Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor in Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia

The Queensland government will this week table legislation creating Australia’s first public child sex offender register.

The Queensland legislation, to be known as Daniel’s Law, was named in honour of Sunshine Coast teenager Daniel Morcombe, who was abducted and murdered by a sex offender more than two decades ago.

But will this new legislation actually work to make children (and the public) safer? Will it act as a deterrent for those contemplating offending or re-offending?

How will the Queensland laws work?

First, let’s look at the Queensland proposal.

Queenslanders will be able to access a searchable database where images and details (names and ages) of offenders who have failed to comply with their reporting obligations (and whose whereabouts are unknown) will be available.

The government assures Queenslanders that safeguards will be put in place to prevent the misuse of information, including protections against vigilantism.

It’s understandable there might be public pressure to establish such a public database. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse highlighted the tragic impact child sexual assault has on victims. Governments should be seeking to pursue policies that best prevent sex offending and curtail repeat offending.

Versions of this approach exist in other jurisdictions. There’s a Community Protection Disclosure Scheme in Western Australia, where parents and guardians can make limited enquiries through the police. But there is no public database.

And all states and territories have non-public registries where convicted sex offenders are monitored by law enforcement agencies.

What does the research tell us?

There’s a lot of evidence about the effectiveness of registration and notification schemes from reviews conducted over the last 15 years, especially in the United States.

This evidence shows all forms of registries are highly unlikely to fulfil the outcomes sought by Daniel’s Law. Here are five reasons why.

Reason 1: lack of deterrence

There is clear evidence the introduction of a registration scheme makes no difference to rates of sexual offending.

Research conducted in the US shows most sex offences are committed by those who have not previously been convicted of a sex offence.

And when perpetrators are caught, research studies consistently report the likelihood of reoffending is very low.

The Sex Offenders Registration scheme operated by Victoria Police (which isn’t public) was reviewed in 2011 by the Victorian Law Reform Commission. The commissioners offered the following on the subject of deterrence:

the Sex Offenders Registration Act is based on the assumption that sex offenders are less likely to re-offend if they are required to comply with reporting obligations under a registration scheme. However, the existing limited research data is equivocal as to whether registration is an effective means of reducing re-offending.

Seven years later, researchers at the Australian Institute of Criminology came to a similar conclusion. They reported that while public sex offender registries may have a small general deterrent effect on first-time offenders, they do not reduce re-offending.

Reason 2: false assumptions

Most sex offenders are known to their victims before the offence. Typically they are family members or acquaintances.

That being the case, registration logically adds little to the ability of society to identify who is a risk to the general community.

And because registration laws are then based on these false assumptions regarding offenders and offences, police attention could be wrongly diverted away from likely perpetrators, and towards those less likely to pose a danger.

Reason 3: abandoning rehabilitation

Any registration and notification scheme, especially targeting juvenile offenders, can have a negative impact on the ability of people to turn their lives around and become productive members of society.

Perpetrators are unlikely to ever fit back into public life if they have been the targets of harassment, victimisation, exclusion and eviction.

These counterproductive exercises in shaming specific people can extend to their family members as well.

In this way, a cornerstone of sentencing – the one that focuses on redemption – will be largely abandoned.

Reason 4: unintended consequences

It’s possible those not intended for such a register, such as young people caught sexting, will be drawn into the registration web once convicted.

Spare a thought, too, for people with very common names, where the chance of mistaken identity is heightened.

Finally, the potential for vigilantism should not go unnoticed.

The Queensland government has identified this risk, proposing lengthy jail terms for people who misuse information from the registry.

But vigilantes are not known for checking on the accuracy of their information before deploying their highly questionable and usually illegal tactics.

Reason 5: wrongheaded resourcing

Finally, any law that implements ineffective solutions to serious problems distracts policymakers from searching for more effective ways to reduce victimisation.

A public sex offender registration and notification strategy requires substantial resources. Every dollar spent on an ineffective registration scheme is a dollar that cannot be spent on the intensive supervision of those who are most likely to offend or to re-offend.

Where to from here?

If this legislation passes, police must retain a discretionary power to decide which individuals are placed on the registry.

For example, people who are particularly compliant, cooperative with counsellors and considered to have a low risk of re-offending should be exempt.

So should those whose names will allow innocent family members to be easily identified. Indeed, that could apply to the majority of offenders.

All things considered, while sexual offending is a matter of significant community concern, and governments must do all in their power to lessen its incidence and impact, this policy is unlikely to be effective.

In this case, it appears political pragmatism has prevailed over evidence-based policy imperatives.

Rick Sarre 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. Queensland is creating a public child sex offender register. Will it keep people safer? – https://theconversation.com/queensland-is-creating-a-public-child-sex-offender-register-will-it-keep-people-safer-263807

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marta Khomyn, Lecturer, Finance and Data Analytics, University of Adelaide

We may already live in the post-truth world, but are we about to enter the era of post-truth statistics?

Each month, the US employment report is one of the most closely watched releases on the health of the world’s largest economy. Financial markets can move sharply depending on the strength of the numbers.

This month, the jobs report was weak. Hours later, US President Donald Trump called the numbers “phony” and fired the head of the agency, Erika McEntarfer.

It was an unprecedented attack on the government’s impartial statistics body, the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is the agency responsible for tracking jobs, wages and inflation – key numbers that tell us how the economy is really doing.

Trump followed that up this week with a further attack on the nation’s economic institutions. He claimed in a social post he had fired one of the governors of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve. The governor, Lisa Cook, said he had no authority to do so.

With Donald Trump’s war on numbers and long-standing institutions, can we even trust US economic data anymore?

Some players in financial markets are already looking at alternative sources of data to get a real-time read on the health of the economy – such as satellite images of the shadows cast by oil tankers.

Chipping away at independence

On the surface, replacing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) with a Trump loyalist might not sound like a big deal. But a BLS commissioner cannot single-handedly falsify the data. The agency is large, full of professional staff, and its data is processed through established systems and checks.

However, the issue goes far beyond firing one official. The Trump administration has taken a series of steps that chip away at the quality and independence of America’s economic data.

After firing McEntarfer, Trump then appointed a loyalist who floated the idea of not releasing the jobs data at all.

The employment report is one of the most closely watched indicators of the US economy, showing how many jobs are being created or lost each month. Without it, millions of Americans would lose a vital tool for understanding whether the economy is growing, slowing, or heading into trouble.

Data is disappearing – literally

Hundreds of US datasets and more than 8,000 government webpages have vanished because the staff maintaining them were fired. These datasets, which taxpayers funded and researchers rely on, are now endangered. In fact, academics have launched the Data Rescue Project to preserve and share this data publicly when the government stops doing so.

Critical economic statistics agencies — the Bureau of Labor Statistics is just one of several — have cut staff. This shrinkage makes their data less precise, because fewer staff means fewer surveys, slower updates, and more reliance on estimates.

But here’s the irony: now the administration is attacking and even firing officials on the grounds that the data is unreliable, when that unreliability is the direct result of their own budget cuts. It’s a political catch-22: gut the agency, then blame it for the very decline in quality that underfunding caused.

The Fed relies on this report to set interest rates

Data is a public good, which means many benefit from it, yet data users are often unable or unwilling to pay for it. This is why data on labour market, inflation or economic growth (gross domestic product) is collected and published by the government, and paid for with taxpayers’ money.

Good quality data enables good policy decisions. For example, the BLS jobs report and inflation numbers are studied carefully by the Federal Reserve to set US interest rates.

The consumer price index (CPI) – a widely watched inflation index – is a benchmark for the US central bank’s mandate to keep inflation at its 2% target. So the quality of the CPI sets the floor for the quality of interest rate decisions.

Financial markets, too, watch government data closely. Both US stock and bond markets, worth trillions of dollars, move sharply on jobs and inflation releases.

Some traders are sourcing their own data

Sophisticated institutional traders such as hedge funds have long profited from having access to higher-quality data.

For example, some hedge funds use satellite images of Walmart parking lots to count the number of cars, which helps predict quarterly sales. This allows them to make money from the insights before Walmart’s sales data becomes public.

Can these alternative data sources also help assess the strength of parts of the economy? A recent academic paper investigates whether private satellite data can be a substitute for official data.

Focusing on two specific measures – US crude oil price, and Chinese manufacturing – the paper finds satellite data is so commonly used by traders that markets no longer react to government data releases, such as weekly surveys of crude oil inventories.

However, there are two caveats. First, not every type of macroeconomic data underpins trillion dollar markets like crude oil, making it profitable for traders to analyse the geometry of shadows cast by floating roofs of oil tankers, estimating quantities of oil stored in these tanks.

Second, this data is only available to a few deep-pocketed investors prepared to pay for it. For most market participants, purchasing satellite-imagery data from companies like Privateer or RS Metrics is prohibitively expensive. This creates inequities in data access and undermines market fairness.

The technological advancements in AI and commercialisation of space make satellite data ubiquitous. But this data is still years away from replacing hand-collected inflation numbers or labour market surveys, which generate public statistics for everyone, not just for those who are prepared to pay.

Marta Khomyn 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. In a post-truth world, what happens if we can’t trust US economic data any more? – https://theconversation.com/in-a-post-truth-world-what-happens-if-we-cant-trust-us-economic-data-any-more-263338

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Trembath, Head of Autism Research and Senior Principal Research Fellow, The Kids Research Institute Australia

Autistic children with mild to moderate developmental delay will no longer be eligible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) from mid-2027.

Instead, they will be directed to a new support system called Thriving Kids. This is yet to be fully designed, but it’s intended to prioritise children receiving support through mainstream community-based services.

Understandably, some parents and professionals are concerned, and many are asking whether the new program can match the support currently provided through the NDIS.

While time will reveal the impact of the policy, the more urgent task now is to define and deliver what best practice looks like for autistic children.

Read more:
‘Thriving Kids’ could help secure the future of the NDIS. But what will the program mean for children and families?

Start with terminology

With the announcement came some confusion about autism and developmental delay.

Disability and NDIS Minister Mark Butler referred to children with “mild to moderate autism” which is not actually a diagnosis, or a way we talk about autism in contemporary practice.

A clearer way would have been to refer to children with developmental delay as the target group for Thriving Kids, noting it will include many, but not all, autistic children.

The wording is important because, from a clinical perspective, autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that influences the way a person understands and interacts with other people and the world around them. Children don’t “grow out of autism”, but needs can fluctuate over time.

Developmental delay is a term used when a child is behind their peers in one or more aspects of development, such as motor skills, communication, or cognition.

Many autistic children have a developmental delay, but not all.

A three-year-old autistic child may have a mild developmental delay in motor skills that impacts their ability to climb at the playground. A five-year-old autistic child may have a moderate delay in language, which impacts their ability to understand and follow instructions in the classroom. But another autistic child may be at, or above, the age expected level for their developmental milestones.

Around 25% of autistic children have profound disability, meaning they require 24/7 supervision and support to be safe.

By seeing autism and developmental delay as separate, but related, we are better able to understand and meet the different needs of children “across the spectrum”.

So what does best practice look like for autistic children with mild to moderate developmental delay?

Best practice for autistic children

Australia’s national guideline sets out recommendations for supporting the learning, participation and wellbeing of autistic children and their families.

The guideline puts forward a principles-based approach that places children and families at the centre, and includes recommendations for goal-setting, selecting and delivering supports, monitoring outcomes and safeguarding.

The goals for supporting autistic children are no different from those for all children. They need love, opportunities to learn through everyday activities, and strong connections with family, culture and community.

The difference comes when children are struggling, and the question shifts to what additional supports will help. Keeping this broader understanding front of mind makes every other decision about extra support clearer and more consistent.

A stepped care approach

The guideline states support should be personalised for each child and family. There is no blanket approach to supporting autistic children that will be equally beneficial for each child and family.

At a system level, it means a stepped-care model of support in which the right type of support is delivered at the right time and in the right amount to match the child’s age, developmental level, strengths, needs and family circumstances. This is best practice internationally and something we should strive for.

Let’s say a parent takes their child to a routine visit with a maternal child health nurse or GP, and there are signs of developmental delay. Perhaps the child is behind in terms of motor skills and communication.

In a stepped-care model, the nurse or doctor can listen, ask questions, and understand any concerns the parents may have. If some additional support is needed, the “next step” depends on exactly what was learned.

For one parent, the “next step” might be some information and strategies to encourage their child’s development, for another it might be connection to a community playgroup, and for another a referral for some further assessment.

If difficulties emerge in childcare or school settings, the most effective approach is usually to strengthen the capability of educators to include and support children.

There may also be scope for targeted specialist input, such as speech pathology, physiotherapy, or psychology, when needed.

Read more:
What is psychosocial therapy? And why is the government thinking about adding it to Medicare for kids?

The point is that the “steps” match the needs, and will be different for each child and family.

As professionals, we can support parents to make decisions by encouraging them to ask: “is this the best next step for my child and family?” This approach helps prevent the over-servicing that can happen when families are directed straight to the highest level of support.

What should happen next?

The new Thriving Kids program represents a genuine opportunity to transform how Australia supports children with mild to moderate developmental delays, including many autistic children.

Done well, it could become the stepped-care model of support that families desperately need. Get it wrong, and it becomes another well-intentioned policy that fails the children it’s meant to help.

Stepped-care models require deliberate design, sustained investment and careful attention to implementation details.

The key to getting this right lies in genuine co-design with the people who matter most: children and families themselves. They understand what works and what doesn’t, and where the gaps are.

David Trembath is employed by The Kids Research Institute Australia, which holds the copyright for the Inklings Program, which may be relevant to the Thriving Kids support system discussed in this article. At The Kids Research Institute Australia, David is Head of Autism Research and Senior Principal Research Fellow within CliniKids, which provides clinical services and training in the community. Some families accessing the services pay for these through NDIS plans. David holds an adjunct title with Griffith University and is a member of the Autism Awareness Australia Scientific Advisory Committee. David’s employment and research is supported by grants which currently include the Stan Perrron Charitable Foundation, Channel 7 Telethon Trust, the Medical Research Future Fund, Liberator Australia (in development), and Autism CRC. David’s research is focused on improving services and supports for children with autism and developmental delay, including the development of services and supports that may be relevant to development and roll out of the Thriving Kids program discussed in this article.

Andrew Whitehouse is employed by the The Kids Research Institute Australia, which holds the copyright for the Inklings Program, which may be relevant to the Thriving Kids support system discussed in this article. At The Kids Research Institute Australia, Andrew is the Director of CliniKids, which provides clinical services and training in the community. Some families accessing the services pay for these through NDIS plans. Andrew receives funding from NHMRC, Angela Wright Bennett Foundation, Stan Perron Charitable Foundation, and the Channel 7 Telethon Trust. Andrew is a member of the Boards of Autism Autism Australia, The National School Resourcing Board, and Ocean Heroes.

Kandice Varcin is employed by The Kids Research Institute Australia, which holds the copyright for the Inklings Program, which may be relevant to the Thriving Kids support system discussed in this article. At The Kids Research Institute Australia, Kandice is a Senior Research Fellow with CliniKids, which provides clinical services and training in the community. Some families accessing the services pay for these through NDIS plans. Kandice also holds an adjunct title at Griffith University. Kandice is a member of the Autism Awareness Australia Scientific Advisory Committee. Kandice’s employment and research is supported by grants which currently include the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation, Channel 7 Telethon Trust, The Minderoo Foundation and The Ian Potter Foundation. Kandice’s research is focused on improving services and supports for children in early childhood, including the development of services and supports – such as the Inklings program – that may be relevant to the development and roll out of the Thriving Kids program discussed in this article.

– ref. What’s the best way to support autistic kids with mild to moderate delay? – https://theconversation.com/whats-the-best-way-to-support-autistic-kids-with-mild-to-moderate-delay-263622

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janet Fanslow, Professor in Violence Prevention and Mental Health Promotion, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

More than 60% of women in New Zealand have experienced some form of interpersonal violence – an alarming statistic with serious implications for public health.

Interpersonal violence broadly refers to violence between people and includes family or partner violence and community violence (violence among individuals who are not related by family ties but who may know each other).

Our new research finds women who have experienced such violence or abuse are 1.6 times more likely to be hospitalised with cancer. They were nearly three times as likely to be hospitalised for respiratory diseases.

Drawing on a population-based survey of 3,000 men and women, we asked participants about their experiences of various forms of violence, both from partners and non-partners (such as parents, acquaintances or strangers).

Among the 62% of women who reported experiencing some form of violence, 21% said they had faced childhood sexual abuse, 9.2% reported sexual violence by non-partners, and 21% had experienced multiple forms of intimate partner violence, including psychological and economic abuse.

Of the men surveyed, 68.4% reported some experience of interpersonal violence, with the majority (43%) involving physical violence by non-partners – mainly other men.

We then analysed 31 years of hospitalisation data from New Zealand’s National Minimum Dataset. This enabled us to compare the volume and type of hospital admissions for individuals who had reported different forms of violence with those who had not.

Our research not only paints a stark picture of the prevalence of interpersonal violence in New Zealand, but also reveals its clear links to poor health outcomes and added strain on the health system.

Higher rates of hospitalisation

Women who reported experiences of violence were more likely to have been admitted to hospital for multiple health issues.

Between 1988 and 2019, women who had experienced interpersonal violence were almost twice as likely to be hospitalised for pregnancy complications. They were also 1.6 times more likely to be hospitalised for digestive disorders, and 1.5 times more likely to be admitted for injuries – not necessarily as a direct result of violence.

Men who reported experiencing violence were 1.9 times more likely to be hospitalised for injuries. Those who had experienced childhood sexual trauma (7.5% of male participants) were seven times more likely to be hospitalised for nervous system disorders, compared with men who had not experienced such abuse.

While our research establishes strong correlations between interpersonal violence and adverse health outcomes, other researchers have explored why this link exists.

Some point to the effects of “toxic stress”. This is a condition triggered by repeated exposure to fear in situations where fight or flight are not viable options. This stress elevates levels of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, both of which can have damaging effects on physical health.

Victims of violence may also attempt to self-medicate through smoking, alcohol or disordered eating. These coping strategies offer temporary relief but carry long-term health risks. Stress-related mental health conditions, such as depression, can suppress the immune system, further increasing vulnerability to illness.

In our health system, behaviours such as smoking or alcohol use are often seen as the root causes of illness, and they certainly play a role. But our research suggests that understanding the trauma behind those behaviours is essential to improving outcomes.

Treating violence as a health issue

One major barrier to addressing interpersonal violence is that it is often framed as a social issue. This can make it difficult for policymakers to prioritise funding in a health system already under strain.

Yet our findings show clearly that interpersonal violence is also a health issue with measurable consequences and costs.

Medical and health education tends to treat violence and trauma as peripheral concerns, with training often added after the fact. There is a pressing need for better understanding among healthcare professionals of the prevalence of trauma and its effects on the body.

Specialist family and sexual violence services must also be adequately funded so that doctors and other health care providers have appropriate referral pathways. And national leadership is needed to affirm that this issue matters.

In a country grappling with the cost of health care, recognising and addressing the trauma behind illness is vital. Supporting healthy relationships and investing in violence prevention will not only keep people safer and healthier – but will ultimately save money.

Janet Fanslow has authored the Ministry of Health Family Violence Assessment and Intervention Guideline for Child Abuse and Intimate Partner Violence, and the Ministry of Health Intervention Guideline for Elder Abuse and Neglect. The research described in this article was funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

– ref. Interpersonal violence in NZ is a public health crisis, not just a social one – new research – https://theconversation.com/interpersonal-violence-in-nz-is-a-public-health-crisis-not-just-a-social-one-new-research-263902

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Thorp, Professor of Finance, University of Sydney

While discussion was focused on the federal government’s economic reform roundtable last week, a significant change that will mainly affect age pensioners flew under the radar.

For the first time in five years, the government will adjust the rates it assumes pensioners earn from their savings and investments, which for many will mean a change their social security payments.

The rates have been fixed since May 2020, when they were reduced in line with the record low interest rates set during the COVID pandemic.

Although official interest rates were increased 13 times since 2022 – which lifted the interest rates that pensioners could actually achieve on term deposits as high as 4% or 5% – pensioners were assumed or “deemed” to be only earning 0.25% interest on savings below a threshold (currently $64,200 for single pensioners), or 2.25% interest above that threshold.

For the government, the one-size-fits-all “deeming rates” simplify the way it calculates pensions and other income support payments. The rates also simplify reporting for pensioners who do not need to declare the actual income earned on their investments.

So, what’s changing?

Low deeming rates were worth $1.8 billion

Since 2020, the widening gap between the actual income many pensioners earn on their savings and the income the government assumed them to have earned is estimated to have been worth A$1.8 billion to social security recipients.

Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek said maintaining the gap at “artificially low” levels had shielded people on income support from high inflation during the post-COVID recovery.

The increases means the gap will narrow, raising deemed incomes, reducing some pensioners’ payments, and likewise reducing government spending on social security.

From September 20, a deeming rate of 0.75% will apply to financial assets under $64,200 for singles and $106,200 for couples. That’s up from 0.25% currently.

Assets over this amount will be deemed at a rate of 2.75%. That’s up from 2.25% currently.

Support is targeted

Australia targets income support to needier households so that payments are designed to fall as household incomes and wealth (assets) rise.

Targeting is done through “means tests”. There are two types of means tests: income tests and assets tests. The government uses deeming rates to calculate the assumed income that pensioners earn, which affects income tests.

Some pensioners, including age pensioners, hold large pots of savings as bank accounts, term deposits, retirement income products and investment funds. These savings earn interest, make capital gains (for example, as share prices rise), and pay dividends. In other words, they earn income.

How will the change work in practice?

What difference will this make to age pension payments, for example?

Around 64% of Australians over age 64 – around 4.5 million people – receive an age pension. Of those, around 25% are impacted by the income test that the deeming rates factor into.

Right now, a single, home-owning age pensioner can earn up to $218 of income each fortnight and still be eligible to receive the full pension ($1,149 including supplements).

At the current low deeming rates, this mean the pensioner can have around $285,000 of savings and investments (not including the family home) on the full pension.

If the pensioner’s savings and investments rise by $10,000, deemed income also rises and their fortnightly pension goes down by almost $5. (The assets means test starts to apply above $321,500.)

From September 20, both the income limits and deeming rules are changing.

The savings and investments that a single pensioner can hold and still get the full pension under the income means test will be lower, because the rules will treat them as earning more income.

In addition, the reductions in the pension as financial assets rise will be a bit larger. For every $10,000 in savings and investments above $210,000, the pension will be lowered by $7, since those extra savings will be deemed to earn more than under the pre-announcement rules.

To put the pension reductions into perspective, we can compare the deemed rates of interest with interest that people could actually have earned on their savings since mid-2022. The graph shows the difference between actual and deemed rates on regular bank accounts.

It’s also worth noting that many pensioners hold their financial assets in account-based pension products that earn higher rates of return than term deposits, and are tax-free to retirees over 60. Some of these superannuation retirement products have earned rates over 8% per year over the past 10 years.

The social services minister said adjustments to deeming rates are needed to ensure that the social security system is “grounded in fairness”.

From now on, the deeming rates will be set by the Australian Government Actuary – an independent advisor to the federal government – although the government retains the right to adjust deeming rates in “exceptional circumstances”.

Susan Thorp receives and has received research funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the TIAA Institute (USA), IFM, and from UniSuper and Cbus Superannuation funds via ARC Linkage Grants. She is a member of the ARC College of Experts, the Steering Committee of the Mercer CFA Global Pensions Index, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Consultative Committee, the UniSuper Consultative Committee, the Board of New College (UNSW) and the Research Committee of Super Consumers Australia. She periodically receives payment for presentations to financial services firms including banks and superannuation funds.

– ref. A key measure used to calculate age pension payments is changing. How will this affect your benefits? – https://theconversation.com/a-key-measure-used-to-calculate-age-pension-payments-is-changing-how-will-this-affect-your-benefits-263542

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow in Urban Risk and Resilience, The University of Melbourne

Cars are getting smarter. Today’s vehicles can automatically brake to avoid a rear-end collision, keep themselves centred in a lane, warn of hazards in blind spots and even maintain a safe distance from the car ahead.

Collectively known as advanced driver-assistance systems (or ADAS), these features have been shown to reduce crashes, injuries and insurance claims.

But there’s a problem: many drivers don’t want them.

In Australia, one in five motorists with cars equipped with these features have switched at least one of them off. In some countries, the figure is much greater.

These systems help prevent some of the most common and costly crashes on our roads. So why do so many drivers go out of their way to turn them off?

Why advanced driver-assistance systems matter

Advanced driver-assistance systems are a range of in-car technologies that help prevent or mitigate crashes.

Some of the most common include:

• autonomous emergency braking: brakes automatically if a collision is imminent

• lane-keeping assist: nudges the steering to keep you within lane markings

• blind-spot monitoring: alerts you if another vehicle is in your blind spot

• adaptive cruise control: maintains a set speed while keeping a safe distance from the vehicle ahead.

These systems aren’t experimental. They have proven safety benefits.

Data from the United States shows autonomous emergency braking cuts rear-end collisions by 50%. Even forward-collision warning on its own (without automatic braking) reduces these crashes by 27%.

A recent international study found:

• lane-keeping assist delivered the largest crash-rate reduction, especially for some of the most severe crashes (19.1% reduction)

• automatic emergency braking significantly lowered rear-end and intersection crash rates (10.7% reduction)

• blind spot monitoring cut lane-change and merging collisions moderately (3.5% reduction)

• adaptive cruise control, surprisingly, appears linked to higher crash rates in some studies (8% increase), possibly due to drivers relying on it too much, using it in complex traffic, or paying less attention. Conventional cruise control was associated with an even higher increase (12%) in crash risk.

The most disliked feature is the most effective one

Lane-keeping assist is the most frequently disabled feature. Nearly 45% of drivers report they have turned it off – even though it is designed to prevent some of the most common and deadly crash types: run-off-road and lane-departure collisions.

Lane-keeping assist uses cameras to detect lane markings and gently apply steering inputs to keep the car centred. In practice, this can feel like the wheel is “tugging” or “nudging” against the driver’s hands.

On winding roads, in roadworks, or when markings are faded, the system may issue frequent warnings or attempt corrections that feel unnecessary. For some drivers, this sensation is disconcerting, and it’s a big reason why the feature is often switched off.

In most modern cars, lane-keeping assist can be switched off during a drive, but it will usually switch itself back on the next time the vehicle is started. Manufacturers design it this way to meet safety regulations and retain high crash-safety ratings from bodies like the European New Car Assessment Programme.

Why drivers switch them off

Despite clear safety benefits, many drivers reject advanced driver assistance systems.

Drivers cite a mix of frustrations and mistrust. False alarms, constant beeping, and perceived “over-correction” make some systems feel intrusive. Others switch them off after a single bad experience, or because they don’t understand the system’s limits – for example, that lane-keeping assist won’t function on poorly marked or unsealed roads.

Lane‑keeping assist is not always perfect, either. Testing by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program indicates some vehicles deliver abrupt or jerky steering inputs that are hard to override, making drivers feel out of control.

Further behavioural research into advanced driver-assistance system use has identified more issues.

Many drivers learn about these systems through trial and error and experimenting rather than formal instructions or manual.

What’s more, manuals are hard to follow. Many require above-average reading levels, use cluttered layouts, and lack standardisation across brands.

Many car owners also leave the dealership without knowing about their new car’s safety features. Many car sales staff have limited training on advanced driver-assistance systems and their limitations.

Further, the same feature can have a dozen or more different names across brands. Motorists acknowledge these systems aren’t always intuitive and show strong interest in learning how to use them safely.

Road design and traffic conditions also have a significant impact on trust and engagement. Less regular drivers avoid activating systems in complex or unfamiliar situations, while frequent drivers are more willing to experiment.

Some groups, such as young male drivers who see themselves as technically sophisticated, often have lower objective knowledge of these features but higher confidence in their knowledge.

What now?

Evidence from both international crash-data analyses and behavioural research points to several priorities for policy, industry, and driver education.

Safety regulations and purchasing incentives should prioritise the most effective features: lane-keeping assist, driver monitoring and autonomous emergency braking.

Some studies show neutral or negative safety impacts from adaptive and conventional cruise control. These features should be paired with targeted driver education and accurate marketing to set realistic expectations.

Consumer training should be improved at the point of sale. Standardised demonstrations and training can help bridge the knowledge gap.

Better documentation may also help. Simplified, standardised guides and in-car digital tutorials should be adopted.

The evidence is clear: advanced driver-assistance systems can prevent crashes, but the effectiveness of these features depends as much on human factors as on the technology itself.

Milad Haghani receives funding from the Australian government’s Office of Road Safety.

Akshay Vij receives funding from the Australian government’s Office of Road Safety.

Ali Ardeshiri receives funding from the Australian government’s Office of Road Safety.

Zahra Shahhoseini 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. Driver assist technology saves lives. So why do so many people turn it off? – https://theconversation.com/driver-assist-technology-saves-lives-so-why-do-so-many-people-turn-it-off-260177

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shawna Mastro Campbell, Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology, Bond University

The government is considering new, bulk-billed health checks for three-year-olds, to pick up developmental concerns and refer kids that might need additional support.

The detail was buried in the announcement of the new “Thriving Kids” program which aims to provide foundational support for autistic children and those with developmental concerns.

The government announced it is also considering creating new Medicare items to provide for children that health checks identify as needing additional support. These would be provided by allied health practitioners and include speech pathology and occupational therapy, but also a type of therapy you might be less familiar with: psychosocial therapy.

So, what is psychosocial therapy? Health and disability minister Mark Butler said it will support social and emotional functioning.

Let’s take a look at what psychosocial therapy is, which children might benefit from it, and the evidence for offering these kinds of support.

Developmental milestones

Brain development in the first five years of life is faster than at any other point in a human’s life. We can measure this rapid growth against developmental milestones. These are key indicators parents can use to respond to their child’s changing needs, and can be observed across motor, language, speech, behavioural, and emotional skills.

The way a child develops involves a dynamic series of processes that are a complex interplay of genetics and environmental factors. So there are natural variations between children in the timing of these developments.

There are guides for roughly expected age ranges we would generally expect certain skills to emerge.

Examples of these early milestones include seeking connection with trusted caregivers, crawling, jumping, counting and communicating. These all emerge by the time children are around two years old.

When parents, early childhood educators or health professionals identify an unmet need that is delaying the child’s development, it can indicate the need for supportive services, including psychosocial therapy.

What is psychosocial therapy?

Psychosocial therapies are treatments that focus on the psychological factors (emotions, thoughts and behaviours) and social factors (relationships, community and environmental) that affect a person’s wellbeing and mental health.

For example, for a three-year-old who is anxious at daycare drop-off, changing social interactions with educators or adjusting the physical environment may help reduce their anxiety.

By definition, psychosocial supports consider both the child and their environment – their family and their community. This is sometimes called a nested wellbeing approach.

There is good evidence that psychosocial therapies are effective and are considered best practice treatment for health professionals working with children.

These are sometimes called biopsychosocial therapies as they recognise the interaction of biological factors, such as genetics, as well as psychological and social factors that impact the child’s development.

Approaches that are suitable for very young children involve their family or caregivers. For instance, behavioural family therapy and parent training are programs that teach parents effective strategies to manage children’s behaviour and improve parent-child relationships.

These would be delivered by psychologists and/or occupational therapists.

For older children, psychosocial support could include cognitive behaviour therapy (which focuses on reframing thinking and behaviour) and interpersonal therapy (which focuses on improving relationships with others to alleviate mental health symptoms).

The evidence for psychosocial therapies

Psychosocial supports are not new to Medicare and are already part of the allied health items for those eligible disabilities, such as autism or other neurodevelopment conditions, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

For young children, there is good evidence that early psychosocial interventions (like those above) can lead to significant improvements. These include improvements in developmental delays and behaviour, and self-regulation and executive functioning.

The evidence shows that early psychosocial supports work when parents are also supported to facilitate responsive caregiving that is “good enough” (not perfect).

In some instances, this might include training and education for parents to better understand their child’s cues and preferences. In other instances, it might look like practical caregiver supports, such as in-home support, peer support or help navigating care options.

The evidence shows if young children need more targeted and tailored support, including parents and caregivers in these interventions lead to the best outcomes for children, family and community wellbeing.

However, in the current discussion about new supports and NDIS, early intervention should not be seen as a substitute or alternative for ongoing disability support. Some people may continue to need support for day-to-day living in later childhood and as adults.

Shawna Mastro Campbell works for a non-government organization funded through Queensland’s Department of Families, Seniors, Disability Services and Child Safety.

Susan Rowe currently serves on the Clinical Advisory Council for the Gold Coast Primary Health Network.

– ref. What is psychosocial therapy? And why is the government thinking about adding it to Medicare for kids? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-psychosocial-therapy-and-why-is-the-government-thinking-about-adding-it-to-medicare-for-kids-263640

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liz Giuffre, Associate Professor in Media, University of Technology Sydney

Ben Platt’s recent cover of Addison Rae’s Diet Pepsi has gone viral on social media.

The appeal was the song choice and change in performance style – an unexpected crossover between Platt’s musical theatre background and Rae’s bubblegum TikTok pop.

It’s just the latest in a long history of our enduring love for covers: songs that are performed or rerecorded by a different artist to the original one, often with a new twist.

Think Whitney Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You, Jimi Hendrix’s cover of Bob Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower, or Luke Coombes’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car.

Covers can give new life to the songs we know and love. In some cases, they may even surpass the original.

Where does the concept come from?

The concept of covers originates in the American popular music industry of the early 20th century. Before recording was accessible and affordable, the music industry was really a publishing industry, with audiences buying sheet music to play popular songs at home.

The term “cover version” came into play as recording and broadcasting took over the way audiences engaged with popular music. Through record sales and early radio, film and television (especially in the 1940s and 50s), audiences could hear music played by others, and as British sociomusicologist Simon Frith puts it, increasingly popular music then “became a matter of consumption rather than technique”.

The breakthrough: Elvis Presley

The early American popular music industry was racially segregated. According to music historian Philip Ennis, music at this time was divided into six main streams broken up by genre and race preferences: pop, black pop, country pop, jazz, folk and gospel.

The big breakthrough was rock and roll, which emerged as the “seventh stream” to bring together audiences, as well as genres including country, soul and blues.

Elvis Presley was a pioneer of rock and roll because of his ability to cross these streams. His first breakthrough hit, That’s Alright Mama, was actually a cover of a song written and first recorded by Black blues artist Arthur Crudup.

In many ways, this combination of song choice and performance broke the “cover” mould. Suddenly, audiences of all types no longer wanted to hear just any version of this song. They wanted Elvis’ version.

The elevation of Elvis’ version drew attention away from Arthur Crudup and his work. It is one example in a much broader trend of Presley and other white performers covering or adapting black artists’ work without due acknowledgement.

A subtle art

There’s no real secret to a perfect cover beyond the appeal of a specific performance. An artist who performs a cover is often directly competing with pre-existing expectations around genre and style. Changing this can be hard to get right.

Record a cover too close to the original and you may be accused of being derivative – but if it’s too far-removed, fans can feel betrayed.

In practical terms, covers are a cheaper way to licence existing popular songs. When applying to record a cover version, an artist or producer only needs to approach the publisher representing the songwriter.

But if they want to use a recorded sample of a particular recording, this can involve a maze of publishing and mechanical copyright owners (mechanical copyright covers the artist who has recorded the work, rather than the person who wrote it).

Covers in the 21st century

Covers have come to take on new meaning and value in today’s recording-dominated music industry. They are a way for new artists to break into the game by leveraging audiences’ love for existing music, such as on music competitions like Idol and X Factor.

They’ve also carved out space in the film and television industry. Animated film franchises such as Trolls and Sing popularise high-quality covers of well-known songs.

Covers can also be used by artists as a nod to their history or influences. For instance, when Helen Reddy was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, her song I Am Woman was performed by several generations of women artists.

On radio (and online) Triple J’s Like a Version and BBC’s Radio One Live Lounge commission covers to engage younger listeners. There is often a clear generational or inspirational through line between the artist and the artist whose song they are covering.

Earlier this year, Jessica Mauboy and Barka covered Yothu Yindi’s World Turning, with Mauboy describing her personal and political connections to the song.

Old tunes in new contexts

Covers can also be a way for artists to rebel or play, using the words and sounds of someone else to reclaim or reassert a position. The best examples of this come when an artist takes the song out of its original context and into a new one.

Nirvana’s cover of David Bowie’s Man Who Sold The World for MTV allowed the band to make a statement about feeling trapped – which their PR team certainly wouldn’t have allowed elsewhere.

We have more recordings now, and easier access to them, than any other point in human history. The choice to re-record or re-perform something from the past allows artists to connect to audiences in new ways, and for audiences to rediscover, in a fresh way, the songs they know and love.

Liz Giuffre 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. Why do we ‘like a version’ so much? The history of cover songs, from Elvis to TikTok – https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-like-a-version-so-much-the-history-of-cover-songs-from-elvis-to-tiktok-263429

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Maurice-Takerei, Senior Lecturer in Education, Auckland University of Technology

The government wants secondary schools to play a bigger role in preparing students for the working world by building vocational education and training (VET) into the curriculum. But a paradigm shift will be required for that to succeed – especially from industry.

The structural reform to school-based qualifications was proposed in the NCEA consultation document released earlier this month, with public submissions closing on September 15.

If introduced, it would effectively see New Zealand return to a “tracking” system where students are grouped into either academic or vocational pathways. The vocational pathway will include a dual mix of workplace and classroom learning.

The proposed change perhaps wasn’t surprising, given support for such a policy from the influential New Zealand Institute think tank and its evident influence on the current government’s education policies.

But the idea has merit, and dual systems operate successfully in other parts of the world.

More structured vocational education and training could be a solution to the problem of low student numbers in work-based learning, low school engagement and skill shortages in key industries.

But successful implementation will be a challenge, not least for employer and industry organisations. The proposed industry skills boards, due to be launched in 2026, will be vital to making such a system work in schools.

Changing the current dichotomy of a growing skill shortage crisis and stubbornly high youth unemployment will also require industry to do its part. Training apprentices costs money.

Lessons from Germany

Details on the VET in schools proposals are light at this stage. But it is envisaged the industry skills boards will shape subjects and develop skill standards to be delivered in partnership with tertiary providers.

The New Zealand Institute has been enthusiastic about the German model, where students in upper secondary school who are not destined for university engage in programmes that combine school-based learning with workplace-based training.

But even this system – established, highly organised and with infrastructure built over generations – is experiencing problems. Recent research highlights declining participation rates, equity and access issues, and concerns about balancing practical training with broader personal and civic development.

Apprenticeships in Germany apply to a vast number of occupations, too, including banking and insurance, healthcare and social services, retail, IT and media, transport and logistics.

The German system is also highly regulated, with professional associations or chambers (which evolved from trades guilds) involved to ensure quality is maintained. There is oversight of companies certified to provide apprenticeships.

A cost-sharing model sees enterprises cover the wages of apprentices and pay the salary of a trainer. And there is a legal requirement for companies to employ at least one qualified trainer to support apprentices.

Most importantly, the German system recognises high-quality vocational education is a product of well-trained teachers. Its status (as is also the case in Switzerland) is partly due to the recognised expertise of teachers who have degree-level learning and qualifications on top of industry experience.

Teacher qualification questions

The consultation document suggests tertiary education organisations will work alongside schools to provide the new VET subjects. But New Zealand VET teachers, while highly skilled in their occupations, are not trained secondary teachers.

They may or may not have an adult teaching qualification. If they do, it will likely be a competency-based, pre-degree certificate. Their experience in working at secondary level is likely to be minimal, too.

In contrast, secondary teachers are registered and required to renew their practising certificate every three years. Beside their teaching and disciplinary qualifications, they operate under codes of professional responsibility, ethics and standards.

Under any new system, VET teachers and trainers will have to be prepared and supported, with pathways for upskilling or re-skilling. Then there is the vexed question of who will pay.

Lessons from history

New Zealand’s previous experiment with a tracking system – firstly within secondary schools and then with the introduction of special “technical high schools” – was not successful.

It was eventually dismantled amid concerns it was replicating existing social inequities, entrenching class divisions and limiting opportunities for students on vocational pathways. Ultimately, there was little public support.

NCEA was designed to integrate the vocational with the academic. But without sufficient change management, teachers and schools largely provided the education most familiar to them – the academic pathway to university. Industry had little involvement.

New Zealand has tended to borrow education policy based on overseas trends without due diligence for local needs. The Tomorrow’s Schools reforms of the 1980s, national standards in the 2010s, the most recent curriculum changes and structured literacy reforms, can all be traced back to the United States and Britain.

This time, New Zealand needs to be wary of simply adopting bits of policy from another country without careful, systematic consideration. While the German dual system might be the basis of a good idea, using one or two schools as initial case studies would be advisable.

Given the scale of the proposed changes, and in light of previous experience with technical schools and tracking systems, parents might now ask two important questions: how will it be decided whether a student takes an academic or VET track, and who will make that decision?

Lisa Maurice-Takerei 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. NCEA reform: how will schools decide who takes an academic or vocational path? – https://theconversation.com/ncea-reform-how-will-schools-decide-who-takes-an-academic-or-vocational-path-262797

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julia Moutiez, Doctorante en Architecture et Enseignante à l’École d’architecture de Paris Val-de-Seine, Université Paris Nanterre – Université Paris Lumières

As the 2024 Olympic Games drew near, the promise of being able to swim in the Seine turned into a media countdown: first as part of the official sporting events and then for the general public. As bids for the Olympic and Paralympic Games have become less and less popular due to the staggering costs involved and the difficulty of justifying them in terms of benefits for local communities, allowing Parisians to swim in the river flowing through Paris was heavily promoted ahead of last summer’s Games.

This kind of media framing, however, has overlooked current and historical realities. River bathing was widely practised over the last few centuries, and in the Seine, it has survived to the present day despite bans on swimming. Additionally, the practice does not only include recreational or sporting dimensions – it is also climate-related, at a time when rising temperatures suggest that compliance with the Paris Agreement will be a difficult, if not impossible task.

A centuries-old bathing tradition

While bathing in the Seine in 2024 was sometimes presented as a novel project, it is key to remember that swimming in Paris is a centuries-old practice. Traces of bathing facilities have been found in the capital dating back to the 13th century. However, the practice is difficult to document in detail as such traces are few, except in cases of major pieces of infrastructure. Over the centuries, swimming continued for hygiene, refreshment and leisure purposes, gradually spreading beyond the city limits.

It was not until the 17th century that the first documented boom in bathing practices in the Seine took place, as evidenced by the introduction of the first prohibitions on bathing and the emergence of the first facilities specifically designed for river bathers. Whether for washing, relaxing or socialising, these facilities were primarily set up to keep bathers safe from the current, and to conceal their nudity on the riverbanks. From the end of the 18th century onwards, these facilities became more complex: additional services were added to improve the comfort of swimmers and the first swimming schools appeared on the Seine.

At the end of the 19th century, floating baths became increasingly popular on the Seine and the Marne outside Paris, while the first-heated swimming pools were built in the capital.

A long-standing practice despite bans

Bans on swimming in the Seine have been numerous over the centuries, though they never completely eradicated the practice.

Historians Isabelle Duhau and Laurence Lestel trace the first restrictions back to the 17th century, when the provosts of merchants and aldermen expressed concern about public nudity on the banks of the river. Until the end of the 19th century, restrictions on swimming in the capital were always based on concerns about nudity. A second reason, that of hindering navigation, appeared in an ordinance of 1840. This was regularly amended until the prefectural decree of 1923, which is still in force today and prohibits bathing in rivers and canals throughout the former département (administrative unit) of the Seine.

However, these bans did not put an end to swimming. After 1923, bathing establishments continued to operate. They even experienced a boom in the interwar period, especially in the suburbs. Photos show that swimming was quite popular during heatwaves.

It was not until the second half of the 20th century that swimming in the Seine became less common, mainly due to the spread of public swimming pools, which offered a more artificial and controlled environment for this form of leisure.

And it was not until 1970, with the ban on swimming in the Marne, that the issue of water quality was raised, even though water quality was already being measured and questioned before then.

Indefatigable bathers

Even today, however, there are still occasional, activist, or even regular swimmers taking to Paris’s waterways. Sporting competitions have brought athletes to the Seine, for example in 2012 for the Paris triathlon, and in a more gradual way in recent years.

In amateur sports, cold-water swimmers also began training in the canals a few years ago, despite the ban. To deal with the risks posed by water temperatures, and possibly police surveillance, these swimmers set their own safety rules: they watch out for each other from the bank and wear life jackets and caps so they are always clearly visible. To date, none of these swimmers has ever been fined by the police.

In recent years, others have also taken a dip for more political reasons. In 2005, members of the Green Party (including its future leader Cécile Duflot) swam in the Seine on World Water Day to raise awareness about how polluted it was.

Diving in the Seine to raise awareness about river pollution also isn’t a new idea. It’s actually the trademark of the NGO European River Network, founded in 1994 and known for its Big Jump events, annual group swims calling for better water quality. Around the same period in the Paris region, the Marne Vive union was created to make the river swimmable again and protect its flora and fauna. In association with local elected officials, it has also been organising Big Jumps since the early 2000s.

In recent times, members of the Bassines Non Merci collective also took dips in Paris to protest against the appropriation of water resources, ahead of planned demonstrations against schemes for large agricultural water reservoirs in the Poitou region.

Other activists have also taken action to make Parisian waterways more suitable for swimming again. The Laboratoire des baignades urbaines expérimentales (Laboratory for Experimental Urban Swimming) organized collective “pirate” swims and shared them on social media and in the press to get local authorities to take up the issue.

Finally, despite the general ban on swimming throughout Paris, it should be noted that swimming is, once again, permitted under certain conditions in the Bassin de la Villette and the Canal Saint-Martin in the summer. For several years, the city has been organising its own collective swimming events, which are supervised and limited in terms of space and time. This is one of the paradoxes of urban swimming in Paris: on the one hand, public authorities are making efforts to improve water quality, in particular by opening sites where people can swim; on the other, they are reinforcing the general ban on swimming in the Seine, for example through more prominent signposting.

The many European versions of urban bathing

Looking at urban swimming practices in Europe, there are many cities where residents already bathe within city limits. These include Basel, Zurich, Bern, Copenhagen, Vienna, Amsterdam, Bruges, Munich and others. That said, putting together a comprehensive list remains tricky because of differences in how urban regulations are applied across Europe, where swimming might be allowed, tolerated, banned, or just accepted.

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In these different cities, the widespread practice of swimming may have been a goal, or it may be a byproduct of water sanitation policies. Copenhagen, for example, isn’t crossed by a river but by an inlet. In the 1990s, the city renovated its aging sanitation system and restored the port, in particular to prevent overflowing. It is also building on national policies, implemented since the 1970s, aimed at preserving water quality and aquatic biodiversity.

These developments, carried out by separate departments and for sometimes different purposes, gradually improved the water quality in the Danish capital, which then sought to highlight the new environmental standards it had achieved. The initial focus was on developing water-based leisure activities. Ideas included areas for fishing and wildlife observation, and plans for an aquarium and the development of canoeing. Ultimately, the focus shifted to a swimming area inaugurated in the early 2000s called Harbour Bath. The site was initially intended as temporary but was made permanent due to its success. Some 20 years later, urban swimming has become an asset that Copenhagen is keen to promote, for example by distributing maps of swimming areas to tourists.

The links between open water swimming and improved water quality are varied. The practice may be used to raise awareness of the need to improve water quality, or to gain support from the general public and elected officials for sanitation projects.

In Europe, numerous directives aimed at preserving biodiversity and water quality have prompted municipalities to clean up the waterways running through areas under their jurisdiction. In this context, then Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac pledged in 1988 to swim in the Seine following reports of the return of numerous fish species, indicating an improvement in the river’s condition. In this video, however, Chirac was not claiming to make the Seine swimmable again for all Parisians. Rather, he was just trying to demonstrate that its water quality had improved.

River bathing in the age of global warming

Another motivation is becoming increasingly important in the creation of urban waterways: providing people with access to cool places in the face of increasingly frequent heatwaves.

Another motivation for allowing swimming in urban waterways is becoming increasingly important: providing people with access to cool places during frequent heatwaves. Paris is particularly vulnerable to climate change due to its dense landscape. A recent scientific study ranks it as one of Europe’s most dangerous cities in the event of a heatwave.

The urban heat-island effect is particularly strong in Paris, and the city’s housing is not well suited to cope with heatwaves. Waterways are seen as a potential solution to the problem of cooling off outside the home. But riverbanks are often very exposed to the sun, which means that only direct contact with water can effectively cool the body – at least to a certain extent. Paris has therefore set up temporary swimming areas, initially in the form of removable pools, before allowing direct access to canals. The Bassin de la Villette, for example, is part of the city council’s Parcours Fraîcheur (Cooling Route) plan, and is also included in its heatwave plan.

Swimming in the Seine was also mentioned in 2015 in the city’s adaptation strategy, in the context of a general overhaul of municipal water policies that was initiated with the decision to take over Eau de Paris, the company responsible for the city’s water supply and wastewater collection.

A decade later, and after the success of the Paris Olympics where swimmers competed in the Seine, the future of swimming in Paris is still uncertain. But one thing is clear: rarely has the subject of urban bathing generated so much discussion, interest, and media coverage.

Julia Moutiez ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. Swimming in the Seine in Paris: an old pastime resurfaces in the age of global warming – https://theconversation.com/swimming-in-the-seine-in-paris-an-old-pastime-resurfaces-in-the-age-of-global-warming-263386

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

Sussan Ley is resisting growing internal pressure for the Coalition to quickly discuss and determine the future of its policy on net zero.

A number of Liberals and Nationals urged the debate be brought forward and the process for decision making clarified, at the Liberal and Coalition party meetings on Tuesday.

The pressure reflects the surge in support especially in the Nationals – but also in parts of the Liberal Party – for dumping the 2050 net zero commitment. More generally, it is becoming increasingly politically untenable for the Coalition to remain in limbo over its policy.

The opposition’s hand is also being forced by the fact the government will announce within weeks Australia’s 2035 emissions reduction target under the Paris agreement. This target, which may be a range rather than a particular number, appears likely to between 65% and 75%, on previous indications. Australia’s 2030 target is a 43% reduction on 2005 emissions.

Sources said Tuesday’s push started in the Liberal party room meeting with the matter raised by South Australian conservative Tony Pasin and then continued at the joint party meeting.

A range of speakers including both conservatives and moderates, with differing positions on net zero, argued the Coalition needed to get on with settling a position.

Initially, the need for a position was about a 2035 target and then broadened into the need to settle its position on net zero.

Pasin later told Sky he had sought clarification on the process for making the decisions but didn’t get it. He said the opposition could not wait 12-18 months to decide a policy.

High profile Nationals Matt Canavan and Barnaby Joyce are running an intense campaign to change the Coalition’s policy. The government is ensuring Joyce’s private member’s bill to remove legislative references to net zero is regularly debated in the time given each week to private member’s bills.

The Nationals seem certain to dump net zero sooner rather than later, while the Liberals are divided and Ley is trying to stick to her timetable of a comprehensive Coalition review before a decision is made.

The review team includes representation from the Nationals, and is chaired by Victorian Liberal Dan Tehan, who is energy spokesman.

Tehan told Sky on Tuesday, “I’ve said quite clearly on the record a number of times that I support net zero by 2050”.

Last Friday the Queensland Liberal National Party convention overwhelmingly rejected net zero. Meetings of the Liberal organisations in South Australia and Western Australia had done so earlier.

While the party organisation can’t impose policy on the Liberal parliamentary party, the stands increase the pressure on MPs, who have an eye to their preselections.

Frontbencher Andrew Hastie is not waiting for the review. He
told the ABC on Tuesday, “I believe in a sovereign, secure, competitive and prosperous Australia, and I think net zero undermines that very thing”. Hastie has been outspoken on the issue before.

The Liberal leader in the senate, and fellow Western Australian, Michaelia Cash, has backed the WA motion against net zero.

Labor predictably capitalised on the Coalition’s problems with its energy policy, with Energy Minister Chris Bowen telling parliament, “What we have is two parties, one Coalition, and many, many ways of killing net zero”.

Ley told a news conference Labor’s coming announcement of its 2035 targets would give the opposition an opportunity to ask the government to demonstrate what these targets will cost, how it would deliver on promises and what they would mean for manufacturing businesses and Australian households.

Deciding the 2035 target finds the government caught between ambition and practicality. For the opposition, the government’s announcement will put it on the spot – but, if the internal heat becomes too much, it would also provide an opportunity to deal with the net zero issue. That would mean, however, dramatically accerelating the Tehan review and the policy-making process.

Whether she sticks to her present timetable or revises it, Ley finds herself in a corner. And that’s just over timing. On the substance of the issue, she is caught between the strong anti net zero lobby within the Coalition and the need to appeal to urban voters and young people, who mostly consider net zero a no brainer.

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

– ref. View from The Hill: Growing push for early decision on climate policy wedges Ley – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-growing-push-for-early-decision-on-climate-policy-wedges-ley-263435

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Itai Einav, Professor in Geomechanics, University of Sydney

What looks like ordinary sand, rocks or snow flowing in one direction can actually hide swirling currents that move in multiple directions beneath the surface.

When grains move in a landslide, most follow the steepest downhill path. This is the “primary flow”, where particles largely follow the herd. But some grains move sideways or swirl in hidden patterns, forming “secondary flows” that subtly influence how far and fast the material travels.

Understanding how grains move beneath the surface could help explain the physics of avalanches and landslides, and even improve how we handle everyday materials like wheat in silos or powders in pharmaceuticals.

However, nobody has been able to observe these hidden swirls – until now. In a study published in Nature Communications today, we have captured secondary flows inside granular materials for the first time with our advanced X-ray imaging setup.

A bulldozing experiment

The idea these secondary flows exist isn’t new. Researchers have seen these hidden movements in powerful computer simulations of grains between rotating cylinders or in landslides that model each particle’s movement using basic laws of physics. But that’s a purely theoretical way to study them.

Observing the flows in real granular materials – such as sand, snow or similar – has been almost impossible. To look inside the flow, you’d either have to keep stopping the grains for standard X-ray scans or add a liquid that makes them see-through. Unfortunately, both approaches change how the grains naturally behave.

We set out to study the flow of glass beads (a perfect granular material for a lab setting) in a bulldozing experiment, where a conveyor belt pushes grains into a wall, causing them to pile up.

In our lab, we have developed an entirely new method called X-ray rheography which can take three-dimensional images of moving grains. Called DynamiX, this setup allows us to see what’s really happening beneath the surface.

To our surprise, the test revealed ripples on the surface, which earlier studies had linked to hidden secondary flows.

These flows had never been directly observed in three dimensions without stopping the motion or altering the material with fluid.

We could watch these hidden currents in action without disturbing the movement of the glass beads. Yet the complex geometry meant we could capture only the magnitude of the flow in one direction, along the conveyor belt as the primary direction, leaving the rest of the three-dimensional picture incomplete.

What we discovered underneath

To really pin down the secondary flows, we went further than just watching the grains with DynamiX.

We developed another X-ray method to map the surface of the flowing heap from X-ray images, linking tiny ripples on top to the swirling motion underneath. We also measured how grains move through the full depth of the pile, including sideways motions.

The main flow goes all in the same direction. So, the sideways movements we detected were the first direct experimental proof of secondary flows.

By looking inside these hidden flows, we are revealing the surprising versatility of granular materials. They can behave like solids that support buildings or like complex fluids with intricate internal currents.

Swirling motions are common

While we didn’t study landslides directly, our experiments on bulldozed particles reveal something important.

We now know secondary flows are at play whenever particles are pushed, such as when ploughing snow or moving grains in agriculture, for example. The swirling motions we observed appear to be ubiquitous in complex particle flows.

What does this mean for landslides? Detailed experiments like ours provide crucial data that can be used to validate and improve mathematical models. Current models often ignore secondary flows and cannot predict them.

Read more:
What causes landslides? Can we predict them to save lives?

Our work offers the experimental foundation for future modelling. Understanding and modelling these secondary flows could help engineers better predict the destructive power of landslides, including runouts that are currently underestimated.

It could also improve industrial processes, from powder handling in pharmaceuticals to snow clearing and beyond.

While our results are specific to bulldozed grains, they point to a broader principle – secondary flows are a fundamental feature of particle motion which must be considered in any realistic model of granular behaviour.

Beneath the surface of any moving pile of grains, hidden swirling currents are shaping the flow. Recognising these movements is key to understanding everything from avalanches to industrial particle handling.

Itai Einav receives funding from Australian Research Council.

– ref. For the first time, scientists observed the ‘hidden swirls’ that affect the flow of sand, rocks and snow – https://theconversation.com/for-the-first-time-scientists-observed-the-hidden-swirls-that-affect-the-flow-of-sand-rocks-and-snow-262959

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Max Andrews, Associate Lecturer of Sports Science, The University of Queensland

In a recent clash against the Melbourne Storm, the Brisbane Broncos endured a nightmare rarely seen in professional sport — three players tore their hamstrings in a single game. Two players, Adam Reynolds and Ezra Mam, went down in the same play.

Hamstring strains are the most common non-contact muscle injury in running sports such as rugby league. One in three players will suffer the same injury again.

So why do they happen and what can be done to stop them?

Hamstrings are a huge issue for athletes

More than 80% of all hamstring injuries in sport occur during sprinting, while others occur during stretching movements such as kicking.

The danger point is usually the “late swing” phase of sprinting: the split second before the foot strikes the ground when the leg is swinging forward at high speed.

At this moment, the hamstrings are contracting while also lengthening.

The hamstrings’ job is to slow the leg and prepare it for ground contact. This requires very high forces at long muscle lengths — a combination that increases vulnerability to injury.

It is not just speed that is dangerous.

Using the recent Storm-Broncos game as an example, when Xavier Coates intercepted the ball, and Mam and Reynolds suddenly accelerated to chase him down, their hamstrings were actually stretched further and faster than if they were running at a steady pace, even at much higher speeds.

Think of your hamstrings like a rubber band: during constant speed running the muscles stretch gradually, but yank it suddenly (as during acceleration) and it stretches faster — making it more likely to snap.

In fact, accelerating while running at only half your top speed puts the same stretch on your hamstrings as running constantly at nearly 90% of your maximum speed.

How to reduce hamstring injury risk

While no strategy can completely eliminate risk, there is evidence that two approaches reduce hamstring injuries: sprinting and eccentric strength training.

Eccentric strength training involves exercises where the muscle lengthens under tension, such as slowly lowering a weight.

Eccentric training, particularly the Nordic hamstring exercise, can cut hamstring injuries by more than 50% when done regularly.

This exercise puts the hamstrings under high force while they are lengthening, triggering structural and functional changes that make them more resilient.

Regular sprint training may help protect against hamstring injury by preparing the muscles for the exact demands they face in competition.

But if athletes go long periods without sprinting, a sudden spike in sprinting load can greatly increase their risk.

Consistency is crucial

Eccentric training can lengthen muscle fibres within 2-3 weeks, mainly from stretching existing sarcomeres (tiny building blocks inside each muscle fibre that allow it to contract and stretch).

This short-term (two to three weeks) change may not provide much real protection from injury.

However, with longer-term training (around nine weeks), new sarcomeres are added, creating longer fibres that can better withstand the big stretches of sprinting.

This difference helps explain why short pre-season training blocks may be insufficient and why consistent eccentric training is needed to build lasting protection.

Eccentric training also increases strength by building the size of the muscles.

Bigger hamstrings are stronger and can cope better with the huge forces they face during sprinting.

These two changes — longer fibres and greater strength — appear to be the main reasons eccentric training cuts injury risk by half.

It’s also possible other changes play a role, like the muscles switching on more quickly or the tendons and connective tissues getting stronger but research in this area is still limited.

Challenges for athletes and teams

The protective changes from eccentric training are not permanent.

Fibre length and added sarcomeres begin to regress within three weeks of stopping.

This is a major challenge in professional sport, where busy schedules and muscle soreness from eccentric exercise mean few teams stick with these prevention strategies in-season.

The good news is muscles quickly adapt to eccentric training, so soreness diminishes over time. Once players build up a tolerance to eccentric training, just four Nordic reps per week may be enough to maintain the protective benefits without overloading athletes.

Teams that consistently use these exercises experience fewer injuries than those that don’t.

An issue that shouldn’t be ignored

Even with world-class sports science support, hamstring injuries are still the number one cause of time loss from training and competition in professional football codes.

Predicting and preventing hamstring injuries remains a challenge. But eccentric strength training and regular sprinting can provide protection.

Effective prevention requires not just using eccentric strength training exercises but doing them consistently, alongside careful management of load, recovery and other risk factors.

Putting this into practice in elite sport is difficult, which may help explain why hamstring injury rates are not decreasing.

Anoosha Pai S receives funding from Stanford Graduate Fellowship, Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance

Anthony Shield has received funding from the Queensland Academy of Sport.

Matthew Bourne is a recipient of an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship in partnership with VALD.

Max Andrews and Patricio Pincheira 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 do hamstring injuries happen so often and how can they be prevented? – https://theconversation.com/why-do-hamstring-injuries-happen-so-often-and-how-can-they-be-prevented-263038

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney

The media spotlight is once again on the issue of prison conditions, as sentencing looms for Erin Patterson – convicted for three murders after serving a beef Wellington laced with death cap mushrooms.

The prosecution has called for a sentence of life imprisonment.

The defence has drawn attention to the harmful conditions of prison isolation, which Patterson has endured for approximately 400 days.

Supreme Court Judge Beale has said he would give “weighty consideration” to her prison conditions in determining the sentence, noting Patterson’s prison conditions do not “sound very humane”.

A principle of modern democracies where the rule of law prevails, such as Australia, is that people are sent to prison as punishment – not for punishment.

The Dame Phyllis Frost Centre

For more than a year Patterson has been held in the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, a maximum-security women’s prison in the western suburbs of Melbourne.

For most of this time, she has been in the Gordon Unit. This is a protected area where women are held in solitary confinement without meaningful human contact for almost the entire day.

Patterson has been locked in her cell alone for between 22 and 24 hours, and can only speak to one other inmate.

Jenny Hosking, the assistant commissioner for the sentence management division at Corrections Victoria, provided the sentencing court with details about Patterson’s custody conditions.

It was following this evidence that Justice Beale noted Patterson’s prison conditions do not “sound very humane”.

The Gordon Unit is notorious for high suicide risk. Prisoners are confined to a small space and rarely given more than an hour outside their cells.

One prisoner who was in the Gordon Unit, Ashleigh Chapman, has described being locked up for 23 to 24 hours each day. She reported water from the tap turning the sink and shower floor green.

Government documents obtained by the ABC revealed at least 106 lockdowns between July 2024 and June 2025.

This included, according to one prisoner log, a 43-hour lockdown.

Inhumane conditions

In 2017, the Victorian Ombudsman made damning findings of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre. It noted

some practices used to maintain order in prisons pose a high risk of torture or degrading treatment if used improperly: these include the use of force and restraint, prolonged solitary confinement and strip searches.

It recommended the Victorian government “consider options for replacing” the solitary confinement unit.

It also recommended improvement of health services.

However, between 2020 and 2021, five women died at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.

In 2025, the ABC reported on a cluster of suicide attempts at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre after rolling lockdowns due to staff shortages.

Women with physical and mental health conditions have reportedly been denied medical appointments, legal appointments and family visits.

Indigenous women particularly bear the burden of poor care in prison.

One notable case involved Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman Veronica Nelson, who was imprisoned having been denied bail for shoplifting-related charges. She died alone in a cell at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in 2020 after being denied healthcare, despite her repeated cries for assistance.

Another case involved Yamatji, Noongar, Wongi and Pitjantjatjara woman Heather Calgaret, who had been denied parole due to a lack of accommodation. She died in 2021 at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre after being given a Buvidal injection (as part of opiate replacement therapy).

Both inquests found serious flaws in the health care women received during their time in prison.

Solitary confinement and international law

Following its visit to Australian prisons in 2022, the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment condemned the prolonged use of solitary confinement. It recommended that

solitary confinement is used only in exceptional cases as a last resort, for as short a time as possible and subject to independent review, and only pursuant to the authorization by a competent authority.

It urged compliance with international laws, including the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (also known as the Nelson Mandela Rules).

These provide for at least one hour of access to open air for exercise, clean drinking water, and a ban on prolonged solitary confinement in excess of 15 consecutive days.

An appetite for punishment?

Media stories have overwhelmingly focused on Erin Patterson’s access to a hair straightener, crochet materials, a television, a computer, books and a fan. The implication is that Patterson is on a good wicket in prison.

However, this narrative likely misrepresents the reality of prison conditions for Patterson – and for the many other women on much lesser charges who also face lockdowns and a lack of health support.

Prison conditions should comply with human rights obligations and avoid cruel, inhumane, degrading treatment of prisoners.

When a crime affronts the moral fibre of society, such as the triple murder committed by Erin Patterson, it is common for society, the media and institutions to respond with moral outrage.

Such instincts, however, can run against the standards for civilised treatment of people in prison.

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

13YARN is a free and confidential 24/7 national crisis support line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are feeling overwhelmed or having difficulty coping. Call 13 92 76.

Thalia Anthony receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. Erin Patterson is a triple murderer. That’s no excuse for inhumane prison conditions – https://theconversation.com/erin-patterson-is-a-triple-murderer-thats-no-excuse-for-inhumane-prison-conditions-263906

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keiran Hardy, Associate Professor, Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University

In a joint press conference, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Iran orchestrated two antisemitic attacks on Australian soil: the October 2024 attack on Sydney’s Lewis Continental Kitchen and the firebombing of the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne in December 2024.

As part of its response, the Australian government will list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

The listing triggers various offences that people can be charged with, including being a member, supporting or meeting with members of the organisation.

It will place the IRGC alongside al-Qaeda, Islamic State, and neo-Nazi and other far-right groups as a recognised, criminal terrorist organisation under Australian law.

What is a proscribed terrorist organisation?

Under division 102 of the Criminal Code Act, the Australian government has the power to designate an organisation as a “terrorist organisation”.

The governor-general can make a regulation to this effect if the home affairs minister is satisfied on reasonable grounds that an organisation is either:

• directly or indirectly engaged in, preparing, planning, assisting in or fostering the doing of a terrorist act

• advocates the doing of a terrorist act.

The IRGC listing has not happened yet, so the government’s full reasons are not available. Based on the recent announcement, it is likely the IRGC will be listed under the first of these grounds.

There are currently 31 terrorist organisations on the government’s list. Most of these are Islamist fundamentalist organisations in the mould of al-Qaeda and Islamic State.

Hezbollah was listed in 2021 and Hamas in 2022, though their paramilitary wings had been listed and re-listed since 2003.

Four far-right groups were recently added: National Socialist Order, Sonnenkrieg Division, The Base, and Terrorgram.

Terrorgram was listed in June 2025. It is more of an online network than a clearly defined organisation. The banning of an online group, and now the IRGC – a branch of another country’s armed forces – suggests that listings under division 102 will evolve in line with the changing nature of terrorism.

As Burgess has explained, threats to Australia’s national security are becoming more “dynamic, diverse and degraded”.

In the past, threats of terrorism came from a smaller number of groups that were heavily influenced by al-Qaeda. Now, terrorist threats involve mixed and unclear ideologies, conspiracy thinking, anti-government beliefs, state-sponsored terrorism and foreign interference.

What offences does the listing trigger?

Once an organisation is proscribed under division 102, this triggers a series of criminal offences.

It is a crime, punishable by up to 25 years in prison, to direct the activities of a terrorist organisation – or to recruit for, train with, fund or support one. Being a member of a terrorist organisation is punishable by 10 years in prison.

It is even an offence, punishable by three years imprisonment, to “associate with” a member of a terrorist organisation. The association must take place on two or more occasions and provide support to the organisation. This offence could be used, for example, to charge proxy criminals who meet with members of the IRGC or another terrorist group.

Strictly speaking, an official listing is not needed for these offences to be prosecuted. Prosecutors can also prove in court, as an element of the offence, that a group of people is a terrorist organisation. This happened in the Benbrika case, when a group of men in Melbourne were found by a jury to be members of a terrorist organisation.

Still, listing a group makes it easier to prosecute these offences, as the fact that the group is a terrorist organisation does not need to be separately proven in court.

In this case, it also sends a clear signal from the government and ASIO that foreign interference on Australian soil will not be tolerated.

Keiran Hardy receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a Discovery Project on conspiracy-fuelled extremism.

– ref. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will be proscribed as a terrorist organisation. What does this mean? – https://theconversation.com/the-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-will-be-proscribed-as-a-terrorist-organisation-what-does-this-mean-263922

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Davis, Chair of Women’s Health, Monash University

If you’re a woman approaching middle age and you’re on social media, you might have been urged to get your hormones checked.

These posts often highlight troubling symptoms of perimenopause. Then they flag blood tests as a way to help you understand what’s going on and to guide treatment.

Some women are now turning to wellness providers and online services seeking these types of tests, often at substantial expense.

But these tests don’t provide any benefits. An editorial in the British medical journal BMJ has raised an alert about these tests. The authors conclude they’re unnecessary and shouldn’t guide treatment decisions.

So what hormonal changes occur in the transition to menopause? And why is hormonal testing mostly unhelpful?

What do hormones do during menstrual cycles?

The key hormones the ovaries produce before menopause are oestrogens (mostly as oestradiol, but also as oestrone) together with progesterone and testosterone.

The amount of each hormone produced changes during the menstrual cycle.

Blood oestradiol levels double around the time of ovulation. This is followed by an increase in progesterone.

Testosterone blood levels also increase around ovulation, but the increase is less than about 10%.

What’s the difference between menopause and perimenopause?

Menopause happens when the ovaries have lost the capacity to produce an egg.
After menopause, oestrogen and progesterone blood levels are dramatically lower than before menopause.

Perimenopause is the time between being pre-menopausal, through to the first 12 months after having the last menstrual bleed. But the end of perimenopause is difficult to determine if you don’t menstruate, for example after a hysterectomy or when you have a hormonal intra-uterine device (IUD).

Testosterone blood levels don’t meaningfully change at natural menopause; they slowly decline with age.

What are the symptoms of perimenopause?

During the transition to menopause, the ovaries function haphazardly. So oestrogen and progesterone blood levels can be unpredictably very high or very low.

Hot flushes and night sweats, also known as vasomotor symptoms, commonly start in early perimenopause and may persist for many years. Vasomotor symptoms occur intermittently during perimenopause and persist after menopause.

Perimenopause is identified by irregular periods (cycles closer together or further apart) or changed bleeding patterns (bleeding becoming scant or heavy), together with the onset of vasomotor and other symptoms such as:

• increased abdominal fat
• low mood
• vaginal irritation and dryness
• urinary symptoms, such as bladder irritability
• memory difficulties, or “brain fog”. This seems to relate to the fluctuations in oestrogen levels and mostly resolves in the early postmenopausal years.

Our recent study shows the onset of vasomotor symptoms is the hallmark of perimenopause, and should also be used to diagnose perimenopause in women not menstruating (after hysterectomy or for other reasons).

Can a blood test tell you’re perimenopausal?

Blood oestradiol and progesterone levels are continually fluctuating during perimenopause. A blood test cannot be “timed” to any specific part of the cycle, as cycles vary in length and frequency.

So the results can’t generally be interpreted and are therefore not helpful.

However, it’s sensible to have blood tests to check for common causes of fatigue (under-active thyroid or iron deficiency) and palpitations and overheating (over-active thyroid).

How is perimenopause managed?

Treating perimenopause is not the same as treatment after menopause. Perimenopause is a time of hormonal chaos, rather than deficiency. So standard menopause hormone therapy (also called MHT) can make things worse.

Adding in an extra layer of hormones with the MHT that’s used after menopause will ease symptoms during the hormone lows, but often worsens symptoms during hormone highs (heavy bleeding, breast tenderness, fluid retention).

Instead, getting on top of perimenopause requires managing heavy and unscheduled bleeding, symptom relief, and, where needed, contraception, as the ovaries are still randomly producing eggs.

Can blood tests individualise hormone therapy?

No. Blood hormone tests can’t determine whether you might benefit from menopause hormone therapy or what dose you might need.

People’s oestrogen receptors have different levels of sensitivity and are turned up and down by other proteins and hormones in the cells. So even achieving the same blood oestradiol level with oestrogen therapy can have completely different effects in different people.

Individuals also respond differently to prescribed oestrogen, whether it’s tablet or through the skin. For transdermal patches or gels, the temperature of the skin, exercise, skin hydration and site of application affect absorption.

After absorption, oestradiol is metabolised rapidly to other oestrogens which are not measured in a standard blood test. So the total amount of oestrogen circulating is not determined by simply measuring blood oestradiol.

Do you need a blood test to check your dose?

No. There is no target blood oestradiol level that is right for everyone, and no established blood level that will prevent bone loss, heart disease or dementia.

Nor is there a perfect time of day to measure oestradiol, as the pattern of absorption of oestrogen over 24 hours varies, especially with transdermal oestradiol.

Plus, different commercial laboratories use different measurement systems so you cannot always directly compare test results between laboratories.

What about progestogen and testosterone?

Progestogens, including progesterone, are required to protect against thickening of the uterine lining by oestrogen.

The type and dose of progestogen needed can vary substantially and this cannot be predicted, or fine tuned, by a blood test.

For testosterone, there is no cut-off below which a woman can be diagnosed as having “insufficient testosterone”.

Whether hormone therapy involves oestrogen, progesterone or testosterone, for women who experience natural menopause after the age of 45, diagnosis and treatment is determined on symptoms, not blood hormone levels.

Susan Davis has served on Advisory Boards for Theramex, Astellas, Abbott Laboratories, and Besins Healthcare, and as a consultant to Besins Healthcare. She receives funding from the NHMRC, Medical research Future Fund, MS Australia and the Heart Foundation and has received research support from Lawley pharmaceuticals paid to Monash University. She is affiliated with the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

– ref. I’m a woman approaching middle age, do I need to get my hormones checked? – https://theconversation.com/im-a-woman-approaching-middle-age-do-i-need-to-get-my-hormones-checked-263541

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Vardon, Associate Professor at the Fenner School, Australian National University

Human economies are made possible through natural capital – stocks of land, fresh water, oceans, biodiversity and soils, among others. Farming isn’t possible without soil or water. Manufacturing isn’t possible without raw materials to convert into products. Service industries aren’t possible without reliable food.

This may seem like stating the obvious. But what’s obvious isn’t always acted upon. At last week’s high-profile Economic Reform Roundtable, natural capital was conspicuously absent. At the table were bankers, unionists, housing experts and business groups – but only one environmental advocate, former treasury secretary Ken Henry.

The government’s goals were to make the economy more productive and resilient and the budget more sustainable. The health of our natural capital underpins all of these.

This missed opportunity is symptomatic of a wider challenge. The very real risks we face if natural capital degrades are mostly ignored, virtually unmonitored and not part of mainstream economic discussions. Small wonder environment groups launched their own alternative roundtable to make the economic case for nature.

In the mid-20th century, economists and policymakers commonly assumed nature had no limits. By the end of the century, it was abundantly clear this wasn’t true. In the 21st century, this view is patently absurd. Nature has hard limits. Water can be used up. Fisheries can be fished out. Pollinators can die out. The environment and the economy are not separate – one enables the other.

Natural capital underpins the economy

Other countries have moved faster in recognising how fundamental natural capital is to a thriving economy. The United Kingdom’s 2021 Dasgupta Report is one of the best-known explanations. Many businesses recognise the risks of declining natural capital through taskforces on nature-related and climate-related financial disclosures.

Integrating the environment into economic thinking is crucial. It lets us think about these limited resources and ecological systems alongside other factors such as factories, roads, financial capital, labour and knowledge.

Natural capital matters for productivity in many ways, some obvious and others less so. In cities, trees reduce temperatures and cut air pollution. This in turn helps human health, increases productivity and reduces the need for air conditioners and hospitals, lowering energy costs and boosting public finances.

Human wellbeing is improved by access to nature and the services it delivers. When we’re well and happy, we’re more productive at work and take less time off.

We need data on nature

When making economic decisions, properly accounting for the value of functioning natural systems requires starting with good information.

The Bureau of Statistics provides voluminous economic data, from GDP to jobs to building approvals to inflation and more. But these are no longer enough.

What’s needed is “natural capital accounting” – tracking the health of natural systems and the size of the stocks. It shows how much is in our natural capital bank, how it is being used, and what value we derive from it. Many examples exist in projects in Australia and internationally, such as in water and forests.

In 2018, the Australian government adopted this approach, using the internationally agreed System of Environmental-Economic Accounting.

In 2020, the approach was backed by the sweeping Samuel Review into Australia’s main environment laws, and in 2022, the government’s Nature Positive Plan adopted it.

While several natural capital accounts have been produced, their potential has gone largely unrealised.

Faster approvals may boost productivity – but damage nature faster

One widely publicised outcome from the roundtable is a focus on faster approvals for developments. This week, Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt announced updated environment laws will be brought to parliament before the end of the year.

This is welcome. Linking revised laws to boosted economic productivity may be worthwhile. But without natural capital accounting, there’s no guarantee it will work.

If we relied on 20th-century thinking to assess productivity, it would be simple to assume speeding up approvals by cutting red and green tape would be a step forward. But this century is one of environmental consequences.

At present, environmental approvals for big developments allow companies to make natural capital withdrawals – such as converting habitat to a warehouse – even if nature is approaching thresholds of no return, such as the extinction of species or the disappearance of ecosystems. This is a key reason why box-gum grassy woodlands remain critically endangered.

We could avoid this by using natural capital accounting. If the stocks of natural capital are known, developers can avoid wasting time applying for approvals where stocks are too low, while regulators can make faster assessments if the development will consume too much. What defines “too much” would be set in the planned national environmental standards.

This would flip the development process from reactive to proactive. Need more homes? Let’s identify areas with enough natural capital to build them and avoid areas that don’t, such as threatened woodland ecosystems or grasslands. This would save time and money for everyone.

Policymakers already use this approach in banking. Banks have to keep some funds to buffer against unexpected losses, under the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s requirements. Surely we can imagine similar requirements for natural capital.

The age of environmental consequences

If we draw down on natural capital without knowing how much we have, how much is needed, or how it contributes to the economy or wellbeing, we risk what Henry calls “intergenerational bastardry” – worsening the lives of future generations through our actions today.

To achieve productivity in a sustainable way, we need 21st-century thinking, better information and long-term reform based on a clear understanding of how the natural environment and the human economy intersect. Let’s hope policymakers are up to the challenge.

Acknowledgements: Carl Obst contributed to this article.

Michael Vardon has received funding from the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) and serves on the department’s Technical Advisory Panel for Environmental-Economic Accounting.

– ref. We’re still not measuring our reliance on nature as we rush to boost productivity – https://theconversation.com/were-still-not-measuring-our-reliance-on-nature-as-we-rush-to-boost-productivity-263716

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stefani Vasil, Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice, Australian Catholic University

In 2024, a young mother in Victoria ended her own life. As family violence services and Victoria Police pointed out, there were key circumstances that may have contributed to her death.

Her former partner was about to be released from prison. He had been serving time for a criminal conviction for abusive behaviour towards her.

This case is not an isolated one. Media coverage in November last year reported other young women who died by suicide whose partners had been alleged abusers.

There is mounting evidence about the role family violence can play in suicides. Last year, data from the Victorian Coroners Court revealed family violence was present in one in four (24.5%) suicides recorded between 2009 and 2016.

Data also highlight family violence was more likely to be present in the lives of women who died by suicide than men.

But there’s still a lot we don’t know about these issues. Our study, released today, examines the circumstances surrounding women’s deaths by suicide following experiences of family violence in Victoria.

Our findings point to ways systems could be improved to better understand how family violence and suicide might be linked. These may help prevent women’s deaths.

Taking a broad view

We conducted interviews with 20 people working across the family violence, health and justice sectors in Victoria and the United Kingdom.

We found there needs to be greater attention paid to understanding how experiences of family violence contribute to suicide risk. This is in line with international research.

In our interviews, participants described women’s experiences of entrapment and their fear of the perpetrator. Some women often didn’t have many options to seek help and they experienced the cumulative effects of violence over time.

This pain and fear often stayed with them after a relationship, sometimes for a very long time.

Professionals interviewed also raised concerns about how the link between family violence and suicide may be missed. This is especially the case where other factors are also present, such as drug or alcohol dependencies, or mental ill health.

The current approach to investigating these cases often focuses on immediate, recently reported and/or clearly evidenced links. There is an opportunity for police and coronial investigations to be broadened to better understand the full and longer term impacts of family violence.

Better screening for risk

Our study found current approaches to risk identification and assessment may not effectively identify or respond to a victim’s risk of suicide.

One limitation is how systems respond when women seek help and how this shapes the support they receive. We were told that women with alcohol and other drug dependencies may not have their past or ongoing experiences of family violence adequately identified or addressed.

The risk assessment process also may not effectively capture the cumulative impact of family violence when combined with other vulnerabilities. These can include economic pressures, mental health conditions and other health challenges.

Recognising mental health, suicide and family violence as interconnected experiences may help women to get appropriate help sooner. In order to do this, different sectors would need to collaborate more to make support timely and effective.

Victoria, alongside other Australian state and territories, has undertaken significant reforms to risk assessment and management practices in recent years. Our study points to further opportunities to enhance current practices and the frameworks used.

Safer places to live

Victim-survivors of family violence need access to safe and supported accommodation when leaving abusive relationships. Experts have increasingly called for this in recent years.

The use of motels as a short-term safe housing option when there is no specialist housing available is unstable and unsafe for many women. Short stays in motels can compound feelings of isolation and fail to connect the victim-survivor with suitable support services.

Read more:
Crisis accommodation is failing women fleeing domestic violence. Here’s how to fix it

During our interviews, we were told that motels are a particularly unsuitable option for women thinking of taking their own lives.

There is an urgent need for long-term, sustainable housing solutions for family violence victim-survivors. Moving away from a reliance on emergency motel accommodation is an important first step.

Getting the full picture

In 2024, the Australian government commissioned a rapid review of prevention approaches to gender-based violence. It found improving understanding of, and responses to, suicides related to family violence must become state and national priorities.

Delivering on this recommendation requires:

• sustained investment in prevention

• better data collection

• long-term government support for changing these systems.

Since the 2022 release of the family violence national plan, significant attention has been paid, rightly so, to the ongoing killing of women allegedly by men’s violence across Australia.

But we are yet to grapple with the full spectrum of those deaths. Doing so requires a better understanding of how women who experience family violence die by suicide.

That understanding can improve system responses, prevention work and ultimately, help save lives.

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. For mental health support, you can call call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Stefani has received funding from Respect Victoria, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the e-Safety Commissioner and the Victorian Women’s Trust.

Kate has received funding for research on violence against women and children from a range of federal and state government and non-government sources, including Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS), South Australian Government, ACT Government, Australian Childhood Foundation, and the Victorian Women’s Trust. This article is written by Kate Fitz-Gibbon in her role with Monash University, and is wholly independent of Kate Fitz-Gibbon’s role as chair of Respect Victoria and membership on the Victorian Children’s Council.

Marie Segrave receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a board member of inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence.

– ref. Some victim-survivors take their own lives. We need to better understand how suicide and family violence are linked – https://theconversation.com/some-victim-survivors-take-their-own-lives-we-need-to-better-understand-how-suicide-and-family-violence-are-linked-262111

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Richter, Professor of Information Systems, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

When artificial intelligence (AI) enters the classroom, the focus is often on the risk of plagiarism or shortcuts.

But in a postgraduate business analysis course on digital innovation and strategy, taught in early 2025, we tried a different approach. Students were asked to use AI purposefully at every stage of the digital innovation process, reflect on the outcomes and assess where it genuinely added value.

Their end-of-course feedback told a clear story: students shifted from seeing AI as a task robot to viewing it as a partner in innovation – albeit one that had to be governed carefully.

This aligns with our recently published research, which finds that although AI lacks consciousness, it can act as a meaningful collaborator, making complementary contributions to teams.

A broader view of AI

Many students began the course with a narrow perspective on AI, seeing it as either a threat or as a tool for basic automation.

By the end, most described it as a way to augment the human element and unlock new forms of value, such as providing data-driven insights to support the development of ideas. As one student put it:

My view shifted from “will AI take over jobs?” to “how can humans and AI work together?”

These reflections stemmed from an assignment that required students to document their AI use, critique outputs and link those experiences to strategic decisions.

Two mindset shifts stood out:

1. From tool to partner

The students worked on a case study in recruiting. They began by exploring using AI as a simple tool for isolated tasks, such as screening hundreds of CVs for keywords.

They then began seeing it as a collaborative partner to ask more fundamental questions: how do we identify the skills that predict long-term success? How can we uncover hidden talent from unconventional backgrounds?

This partnership led to a deeper realisation: the right strategic move wasn’t just for a company to use an AI tool, but to build a new business where the AI is part of the product.

Their conversation shifted from using AI to make hiring faster, to designing a recruitment service whose entire business model was an AI platform that matched a company’s culture with a candidate’s potential. We saw a narrow, tool-based mindset replaced by a more holistic and strategic perspective.

One student wrote:

Instead of seeing AI as something to bolt on, I now see it as a core design decision.

2. From blind trust to responsible use

Initial enthusiasm for AI also gave way to critical habits. Students checked sources, spotting “AI hallucinations” and debated trade-offs around privacy, bias and accountability. One student wrote:

Earlier, I more or less blindly trusted AI results. Now I understand the need for credibility checks.

Students repeatedly raised concerns about transparency, fairness and the absence of clear organisational guardrails in the workplace.

Several concluded that how AI is deployed mattered as much as what it can do. Rather than treating ethics as an afterthought, they framed it as integral to design: what intent drove the use case, what data was touched, who was affected, and how decisions could be explained.

As one noted:

Responsible innovation requires deliberate choices guided by ethics and contextual awareness.

When some AI tools produced confident yet inaccurate outputs, students encountered the risks firsthand. That friction fostered healthy scepticism and a habit of testing AI against domain knowledge and external evidence.

Their reflections showed a shift from passive use to active evaluation and a mindset of responsibility.

Many students said they planned to continue building their skills while maintaining a critical eye, and to bring these lessons into family firms and small businesses, where even modest AI tools can improve service and decision making.

As one student put it:

I now see myself as a professional who must apply AI thoughtfully.

We believe this mindset is the course’s real outcome: informed, responsible use. AI is not merely about efficiency – it raises ethical questions and demands thoughtful governance.

Why this matters beyond the classroom

Workplaces today face two simultaneous realities. AI can accelerate routine work and also shift how and where value is created. The approach we took with students entering the workforce applies equally to organisations. Here are some suggestions:

• Anchor AI in intent. Start with the outcome, then choose tools and data accordingly.

• Treat ethics as design, not compliance. Embed checks for bias, privacy and provenance within the workflow. Be transparent about decision making when AI is involved.

• Invest in fluency, not just tools. Exposure to multiple systems created adaptable thinkers who knew when to trust, verify or pivot – deepening their digital literacy.

• Measure value at the business model level. Gains often come from new revenue streams or reduced risk, not just saved time.

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. From fear to fluency: what our students learned when they used AI across an entire course – https://theconversation.com/from-fear-to-fluency-what-our-students-learned-when-they-used-ai-across-an-entire-course-263805

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shannon Bosch, Associate Professor (Law), Edith Cowan University

Senior Israeli Defence Force (IDF) officials have announced that around 130,000 reservists will take part in Israel’s planned military operation to take over Gaza City. Fighting is expected to continue well into 2026.

The first set of 40,000–50,000 reservists are due to show up for duty on September 2.

Our research, to be published in a forthcoming book, shows the call-up plans raise significant legal issues for countries that permit their dual-Israeli nationals to serve in the IDF — whether through voluntary enlistment programs such as Mahal and Garin Tzabar, or compulsory reserve duty.

Compulsory service and dual citizenship

Under Israeli law, every citizen or permanent resident must serve in the IDF for between 18 to 36 months (based on their age, marital status and gender), followed by ten years of reserve duty.

Dual citizens living abroad are not exempt and are expected to settle their conscription status through Israeli consulates and embassies.

Following the October 7 2023 Hamas attacks, Israel expanded compulsory service to three years, boosting the IDF to 169,500 active troops and 465,000 reservists.

While many reservists are currently residents in Israel, significant numbers also live overseas.

What the ICJ and UN experts have said

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. The court advised that all UN member states are obligated to refrain from providing assistance to Israel in maintaining the occupation.

This came after the ICJ had already issued a preliminary ruling saying Palestinians in Gaza had a plausible right to protection from genocide in Gaza.

In response to the ICJ’s July 2024 opinion, 40 independent UN experts advised that states should be taking steps to prevent their dual Israeli citizenship from serving in the IDF to avoid being potentially complicit in war crimes or crimes against humanity.

And earlier this year, an independent international commission established by the UN Human Rights Council urged UN member states to investigate and prosecute those accused of committing crimes in Gaza, either under their own domestic laws or using universal jurisdiction.

These opinions and reports have intensified the debate over the legal obligations of states that allow their dual Israeli nationals to enlist in the IDF.

How other countries view serving in foreign armies

The countries with the largest Jewish populations have done little to restrict IDF recruitment.

The United States, France, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom all have laws against foreign enlistment. However, they allow IDF recruitment through exemptions, treaties or permissive interpretations of the laws.

Australian law prohibits citizens from engaging in foreign conflicts as mercenaries, but permits enlistment in foreign armies. Recruiting Australians to join a foreign military, that aligns with Australia’s defence or international interests may be permitted by the Attorney General, but the Criminal Code Act of 1995 does however prohibit Australian nationals entering foreign military zones where a designated terrorist organisation is engaged.

South Africa has a law against its citizens fighting in foreign wars without permission. It has also explicitly threatened to prosecute those who join the IDF. Yet, enforcement has been rare and selective. .

Civil society mobilisation

In Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed in June it was investigating possible war crimes in Gaza. Many believed this was targeted at dual national IDF reservists.

In May 2024, the Hind Rajab Foundation, a Palestinian advocacy group based in Belgium, submitted a dossier of evidence to the International Criminal Court alleging war crimes committed by some
1,000 IDF soldiers, including a number of dual citizens.

A related group also filed a complaint with the ICC about dual Dutch-Israeli soldiers allegedly committing war crimes in Gaza.

And in April 2025, UK advocacy groups submitted a dossier to the Metropolitan Police war crimes team targeting ten British nationals for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the war.

Meanwhile, in Australia, a legal group called the Australian Centre for International Justice has been monitoring about 20 dual nationals who have served in the IDF.

In response to the group, the government urged Australians seeking to serve in foreign armies to “carefully consider their legal obligations and ensure their conduct does not constitute a criminal offence”.

Obligations of countries

All ten countries we surveyed — the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Russia and South Africa — are parties to the Geneva Conventions, the Convention against Torture, and the Genocide Convention. These treaties impose obligations on members to not only punish violations, but prevent them.

Israel’s mobilisation of 130,000 reservists dramatically increases the potential that more dual nationals will be drawn into operations that have been condemned by the UN and ICJ as unlawful.

For dual citizens, the risks are profound. Not only can they be involved in a protracted conflict, but they can also be potentially exposed to future prosecution for grave crimes.

For states, the stakes are just as high – silence and inaction may amount to complicity in genocide. The question now is whether governments will uphold their obligations and effectively warn their citizens about fighting in Gaza, and investigate and prosecute them, where necessary.

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. Israel’s call-up of 130,000 reservists raises legal risks for dual citizens and their home countries – https://theconversation.com/israels-call-up-of-130-000-reservists-raises-legal-risks-for-dual-citizens-and-their-home-countries-263783

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Nielsen, Professor and Deputy Director, Monash Addiction Research Centre, Monash University

Medicinal cannabis use has increased rapidly in recent years in Australia. Since access pathways were expanded in 2016, more than 700,000 prescription approvals have been issued.

The vast majority of medicinal cannabis products on the market have not been registered on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods. But medical practitioners can apply to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for approval to prescribe them to patients.

Data shows the three most common conditions for which scripts are approved are chronic pain, anxiety and sleep disorders.

Although many patients report benefits, professional bodies and regulators have raised concerns about whether prescribing is outpacing the evidence.

So what does the evidence actually say? Does medicinal cannabis work for the conditions for which it’s most commonly prescribed?

Medicinal cannabis for pain

Medicinal cannabis refers to cannabis products that are legally prescribed to treat a medical condition. This can be the plant itself, or natural compounds extracted from the plant. Some compounds similar to or the same as those found in cannabis (for example, dronabinol and nabilone) are made in a lab.

Two of the most common compounds in the plant are THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol), known as cannabinoids.

These are commonly found at various concentrations in medicinal cannabis products which come in forms including oils, capsules, dried flower (used in a vaporiser), sprays and gummies.

Chronic pain is the most common reason for medicinal cannabis use. But as we’ve written in a previous article, research shows only modest benefits, with limited improvements in pain and physical functioning.

The TGA says there’s limited evidence medicinal cannabis provides clinically significant pain relief for many conditions, and should only be tried if other standard therapies haven’t helped.

Does medicinal cannabis work for anxiety?

Beside chronic pain, a growing number of people are now turning to medicinal cannabis for anxiety.

Multiple reviews have examined whether it works for this purpose and have come to similar conclusions. For THC-based products the evidence is mixed, with some patients finding relief, while others report their symptoms are worse.

There is emerging evidence for CBD, however it’s too soon to recommend medical cannabis as a first-line treatment for anxiety. So far, studies of CBD in anxiety have been small, only measured effects under experimental conditions designed to induce stress, had no comparison group, or only tested a one-off dose. Because of these limitations, the studies can’t tell us if CBD is effective for ongoing anxiety management.

A recent review found CBD had positive effects on anxiety, but these effects were seen in studies deemed to have problems with their methods, and not in studies that were more rigorously designed and conducted.

Similarly, a small Australian study (with no control group) demonstrated positive effects of CBD in young people with anxiety who had already tried other treatments. However, the authors stated more rigorous trials were still needed.

What’s more, there are recent case reports of acute psychosis arising from medicinal cannabis use. Taken together with the ambiguous evidence, the role for cannabinoids for anxiety remains far from clear.

How about sleep disorders?

The evidence for cannabis in the treatment of sleep disorders and insomnia is perhaps even more limited, with neither CBD or THC having shown clear benefits reducing the number of awakenings or time spent awake during the night, or improved sleep quality. That said, some people do report they have fewer symptoms of insomnia when using medicinal cannabis.

Similar to anxiety, many of the studies have major weaknesses in their study design which make it difficult to draw strong conclusions. There are also few studies that compare medicinal cannabis to proven treatments for sleep disorders and insomnia. This makes it hard to make recommendations for treatment based on the current research evidence.

THC can make you drowsy, and in the short term, may help people fall asleep, or feel like they’re getting more sleep. But there are some important downsides to consider, too.

For example, if you take medicinal cannabis regularly to fall asleep your body can get used to it, making it harder to fall asleep without it. In the long term, medicinal cannabis can also affect the amounts of light and deep sleep a person will have, which can result in poorer sleep quality.

Read more:
Cannabinoid products may reduce total sleep time in adults with insomnia: new study

There is good evidence for some conditions

Some of the strongest evidence for medicinal cannabis products are for rare forms of epilepsy that don’t respond to existing treatments, and for treating symptoms associated with multiple sclerosis.

The only TGA-approved medicinal cannabis products are for these conditions.

There’s also evidence medicinal cannabis can help with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Though as newer medications with fewer side effects are now available, medicinal cannabis products are not considered first-line treatments.

Risks and side effects

Common side effects with THC in the short term include drowsiness, anxiety, dry mouth, nausea, vomiting and appetite changes. For some people, these effects reduce over time.

Some people with preexisting health conditions such as schizophrenia, psychosis or heart conditions may be more prone to experiencing side effects.

An estimated one in four people using medical cannabis meet the criteria for dependence (known as cannabis use disorder). In the longer term, dependence appears more common with medical use, particularly when combined with non-medical use.

If you are suffering with anxiety, sleep problems or chronic pain, and are wondering what treatments might be most effective for you, speak to your regular GP.

Suzanne Nielsen receives funding from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, and has previously received funding from Worksafe and the Therapeutic Goods Administration to provide independent evidence reviews on medical cannabis. She is the president-elect of the Australasian Society for Professionals on Alcohol and other Drugs.

Myfanwy Graham receives funding from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, alongside government and university institutes. Myfanwy has served as a consultant for the UNODC, WHO and NASEM. She is an appointed member of the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s Medicinal Cannabis Expert Working Group. This article does not represent the views of the TGA or the Expert Working Group.

– ref. Medicinal cannabis is most often prescribed for pain, anxiety and sleep. Here’s what the evidence says – https://theconversation.com/medicinal-cannabis-is-most-often-prescribed-for-pain-anxiety-and-sleep-heres-what-the-evidence-says-262429

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Hill, Speech Pathologist and Senior Lecturer, School of Allied Health, Curtin University

From mid-2027, the government will divert children with mild and moderate developmental delay and autism away from the NDIS and onto a program called Thriving Kids.

The government is also considering new Medicare items for allied health services when children need additional support. This may include occupational therapy, speech pathology and psychosocial (psychological and social) therapy.

But what exactly is a developmental delay?

Read more:
‘Thriving Kids’ could help secure the future of the NDIS. But what will the program mean for children and families?

Progressing more slowly than their peers

Developmental delay is a general label for a range of conditions. Developmental refers to something arising during development and delay means a child is progressing in the expected way, just more slowly.

Up to 24% of children are considered “developmentally vulnerable”. This means they haven’t met a key milestone and are at risk in one or more areas, including speech and language, motor skills, thinking and learning, social and emotional development, and everyday life skills.

A child might be delayed in their speech and not speak in sentences by the age of three.

A child might not crawl or walk by around 18 months or may have difficulty using their hands to play with toys or feed themselves.

Thinking skills such as memory and problem-solving may develop more slowly. Or a child might have more trouble controlling their emotions or interacting with parents or siblings than others their age.

Everyday tasks such as dressing, going to the toilet and brushing teeth can also be difficult for children with developmental delay.

It ranges in severity

When a child shows difficulty in one area, it’s called a specific delay.

When multiple areas are impacted, it’s called a global delay. Around 1–3% of children experience global developmental delay.

Developmental delays are usually identified as a result of parental concern, observations at daycare, or during routine milestone checkups by a family GP and/or child health nurse. They’re then confirmed by a GP, paediatrician, or allied health provider.

Delays are described as mild, moderate, or severe. Mild delays occur when a child is developing at less than about one-third of their actual age, moderate between one-third and two-thirds, and severe at less than two-thirds.

In reality, judging severity is complicated. Children’s abilities can vary from day to day. Assessment tools may not fully capture their strengths and needs, especially if the child is shy, tired, or unfamiliar with the environment.

This means severity labels don’t always fully reflect a child’s abilities or the support they require.

Do kids grow out of it?

Some children with developmental delays will “catch up” over time. A child who has had fewer opportunities to hear and use language, for example, may make progress with the right support. Early intervention can be highly effective.

However, a large proportion of children won’t grow out of their difficulties.

The term developmental delay is frequently criticised for failing to recognise that delayed development is often associated with long-term difficulties (not just a lag). And it can be difficult to identify which young children have delays that will improve over time.

Globally, around 15% of children are diagnosed with a developmental disorder: lifelong conditions that affect how they grow and participate in the world.

Developmental disorders include autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), specific learning disorders (for example, dyslexia), and developmental language disorder, which impacts a child’s ability to use and understand language.

If a child is still having difficulties by the time they are four or five, they would be considered to meet criteria for a developmental disorder.

How should children be supported?

Whether a child has a developmental delay or disorder, research shows a strong link between early support and better outcomes. Support often comes from a team of specialists such as:

• occupational therapists. They help children develop skills such as dressing, playing and managing emotions

• speech pathologists. They help with feeding and support children to express their wants and needs, and to be understood clearly

• physiotherapists. They focus on movement and physical skills, helping children improve their balance, coordination and strength for activities such as walking and playing

• psychologists. They implement strategies to help children and families manage difficult behaviours and emotions, and improve daily functioning

• audiologists. They assess and support hearing difficulties that can contribute to developmental delays in communication and social skills

• specialist teachers in schools and early learning settings. They have extra training and experience in supporting children with additional needs.

Intervention should begin as soon as difficulties are noticed, rather than waiting to see what happens and should be tailored to the needs and preferences of each child and their family.

Therapists work directly with children individually or in small groups, either in clinics, at home, or at daycare or school, where they collaborate with teachers to embed strategies such as visual supports or play-based activities.

This can be combined with helping family members and other professionals (such as teachers) develop the skills to support the child. However, coaching others takes time and training to ensure success.

Therapists also provide advocacy and systems support, helping families navigate services, school and funding pathways to ensure children receive the right help at the right time.

The best outcomes for children with developmental differences, whether delay or disorder, are achieved by a combination of one-on-one as well as systems-level support. It’s important policymakers keep this in mind as they design the Thriving Kids program and new Medicare items.

Read more:
Occupational therapists tackle obstacles in the home, from support to cook a meal, to navigating public transport

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. Kids with ‘developmental delay’ will be diverted from the NDIS. But how do you know if your child is delayed? – https://theconversation.com/kids-with-developmental-delay-will-be-diverted-from-the-ndis-but-how-do-you-know-if-your-child-is-delayed-263633