Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Digital Storytelling Team, The Conversation

Are you keen to know how many women there are in the new House of Representatives? And how the parties fare on gender balance?

What about how many young people will have a vote in the parliament, given they’re such a big voting bloc?

We’ve pulled together information from the Australian Electoral Commission, the ABC and some party websites to give you the most complete picture of the new parliament.

Digital Storytelling Team 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. Explore the new House of Representatives – https://theconversation.com/explore-the-new-house-of-representatives-256214

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle

Have you had a blood test to check your cholesterol level? These check the different blood fat components:

• total cholesterol
• LDL (low-density lipoprotein), which is sometimes called “bad cholesterol”
• HDL (high-density lipoprotein), which is sometimes called “good cholesterol”
• triglycerides.

Your clinician then compares your test results to normal ranges – and may use ratios to compare different types of cholesterol.

High blood cholesterol is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. This is a broad term that includes disease of blood vessels throughout the body, arteries in the heart (known as coronary heart disease), heart failure, heart valve conditions, arrhythmia and stroke.

So what does cholesterol do? And what does it mean to have a healthy cholesterol ratio?

What are blood fats?

Cholesterol is a waxy type of fat made in the liver and gut, with a small amount of pre-formed cholesterol coming from food.

Cholesterol is found in all cell membranes, contributing to their structure and function. Your body uses cholesterol to make vitamin D, bile acid, and hormones, including oestrogen, testosterone, cortisol and aldosterone.

When there is too much cholesterol in your blood, it gets deposited into artery walls, making them hard and narrow. This process is called atherosclerosis.

Cholesterol is packaged with triglycerides (the most common type of fat in the body) and specific “apo” proteins into “lipo-proteins” as a package called “very-low-density” lipoproteins (VLDLs).

These are transported via the blood to body tissue in a form called low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.

Excess cholesterol can be transported back to the liver by high-density lipoprotein, the HDL, for removal from circulation.

Another less talked about blood fat is Lipoprotein-a, or Lp(a). This is determined by your genetics and not influenced by lifestyle factors. About one in five (20%) of Australians are carriers.

Having a high Lp(a) level is an independent cardiovascular disease risk factor.

Knowing your numbers

Your blood fat levels are affected by both modifiable factors:

• dietary intake
• physical activity
• alcohol
• smoking
• weight status.

And non-modifiable factors:

• age
• sex
• family history.

Read more:
Got high cholesterol? Here are five foods to eat and avoid

What are cholesterol ratios?

Cholesterol ratios are sometimes used to provide more detail on the balance between different types of blood fats and to evaluate risk of developing heart disease.

Commonly used ratios include:

1. Total cholesterol to HDL ratio

This ratio is used in Australia to assess risk of heart disease. It’s calculated by dividing your total cholesterol number by your HDL (good) cholesterol number.

A higher ratio (greater than 5) is associated with a higher risk of heart disease, whereas a lower ratio is associated with a lower risk of heart disease.

A study of 32,000 Americans over eight years found adults who had either very high, or very low, total cholesterol/HDL ratios were at 26% and 18% greater risk of death from any cause during the study period.

Those with a ratio of greater than 4.2 had a 13% higher risk of death from heart disease than those with a ratio lower than 4.2.

2. Non-HDL cholesterol to HDL cholesterol ratio (NHHR)

Non-HDL cholesterol is the total cholesterol minus HDL. Non-HDL cholesterol includes all blood fats such as LDL, triglycerides, Lp(a) and others. This ratio is abbreviated as NHHR.

This ratio has been used more recently because it compares the ratio of “bad” blood fats that can contribute to atherosclerosis (hardening and narrowing of the arteries) to “good” or anti-atherogenic blood fats (HDL).

Non-HDL cholesterol is a stronger predictor of cardiovascular disease risk than LDL alone, while HDL is associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk.

Because this ratio removes the “good” cholesterol from the non-HDL part of the ratio, it is not penalising those people who have really high amounts of “good” HDL that make up their total cholesterol, which the first ratio does.

Research has suggested this ratio may be a stronger predictor of atherosclerosis in women than men, however more research is needed.

Another study followed more than 10,000 adults with type 2 diabetes from the United States and Canada for about five years. The researchers found that for each unit increase in the ratio, there was around a 12% increased risk of having a heart attack, stroke or death.

They identified a risk threshold of 6.28 or above, after adjusting for other risk factors. Anyone with a ratio greater than this is at very high risk and would require management to lower their risk of heart disease.

3. LDL-to-HDL cholesterol ratio

LDL/HDL is calculated by dividing your LDL cholesterol number by the HDL number. This gives a ratio of “bad” to “good” cholesterol.

A lower ratio (ideal is less than 2.0) is associated with a lower risk of heart disease.

While there is lesser focus on LDL/HDL, these ratios have been shown to be predictors of occurrence and severity of heart attacks in patients presenting with chest pain.

Read more:
Health Check: five food tips that could save your life after a heart attack

If you’re worried about your cholesterol levels or cardiovascular disease risk factors and are aged 45 and over (or over 30 for First Nations people), consider seeing your GP for a Medicare-rebated Heart Health Check.

Clare Collins AO is a Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Newcastle, NSW and a Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) affiliated researcher. She is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership Fellow and has received research grants from NHMRC, ARC, MRFF, HMRI, Diabetes Australia, Heart Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, nib foundation, Rijk Zwaan Australia, WA Dept. Health, Meat and Livestock Australia, and Greater Charitable Foundation. She has consulted to SHINE Australia, Novo Nordisk, Quality Bakers, the Sax Institute, Dietitians Australia and the ABC. She was a team member conducting systematic reviews to inform the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines update, the Heart Foundation evidence reviews on meat and dietary patterns and current Co-Chair of the Guidelines Development Advisory Committee for Clinical Practice Guidelines for Treatment of Obesity.

Erin Clarke is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Newcastle, and an affiliated researcher with Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI). She is also an Accredited Practising Dietitian working in private practice. She is currently supported by L/Prof Clare Collins’ National Health and Medical Research Council Leadership Fellowship. She has received funding from the New South Wales Ministry of Health, University of Newcastle, HMRI, Hunter New England Health and has an industry grant with Honeysuckle Health Pty Limited. She also holds positions on the Nutrition Society of Australia Council as Co-Chair of the Newcastle Regional Group, she is an early career representative for the HMRI Food and Nutrition Research Program and the University of Newcastle College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing ECR Research Sub-Committee. She is also a member of the Nutrition Society of Australia Precision and Personalised Nutrition Special Interest Group and the NSW Cardiovascular Research Network.

– ref. What is a blood cholesterol ratio? And what should yours be? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-blood-cholesterol-ratio-and-what-should-yours-be-253126

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vera Korasidis, Lecturer in Environmental Geoscience, The University of Melbourne

Roughly 140 million to 100 million years ago, the piece of land that is modern day Australia was located much further south on Earth. In fact, what is now Victoria was once within the polar circle, up to 80 degrees south of the equator and shrouded in darkness for months at a time.

Despite these harsh conditions, dinosaurs thrived here, leaving behind evidence of their existence at various palaeontological sites.

For decades, scientists have come to these sites to study the rocks containing the bones of these ancient creatures in order to better understand them.

My new research with palynologist Barbara Wagstaff, published in Alcheringa, builds on existing knowledge by using plant fossils from bone-bearing sites in the region to explain how the forests these dinosaurs lived in evolved – and, for the first time, illustrating them in detail.

One of the warmest periods on Earth

The Early Cretaceous epoch – between roughly 140 million and 100 million years ago – represents one of the warmest periods in the last half a billion years of Earth’s history. The sustained warmth was a result of increased volcanic activity, which released large quantities of carbon dioxide levels into the atmosphere.

The sustained warmth resulted in no polar ice caps, high sea levels and flooded continents.

The geographic distribution of land masses was also very different back then. The supercontinent Gondwana, in which most of the southern continents we know today were clumped into a single landmass, had only just started to break apart. At the time, southernmost Australia was in the polar circle.

The dinosaurs that lived in this region are known as “polar dinosaurs”. They included small ornithopods (plant-eaters with beaks and cheeks full of teeth) and therapods (carnivorous and predatory dinosaurs).

Read more:
Carnivorous dinosaurs thrived in Australia 120 million years ago, new fossils show

Building a picture of ancient plants

For decades, palaeontologists have been studying rocks from Victorian sites. To establish the age of the recovered dinosaur bones, we’ve needed the expertise of palynologists – palaeontologists who study microscopic fossil spores and pollen produced by plants.

Palynologists identified key species that they dissolved out of rocks. They deduced the dinosaur bones ranged in age from 130 to 100 million years old.

At the same time they were carefully recording all the microscopic spores and pollen they saw in the slides to build a picture of the plants through the Early Cretaceous period.

A planet-altering transition

The transition from a world without flowers to one with flowers has fascinated scientists for centuries, most famously Charles Darwin who labelled them “an abominable mystery”. More importantly, it also forever changed our planet.

Shortly after their first appearance approximately 132 million years ago, albeit in the southern portion of the supercontinent Laurasia, we see an explosive radiation of flowering plants not only in our new record from Victoria, but also globally.

What fuelled the evolution and rapid global expansion of flowering plants that dominate the Australian landscape today?

Our new research suggests warmer conditions helped flowering plants migrate across the globe and colonise understorey habitats shortly after evolving. Increased competition also contributed to the turnover in understorey flora, with flowering plants outcompeting lycophytes in rapidly colonising braided river channels after flooding events.

The appearance of flowering plants in the landscape resulted in the extinction of numerous understorey plants (in particular ferns) with a long fossil record.

As a result, by 100 million years ago, the forests of Victoria included an open conifer-dominated forest canopy. The subcanopy beneath was made up of seed ferns and ferns. Flowering plants and ferns featured in the understorey, alongside liverworts, hornworts, lycophytes and sphagnum-like mosses.

Diversifying in a warming world

High carbon dioxide levels in the past made the planet warmer. This is consistent with what’s happening today. As a result of these warmer conditions cool-temperate forests thrived in the polar circle.

For flowering plants, the warmer conditions provided an opportunity to diversify in an increasingly warm world. However, not all plants adapted to the warming world, with many understorey floras, including ferns, becoming extinct.

The fossil record provides crucial insights into how life will respond to predicted future climate conditions because these have occurred before in Earth’s history.

Knowing this history is crucial to our response to the current climate change challenge.

Some exciting places to visit to see fossils in Australia include Eric the Red West dig site in the Otway Ranges, Inverloch’s Dinosaur Dreaming dig site in Victoria, the Dinosaur Trail along the Queensland towns of Hughenden, Richmond and Winton, and sauropod footprints in Western Australia at Gantheaume Point.

Vera Korasidis is currently an ARC DECRA Fellow. Initial funding for this research (1983/1984) was provided by BHP Group Limited (granted to Ray Cas and Larry Frakes, respectively). Funding for the early stages of this research (1984–2000) was primarily provided by Thomas Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich with funding sources including National Geographic, the Australian Research Council (ARC) and Monash University. Funding since 2000 was provided through a Bicentennial Gold 88 Endowment, ARC Linkage grant and National Geographic.

– ref. Forest home of ‘polar dinosaurs’ 120 million years ago in southern Australia recreated in detail for the first time – https://theconversation.com/forest-home-of-polar-dinosaurs-120-million-years-ago-in-southern-australia-recreated-in-detail-for-the-first-time-255494

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Chruścik, Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences, University of Southern Queensland

Cysts are small pockets of fluid that form inside the body. Ovarian cysts are common, affecting around one in ten women. But sometimes they can cause pain – especially when they burst.

You can usually manage the pain at home. However, persistent pain can be the sign of something more serious, such as polycystic ovary syndrome (also known as PCOS).

Here’s what you should know about ovarian cysts: why they form, how to manage the pain if they burst, and when you should talk to a doctor.

How do cysts form?

The ovaries are two small almond-shaped organs on either side of the uterus. They have two main jobs: to release the eggs and produce hormones that help regulate the menstrual cycle.

Every month, one of the ovaries releases an egg. This process is called ovulation. A small sac containing the egg – called a follicle – releases it into the fallopian tube, where it waits for fertilisation by the sperm.

This sac usually dissolves after the follicle is released. But if the follicle isn’t released properly, or doesn’t dissolve, the fluid within the sac starts to fill and form a cyst.

Can you feel an ovarian cyst?

This is quite common and most of the time the cyst goes away on its own. We don’t even know it is there.

But sometimes a cyst can grow and start causing pain.

This might be a constant and dull pain, or it may be a sensation of fullness, pressure or heaviness. You’ll usually feel this to one side in the area below your belly button, but the pain can also radiate to the back and hips. A cyst can also cause discomfort and pain during sex.

Ovarian cysts tend to be categorised into three groups: small (under 2cm), medium (2–5cm) and large (above 5cm).

Doctors generally watch for cysts that are large, grow rapidly or have an irregular shape or appear solid on an imaging scan. These characteristics may indicate a higher risk of complications.

What about when it bursts?

You can think of the cyst like a balloon. When you fill it up a little bit and leave it alone, it will eventually deflate on its own.

But if you keep filling the balloon more and more, it may burst. That’s what happens when an ovarian cyst continues to fill with fluid.

If a cyst bursts, you will generally feel a sudden, sharp pain. Depending on its size – and how much fluid the cyst releases into the pelvic area around the ovary – this may ease into a dull ache or cramp, or it may continue to cause significant pain.

The released fluid can irritate the nearby tissues and organs and may make you feel nauseated. Some people may also experience weakness, dizziness, rapid breathing, vaginal bleeding or vomiting.

How do I know if it’s a cyst bursting?

The symptoms of a ruptured ovarian cyst can be similar to other serious conditions, such as appendicitis, ectopic pregnancy or kidney stones. These require very different treatments.

It is important not to self-diagnose.

You should seek care if you experience sharp, intense pain that comes on quickly, especially if it feels different from your usual period pain or doesn’t settle. It could be a sign that a cyst has burst or twisted, known as ovarian torsion.

Other signs to watch out for include pain accompanied by:

• fever or chills

• dizziness or fainting

• rapid breathing or racing heartbeat

• heavy vaginal bleeding not related to your period

• nausea or vomiting

• a sudden increase in pressure or discomfort in your lower abdomen.

The only way to know for sure what’s going on is through a proper medical assessment. Ultrasound imaging is the most common way to diagnose ovarian cysts, but other methods such as blood tests or other scans may be used in some cases.

If you’re not sure whether you should see a doctor, you can also check your symptoms (online or over the phone) using the Australian government’s free health advice website. In an emergency, always call 000.

How should you treat the pain?

Once you know you’re dealing with a burst cyst, treatment is very similar to managing period pain.

One of the best home remedies is heat therapy, such as using a hot water bottle, heating pad or a warm compress. Heat helps by improving the blood circulation to the area, allowing muscles to relax and reducing tension in surrounding tissues.

Heat also helps your body remove the fluid from the burst cyst and this reduces inflammation. Warmth stimulates the release of endorphins – sometimes known as “natural painkillers”.

Rest, hydration and warm baths may also help relieve the pain.

When pain is intense, over-the-counter pain medications are recommended. The best options are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs – such as ibuprofen – and pain-reducing analgesics, such as paracetamol.

These drugs target different steps in how the body processes pain, which is why they can be used at the same time. Ibuprofen reduces inflammation, while paracetamol tackles pain (but has no influence on inflammation).

Anna Chruścik 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. Ovarian cysts can be painful when they burst. When do you need to see a doctor? – https://theconversation.com/ovarian-cysts-can-be-painful-when-they-burst-when-do-you-need-to-see-a-doctor-253224

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Ross Smith, Senior Research Fellow, National Centre for Research on Europe, University of Canterbury

There is a growing feeling in New Zealand that the regional geopolitical situation is becoming less stable and more conflicted. China has ramped up its Pacific engagement, most recently with the Cook Islands, and the United States under Donald Trump is abandoning the old multilateral world order.

As a result, we’re beginning to see New Zealand shift away from a two-decades-long preference for engaging with multiple partners towards a more conventional balancing strategy.

Essentially, this attempts to counter the perceived threat from a strong country – namely China – with a combination of external alliances and internal policies.

Externally, New Zealand has sought re-align itself within the US-led security sphere. Participation in pillar two of the AUKUS security pact has been seriously discussed, and New Zealand has actively engaged with NATO as a member of the “Indo-Pacific Four” (along with Australia, Japan and the Republic of Korea).

Internally, a NZ$12 billion “defence plan” was announced in early April. This will see New Zealand increase defence spending from just over 1% of GDP to more than 2% over the next eight years.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made no secret of these changing priorities. He has said he is simply taking “the world as it is”, adding:

this realism is a shift from our predecessors’ vaguer notions of an indigenous foreign policy that no-one else understood, let alone shared.

This was a direct repudiation of the previous Labour government’s foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta. Her tenure had offered a glimpse of what a foreign policy guided by te ao Māori – the Māori worldview – might look like.

Four tikanga Māori principles underpinned the policy: manaakitanga (hospitality), whanaungatanga (connectedness), mahi tahi and kotahitanga (unity through collaboration), and kaitiakitanga (intergenerational guardianship).

Beyond Western-centric thinking

Clearly, te ao Māori offers a very different way of looking at international relations. At its core it adopts a “relational” understanding of the world that views reality as a series of entanglements: “human with human, human with nonhuman, nonhuman with human, human and nonhuman with transcendent”.

It is also a non-anthropocentric view: humans are not the masters of the world but rather stewards or custodians of a complex web of relations.

But as we argue in a recent Global Policy article, despite good intentions, Mahuta’s four tikanga Māori were mostly used rhetorically. They did not fundamentally alter New Zealand’s foreign policy, which remained firmly Western-centric.

We suggest those four tikanga principles would be enhanced by adding the concept of “utu” as a kind of overarching framework.

Largely thanks to the famous 1983 film of the same name, utu is often thought to simply mean violent revenge. In fact, it is a much deeper concept that refers to the “process of restoring physical and spiritual relationships to an equal or harmonious state”.

Utu as a foreign policy framework

A foreign policy underpinned by utu, therefore, would seek to build relationships that are harmonious and reciprocal.

Harmony, in this sense, goes beyond notions of an international order characterised by global peace, greater connectedness, increased cooperation and interdependence.

While these are important, an utu-informed view of harmony would also take into account the relationship between humans and the natural world, and between present, past and future generations.

Similarly, in the Western-centric view, reciprocity is typically “invoked as an appropriate standard of behaviour which can produce cooperation among sovereign states”.

But utu involves a reciprocity built through hospitality (manaakitanga), something which has to be given even if serious discord exists in a relationship. Reciprocity is also important in interactions between humans and the natural world.

Consequently, an utu foreign policy doctrine would offer a radically different lens than New Zealand is currently using.

A genuinely independent foreign policy

Firstly, it would require New Zealand to reject the Western geopolitical construct
of the “Indo-Pacific”, which vastly oversimplifies the complex realities of the region.

And it would mean viewing China not as an existential threat, but rather as a crucial relationship that is subject to the principles of manaakitanga, despite growing discord and diplomatic challenges.

Secondly, it would see New Zealand recognise climate change as the primary existential threat to the status quo. This would align closely with the country’s Pacific neighbours whose Blue Pacific initiative offers an alternative to the Indo-Pacific focus.

Lastly, it would help New Zealand more consistently and coherently pursue a genuinely independent foreign policy. This should have bipartisan appeal, as it would give New Zealand a unique perspective on the world.

Ultimately, as New Zealand faces a more complex regional environment and a range of national security challenges, utu in its true sense offers a more constructive framework.

Perhaps adopting a more complex – and more humble – understanding of the world, as provided by te ao Māori, would give policymakers an alternative pathway to simply taking “the world as it is”.

The author acknowledges the contribution of independent researcher Bonnie Holster, co-author of the Global Policy paper on which this article is based.

Nicholas Ross Smith 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. ‘Utu’ as foreign policy: how a Māori worldview can make sense of a shifting world order – https://theconversation.com/utu-as-foreign-policy-how-a-maori-worldview-can-make-sense-of-a-shifting-world-order-255602

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda Botterill, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Among the notable features of this year’s election campaign was that Australia’s second-oldest political party was apparently missing in action. At the same time, it managed to avoid the rout inflicted on its coalition partner.

The Nationals, who have represented rural and regional Australia in the federal parliament for more than a century, were nowhere to be seen as an identifiable, separate political party.

This isn’t unusual. The parties that make up the Coalition do highly targeted messaging in their electorates, but then fall neatly into policy lockstep when an election is called. This time, however, the Nationals seemed particularly shy.

Leader David Littleproud stopped issuing media releases on April 24, a full nine days before the election was held, and his speech to the National Press Club given that day was not available on the party website. It is hard to imagine former party leaders Tim Fischer, John Anderson or Ian Sinclair being quite so reticent.

The focus of the commentary since election night has been on the Liberals’ failings, particularly in the major cities. You could be forgiven for thinking “Coalition” was a synonym for “Liberals”.

But as the Liberal Party tries to reckon with these failings, the Nats are in a position of increasing power. The great survivors of Australian politics now appear to be better at surviving than their coalition counterparts. It’s just a question of how they want to use that power and longevity.

Growing party power

The Nationals are a uniquely Australian phenomenon. First, they are an avowedly agrarian party in a highly urbanised country.

Second and more distinctly, they are part of what the rest of the world would see as a decidedly odd coalition arrangement. Elsewhere, coalition governments are negotiated after the election result is known and involve public bargaining and horse trading.

In the Australian coalition arrangement, these negotiations occur behind closed doors and can hold even in opposition. The Nats benefit because they have access to ministerial and shadow ministerial positions with the power, salary and other advantages that these confer.

The National Party largely held its own in the face of the Labor landslide. At most, it lost one of its 10 House of Representatives seats: Calare in northern New South Wales, which has been held by a former Nat, now independent.

Its primary vote actually increased marginally from 3.6% in 2022 to 4.0%. This is less than One Nation (6.3%) but because of its dispersed vote, One Nation didn’t win a lower house seat.

The Nats appear likely to lose a NSW senator as part of the joint party ticket. Nonetheless, the Nats are now a proportionally larger force in the Coalition, with Nats and Nationals-aligned LNP members accounting for just over 40% of Coalition MPs.

On that basis they could become more influential over policies and shadow portfolios. Including senators, they now account for 30% of the Coalition party room.

At a crossroads

The demise of the Nationals has been predicted for decades, but still they persist.

The peculiar Australian coalition arrangement works for them. They will benefit both from holding shadow ministerial positions if the Coalition is retained and likely having a greater role in determining policy direction.

Whether the Liberals benefit from a continuing coalition is an open question. They need to rebuild in the cities and focus on regaining the support of voters who are socially liberal but economically conservative, younger, and female. There’ll inevitably be a review of what went wrong for the Liberals, and this might best be done free of ties to the Nats.

The choice seems to be between shifting policy closer to the ten community independents or remaining hitched to the conservative Nationals. The ill-fated nuclear power policy has, after all, been attributed to David Littleproud.

Deciding which way to fall won’t be easy. Apparently aware of his party’s increased leverage, Nationals Senator Matt Canavan has said they were led too much by the Liberals during the last parliament. He said:

I worry that we have been gun shy in this last term of parliament in a futile attempt to give the Liberals space or some sort of opportunity to win seats in the city.

So is now the time for the Coalition partners to go it alone? Probably not.

On present numbers, the Liberals could struggle to form the opposition in their own right. The combined LNP in Queensland makes the situation even more complicated.

The Nats have no incentive to leave. Open competition could see them lose seats to the Liberals in the future.

And besides, two Liberal leadership contenders, Angus Taylor and Sussan Ley, hold seats with significant rural histories, both of which have been held by the Country/National Party.

Linda Botterill has in the past received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Grains Research and Development Corporation, and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (now Agrifutures).

– ref. While the Liberals haemorrhaged, the Nationals held their own. Is it time to break up the Coalition? – https://theconversation.com/while-the-liberals-haemorrhaged-the-nationals-held-their-own-is-it-time-to-break-up-the-coalition-255626

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Farrell, Professor of Economics (Health Economist), RMIT University

Imagine having to pay A$39 dollars a day to park your car while visiting your sick child in hospital.

For families already struggling in a cost-of-living crisis, hospital parking fees are not just another expense. They can be a financial barrier to supporting loved ones in their most vulnerable moments.

Hospital parking is a big revenue earner. In New South Wales, public hospitals collected almost $51.7 million in parking fees in 2024. That was up from $30.2 million in 2023.

It may be tempting to view hospital parking fees as exploiting a captive market. But the reality is much more complex.

It involves urban economics, pressures on health-care funding and competing demands for limited space, often in busy city centres.

Let’s start with supply and demand

Basic economics tells us that price is the mechanism for balancing supply and demand. This is known as the equilibrium price. If demand is greater than supply, the price rises. So for urban hospitals, where parking spaces are limited, this scarcity creates market conditions that, not surprisingly, drive up prices.

But economics also tells us that if there’s still demand for parking despite the price, then under some circumstances suppliers can charge more than the equilibrium price. Put simply, this “inelastic demand” means it is possible to charge more to a captive audience.

You could certainly argue hospital patients and visitors are a captive audience. While many hospitals are well serviced by public transport, hospital patients and visitors are often too sick or time-poor to use it. So they have little choice than to pay for parking. For rural hospitals, there is limited or no public transport, so visitors have to drive.

So are hospitals taking advantage of the inelastic demand for parking? Are they price gouging – setting prices above what is considered reasonable or fair? Or are there reasons for setting such high prices?

Location, location, location

Car parks of hospitals in prime locations are not just attractive to hospital patients and visitors. They’re also attractive to other users, such as those working in the city or sightseeing. High parking fees deter these users, ensuring spaces are available for hospital users.

High prices prevent hospital users from overstaying. This prevents them doing non-hospital activities (such as shopping) after their hospital appointment or visits and before returning to their cars.

Hospitals also charge high prices to raise revenue for health care. In a statement to the ABC earlier this year, NSW Health said extra money raised from parking is reinvested into health services and facilities.

But it makes sense to encourage visitors

However, raising parking fees to support hospital budgets could be a false economy. We know hospital visitors have an important role in patients’ recovery times. So if high parking costs deter visitors or carers, this could lead to longer hospital stays for their loved ones.

Cheaper parking might allow for more visiting, leading to shorter hospital stays and significant cost savings per patient.

I (Lisa) had firsthand experience of this when my elderly father with dementia was admitted to hospital recently. The hospital allowed 24/7 visitor access for carers (in this case, my mother) and free hospital parking. Access 24/7 is important for patients with dementia who are often disorientated in hospital. This disorientation is typically worse in the evening (known as sundowning).

Having carers present meant staff could focus on medical issues. It facilitated visits outside normal visiting hours (when dementia patients typically need the extra support) and when the demand for parking spaces is lower.

Who needs cheap parking?

High parking prices reflect the high demand for a fixed supply of parking spaces that are rationed to those most willing to pay (those with the income). But a better solution is to ration according to need (that is, to boost patient wellbeing).

The economics solution is to charge different users different prices. Most hospitals do this already by offering concessions. But concessions can differ by hospital or state. Not everyone knows concession-rate parking is available, and it can be hard for some people to find out if they qualify.

So if you are concerned about the cost of hospital parking, know the fees and available concessions before you park. You can find this on most hospitals’ websites.

Currently, concessions are generally based on income (including the possession of a concession card). But we need a greater shift towards providing concession rates based on need. For example those visiting long-stay patients clearly need concessions to support patient wellbeing.

A media campaign has called for a national cap on hospital parking costs for frequent users.

Most car parks have a daily limit but frequent users can soon accumulate large bills over weeks or months of hospital visits. For many patients, particularly those requiring frequent treatments such as dialysis, parking costs accumulate annually.

How could we make things cheaper and fairer?

We need to apply concession rates to hospital visitors on the basis of need, not just income. Need should be informed by patient wellbeing and the importance of visitors to the healing process.

We need a consistent set of rules across hospitals about concession-rate parking. This would simplify the process for hospital car park users.

We also need to look at longer-term solutions. When expanding hospitals or planning new ones, we can consider transitioning away from prime locations. This would help make parking less attractive to non-hospital users.

The challenge for health-care systems is balancing operational necessity of recovering costs with the ethics of equity and access that prevent necessary care.

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. Why is hospital parking so expensive? Two economics researchers explain – https://theconversation.com/why-is-hospital-parking-so-expensive-two-economics-researchers-explain-255716

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Vo, Senior lecturer in Vietnamese culture and politics, University of Wollongong

At a time of widespread global trade instability, Australia should be expanding and diversifying its economic partnerships. Supply chains remain fragile, and protectionist rhetoric is once again gaining traction in major Western economies.

US President Donald Trump’s America First agenda includes sweeping tariffs on imports, withdrawal from multilateral agreements and pressure to take production in-house.

At the same time, China, Australia’s largest trading partner, has often used trade for geopolitical leverage. In 2020, Beijing imposed tariffs of more than 200% on Australian wine. This wiped 30% off the sector’s export value.

So economic diversification is not only desirable but strategically imperative.

An opportunity

Fifty years on from the fall of Saigon, Vietnam presents a compelling opportunity for economic and strategic diversification. The reunited country is eager to move beyond its wartime image and assert itself as an emerging economic powerhouse.

Since the launch of the Doi Moi reforms in 1986, Vietnam has embraced economic liberalisation and market-oriented policies. The Doi Moi reforms opened the economy to foreign trade, allowed private ownership and restructured state-owned enterprises.

From a growth rate of just 1.6% in 1980, Vietnam is now set to become one of the world’s top 20 economies by 2050. In 2023 alone, it attracted A$8.5 billion in foreign direct investment, underscoring strong investor confidence.

The 50th anniversary of reunification on April 30 provided insights into the country’s growth. Celebrations included military parades, 3D virtual reality displays and exhibitions promoting advances in technology.

Slow to act

Yet Australia has been slow to act. Despite geographic proximity and shared interests, Australia’s economic footprint in Vietnam remains surprisingly small. In 2023, Australian foreign direct investment totalled just A$3 million. It ranked 22nd, behind countries including Switzerland and Seychelles.

In trade, the disparity is similarly stark. Vietnam accounts for only 2.33% of Australia’s exports and 1.4% of imports. Two-way trade between the two countries reached $26.3 billion in 2022. At the same time, Vietnam’s trade with the United States, topped A$191.9 billion.

Some Australian firms are already making inroads. BlueScope Steel, Linfox, and SunRice have invested significantly in manufacturing, logistics and agriculture. And RMIT University has been a key player in transnational education since it opened the first of three campuses in Vietnam in 2000.

ANZ and Qantas also have a visible presence. However, small and medium-sized enterprises – which comprise more than 98% of Australian businesses – remain largely absent. Many prefer export partnerships or distributor agreements over direct investment.

Potential obstacles

Australian companies have long favoured English-speaking or high-income markets. These offer greater institutional and cultural familiarity and regulatory certainty.

Vietnam’s relationship-based commercial environment poses challenges, especially for firms lacking embedded networks and local knowledge. Concerns around regulatory transparency, intellectual property protection, contract enforcement and corruption – though improving – continue to weigh on corporate decisions.

Small to medium enterprises, in particular, face extra barriers due to limited institutional support, regulatory understanding, market intelligence and in-country networks.

Help from government

The Australian government has taken some steps to catch up. The Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy, launched in 2021, aims to double two-way investment and elevate both nations to top ten trading partner status.

It identifies priority sectors such as agriculture, education, clean energy, digital technology and manufacturing. However, the strategy contains no enforceable legal protections, tariff concessions or means of dispute resolution.

The lack of these matters. Japan, South Korea and the European Union have pursued coordinated economic strategies that include concessional loans, robust legal frameworks and in-market support services. These help their businesses thrive in Vietnam’s complex regulatory environment.

Similarly, the EU has integrated trade promotion with legal certainty under agreements like the EU Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.

More needs to be done

Without comparable tools, Australia’s initiatives risk being more aspirational than actionable.

Last year’s upgrade in bilateral ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, signals growing political will.

For Australia to realise the potential of its relationship with Vietnam it should back long-term policies. These policies should reduce market entry barriers, incentivise small to medium enterprises and increase joint skills development.

Investors also need legal and institutional support.

Australia has strong potential to expand into emerging sectors. These include renewable energy, digital technology, healthcare, vocational education and training, green and smart infrastructure and agritech.

Vietnam’s push for environmentally sustainable economic growth, digital transformation and workforce training aligns closely with Australian strengths. This creates opportunities for strategic investment and cooperation.

There is the potential for Australia to build a dynamic partnership with Vietnam central to its long-term economic position in the Indo-Pacific.

Anne Vo 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. Vietnam is poised to become a top 20 economy, so why is Australia taking so long to make trade and investment links? – https://theconversation.com/vietnam-is-poised-to-become-a-top-20-economy-so-why-is-australia-taking-so-long-to-make-trade-and-investment-links-255722

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emily Baulch, Research Associate, Discipline of Media and Communications, University of Sydney

This piece contains spoilers.

Marvel’s men are sad. And that’s a good thing.

Thor’s depressed in Avengers: Endgame. Tony Stark has panic attacks in Iron Man 3. Peter grieves in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

In Marvel’s latest release Thunderbolts* (or The New Avengers), we finally see a male superhero seek advice on how to deal with mental illness.

The only problem? His impromptu therapist is a woman he’s only just met.

A blanket of darkness

Bob Reynolds (Lewis Pullman) is a new and damaged superhero experiment. Bob believes the world might be better off without him – foreshadowing that he’s not entirely wrong.

Bob turns to Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) for help. Yelena understands, saying “that darkness gets pretty enticing”. As she struggles to describe the feeling, Bob supplies the word: a void.

Yelena offers a survival tactic: push the darkness deep down and carry on. It’s terrible advice and they both know it. But in that moment, it’s honest, and it connects them.

Thunderbolts explores suicidal thoughts, PTSD and bipolar disorder. Bob speaks of the euphoric highs and shattering lows he experiences, often resulting in blackouts. His mental illness becomes metaphoric: his internal darkness manifests in his powers, and he becomes the villainous superpower of the film.

Some of the film handles these themes well. Bob’s bipolar spreads into a dangerous blanket of darkness into which others, literally, vanish. At the film’s climax, Bob battles the dark, depressed version of himself. He beats himself up, seeking to beat the evil version of himself and, metaphorically, his mental illness. It doesn’t work. The darkness spreads to his stable self, too.

But Yelena and the Thunderbolts fight their way to him, embracing him in a hug, and their support gives him the strength to confront his trauma.

Women as emotional supports

Done well, positive depictions of mental health struggles can be important pieces of representation.

Unfortunately, most mental health depictions in major films are not done well, when they are included at all. Accurate portrayals of bipolar disorder remain rare. Research shows on young adult literature continues to lack mental health representation, especially by authors with lived experience.

Across Hollywood, from Rey saving Kylo Ren in Star Wars to Beauty fixing the Beast, women are constantly cast as emotional supports for men.

This is also true throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Black Widow offers the Hulk her hand; Tony Stark punches him to sleep. Scarlet Witch is forced to carry her grief for Vision. In Thunderbolts, Yelena becomes the latest emotional ballast for a traumatised man.

These women take these roles despite their own troubles, often without support or recognition from their male counterparts.

Yelena steps into the dark emanating from Bob, believing her own struggles will allow her to help him. It’s poignant and beautiful in a way. Those who have walked through hell know the pathway through.

But it’s also troubling.

To save Bob from himself, she must risk her body, mind and mental wellbeing. Alone, her flashbacks become real as she comes face to face with her childhood trauma, undergoing psychological torture at Bob’s hands to reach him.

The weight of emotional labour

Yelena’s actions aren’t just a trope. They reflect a broader cultural script where women are expected to take on emotional responsibility not just for themselves but also for the men around them.

Women are taught to care about others. At home and at work, the emotional labour undertaken by women often goes unnoticed, but it comes with real costs: stress, burnout and self-neglect.

As men struggle with loneliness and a lack of friendships, women are expected to fill that gap. This dynamic, sometimes called “mankeeping”, leaves women doing the emotional work of informal therapy without support or reciprocity.

Taking on these informal therapist roles results in disempowerment and dissatisfaction.

The film’s depiction of Bob’s mental health issues has positive aspects: it goes against the pressure to conform to traditional ideas of masculinity, where men are taught to suppress their emotions and be stoic. Bob is allowed to be vulnerable and ask for help, and, despite his actions, is still shown to be worth helping.

A significant number of young men who follow masculinity influencers believe they need to be stoic and control their emotions and that women should occupy traditional gender roles, being soft, nurturing, motherly and supportive.

These beliefs can not only discourage men from seeking professional help: they set women up to carry the emotional burden in relationships, often at great personal cost.

Addressing mental health

Toxic masculinity is well and truly alive, but women aren’t the answer to it.

Addressing mental health issues effectively requires a multifaceted approach that includes professional intervention, personal responsibility and mutual support within relationships.

Thunderbolts gestures toward progress, but doesn’t quite escape old tropes. Bob’s pain is real, but it’s also weaponised. His mental illness becomes a threat, and his instability something others must contain.

The film acknowledges he’s struggling, but ultimately treats his struggle as dangerous as his void-like inner turbulence is unleashed on those around him. It’s a reflection of a broader cultural pattern: when men’s emotional pain is left unaddressed, it festers, and women are often expected to absorb the cost.

We’re left with a troubling question: in the stories we tell, are we promising struggling young men a fairytale ending of romance and self-sacrifice in the shape of a young woman coming to save them from themselves?

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

Emily Baulch 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. Marvel’s Thunderbolts* shines a light on men’s mental illness – but falls down with this outdated plotline – https://theconversation.com/marvels-thunderbolts-shines-a-light-on-mens-mental-illness-but-falls-down-with-this-outdated-plotline-255869

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Tietz, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design, UNSW Sydney

At Macquarie Correctional Centre in western New South Wales, a story of collaboration and persistence is unfolding. Inmates and prison officers are farming commercial quantities of fresh food in a purpose-built indoor facility.

One of the 400 male offenders in maximum security at Macquarie contacted me with the idea about five years ago, proposing it would form the basis of a PhD. I agreed to supervise the project.

Inmates at Macquarie Correctional Centre are encouraged to further their education and follow their interests. The approach is modelled on the Scandinavian prison system, which has the world’s lowest re-offending rates.

The project shows food gardening provides a meaningful activity for inmates, some of whom never had the opportunity to learn how to plant and grow produce.

Why farm indoors?

The project involved farming indoors because the environment can be more carefully controlled. Being isolated from the weather means there’s no need to worry about extremes such as frosts or heatwaves.

This type of “controlled environment agriculture” is also more efficient. It requires less resources than traditional agriculture, mainly because there are fewer losses due to pests and diseases.

By controlling the amount of light, water and nutrients each plant receives, it’s possible to optimise the growing system – making it more like a plant factory than a standard greenhouse.

From vision to reality

Inmates studying in prison don’t have internet access. Emails are printed out or relayed. If information needs to be viewed online it is under supervision of an authorised officer.

Despite the challenges, the student published his first conference paper in 2021 and his first academic journal article in 2023. A second article followed in 2024. The student also submitted his PhD 2024.

The project began with a research plan. Then the PhD student ran focus groups with officers and inmates in mixed groups. A series of one-on-one interviews followed.

Officers and inmates co-designed and developed the indoor farming facility. One group of inmates, trained in the in-house design office, used 3D computer aided design (CAD) software to produce technical drawings for the farm. Another group took these drawings and turned them into small-scale indoor farming prototypes.

After extensive testing, the team selected the best prototype and developed the full-scale project, known as M Farm.

The student won a competitive grant of A$50,000 from the NSW Department of Communities and Justice Innovation Fund. This funded construction of the farm.

Another grant from the University of NSW supported a solar-powered food waste composting machine. The machine converts daily food waste from the entire prison into organic fertiliser. This means less food waste is sent to landfill, saving costs and reducing emissions.

Produce from the farm is used in the prison café. Since November 2023, the farm has supplied about $3,500 worth of produce to the café.

Last year, about 30 items were entered in the local agricultural show. M Farm won first place in the district for best fresh produce.

Cooperation is key to success

Inmates ran the project and enjoyed tangible benefits such as access to fresh produce and a sense of accomplishment and pride.

The project proved inmates can be productive without constant oversight. Similar results were achieved in a community-based vegetable gardening initiative in Girona, Spain, where residents formed an intensive farming cooperative without local council administration.

The prison officers also benefited from being part of the process and took pride in the results. They also shared the benefits in the on-site café, which is open to both inmates and prison staff.

This experiment provides further evidence that engagement and collaboration through co-design can lead to social learning, or “informal mutual learning”.

Empowering co-designers enables the development of solutions beyond initial expectations. The best approach is arming people with the skills they need to actively engage and co-lead in the decision-making processes.

Make it grow

The PhD thesis includes a co-design tool kit that other prisons worldwide can follow. Given the global prison population exceeds 11 million people, this presents an opportunity to develop a broad-scale sustainability initiative.

Farming fresh produce in prisons has the potential to improve nutrition and wellbeing. It also offers environmental benefits such as producing compost, reducing waste and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Such projects also have the potential to give inmates confidence and hope, and provides them with skills and knowledge that can benefit the community after their release.

Christian Tietz 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. How maximum security prison inmates and officers worked together to create a farm behind bars – https://theconversation.com/how-maximum-security-prison-inmates-and-officers-worked-together-to-create-a-farm-behind-bars-244962

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Koplin, Evidence and Translation Lead, National Allergy Centre of Excellence; Chief Investigator, Centre of Food Allergy Research; Associate Professor and Group Leader, Childhood Allergy & Epidemiology Group, Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland

Many questions pop up when you’re growing or raising a new baby.

Among them, women often wonder if what they eat during pregnancy or breastfeeding will affect whether or not their child will have a food allergy.

Researchers have also been trying to answer this question for many years.

A baby’s exposure to food allergens during pregnancy and via breast milk is thought to be important. Experts believe it could allow the child to start developing helpful immune responses so they tolerate food allergens in their diet in future.

But to what degree this theory plays out, and whether a mother’s diet influences their child’s likelihood of developing food allergies, isn’t yet clear. Here’s what we know so far.

The science of food allergies

A food allergy occurs when the body’s immune system responds to a particular food as if it was harmful to the body.

In Australia, foods which commonly cause allergies include egg, cow’s milk, peanut, tree nuts, sesame, soy, wheat, fish and other seafood (this can vary a little in different countries). Although almost any food can cause an allergic reaction.

For people with food allergies, symptoms can appear within minutes of eating the food. These symptoms can include a swollen face, lips or eyes, hives or welts on the skin, vomiting, trouble breathing, and persistent dizziness or collapse.

In pregnancy, food allergens can cross the placenta and can be detected in amniotic fluid, from which they reach the baby’s gastrointestinal tract when the baby swallows.

After birth this process continues when food allergens pass from breast milk to the baby’s gastrointestinal tract. Both of these pathways lead to early life exposure to different foods.

This is thought to help the baby’s developing immune system to accept food allergens when they’re introduced once the child starts eating solids. In other words, the immune system may be more likely to see the food as harmless and not mount an allergic response against the food.

Along with food allergens, babies also receive beneficial antibodies in breast milk. Levels of food allergen-specific antibodies, which could offer protection against allergies, have been found to be higher in babies whose mothers ate more of foods including egg, peanut, cow’s milk and wheat during early breastfeeding.

Lower levels of these beneficial antibodies in the blood have been linked with higher chances of babies developing food allergies.

Research is trying to answer the question

While there are scientific explanations for how a woman’s diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding could influence her child’s likelihood of developing a food allergy, we don’t have conclusive evidence to tell us exactly what the best diet is to prevent allergies.

Some studies have tried to look at this, but results have been inconsistent because they have been done in different populations, diet has been assessed in different ways, and they have not always been able to account for other factors that might influence both diet and food allergy risk.

Current research is trying to understand this further. A large Australian study, the PrEggNut Study, is testing whether the amount of egg and peanut mothers eat during pregnancy and breastfeeding affects their child’s risk of having an egg or peanut allergy.

More than 2,100 mothers were randomly assigned to eat either higher or lower amounts of egg and peanut from mid-pregnancy until their baby was four months old. Results are expected next year.

Another Australian study, the Nuts For Babies Study, is testing whether the amount of peanuts and cashew nuts mothers eat during breastfeeding can reduce the chances of their child developing a peanut or cashew nut allergy.

This study has recently commenced and is looking for 4,000 pregnant women living in Western Australia or Victoria and who are planning to breastfeed their baby to participate.

So what’s the advice for now?

There are many other things, such as genetic and environmental factors, that may also play a role in the development of a baby’s immune system, including how their immune cells respond to food allergens. And we still have a lot to learn about what causes allergies more broadly.

While we wait for the results of the above studies, the current advice is for mothers not to avoid any common allergy-causing foods during pregnancy and breastfeeding (unless of course they’re allergic themselves).

The science so far suggests that if anything, exposing the baby to allergens could reduce their risk of developing allergies, rather than increase it.

Once the baby is ready to eat solid foods, we know introducing peanuts and eggs from around six months of age makes it less likely the child will develop an allergy to these foods.

Introducing other common allergy-causing foods in the first year of life may also be helpful, although the evidence for this is not as strong compared with peanuts and eggs.

Once these foods have been introduced, continuing to include them in your baby’s meals regularly, at least once a week, might also make it less likely they develop an allergy to these foods.

Jennifer Koplin receives research funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. She is a member of the Executive Committee for the National Allergy Centre of Excellence, which is supported by funding from the Australian government. She has received a research award from the Stallergenes Greer Foundation, paid to her institution, for unrelated research. She is a co-investigator on the PrEggNut study mentioned in this article.

Debbie Palmer receives research project funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and is supported by a Stan Perron Charitable Foundation Fellowship. Debbie is the lead chief investigator of both the PrEggNut Study and Nuts For Babies Study. She is the food allergy stream co-chair of the National Allergy Centre of Excellence, which is supported by funding from the Australian government.

Desalegn Markos Shifti is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council-funded Centre for Food and Allergy Research postdoctoral funding.

– ref. Can what you eat during pregnancy and breastfeeding affect whether your child develops food allergies? – https://theconversation.com/can-what-you-eat-during-pregnancy-and-breastfeeding-affect-whether-your-child-develops-food-allergies-255114

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark David Ryan, Professor, Film, Screen, Animation, Queensland University of Technology

US President Donald Trump’s recent announcement of a plan to impose a 100% tariff on movies “produced in foreign lands” could have a massive impact on the global entertainment industry.

Film and television production is increasingly part of an interconnected global system. Hollywood’s major studios and global streaming giants use a diverse range of locations around the world, sometimes working across multiple countries for a single project.

Doing so allows them to leverage production incentives and tax shelters offered by different countries, take advantage of exchange rates to lower their production costs, and more.

They also film offshore, for example in China, as strategic co-productions and feature iconic locations and local actors to appeal to audiences in that specific national market.

Many countries have become important hubs in this global system of production. Australia is a significant player. So, how exactly might Trump’s tariffs work? And why is so much Hollywood film made internationally in the first place?

‘Movies made in America’

Trump made the announcement in a post on the social media network Truth Social. But his original statement is vague and lacks crucial detail.

Based on his post, this proposal could include any foreign movie imported into the United States. More likely, though, it refers to US movies filmed (in part or wholly) overseas.

Trump’s statement only singles out movies. He doesn’t mention television series for broadcasters, or specifically film and television programs made for streaming platforms.

This suggests a focus on movies made by Hollywood studios. It may or may not include content made by streamers such as Netflix.

Tariffs on tickets?

Movies are a kind of intellectual property. They’re intangible products or services, not physical goods. If a tariff was applied to movies, they’d become the first service in the current trade war to receive one.

So what tariffs or regulations could be applied?

One option would be a levy on distributors releasing US movies made overseas. Another option would be to adapt the French TSA model, which levies a tax on all cinema tickets. In France, this money is reinvested into the local industry. The US could impose such a tax on tickets for films with production components overseas.

Both options would pass the costs on to consumers. A drop in already fragile cinema attendance or revenues could simply cause studios to reduce the number of movies made for theatrical release.

Studios might instead concentrate on making movies and television series for their own streaming platforms, such as Disney+ and Paramount+.

Taxing production

Could the tax be imposed in other ways? Many US studio movies, and television programs, are at least partly, if not wholly, filmed internationally. But they are still US-controlled movies and still dominate the box office in many countries worldwide.

Could the revenue of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), filmed on the Gold Coast in Australia, specifically be targeted and taxed for being made overseas, in contrast to a Hollywood movie made completely at home?

Would there be a sliding scale based on how much of a film is shot overseas? Would the tax apply to post-production or only production? The process of reviewing and enforcing this would be complex.

Another option may be taxing the portion of a movie’s production budget obtained from foreign tax incentives.

Major blockbusters filming in Australia are eligible for tax rebates and incentives, which can equate to almost half, or more, of the money they spend in Australia. But exactly how the US would review and regulate such a tax is again unclear.

Australia’s film industry

International film and television production expenditure in Australia now averages A$880 million each year. International movies alone account for about half of that figure.

And the number of movies and television series being filmed in Australia has increased dramatically since the outbreak of COVID.

Production expenditure here on both local and international productions jumped from just over $1 billion in 2019–20 to about $2.4 billion in 2022–23.

There are numerous reasons for this. Australia became a more popular international production hub after serving as a “production bubble” during the pandemic, as restrictions forced filming to shut down in many other countries. Relationships were forged between local producers, crews, film agencies and studios.

The reputation of places like the Gold Coast, known for talented crews and stunning filming locations, has also played an important role in continually luring studios back.

The biggest draw card

But the major reason is the strong pull of Australia’s tax incentives for filming content here.

In Australia, international film and television programs are eligible for a 30% “location offset” on eligible production expenditures. If a project qualifies, producers will receive a provisional certificate, and they can claim a fixed 30% rebate for expenses in an income tax return for the relevant year.

There’s also a 30% offset on eligible post-production and visual effects work. And these incentives can be “stacked” on top of an extra 10–15% in incentives from state screen agencies (such as Screen QLD).

Some combined federal and state-based production offsets amount to rebates of 50%, or more, of a project’s production spend in Australia.

Why Australia is worried

International productions, which are quite different to local film and television programs, generate employment for many local actors and technical professionals. The loss of this film production would dramatically reduce employment for local professionals.

If these levies are imposed only on movies that screen theatrically, then television series and streaming films and series could continue to film in Australia unaffected. That would lessen the impact on local industries. If the definition includes both, the impact could be dramatic.

Mark David Ryan has received funding from the Gold Coast Film Commission. He is affiliated with the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).

– ref. How do you put a tariff on movies? Here’s what Trump’s plan could mean for Australia – https://theconversation.com/how-do-you-put-a-tariff-on-movies-heres-what-trumps-plan-could-mean-for-australia-255948

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roy Green, Emeritus Professor of Innovation, University of Technology Sydney

In his victory speech, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese highlighted social policy as a major factor in Labor’s electoral success, particularly Medicare, housing and cost of living relief. He was justified in doing so.

But looking forward, Treasurer Jim Chalmers named stalled productivity growth as a top priority for the next three years:

The best way to think about the difference between our first term and the second term …[is] the first term was primarily inflation without forgetting productivity, the second term will be primarily productivity without forgetting inflation.

The government asked the Productivity Commission in December to develop five pillars of its productivity agenda and come up with actionable reforms. And for the first time, the commission went out and sought “productivity pitches” from anyone in the community.

Ahead of further reports due out later this year, those community “pitches” offer some clues about where the Albanese government might start to tackle productivity over the next three years and beyond.

Why does productivity matter?

Essentially, productivity is about working smarter, not harder. It’s about efficiency and innovation driving more output for an economy or company. Growth in productivity has been the driver of real wage growth and improved living standards since the Industrial Revolution.

However, productivity performance has slumped across most advanced economies. In Australia, growth is the slowest in 60 years. This is despite the transformative impact of the internet and digital technologies.

Explanations of the productivity slowdown are many and varied. Some have suggested the growth of the care economy and the services sector more broadly means productivity is reduced. Others wonder whether it can be measured at all in this context.

The explanation that has gained most acceptance is that productivity has increased dramatically in “frontier firms” at the cutting edge of technological change and business innovation. The problem in Australia is that we have too few frontier firms and too many “laggard” companies. The rate of new technology adoption is too slow.

This problem is made more acute by Australia’s trade and industrial structure, which is heavily weighted to resources exports rather than the knowledge-based industries of the future.

What is the Productivity Commission looking at?

This is the rationale for the Treasurer’s request in December for the Productivity Commission to identify priority reforms in five key areas. He asked for “actionable recommendations to assist governments to make meaningful and measurable productivity-enhancing reforms”.

The five pillars are:

• creating a more dynamic and resilient economy
• building a skilled and adaptable workforce
• harnessing data and digital technology
• delivering quality care more efficiently
• investing in cheaper, cleaner energy and the net zero transformation.

These are ambitious objectives, and the Productivity Commission is pursuing the review task in a different way from the past by seeking ideas directly from the community through crowd sourcing.

This is a sensible move, especially given the commission’s role in presiding over Australia’s productivity decline. Perhaps they are finally learning from failed experiments in deregulation, privatisation and contracting out.

The commission has published a selection of the 500 suggestions it received. These include research and development initatives; improving university collaboration with industry; improving management capabilities and building inclusive workplaces; and reforming skilled migration.

In the technology area, suggestions included developing internal capability and processes in the public service; making more use of artificial intelligence; and improving digital infrastructure in regional areas.

In the care economy, pharmacists could play an increased role, such as consulting on minor illnesses, while more could be invested in preventative health.

The fifth area of focus, the energy transition, produced ideas on streamlining state and federal approval processes for net zero projects; increasing fossil fuel taxes; supporting electric vehicle uptake and vehicle-to-grid technology.

The commission has said it plans to continue the consultation process and release interim reports mid-year.

Will it be enough to shift the dial?

The question remains, will these individual measures on their own, however meritorious, be sufficient to shift the dial on Australia’s productivity performance without a more comprehensive approach to innovation and industrial policy?

The government set up a “strategic examination” of research and development (R&D) in February. An interim discussion paper found links between the decline of productivity growth, the decline of business spending on R&D, and the decline of manufacturing.

In other words, reversing the productivity slowdown may not simply be a matter of boosting R&D. It will also require the revival and reinvention of manufacturing. It implies a complex sovereign capability and means for diversifying Australia’s export mix in global markets and value chains.

This is the purpose of the government’s Future Made in Australia strategy, with its twin objectives of economic resilience and net zero transition. That success in turn depends on the development of a more effective and joined up research and innovation system.

The chance was missed in the commodity boom to design and deliver overdue structural changes in the Australian economy. Instead, the productivity decline was masked by a terms-of-trade boost to our national income, thanks to higher commodity prices.

The Albanese government’s second and possibly third term in office provides another opportunity to undertake the major structural changes required to secure Australia’s future as an inclusive and dynamic knowledge-based economy. Surely this one will not be missed.

Roy Green 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. Labor says its second term will be about productivity reform. These ideas could help shift the dial – https://theconversation.com/labor-says-its-second-term-will-be-about-productivity-reform-these-ideas-could-help-shift-the-dial-255880

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Beattie, Lecturer, Media and Communication, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Government coalition partners National and Act are at odds over proposed restrictions on social media use by New Zealanders aged 16 and under.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon recently announced a National Party private member’s bill that would require social media companies to verify someone is aged 16 or older. Luxon said social media was not “always a safe place for young people”.

But ACT Party leader David Seymour has dismissed National’s proposal, saying it was “simple, neat and wrong”.

Even if the member’s bill is not chosen out of the parliament biscuit tin, global interest in getting young people off social media is increasing.

In late 2024, Australia passed a law banning children aged under 16 from social media platforms. Advocates, police and politicians in the United Kingdom, United States and elsewhere have all proposed similar laws.

While there is merit in young people spending more time offline, and there are real concerns about the impact of social media on wider society, it’s not clear that outright prohibition will achieve what is hoped for. Here are ten reasons a blanket ban is not the answer.

1. The addiction fallacy

Lobby group Before 16 has compared social media to tobacco, saying the platforms should be treated as a public health harm. The implication is that young people could get addicted to social media.

But the standard for diagnosing addiction is high. Most young people are not addicted to social media; they have a habitual relationship with it that is hard to change.

Likewise, comparing digital experiences to food may not capture the full range of interactions and impacts. This often implies value judgements, suggesting online experiences are all about “dopamine hits” (similar to sweet treats) and inherently less valuable or “unhealthy” compared to offline experiences.

2. People are not ‘exposed to’ social media

The language of the ban seems to suggest the relationship between social media and users goes in one direction – that people are simply exposed to the good and bad of platforms such as Facebook, TikTok and X. But using social media is not like going outside and getting burnt by the sun.

While social media affects people, it’s also a tool we use to actively shape and create meaning for ourselves. It provides social scaffolding for day-to-day lives, identity formation, communication with family overseas, community support, and even a place to complain about parents.

3. Murky science

One of most influential books behind the ban is Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation. Haidt claims a causal link between social media use and increased anxiety and depression in Gen Z (those born between 1995 and 2012).

But this claim is highly contentious and has been criticised for failing to consider other causes for the rise in anxiety in young people.

At best, there may be a correlation between social media and poor mental health – they are happening at the same time. Young people are also grappling with the climate crisis, increasing inequality and global instability. These variables are difficult to isolate in a study, meaning social media becomes an easy target.

4. A range of experiences

Critics of social media also assume everyone has a negative experience online. And yes, if you tend to compare yourself to others on social media then you might end up feeling bad about your life.

But not everyone thinks this way or uses social media to compare what they have (and don’t have) with others.

5. The moral panic factor

Moral panics can occur when emerging technologies challenge established social norms.

Phenomena such as “phubbing” (using a phone to snub someone) challenge what is considered “socially acceptable” behaviour, triggering a deluge of think pieces about how they hurt society.

While some skills may decline (such as reading and writing) with new technology, others like visual or oral storytelling practiced on social media are on the rise.

Banning social media could mean young people miss out on valuable digital skills.

6. Marginalised groups lose out

Getting young people off social media might not be a big deal for kids who fit within their community. But if you are young, gay and live in a small town, for example, social media may provide the only space where you can feel safe or celebrated for who you are.

Social media is also a key means for immigrants to stay in touch with their families and culture.

7. Enforcement challenges

There are also problems with how the ban is supposed to work – something Australia is still grappling with despite already passing a ban into law (which comes into effect at the end of this year).

Policymakers have yet to explain how age verification technologies would work without giving away more personal data to media platforms. And everyone would have to verify their age, regardless of whether they are under 16 years old or not.

8. Losing innovation

Young people are savvier with technology than older generations. They lead with innovations such as FINSTA (fake Instagram) accounts – fake profiles that allow people to post more privately on Instagram without the pressure of conforming to expectations or judgement of people who know you.

Blanket bans could hurt this technological adeptness and creativity and stop young people from teaching us how to navigate our online and offline lives.

9. Learning how to disconnect

Media literacy is also a crucial skill in today’s media saturated age. The skill of unplugging could become part of that curriculum.

Temporarily going offline is an excellent way to make students aware of their relationship with social media. Schools could have media-free classes or courses to build awareness, encourage new habits and support students to develop new routines.

10. Better options than a ban

No one is arguing that social media hasn’t had a negative effect on individuals and society as a whole. But instead of a ban, why not work to improve the platforms?

We could focus regulatory efforts on creating safer spaces, like we do with physical buildings.

Overseas advocacy work on children’s digital rights shows how we can protect children from algorithms, gamification and other predatory tactics used by social media platforms, rather than introducing an outright ban.

Alex Beattie receives funding from The Royal Society of New Zealand. He has previously won a Marsden Fast Start Grant.

– ref. 10 reasons why banning social media for New Zealanders under 16 is a bad idea – and will affect adults too – https://theconversation.com/10-reasons-why-banning-social-media-for-new-zealanders-under-16-is-a-bad-idea-and-will-affect-adults-too-256065

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meru Sheel, Associate Professor and Epidemiologist, Infectious Diseases, Immunisation and Emergencies (IDIE) Group, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney

Five years ago, COVID was all we could think about. Today, we’d rather forget about lockdowns, testing queues and social distancing. But the virus that sparked the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, is still circulating.

Most people who get COVID today will experience only a mild illness. But some people are still at risk of severe illness and are more likely to be hospitalised with COVID. This includes older people, those who are immunocompromised by conditions such as cancer, and people with other health conditions such as diabetes.

Outcomes also tend to be more severe in those who experience social inequities such as homelessness. In the United Kingdom, people living in the 20% most deprived areas have double chance of being hospitalised from infectious diseases than those in the least deprived areas.

How many cases and hospitalisations?

In Australia, 58,000 COVID cases have been reported so far in 2025. However, testing rates have declined and not all positive cases are reported to the government, so case numbers in the community are likely much higher.

Latest data from FluCan, a network of 14 hospitals, found 781 people were hospitalised for COVID complications in the first three months of the year. This “sentinel surveillance” data gives a snapshot from a handful of hospitals, so the actual number of hospitalisations across Australia is expected to be much higher.

While deaths are lower than previous years, 289 people died from COVID-related respiratory infections in the first two months of the year.

What can we expect as we head into winter?

We often see an increase in respiratory infections in winter.

However, COVID peaks aren’t just necessarily seasonal. Over the past few years, peaks have tended to appear around every six months.

What are the most common COVID symptoms?

Typical early symptoms of COVID included fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose and shortness of breath. These have remained the most common COVID symptoms across the multiple variant waves.

Early in the pandemic, we realised COVID caused a unique symptom called anosmia – the changed sense of taste or smell. Anosmia lasts about a week and in some cases can last longer.
Anosmia was more frequently reported from infections due to the ancestral, Gamma, and Delta variants but not for the Omicron variant, which emerged in 2021.

However, loss of smell still seems to be associated with some newer variants. A recent French study found anosmia was more frequently reported in people with JN.1.

But the researchers didn’t find any differences for other COVID symptoms between older and newer variants.

Should you bother doing a test?

Yes. Testing is particularly important if you experience COVID-like symptoms or were recently exposed to someone with COVID and are at high-risk of severe COVID. You might require timely treatment.

If you are at risk of severe COVID, you can see a doctor or visit a clinic with point-of-care testing services to access confirmatory PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing.

Rapid antigen tests (RATs) approved by Australia’s regulator are also still available for personal use.

But a negative RAT doesn’t mean that you don’t have COVID – especially if you are symptomatic.

Read more:
COVID-19 rapid tests still work against new variants – researchers keep ‘testing the tests,’ and they pass

If you do test positive, while you don’t have to isolate, it’s best to stay at home.

If you do leave the house while experiencing COVID symptoms, minimise the spread to others by wearing a well-fitted mask, avoiding public places such as hospitals and avoiding contact with those at higher risk of severe COVID.

How long does COVID last these days?

In most people with mild to moderate COVID, it can last 7–10 days.

Symptomatic people can spread the infection to others from about 48 hours before you develop symptoms to about ten days after developing symptoms. Few people are infectious beyond that.

But symptoms can persist in more severe cases for longer.

A UK study which tracked the persistence of symptoms in 5,000 health-care workers found symptoms were less likely to last for more than 12 weeks in subsequent infections.

General fatigue, for example, was reported in 17.3% of people after the first infection compared with 12.8% after the second infection and 10.8% following the third infection.

Unvaccinated people also had more persistent symptoms.

Read more:
How long are you infectious when you have coronavirus?

Vaccinated people who catch COVID tend to present with milder disease and recover faster. This may be because vaccination prevents over-activation of the innate immune response.

Vaccination remains the best way to prevent COVID

Vaccination against COVID continues to be one of the most effective ways to prevent COVID and protect against it. Data from Europe’s most recent winter, which is yet to be peer reviewed, reports COVID vaccines were 66% effective at preventing symptomatic, confirmed COVID cases.

Most people in Australia have had at least one dose of the COVID vaccine. But if you haven’t, people over 18 years of age are recommended to have a COVID vaccine.

Boosters are available for adults over 18 years of age. If you don’t have any underlying immune issues, you’re eligible to receive a funded dose every 12 months.

Boosters are recommended for adults 65–74 years every 12 months and for those over 75 years every six months.

Adults over 18 years who are at higher risk because of weaker immune systems are recommended to get a COVID vaccine every 12 months and are eligible every six months.

Check your status and eligibility using this booster eligibility tool and you can access your vaccine history here.

A new review of more than 4,300 studies found full vaccination before a SARS-CoV-2 infection could reduce the risk of long COVID by 27% relative to no vaccination for the general adult population.

With ongoing circulation of COVID, hybrid immunity from natural infection supplemented with booster vaccination can help prevent large-scale COVID waves.

Meru Sheel receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She serves on WHO’s Immunization and Vaccines Related Implementation Research Advisory Committee (IVIR-AC)

– ref. COVID is still around and a risk to vulnerable people. What are the symptoms in 2025? And how long does it last? – https://theconversation.com/covid-is-still-around-and-a-risk-to-vulnerable-people-what-are-the-symptoms-in-2025-and-how-long-does-it-last-253840

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Mills, Honorary Senior Lecturer, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney

With the election campaign now fading into the rear-view mirror, the parties, particularly the Liberals, will be reviewing their campaign strategies. A part of this will likely be the use of televised debates.

Leaders’ debates have been part of Australian election campaigns since 1984, but the 2025 campaign set a record of four televised exchanges between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

The increased frequency, ever-evolving formats and fragmenting audiences of these televised campaign rituals do not guarantee improved voter information.

Debates are idealised in international academic research as a “public service event”.

But the evolution of Australian debates over four decades suggests voter education tends to be compromised by considerations of electoral strategy and network marketing.

Risk versus reward

Back in the 1980s, debates were a more stately affair – one-off events hosted by the National Press Club and carried by the national broadcaster.

This year, all four of the Albanese–Dutton exchanges were conducted in-house by the rival television networks.

In total, the four debates reached nearly six million viewers – though “reach” only measures “the total amount of people who dipped in for at least 60 seconds on linear TV, and 15 seconds on streaming”, according to media publication Mumbrella.

Even allowing for party officials, election nerds and political scientists who watched more than one debate, these are still significant numbers, if lower than in decades past. The Australian electorate, it seems, is not yet entirely jaded about politics and politicians.

Notably, squeezing four debates into a five-week campaign meant the last two took place with pre-polling under way.

For the networks, hosting a debate presents an opportunity to showcase their stars, generate “exclusives” and maximise audiences. Their interest lies in mistakes or conflict, not policy rundowns.

By contrast, for the Labor and Liberal campaign professionals, debates are primarily about risk minimisation. Debates are high-risk verbal combat: any gaffe, “gotcha” moment, forgotten statistic or ill-disciplined response in front of a live television audience carries a potentially high cost.

So leaders spend valuable campaign hours preparing for debates, rehearsing their talking points, workshopping zingers, probing ways of exploiting the other’s weaknesses and responding to their taunts and challenges.

They are structured such that they are not debates at all. There is no exchange, no rebuttal, no counterargument. For the most part, they resemble press conferences or studio interviews: formats in which the leaders are well practised and journalists are elevated to equal prominence with the political leaders.

What’s the appeal?

The principal motivation for both incumbent and challenger is that debates offer direct and protracted opportunities to articulate their key messages.

In an era of fragmented audiences and shortened attention spans, each network promoted and gathered the viewers for them.

Opening and closing statements in which the leaders outline their contrasting visions and policy themes operate like paid advertisements – but without the payment.

The parties can then repackage the highlights into snackable short videos for social media, giving it a long tail. Both parties did this in this election.

Indeed, debates are all about whose voice is heard in an election campaign. Leaders’ debates reinforce the dominance of the major parties. Labor and Liberal strategists alike resist any suggestion that they should share the debate platform with minor parties.

But while it remains true that only the major party leaders have a chance of forming a new government, the new reality of Australian elections is that the majors rely heavily on preference flows from minor parties and independents, who thus have a legitimate claim to be heard on a debate stage.

Perhaps those in the live TV audiences who judged neither Albanese nor Dutton as winners of the debates were not “undecideds”, but minor party supporters.

Do debates shift votes?

Previous research suggests debates tend to assist challengers more than incumbents. Opposition leaders have the additional advantage of standing on an equal footing with the prime minister.

The exceptions generally occur when incumbents look likely to lose the election and want to gain ground against their challenger. Think Paul Keating in 1996, Kevin Rudd in 2013 and Scott Morrison in 2019, who all agreed to multiple debates.

In 2025, Albanese joins that list, given his poor poll standings before the campaign began.

It is not possible to measure what, if any, effect the four debates had on Albanese’s turnaround during the campaign. Voter effects are notoriously difficult to measure.

The Australian Electoral Study has identified only modest effects in previous campaigns. Perhaps thanks to confirmation bias, debates are more likely to reinforce than change opinions.

But the 2025 campaign may suggest something more. The campaign certainly saw significant shifts in opinion, including in perceptions of the two leaders. In Newspoll, Albanese surged as preferred prime minister, and as more likely to make Australians better off over the next three years.

With hindsight, it seems clear that voters warmed to Albanese’s confidence, consistency and plans for the future, and cooled on Dutton’s policy-light focus on grievance.

My hunch is the extended exposure of the leaders over four debates, right through the campaign and into the early voting period, provided some fuel for that change in perception.

Stephen Mills was a staff member (1986-91) for Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke and since 2015 has volunteered for local Labor election campaigns.

– ref. In an election that played out on social media as much as TV, do leaders’ debates still matter? – https://theconversation.com/in-an-election-that-played-out-on-social-media-as-much-as-tv-do-leaders-debates-still-matter-255771

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne

With 80% of enrolled voters counted, the ABC is giving Labor 87 of the 150 House of Representatives seats, the Coalition 40, the Greens zero and all Others ten, with 13 seats remaining undecided.

Based on votes realigned to a Greens vs Labor two candidate count in Melbourne, the ABC has Greens leader Adam Bandt trailing Labor by almost 4,400 votes (52.9–47.1). This would be a 9.4% swing to Labor from the Greens since the 2022 election. Analyst Kevin Bonham agrees with the ABC’s estimate. Primary votes are 40.3% Bandt (down 4.4%), 31.5% Labor (up 5.8%) and 19.1% Liberals (down 0.5%).

Bandt had won Melbourne by 60.2–39.8 against Labor at the 2022 election, but his margin was reduced to 56.5–43.5 by an unfavourable redistribution. Bandt has become hated by the right, so it’s natural that their preferences would go to Labor ahead of Bandt.

If this result is confirmed, the Greens will have lost three of their four House seats. In the fourth seat (Ryan), The Poll Bludger’s projections have the Greens just ahead of Labor when one of these parties is excluded, so they will probably beat the Liberal National Party on Labor preferences.

Despite these losses, the Greens overall vote has held up, down 0.5% to 11.8%. It’s likely the Greens will improve when absent votes start being counted; these votes were cast outside a voter’s home electorate.

The problem for the Greens is that their vote has become too dispersed and not concentrated enough to win single-member seats. In the proportional Senate, the Greens have performed far better, holding all their six seats that were last elected in 2019 (one from each state).

Liberal Tim Wilson gains Goldstein

The ABC has called a Liberal gain in Goldstein, with Teal independent incumbent Zoe Daniel defeated by a current margin of 684 votes. Daniel won on ordinary votes, which include election day and pre-poll votes cast within Goldstein, by 51.8–48.2. But the nearly 14,000 postals counted so far have favoured Wilson by a huge 64–36, and there’s still at least 6,000 postals to be counted.

In other close Teal vs Liberal contests, an amendment to a pre-poll booth hurt the Teal in Liberal-held Bradfield, and she now trails by 178 votes. Postals that have heavily favoured the Liberal are almost finished, and the Teal may be able to regain the lead on other vote types.

In Kooyong, incumbent Teal Monique Ryan leads the Liberals by 622 votes. Ryan won ordinary votes by 52.3–47.7, but she’s losing the 14,000 postals counted so far by 62–38, and there’s still at least 6,500 postals to be counted.

Other close seats

The electoral commission is still realigning the two candidate count in Bendigo, Bean and Fremantle. he ABC estimates Labor has an 1,183 vote lead over the Nationals in Bendigo, a 355 vote lead over a Teal independent in Fremantle, but Labor trails a Teal independent in Bean by 943 votes.

In Liberal-held Menzies, Labor leads by almost 1,400 votes and should win, as the Liberal-favouring postals are nearly finished. In Labor-held Bullwinkel, Labor leads the Liberals by 50 votes and should extend their lead once vote types other than postals start being counted. In LNP-held Longman, the LNP leads Labor by 439 votes, but postals are nearly finished and Labor may regain the lead on other vote types.

Adrian Beaumont 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. Greens leader Adam Bandt and Teal Zoe Daniel likely to lose their seats – https://theconversation.com/greens-leader-adam-bandt-and-teal-zoe-daniel-likely-to-lose-their-seats-256067

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Bush, Senior Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne

Picture this: a small audience is quietly ushered into a darkened room. They gasp in awe, as a brilliant night sky shines above. They wonder – as many after them will do – what trickery has made the roof above their heads disappear?

But this is a performance; the stars above an ingenious projection. For the first time a public audience has experienced the spectacle of the opto-mechanical planetarium. The location is the newly opened Deutsches Museum in Munich, built to celebrate science and technology. The date is May 7 1925.

Visualising the heavens

Throughout time, cultures around the world have used the stars to help make sense of the world, to understand where we come from and determine our place in the cosmos.

People have tried to recreate the movements of the stars and planets since antiquity. In the 1700s, the orrery, a clockwork model of the Solar System, was developed. The word “planetarium” was invented to describe orreries that featured the planets.

One room-sized orrery example was built by the self-taught Frisian astronomer Eise Eisinga. It’s still operational today in Franeker, Netherlands.

No human has ever been to the edge of the Solar System to see this view. Orreries, and other mechanical models of the universe like celestial globes, present views from impossible, external perspectives.

The first planetariums

The desire for a realistic view of the stars and planets, created from a perspective we actually see, gathered pace in the early 20th century as light pollution from growing cities diminished the view of the night sky.

People like Oskar von Miller, first director of the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, wanted to return this vision of the stars and planets to everyone. (Ironically, von Miller’s earlier career was as an electrical engineer, rolling out the city lighting that contributed to light pollution.)

One early attempt to create this view of the night sky was the Atwood Sphere, installed in Chicago in 1913.

Approximately five metres across, it was made of sheet metal perforated with a star map. When viewed from the inside, the light shining through 692 pinholes replicated the Chicago night sky. The whole structure could even be rotated to simulate the motion of the stars.

A realistic display of the stars is one thing. Representing the planets, whose positions in the sky change from night to night, is a different one. Von Miller and others at the Deutsches Museum knew that fixed holes could not represent the complexity of a moving planet.

What if the planets were displayed by projection? If so, couldn’t the stars be projected, as well? With this realisation, a new kind of planetarium was born, borrowing the name from earlier orreries but working in a completely different way.

The task of building such a device was given to the German optical company Carl Zeiss AG. After many setbacks, their first planetarium projector was completed in 1923, with the first performance at the Deutsches Museum a century ago today.

Planetariums were a hit with the public. Within decades, they had spread around the world – the first planetarium in the United States opened in Chicago in 1930, while the first one in Asia opened in Osaka, Japan in 1937. The popularity of planetariums particularly accelerated in the US during the space race of the 1960s.

Australia’s oldest operating planetarium is the Melbourne Planetarium, managed by Museums Victoria since 1965. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Auckland’s Stardome Observatory has been in operation since 1997. The current longest-running planetarium in the southern hemisphere is in Montevideo, Uruguay, operational since 1955.

Changing pace of technology

The opto-mechanical planetarium projector remains a technological wonder of the modern world. Individual plates, perforated with pinholes, are illuminated by a bright central light. Separate lenses focus each projection from one of these star maps to fill the entire dome with about 5,000 stars.

The Sun, Moon and planets have separate projectors driven by gears and rods that mechanically calculate the object’s position in the sky for any time or place.

By the 1990s, a digital revolution had begun. With the advent of computers, the positions of the planets could now be calculated digitally. The Melbourne Planetarium became the first digital planetarium in the southern hemisphere when it installed the Digistar II in 1999.

This system, developed by computer graphics company Evans and Sutherland, replaced the multiple lenses of earlier projectors with a fisheye lens. A single beam of light swept across the whole dome so rapidly that it seemed to create a single image – albeit in a bizarre green colour, rendering a starfield of fuzzy green blobs.

The trade-off for a less crisp starfield was a 3D database with more than 9,000 stars. For the first time, planetarium audiences could fly through space, far beyond the edge of the Solar System.

Planetarium technology continues to develop. Today, most planetariums operate through video projection. Known as fulldome, the output from multiple projectors is blended together to create a seamless video, transforming the planetarium into a sophisticated 360-degree theatre.

A gateway to the stars

Astronomy has also changed over the last century. Just as Zeiss was completing its first projector, astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that other galaxies exist beyond our Milky Way galaxy.

The stars shown on the dome in Munich in 1925 turned out to be just a tiny part of the universe that we know today.

Planetariums’ digital systems now incorporate data from telescopes and space agencies around the world. Audiences can fly off Earth, orbit the planets and moons of the Solar System, and explore the billions of known galaxies.

Yet some things have not changed. From orreries and lantern slides to opto-mechanical and digital planetariums, the communication of astronomy has always been about more than just the latest results of science.

The power of the planetarium over the last 100 years has been its ability to evoke wonder and awe. It taps into our enduring fascination with the vast mystery of the night sky.

Tanya Hill works at the Melbourne Planetarium operated by Museums Victoria.

Martin Bush 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. For 100 years, we have marvelled at planetariums. Here’s a brief history of how humans brought the stars indoors – https://theconversation.com/for-100-years-we-have-marvelled-at-planetariums-heres-a-brief-history-of-how-humans-brought-the-stars-indoors-255228

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alice Gorman, Associate Professor in Archaeology and Space Studies, Flinders University

During the height of the Cold War in the 1960s and 1970s, the USSR launched 29 spacecraft towards Venus, the planet scientists call Earth’s “twin sister”.

Three flew past Venus, and went into orbit around the Sun. Sixteen orbited or landed on Venus, where they experienced a climate often described as “hellish”.

Ten got stuck in Earth orbit. All of them re-entered Earth’s atmosphere the same year they were launched – except Kosmos 482, which has stayed aloft for 53 more years. As the last remnant of the Soviet Venus program left in Earth orbit, it’s not your average piece of space junk.

Because it was designed to withstand Venusian conditions, many think the lander may make planetfall on Earth instead of incinerating in the atmosphere. And that is expected to happen this week.

Destination Morning Star

Venus was a target of interest because its thick clouds might be hiding life on the surface. But the spacecraft were also Cold War weapons aimed at demonstrating the superiority of socialist science.

Venera 1 was launched in 1961, only four years after Sputnik 1, the first satellite. Venera 7, in 1970, was the first spacecraft to successfully soft-land instead of crashing on a planet. Vega 2 was the last USSR Venus mission in 1984.

The Venera probes were launched in pairs, a few days apart. If one failed, the other might succeed. Venera 8 was launched on March 27 1972 and reached Venus 117 days later. On March 31, its twin left Earth but failed to escape Earth orbit, earning the designation Kosmos 482.

The spacecraft comprised a delivery “bus” about 3.5 metres tall, with a propulsion system, solar panels and a mesh dish antenna at one end, and the spherical landing craft at the other end. The landers had their own refrigeration system to cool them down and a heat shield to protect them. If all went to plan, the buses would eject the landers from orbit. The landers would hit the upper cloud decks at a speed of nearly 12km per second.

At 60km altitude, the main parachute was released to float the lander down to the surface. A range of instruments would then measure the temperature, pressure, wind speed, visibility, atmospheric gases and rock composition, and radio the results back to Earth. Each lander carried a USSR medallion inside.

But all didn’t go to plan. Venera 8 sped on its way to Venus, sending its lander down on July 22.

Fate had something different in store for Kosmos 482.

How to be space junk in one easy step

The upper rocket stage that was meant to propel the Kosmos 482 bus out of Earth orbit shut off too early because the timer wasn’t set correctly. The rocket stage fell back to Earth and burnt up, while titanium pressure vessels from its fuel system fell onto fields in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The bus and landing craft came apart in mid-June and the bus fell back into the atmosphere in 1981. The 465kg lander continued its orbit alone.

At its farthest, the lander was 9,000km away, coming as close as 210km in its highly elliptical orbit around Earth. Over 50 years, that orbit has lowered to only 2,000km at its farthest point. Now the atmosphere is dragging it back towards Earth with a predicted re-entry of May 10. You can get updates on Kosmos 482’s position here.

Will the lander fall on Earth?

The lander had a titanium body designed to withstand Venus surface conditions of 90 times the atmospheric pressure of Earth and 470°C. After more than 50 years it won’t have the refrigeration, the capacity to aerobrake or a working parachute to slow it down and keep it cool. Its reentry will be uncontrolled.

Typically, space junk reenters at around seven kilometres per second and can reach temperatures of 1,600°C as it tears through the atmosphere. Titanium alloys have a melting point of around 1,700°C. This is why the so-called “space balls” that landed in New Zealand in April 1972 survived reentry. If they did, then the lander could as well.

Six of the nine other failed Kosmos reentries had landers or impactors, but we don’t know where they are – either they did not survive, fell into the ocean, or have not yet been found on land. This may also be the fate of the Kosmos 482 lander.

Danger from Venus

Venus might be the planet of love, but in popular culture, it has been associated with danger.

In the 1960 East German film The Silent Star (later dubbed into English as First Spaceship on Venus), the Venusians plan to bombard Earth with radiation so they can conquer it.

In the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, an American Venus probe returns bringing a deadly radiation which turns the dead into zombies.

An episode of the hit 1970s TV series The Six Million Dollar Man characterised a Russian Venus spacecraft as a “death probe” when it accidentally returned to Earth.

These representations reflect Cold War fears of nuclear war and war waged from space.

In the 21st century, we have a new source of anxiety: the environmental impacts of space junk. But spacecraft such as Kosmos 482 are not the junk people should be worried about.

In the past five years, there’s been a massive increase in the number of rocket launches and the number of spacecraft in low Earth orbit. More and more space junk is reentering the atmosphere. For example, it’s estimated that a Starlink satellite reenters almost every day. When it burns up, it leaves behind damaging chemicals and soot particles.

In the meantime, Venera 8 is still waiting silently on the surface of Venus for its twin to arrive.

Alice Gorman is an expert member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) International Scientific Committee on Aerospace Heritage and a Fellow of the Outer Space Institute.

– ref. More than 50 years after trying to reach Venus, a failed Soviet spacecraft is about to return to Earth – https://theconversation.com/more-than-50-years-after-trying-to-reach-venus-a-failed-soviet-spacecraft-is-about-to-return-to-earth-255836

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ronnie Das, Associate Professor in Data Analytics, The University of Western Australia

The English Premier League (EPL) is one of the most prestigious and widely consumed soccer competitions in the world.

Yet it is also manifestly lopsided when it comes to competitive balance. Only a handful of teams are title contenders each season.

The rest mainly aim to avoid relegation to the second-tier Championship, or strive to qualify for lucrative Europe-wide competitions that run alongside the domestic season.

Despite the dominance of a handful of teams, and this year’s title race already being decided in Liverpool’s favour, there is still major fan interest, even among neutrals.

The reason why is prestige and the financial windfalls for the teams that qualify for European leagues.

Soccer’s uneven playing field

Competitiveness in the Premier League has significantly declined since 1997 due to growing overseas investments.

Super-wealthy investors such as Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour have permanently changed the fortunes of Chelsea and Manchester City, respectively. Since foreign acquisitions, these clubs experienced meteoric rises and dominated the league, and in Manchester City’s case, have enjoyed a near-monopoly on the league title in recent years.

Superior financial backing provides unfair advantages in the player transfer market, wage affordability, and modernising training facilities that domestically funded clubs can’t match.

This is probably a major reason why in 33 years of the EPL’s existence, there have only ever been seven different winners.

This isn’t a unique feature of the English competition.

Among the major European leagues, Barcelona and Real Madrid have combined 18 Spanish La Liga titles since 2004, Bayern Munich has won 15 German Bundesliga championships, and in Italy’s Serie A, Juventus (nine), Inter Milan (seven) and AC Milan (two) have shared the vast majority of titles over the past two decades.

This is an illustration of what economists call industrial concentration – market domination by a small number of organisations.

Normally, a fundamental principle when designing a sports league is the idea that every team should have a chance of winning it.

In US sports, such as the National Basketball Association, this is enshrined within the sport’s rules and governance.

One can argue it has been a long time since there was any such equality in English football.

Despite the criticism, there is still major interest in the Premier League, due mainly to the jostling for European qualification.

Why it’s not all about the title

Liverpool and its fans are still celebrating their title win, which they clinched with four games to spare. The victory, the club’s 20th in top-tier English soccer, equals their arch-rival Manchester United’s record.

The league’s often thrilling relegation battle has also already been decided.

But interest in the league’s final few games is still high because many clubs are jostling for European qualification.

These European-wide competitions are, in descending order of prestige, the Champions League, Europa League and the recently launched Conference League.

Organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), these competitions bring together the top teams from each major European soccer league to compete against each other.

This year, the top five English clubs (instead of the usual top four) will be offered a confirmed Champions League position. This is due to the collective best performance of English clubs this season in the Champions League.

At the time of writing, there is only a seven-point spread between the six teams still vying for a top-five finish, with three games left to play.

The sixth team in the league table, and the FA Cup winner, also receives the opportunity to join Europe’s second-tier club league tournament, the Europa League.

And the Carabao Cup winner secures a spot in the third-tier Conference League.

With Newcastle United (Carabao Cup winner) and Manchester City (favourite for FA Cup final) likely to finish in the top five Premier League places, the race for Europe is getting more intense with mathematical permutations suggesting up to ten Premier League places may be open to European league qualification.

This means 12 EPL teams are still fighting for every single point.

European qualification delivers enormous financial incentives. For many of the smaller competing clubs, such as Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest and Fulham, this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

Money matters

Champions League qualification offers the largest financial rewards, with a €2.467 billion prize pool (A$4.34 billion), and minimum €18.62 million (A$32.7 million) reward per club for participation.

Each victory during the tournament’s league stage also attracts a further €2.1 million (A$3.69 million) performance bonus, and bonuses for qualifying for the knockout stage range from €1 million to €18.5 million (A$1.75 million to $32.4 million) per club, depending on how far they progress.

For Europa League participation, the reward is €4.31 million (A$7.57 million) per team, and €3.17 million (A$5.57 million) for the Conference League.

This money is vital for clubs’ survival, especially as player wages and the transfer market have skyrocketed in recent years.

For example, Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, the highest-paid Premier League player, earns £500,000 (A$1.028 million) per week.

So, having the financial means to purchase top-quality players and sustain a strong team is becoming incredibly difficult for clubs with limited investments and earnings.

For smaller clubs, qualifying for European competition can be a lifeline, which is why there’s still so much interest in the Premier League’s upper mid-table battles – despite Liverpool already being a week into the title celebrations.

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. The Premier League champions have already been crowned but there’s still a lot on the line – mainly money – https://theconversation.com/the-premier-league-champions-have-already-been-crowned-but-theres-still-a-lot-on-the-line-mainly-money-254700

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Freestone, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs, UNSW Sydney

Gamma hydroxybutyrate – better known as GHB – is an increasingly popular illegal drug being used recreationally in Australia.

While it can create feelings of euphoria, disinhibition and increased libido, GHB carries serious risks. The difference between a recreational dose and an overdose of GHB – usually taken as a liquid – can be less than 0.5ml.

What is GHB?

GHB (also sometimes called “G”, “juice”, “Gina” or “fantasy”) has gained attention globally due to associated harms. It is generally a colourless and odourless liquid which may taste bitter or salty.

When taken at higher doses, GHB acts as a depressant, slowing down breathing and heart rate.

At low doses (about 1ml), it can cause effects such as euphoria, increased libido and lowered inhibitions. For this reason, GHB is often used as a party drug (for example, in night clubs) and to facilitate sex.

Other chemicals called gamma butyrolactone (GBL) and 1,4-butanediol (1,4-BD) are often sold or used as substitutes to GHB, producing broadly similar effects.

How widely is it used?

Only 0.2% of Australian residents report having used GHB in the past year. This is low compared to other drugs such as cannabis (11.5%) or cocaine (4.5%).

However, among certain groups GHB use is much higher.

In 2024, 12% of people who regularly take ecstasy and other illicit stimulants (such as methamphetamine) said they’d also used GHB in the previous six months. Among those who regularly inject drugs, it was 15%. This data is collected annually and shows GHB use has increased among these groups over the past five years.

Surveys of gay and bisexual men also indicate higher use: nearly 20% say they have taken GHB at least once in their life.

Risks of a ‘G-drop’ or ‘blow-out’

GHB carries a high risk for overdose. This is because there is a very small difference in a dose that produces euphoric or relaxing effects and one that causes a loss of consciousness.

A GHB overdose is often called a “G-drop” or “blow-out”. People who overdose may experience unconsciousness and muscle twitching, seizures and respiratory depression – when a person stops breathing.

Unfortunately, unlike overdoses caused by opioids – which may be reversed by administering naloxone – there is no drug that can reverse the effects of GHB.

Witnessing a GHB overdose can be very distressing. You should call emergency services on 000 and meanwhile keep the person’s airways clear and monitor their breathing.

Dependence and other harms

Harms related to GHB have been escalating over the past ten years. Notably, GHB-related ambulance attendances, emergency presentations and hospitalisations have increased. For example, in Victoria, ambulance attendances related to GHB increased 147% between 2012 and 2019.

People who use GHB at least once a day can become dependent. If someone is using GHB daily, it is always recommended they consult a medical provider before stopping. Suddenly stopping can cause severe and even life-threatening withdrawal symptoms.

Sex and consent

Because GHB decreases inhibitions and enhances libido, some people also choose to combine it with sex.

In our research, we’ve found those who do this often use a range of strategies to care for themselves and their partners. For example, they may communicate about their sexual interests, boundaries and limits beforehand, and communicate consent both verbally and non-verbally.

Several high-profile cases overseas and in Australia have also drawn attention to the use of GHB in drink spiking and drug-facilitated sexual assault.

These instances are deeply concerning. However, many studies show other drugs – such as cannabis and even alcohol – are more commonly used in drug-facilitated sexual assault.

Detecting GHB in cases of sexual assault can be difficult and the true prevalence of drug-facilitated sexual assault in Australia is unknown, meaning we don’t have consistent data on how often GHB is used in sexual assault.

If people who voluntarily use GHB for sex experience distressing sexual situations, research shows they may resist labelling these as sexual violence. This can mean, despite their anguish, they may not seek support from sexual assault services.

Our research suggests people who use GHB may be more willing to seek help when services use different language to offer support – focusing on “confusion” or “concern” about sexual encounters, rather than sexual violence.

Strategies to reduce harm

Our research also shows knowledge about GHB and harm reduction can make a difference. We interviewed 31 people who’d used GHB three or more times in the previous year.

They reported a range of strategies to keep themselves, their friends and sexual partners safe when using GHB. These include:

• measuring every dose carefully

• always starting with a low dose

• spacing out doses over time

• avoiding mixing GHB with other central nervous system depressants, such as alcohol

• communicating openly about consent, sexual interests and boundaries when combining GHB with sex.

Shifting patterns

We still don’t know exactly why there is an increase in GHB use in Australia.

Possible factors include its low price and increased availability.

New groups using GHB, including people who inject drugs and women, may also contribute to the increase in harms such as hospitalisations. They may be less familiar with safer ways to use the drug. We need more research to understand why and how these new groups are using it.

There is also a lot we still need to learn about GHB’s long-term impacts on health and wellbeing.

Australian guidelines have been published on the management of GHB withdrawal.

However, there are few guidelines for clinicians and service providers about how best to work alongside people seeking to reduce their GHB use. We need more research to understand the experiences of people who use services aiming to reduce their use of GHB or withdraw.

Advice about drug use and treatment is available for free at the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline.

You can report unexpected overdoses to the Poisons Information Centre from anywhere in Australia on 131 126. In an emergency, call 000.

The National Sexual Assault, Family and Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.

Jack Freestone provides occasional consultancy services for ACON, a community health organisation for sexuality and gender diverse communities in NSW.

Krista Siefried receives funding from the Department of Health and Aged Care Australia, and the National Health and Medical Research Council.

– ref. More Australians are overdosing on GHB. But there are ways to reduce your risk – https://theconversation.com/more-australians-are-overdosing-on-ghb-but-there-are-ways-to-reduce-your-risk-253128

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Johnson, Professor of Liturgical Studies and Sacramental Theology and Director of the ACU Centre for Liturgy, Australian Catholic University

For nearly 800 years the Catholic Church has utilised the process of the conclave to elect a new pope. “Conclave” means “with a key”, indicating the cardinal-electors are locked up with a key to conduct their deliberations.

With no direct communication to the outside world, a key feature of the papal election process is the use of smoke to signal the result of ballots and to announce the election of a new pope.

Black smoke means a new pope has not been elected. White smoke means there is a new pope.

So where does this tradition come from – and how do they achieve the different coloured smoke?

Sending messages with smoke

Smoke signals are one of the oldest forms of long-distance communication between humans. For millennia, smoke signals have been used to indicate danger, to call for a gathering of tribes/nations, to transmit news and to warn of enemy invasions

Many indigenous peoples (such as those of North America, South America, China and Australia) are known for their sophisticated use of smoke signalling techniques to indicate specific messages to those at a distance.

These techniques can include changing the location of the fire (such as halfway up or at the top of a hill), adjusting the colour of smoke (using different types of foliage or damp/dry foliage) and the interruption or diversion of the smoke column at different intervals to produce particular patterns of smoke.

Catholic incense

Catholics utilise smoke in many rituals in the form of incense.

Incense (from the Latin incendere, meaning “to burn”) signifies prayer, sacrifice and reverence for people and objects. This fragrant smoke symbolises the prayer of the assembly rising up to God. Psalm 141:2 asks “may prayer be set before you like incense”. In Revelations 8:3–5, an angel is “given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people”.

Catholics inherited their use of incense from its use in Jewish temple rituals and Greek imperial court rituals.

The smoke from the incense is used to show reverence toward the Gospel book, the presiding celebrant, the gifts of bread and wine offered at Mass, the altar, cross, the Easter Candle and the body of the deceased at a funeral.

This holy smoke is a visual and olfactory signal of the congregation’s offerings of supplication and praise rising up to God.

Crafting the smoke

Once the conclave begins, the only form of communication between the cardinal-electors and the outside world will be smoke signals sent through the chimney of a stove specially installed in the Sistine Chapel for the duration of the conclave.

The tradition of burning the ballots goes back to at least 1417, though it wasn’t until the 18th century that the first chimney was installed in the Sistine Chapel. At this time, the appearance of smoke at set times indicated no new pope had been elected; while the absence of smoke indicated there was a new pope.

Prior to this it is likely that a new pope was simply announced from the loggia (central balcony) of St Peter’s Basilica and a written announcement was posted outside for people to read.

Since 1914, white smoke has indicated the election of a new pope. A stereotypical association of the colour of the smoke – white (positive) and black (negative) – lies behind the use of the two contrasting smoke colours.

In 1904, Pius X (who was pope from 1903–14) mandated that all notes taken by cardinals during the election were to be burned along with the ballots themselves. This burning of notes also increased the volume of smoke, making it clearly visible to the public outside when his successor Pope Benedict XV was elected in 1914.

The use of chemicals to ensure either black or white smoke was introduced after the 1958 conclave when damp straw added to papers from an unsuccessful ballot did not ignite at first. White smoke appeared before eventually turning black, causing confusion among the crowd gathered outside.

In 2013, the Vatican Press Office released the chemical formulae used to create black and white smoke.

To generate black smoke, potassium perchlorate and anthracene (a component of coal tar) fuelled with sulfur are electrically ignited. To generate white smoke, potassium chlorate, milk sugar and pine rosin are ignited.

Using these smoke signals, the cardinals can communicate from within the conclave immediately and directly to the faithful awaiting the announcement of the Church’s 267th Pope.

Clare Johnson 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 election of a new pope is announced with smoke: what do the colours mean, and how are they made? – https://theconversation.com/the-election-of-a-new-pope-is-announced-with-smoke-what-do-the-colours-mean-and-how-are-they-made-255595