calm”, the terms of the ceasefire provide no details on what will happen at the end of the 60-day period.

2. The conflict could expand to Syria

A number of the terms are concerned with limiting Hezbollah’s ability to rearm during the ceasefire. This includes the dismantling of all unauthorised infrastructure and weapons production facilities in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s main patron, Iran, channels weapons to Hezbollah through Syria. The terms of the ceasefire raise the possibility that Israel will conduct more airstrikes inside Syria to ensure weapons from Iran do not reach Hezbollah.

While this is not explicitly authorised under the terms of the ceasefire or international law, the deal provides Israel with some justification for taking such action. It can argue it is enforcing the terms of the ceasefire by not allowing Hezbollah to rearm via weapons shipments from Iran.

Already in the wake of the ceasefire announcement, Israel targeted sites on Lebanon’s northern border with Syria for the first time, presumably as a way to curb Iran’s influence.

3. Lack of detail on troop withdrawal

In many ways, the ceasefire is based on UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.

It’s ironic the terms of the ceasefire recognise the importance of this resolution when Israel has largely ignoredseveral other UN resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

And arguably, resolution 1701 was never fully implemented by either Israel or Hezbollah.

Another term of the agreement says Israel will gradually withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon over the 60-day period.

During this time, Lebanese Army and state security forces will become “the only entities authorised to carry weapons or deploy troops” in the area south of the Litani River. Al Jazeera has reported that Israel insists Hezbollah dismantles and leaves southern Lebanon before any Israeli soldier withdraws.

Given the ceasefire provides no specific detail on logistics, it remains to be seen whether and how the Israel Defense Forces will withdraw its troops. Additionally, the Lebanese Army and security forces are generally seen as being hugely underfunded, as well as unable and/or unwilling to challenge Hezbollah’s primacy in Lebanon.

Further, another term of the ceasefire says the US will support indirect negotiations between Israel and Lebanon to achieve an internationally recognised delineation of their border.

The explicit mention of negotiations on the border suggests it may change as a result of the ceasefire. This could mean Israel may seek to retain and hold new territory as a result.

4. What about Gaza?

Netanyahu has said the ceasefire will enable Israel to focus its efforts on Hamas fighters in Gaza and his top security concern, Iran.

Other officials have called the ceasefire “a game-changer” that would show Hamas that the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon were de–linked.

Hezbollah had previously insisted it would not agree to a ceasefire until the war in Gaza ended. This new deal presumes this condition has been dropped.

Some have suggested a ceasefire with Hezbollah may put additional pressure on Hamas to agree to a deal with Israel regarding the release of the remaining Israeli hostages it holds.

However, this overlooks the fact Hamas has been willing to make a ceasefire deal in the past, while the Israeli government has stymied negotiations by adding new terms at the last minute.

Further, Qatar was frustrated to such a degree by an “unwillingness to engage” and “lack of good faith” from both sides, it recently withdrew as a mediator between the parties.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah should not take attention away from the fighting in Gaza, nor the horrific and dire humanitarian situation there.

It remains to be seen how the war in Gaza will play out. Will Israel move forward with a more formal occupation of parts of the enclave, as some have suggested? Or will the ceasefire with Hezbollah serve to isolate Hamas to the extent it feels it has even less to lose than it – and the Palestinians – already have?

The Conversation

Marika Sosnowski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. Ceasefires are not a panacea. Here are 4 reasons to be concerned about the Israel-Hezbollah deal – https://theconversation.com/ceasefires-are-not-a-panacea-here-are-4-reasons-to-be-concerned-about-the-israel-hezbollah-deal-244728

People with brain injuries have a high risk of romance scams. ‘Scambassadors’ can help shed stigma

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Gould, Senior Research Fellow and Clinical Neuropsychologist, Monash University

F01 PHOTO/Shutterstock

Romance scams – where scammers create fake identities and use dating or friendship to get your trust and money – cost Australians A$201 million last year.

But the emotional impact of romance scams can often feel worse than losing money. Those who have been scammed may experience shame and embarrassment and have difficulty accepting the relationship wasn’t real.

People who have acquired a brain injury, for example after a stroke or car accident, may be more vulnerable to these scams. My research with colleagues shows they are often less aware of scams and find it harder to recognise red flags.

But our project has found there are benefits when people with brain injuries who have been scammed share their experiences. It can create awareness, reduce stigma and help prevent future scams.

Some groups are more vulnerable

Anyone can be scammed. But some groups are more at risk, including people with a disability such as an acquired brain injury.

We surveyed 101 clinicians in Australia and New Zealand who work with people who have acquired brain injuries. More than half (53%) had a client who had been affected by a cyberscam. The most common type was a romance scam.

How do romance scams work?

Romance scams involve a scammer (or sometimes multiple people) luring someone into a fake relationship in order to exploit them, often to get money. Scammers may use online dating platforms to connect, or social media, gaming and even online shopping sites.

Romance scammers build trust and strong emotions using techniques such as love bombing (early and frequent declarations of affection), grooming and manipulation over an extended period of time. They share common interests and even similar types of trauma to make people trust them. As a romance scam survivor with an acquired brain injury explained:

My way of thinking was sort of skewed because all I seen was love, the money, all the things I wanted, so I didn’t worry about all the other little stuff.

The identity of the scammer usually appears very attractive and trustworthy but is often fake, stolen from a real person or AI-generated. They present lots of evidence and exciting details about their everyday life to appear real and keep people hooked into the relationship.

Scammers use pre-written scripts with compelling narratives describing significant financial success, being a widower or orphan, or working overseas to attract people. Flirty language and flattery makes people want to keep communicating with the scammer. They might tell you they think you have a beautiful smile and their dog or cat would love you.

Scammers will invest weeks and months to build up a connection, then scammers present exciting “opportunities”. These may include investments and requests to cover international flights for a first meet-up. Or paying for medical bills for a sick relative. As a scam survivor with an acquired brain injury explained:

She was really jumping into a kind of quite intimate relationship with me, even though we haven’t met yet, but she’s promising we will one day. All I need to do is send money.

Why are people with brain injuries more at risk?

One in 45 Australians lives with a brain injury acquired during an event such as car accident or stroke. This can damage a specific part of the brain, widespread brain cells (neurons), or both.

The impact of a brain injury varies but can affect cognition, emotions, behaviour and neurological functioning. As a result, people can experience changes in their ability to care for themselves, work, socialise and make complex decisions.

Cognitive difficulties – such as memory problems and reduced information processing – can make it harder to learn, notice and respond to scam red flags in real time. People may struggle to comprehend new or complex information, have reduced judgement and be more impulsive.

Like other vulnerable Australians, people with brain injury may also be bored, lonely and require care. This may mean the scammers’ constant online availability, messaging, attention, praise and acceptance of the person regardless of their disability is even more attractive.

Shame and embarrassment

People with acquired brain injuries may also struggle to move from knowing or intending to do something, to actually enacting that behaviour. This is called the frontal lobe paradox. As one of our interviewees explained:

I make some big realisations and then I forget about it, like … ‘don’t do that again’. And then I go and do it again.

When the scam is uncovered, family, friends and frontline services such as police and banks may respond with blame, judgement and ridicule. This contributes to further distress:

They just say how stupid I was for being
conned.

Scams are likely under-reported to authorities such as Scamwatch as a result of shame and a lack of awareness about scams.

Family and clinicians of people with brain injury may cut or reduce their access to money or the internet, which adds to the scam’s financial and emotional impacts.

As one clinician explained:

The depression […] didn’t come from being scammed. It came from quite the opposite, almost like he […] feels like it’s his right to have access and leave himself open to those things.

Authentic partnerships with people with lived experience

Our research team has developed a suite of tailored resources called CyberAbility, which were co-designed with people who have brain injuries and experience of being scammed. We call them “Scambassadors”.

The Scambassadors alleviate some of the stigma and shame associated with being scammed, through conducting community education sessions, speaking with media, and co-facilitating therapy groups. They also spread awareness to other people with brain injuries about what to look out for – but the advice is helpful for everyone.

You can look out for signs someone in your life is being scammed. This could include a new unmet lover, major unexpected purchases or loans, or an increase in secrecy about online activities.

Approach difficult conversations about possible scams with curiosity, care and patience. Share your own experiences of being scammed or ripped off to normalise this and reduce judgement.

Whoever is scammed, the real fault lies with the criminals who commit this fraud. But regularly discussing scams can help reduce stigma and protect our community.

The Conversation

Kate Gould has received grant funding from the Transport Accident Commission, Lifetime Support Authority, Summer Foundation, auDA Foundation and Monash University.

ref. People with brain injuries have a high risk of romance scams. ‘Scambassadors’ can help shed stigma – https://theconversation.com/people-with-brain-injuries-have-a-high-risk-of-romance-scams-scambassadors-can-help-shed-stigma-239604

Without more investment and better leadership, the AFLW risks slipping back into the shadows

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hans Westerbeek, Professor of International Sport Business, Head of Sport Business Insights Group, Victoria University

The AFL Women’s (AFLW) league was launched in 2017 as the Australian Football League (AFL) responded to growing demand for a professional platform for women in Australian rules football.

Interest had steadily risen over the previous decade, fuelled by an increase in grassroots participation and advocacy for gender equity in sports.

Part of this growth was stimulated by community-level programs and policy changes aimed at encouraging female participation in sports traditionally dominated by men.

As North Melbourne and Brisbane prepare to battle in this year’s grand final, let’s look back at what is working, what isn’t and what needs to be done in the future.

A blaze of glory

In its inaugural year, the AFLW received overwhelming fan support, attracting record-breaking crowds and viewership numbers.

The debut match at Melbourne’s Princes Park attracted more than 24,000 spectators, far surpassing initial expectations.

Other highlights included the emergence of AFLW greats like Erin Phillips, Daisy Pearce and Emma Kearney in the early seasons.

A defining moment occurred in 2019 when Tayla Harris became an unexpected symbol of resilience against misogyny. Captured mid-kick by photographer Michael Willson, Harris’s powerful image went viral.

Rather than celebrating her athleticism, social media was flooded with abusive, sexualised comments.

Unfazed, Harris seized the moment to confront gender-based violence, turning vile trolling into a platform for change.

Beyond her achievements on the field, Harris will be remembered as a trailblazer in the fight against misogyny in sport.

Over time though, challenges also emerged.

Problems arise

Issues around fair wages, part-time contracts, scheduling, and limited support infrastructure underscored the struggle to professionalise fully and retain fan interest.




Read more:
The AFL has consistently put the women’s game second. Is it the best organisation to run AFLW?


These issues resulted in a decline in attendance and television viewership since the inaugural season in 2017.

From an average of more than 6,400 fans per game during 2017–20, crowd numbers dropped significantly to almost 2,600 in 2021–24.

On television, the new league’s debut season attracted an impressive 180,000 viewers per match on average.

By season seven, however, this number had dropped to just 53,000. Notably, that season coincided with the men’s AFL finals, which likely has an impact on visibility and audience retention.

While AFLW boss Emma Moore recently announced a 9.8% increase in average television viewership from 2023, these figures remain far below the league’s early highs.

In cricket, the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) offers an insightful comparison – it overtook the AFLW in TV ratings in 2021 even amid its own challenges.

Despite a decline during the men’s T20 World Cup that year, the WBBL still achieved an average of 174,000 viewers per free-to-air match.

In contrast, AFLW games attracted around 91,000 viewers, according to data from Cricket Australia.

These figures underscore the challenge facing AFLW in an increasingly crowded sports market.

Experts call for action

Kelli Underwood, host of Fox Footy panel show AFLW on Fox, has argued a deep and comprehensive review is required.

Underwood believes the AFLW needs a significant reset before its tenth season, calling for a bold ten-year plan with players at the centre.

She criticises the scheduling, highlighting player fatigue, injuries and overworked staff due to crammed fixtures.

North Melbourne captain Emma Kearney also advocates for significant changes.

She proposes a trial of a heavier size-five football used by men, a longer 17-round season, and double-header matches alongside the men’s competition.

She also notes full-time coaches and better scheduling of matches are required changes.

The decision to expand from eight initial teams to 18 by 2022 has also been queried.

While the intent – to provide a team for every men’s AFL club supporter to cheer on – was commendable, this accelerated expansion has posed challenges to competition quality and development.

By contrast, the National Rugby League’s women’s competition has taken a more measured path.

With just ten teams, the NRLW maintains a consistent Thursday-to-Sunday schedule, allowing each team to face every other side in a home-and-away format, fostering competitive balance and spectator engagement.

What can be done?

At the heart of the AFLW’s struggles is the glaring reality that many players still cannot afford to dedicate themselves to the sport full time.

Many AFLW athletes are left to balance part-time jobs or study with their playing careers, inevitably leading to fatigue and underperformance. The same applies to coaching and support staff.

This part-time model is unsustainable and hinders the development of the league.

In addition to insufficiently rewarded and dedicated staff, the scheduling of AFLW matches is a major concern.

Some believe “football fatigue” is a real issue, in that extending the overall AFL season (sequentially combining the men’s and women’s competitions) is too much.

This hurts the women’s game more than the men’s, while the current fixture also leaves many players with insufficient recovery time between games, contributing to fatigue and injuries.

Poorly timed matches, often competing with other major sports or scheduled in unsuitable time slots, also reduces the number of fans tuning in or attending games.

For the AFLW to avoid fading into obscurity, the AFL must urgently redirect its focus to the human and technical infrastructure that will sustain the league.

This means proper salaries for players and staff, full-time professional roles for coaches and medical teams, and a thoughtfully designed schedule that prioritises player welfare. Partnering with the men’s game (double headers) may create economies of scale and efficiency.

Women’s football in Australia has made enormous strides in the past decade but those gains can be easily undone by neglect.

The AFL must invest in the foundations now – both in the people who make the game happen and the infrastructure that supports them – if the AFLW is to survive and thrive.

Without those investments, women’s football risks slipping back into the shadows.

The Conversation

Hans Westerbeek does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. Without more investment and better leadership, the AFLW risks slipping back into the shadows – https://theconversation.com/without-more-investment-and-better-leadership-the-aflw-risks-slipping-back-into-the-shadows-241366

What’s the difference between gelato and ice cream? One contains more air

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Evangeline Mantzioris, Program Director of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Accredited Practising Dietitian, University of South Australia

frantic00/Shutterstock

As the weather gets warmer, it’s the perfect time for ice cream or a gelato. Who am I kidding? It’s the perfect time year round.

But what’s the difference between gelato and ice cream?

Not everyone agrees. Some people say they’re made with different amounts of fat. Others say it’s all about the air content.

To add to the confusion, gelato is the Italian word for any type of ice cream. But in Australia, gelato refers to the frozen dessert of Italian origin.

How are they similar?

Ice cream and gelato are both sweet desserts served cold. They both contain varying amounts of cream, milk, sugar, flavours, and sometimes eggs.

The fat component from the cream provides the richness, smoothness and body. Eggs are normally associated with gelato but can also be added to ice cream to enhance the richness.

Most commercial ice creams and gelato also contain emulsifiers. These are food additives that act as a stabiliser by preventing liquids that normally don’t mix from separating. Emulsifiers have been linked to numerous gut symptoms. However most of the evidence comes from laboratory and animal studies, and there is limited robust evidence of this in humans.

Ice cream and gelato are both made by churning (whipping) the ingredients, leading to air bubbles forming. In fact, it’s the air bubbles that allow us to eat these desserts frozen. It gives them a palatable texture and mouthfeel by making the mixture softer and lighter. Imagine how hard it would be to eat a hard lump of frozen dessert.

Pink ice cream in cone against blue background
Both ice cream and gelato contain pockets of air, which makes them softer, lighter and easier to eat.
Oksana Mizina/Shutterstock

Many people assume both ice cream and gelato are good sources of calcium, presumably because they’re made from dairy products. But due to the low proportions of milk (it’s mostly cream, which contains less calcium), they both only provide about 65 milligrams of calcium per half cup. That’s about 7% of the daily calcium requirements for adults aged 19-50.

They also both contain small amounts of protein – about 2-3 grams per half cup. That’s only about 5% of your daily protein requirements.

So ice cream and gelato are not a valuable source of calcium and protein, making them of low nutritional value. That’s why they’re regarded as “sometimes” foods.

Gelato vs ice cream

The Conversation, CC BY-SA

How are they different?

It’s about the air

The speed at which the mixture is churned can determine the amount of air it contains. This impacts the product’s thickness and smoothness.

Ice cream is traditionally churned faster than gelato. This means more air is incorporated, making it feel fluffy and creamy compared to gelato, which tends to feels thicker and richer.

It’s about the ice

Churning at a slower speed, as you would typically for gelato, also increases the size of ice crystals. Large ice crystals give a coarse icy texture, compared to a creamier texture from smaller ice crystals in ice cream.

How about the fat?

Although many websites say ice cream contains more fat than gelato, this is a tricky one to tease out.

In Australia, food standards say ice cream should contain at least 100g milk fat per kilogram (or 10% milk fat).

So products with less fat need to be called something else – frozen dessert, iced confection, even gelato. So, in theory, a lower-fat product made the same way as ice cream could be called gelato. Non-dairy products made the same way as ice cream could also be called gelato.

So how much milk fat does gelato need to contain? I can’t find any legal requirements in Australia or elsewhere. Cooking websites often refer to it having 4-9% milk fat. But depending on the recipe, it could be higher.

Fat content also differs from flavour to flavour. For example, if you compare the nutritional content of half a cup of vanilla ice cream with half a cup of vanilla gelato, the ice cream has 2g more fat. Other flavours will give different results.

How about the sugar or kilojules?

If we just compare half a cup of vanilla ice cream with half a cup of vanilla gelato, the gelato has about 3g more sugar. Again, different flavours will give different results. The difference in kilojoules is very small – 15kJ per half cup.

Rows of gelato tubs in a display cabinet
Which one do I choose? Different flavours contain different levels of fat, sugar and kilojoules.
frantic00/Shutterstock

Overall, which one’s healthier?

Effectively there is little difference nutritionally between ice cream and gelato.

But brands and flavours vary considerably. They each use different amounts of cream, eggs and other ingredients. So kilojoule, fat and sugar content can vary considerably too.

Should you still eat them? Yes, absolutely if you enjoy them. However, both are classified as sometimes foods due to their added sugar and low level of nutrients. And perhaps limit your serve size.

The Conversation

Evangeline Mantzioris is affiliated with Alliance for Research in Nutrition, Exercise and Activity (ARENA) at the University of South Australia. Evangeline Mantzioris has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, and has been appointed to the National Health and Medical Research Council Dietary Guideline Expert Committee.

ref. What’s the difference between gelato and ice cream? One contains more air – https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-gelato-and-ice-cream-one-contains-more-air-238988

Unmasking hidden online hate: a new tool helps catch nasty comments – even when they’re disguised

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Johnny Chan, Lecturer, Business School, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

People determined to spread toxic messages online have taken to masking their words to bypass automated moderation filters.

A user might replace letters with numbers or symbols, for example, writing “Y0u’re st00pid” instead of “You’re stupid”.

Another tactic involves combining words, such as “IdiotFace”. Doing this masks the harmful intent from systems that look for individual toxic words.

Similarly, harmful terms can be altered with spaces or additional characters, such as “h a t e ” or “h@te”, effectively slipping through keyword-based filters.

While the intent remains harmful, traditional moderation tools often overlook such messages. This leaves users — particularly vulnerable groups — exposed to their negative impact.

To address this, we have developed a novel pre-processing technique designed to help moderation tools more effectively handle the subtle complexities of hidden toxicity.

An intelligent assistant

Our tool works in conjunction with existing moderation. It acts as an intelligent assistant, preparing content for deeper and more accurate evaluation by restructuring and refining input text.

By addressing common tricks users employ to disguise harmful intent, it ensures moderation systems are more effective. The tool performs three key functions.

  1. It first simplifies the text. Irrelevant elements, such as excessive punctuation or extraneous characters, are removed to make text straightforward and ready for evaluation.

  2. It then standardises what is written. Variations in spelling, phrasing and grammar are resolved. This includes interpreting deliberate misspellings (“h8te” for “hate”).

  3. Finally, it looks for patterns. Recurring strategies such as breaking up toxic words (“I d i o t”), or embedding them within benign phrases, are identified and normalised to reveal the underlying intent.

These steps can break apart compound words like “IdiotFace” or normalise modified phrases like “Y0u’re st00pid”. This makes harmful content visible to traditional filters.

Importantly, our work is not about reinventing the wheel but ensuring the existing wheel functions as effectively as it should, even when faced with disguised toxic messages.

Catching subtle forms of toxicity

The applications of this tool extend across a wide range of online environments. For social media platforms, it enhances the ability to detect harmful messages, creating a safer space for users. This is particularly important for protecting younger audiences, who may be more vulnerable to online abuse.

By catching subtle forms of toxicity, the tool helps to prevent harmful behaviours like bullying from persisting unchecked.

Businesses can also use this technology to safeguard their online presence. Negative campaigns or covert attacks on brands often employ subtle and disguised messaging to avoid detection. By processing such content before it is moderated, the tool ensures that businesses can respond swiftly to any reputational threats.

Additionally, policymakers and organisations that monitor public discourse can benefit from this system. Hidden toxicity, particularly in polarised discussions, can undermine efforts to maintain constructive dialogue.

The tool provides a more robust way for identifying problematic content and ensuring that debates remain respectful and productive.

Better moderation

Our tool marks an important advance in content moderation. By addressing the limitations of traditional keyword-based filters, it offers a practical solution to the persistent issue of hidden toxicity.

Importantly, it demonstrates how small but focused improvements can make a big difference in creating safer and more inclusive online environments. As digital communication continues to evolve, tools like ours will play an increasingly vital role in protecting users and fostering positive interactions.

While this research addresses the challenges of detecting hidden toxicity within text, the journey is far from over.

Future advances will likely delve deeper into the complexities of context—analysing how meaning shifts depending on conversational dynamics, cultural nuances and intent.

By building on this foundation, the next generation of content moderation systems could uncover not just what is being said but also the circumstances in which it is said, paving the way for safer and more inclusive online spaces.

The Conversation

Johnny Chan receives funding from Netsafe New Zealand.

ref. Unmasking hidden online hate: a new tool helps catch nasty comments – even when they’re disguised – https://theconversation.com/unmasking-hidden-online-hate-a-new-tool-helps-catch-nasty-comments-even-when-theyre-disguised-244636

Peters urges France to keep ‘open mind’ on new path for New Caledonia

By Russell Palmer, RNZ News political reporter

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters has used a speech in Paris to urge France to keep an open mind about a new path forward for New Caledonia.

He also wants to deepen New Zealand’s relationship with France, and wants a stronger focus from the European country on the Pacific.

Titled “The Path Less Travelled” in a nod to American poet Robert Frost, the half-hour speech was delivered to the French Institute of International Relations to an audience that included dignitaries from the government and the diplomatic corps.

Peters highlighted geopolitical trends: a shift in countries’ focus from rules to power, from economics to security and defence, and from economic efficiencies to resilience and sustainability.

“These shifts present challenges for a small trade-dependent country like New Zealand. Some of these challenges are familiar, but others, those mostly driven by technology, are new,” Peters said.

After speaking about the value of free trade agreements — highlighted by New Zealand’s recent FTA with the European Union — he raised the spectre of security flashpoints, including the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.

“We are also deeply concerned by North Korea’s evolving nuclear capability and ambition. Those concerns are heightened by its supply of troops to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, another flagrant breach of international law and UN resolutions.”

‘Relentless securitisation of the Pacific’
“The relentless securitisation of the Pacific and a breakdown in long-standing cooperation norms in Antarctica mean New Zealand cannot stay out of the way of geopolitics.”

He pointed to New Zealand’s foreign policy agenda, including a focus on South East Asia and India, neighbours in the Pacific, tackling multi-country problems through multilateral discussion, setting up new multilateral groupings to navigate “impasses or blockages”, and promoting the coalition’s goal of boosting export values through diplomacy.

“To achieve this ambitious agenda, we knew we needed to give more energy, more urgency, and a sharper focus to three inter-connected lines of effort: Investing in our relationships, growing our prosperity, and strengthening our security.

He urged France to deepen the relationship with New Zealand, helping advance Pacific priorities and protecting the international rules-based order, drawing on France’s interest and involvement in the region, as well as its diplomatic, development, military and humanitarian supports.

“As a country, we’ve got the tools to make a big impact . . . Pacific regionalism sits at the core of New Zealand’s Pacific approach … but New Zealand cannot meet these needs alone,” he said.

“We will increasingly look to cooperate with our traditional partners like France and other close partners who share our values and interests. We want to deepen our cooperation with France to advance Pacific priorities, to strengthen existing regional architecture, to protect the international rules-based order, and to ensure the prosperity of future Pacific generations.”

If the French needed encouragement, Peters pointed to the shared values that underpin the partnership, saying the two countries “share the same democratic pulse”, saying the fraternité — brotherhood — of France’s motto evoked a sense of moral obligation for governments “to protect all of their their citizens and provide them with the conditions to prosper”.

New Caledonia at ‘turning point’
Peters soon turned to the deadly riots in New Caledonia, saying New Zealand welcomed the efforts to restore security and help get foreigners including New Zealanders out.

The agreements between Paris and Nouméa in the 1980s and 1990s, he said, represented the road less travelled, “one where France and New Caledonia walked together”.

“But now, in 2024, that road has become overgrown and blocked by choices already made and actions already taken.”

The archipelago remains in something of a standoff after the riots that broke out in May over calls for independence.

France retains control of the military, but Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka — after a long-delayed visit alongside his Cook Islands and Tonga and the Solomon Islands Foreign Minister — this month offered to deploy a peacekeeping force under the Pacific Policing Initiative.

Peters urged France to think carefully about its next steps, and keep an open mind about the path forward.

“That in Nouméa and Paris, the key to restore the spirit of earlier understandings is for all parties to have open minds about their next crucial choice, about a new path forward, because France and the people of New Caledonia stand at a new turning point,” he said.

“Rather than dwell on old questions, we think there is an opening for everyone who cares about New Caledonia to use our imaginations to think of a new question.

“There are all sorts of constitutional models out there, including across the Pacific. For instance, New Zealand has learned from its experience of having different types of constitutional relationships with realm countries — the Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau.

“Our realm relationships are stable and mutually beneficial, so enduring, and the constitutional mechanisms provide for maximum self-determination while ensuring that New Zealand’s security and defence interests remain protected.”

Peters said New Zealand deeply respected France’s role in the region, “and we are in no doubt that the economic might of France is essential to reestablishing a vibrant New Caledonian economy”.

“We stand ready to help in any way we can, and we trust France appreciates . . .  ‘there is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend’, because that is the animating spirit behind our words today.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Nusra Latif Qureshi’s art invites us to confront colonial histories – and the messy threads that led us to the present

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ariel Kline, Casual Lecturer in Art History, University of Sydney

Nusra Latif Qureshi ‘The room with red tiles’ 2023, mixed media on illustration board, 48 × 34.5 cm, collection of the artist © Nusra Latif Qureshi

At the Art Gallery of New South Wales, spread across four rooms on the lowest floor of the main building, sits Nusra Latif Qureshi’s first major solo exhibition, Birds in Far Pavilions.

The exhibition is introduced with Did you come here to find history?, a digital print Qureshi created in 2009 for the 53rd Venice Biennale.

Nusra Latif Qureshi ‘Did you come here to find history?’ 2009 (detail), digital print on clear film, 60 x 872 cm, collection of the artist (exhibition print) © Nusra Latif Qureshi.

The print is nine metres wide and features 17 Mughal and Venetian paintings overlaid with Qureshi’s own passport photograph. The work responds directly to the city of Venice – and history itself – as an “imagined land”.

Placed like a marquee leading towards the show’s interior, it suggests the exhibition asks this question, too. Did you come here to find history? The inquiry, Qureshi explains, refers in part to “the relationship of artist with art history”.

That the exhibition plays with scale is fitting for an artist who was trained in musaviri, or Mughal miniature painting, at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan.

In Descriptions of past II (2001), golden plants sway beneath a woman’s feet.

Nusra Latif Qureshi ‘Descriptions of past II’ 2001, gouache, tea wash and gold leaf on wasli paper, 30 x 22 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Bulgari Art Award 2019 © Nusra Latif Qureshi.

You’d need a magnifying glass to appreciate the blades of grass emerging from the ground like pieces of hair, rendered as finely as the woman’s own wavy strands.

An installation on the far wall in the first room, Shafts in ground (2015), combines maps of the Costerfield antimony mines in Victoria with some everyday wares from a prospector’s camp.

In Qureshi’s hands, the room, with its yawning ceilings and empty centre, toys with its own sparseness. Visitors are compelled to hew close to the works along the walls, skimming the edges as though in orbit of nothing. Such is Qureshi’s and curator Matt Cox’s command of the space.

The choice befits how the artist toggles with space in her works, which sometimes fill the boards on which they are rendered, and at other times yield to swathes of coloured ground.

Nusra Latif Qureshi ‘The conference of birds –monologue II’ 2013, gouache, synthetic polymer paint and ink on illustration board, 20 × 33 cm, collection of the artist © Nusra Latif Qureshi.

Qureshi moved to Melbourne from Lahore in 2001 – from one former city of the British empire to another. This colonial comparison undergirds, but does not determine, her subsequent works.

At the exhibition’s heart is the Museum of lost memories (2024), in which Qureshi has gathered objects from the Art Gallery’s collection, the Powerhouse Museum and her own studio.

In several crowded display cases, she has placed Australian souvenirs, Mughal paintings, photographs, polo mallets and Indian daggers. Objects that speak to the museum’s encyclopaedic remit turn to converse with those from Qureshi’s own studio – a doily, a stone Bodhisattva, a textile, a plastic tank.

In the 19th century, musaviri painters repurposed their skills and began hand-colouring photographs. An old label tells us one photograph’s subject, embellished in deep blue, is a Shia Muslim from Sindh.

Installation view of the ‘Nusra Latif Qureshi: Birds in Far Pavilions’ exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 9 November 2024 – 15 June 2025, featuring Nusra Latif Qureshi ‘Museum of lost memories’ 2024, site-specific installation comprising objects from the artist’s personal archive, works from the Art Gallery of New South Wales collection, objects on loan from the Powerhouse Museum, and banners produced by the artist © Nusra Latif Qureshi; photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Felicity Jenkins.

Leaning into the past

Qureshi’s work is as much art as it is art history. History and, by extension, historical art, seem to have become bad objects in Australia.

Perhaps to answer the neoliberal university’s obsession with KPIs, as well as the Australian government’s “job-ready” policy, art history has turned to the present to proclaim its relevance. Curators and artists present imagined futures and reparative gambits that obscure or sit alongside historical material.

These interventions are important, but if they are not matched by a rigorous and nuanced engagement with history, then historical objects become the tarnished relics of a benighted past. Relatedly, contemporary works become flattened into one or another critical posture.

This progressivist vision of history makes a villain of the past and a hero of the present.

But there are no perfect heroes or villains in Qureshi’s works. Or, if there are, they are strikingly adjacent – and only two among many strands of an ever-unfolding history.

Her paintings are often described for their layered effects. In Justified behavioural sketch (2002), the carmine outlines of British army officers with polo mallets resemble the rugged boundaries of maps as they invade a woman’s face.

This same outline forms the third diptych in the Accomplished missions series (2012), here slightly covered by an open, green hand.

Nusra Latif Qureshi ‘Accomplished missions III’ 2012, diptych: gouache and synthetic polymer paint on illustration board, 20 × 56 cm overall, collection of the artist © Nusra Latif Qureshi.

In Gardens of Desire (2002), a botanical drawing from Scottish illustrator Sydney Parkinson is laid gently over Radha and her lover, the god Krishna.

From layers to threads

Over time, however, Qureshi’s layered lines have turned to string. Threads are animate and wayward, limp and tangled, in the Conference of birds series (2013). The same gossamer strings envelop and stabilise two acrobats in On the edges of darkness II (2016).

Nusra Latif Qureshi ‘On the edges of darkness II’ 2016, gouache, synthetic polymer paint, ink and gold leaf on illustration board, 38 x 50 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Bulgari Art Award 2019 © Nusra Latif Qureshi.

More recently, these strings have been brought into the world. We see them draped above and through Qureshi’s paintings of 19th and early 20th century portrait photographs from Melbourne in Refined portraits of desire (2018).

Red yarn spills from ringlet curls and feathered hats, connecting the oval paintings on the wall to one another and to corresponding works on a table below.

Installation view of the ‘Nusra Latif Qureshi: Birds in Far Pavilions’ exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 9 November 2024 – 15 June 2025, featuring Nusra Latif Qureshi ‘Refined portraits of desire’ 2018 © Nusra Latif Qureshi, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Felicity Jenkins.

In the Museum of lost memories, bits of string and cord drape and adjoin objects like red, deflated roads. And in The room with red tiles (2023) – pictured in the header image above – hands gather and pass cascading thread down the length of a green ground.

Qureshi is pulling on things that may never untangle, but it is the pulling that matters. Her art draws together objects and images that resist resolution – looping the present into a past that continues to unravel.

In her work, we are bound to the past and to one another with pieces of scattered threads, should we choose to follow them.

The Conversation

Ariel Kline does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. Nusra Latif Qureshi’s art invites us to confront colonial histories – and the messy threads that led us to the present – https://theconversation.com/nusra-latif-qureshis-art-invites-us-to-confront-colonial-histories-and-the-messy-threads-that-led-us-to-the-present-244291

Track your spending, use cash and DIY gifts: how to keep your costs down this Christmas

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Angelique Nadia Sweetman McInnes, Academic in Financial Planning, CQUniversity Australia

Vitali Stock/Shutterstock

Australians are expected to spend more this Christmas than last, with spending projected to rise to A$69.7 billion. This is a 2.7% increase on what we spent last year on gifts, food and other treats for ourselves and others.

This is a lot at a time when many people are experiencing mortgage stress and high inflation. But by employing smart budgeting and spending strategies we can enjoy a festive Christmas season without huge financial stress.

Know how much you are spending

Being aware of what you are spending is important. So you don’t spend beyond your means, you need to decide what you are going to buy and track what you spend.

Using budgeting tools in your banking app will help you monitor your spending. Your bank’s app or a variety of budgeting apps, can also help you find deals and stick to your financial goals.

Research shows spending decreases when you use an online budgeting app by 15%.

Christmas budgeting means setting clear limits, like a gift allowance for each person of, for example, under $10, $25, $50 or $100. This helps us stay on track. Before shopping, we should also ask ourselves: “Is this worth buying?” or “Do I really need this?”.

How to bag a bargain

About 63% of Australian consumers say they start their shopping in November, before the last-minute push to fill the Christmas stockings. This enables them to take advantage of the Black Friday sales on now and Cyber Monday, next Monday.

Online research can uncover decent bargains to lower Christmas spending. Or you could wait until the Boxing Day sales to buy discounted gifts for people you don’t see until after December 25.

The post-Christmas sales are also good for stocking up on heavily discounted crackers and decorations for next year.

Most Australian shoppers (89%) are combining online (websites, mobile apps, social media) with physical in-store shopping. Major online retailers such as Amazon, eBay, and The Iconic (69%) are now more popular than department stores (59%).

There are also thrift and discount stores which offer affordable gifts while using their income to help those in need.

By using the internet to compare prices and set price alerts for goods you want to buy, you are more likely to get the best deals. Take time to search for store discounts. Using loyalty programs, coupons, promo codes, and free shipping also helps keep money in your pocket.

Why cash at Christmas is better

The federal government’s decision last week to require businesses to accept cash, not just credit or debit cards, also has benefits for saving. Cash purchases encourage you to spend wisely, set your spending limit, and prevent you from overspending, or paying interest and fees on cards.

There is also the old “cash envelope system” used for centuries and popularised in the 1990s to help curb spending. This sees cash divided into envelopes, each labelled for a specific expense (for example, gifts for A, B, C). Once the money in the envelope is gone, nothing more can be spent.

One way to help boost your Christmas budget; while simultaneously decluttering, your home is to sell items you no longer use. There are numerous online sites and bricks and mortar stores where this can be done.

Saving money with DIY

In 2024, Australians will spend an average of $660 per shopper on gifts, with popular choices including clothing and shoes, books, and gift cards.

However, it’s not necessary to buy all your gifts or Christmas decorations. Consider making affordable handmade gifts to add a personal touch. There are demonstration videos online showing you how to re-purpose old items, bake homemade festive treats, create a special moments photo album or scrapbook.

Mix Epsom salts, essential oils and dried flowers to create relaxing bath salts or scrubs. Use natural pine cones or salt dough to make ornaments. Make wreaths using pine branches, holly or dried oranges. Sew fabric garlands to place on the tree, fireplace or mantle.

Instead of buying multiple extravagant presents for each person, try doing a Secret Santa. This is the low-cost tradition where everyone buys only one gift for one recipient who is chosen using an online tool. Gifts are then given anonymously.

Festive food

Festive food spending is projected to be $28 billion, up 4.2%, this year, contributing to the overall increase in expected total Christmas spending.

Standing woman holding a plate of food alongside table of seated people
Christmas meals can be expensive but there are cheaper options.
Ground Picture/Shutterstock

To save on food expenses, asks guests to bring a dish to share. Or celebrate Christmas with an economical picnic or BBQ, weather permitting.

Get creative with food leftovers to make meals and reduce the amount of food waste, while stretching your wallet further once Christmas has come and gone.

Managing costs, avoiding debt

Sticking to your Christmas budget can feel rewarding. If you do overspend, reflect on why, and adjust your plan. If needed, explore debt options, like credit cards or personal loans, but only as a last resort.

Thoughtful planning will help you manage your costs, while enjoying the festive season. After all, the true spirit of Christmas is about creating memories and enjoying time with loved ones, not about overspending.

The Conversation

Dr. McInnes received funding from the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand and Central Queensland University. She is a member of Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, the Financial Advice Association of Australia, the Society for Trusts and Estate Planning, the Academy of Financial Services, Cooperative Research Australia, the Association of Computing Machinery, the Health Informatics Knowledge Management Steering Committee, and the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education.

ref. Track your spending, use cash and DIY gifts: how to keep your costs down this Christmas – https://theconversation.com/track-your-spending-use-cash-and-diy-gifts-how-to-keep-your-costs-down-this-christmas-244300

Who can access abortion in Australia?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erica Millar, Senior Research Fellow, Social Inquiry, La Trobe University

Betzy Arosemena/Unsplash

Abortion is legal in all Australian states and territories. Women, trans men and gender diverse people with a uterus have the option of taking medication to end a pregnancy, or undergoing surgery.

It is estimated that between a quarter to one-third of people with a uterus will have an abortion in their lifetime. But the availability and cost of services depends on where you live and your pregnancy gestation.

So what do the different types of abortion involve? And how do gestation, cost and location affect access?

What is early medical abortion?

Early medication abortion involves taking two different medications 24–36 hours apart:

  • mifepristone, a progesterone blocker that stops the pregnancy

  • misoprostol, which causes the uterus to contract and expel the pregnancy.

Early medication abortion is available up to nine weeks (63 days) from a pregnant person’s last menstrual period.

People can take the medications at home, with additional medications to manage pain and nausea.

Where can you access medical terminations? And how much do they cost?

The governments of the Northern Territory, South Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania (indirectly for eligible patients through community health organisations) fund no-cost early medical abortions at community health organisations (NT, Tasmania), private clinics (ACT), through GPs (ACT, Tasmania), or public hospitals (SA).

Elsewhere, some community health organisations and hospitals provide early medication abortions inexpensively or fully through the public health system.

An early medication abortion at a private clinic, which includes co-located ultrasound and pathology services, will cost around A$580 for people with a health-care card and $620 without.

All GPs can prescribe early medication abortion. But few do. In Victoria, for example, just 17% of GPs prescribe these medications.

In Queensland, SA, Victoria, the ACT and Western Australia, other suitably qualified health professionals, such as midwives and registered nurses, can prescribe early medication abortion. But the numbers of eligible professionals are very low. Several training and regulatory barriers also impede pathways to becoming a provider.

A minority of GPs provide bulk billing to patients, meaning there is no out-of-pocket costs.

Across the health system, out-of-pocket expenses are rising. This acutely impacts on the provision of early medication abortion, which requires long and multiple (usually two or three) consultations.

Most practitioners require blood and ultrasound tests before prescribing early medication abortion. However, these tests are no longer considered necessary in most cases. They can cause significant delay and additional costs. The ultrasound typically costs around $150.

Abortion medications cost an additional $40 for those with a Medicare card.



What about telehealth?

Telehealth abortion is available throughout Australia, including via MSI Australia, Clinic 66 and Sexual Health Victoria.

After a medical consultation, prescriptions can be filled at a local pharmacy or sent via post.

Patients must first have blood and ultrasound tests. And they must be within two hours of a hospital or emergency medical facility when taking the medications.

Telehealth abortions cost around $280 for Medicare-eligible patients, excluding the costs of blood and ultrasound tests.

What happens in a surgical abortion?

To 12 weeks’ gestation, a surgical abortion is a quick day procedure, using a suction curettage under light anaesthesia. Here, the cervix is dilated and a plastic tube inserted to empty the uterus via gentle suction.

From 12–24 weeks, surgical abortions take longer and require more specialised care.

Gestational limits to surgical abortions are set by each hospital or clinic and are largely determined by the skill set and comfort levels of the doctors who perform them. All surgical providers go to 12 weeks’ gestation, and some to 14-16 weeks.

Surgical abortions after 16 weeks’ gestation (to between 20 and 24 weeks, depending on location) are only available in public hospitals in Darwin, Melbourne and Adelaide and private clinics in Perth and Sydney. Some other public hospitals provide this service discretely to eligible patients.

Abortions after surgical gestational limits involve an induction of labour in a hospital setting.

Where can you access a surgical abortion?

Surgical abortions in NT, Tasmania and SA are performed through the public health system with no out-of-pocket costs to the patient. The hospitals that provide abortion are relatively dispersed in the NT and Tasmania but concentrated in Adelaide in SA.

The ACT government funds surgical abortion care for residents (including people without a Medicare card) through a private clinic. This serves people with no medical complexities who are under 16 weeks pregnant. Care for people outside these parameters can involve travel and cost.

Similar pathways operate in Perth for patients in the St John of God Midland Public Hospital catchment area, and to people living in some Queensland catchment areas.

Abortions aren’t available at all public hospitals.
Maria Sbytova/Shutterstock

In Queensland, NSW, Victoria and WA, most surgical abortions are performed in private clinics clustered in capital cities. These have significant out-of-pocket costs.

Some public hospitals in these states provide abortions. These services have generally developed through the advocacy of individual clinicians rather than a centralised effort to expand care.

Unlike other forms of maternity care in the public health system, triaging criteria set within individual hospitals often determine which patients can receive abortion care. Triaging criteria commonly include:

  • the reason the person is requesting an abortion
  • their catchment area
  • criteria of economic vulnerability
  • medical complexity (for example, a BMI of 40 or above)
  • social complexity (for example, homelessness or domestic violence).

What about late-term abortions?

After a particular gestation, in all jurisdictions except the ACT, a request for an abortion is subject to the approval of two doctors. Gestational limits range from 16 weeks in Tasmania to 24 weeks in Victoria.

After gestational limits, abortion is legal on grounds that are defined broadly to enable for clinical judgement and patient-centred care. They can include the health of the pregnant person or fetus, a late diagnosis of pregnancy, delays in accessing abortion care, or reproductive coercion. In practice, as a pregnancy advances, it becomes increasingly more difficult to obtain an abortion.

Some second-trimester abortions are performed via a surgical procedure. Others, and those in the third trimester, are performed via an induction. This typically occurs over two days and involves cervical preparation and the use of medicines to induce labour. A doctor may also use medicine to stop the pregnancy before the induction.

Guaranteeing access

The costs and travel required for abortion differ greatly across Australia. People in rural and regional areas experience more significant delays in accessing care because of the relative scarcity of services.

People without a Medicare card are also disadvantaged.

Early medical abortion is available via telehealth, but not for free.
Jep Gambardella/Pexels

Without access to local, affordable and timely health services, pregnant people can miss the opportunity for an early medication abortion altogether. This means they will need to travel to the nearest surgical provider, and surgical providers become more sparse as a pregnancy advances.

The governments of Australia’s least populous states and territories have made significant inroads into rolling out free medical and surgical abortion access through the public health system. It’s time other states follow their lead.


Where to go for help

For information and support, contact:

Erica Millar receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a member of the South Australian Abortion Action Coalition.

ref. Who can access abortion in Australia? – https://theconversation.com/who-can-access-abortion-in-australia-243699

Live in an apartment and want to charge an electric car at home? Here are 4 ways to help that happen

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Longden, Senior Researcher, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University

Shutterstock

Being able to charge your car at home is a big drawcard for many electric vehicle buyers. But it’s rare to find chargers installed at apartment complexes in Australia.

Installing chargers in existing apartment blocks can be complicated. Owners may not agree on whether to install them, or which technology to use. And the complex may not be well-equipped for the extra electricity load.

So how can these challenges be overcome? A policy paper my colleagues and I published today set out to answer that question.

We surveyed 43 experts in installing charging infrastructure in apartments in New South Wales. They identified four key ways to ensure more apartment residents can confidently charge their electric vehicles at home before hitting the road.

More apartment residents need access to home chargers.
Shutterstock

Getting more Australians in electric cars

The Electric Vehicle Council predicts 100,000 electric vehicle sales in Australia this year. However, sales have reportedly flatlined – partly due to concerns about access to charging.

Clearly, chargers in apartment complexes are crucial to increasing electric vehicle uptake.

To date, electric vehicle sales in Australia have been led by motorists in outer-metropolitan suburbs where houses rather than apartments are the dominant dwelling type. The trend is partly attributed to the ease of installing home chargers in houses.

Research shows most Australians – both those living in houses and apartment buildings – would prefer a car-charging option at home.

Increasing electric vehicle sales is also vital for climate action. Passenger cars and light commercial vehicles contribute more than 10% of Australia’s total emissions.

Increasing electric vehicle sales is vital for climate action.
Shutterstock

Patchy policy

Electric vehicle strategies in Australia give little attention to those living in apartments.

The Australian Capital Territory’s Zero Emissions Vehicles Strategy introduced a A$2,000 incentive to install charging at multi-unit buildings.

Last year, the New South Wales government established the $10 million EV Ready Buildings Grant to help apartment buildings assess and install electric vehicle infrastructure. NSW’s electric vehicle strategy is currently being revised, offering an opportunity for further support.

Australia’s national strategy pledges to “make it easy to charge an EV across Australia” but focuses on public charging stations.

Under the National Construction Code – Australia’s main set of technical and construction requirements – new apartments must be built “ready” for electric vehicle chargers if residents want to install them in the future.

But complications can arise when trying to install chargers into existing apartments.

Retrofitting vehicle chargers is complicated

Getting electric vehicle chargers into apartment blocks requires the following steps:

  • gaining support from apartment owners

  • conducting a building energy assessment to determine, for example, if electricity infrastructure needs upgrading

  • choosing between individual or shared chargers

  • choosing how to share the upfront costs and pass on the cost of electricity

  • navigating the planning approval process

  • getting the funds to start the project

  • finding energy auditors and installers with relevant expertise.

This final point is crucial. Because electric vehicle charging in apartment blocks is relatively rare, few people have the necessary skills or experience.

We tapped into the knowledge of those who do have experience installing chargers in existing apartment buildings in NSW. The research was commissioned by the James Martin Institute for Public Policy.

After a few months of searching and sending 166 invitations, we found 43 experts from industry, strata organisations and local councils.

Their expertise spans strata processes as well as physically installing charging infrastructure.

Apartment owners can disagree on which chargers to install.
Shutterstock

What we found

The survey was conducted by an interviewer by video call. This allowed us to ask set questions and then discuss broad themes. Most experts identified two main challenges.

The first was gaining support from apartment owners – those who would be asked to share the cost of installing charging infrastructure at a complex.

Often, the views of owners were divided between a few motivated residents and sceptics who were averse to new technologies. Apartment owners who did not drive an electric vehicle were less likely to support the installation of chargers.

The second challenge our experts identified was deciding on whether to install personal or shared chargers. In some cases, shared charging was seen as the only viable option, due to lower costs and confusion about electricity load or technical requirements.

The experts also reported concern among apartment owners about fire risks and insurance. Electric vehicles have a relatively low risk of battery fire when compared with electric bikes and scooters. However, some insurance companies have refused to cover apartments where electric vehicles are charged.

Four policy opportunities

The experts highlighted four key steps governments and others can take to encourage more charging infrastructure in existing apartment buildings in NSW. The opportunities also apply to other states and territories.

1. Promote successful projects: Case studies of apartment blocks where electric vehicle chargers were successfully installed may help overcome anxiety or scepticism from apartment owners and show how challenges can be managed. Guidance sheets and other educational materials would also assist.

2. Educate apartment owners on fire safety: More guidance for planners, insurers and owners on fire safety options may lead to speedier planning approvals and help limit insurance costs. Governments should also play a role in dispelling misconceptions about fire risk during electric vehicle charging.

3. Expand grants schemes: Expanding NSW’s EV Ready Buildings Grant scheme would ensure more residents in existing apartment buildings could install chargers. Other states should consider similar schemes.

4. Explore finance options: Zero- or low-interest financing and subsidies would make the installation of charging infrastructure more affordable for apartment owners. Governments should also consider targeted schemes for low-income apartment residents.

The above is not a comprehensive list. Other suggestions from experts included broader improvements to electricity networks where needed, and more installer training.

Electric vehicle charging in apartments is important for a just and equitable energy transition. Without government support for the technology, apartment residents may hesitate to purchase their vehicle of choice.

Thomas Longden receives funding from James Martin Institute for Public Policy, Original Power, Energy Consumers Australia, and World Wide Fund for Nature Australia. He is a member of the ACT Climate Change Council and the NSW branch of the Economic Society of Australia.

ref. Live in an apartment and want to charge an electric car at home? Here are 4 ways to help that happen – https://theconversation.com/live-in-an-apartment-and-want-to-charge-an-electric-car-at-home-here-are-4-ways-to-help-that-happen-244480

Most NZ dairy farmers put profitability first – but some are planting native trees anyway

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Elliot Noe, Postdoctoral Fellow in Biodiversity, Lincoln University, New Zealand

Phil Walter/Getty Images

Globally, about 40% of ice-free land is used for agriculture, managed by farmers and herders.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, this share is even higher, with 51% of land used for agriculture and horticulture. Of this, currently about 10% is used for dairy farming.

When natural habitats are cleared for agriculture, most native biodiversity is lost. Dairy farms represent intensive farming systems with significant detrimental consequences for biodiversity, water and soil quality. However, hedgerows, riparian plantings and shade trees can enhance native biodiversity within these landscapes.

In our new study, we visited 14 dairy farms and interviewed farmers in the Waikato and Canterbury. The research was qualitative, allowing for an in-depth exploration of the experiences, values and priorities New Zealand dairy farmers have for their land and the implications for native biodiversity on farms.

We found dairy farmers have multiple values and priorities but limited time, resources and energy. While working within external constraints such as land ownership or regulations, farmers will act on what they value most.

Unlike most developed countries, New Zealand’s agricultural sector is entirely exposed to global markets. About 95% of dairy products are exported and government support is the lowest among OECD countries. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we found most dairy farmers list economic viability as their highest priority.

A small native tree seedling is planted in the ground, with a farmer's hands and gumboots and a spade visisble.
Planting native trees is seen as a trade-off between productivity and other values, such as animal welfare.
Phil Walter/Getty Images

When biodiversity is a trade-off

While being profitable is a necessity, maximising profitability is an option. Our interviewees say they would trade off some profit for other values, such as spending time with family, enjoying one’s work, having a visually pleasant home and work environment, improving animal welfare and minimising some negative environmental consequences of dairy farming.

Waikato farmer Riley argued:

You have to make money to keep [the farm] afloat, to be sustainable. But it doesn’t have to spit out millions of dollars in profit. And we want the lifestyle, and we want everything to be better than when we found it.

Beyond the constraints of making a living and paying off farm debt, the landowner’s value hierarchy determines whether they incorporate native biodiversity into farm landscapes.

Our interviewees spoke of many barriers to planting natives, including the cost of plants and ongoing maintenance, labour and lack of knowledge of which species to plant where.

Apart from land ownership, however, these barriers are surmountable to those farmers for whom native biodiversity ranks highly in their hierarchy of values. They acknowledged that planting natives took time and cost money, but it was important enough to them to do it regardless.

These farmers had incorporated native biodiversity into their farm management. For them, planting natives was not an optional extra but an integral part of running a sustainable dairy farm. Their definition of land improvement, sustainability and being a good farmer had come to include planting natives.

Competing for land

Currently, farm productivity and native biodiversity are usually viewed as being incompatible and in competition for land. This is a sentiment dairy farmers voiced in our study as well.

Most participants did not see a clear connection between native biodiversity and milk production, and therefore did not believe planting natives could benefit the productivity or profitability of their farms. Some described areas of native vegetation as “lost land”.

Some of our participants did, however, see opportunities for native biodiversity to contribute towards other values, such as the attractiveness of the farm or animal welfare by providing shade and shelter for cows.

Many studies confirm that on-farm benefits are critical for the adoption of new management practices. Clarifying and emphasising known benefits of native biodiversity to the farm is therefore vital.

Two farmers plant small native trees on a farm, with a woman looking on.
Many farmers think they should use their land only to produce food.
Phil Walter/Getty Images

Value hierarchies can also shift over a farmer’s lifetime. How highly farmers value native biodiversity will influence how much land they are willing to “lose” for something other than milk production.

Even for the “greenest” dairy farmer, however, strong convictions about the morality of using land for food production will limit how much native biodiversity is acceptable on farm. Native species will primarily be restricted to “marginal” land, mirroring Aotearoa’s broader approach to have conservation land in unproductive mountainous areas.

Unless we can draw a clear connection between native biodiversity and the economic viability of a dairy farm, making space for natives will continue to depend on landowners’ value hierarchies.

Incorporating care for native biodiversity into what it means to be a good farmer has potential to contribute to some transformation of agricultural landscapes. This requires cultural change – a change in the socially embedded understandings and symbols of good farming.

A gradual shift may already be underway, as is suggested by the experiences of those participants who have seen changes in their own value hierarchies and in those of wider farming communities.

Some farmers perceived a shift from the older to the younger generation, with younger farmers being taught to consider the environmental consequences of their practices. Some older farmers described their increasing appreciation of native plants, though they still struggled with the idea of using land for something other than growing pasture.

We need to consider how as a nation we can work towards a shared understanding of good landcare and healthy landscapes.

The Conversation

Elizabeth Elliot Noe receives funding from Centre of Research Excellence Bioprotection Aotearoa.

Anita Wreford and Ottilie Stolte do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. Most NZ dairy farmers put profitability first – but some are planting native trees anyway – https://theconversation.com/most-nz-dairy-farmers-put-profitability-first-but-some-are-planting-native-trees-anyway-242189

Five ways you might already encounter AI in cities (and not realise it)

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Noortje Marres, Professor in Science, Technology and Society, University of Warwick

Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock

You’d probably notice if the car that cut you off or pulled up beside you at a light didn’t have a driver. In the UK, self-driving cars are still required by law to have a safety driver at the wheel, so it is difficult to notice them. But car companies have been testing automated vehicles on UK roads at least since 2017.

Self-driving cars use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to steer themselves and navigate around obstacles. But they aren’t the only use of AI in the streets today. This technology is being introduced in many different ways, for example in cameras that detect whether people are speeding or using mobile phones while driving.

As part of the AI in the street project, my colleagues and I at several UK universities studied how residents and visitors experience the presence of AI in public spaces.

While many of the people we spoke to were interested in what AI is used for in the street, they were more likely to notice the physical presence of the technology – feeling that all this equipment makes for a busy and cluttered environment. Some questioned the extent to which the technology makes things better for them.

Here are five places you might encounter AI in cities in the UK and not realise it.

1. Traffic lights

In cities like Manchester, Coventry and York, some roads have been equipped with a technology called Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory (Glosa) as part of real-world technology trials.
This system is designed to nudge cars to reduce their speed when the light is about to turn, meaning that cars no longer need to speed up or stop unexpectedly. Currently this system only works with cars that have the Glosa app installed.

Glosa captures traffic data in real time, which can be used to analyse patterns with AI, and nudge cars and pedestrians to optimise traffic flow. The Manchester trial showed this technology may also be used to reduce car emissions.

2. Lampposts

In UK cities, some lampposts have been equipped with cameras, sensors and communications equipment, some of which are AI-enabled. This kit may include speed detectors, environmental sensors to measure air quality, and number plate or facial recognition.

They may also be equipped with units that transmit data captured by cameras and sensors in the street over the internet. Some of this data is used for fairly basic purposes, such as matching number plates to vehicle registrations on record. Some cities provide access to third parties so they can analyse street data for their own purposes, for example, to discover patterns in road use.

In Coventry, one resident told my colleagues and I: “The cameras in the lampposts, they do not communicate with us, they are above our heads, literally, they communicate with elsewhere […] These boxes are not giving anything, they are just extracting. They seem designed not to draw attention to themselves.”

3. Billboards

A growing number of advertisements have been created with the aid of AI – including Coca-Cola’s new Christmas ad.

Some digital billboards also use AI to adapt ads to the streets where they are displayed. They use cameras to capture data about the weather or about cars driving by, changing the display accordingly. This was done in Piccadilly Circus. Some analyse data from nearby sources in real time, including phones and social media, to understand the attributes and behaviour of people that see them.

Is the future closer than you think?
bigshot01/Shutterstock

Projects like the one in Piccadilly circus showcase how AI can be used to make advertising more sensitive to the local context, but the reality of smart advertising in the street is often more basic.

Speaking about a digital billboard in Edinburgh, a resident told us: “That camera just tells the advertising company in London when the screen goes down. So I often feel that some of the advertising has nothing to do with Edinburgh.”

4. In and under the pavement

Sensors embedded in the asphalt can be used to monitor the condition of the road and inform passing vehicles about hazards like potholes. Some upcoming trials will use sensors to detect conflict or near misses in the road.

During the pandemic, sensors installed in sewage systems were used to measure the prevalence of the virus in different parts of the country. Today, scientists are using AI to analyse sensor data from sewage systems to detect cracks or defects.

Many of these street sensors are still in their trial phase, and it is a matter for debate whether they “count” as AI or not.

Some would argue that because sensors and cameras in the street just capture data (that is then analysed by AI), they are not part of AI itself. However, as people’s behaviour may be nudged by traffic lights or even wrongly identified based on AI analysis in the street, it seems strange to argue that “AI” does not operate here.

5. In the sky

In some areas, like Coventry city centre, there have been trials with delivery drones. And airborne drone taxis are expected to take off in 2026. The delivery drones are currently only used with human oversight, but are designed to operate autonomously.

When the trial started in 2022, some Coventry residents were sceptical. But whether people approve seems to partly depend on what drones are used for. Hospitals in Warwickshire recently used drones to deliver emergency medical supplies.

A local artist who initially protested against the delivery drones being tested right outside the building where she works, told me that she changed her mind once she heard they are also used for humanitarian purposes.

As this technology becomes more commonplace, it will be important to make sure residents are aware of where it exists – and what it is doing. Our research suggests that when people in the street believe that the technology is not working for them, they are more likely to mistrust it.

One participant pointed out that it is difficult to know what exactly the technology installed in the street is used for, or whether it is even functional: “In my street, we have a semi-functional environmental sensor: someone backed into it with their car, so we’re not sure if it still works.”

Noortje Marres received research funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Leverhulme Trust.

ref. Five ways you might already encounter AI in cities (and not realise it) – https://theconversation.com/five-ways-you-might-already-encounter-ai-in-cities-and-not-realise-it-243290

Australia on track to meet 2030 43% emission’s reduction target, on latest figures

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Australia is on track to reach the Albanese government’s 43% emissions reduction target by 2030, according to the most recent analysis by the Climate Change department.

The analysis shows Australian emissions are projected to be 42.6% below 2005 levels in 2030.

The government has released the new numbers ahead of Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s Thursday annual climate change statement to parliament.

They show total net emissions are projected to be 3% below Australia’s 10-year planned carbon reduction budget. This means Australia would over-achieve the 2030 target on the budget basis. That compares to 1% above the budget projected last year.

If additional measures the government is committed to are taken into account, such as the Future Made in Australia policy to support the development of hydrogen and the critical minerals industry, Australia would achieve a projected 42.7% emissions reduction on 2005 levels. This compares to a projection of 42% in the 2023 emissions projections and 40% in the 2022 emissions projections.

Australia is on track to beat its emissions budget by 152 million tonnes over the 10 years to 2030. That would be equivalent to Australia’s entire electricity sector’s emissions in 2024.

The government has declined to say whether it will announce Australia’s emissions reduction target for 2035 before the election. It says it has to wait for advice from the Climate Change Authority.

Bowen said of the latest figures: “Our robust reforms and pragmatic policies are delivering what we’ve always said – Australia’s 43% target is ambitious but achievable.

“The Coalition can’t even name a 2030 target, let alone achieve it,” he said.

Meanwhile the government on Tuesday announced a review of the National Electricity Market (NEM). It will be conducted by a panel led by Tim Nelson, an associate professor of economics at Griffith University.

The inquiry will examine the NEM wholesale market settings “to ensure the market promotes investment in firmed renewable energy generation and storage capacity into the 2030s and beyond. This is vital as electricity demand grows and ageing coal fired power stations exit the system,” a statement from Bowen said.

As the proportion of renewables in the system expands, concern has increased about whether there will be enough firmed power in the system.

The Conversation

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

ref. Australia on track to meet 2030 43% emission’s reduction target, on latest figures – https://theconversation.com/australia-on-track-to-meet-2030-43-emissions-reduction-target-on-latest-figures-244642

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