Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Holly Cullen, Adjunct professor, The University of Western Australia

The High Court in London has granted Julian Assange leave to appeal the UK Home Secretary’s order that he be extradited to the United States on charges of computer misuse, and multiple charges under its Espionage Act.

However, the favourable judgement has a sting in its tail – the US can stop the appeal if it submits adequate assurances on the treatment of Assange, including guaranteeing freedom of expression.

The two-judge panel rejected some of the grounds argued by Assange’s legal team and accepted others. They have allowed the US government and the home secretary until April 16 to provide any assurances in relation to the accepted grounds of appeal. Without assurances, leave to appeal will be granted. If assurances are filed with the court, the court will hold another hearing on May 20.

The court rejected the following grounds of appeal:

• that extradition would be incompatible with the US–UK extradition treaty (this essentially addresses the claim that charges are for political offences)

• that extradition is barred because it involves prosecution for a political opinion

• that extradition is incompatible with Article 6 (right to a fair trial) or Article 7 (ban on retroactive criminal law) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)

• that extradition is incompatible with Article 2 (right to life) or Article 3 (prohibition on torture or inhuman or degrading treatment) of the ECHR.

The grounds provisionally accepted by the court are:

• that extradition is incompatible with Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the ECHR

• that the UK Extradition Act prohibits extradition in cases where the accused might be prejudiced on grounds of nationality

• that there is inadequate protection of the principle of speciality (that a person can only be charged with offences listed in the extradition request) and against the death penalty.

The grounds of appeal are in some ways surprising, given the District Court judgement of 2021 decided that extradition should not be allowed on the basis that it would be oppressive.

In the leave to appeal hearing, it seems the court was persuaded by arguments that Assange is being charged for actions that are normal journalistic activities. The European Court of Human Rights has never found that extradition would violate freedom of expression, so this case could be a major development in the law under the ECHR.

The issue of prejudice on the grounds of nationality appears to relate to claims that Assange, as a non-national of the US, would not be able to rely on First Amendment protections of freedom of expression.

The court has asked for new assurances because the grounds of appeal are outside the assurances the US government gave in 2021, which responded to the District Court judgement.

Today’s judgement opens the door to a full appeal. Dates for hearing will be set, but the appeal will probably be heard later this year. If the appeal succeeds, the extradition process would be over. At that point, Assange would be released from Belmarsh prison and probably deported to Australia.

If the appeal fails, he could seek leave to appeal to the UK Supreme Court. If leave is denied or a further appeal fails, he would at that stage have exhausted all possible remedies in the UK.

US Marshals will likely seek to remove Assange to the United States as soon as possible after he exhausts his UK recourses. To prevent that, his legal team will make an application to the European Court of Human Rights. Assange’s lawyers applied to the European Court of Human Rights in 2022, but the application was declared inadmissible without published reasons on December 13 2022, probably because he had not yet exhausted potential remedies in the UK.

Read more:
After years of avoiding extradition, Julian Assange’s appeal is likely his last chance. Here’s how it might unfold (and how we got here)

Once Assange has exhausted his last possible recourse before the British courts, an application to the European Court of Human Rights would probably be declared admissible. The application will be accompanied by a request for urgent interim measures to obtain an order prohibiting the UK from extraditing Assange until the European Court has decided on his case.

Interim measures are usually only granted in cases involving the right to life or the prohibition on torture or inhuman or degrading treatment. The District Court judgement in 2021 found he should not be extradited because it would be oppressive. The facts underlying that finding, that the likely prison conditions in the US increased the risk that Assange could attempt suicide, could support a claim under the European Convention on Human Rights that extradition would violate his right to be free from inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Edwards, said before the February hearing that the conditions Assange would face could amount to torture or other forms of ill-treatment or punishment.

Read more:
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Greg Barns on the battle to free Julian Assange

Last week, reports surfaced that the US government would consider offering Assange a plea bargain that would see him released from prison based on the time he has already served in Belmarsh.

Assange’s American lawyers stated at that time that they had not been contacted by the US government, and no one associated with Assange has made further comment.

With the prospect of legal proceedings continuing for months or years to come, a plea bargain may begin to look like a reasonable outcome for everyone concerned.

Holly Cullen has been a volunteer for the Australian Labor Party.

– ref. Assange wins legal lifeline against extradition to the US – but there’s a sting in the tail – https://theconversation.com/assange-wins-legal-lifeline-against-extradition-to-the-us-but-theres-a-sting-in-the-tail-226614

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

Who’d want to go back to the days before Uber? The days in which you could never be certain you could get a taxi, the days of long wait times trying to order one on the phone, and the days in which you would never know for sure how your driver would treat you.

So much has Uber improved the experience of getting a ride (young people rely on it in a way their parents were never able to rely on taxis) that it might seem incomprehensible Uber has just agreed to pay almost A$272 million to stop a class action against it going to court.

The $271.8 million settlement is the fifth-largest in Australia, eclipsed only by two for Victoria’s 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, one for Queeensland’s 2011 floods and one for Johnson & Johnson for defective pelvic mesh implants.

So what exactly did Uber do wrong – or at least be so unwilling to defend it was prepared to pay a quarter of a billion dollars not to have aired in court?

The statement of claim presented on behalf of 8,000 taxi drivers and licence holders to the Supreme Court of Victoria paints a picture of an organisation prepared to break the law in order to build a large base of customers it could use to lobby to change the law to make what it had been doing legal.

‘Greyballing’ and ghost cars

The statement of claim points to internal Uber documents that indicate Uber knew in advance of its 2014 launch that its so-called UberX drivers were not licensed to operate commercial passenger vehicles, and that the fines were small.

Its aim was to quickly get to 2,000 trips per week in both Melbourne and Sydney, to ensure it had “as many people as possible to support UberX leading up to what will inevitably be a regulatory fight in both cities”.

Uber told drivers it would pay their fines, and in Victoria paid $1,732 at a time.

The class action said where inspectors tried to collect evidence, Uber engaged in a practice known as “greyballing” in which the apps of selected users get shown a fake view of ghost cars that won’t stop for them.

The claim said Uber also used “blackout geofences” that made it impossible to hire Ubers near the buildings used by enforcement officers and regulators.

Case settled at the last moment

By settling just before the case went to court, Uber managed to avoid these claims being tested, and also managed to avoid the court airing the trove of documents leaked two years ago in which one international Uber executive joked he and his colleagues had become “pirates” and another conceded: “we’re just f***ing illegal.”

Uber succeeded in getting each state’s laws changed, at a cost of devaluing to near zero taxi licences reported to have been worth as much as $500,000 each.

But in its defence (and I may as well defend Uber because it decided not to in court) most taxi drivers never paid anything like $500,000.

And taxis provided a pretty poor service. That’s because the number in each state was limited, which helped ensure drivers had work, but worked against customers in two ways – it ensured there weren’t enough taxis available at busy times, and by pushing up the price of licences it pushed up the price of fares.

Taxis served cities poorly

In a landmark 2012 report, Customers First, two years before the arrival of Uber, former competition chief Allan Fels recommended Victoria issue licences without limit, charging a simple fee of about $20,000 per year for anyone who wanted one.

It’s this recommendation, adopted by Victoria, and publicised in other Australian states, that began devaluing licences before the arrival of Uber.

And the Fels report found most of the owners of licences weren’t drivers.

Most were passive investors, some of whom had done well by punting that the value of their licences would rise, and all of whom should have taken into account the possibility the value could fall.

Uber has gone mainstream

Now that Uber has won the right to do what was illegal (and settled a class action that would have exposed how it did it), it has lifted its prices to something closer to taxi fares and allowed customers to book taxis from its platform.

It has become mainstream in other ways. In Australia, it has entered into an agreement with the Transport Workers’ Union on employment, and in the US it wants to work with transport authorities to replace lightly used bus services.

Read more:
Gig economy workers set for new protections in Albanese government’s legislation introduced next week

The path Uber has forged – becoming an outlaw, building public support for a change in the law, then becoming entrenched – has become something of a model for new firms in all sorts of other industries, from online gambling, to cryptocurrency trading to footpath scooters.

Uber has shown it works. In this case, the class action has shown that ultimately there can be a cost, but it took a long time and it wasn’t at all certain until the last moment that Uber would buckle.

Peter Martin is Economics Editor of The Conversation.

– ref. Uber has settled a class action lawsuit for $270 million – what was it accused of? – https://theconversation.com/uber-has-settled-a-class-action-lawsuit-for-270-million-what-was-it-accused-of-226505

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Dickinson, Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW Sydney

On Monday evening Australia’s state premiers and territory chief ministers got together and called on the federal government to delay or amend draft laws to overhaul the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The laws are to determine how states provide “foundational supports”, a key recommendation of the NDIS Review.

There was a sense of optimism in December when National Cabinet agreed the states and Commonwealth would split the funding of foundational supports and the Commonwealth would add billions to strengthen Medicare. This was meant to ease the costs of specialist support within the NDIS.

So why are the details proving controversial now? And does the backlash mean NDIS reforms might fall over at the first hurdle?

Creating other avenues of support

Last year’s NDIS Review was tasked, among other things, with considering the financial sustainability of the scheme.

The review argued there is no single issue driving the growing cost pressure of the NDIS. But the lack of accessible and inclusive mainstream services for people with disability was pushing them into the NDIS. This means more people are on the scheme than was originally intended.

Read more:
Recommendations to reboot the NDIS have finally been released. 5 experts react

We have seen particular growth in the number of young people with autism and developmental delay entering the NDIS. One in ten boys aged between five and seven have an NDIS plan when starting school.

While this could indicate the original scheme estimates were not correct, it’s likely a significant proportion of demand is being driven by a lack of other available supports through mainstream services.

Supports the states used to provide

The NDIS was never intended to provide services to all people with disability and about 86% of disabled Australians do not have NDIS plans. Those without NDIS plans access the same mainstream services as the rest of the population – be they schools, health services or public transport.

But mainstream services are not always accessible to people with disability. Research from the University of Melbourne in 2022 shows the vast majority of Australians with disability who don’t have NDIS plans can’t access the services and supports they need. When this happens people have to go without or pay for additional supports such as taxis, mobility equipment or domestic assistance themselves.

Read more:
What’s the difference between ‘reasonable and necessary’ and ‘foundational’ supports? Here’s what the NDIS review says

Since the establishment of the NDIS over a decade ago, states and territories have pulled back from providing some services for people with disability.

Home and community care programs to support people under 65 years of age with less intensive disability needs, for example, are inconsistent and underfunded in many places. So if a person with disability needs help with some shopping or cleaning, their only option for support may well be to apply to join the NDIS.

Are these reforms a surprise?

The NDIS Review acknowledges the scale of reform outlined in its recommendations are significant and should be transitioned to over a five-year period. But many of the changes that will take place within the NDIS are dependent on having foundational services in place outside the scheme. Foundational supports are a key priority in the reform process.

The development of a foundational supports strategy should not have taken states and territories by surprise. The day before the NDIS Review was launched in December, National Cabinet reached its decision to share foundational support costs equally between the Commonwealth and states and territories. And at the end of January, the Commonwealth committed A$11.6 million over two years to support the development and implementation of the foundational supports strategy.

Although fresh reports say state and territory leaders fear “uncosted” foundational supports, premiers were reportedly given an indication of additional costs at the December National Cabinet meeting.

Since then, state and territory governments will have been working to determine exactly what foundational services are needed in their jurisdictions and how many people might want to access these. Given the NDIS Review recommended better and more detailed data collection, many of these governments likely don’t have good enough data to easily understand what the demand for these services might be and therefore what they might cost.

While states and territories appear to have signed up to the general direction of reform, the latest reports suggest premiers are concerned at the speed and the scale of the changes. In a context of tight state budgets there are likely also fears of extra budgetary pressures from developing new systems of support.

Read more:
There is overwhelming gender bias in the NDIS – and the review doesn’t address it

Future disability reform

Debates over which parts of government should fund which services are not new. But focusing on who pays for what misses the bigger picture.

Getting a system of foundational supports in place is essential not only for the sustainability of the NDIS but also for all those disabled Australians who are currently going without necessary supports to live their lives. As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, Australia has a commitment to protect the rights of people with disabilities and ensure their full inclusion in society.

The NDIS is one part of realising this commitment, but it will not be able to achieve this on its own. If they can’t access mainstream services, disabled people are shut out from participation in aspects of daily life we should all be able to take for granted.

Disability advocates argue delaying tactics from states and territories are unacceptable and reform needs to happen now. The federal government seems committed to the top recommendation of the NDIS Review. It remains to be seen whether the states and territories are ready to move at the same pace.

Helen Dickinson receives funding from ARC, NHMRC and CYDA.

– ref. States agreed to share foundational support costs. So why the backlash against NDIS reforms now? – https://theconversation.com/states-agreed-to-share-foundational-support-costs-so-why-the-backlash-against-ndis-reforms-now-226620

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne

Ceasefires are a uniquely complicated tool in armed conflict. This is because they exist at the intersection of war, law and politics.

Political scientist Cindy Wittke has suggested that attempts to define what a ceasefire is and what it entails will ultimately reveal a “lack of fit” with international law. This is because they are notoriously difficult to negotiate and enforce.

This “lack of fit” has perhaps been most obvious in the UN Security Council’s deliberations over a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Countless resolutions have been proposed with different wording, such as:

• “an immediate, durable and fully respected humanitarian ceasefire” (October 16)

• “humanitarian pauses” (October 18)

• “pauses in fighting” (October 25)

• “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors” (November 15)

• “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” (December 8)

• a “sustainable cessation of hostilities” (December 22).

Finally, on Monday, after nearly six months of linguistic wrangling, the Security Council has managed to pass a resolution that demands an “immediate ceasefire”. It emphasises “the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance” entering the Gaza Strip.

So, what will this resolution do in practical terms – and will it have any effect?

Enforcement mechanisms are limited

According to international law, a resolution of the Security Council is binding on all UN member states. This includes Israel and Palestine, which has UN observer status.

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have welcomed the ceasefire resolution.

However, Israel was furious over the US decision to abstain from the vote, in effect allowing it to pass. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office argued the wording benefits Hamas, saying it gives the group “hope that international pressure will allow them to accept a ceasefire without the release of our hostages”.

It also remains to be seen whether the Israeli government will comply with the resolution and if so, in what ways.

In reality, the resolution may make little practical difference to the lives of millions of Palestinians trapped in Gaza because the council has little way of enforcing it. Israel has already ignored the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid”.

While military action to force Israel to adhere to the resolution seems highly unlikely, states could take other economic and diplomatic action to try to compel Israel to comply. These could include imposing sanctions, halting weapons sales or withdrawing diplomatic missions and support.

In addition, the resolution only emphasises the flow of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip be increased. This wording gives Israel some wiggle room to continue to deny access to aid convoys stuck at the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings based on security grounds.

Even before the war began – but particularly since the Hamas attack on October 7 – Israel has been imposing obstacles on humanitarian aid entering Gaza during the inspection and distribution process. It continues to frequently, and seemingly arbitrarily, reject the entry of supplies such as anaesthetics, oxygen cylinders, ventilators, sleeping bags, dates and maternity kits.

However, the fact the US abstained undoubtedly marks a dramatic shift in its diplomatic support for its chief ally in the Middle East. The resolution sends a clear message to the Israeli government that a red line has been reached in terms of what the US is prepared to accept and support.

Where negotiations currently stand

The Security Council resolution will also likely put greater pressure on both sides to come to an agreement through the negotiations being led by Qatar and Egypt.

Hamas’ latest proposal includes four points:

• a comprehensive ceasefire

• withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip

• the return of forcibly displaced Palestinians

• the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages.

According to media reports, Israel has accepted an American compromise for the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for Israeli hostages. But media reports indicate it is currently refusing to commit to a permanent ceasefire.

If this agreement does eventually come to fruition, it will no doubt include many details about how the terms will be implemented. This was the case for the temporary truce that was negotiated between the parties in November, which included a choreographed exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The number of prisoners Hamas is currently seeking in exchange for hostages has been a source of contention.

In 2011, Israel agreed to exchange more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.

Arguably, foreseeing a similar scenario, Israel has arrested thousands of Palestinians in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank on minor offences in recent months. Hamas continues to hold around 100 hostages, the majority men and many reservists in the Israeli military.

Why ceasefires matter

International law is based on the premise that it imposes obligations on states, non-state parties and individuals that cannot be bargained away. However, as permanent members of the Security Council with veto power, the US, Russia, China, France and the UK have disproportionate power over how such laws come about or come into effect.

Nevertheless, the international community is ordered around certain social, political and legal norms. These norms come not only in the form of international law, but also diplomatic and economic relations. This is what the UN terms “friendly relations among nations”. These norms ensure, to an extent, that states comply with their obligations under international law without the need for military force.

The Security Council resolution passed Monday, with vague terms and relatively little incentive for compliance, is currently the least worst option to push the sides toward a halt to the violence and allow aid into Gaza.

Other efforts towards a potentially more meaningful and practical ceasefire should – and will – continue. If they weren’t before, all eyes should not be firmly on Gaza.

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

– ref. The UN Security Council has finally called for a ceasefire in Gaza. But will it have any effect? – https://theconversation.com/the-un-security-council-has-finally-called-for-a-ceasefire-in-gaza-but-will-it-have-any-effect-226595

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

The government is seeking to rush legislation through parliament to crack down on non-citizens who refuse to cooperate with attempts to remove them.

The bill, introduced by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles just after noon on Tuesday, also allows a minister to designate a country as a “removal concern country” when it won’t cooperate with the return of its citizens.

This would mean that, apart from certain exceptions, nationals of that country who are outside Australia could not apply for a visa to come here. Exemptions would be for close family members of Australian citizens and permanent residents as well as applications for refugee and humanitarian visas.

Giles said: “This legislation sends a strong signal about the government’s expectations of cooperation with removal efforts, by non-citizens who are on a removal pathway, and by other countries where it is appropriate for them to accept their nationals on removal from Australia”.

The government wants the legislation, which has gone through the House of Representatives, passed by the Senate on Tuesday night, or Wednesday at the latest. Parliament adjourns on Wednesday until the budget on May 14.

The government allowed minimum opportunity for debate in the house. It said there were time factors requiring the legislation to be passed quickly.

The opposition demanded a brief Senate inquiry to be held late on Tuesday so it could question officials. The government agreed to it.

Crossbenchers were outraged at the lack of time to consider the bill.

The government’s action is driven by a looming High Court decision next month that, if it went against the Commonwealth, could prompt the release of another group of people from immigration detention.

The case is about an Iranian citizen who has been in immigration detention for a decade. He has refused to cooperate with efforts to send him back to Iran, saying he fears for his life. Iran won’t take back involuntary removals.

Read more:
The government is fighting a new High Court case on immigration detainees. What’s it about and what’s at stake?

The government believes it is more likely to win this case than an earlier High Court one, when its defeat led to the release of 152 people from immigration detention. But it wants to bolster its defences.

Giles said people who refused to cooperate with their removal would face penalties of a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in jail and a maximum of five years.

Giles told parliament: “Unfortunately, examples of non-cooperation with the government’s removal efforts have been going on for far too long. Against the expectations of the Australian community. And undermining the integrity of our migration laws.”

The measures “will make clear that a non-citizen who is on a removal pathway is expected to voluntarily leave Australia. And must cooperate with steps taken to arrange their lawful removal from Australia.

“The removal pathway direction provides a positive duty on the non‑citizen to cooperate with removal efforts,” Giles said.

An example of the cooperation required from those subject to removal is completing, signing and submitting an application for a passport or other foreign travel document to facilitate their removal.

“When this legislation is enacted, it will make clear that the parliament expects foreign countries to cooperate with Australia to facilitate the lawful removal of their citizens from Australia,” Giles said.

Briefing crossbenchers, Giles named Iran and Iraq as countries which did not take back involuntary returns but indicated there could be a number of others potentially affected by the legislation. Government sources said, other countries could be Zimbabwe and South Sudan

He told parliament the legislation would apply to various categories of non-citizens who are on “removal pathways”, both in and out of detention.

He stressed: “these amendments are targeted at non-citizens who have come to the end of any visa application processes. And who are on a removal pathway.

“These individuals may be unlawful non-citizens who have exhausted their visa processing options. And who are being held in immigration detention

“Or they may be in the community on a bridging visa that is issued for removal purposes.”

In a range of safeguards in the legislation, the minister may not give a direction

• “if the non-citizen has applied for a protection visa and the application is not yet finally determined

• to take an action in relation to a country from which the individual is owed protection

• directly to children under 18 (but can make a direction to that child’s parents to take certain actions)

• to take actions related to making or withdrawing an Australian visa application, or in regards to court or tribunal proceedings.”

Greens senator David Shoebridge accused Labor of “trying to outflank the Coalition to the right by coming up with new and novel ways to be cruel particularly to refugees and asylum seekers”.

The opposition spokesman on home affairs, James Paterson, said: “It feels like groundhog day. Another day, another rushed, patch up job from a panicked government when it comes to border protection, national security and community safety.

“This is now the fourth piece of legislation that the Albanese government has dropped on the opposition and the crossbench in the parliament and asked us to pass in as little as 36 hours to deal with the rolling crisis of immigration detention.”

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. Government rushing through bill to crack down on ‘uncooperative’ non-citizens it is trying to remove – https://theconversation.com/government-rushing-through-bill-to-crack-down-on-uncooperative-non-citizens-it-is-trying-to-remove-226615

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Phillip Dawson, Professor and Co-Director, Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University

In 1894, Harvard University commissioned a report on grading standards, due to concerns that:

Grades A and B are sometimes given too readily – Grade A for work of no very high merit, and Grade B for work not far above mediocrity.

More than a century later, the fear of declining academic standards continues. In Australia, there are ongoing media reports about universities awarding increasing numbers of high grades. Evidence has also been found in the United Kingdom and the United States. Some US studies suggest grade averages have been steadily increasing since at least the early 1960s.

This week, a report by academics at the University of Sydney found a 234% increase in the number of high distinctions awarded to students at the university between 2011 and 2021 (the university notes it changed its grading model in 2012).

Education experts call this “grade inflation”. It is often presented as a negative, a sign of lowering standards. However, this is only one way to look at the phenomenon of marks going up.

What are grades for?

Behind concerns about grade inflation are assumptions about what grades are and what they are meant to do.

Several decades ago, assessment used to be “norm referenced”. This means the performance of students was measured against their peers. In this system, the best students get high distinctions, the worst fail and there’s a bell curve in between. This holds true regardless of the quality of the teaching and the capability of the students.

A high distinction in this system communicates you were one of the best students. It’s a commodity valuable primarily because of its rarity, like a gold medal at the Olympics. It says nothing about what you are capable of, because your performance was entirely judged against what your peers could do.

But norm referenced assessment has since gone out of fashion. In Australia, the Higher Education Standards Framework now requires students to be assessed against predetermined standards. If a student meets the standard for a high distinction, they get one.

The mark of high distinction signals they met a very high standard. The performance of their peers does not matter. If there’s a particularly strong student cohort, or improvements to teaching, more people get high grades.

There has been a change in assessment

Grades are the product of assessment, so significant changes to assessment in recent years may also have driven grade inflation.

On top of the move towards standards-based assessments, many universities now give students rubrics (or scoring guides) before they begin their work.

These guides tell students how their work will be graded. So it’s no surprise they can? lead to significant improvements in student performance. If we tell students what good work looks like, they are more likely to be able to do it and achieve higher grades.

Similarly, there is growing attention given to the quality of feedback practices in higher education. We know feedback is a significant part of student learning.

So, in a standards-based grading system, where grades are directly tied to student learning outcomes, this improvement in performance should naturally translate to higher grades.

Read more:
We need to change the way universities assess students, starting with these 3 things

Other explanations

There are other explanations for why grades have been going up.

Since 1979, some academics have been arguing student evaluations drive grade inflation.

This refers to the increasing practice of universities asking students for feedback on their lecturers and tutors, which in turn has an impact on academics’ career progression.

The logic is, if teachers give students a better grade they will get better evaluation scores.

But while there is some correlation between students who get better grades giving better scores to their teacher, it’s not clear if this is a causal link. It might be that successful students like their teachers more, or perhaps students learn more from people they think are good teachers.

Read more:
We have developed a way to screen student feedback to ensure it’s useful, not abusive (and academics don’t have to burn it)

‘Grade improvement’

Society depends on universities to produce competent graduates and grades are one signal of competence.

But we need to be careful about equating rising grades with declining academic standards.

If better teaching is enabling students to meet a higher standard then it’s not grade inflation, it’s actually “grade improvement”.

Phillip Dawson receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, the federal Department of Education, education technology hub EduGrowth, and online assessment companies Turnitin and Inspera.

Thomas Corbin 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. If uni marks are going up, does that mean there’s a problem? – https://theconversation.com/if-uni-marks-are-going-up-does-that-mean-theres-a-problem-226506

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

Kim Beazley, a former Labor leader, served as Australia’s ambassador in Washington between 2010 and 2016. He is widely respected for his expertise in foreign and defence policy.

In this podcast episode, Beazley discusses the brouhaha over Donald Trump’s denigrating comments about Kevin Rudd, the present Australian ambassador in Washington. We also canvass wider alliance issues and the recent visit to Australia by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who included a meeting with Paul Keating among his engagements.

On Kevin Rudd’s future, Beazley says:

I have hopes that he could serve under a second term of President Trump – if there is a second term, which I also hope does not occur. I think you’ve got to remember, ambassadors don’t see much of presidents. We do when we’re accompanying the Australian prime minister somewhere. But aside from that, we see people [in] much more lowly positions than presidents.

On why AUKUS is so important to Australia now:

Back in the 80s, we had a very different perspective. We had the capacity to basically defend ourselves with some of the equipment provided by the Americans and with their intelligence […] We now find ourselves in a situation where we can’t really defend ourselves without the United States assisting. […] It is just totally vital to us now. I don’t think that those of us who were in politics in the 80s have really caught up with that.

On China, Beazley says Australia walks the tightrope:

We’re trying to keep a situation where nothing goes wrong. […] We wish the Chinese well – absolutely. But there are lines in the sand that you have to draw in all these things.

Beazley was Labor leader during Anthony Albanese’s first years in parliament. He says of the man who became PM:

He’s always been a pragmatist. That’s the first point. The second point is when you get to the position that he is in, you understand that the survival of Australia is not guaranteed, that the changing circumstances around us are not necessarily in Australia’s favour.

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. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Kim Beazley on Kevin Rudd, being an ambassador, and a possible second Trump presidency – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-kim-beazley-on-kevin-rudd-being-an-ambassador-and-a-possible-second-trump-presidency-226504

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Crowe, Head of School and Dean, School of Law and Justice, University of Southern Queensland

Earlier this month, Queensland became the latest state to pass affirmative consent laws. This means consent is understood as ongoing communication for the purposes of rape and sexual assault offences.

Under affirmative consent, agreement to each sexual act must be actively communicated. That is, each person must say or do something to indicate consent and check the other is willing to proceed.

It’s common for victims of sexual assault to freeze or try to avoid further injury, rather than fighting back. The new laws make it clear these reactions are not consent.

But it’s not just Queensland that has such laws. Where else are they in place, and how are they working in practice?

Read more:
NSW adopts affirmative consent in sexual assault laws. What does this mean?

What do Queensland’s laws do?

The new Queensland laws define consent as “free and voluntary agreement”. They clarify that a person does not consent where they do not “say or do anything to communicate consent”.

The laws also limit the mistake of fact excuse for rape and sexual assault. This excuse allows defendants to argue they honestly and reasonably — but mistakenly — believed the other person consented to sex.

The excuse has been heavily criticised for allowing defendants to rely on irrelevant factors, such as the other person’s clothing or failure to fight back, as the basis for alleged mistakes about consent.

However, the new laws say a belief in sexual consent is not reasonable unless the person took active steps to check their partner was consenting. This is consistent with an affirmative consent model.

Where else has similar laws?

Four out of the six Australian states and one of the two territories have now enacted affirmative consent laws. Tasmania was the first state to adopt an affirmative consent model in 2004.

The Queensland laws follow on the heels of recent legal changes in NSW, the ACT and Victoria. NSW and the ACT legislated affirmative consent in 2021, while Victoria did the same in 2022.

Western Australia and South Australia, meanwhile, are currently reviewing sexual consent laws and may well follow suit.

Read more:
It’s time we aligned sexual consent laws across Australia – but this faces formidable challenges

The national trend is clearly towards an affirmative consent standard. Some scholars have argued this could pave the way to aligning sexual consent laws across the nation — although significant challenges remain.

Critics of affirmative consent laws have suggested they could criminalise “spontaneous marital sex”. However, this ignores the social and legal context within which the laws operate.

There is no evidence of the laws being applied in this way.

Vital for debunking rape myths

Affirmative consent laws can only be effective and fair if people understand what they mean in practice.

However, public attitudes are not always consistent with an affirmative consent model. A NSW government study found 14% of young men “didn’t agree that you must seek consent every time you engage in sexual activity”.

Societal attitudes are clouded by persistent myths about consent and sexual violence. For example, people may think that someone who was drunk or did not fight back cannot be a victim of rape.

Read more:
Not as simple as ‘no means no’: what young people need to know about consent

Rape myths are not limited to the general public. They influence judges, lawyers, police and jurors as well. Recent research has found rape myths in supreme court judgments and jurors’ perceptions of evidence in rape trials.

It is easy to assume that once affirmative consent laws are passed, they will be fully effective in the courts. However, years after affirmative consent was adopted in Tasmania, courts were still applying outdated legal principles.

Raising public awareness

For affirmative consent laws to serve their purpose, everyone — including judges, lawyers, jurors, police and the public — needs a clear understanding of what affirmative consent means.

Public awareness campaigns can help to clarify that consent is an active, ongoing process that cannot be inferred from silence or lack of resistance.

NSW’s Make No Doubt campaign was launched the week prior to its new consent laws taking effect, but a similar campaign has yet to be announced in Queensland.

The Queensland Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce heard from victim-survivors, support services, lawyers, police and the broader community about the need for improved public education on consent.

Understanding consent in isolation is not enough. Comprehensive education on respectful relationships is vital to fostering a culture where affirmative consent becomes the norm.

The effectiveness of affirmative consent laws also depends on how they are applied by police, lawyers and judges. If police don’t give effect to the laws, then most sexual assaults will never reach prosecutors — let alone the courtroom.

Comprehensive training for these professionals is essential to ensure affirmative consent is implemented across the criminal justice system.

Since Australia’s affirmative consent laws are so new, there is limited evidence (beyond Tasmania) of exactly how they will work in practice. It will be important to build this evidence base to ensure the laws are functioning as intended.

Government action is essential

Online resources, such as Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy’s sexual consent toolkit, can help people learn about affirmative consent. However, these resources only reach a small part of the community.

To raise wider awareness of affirmative consent and to overcome persistent rape myths, large-scale efforts are needed.

Governments across Australia should invest in the success of affirmative consent laws through further public awareness campaigns, as well as training and education for criminal justice professionals and the public.

Otherwise, affirmative consent laws could turn out to be just words on paper.

Jonathan Crowe is Director of Research at Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy.

Gianni Ribeiro receives funding from the Australian Institute of Criminology.

– ref. Most states now have affirmative sexual consent laws, but not enough people know what they mean – https://theconversation.com/most-states-now-have-affirmative-sexual-consent-laws-but-not-enough-people-know-what-they-mean-225655

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marcin Glowacki, Research Associate, Curtin University

Stars are born from huge clouds of mostly hydrogen gas floating in space. Astronomers like me study this gas because it helps us understand how stars and galaxies form and grow.

Hydrogen gas gives off a faint glow that is invisible to human eyes but can be observed with a telescope tuned to detect radio waves.

Recently, my colleagues and I were using a telescope like this – a radio telescope called MeerKAT, in South Africa – to look for hydrogen gas in a particular galaxy. We were only observing for less than three hours, which is quite a short amount of time since the hydrogen glow is so faint.

When we looked at the results, we were in for a huge surprise. Instead of discovering hydrogen gas in the galaxy we aimed at, we spotted it in no less than 49 previously unknown galaxies. Our findings are published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Gas in galaxies

The giant clouds of gas in which stars are born are called nebulae. When stars eventually die, they expel their gas into their surrounding environment, where it eventually cools and forms new nebulae.

Galaxies are like huge factories where the life cycle of stars repeats itself over and over. To properly understand galaxies and how they grow and evolve, astronomers need to consider both the stars and the gas making up the galaxy.

One thing we are particularly interested in is “merger events”, when two galaxies collide and merge into a single, larger galaxy. These events can also impact the gas, and kickstart star formation.

Studying gas can often help us understand a galaxy’s history. Gas often extends far further out than the stars in galaxies.

When we see trails of disturbed gas, it is a classic clue that a recent galaxy merger or interaction has occurred.

But we don’t see galactic gas easily with optical telescopes. Thankfully, radio telescopes are a great tool for finding hydrogen gas.

The MeerKAT radio telescope

The MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa recently celebrated its fifth birthday. It is one of the “pathfinder” telescopes for the much larger Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a project under construction in South Africa and Australia.

MeerKAT has already achieved some great results, from detecting giant radio galaxies to studying the centre of our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

There are large survey projects underway with MeerKAT to study the star-forming hydrogen gas in galaxies. These include the MIGHTEE-HI and LADUMA surveys, the latter of which will use MeerKAT for more than 3,000 hours searching one part of the sky for hydrogen gas in very distant galaxies. These surveys are specifically focused on finding hydrogen gas and are carefully planned and carried out with that goal in mind.

But that’s not the only way MeerKAT can be used. Astronomers can also pitch ideas for “open time” observations to tackle other science questions or goals.

That’s how this discovery came about. I was hoping to detect hydrogen gas in one specific galaxy with MeerKAT, as it is the most sensitive telescope for these studies.

We did not find hydrogen gas in that galaxy, which was fine. We astronomers don’t always find what we are looking for.

But when I inspected the MeerKAT data, I spotted some gas located away from the target galaxy. So we investigated further.

By using techniques developed for the larger MeerKAT science surveys such as LADUMA, we found a lot more gas. In total, we had 49 detections.

Meet the 49ers

Each detection of the gas in these galaxies was brand new. In little more than two hours of observing time, MeerKAT had revealed several collections of neighbouring galaxies.

Some of these neighbours are even interacting with each other, as their gas content shows. This was not at all obvious from just looking at the optical images of their stars.

In one case, a galaxy is stealing gas from two companion galaxies, and using it to fuel its own star formation.

I’ve informally nicknamed this collection of galaxies the 49ers, a reference to the miners of the 1849 California gold rush.

While MeerKAT took the observations containing the 49 gold nuggets in just a couple of hours, winnowing them out required several other tools. These included the ilifu cloud supercomputer, where we reduced the MeerKAT observations (“data reduction” is a kind of pre-processing that makes the raw observations useful) and a data visualisation tool called CARTA which we used for the initial discovery of the 49 new galaxies.

We also examined our data with iDaVIE-v, a virtual reality software for viewing astronomical datasets in 3D. This software has already been used for new discoveries such as polar ring galaxies.

More gold nuggets to be found

Finding 49 new galaxies in such a short amount of observation time is quite unusual, even with a telescope as powerful as MeerKAT. However, we know there are more galaxies waiting to be found in upcoming and existing MeerKAT observations.

In some other recent work, our team found traces of gas in more than 80 galaxies (most brand new) across three separate MeerKAT observations. Each of these observations was originally focused on a single galaxy, like the “open time” observation in which we found the 49ers.

What will we find next? We don’t know, but with MeerKAT – and eventually its more powerful successor, the SKA telescope – we’re confident astronomers will turn up plenty more pieces of gold.

Marcin Glowacki 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. We went looking for glowing interstellar gas – and stumbled on 49 unknown galaxies – https://theconversation.com/we-went-looking-for-glowing-interstellar-gas-and-stumbled-on-49-unknown-galaxies-226397

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen On, Professor of Microbiology, Lincoln University, New Zealand

The far-reaching consequences of climate change inevitably include the production of foods and beverages, including wine.

In New Zealand, winemaking is an important business, with exports worth more than NZ$2 billion per year.

Earlier studies have already suggested that grapevine characteristics such as flowering and grape sugar ripeness may be linked to climatic changes. But so far, the microbes that ferment grapes have received little attention.

Our new research explores how yeasts, bacteria and fungi may be affected by changes in temperature and rainfall.

Microbes, wine and the coveted gold star

Without microbes, all we have is grape juice.

It is well established that individual strains of yeast (most commonly Saccharomyces cerevisiae) used to ferment grape juice into wine play a major role in the generation of a range of chemical compounds that influence the flavour, aroma and mouthfeel of wine. A “good” strain (or strains) can mean the difference between a gold award or a bottle of plonk.

Conventional commercial winemakers tend to use established strains from yeast suppliers to provide increased assurance for their production schedule and consistency of the final product. Nonetheless, inevitably every batch of juice will already possess its own diverse community of microorganisms, some of which will begin exerting their own influences upon the wine as it develops.

Some winemakers choose to eschew the addition of commercial yeast, relying on the native microflora in and on the grapes to do the job. This process can be referred to as either spontaneous or “wild” fermentation.

In such cases, the role and diversity of these microbes is critical in the development of the wine, and to its quality. Various studies have demonstrated that the microbial populations in a given winemaking region can be distinctive, contributing to the terroir of the wine.

But what if they change over time and in different climates?

Read more:
Grape growers are adapting to climate shifts early – and their knowledge can help other farmers

Climatic factors and changing microbes

In collaboration with Greystone Wines, an organic winemaker in North Canterbury, we had the opportunity to explore how microbial ecosystems (yeasts, bacteria and fungi) in organic winemaking changed between vintages.

We set out to test this by analysing must (grape juice sampled during fermentation). We also tested exposure of their Pinot Noir wines to wild microbes in their winery and vineyard during two different years of production, 2018 and 2021.

We then subjected these samples to a molecular genetic process called “metabarcoding”. In this process, universal gene markers found in every single known example of bacteria, fungi and yeast are used to describe the diversity and distribution of microbes in the samples taken at different times of the wine production.

Read more:
Come pests, frost or fire: How the Swiss are arming their wines against climate change

The results were striking. Samples taken from the 2018 vintage contained certain organisms that seemed to be completely absent in the 2021 vintage – and vice versa.

We found significant differences between vintages, most striking for bacteria (with 12 of 16 organisms present in one vintage but not the other). For fungi and yeast species, we found six of a total of 12 organisms fluctuating between harvests.

What could cause these differences? We suggest changes in temperature and rainfall play an important role.

Using publicly available climate data on humidity, temperature and rainfall to model climatic differences we determined that especially temperature, but also humidity, may be important factors in influencing the composition of different populations of microbes. The average rainfall during each of the production periods was also very different.

Temperature and moisture are well established elements that influence microbial growth, but to observe such stark differences between populations was a surprise to us.

Implications of climatic and microbial diversity for wines

Fermentative yeasts are the major agents converting grape fruit sugar into alcohol, the primary winemaking reaction. As mentioned above, they also help produce a range of other chemicals involved with the overall flavour and perception of the wine.

Different yeast strains will produce different compounds. Even at early stages of fermentation, certain yeasts may affect the overall quality of the wine. Most bacteria are not well adapted to the rather harsh environments of wine (ethanol is toxic, hence its use as a sanitiser); however several may proliferate, and some are known to spoil.

Like yeasts, any bacterium able to grow in grape juice (even for a short time) will secrete chemicals into the wine. Whether or not such chemicals are perceptible, favourable or undesirable to humans depends entirely on the individual chemical.

Read more:
Climate change may make Bordeaux red wines stronger and tastier

Some of the organisms observed are expected, with well-known adaptations to the wine environment. However, the dominance of a bacterium (Tatumella)
previously found in winemaking regions abroad is especially striking in the 2021 vintage. Its role is unknown.

What does this mean for the New Zealand, and indeed international, wine industry? We don’t know yet whether the changes in microbial diversity affect the flavour profiles of these two vintages. However, it is prudent to say that changes in microbial populations in winemaking are associated with differences in climatic factors.

It is therefore important we understand the full extent of climate change impacts on winemaking to be better prepared to protect the industry.

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. How climate change could affect the microbes that ferment grapes and give wine its specific flavours – https://theconversation.com/how-climate-change-could-affect-the-microbes-that-ferment-grapes-and-give-wine-its-specific-flavours-225997

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christina Chau, Lecturer at Curtin University, Curtin University

Until 2026, Wanneroo Regional Art Gallery will be showing 53 original artworks by one of the most famous artists of the 20th century: Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol ICONS includes famous works such as Elvis (1963), Campbell’s Soup Cans (1968) and Marilyn (1967).

When thinking about international pop art, it’s hard to think of someone more famous than Warhol. He is remembered as the embodiment of American pop – making iconic portraits of key celebrities, many as memorable as the people themselves.

The artworks have become celebrities in their own right. In 2022 Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold for US$195 million in under four minutes of bidding at Christie’s, making it the most expensive 20th century artwork to sell at an auction.

Considering the historical and international notoriety of his artworks, it is surprising how little publicity there has been about this exhibition.

Consequently, Andy Warhol ICONS is likely to attract audiences local to the commercial centre of Wanneroo, or die hard art history fans from Perth willing to trek along the Kwinana Freeway.

To see Warhol’s original works here in the northern suburb of Perth gives off a very different aura to other art meccas across the world where Warhol’s works have been collected and shown in. Instead of the Tate London or MoMA in New York City, this gallery is in the middle of Wanneroo’s cultural precinct and commercial centre.

It is unexpected and oddly refreshing to see such famous works in a regional gallery. Perhaps this match between regional hub and high art is much more apt. Warhol is notorious for his ambivalent approach to advertising and consumer goods that boomed after the second world war.

Like many other American avant-garde artists, Warhol was interested in collapsing distinctions between art and the everyday. In this exhibition we see first hand that he called himself a “commercial artist”. He turned wooden crates into Brillo Boxes, made collages from celebrity magazines, and transformed a gallery into a faux supermarket.

Critics were never entirely sure if he was endorsing or hypercritical of capitalist consumer culture.

Read more:
Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe portraits expose the darker side of the 60s

Up close with Warhol

A captivating piece in the exhibition is the video documentary by WNET of Warhol up close. Here we see first hand how Warhol dances between commercial artist and reticent art provocateur when he dodges answering questions. “Why don’t you just tell me the words and they’ll just come out of my mouth,” he tells the filmmaker while yawning – feigning to not understand the questions.

We are under no illusion about this entertaining performance.

Together with his self portrait (1970), a highly contrasted blue and yellow photo lithograph where half of Warhol’s face is obscured by his shadow, the exhibition continues the performance of Warhol as an aloof, enigmatic character.

Seeing these artworks in Wanneroo continues Warhol’s contradictory play on viewers’ expectations around high art, capitalism, pop culture and the everyday. The exhibition plays with themes of repetition, authenticity and pop culture in a suite of Campbell’s Soup Cans (1968), repetitive prints of Mona Lisa (1970) and Elvis (1963).

While some viewers may have seen Warhol artworks in the flesh, many might be more familiar with these pieces online. This exhibition gives the opportunity to get up close and take time with some of Warhol’s key lithograph prints. Each is grainier, more delicate with edges less crisp and saturated than their online copies.

With Cow (1966), the newsprint pixels are more than a slick nod to newsprint. Instead we can see the smudge, bleed and overlap of colours made in the process of offset lithography.

Likewise in the artwork Mona Lisa (1970) we can see each repetition makes its own unique mark in the printing process. With analogue materials, even a copy bears its own originality.

A standout piece in the exhibition is Elvis (1963) which towers at 208 by 91 centimetres. This larger than life screen print gives homage to the celebrity who’s fame seemed larger than the sum of his parts.

Sharing the national collection

Andy Warhol ICONS has come through a pilot program from the Revive National Cultural Policy, which has dedicated A$11.8 million dollars over four years to sharing the collection from the National Gallery of Australia to regional art spaces across Australia.

To be eligible for the program institutions must be more than 5 kilometres away from the CBD of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and Brisbane, or anywhere in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania.

Curator of the Wanneroo Regional Art Gallery Robert Buratti was the first to express interest in exhibiting new international works from the collection.

His tenacity has paid off with securing Warhol. Given the early success, there are high hopes for more institutions to get in on the game.

Andy Warhol: ICONS is on display at Wanneroo Regional Gallery until May 4. After this date a satellite space will host additional art works on rotation.

Read more:
Under-counting, a gendered industry, and precarious work: the challenges facing Creative Australia in supporting visual artists

Christina Chau 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. It is unexpected and oddly refreshing to see Andy Warhol in a regional Australian art gallery – https://theconversation.com/it-is-unexpected-and-oddly-refreshing-to-see-andy-warhol-in-a-regional-australian-art-gallery-225086

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michele Madigan, Associate Professor, Optometry and Vision Science, UNSW Sydney and Clinical Associate Professor, Save Sight Institute, Clinical Ophthalmology, University of Sydney

“How is eye colour made? And why are they different colours?” – Jane, age 12, from Pascoe Vale South

Hi Jane,

Eyes are so fascinating and I’m glad you asked this question!

When we talk about eye colour, we’re talking about the iris or coloured area around the dark dot (pupil) in the centre of the eye. Like our fingerprints, iris colours are unique to each person.

The most common eye colour is brown, then blue, and less often green or hazel. Pigment means a substance that adds colour. The amazing thing is the human body only makes brown iris pigment (melanin) but not blue, green or hazel iris pigments. So how come everyone doesn’t have brown irises?

Read more:
Curious Kids: what are the main factors in forming someone’s personality?

‘What colour are your eyes?’

Iris colours can be brown, blue or green, or mixtures such as brown-yellow, greenish brown or blue-brown. The word “iris” comes from the Greek word meaning “rainbow”. In ancient Greek stories, a goddess called Iris carries messages across a rainbow bridge between Earth and the supernatural world.

Genetics – how physical traits and characteristics pass from one generation to the next – play a part in determining eye colour. In many cases, the genes that produce brown eyes are dominant, but how eye colour genes are passed on is complex. This can mean if one biological parent has brown eyes and another has blue eyes, their child is more likely to have brown eyes. But not always.

Read more:
Curious Kids: why do we see different colours when we close our eyes?

But what about all the other colours?

So what is the iris made of? Our iris is inside the eye, behind a clear layer called the cornea. It’s circular and very thin (less than half a millimetre) and shaped like a donut with a hole in the middle for our pupil. The iris contains many cells, special muscles, blood vessels and nerves, surrounded by a gel material with millions of tiny crisscrossed fibres.

Iris pigment cells – melanocytes – contain pigment particles (melanosomes). Pigment cell numbers for all iris colours are about the same. But pigment particles inside the cells are different. For example, a blue iris does not have as many pigment particles as a brown iris.

The other iris cells make the tiny fibres and gel material in the iris, and other cells help protect the iris from damage. Special iris muscles with thin stretchy fibres can bunch up or relax the iris to control our pupil size in bright or dim light.

The back of the iris has a dark brown surface because of cells filled with brown pigment. This back surface pigment helps our vision as it stops light scattering through the iris.

Read more:
Curious Kids: why are people colour blind?

White or visible light contains a rainbow spectrum of colours from blue to red. As light passes through the iris, the blue light scatters much more than other colours. So blue light bounces back, and this means that if there are fewer pigment particles, we see a blue iris.

Other colours in light, especially red, scatter less and get into the iris between the tiny fibres, gel and cells. Green, hazel or brown irises have more pigment particles that soak up this light.

So the eye colours we see are a result of the scattering of some light colours more or less than others, brown pigment particles soaking up more of some colours, and the number of pigment particles a person has in their iris.

Read more:
Curious Kids: Why is the sky blue and where does it start?

Can eye colours change?

Iris colours can seem to change if different colours are near the eye. For example, different-coloured eye makeup can “trick” us as to the iris colour we see.

People with little or no iris pigment often have very pale blue irises. These can look reddish without the iris pigment to soak up the red light from inside the eye, which then passes through the iris.

Iris colour does not always stay the same during life. Babies born with blue eyes can have brown or hazel eyes by their second birthday because more dark pigment is made in iris cells after birth.

Iris colour can also change because of rare diseases or injuries.

Some eye drops to treat eye pressure make more brown pigment in iris cells, and make eyes appear browner. Some people are born with one brown eye and one blue eye, but these stay the same with age – although we’re not sure why.

There’s still so much to discover about irises and eye colour!

Michele Madigan receives funding from Australian Vision Research.

– ref. Curious Kids: how is eye colour made? And why are they different colours? – https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-how-is-eye-colour-made-and-why-are-they-different-colours-224507

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tatiana Dancy, Associate Professor, The University of Melbourne

Your money, postcode, friends and family can make all the difference to how the criminal system treats you.

The New South Wales police recently scrapped a widely condemned program known as the Suspect Targeting Management Plan. It used algorithmic risk scores to single out “targets”, some as young as ten years old, for police surveillance.

But similar programs remain in place. For instance, Corrective Services NSW uses a statistical assessment tool called LSI-R to predict whether prisoners will reoffend.

“High risk” prisoners receive “high intensity interventions”, and may be denied parole. The risk scores are calculated from facts such as “criminal friends”, family involvement in crime or drugs, financial problems, living in a “high crime neighbourhood” and frequent changes of address.

A predictive algorithm is a set of rules for computers (and sometimes people) to follow, based on patterns in data. Lots has been written about how algorithms discriminate against us, from biased search engines to health databases.

In my newly published book, Artificial Justice, I argue the use of tools that predict our behaviour based on factors like poverty or family background should worry us, too. If we are punished at all, it should be only for what we have done wrong, not for the cards we have been dealt.

Read more:
Biased AI can be bad for your health – here’s how to promote algorithmic fairness

Algorithms are watching us

Algorithms generate risk scores used in criminal justice systems all over the world. In the United Kingdom, the OASys (Offender Assessment System) is used as part of the pre-sentence information given to judges – it shapes bail, parole and sentencing decisions. In the United States, a tool known as COMPAS does something similar.

Risk scores are used beyond criminal justice, too, and they don’t always need computers to generate them. A short survey known as the Opioid Risk Tool helps doctors in Australia and across the world decide whether to prescribe pain relief for acute and chronic illness, by predicting whether patients will misuse their medications.

Predictive algorithms literally save lives: they are used to allocate donor organs, triage patients and make urgent medical treatment decisions. But they can also create and sustain unjustified inequalities.

Imagine that we develop an algorithm – “CrimeBuster” – to help police patrol crime “hot spots”. We use data that links crime to areas populated by lower income families. Since we cannot measure “crime” directly, we instead look at rates of arrest.

Yet the fact that arrest rates are high in these areas may just tell us that police spend more time patrolling them. If there is no justification for this practice of intensive policing, rolling out CrimeBuster would give these prejudices the status of policy.

Read more:
The evidence is in: you can’t link imprisonment to crime rates

Algorithms are judging us

The trouble deepens when we use statistics to make predictions about intentional action – the things that we choose to do.

This might be a prediction about whether someone will be a “toxic” employee, commit crimes or abuse drugs.

The factors that influence these predictions are rarely publicised. For the British sentencing algorithm OASys, they include whether someone has been the victim of domestic violence.

The American COMPAS system captures parental divorce and childhood abuse. The Opioid Risk Tool asks whether the patient’s family has a history of substance abuse, and whether the patient (if female) has a history of “preadolescent sexual abuse”.

In each case, these facts make it more likely that someone will go to prison, miss out on medical treatment, and so on.

We all want to have the chance to make choices true to who we are, and meet our needs and goals. And we want to be afforded the same choices as other people, rather than be singled out as incapable of choosing well.

When we punish someone because of facts they can’t easily influence, we do just this: we treat that person as if they simply cannot help but make bad choices.

We can’t lock people up just in case

The problem isn’t the use of algorithms per se. In the 19th century, Italian physician Cesare Lombroso argued we could identify “the born criminal” from physical characteristics – a misshapen skull, wide jaw, long limbs or big ears.

Not long after, British criminologist Charles Goring ran with this idea and argued that certain “defective” mental characteristics made “the fate of imprisonment” inevitable.

Algorithms simply make it much harder to see what’s going on in the world of crime risk assessment.

But when we look, it turns out what’s going on is something pretty similar to the Lombroso-Goring vision: we treat people as if they are fated to do wrong, and lock them up (or keep them locked up) just in case.

Public bodies should be required to publish the facts that inform the predictions behind such decisions. Machine learning should only be used if and to the extent that these publication requirements can be met. This makes it easier to have meaningful conversations about where to draw the line.

In the context of criminal justice, that line is clear. We should only deal out harsher penalties for bad behaviour, not other physical, mental or social characteristics. There are plenty of guidelines that take this approach, and this is the line that Australian institutions should toe.

Once penalties for their crime have been applied, prisoners should not be treated differently or locked up for longer because of their friends and family, their financial status or the way in which they’ve been treated at the hands of others.

Tatiana Dancy 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. Algorithms that predict crime are watching – and judging us by the cards we’ve been dealt – https://theconversation.com/algorithms-that-predict-crime-are-watching-and-judging-us-by-the-cards-weve-been-dealt-225798

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zoe Lee, Reader (Associate Professor) in Marketing, Cardiff University

We are in an era of brand activism and conscious consumerism. More than 70% of consumers expect brands to publicly stand for sociopolitical issues.

And more than half of Australians consider sustainability an important purchasing criterion. Experts also predict a major shift in consumer attitudes with sustainability evolving from a “nice-to-have” to a baseline requirement.

In this climate, The Body Shop – promoted as a global beacon of ethical retailing – shouldn’t have failed. However, in February, it entered administration in the United Kingdom. The following month, The Body Shop in the United States and Canada filed for bankruptcy.

The Australian subsidiary remains profitable, boasting about 100 stores. But it is reportedly facing a “cash flow crisis” with “unsustainable levels of debt” following the collapse of its UK parent company last month.

The Body Shop was once a ground-breaker

Founded by UK businesswoman and human rights activist Anita Roddick in 1976, The Body Shop was a trailblazer of cruelty-free products, fair trade and environmental sustainability.

It was as well known for its advocacy and ethics as its flagship products, including White Musk scent, Dewberry oil and peppermint foot scrub.

The brand helped change 24 laws in 22 different countries by mobilising customers to campaign against animal testing in cosmetics.

However, The Body Shop’s trajectory over the last two decades diverges sharply from its founding ethos.

Read more:
Should businesses consult shareholders before taking a stand on social issues?

First sold in 2006 for A$1.26 billion to cosmetics and personal care company L’Oreal, the brand was abandoned by many customers because of perceived betrayal of its core values.

In 2017, The Body Shop was bought by Brazilian cosmetics giant Natura for A$1.7 billion, which its CEO Ian Bickley promised would start “a new chapter”. Natura then sold the brand to asset management company Aurelius in 2023, just three months before its UK collapse, for only A$399 million.

This signalled significant value decline and raised questions about the viability of the brand worldwide.

Activism fatigue

Countless brands are vying for marketplace positioning based on social and environmental justice. This saturation of ethical messaging leaves consumers fatigued and they’re likely to tune out.

The most recent Gallup survey shows consumer interest in brands engaging in sociopolitical issues is waning.

What was once an extraordinary point-of-difference for The Body Shop is now seen as standard.

The Body Shop has also faced extreme competition. Brands including Aesop, LUSH and Neal’s Yard Remedies emerged as worthy rivals, leveraging credible ethical branding to attract eco-conscious shoppers.

The Body Shop had the advantage of being the first in its field but the sale to L’Oreal compromised its core purpose and consumer connection. It struggled to recover its founding values and was crowded out by competitors.

Dwindling brand bravery

Our research shows activism must be backed by brand bravery to be credible in the eyes of consumers. In the past, consumers supported activism aligned with corporate values. We found alignment on its own was not enough.

A brave brand considers the greater good, sticks to its core values, defies dominant norms, takes risks to be unconventional and even controversial as a brand and shows resilience to setbacks such as consumer backlash.

When The Body Shop opened in 1976, cruelty-free products and ethical business practices were unheard of. It is now challenged by competitors with more radical claims.

LUSH boldly deleted its social media accounts, citing concerning impacts on young consumers’ mental health. Considering potential revenue loss, as social media is the primary way to reach Gen Z, this was a brave move.

Falling short of true transformation

Recent research shows how important it is for brands to be authentic activists. Brands must practice what they preach. The Body Shop originally did this well but consumer scepticism arose after L’Oreal’s acquisition.

L’Oreal has not tested on animals since 1989 but consumers’ distrust of the company’s ethical standards rubbed off on The Body Shop.

Transformative brands must also lead by example on both business and social fronts. The Body Shop did both in the beginning but neither by the end.

Under Roddick’s leadership, The Body Shop transcended mere profit-making and revolutionised the beauty industry. However, it later became part of faceless global conglomerates and private equity firms. While the brand initially served as a catalyst for change to industry and consumption standards, cruelty-free products eventually became expected of all companies in the saturated beauty market.

As a commercial business, The Body Shop became estranged from its original customer base and failed to meaningfully engage with a younger demographic.

It missed the mark on evidence-based skincare products, which rely on scientific research and formulations – another major trend. Consumers have also traded down to cheaper options, amidst a cost-of-living crisis, as they must prioritise price over ethical claims made by brands like The Body Shop.

Reclaiming an activist brand heritage

What should The Body Shop and other ethical brands do? The UK business is trading in administration but remains “fully focused on exploring all options to take the business forward”.

Our research offers several possible pathways. The Body Shop needs re-energising as a brand leader on product innovation, customer connection and social change. For ethical brands, a shared focus on market and societal goals is essential to be transformative.

The Body Shop must seek to not only reclaim its position as a leader in sustainability but adapt to survive the struggling retail sector. They could start by rebuilding customer relationships.

Read more:
When charities engage in ‘brand activism’, research shows they must demonstrate bravery to attract donations

The Body Shop has a history of activism. This can continue and it can be more effective in achieving change if it stays relevant and delivers on the brand’s vision long-term.

This means taking risks by adopting innovative and unconventional promotional strategies and updating its messaging to ensure it can attract the next generation of shoppers.

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

– ref. The Body Shop shouldn’t have failed in an age when consumers want activism from their brands. What happened? – https://theconversation.com/the-body-shop-shouldnt-have-failed-in-an-age-when-consumers-want-activism-from-their-brands-what-happened-226128

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Lee, PhD Candidate, Dermatology Research Centre, The University of Queensland

As we slide of out summer, you might be wondering how careful you need to be about sun exposure. Excessive exposure causes skin cancer, but sun exposure also has benefits. How do you balance the two?

A new position statement from cancer, bone health and other experts aims to help Australians balance the good and bad effects of sun exposure by taking into account their skin colour, risk of skin cancer, and where they live.

What are the benefits of sunlight?

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation (the wavelengths in sunlight that cause skin cancer) also leads to vitamin D production. Vitamin D is very important for maintaining strong bones, and is likely to have multiple other health benefits.

But vitamin D probably isn’t the whole story. Sunshine, including UV radiation, is thought to affect health in other ways such as improving our mood and reducing the risk of autoimmune diseases and infections. So for many people, avoiding the sun and taking a vitamin D supplement may not be the best approach.

Read more:
Vitamin D supplements can keep bones strong – but they may also have other benefits to your health

How much time does it take to make vitamin D?

It’s complicated, but for most people and most of the year across most of Australia, it’s a lot less than you think.

The amount of time needed depends on the amount of skin covered by clothing and the intensity of UV radiation (indicated by the UV index). More skin exposed and higher UV index equate to less time needed.

Both the UV index and the amount of the year that UV radiation is high increase as you get closer to the equator. In summer, all of Australia is bathed in sunshine. But in winter, opposite ends of the country have very different exposures.

In summer, everybody except those with deeply pigmented skin can make enough vitamin D in just five minutes between 9am and 3pm, anywhere in Australia, provided they are wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

In winter it’s a different story. In Darwin and Brisbane, 5–10 minutes between 10am and 3pm will do the trick, but in Hobart, factoring in winter clothing, it will take nearly an hour in the middle of the day.

Hover your mouse over the lines below to see the length of exposure needed at specific times of day.

Staying out for longer than needed doesn’t necessarily make more vitamin D, but it does cause skin damage.

Hang on, what about those with darker skin?

People with deeply pigmented, brown to black skin accumulate both vitamin D and DNA damage at a much slower rate than people with lighter skin tones.

When UV radiation hits a DNA strand, it causes the DNA to become distorted. If the distortion isn’t fixed, it will cause a mistake when the DNA is copied for a new cell, causing a permanent mutation that sometimes leads to cancer.

Melanin, the brown pigment in the skin, absorbs UV photons before that can happen, and the high melanin content in the darkest skin tones provides 60 times as much UV protection as the small amount in very fair skin.

The flip side is the risk of vitamin D deficiency is much higher than the risk of skin cancer.

The new statement accounts for this by putting people into three groups based on their risk of skin cancer, with specialised advice for each group.

Highest skin cancer risk

This includes people with very pale skin that burns easily and tans minimally, but also people with darker white or olive skin who can tan easily but have extra skin cancer risk factors because they:

• have had skin cancer before
• have a family history of melanomas
• have many moles
• are taking immunosuppressant medications.

For these people, the harms of sun exposure almost certainly outweigh the benefits.

These people should wear sunscreen every day the UV index is forecast to get to three or more, and use the five sunsmart steps whenever the UV index is above three:

• slip on clothing covering as much of the body as possible
• slop on SPF30+ sunscreen on areas that can’t be covered up
• slap on a hat
• seek shade
• slide on sunglasses.

They shouldn’t spend time outdoors deliberately to make vitamin D, but should discuss vitamin D supplements with their doctor.

Intermediate skin cancer risk

This means people with dark white/olive skin that sometimes burns but tans easily, and who don’t have other skin cancer risk factors.

These people should still apply sunscreen as part of their usual routine on all days when the UV index is forecast to get to three or more, but they can spend enough time outdoors to get a “dose” of vitamin D on most days of the week.

Read more:
Curious Kids: how does the Sun help your body make vitamin D?

Once the time needed for their vitamin D dose is up, they should also use the slip-slop-slap-seek-slide steps to avoid accumulating DNA damage.

If they’re unable to do this because of health or lifestyle factors, like being housebound, working night shifts, or always covering up with clothing, they should see their doctor about whether they need vitamin D supplements.

Lowest skin cancer risk

This covers people with deeply pigmented brown to black skin that rarely or never burns.

These people can safely spend enough time outdoors to make vitamin D and get the other benefits of sunshine. But because more time is needed, it can be difficult, particularly when the weather is cold. Vitamin D supplements might be needed.

They don’t need to routinely protect their skin, but might need to slip-slop-slap-seek-slide if they are outdoors for more than two hours.

How do I get the feel-good effects of sunshine?

Spending time outdoors in the early morning is the best way to get the feel-good effects of sunshine. An early morning walk is a great idea for all of us, but it won’t make vitamin D.

Read more:
Should I be getting my vitamin D levels checked?

Katie Lee receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council for a student stipend.

Rachel Neale receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council for grants related to vitamin D and sunscreen. She was the lead author of the manuscript describing the revised position statement and chaired the Summit that led to the revised recommendations.

– ref. Summer’s over, so how much sun can (and should) I get? – https://theconversation.com/summers-over-so-how-much-sun-can-and-should-i-get-224144

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sebastian Pfautsch, Research Theme Fellow – Environment and Sustainability, Western Sydney University

If you visit southern Greece or Tunisia, you might notice lots of white rooftops and white buildings to reflect the intense heat and keep residents cooler.

It’s very different in Australia. New housing estates in the hottest areas around Sydney and Melbourne are dominated by dark rooftops, black roads and minimal tree cover. Dark colours trap and hold heat rather than reflect it. That might be useful in winters in Tasmania, but not where heat is an issue.

A dark roof means you’ll pay considerably more to keep your house cool in summer. Last year, the average household in New South Wales paid A$1827 in electricity. But those with a lighter-coloured cool roof can pay up to $694 less due to lower cooling electricity needs. Put another way, a dark roof in Sydney drives up your power bill by 38%.

When suburbs are full of dark coloured roofs, the whole area heats up. And up. And up. This is part of the urban heat island effect. In January 2020, Penrith in Western Sydney was the hottest place on Earth.

Cool roofs have many benefits. They slash how much heat gets into your house from the sun, keep the air surrounding your home cooler, boost your aircon efficiency, and make your solar panels work more efficiently.

State governments could, at a stroke, penalise dark roofs and give incentives for light-coloured roofs. Scaled up, it would help keep our cities cooler as the world heats up. But outside South Australia, it’s just not happening.

Why won’t state governments act?

To date, our leaders show no interest in encouraging us to shift away from dark roofs.

In New South Wales, plans to ban dark roofs were axed abruptly in 2022 after pushback from developers.

The current NSW planning minister, Paul Scully, has now paused upgrades to the state’s sustainability building standards which would have encouraged light-coloured roofs. Other Australian states and territories have also paused the rollout of new, more ambitious building sustainability standards.

This is short-sighted for several reasons:

1. it costs the same for a light- or dark-coloured roof
2. owners will pay substantially higher electricity bills to keep their houses cool for decades
3. keeping the building status quo makes it harder to reach emission targets
4. dark roofs cut how much power you get from your rooftop solar, especially when it’s hot. This is doubly bad, as blackouts are most likely during the heat.

At present, South Australia is the only state or territory acting on the issue. Early this year, housing minister Nick Champion announced dark roofs will be banned from a large new housing development in the north of Adelaide.

Read more:
The Great Australian Dream? New homes in planned estates may not be built to withstand heatwaves

What’s at stake?

At present, the world’s cities account for 75% of all energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. It’s vitally important we understand what makes cities hotter or cooler.

Brick, concrete, tarmac and tiles can store more heat than grass and tree-covered earth can, and release it slowly over time. This keeps the air warmer, even overnight.

Built-up areas also block wind, which cuts cooling. Then there’s transport, manufacturing and air-conditioning, all of which increase heat.

Before aircon, the main way people had to keep cool was through how they designed their homes. In hot countries, buildings are often painted white, as well as having small windows and thick stone walls.

The classic Queenslander house was lifted off the ground to catch breezes and had a deeply shaded veranda all around, to reduce heat.

But after aircon arrived, we gradually abandoned those simple cooling principles for our homes, like cross-ventilation or shade awnings. We just turned on air conditioning instead.

Except, of course, the heat doesn’t go away. Air conditioning works by exchanging heat, taking the heat out of air inside our house and putting it outside.

As climate change intensifies, it makes hot cities even hotter. Heatwaves are projected to be more frequent, including in spring and autumn, while overnight temperatures will also increase.

As cities grow, suburbs can push into hotter areas. The 2.5 million residents of Western Sydney live at least 50km from the sea, which means cooling sea breezes don’t reach them.

Sweltering cities aren’t just uncomfortable. They are dangerous. Extreme heat kills more people in Australia than all other natural disasters combined.

Read more:
Western Sydney will swelter through 46 days per year over 35°C by 2090, unless emissions drop significantly

How can we cool our cities?

We don’t have to swelter. It’s a choice. Light roofs, light roads and better tree cover would make a real difference.

There’s a very practical reason Australians prize “leafy” suburbs. If your street has established large trees, you will experience less than half the number of days with extreme heat compared on residents on treeless streets. If you live in a leafy street, your home is also worth more.

Blacktop roads are a surprisingly large source of heat. In summer, they can get up to 75°C. Our research shows reflective sealants can cut the temperatures up to 13°C. Some councils have experimented with lighter roads, but to date, uptake has been minimal.

Cool roofs markedly reduce how much energy you need to cool a house. When used at scale, they lower the air temperatures of entire suburbs.

The simplest way to get a cool roof is to choose one with as light a colour as possible. There are also high-tech options able to reflect even more heat.

Soon, we’ll see even higher performance options available in the form of daytime radiative coolers – exceptional cooling materials able to reflect still more heat away from your house and cut glare.

Until we choose to change, homeowners and whole communities will keep paying dearly for the luxury of a dark roof through power bill pain and sweltering suburbs.

Read more:
Why Western Sydney is feeling the heat from climate change more than the rest of the city

Riccardo Paolini has received funding from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources

Sebastian Pfautsch 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. If you’ve got a dark roof, you’re spending almost $700 extra a year to keep your house cool – https://theconversation.com/if-youve-got-a-dark-roof-youre-spending-almost-700-extra-a-year-to-keep-your-house-cool-225674

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Waghorn, Lecturer, School of Education, RMIT University

It’s a weeknight, parents rush through the door from work, grab a snack, and then speed off in various directions to children’s extracurricular activities. As they do, they are managing tired and hungry kids as they all move from on thing to the next. Sound familiar?

As of 2022–23, almost 50% of Australian children under 14 participated in extracurricular sport. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 19% of Australian children aged five to 14 did music out of school hours in 2021–22, while 13% did dance and 5% did drama.

There can be a lot of pressure to have your child in extracurricular activities, as this is seen as a way of giving them a rounded education and upbringing. And it can get expensive.

Pre-pandemic, Australian families spent an average of A$1,859 per child per year on extracurricular activities.

How do you get the balance right?

What are the benefits?

Extracurricular activities can provide a range of benefits.

Studies have shown extracurricular activities can help students academically. For example, a 2011 study of US high school students showed participation in extracurricular activities was linked with better results in maths. Other US studies have shown students who participate in extracurricular activities are more likely to complete a college (university) degree.

Research has shown extracurricular activities can help young people develop self belief, goal-setting, confidence and the ability to adapt to unfamiliar situations.

In turn, it can also help with mental health and emotional regulation. Team activities have especially been shown to reduce anxiety in already anxious kids, increase a sense of belonging and boost social awareness.

Read more:
The kids who’d get the most out of extracurricular activities are missing out – here’s how to improve access

What are the drawbacks?

You may have heard media reporting about “oversheduling”. Too many activities can see children neglect their schoolwork and limit family time, which are also important parts of growing up. It can also have an impact on children’s sleep.

High levels of sport in particular can lead to injuries and burnout.

It can also lead to “overtraining syndrome” where children don’t recover adequately from previous training or competitions.

Not only does a child lose interest in the activity but their mood is linked to how well they perform. The activity can also come to dominate the family’s life.

How do you get the balance right?

Start by working out as a family what is financially reasonable and how much time you can commit. Think about not just the game or lesson itself but any other regular training or practice that may be involved.

Look at what your child is genuinely interested in, rather than what you feel they should do (as this just adds unnecessary pressure).

You could consider limiting children to one or two activities per week. This allows the child to focus on that activity and any training or practice that goes with it.

But there is no magic number of activities experts consider to be the “perfect” amount – each child is different. Some other factors you can consider are:

• is the child still getting adequate sleep?

• can they still spend time with the rest of the family?

• are they able to have some down time?

• do they enjoy their activities?

Read more:
Grit or quit? How to help your child develop resilience

What age can you start?

Children as young as two or three can benefit from extracurricular activities. As they start to assert their independence, programs in dance, sport or music can boost their ability to socialise with others, listen and get ready for school.

There are also benefits in starting extracurricular activities before the age of ten. Research shows if you start before ten, children are more likely to stick with the activity for longer because it will become part of their identity.

Having said that, there is of course no issue with starting new activities after this age as children grow and develop new interests.

Elise Waghorn 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. Is your child ‘overscheduled?’ How to get the balance right on extracurricular activities – https://theconversation.com/is-your-child-overscheduled-how-to-get-the-balance-right-on-extracurricular-activities-225786

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruari Elkington, Senior Lecturer in Creative Industries & Chief Investigator at QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), Queensland University of Technology

Australians have had plenty of time in the last 100 years to work out what they value about cinema-going and why it matters. Head to any cinema and catch the Val Morgan advertising in the pre-show. Take a closer look at the date the company was founded. Not 1984, but 1894. That’s more than 125 years of “Making Messages Memorable” on Australian screens.

We have a deep and abiding love for cinema in this country. Over the last century, the experience of going to the movies has both shifted significantly (we invented Gold Class, you know) and somehow remained resolutely enduring in terms of appeal.

My colleague Tess Van Hemert and I have spent the last two years researching the cultures and practices of cinema-going and how cinema sites shape that experience.

A typical response in our research was:

I love the cinema experience. It’s a bonding experience, if it’s good it’s a emotional and cathartic experience.

Read more:
The promised big hits, sure disappointments, and hidden indie gems we’ll get from Hollywood in 2024

‘A reprieve and a reward’

Cinemas are a catalyst for social, cultural and economic activity wherever they operate, from single-screen regional sites to major multiplexes in suburban shopping malls. Cinema, our participants said, is the “ideal” way to watch a movie:

I like to sit as close as I can to the screen so that the ‘real’ world is completely blocked out. I am immersed in & in awe of the film only. To truly forget life for a while – a reprieve & a reward.

Cinemas also mirror communities back to themselves. We may go in alone, as a couple or with family and friends, but in the cinema we form a community. When reflecting on returning to the cinema between COVID lockdowns, one person spoke of seeing American Utopia:

There were only about 10 people in the cinema. We didn’t know each other but we all started spontaneously dancing, first in our seats, and then everyone ran down to the floor in front of the screen to dance together. It was like a mini music festival when live music was banned.

Despite the cost, despite the hassle, despite the need to leave the couch, Australians turn up time and time again to cinemas. In 2023, the Australian box office generated nearly A$1 billion (although this is down on pre-COVID figures). Four
of the top ten highest grossing films of all time in Australia have been released since the pandemic began. Australian census data tells us cinema-going remains Australia’s most popular cultural activity.

‘Being able to switch off’

When cinemas face closure – or shut temporarily, as they did during the pandemic – the outpouring of community support can galvanise a community and remind them of all the times and ways in which they valued that access to that experience.

One participant spoke of seeing their first film in the cinema after the pandemic:

It made me appreciate the whole cinema experience more. Getting out and being able to switch off was a welcome change.

In our research, we observed how cinemas began to articulate their value to community through the pandemic period of forced closures.

In the large-scale national audience research we conducted in partnership with Palace Cinemas the value audiences derive from cinema-going was as diverse as the programming.

They remembered specific films, such as watching the opening credits of Force Awakens with a crowd of avid fans, or feeling like they were “experiencing summer in Italy” while watching Call Me By Your Name.

They focused on memories of the people they were with, such as feeling “all grown up” while seeing arthouse films with their dad when they were a kid.

Read more:
Beyond Barbie and Oppenheimer, how do cinemas make money? And do we pay too much for movie tickets?

‘Float in the memory’

They spoke about the feelings they had before during and after the screening and the experience overall. One respondent wrote of loving the end of a film:

the quiet few minutes as the credits roll and you float in the memory of the film. This only happens for me when I see it in the cinema.

Another participant spoke about leaving the cinema and:

doing a walk around the block thinking about the movie, still thinking about the movie driving home.

One participant said they love “being able to have respectful (unbothered) alone time publicly”.

Clear in this data is that memorability – and the experience of cinema – is far more nuanced than the simple appeal of watching a big film in a big room on a big screen. Cinemas continue to serve Australian communities in far more complex way than simply movies and popcorn.

Cinema has always battled headwinds. Since radio, cinema has constantly faced in-home entertainment technology that was supposed to knock it over completely – TV, colour TV, cable, satellite, VHS, DVDs and now streaming. Each time, the desire for people to come together in a space and watch something unique in a way they can’t find anywhere else, with a level of engagement they can’t find anywhere else, has prevailed. We all have a kitchen at home, but we still love going out to restaurants.

Disney, Warner Bros and Australia’s own Birch Carrol and Coyle all celebrated 100 years of operation in 2023. To sustain another century, more research is needed to better understand how cinema-going must continue to evolve to meet shifting audience expectations.

Read more:
Interactive cinema: how films could alter plotlines in real time by responding to viewers’ emotions

Ruari Elkington and Tess Van Hemert collaborated with Palace Cinemas (Palace Audience Survey) and Film Fantastic/Brisbane International Film Festival (2021 and 2022 BIFF industry reports). They were not funded by Palace Cinemas or Film Fantastic for this research.

– ref. ‘To truly forget life for a while – a reprieve and a reward’: why Australians love going to the cinema – https://theconversation.com/to-truly-forget-life-for-a-while-a-reprieve-and-a-reward-why-australians-love-going-to-the-cinema-222597

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alfio Leotta, Associate Professor, School of English, Film, Theatre, Media and Communication, and Art History, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

The second instalment of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune has dominated most conversations about cinema in the first few months of 2024. Adapted from Frank Herbert’s classic novel, the two-part epic has been credited with reviving the science fiction genre, and the blockbuster experience in general.

Villeneuve’s latest movie, however, is not just a mere sci-fi blockbuster. Although Dune features many familiar sci-fi visual trappings – interstellar travel, atomic arsenals and distant planets inhabited by alien lifeforms – its main strength resides in telling a fantasy story outside the traditional confines of this genre.

After all, Dune is the story of an aristocratic hero who, after undergoing a series of religious trials, acquires supernatural powers that allow him to overthrow the leader of a feudal empire. Similarly, Dune’s dukes, barons and princesses engage in arcane traditions and ritualised sword fighting. Villeneuve’s films are clearly new classics of epic fantasy cinema.

Epic – or high – fantasy is a sub-genre defined by an emphasis on large narrative scale (in both geographic and temporal terms), detailed fantastical universes, and a mythical hero. Usually some kind of “chosen one”, this hero embarks on a journey full of magic, monsters and other creatures.

In epic fantasy films there is usually a clear opposition between good and evil, with the destiny of the imaginary universe within which the story takes place at stake.

The sweeping scope of epic fantasy cinema can also translate into gargantuan running times, while the spectacular foregrounding of imaginary worlds and creatures requires large budgets, extensive production infrastructures and advanced technology.

The origins of epic fantasy cinema

In recent times, the epic fantasy label has been assigned to films and TV series such as Star Wars, Excalibur, The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and the Avatar franchise. But its origins can be traced back a century, to 1924, when Fritz Lang’s Die Nibelungen premiered at Berlin’s Ufa Palast am Zoo theatre.

Die Nibelungen is a two-part film based on the German medieval epic poem the Nibelungenlied. The first movie, Siegfried, and the second, Kriemhild’s Revenge, were released two months apart between February and April 1924. Together, the two films reach a total running time of nearly five hours, and are considered major landmarks of German film history.

Despite the social and economic crisis that followed Germany’s defeat in World War I, the German film industry in the 1920s was thriving, as audiences sought to escape the grim reality of the post-war period. Many of the German films of this era – including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Golem, and Nosferatu – explored the theme of identity and reality through the lens of fantasy and horror.

Similarly, Lang and his wife, screenwriter Thea von Harbou, felt the fantastic Nibelungen saga, which had been popularised by Wagner’s operatic adaptation in the 19th century, would resonate with the defeated people of Weimar Germany. By adapting one of the most powerful icons of German culture, Lang and von Harbou aimed to embolden the nation and foster national pride.

Die Nibelungen opens with a title dedicating the film to the German people. Shortly after, we are introduced to Siegfried, a forest-dwelling blacksmith. Upon hearing stories of the virtuous princess Kriemhild, the sister of King Gunther, he decides to win her heart.

Read more:
Bagpipes in space: how Hans Zimmer created the dramatic sound world of the new Dune film

Siegfried embarks on an epic journey during which he kills both a dragon and a dwarf king, thus gaining treasure and a cloak of invisibility. In return for permission to marry Kriemhild, he agrees to use the cloak to help Gunther win the fierce warrior-queen Brunhild by trickery.

The two couples are married, but when Brunhild discovers the deception, she compels Gunther and his evil vassal Hagen into a conspiracy to murder Siegfried. In the second film, Kriemhild vows to avenge Siegfried’s murder by killing Hagen, who is protected by Gunther.

In order to fulfil her plans, Kriemhild marries Etzel, king of the Huns, and persuades him to attack Hagen. The film ends with a brutal battle during which Hagen, Kriemhild and all her family are massacred.

Spectacle to rival Hollywood

Lang conceived Die Nibelungen as a production to rival Hollywood in scale and ambition. And the making of the two films was as epic as the story itself. Production lasted more than nine months and featured complex special effects, innovative lighting techniques, lavish costumes and massive sets.

The spectacular scene in which Siegfried slays the 16-metre dragon was a true standout for its time, and was considered an impressive feat of film puppetry. The success of Die Nibelungen paved the way to another large-scale German production, 1927’s Metropolis, which would become Lang and von Harbou’s best known work.

The innovative use of film technology and special effects, so crucial to the success of Die Nibelungen, remains an essential feature of contemporary epic fantasy cinema. In the 21st century, the technical achievements of epic fantasy films such as The Lord of the Rings, Avatar and Dune are still central to their marketing.

However, the similarities between Die Nibelungen and contemporary fantasy epics are not confined to the narrative, aesthetic and technological dimensions.

Despite the fact that Lang held antifascist beliefs and fled Germany shortly after the rise of Hitler, Die Nibelungen was systematically used as propaganda tool by the Third Reich, which admired the film’s celebration of both nationalist sentiments and a heroic Űbermensch.

The movie’s association with the Nazi regime has remained an ideological stain on epic fantasy cinema that critics have often been quick to highlight. In the 1980s, Excalibur was attacked for supposedly advancing a fascist aesthetic, while an early review of The Fellowship of the Ring stated:

You can’t help feeling Hitler would have adored this film – with its hideous Untermenschen, its hobbits and its Aryan beauties.

Read more:
Is Dune an example of a white saviour narrative – or a critique of it?

Similarly, Dune has been criticised for both its “white saviour” narrative tropes and its celebration of a messianic, autocratic figure.

Is epic fantasy’s escape into archaic worlds intrinsically conservative? Maybe. Or perhaps it’s up to viewers to take what they want from these fantastical adventures. As J.R.R. Tolkien said of the function of fantasy:

The authoritarians have us all in prison. If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape.

If that’s the case, thank God for epic fantasy movies and their ability to help us make that escape.

Alfio Leotta 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. From Die Nibelungen to Dune: epic fantasy cinema has been thrilling audiences for 100 years – https://theconversation.com/from-die-nibelungen-to-dune-epic-fantasy-cinema-has-been-thrilling-audiences-for-100-years-225884

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Victoria Fielding, Lecturer, University of Adelaide

The British royal family is famous for its carefully curated media image. That’s why it was a surprise to see them lose control of the narrative in the wake of what we now know is a serious health crisis befalling Catherine, Princess of Wales (or Kate Middleton as she’s popularly known).

It is clear the nearly 1,000-year-old institution of the monarchy and its tradition of “never complain, never explain” is being tested by social media and its power to spread rumours and misinformation. The palace’s public relations team has underestimated how difficult it is to manage relationships with social media audiences. Their reactive attempts to rein in speculation has turned Catherine’s health challenge into a PR disaster.

Social media, with its lax regulations and freer environment, offers a more
open forum for users to say whatever they like about the royals. It’s served as a hotbed for Catherine conspiracies, particularly on TikTok. These theories are as wild as they are ridiculous, from Catherine being a prisoner in the palace to her hiding in Taylor Swift’s London home.

What should have been a simple announcement to a sympathetic public about a popular royal having cancer turned into a spider’s web of competing conspiracy theories across social media. How did it all go so terribly wrong?

I’ve lost track, what happened?

All was well with the Prince and Princess of Wales when they were filmed attending church on Christmas Day. As usual when royals are out in public, the scene was picture perfect with everyone dutifully smiling for the cameras in “co-ordinated” outfits.

Two weeks later, Kensington Palace announced Catherine had undergone planned abdominal surgery, with palace sources telling media the surgery had been “successful” and she would need two weeks to recover.

On January 29, the palace announced Catherine had returned home to recuperate. Unlike King Charles when he released news of his cancer diagnosis on February 5, Catherine was not photographed leaving hospital. This was the first PR misstep. She had appeared outside hospital soon after giving birth to her three children, but this time she remained uncharacteristically out of the public eye.

Almost a month later, when Prince William unexpectedly withdrew from his godfather’s memorial citing “personal reasons”, social media users started asking “Where is Princess Kate?”.

Read more:
Kate Middleton is having ‘preventive chemotherapy’ for cancer. What does this mean?

Used to a steady stream of content about the royal family, the public were unsurprisingly questioning if there was more to Catherine’s abdominal surgery than they were being told.

In a rare reactive move, the palace tried to quell questions about Catherine’s whereabouts by releasing a statement reiterating that she would not be returning to public duties until Easter.

On March 4, US outlet TMZ published a paparazzi photo of Catherine driving with her mother. Social media audiences asked if it really was Catherine.

Over the next week, conspiracy theories about Catherine’s absence reached frenzied levels. To show everything was fine, Kensington Palace released a Mother’s Day photo of Catherine and her children on their social media accounts. Social media users spotted apparently edited flaws and global news agencies announced “kill orders”, saying the image had been manipulated. The next day, Catherine apologised on social media for editing the photo.

Although royals have been editing their pictures for centuries, it seems particularly digitally naive of the palace’s PR team to release such an obviously edited image into an already cynical social media environment, creating fodder for more conspiracy theories.

Mainstream news outlets then joined social media users in asking questions about Catherine’s absence. Although this media attention did not legitimise wild conspiracies, in some ways it fuelled them.

Days later, TMZ published footage of Catherine and William shopping. At this point in the media chaos, many social media users claimed it was fake.

This intense public speculation finally ended on March 23, when Catherine released a video explaining her extended absence after abdominal surgery was caused by the surgeons discovering cancer.

During a crisis, the public crave transparency, authenticity, honesty and reassurance. These elements were missing in the royal PR team’s carefully worded statements made directly to mainstream media along with reactive, overly curated social media posts.

By providing scant details, the palace seemed to believe they could control public perception. But public image is increasingly difficult to control.

Read more:
Where’s Kate? Speculation about the ‘missing’ princess is proof the Palace’s media playbook needs a re-write

The double-edged sword of social media

After Princess Diana’s death in a paparazzi-chase car accident, privacy laws and media regulations forbade the most invasive breaches of the royal family’s privacy, particularly for her children, princes William and Harry. However, tabloid appetite for uncontrolled access soon returned once the princes became adults.

Recently, Harry and his wife Meghan have been involved in several lawsuits against media companies over breaches of privacy, including phone hacking.

The rise of social media has typically been viewed as a tool that gives royals more control over their image through the curation of their own personal content. Previously, the fact Catherine was the one taking photos of her children was seen as a sign of authenticity and being down to earth (as much as a princess could be).

Yet, social media is both a blessing and a curse for the management of public reputations.

The perpetuation of contested facts and theories on social media in the wake of Princess Catherine’s unexplained absence shows how difficult it is to curate a controlled image using social media. Lack of verified information in mainstream media helps fuel speculative flames.

While PR experts believe it is understandable and appropriate for Catherine and her family to have privacy during this time, more timely, direct and honest communication would have gone a long way
to prevent relentless gossip.

Once rumours and conspiracies gained momentum, the palace perhaps thought the less information provided, the better. However, silence during a crisis just fuels more speculation because the lack of information makes it look like there is something to hide.

Catherine’s personal video announcing her cancer diagnosis helped end the social media frenzy. This shows a simple, clear statement posted by Kensington Palace to social media weeks ago would likely have avoided the PR disaster and provided Catherine the privacy she so clearly needs.

Read more:
The Kate Middleton photo scandal: When does editing become manipulation?

The palace is now being criticised for complicating a situation that was relatively simple in retrospect. Many social media users are also upset Catherine took public blame for the photoshopping incident.

Any organisation that deals with the media to maintain positive reputations, including the British monarchy, has no choice but to adapt to all kinds of media, including social media. The long-time practice of keeping calm and carrying on amid controversy and the 24-hour gossip cycle doesn’t work in the era of TikTok, X and YouTube.

In the absence of trusted information, social media will do what it does best: take mostly innocuous online chatter and amplify it until it goes viral.

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. Announcing Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnosis should have been simple. But the palace let it get out of hand – https://theconversation.com/announcing-kate-middletons-cancer-diagnosis-should-have-been-simple-but-the-palace-let-it-get-out-of-hand-226490

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kaitlin Day, Lecturer in Human Nutrition, RMIT University

Intermittent fasting has gained popularity in recent years as a dietary approach with potential health benefits. So you might have been surprised to see headlines last week suggesting the practice could increase a person’s risk of death from heart disease.

The news stories were based on recent research which found a link between time-restricted eating, a form of intermittent fasting, and an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease, or heart disease.

So what can we make of these findings? And how do they measure up with what else we know about intermittent fasting and heart disease?

The study in question

The research was presented as a scientific poster at an American Heart Association conference last week. The full study hasn’t yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a long-running survey that collects information from a large number of people in the United States.

This type of research, known as observational research, involves analysing large groups of people to identify relationships between lifestyle factors and disease. The study covered a 15-year period.

It showed people who ate their meals within an eight-hour window faced a 91% increased risk of dying from heart disease compared to those spreading their meals over 12 to 16 hours. When we look more closely at the data, it suggests 7.5% of those who ate within eight hours died from heart disease during the study, compared to 3.6% of those who ate across 12 to 16 hours.

Read more:
Does intermittent fasting have benefits for our brain?

We don’t know if the authors controlled for other factors that can influence health, such as body weight, medication use or diet quality. It’s likely some of these questions will be answered once the full details of the study are published.

It’s also worth noting that participants may have eaten during a shorter window for a range of reasons – not necessarily because they were intentionally following a time-restricted diet. For example, they may have had a poor appetite due to illness, which could have also influenced the results.

Other research

Although this research may have a number of limitations, its findings aren’t entirely unique. They align with several other published studies using the NHANES data set.

For example, one study showed eating over a longer period of time reduced the risk of death from heart disease by 64% in people with heart failure.

Another study in people with diabetes showed those who ate more frequently had a lower risk of death from heart disease.

A recent study found an overnight fast shorter than ten hours and longer than 14 hours increased the risk dying from of heart disease. This suggests too short a fast could also be a problem.

But I thought intermittent fasting was healthy?

There are conflicting results about intermittent fasting in the scientific literature, partly due to the different types of intermittent fasting.

There’s time restricted eating, which limits eating to a period of time each day, and which the current study looks at. There are also different patterns of fast and feed days, such as the well-known 5:2 diet, where on fast days people generally consume about 25% of their energy needs, while on feed days there is no restriction on food intake.

Despite these different fasting patterns, systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) consistently demonstrate benefits for intermittent fasting in terms of weight loss and heart disease risk factors (for example, blood pressure and cholesterol levels).

RCTs indicate intermittent fasting yields comparable improvements in these areas to other dietary interventions, such as daily moderate energy restriction.

So why do we see such different results?

RCTs directly compare two conditions, such as intermittent fasting versus daily energy restriction, and control for a range of factors that could affect outcomes. So they offer insights into causal relationships we can’t get through observational studies alone.

However, they often focus on specific groups and short-term outcomes. On average, these studies follow participants for around 12 months, leaving long-term effects unknown.

While observational research provides valuable insights into population-level trends over longer periods, it relies on self-reporting and cannot demonstrate cause and effect.

Relying on people to accurately report their own eating habits is tricky, as they may have difficulty remembering what and when they ate. This is a long-standing issue in observational studies and makes relying only on these types of studies to help us understand the relationship between diet and disease challenging.

Read more:
Does it matter what time of day I eat? And can intermittent fasting improve my health? Here’s what the science says

It’s likely the relationship between eating timing and health is more complex than simply eating more or less regularly. Our bodies are controlled by a group of internal clocks (our circadian rhythm), and when our behaviour doesn’t align with these clocks, such as when we eat at unusual times, our bodies can have trouble managing this.

So, is intermittent fasting safe?

There’s no simple answer to this question. RCTs have shown it appears a safe option for weight loss in the short term.

However, people in the NHANES dataset who eat within a limited period of the day appear to be at higher risk of dying from heart disease. Of course, many other factors could be causing them to eat in this way, and influence the results.

When faced with conflicting data, it’s generally agreed among scientists that RCTs provide a higher level of evidence. There are too many unknowns to accept the conclusions of an epidemiological study like this one without asking questions. Unsurprisingly, it has been subject to criticism.

That said, to gain a better understanding of the long-term safety of intermittent fasting, we need to be able follow up individuals in these RCTs over five or ten years.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in trying intermittent fasting, you should speak to a health professional first.

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. New research suggests intermittent fasting increases the risk of dying from heart disease. But the evidence is mixed – https://theconversation.com/new-research-suggests-intermittent-fasting-increases-the-risk-of-dying-from-heart-disease-but-the-evidence-is-mixed-226241

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rosin, Senior Lecturer in Political Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand

The history of farming is seeded with technological “big bang” moments that have changed the trajectory of whole industries and countries.

Some – such as mechanisation, and the arrival of synthetic fertiliser and pesticides, have transformed agricultural economic and technical systems. Others have involved substitute commodities – artificial flavourings, chemical dyes or synthetic fibres to replace wool – which have threatened the existence of whole farming sectors, including in New Zealand.

The next big disruption is arguably alternative proteins. They promise to introduce a brave new world of environmentally and animal-friendly proteins, produced by microbes in industrial vats or cell division in laboratories.

Proponents argue alternative proteins offer a solution to many of the world’s environmental and social problems.

Notably, the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health included non-animal proteins as integral to a sustainable diet for a stressed planet, making a significant contribution to climate change mitigation.

Most academic publications reflect this optimism about “promissory science”. They focus on technological advancement and solutions that require more investment of time and funding. In this version of the future, we can have our beef (equivalent) and eat it too.

Read more:
Emerging tech in the food, transport and energy sector can help counter the effects of climate change

But what does a shift to alternative proteins mean for farming systems and landscapes in countries where animal protein production sectors are a significant element of rural economies?

For some critics, questions remain as to who benefits, who is substituted out of existence, who captures value and who gets left behind?

Modelling the future

These questions are particularly important for New Zealand, where agricultural sectors generate 80% of export earnings. In competing with traditional agricultural sector, alternative proteins can change the fortunes of entire sectors and regions.

As part of the Protein Futures NZ project (funded through the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge), we used economic modelling to investigate the impacts of alternative proteins on the primary sector and regional land use in New Zealand.

The first step involved finding credible projections of growth for alternative protein production globally. Because most are not yet produced at commercial scales, expectations of their potential and impacts vary significantly.

This uncertainty is evident in the diverse predictions of experts on primary sector. Their assessments ranged from expecting minimal competition for existing farming sectors to foreseeing the complete replacement of traditional animal-based proteins in New Zealand.

We turned to the market assessments conducted by management consulting groups to model what might happen. These pointed to a range of potential growth for alternative proteins that we captured in four scenarios projected to the year 2050.

Read more:
What’s made of legumes but sizzles on the barbie like beef? Australia’s new high-tech meat alternative

The first of the scenarios used current growth trajectories for different forms of alternative protein (plant-based proteins, precision fermentation of protein ingredients, and cellular meat) until 2050. This provided a baseline for comparison.

In this first scenario the growth in global demand for protein outstripped any increases coming from alternative sources. Everyone benefits from the growth in escalating global demand for proteins.

The three other scenarios imagined what would happen to New Zealand’s meat and dairy sectors if there was significant growth in one or more of the alternative protein types.

Our modelling suggested the different alternative proteins would have mixed impact on New Zealand’s agricultural sector. The dairy sector would be particularly sensitive to developments in precision fermentation that produced direct substitutes for casein and whey protein. The number of sheep decreased in scenarios two, three and four while alternative proteins had an inconsistent impact on beef.

Broadly, our modelling showed any significant growth in one or more alternative proteins would result in fewer animals and more plants being grown in New Zealand.

Despite the negative impacts on the meat and dairy sectors, the modelling projected relatively moderate overall economic impacts for New Zealand. Increased production of alternative proteins also showed clear environmental benefits, including lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Time to prepare for alternative proteins

The findings of the project provide much food for thought. At the minimum, artificial proteins will change the world market for some major export sectors.

Our research indicates the need for policy that prepares the primary sector for changing protein markets and governing bodies for changing land use.

We also make the following observations:

• The appeal of alternative proteins lies in their reduced environmental impacts and increased animal welfare. For New Zealand to be competitive in these sectors, producers need to spotlight production practices that mitigate impacts on climate, water, soils, biodiversity and animal welfare.

• There are opportunities to shift production to plant proteins or to plant products that supply the nutrients, usually in a fluid base, which feed the microbes in precision fermentation and the cells in cellular meat.

• New Zealand may also benefit from investment in technologies that take advantage of renewable energy to produce proteins.

Read more:
Less meat, more bugs in our dietary future

History tells us that substitutes for traditional agricultural products can significantly alter the viability of once-profitable commodities.

Alternative proteins will very likely lead to significant shifts in land use alongside improved outcomes for some key environmental and welfare factors. It’s now time to develop policy enabling a resilient response to this impact.

The authors wish to acknowledge the rest of the Protein Futures research team: Jon Manhire, Rob Burton, Stuart Ford, Klaus Mittenzwei, John Reid, Miranda Mirosa, John Saunders, Simon Barber, Sarah O’Connell, Kate Tomlinson, Ann Moriarty, Angus Sinclair Thompson and Brent Paehua. We also thank the industry experts who contributed to interviews.

Christopher Rosin receives funding from the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge..

Hugh Campbell receives funding from the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge. He also participates in development of Agricultural and Rural Policy for Te Pāti Kākāriki – the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand.

– ref. Alternative proteins are here – the next 30 years could be crucial for NZ’s meat and dairy sectors – https://theconversation.com/alternative-proteins-are-here-the-next-30-years-could-be-crucial-for-nzs-meat-and-dairy-sectors-225265

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vigya Sharma, Senior Research Fellow, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland

Shifting Australia’s electricity sector to low-carbon technologies and closing coal plants is vital to tackling climate change. But such transitions are easier said than done.

People and economies are often deeply connected to the coal industry. Coal plants have often been integral to a community for decades, and closing them is a complex social process.

So how do we minimise the social and economic effects of such closures, and ensure communities and regions continue to thrive?

To answer this question, we looked to another sector that’s recently undergone large-scale shutdowns: Australia’s car-making industry. Our research highlights four lessons to help plan the end of the coal-fired power sector.

The huge loss of the car industry

Australia’s coal plants are polluting, ageing and inefficient. Closing them sooner rather than later makes sense.

But the shift is challenging. First, renewable energy must be scaled up to cover the loss of coal-fired power. Second, poorly managed closures can lead to widespread social and economic disruption.

For guidance, we can look to closures in the Australian car industry in recent decades, mostly in South Australia and Victoria. The closures were due to economic and policy shifts which made the domestic industry untenable.

The last closure occurred in October 2017, when Holden shut down its Elizabeth plant after 70 years of operations. The move led to mass job losses. It also disrupted community and social cohesion, leading to family breakdowns and social and health issues among workers.

Read more:
What is a ‘just’ transition to net zero – and why is Australia struggling to get there?

Lessons for coal plant closures

Holden’s closure process was not perfect. Research showed three years after the Elizabeth plant closed, many workers remained financially vulnerable. And while workers were helped into new employment as quickly as possible, this often came at the expense of quality employment, and did not meet the demand for new skills to align with emerging industries.

The Holden experience nonetheless offers lessons for the coal-fired power industry.

Both industries are male-dominated and involve a high proportion of blue-collar workers with low levels of formal education and skills training. Plants are often located in communities dominated by single-income households. The industries are a source of pride for locals and form a major part of people’s social and cultural identity, often across generations.

In our research, we spoke with people from various groups involved in Holden’s closure process. These included the car industry and its supply chain, agencies across all levels of government, community organisations and academia.

Our research highlights four standout lessons:

1. Timing matters

The Elizabeth plant closure was a gradual process that unfolded over several years. This extended timeline allowed most workers, families and businesses to be prepared – as well as they could be – for imminent restructuring.

Holden planned a staged release of workers over three years. This prompted local and state agencies to coordinate resources, and helped workers and their families plan for the transition without experiencing immediate pressure on their social and economic wellbeing.

2. Try innovative solutions

Holden’s “transition centre”, established in 2014, was a one-stop shop where employees could access a range of services and information. A local government representative told us the transition centre:

took care of every aspect of [the worker’s] life […] their social, their health and well-being, their finances.

With the mental health of the workers and their families in mind, for example, the centre provided information about healthy eating and exercising. However, the centre wasn’t always on the cards. As one interviewee observed:

Although Holden’s leadership wanted to make a difference, it wasn’t easy to convince the company to fund the centre. There was no other way […] Government funds were not arriving soon enough and were going to be accessible only to certain employees for certain purposes. At the government’s request, the centre opened its doors to the whole supply chain eventually.

3. Consider families, too

When longstanding industries close, the impact is felt beyond the worker. It changes family dynamics and poses risks to mental health. It also demands new skills such as financial literacy amongst redundant workers and families so they can better manage payouts and future investments.

Research participants told us these issues were overlooked in the early phases of Holden’s closure of the Elizabeth plant. In several cases, poor financial decision-making led to family breakdowns and bankruptcy.

However, the transition team eventually recognised the need to engage with affected families. It organised morning and afternoon tea sessions for workers’ partners, and mailed financial literacy information to employees’ homes.

4. Work together

In the early days of Holden’s closure planning, there was limited coordination between workers and government agencies providing support services to workers and their families.

What’s more, one state government expert closely involved with the transition process said agencies recognised the need for consultation with workers, however:

the translation of the messages into something that was appropriate for the scale of the transition and that responded to the specific needs and aspirations of the community was significantly lacking.

Over time, industry and governments recognised the need to coordinate efforts to engage with and assist workers and their families, to ensure the transition was as smooth as possible.

Navigating a difficult time

Like the car industry shutdowns, the closure of coal-fired power stations is likely to be messy at times – but the negative effects should be managed as well as possible.

The car industry’s experience can guide governments and the private sector in how to minimise disruption for regions, communities and workers.

Read more:
Here’s what happens to workers when coal-fired power plants close. It isn’t good

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. Industry shutdowns are messy and painful: 4 lessons Australia’s coal sector can learn from car-makers about bowing out – https://theconversation.com/industry-shutdowns-are-messy-and-painful-4-lessons-australias-coal-sector-can-learn-from-car-makers-about-bowing-out-226011

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gianluca Di Censo, PhD Candidate, University of Adelaide

Sports betting is most popular among Australian young people than any other age group, and this trend has only increased over the past 15 years.

Young males, in particular, are the group most likely to participate in sports betting and face a higher risk of developing gambling issues.

Environmental factors, such as advertising, can make young people more likely to bet on sports. So regulation is essential if we want to prevent young people from gambling-related harm.

Read more:
Premier League’s front-of-shirt gambling ad ban is a flawed approach. Australia should learn from it

Advertising, promotions and marketing techniques

Advertising serves two different purposes. There is the advertising that companies use to set their products apart from their competitors (known as competitive advertising). There is also the advertising companies use to make people more interested in a product (known as primary demand advertising).

Sports betting companies use competitive advertising by promoting their products’ unique features, such as chat features and live match updates, or by offering promotions, such as bonus bets and deposit matches. This type of advertising is most likely to appeal to people who are already involved in sports betting. They are looking for more affordable ways to bet, ways to maximise their winnings, and better features.

Promotions are an effective way to make people bet more. They may be more likely to influence people who gamble to risky levels. Because of this, Australia has taken steps to ban some of these promotions, including sign-up and refer-a-friend offers.

Sports betting companies use a variety of marketing strategies to generate interest in sports betting. For example, they often advertise during live sports broadcasts to generate interest in sports gambling.

This serves two purposes: it presents sports betting as a normal part of being a sports fan and aligns sports betting with the positive values people associate with sports, such as fairness, success and competence.

The impact of celebrities and influencers

Sports betting companies often feature celebrities and athletes in their advertising. This can enhance the appeal of betting, as people transfer their favourable opinions of celebrities and athletes to sports betting.

However, companies can use social media influencers to do this much more effectively. This is because influencers engage more with their followers and appear more relatable than more well-known celebrities.

Companies can use influencers in various ways to promote sports betting. One approach is to pay influencers to appear in advertising campaigns, known as influencer endorsements.

Another approach is sponsored content, where a company pays an influencer to promote its brand or product in its own content. For example, an influencer might create a video about sports betting and mention they bet with a specific betting company.

Content advertising has become increasingly popular in the digital age as people consume more content on a daily basis.

Companies use this strategy by creating content that appeals to their target audience without directly advertising their products. A sports betting company might create a website that shares sports-related news, which would appeal to their target audience of sports fans. This advertising strategy cultivates brand awareness and fosters customer loyalty.

In essence, sports betting advertising goes beyond what people see during commercial breaks. Like all advertising, it appears wherever content is generated and wherever a brand’s target audience is expected to engage with it.

The complexities of a potential ban

Last year’s parliamentary inquiry into online gambling outlines recommendations for a gradual ban of online gambling advertising by 2026. Whether these recommendations are implemented remains to be seen, but it is important to recognise that advertising is now more complex and global than ever before.

How will this recommended ban account for influencer advertising, content advertising, or subtle references to odds on websites that provide scores and live updates of sports events?

How gambling advertising is defined will likely become a crucial issue. In 2018, Italy banned all direct advertising for gambling. To circumvent this ban, betting companies established websites solely focused on sharing sports-related news content using the same name as their betting brand. This allowed them to openly advertise their betting brand during live sporting events.

Read more:
Australia has a strong hand to tackle gambling harm. Will it go all in or fold?

A holistic approach

A complete ban on gambling advertising may soon be implemented in Australia, but it is crucial to consider what exactly defines gambling advertising.

It’s important to involve marketers in the process of implementing an advertising ban because they have the most up-to-date knowledge of current advertising trends; policymakers and researchers might not know about them until years later.

This is a critical step towards preventing sports betting companies from potentially exploiting regulatory loopholes.

A future advertising ban must consider advances in social media marketing strategies, all of which are especially significant for young people.

Gianluca Di Censo receives funding from the Office of Responsible Gambling.

Paul Delfabbro receives funding from state and federal government agencies for research.

– ref. Celebrities, influencers, loopholes: online gambling advertising faces an uncertain future in Australia – https://theconversation.com/celebrities-influencers-loopholes-online-gambling-advertising-faces-an-uncertain-future-in-australia-226315

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Veth, Laureate Professor in Archaeology, The University of Western Australia

Barrow Island, located 60 kilometres off the Pilbara in Western Australia, was once a hill overlooking an expansive coast. This was the northwestern shelf of the Australian continent, now permanently submerged by the ocean.

Our new research, published in Quaternary Science Reviews, shows that Aboriginal people repeatedly lived on portions of this coastal plateau. We have worked closely with coastal Thalanyji Traditional Owners on this island work and also on their sites from the mainland.

This use of the plain likely began 50,000 years ago, and the place remained habitable until rising sea levels cut the island off from the mainland 6,500 years ago.

Read more:
People once lived in a vast region in north-western Australia – and it had an inland sea

A unique time capsule

The northwestern shelf and the submerged coastlines of Australia are immensely significant for understanding how and where First Nations people lived before and during the last ice age.

When the last ice age was at its coldest (24,000 to 19,000 years ago), sea levels worldwide were about 130 metres below current levels. As the ice melted, the sea rose rapidly, eventually flooding the connection between Barrow Island and the mainland.

Since Aboriginal people did not occupy the island after this time, the human archaeological record of Barrow Island is a time capsule, unique in Australia. Most other coastal occupation areas from this period are now beneath the sea, but these drowned landscapes were once vast and habitable.

The largest rock shelter on the island is Boodie Cave, one of Western Australia’s oldest archaeological sites. Excavations here revealed evidence of Aboriginal occupation dating back at least 50,000 years.

Read more:
Cave dig shows the earliest Australians enjoyed a coastal lifestyle

As sea levels fluctuated through time, the distance from Boodie Cave to the seashore varied significantly. Aboriginal people brought shellfish back to Boodie Cave even when it was many kilometres from the coast.

As the sea rose, people’s diets changed. The quantity of shellfish, crabs, turtles and fish consumed in the cave increased through time.

Aboriginal people here mainly used local, silica-rich limestone for crafting their stone tools. While this material was readily accessible, it blunted easily. Instead, people used thick and hard shells from large Baler sea snails to make knives for butchering turtles and dugong.

43,000 years of exchange

In contrast to the cave deposits, the open-air archaeological sites present a different picture. Three years of systematic field surveys recorded over 4,400 flaked and ground stone artefacts from nearly 50 locations.

Excluding one limestone source, most of these stone tools represent geological sources not found on the island. This means they were made out of rocks more typical of the west Pilbara and Ashburton regions.

The artefacts we’ve found on Barrow Island show that Aboriginal people transported and exchanged stone materials from inland or places now under the sea for over 43,000 years.

We don’t yet know why the artefacts in the cave are so different to the ones found in the open air.

The numerous open sites leave a record of how Aboriginal people adapted to sea-level changes. Both the surface and cave records suggest that Aboriginal people used more local limestone and shell tools as rising sea levels cut off access to the mainland or drowned sources.

Imported stone tools were precious and therefore conserved and heavily used for grinding seeds, working harder materials such as wood, and likely for cutting softer materials such as skins and plant fibre.

While early Aboriginal people continued to use coastal resources, they maintained social networks and exchanges with the mainland. The open sites from Barrow Island provide one line of evidence connecting contemporary Aboriginal people to the now-drowned coastal plains, coastlines and continental islands.

An ancestral connection for Thalanyji peoples

Despite the distance of Barrow Island from the mainland for most of the last 6,500 years, Thalanyji knowledge holders refer to the use of the island from both historic-era fishing activities and as forced labourers in the early pearling industry.

They know the Sea Country between the islands, and the songline connections linking the mainland to the islands. Traditional Owners involved in our project see the artefacts as evidence of their ancestral connection to the island, old coastlines and now drowned coastal plain.

The Barrow Island open-air sites are a significant time capsule, offering unique insights into coastal Aboriginal lifeways over tens of thousands of years.

These sites, combined with the cave records, provide scientists and Traditional Owners with invaluable opportunities to understand and preserve Australia’s rich and deep history.

The authors would like to acknowledge the Buurabalayji Thalanyji Aboriginal Corporation, recognised communally according to their cultural preference, as co-authors of this study.

Peter Veth receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Kane Ditchfield receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Peter Kendrick was previously employed by the government of Western Australia, and assisted in implementation of the Barrow Island Archaeology Project throughout its field work period. He consults part time as a zoologist and ecologist to Biota Environmental Sciences.

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

– ref. We have revealed a unique time capsule of Australia’s first coastal people from 50,000 years ago – https://theconversation.com/we-have-revealed-a-unique-time-capsule-of-australias-first-coastal-people-from-50-000-years-ago-225792

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

A national Newspoll, conducted March 18–22 from a sample of 1,223, gave Labor a 51–49 lead, a one-point gain for the Coalition since the previous Newspoll, four weeks ago. Primary votes were 37% Coalition (up one), 32% Labor (down one), 13% Greens (up one), 7% One Nation (up one) and 11% for all Others (down two).

Labor’s worst Newspoll this term occurred in late November, when it was tied with the Coalition at 50–50. In the next three Newspolls, conducted from December to February, Labor led by 52–48, but it has now slid to its second worst Newspoll.

Anthony Albanese’s ratings were 51% dissatisfied (steady) and 44% satisfied (up one), for a net approval of -7, up one point. Peter Dutton’s net approval slid one point to -15. Albanese led Dutton as better PM by 48–34 (47–35 four weeks ago).

This graph of Albanese’s net approval in Newspoll since the beginning of this term shows there hasn’t been a recovery since the October Voice referendum. Prior to this referendum, Albanese’s ratings were about net zero, but since then his ratings have been well below zero.

I believe inflation and the cost of living are still negatives for Labor. Morgan’s weekly consumer confidence measure has fallen back recently, and has spent a record 59 successive weeks below 85. In the March Freshwater poll, cost of living was rated important by 72%, up three since February.

Labor won’t contest federal Cook byelection

Nominations were declared last Friday for an April 13 federal byelection in former Liberal PM Scott Morrison’s seat of Cook. Morrison won Cook by a 62.4–37.6 margin against Labor at the 2022 election. Labor won’t contest the byelection, with the Greens and an independent likely to be the Liberals’ only competition.

Tasmanian election: Labor unnecessarily concedes

The most likely outcome of Saturday’s Tasmanian state election is for the Liberals to win 15 of the 35 seats, Labor ten, the Greens five, the Jacqui Lambie Network three and independents two. The Liberals would be three short of the 18 needed for a majority. Analyst Kevin Bonham has more on the count.

These results won’t be confirmed until the Hare-Clark preference distributions take place after the deadline for receipt of postals passes on April 2.

Read more:
Liberals will win most seats in Tasmanian election, but be short of a majority

If the most likely outcome occurred, the JLN would have the balance of power between the Liberals and a Labor and Green bloc. If Labor or the Greens won one more seat, Labor, the Greens and the two independents could form a government without needing the JLN.

However, all this may be moot because Labor has conceded. It appears Labor won’t form a government that includes the Greens. Labor has been out of power in Tasmania since the 2014 state election.

Tasmania uses the proportional Hare-Clark system, not a single-member system where majorities for one party are much easier to obtain. If Labor won’t cooperate with the Greens to form government, the next Tasmanian Labor government is not likely to form anytime soon.

Redbridge Victorian poll: Labor down but still far ahead

The Herald Sun on Monday reported that a Victorian Redbridge poll, conducted March 14–20 from a sample of 1,559, gave Labor a 54–46 lead, a two-point gain for the Coalition since the last Victorian Redbridge poll in December. Primary votes were 38% Coalition (up two), 36% Labor (down one), 10% Greens (down three) and 16% for all Others (up two).

The Herald Sun’s report says this is the first time the Coalition has had a primary vote lead over Labor in Victoria since June 2021. This may apply to Redbridge, but a Victorian Morgan poll that was conducted in July 2023 after the Commonwealth Games were axed had the Coalition ahead on primary votes, and Labor’s two party lead at 53–47.

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

– ref. Labor drops to a 51–49 lead in Newspoll; Labor chooses to concede Tasmanian election – https://theconversation.com/labor-drops-to-a-51-49-lead-in-newspoll-labor-chooses-to-concede-tasmanian-election-226463

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carolyn Holbrook, Associate Professor in History, Deakin University

Vaping is a pressing public health issue. While adult smoking rates continue to fall, vaping rates are rising. Seven per cent of adults now vape daily, up nearly three-fold since 2019. Most alarmingly, the rate of daily vaping among 18-to-24-year-olds has climbed from 5% in 2019 to 21% in 2023.

Nicotine, especially in high doses, is known to be harmful to brain development. Vaping products also contain more than 200 chemicals, some of them known carcinogens.

While the research on long-term health harms of non-therapeutic vaping is still emerging, there is an urgent need for governments to act in the interests of public health.

Historical parallels

We have confronted youth nicotine addiction before. Lessons can be learned from Australia’s decades-long, world-leading efforts to control tobacco.

Firstly, global tobacco organisations now control the vaping industry. Like smoking historically, vapes are aggressively marketed to young people.

In 1969, in the early years of tobacco control, 36% of adults smoked daily, but prevalence was declining. Tobacco companies sought new young buyers for their products. They flooded television and radio with advertising, which rapidly drove up youth smoking. We are seeing the devastating effects today of tobacco-induced disease.

Anti-tobacco advocates in 1971 pressured a reluctant Commonwealth government to ban tobacco advertising. They used celebrity-studded, satirical television adverts showing smoking’s health harms, drumming up media attention, and lobbied politicians using international data showing the powerful effect cigarette advertising had on promoting youth smoking.

On the back of growing public outrage, politicians eventually banned tobacco advertising on television and radio by 1977.

Read more:
How the push to end tobacco advertising in the 1970s could be used to curb gambling ads today

The rise of the Quit campaigns

Despite this success, more was needed to drive down smoking. In 1978, the Commonwealth government and the NSW Department of Health funded a “Quit for Life” campaign in northern NSW to discover how best to help smokers to quit.

It revealed that memorable ads – notably the famous “Sponge” ad – combined with counselling and medical assistance were most effective.

“Quit”-branded campaigns were then rolled out in Western Australia (1982), Sydney and Melbourne (1983) and South Australia (1984).

The first Quitline providing guidance on accessing support was trialled in Sydney. In Victoria, a dedicated organisation, Quit Victoria, was established in 1985. From 1987, it received funding from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), using revenue from cigarette taxes.

Each campaign relied on the same tools: anti-smoking education complemented by a Quitline and other practical support for smokers to quit.

Banishing smoking from public space

Tobacco companies pivoted to sport sponsorship in the 1980s to keep their brands in public view. In response, anti-smoking advocates pushed to close legislative loopholes allowing this “sports-washing”, and Quit Victoria began sponsoring sport.

But the problem of youth smoking re-emerged due to a lack of co-ordinated national action. By the mid-1990s, smoking prevalence among young people was back at 30%.

Advocates pushed for a nationwide education campaign using a consistent message: “Every cigarette is doing you damage”. A nation-wide Quitline service was launched, as were new anti-smoking regulations, including smoke-free areas, stronger health harm warnings on cigarette packs, and increased taxation. Youth smoking rapidly decreased.

However, success was not guaranteed, and advocates continued pressing. Through the early 2000s, each state progressively banned point-of-sale tobacco advertising, including the visual display of packs.

A Commonwealth-led agreement with the states to co-ordinate their laws led to a nationwide indoor smoking ban from July 1 2007. And, in a world first, the Gillard government legislated the plain packaging of tobacco, finally removing all tobacco branding.

Read more:
Australia’s restrictive vaping and tobacco policies are fuelling a lucrative and dangerous black market

Three major lessons

This history offers important lessons for the vaping crisis:

• the importance of a multi-pronged strategy, which includes stressing that vaping is addictive and unhealthy, and evidence-based advocacy to government

• the need to provide appropriate supports to help people quit

• a consistent, national approach targeting people of all ages, especially young people, before they become nicotine-dependent.

Tobacco-control efforts were evidence-based, from the science of smoking’s health harms, to the power of cigarette advertising on youth, to the best response strategies.

Public education campaigns about the harms of vapes must also be evidence-based and sophisticated in their targeting of vaping’s appeal.

More than four decades of “Quit” campaigning show the value of complementary resources, including counselling and medical support. Practical supports to help people to stop vaping should be strengthened wherever needed.

Finally, the Commonwealth must continue to lead. The laws implemented by federal Health Minister Mark Butler on March 1 2024 enforce the existing ban on the import of all unregulated vapes, nicotine and non-nicotine alike. The second phase of laws promised by the Commonwealth on March 21 enforces existing retail bans that have been widely flouted. It requires the states to assist.

This is a complicated issue of public policy because — despite what some opponents have suggested — vapes are not prohibited, but regulated. This means they are accessible by prescription for their original intended use: to quit smoking.

To make this work, the Commonwealth must encourage states to enforce bans. It must press for consistent laws across the country regarding the enforcement of vape-free areas. It must also seek a national approach to ensuring doctors and other healthcare providers have up-to-date evidence on prescribing therapeutic e-cigarettes for people seeking to quit smoking.

The health minister should be commended for the strong steps he has taken to tackle non-therapeutic vaping. The government should also take comfort in the knowledge it has the legacy of Australia’s considerable success in tobacco control on its side.

However, a challenge lies ahead with a politically motivated opposition and a Greens cross-bench. Both misrepresent current policy as “prohibition” when it is merely regulation to keep vapes away from young people.

We’ve taken smoking from “normal” to “uncommon”. We can do the same with vaping when these laws come into full effect, providing states and territories are equipped to enforce them.

Carolyn Holbrook receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Thomas Kehoe receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is an employee of Cancer Council Victoria.

– ref. We’ve taken smoking from ‘normal’ to ‘uncommon’ and we can do the same with vaping – here’s how – https://theconversation.com/weve-taken-smoking-from-normal-to-uncommon-and-we-can-do-the-same-with-vaping-heres-how-226117

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Duane Hamacher, Associate Professor, The University of Melbourne

It’s eclipse season. The Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned so it’s possible for the Earth and Moon to cast each other into shadow.

A faint lunar eclipse will occur on March 25, visible at dusk from Australia and eastern Asia, at dawn from western Africa and Europe, and for much of the night from the Americas. Two weeks later, on April 8, a total solar eclipse will sweep across North America.

These events are a good time to think about an infamous incident 520 years ago, in which an eclipse prediction was supposedly used to exploit an Indigenous population. The incident has shaped how we think about astronomy and Indigenous cultures – but the real story is far more complex.

Read more:
How eclipses were regarded as omens in the ancient world

Columbus and the eclipse

In June 1503, on his fourth voyage to the Americas, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and his crew became stranded on Jamaica. They were saved by the Indigenous Taíno people, who gave them food and provisions.

As months passed, tensions grew. Columbus’s crew threatened mutiny, while the Taíno grew frustrated with providing so much for so little in return. By February, the Taíno had reached their breaking point and stopped providing food.

Supposedly, Columbus then consulted an astronomical almanac and discovered a lunar eclipse was forecast for February 29 1504. He took advantage of this knowledge to trick the Taíno, threatening to use his “magic power” to turn the Moon a deep red – “inflamed with wrath” – if they refused to provide supplies.

According to Columbus, this worked and the fearful Taíno continued to supply his crew until relief arrived months later. This incident inspired the idea of the “convenient eclipse”, which has become a familiar trope in works including Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) and The Adventures of Tintin (1949).

But is there truth to the trope? How much did Indigenous peoples really know about eclipses?

Merlpal Maru Pathanu

In the Torres Strait, knowledge of the stars is central to culture and identity. Traditionally, special people were chosen for years of intense instruction in the art of star knowledge, which occurred in a secretive place of higher learning called the kwod. They would be initiated as “Zugubau Mabaig”, a western Islander term meaning “star man” – an astronomer.

Mualgal man David Bosun, a talented artist and son of a Zugubau Mabaig, explains that these individuals paid careful attention to all things celestial. They kept constant watch over the stars to inform their Buai (kinship group) when to plant and harvest gardens, hunt and fish, travel and hold ceremonies.

Read more:
A shark in the stars: astronomy and culture in the Torres Strait

The final stage of Zugubau Mabaig initiation involved a rare celestial event. Initiates were required to prove their bravery as well as their mental skill by taking the head of an enemy, particularly a sorcerer. In this way they would absorb that person’s powerful magic.

Headhunting raids occurred immediately after a total lunar eclipse, signalled by the blood red appearance of the Moon. During the eclipse, communities performed a ceremony in which dancers donned a special dhari (headdress) as they systematically chanted the names of all the surrounding islands.

The island named when the Moon emerged from the eclipse was the home of the sorcerers they planned to attack. Women and children sought shelter while the men prepared for war. The ceremony, named Merlpal Maru Pathanu (“the ghost has taken the spirit of the Moon”), was planned well in advance by the Zugubau Mabaig.

How was this done?

Predicting an eclipse

The Moon does not orbit Earth in the same plane Earth orbits the Sun. It’s off by a few degrees. The position of the Moon appears to zigzag across the sky over a 29.5-day lunar month. When it crosses the plane connecting Earth and the Sun, and the three bodies are in a straight line, we see an eclipse.

We know that ancient cultures including the Chinese and Babylonians possessed the ability to predict eclipses, and it is rather difficult to do. How did the Zugubau Mabaig accomplish it?

Read more:
The Memory Code: how oral cultures memorise so much information

There are some things they would know. First, lunar eclipses only occur during a full moon, and solar eclipses during a new moon.

Second are the “eclipse seasons”: times when the planes of Earth, Moon and the Sun can intersect to form an eclipse. This happens twice a year. Each season lasts around 35 days, and repeats six months later.

Third is the Saros cycle: eclipses repeat every 223 lunar months (approximately 18 years and 11.3 days).

The details are highly complex. But it’s clear that predicting an eclipse requires careful, long-term observations and keeping detailed records, skills Torres Strait Islander astronomers have long possessed.

Flipping the narrative

The Zugubau Mabaig eclipse forecasts turn a common understanding of the history of science on its head. Indigenous peoples did, in fact, develop the ability to predict eclipses.

Perhaps the real situation is better captured in a short story called El Eclipse (1972), by Honduran writer Augusto Monterroso.

In the story, a Spanish priest is captured by Maya in Guatemala, who opt to sacrifice him. He tries to exploit his knowledge that a solar eclipse will occur that day to trick his captors, but the Maya look at the priest with a sense of incredulity. Two hours later, he meets his fate on the altar during the totality of the eclipse.

As the Sun goes dark and the priest’s blood is spilled, a Maya astronomer recites the dates of all the upcoming eclipses, solar and lunar. The Maya had already predicted them.

The truth behind this story is found in the Dresden Codex, a thousand-year-old book of Maya records that includes tables of eclipse predictions.

Learn more at www.aboriginalastronomy.com.au

Duane Hamacher received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Laby Foundation, the Indigenous Knowledge Institute, and the University of Melbourne.

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

– ref. ‘The ghost has taken the spirit of the Moon’: how Torres Strait Islanders predict eclipses – https://theconversation.com/the-ghost-has-taken-the-spirit-of-the-moon-how-torres-strait-islanders-predict-eclipses-226005