Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paula Ross, Sessional psychology lecturer, Australian Catholic University

It’s not uncommon these days to hear someone – such as an ex romantic partner or a politician – described as a “narcissist”.

Singer Robbie Williams recently told an interviewer he took an online test to see if he was one. He revealed the test suggested a “mild indication of narcissistic personality disorder”.

But what is narcissism, when is it a problem and can an online test really provide a reliable diagnosis?

A fixation on oneself

According to the Greek myth, a beautiful young man called Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. He stayed staring at it for the rest of his life. His name gave rise to the term “narcissism”, characterised by a fixation on oneself.

Narcissism is a cluster of traits along a range of severity. At one end of the spectrum, people may be confident, charming and well-adapted.

In the middle of the spectrum, people may be overly focused on seeking out status, success and admiration at work or in their social lives. They can have a need to appear perfect, special or superior to others in order to feel OK about themselves.

At the very extreme end, it may become a disorder in which people can be self-centred, grandiose and destructive.

Read more:
Narcissists: there’s more than one type – and our research reveals what makes each tick

What’s ‘narcissistic personality disorder’?

“Narcissistic personality disorder” is a mental health diagnosis given to people with extremely narcissistic traits. These traits have reached the point where they start to impact on the person’s ability to function at work or socially.

Narcissistic personality disorder is relatively rare. It is estimated around 1% of the population has a diagnosable form of the condition.

Men tend to be more narcissistic than women. There is no evidence that young people are more narcissistic than previous generations at the same age.

Their symptoms are described as “pervasive”, meaning they are obvious across all of a person’s activities, not just in specific situations. So, on the face of it, pop star Robbie William’s insistence his score on the quiz reflected only his narcissistic personality on stage is not quite accurate.

People with narcissistic personality disorder tend to overestimate their abilities and exaggerate their achievements. And they are surprised or angry when others don’t notice their accomplishments.

They need constant confirmation of their value, specialness or importance. They may have fantasies about power, success, having perfect lives or relationships, believing these are not only achievable but deserved.

Specialness by association

People with narcissistic personality disorder might talk a lot about how people in their lives are extra special in some way – such as being the very best at something or leaders in a particular field – because it increases their own sense of specialness by association.

When their status or superiority is challenged they can respond with extreme anger, rage or belittling the person and their opinion. They find it difficult to tolerate the thought they may be flawed or vulnerable in some way.

In relationships, they can have exceedingly high expectations of devotion from partners and friends, but may themselves be low in empathy and lack of awareness of others’ needs. They may be envious of and unable to celebrate the success of others, and respond by devaluing them.

They are often unaware of the impact of their behaviours on others.

Read more:
‘Impulsive psychopaths like crypto’: research shows how ‘dark’ personality traits affect Bitcoin enthusiasm

How is it diagnosed?

Diagnosis should only be made by a mental health professional. Trying to diagnose yourself or someone else with an online quiz may give you results that are misleading and unhelpful.

Narcissistic personality disorder is a cluster of symptoms on a continuum and many diagnoses share similar symptoms. For a proper diagnosis, a clinician needs to assess which cluster of symptoms is present, how far along the continuum they are, and which other diagnoses to exclude.

But a symptom checklist might help you work out whether you should consider seeing a mental health professional for further assessment or support.

Read more:
Before you judge personality tests, consider what they don’t judge

How do people get this way?

We don’t know exactly what causes narcissistic personality disorder.

There is probably a genetic component. Traits such as aggression, poor emotional regulation and low tolerance to distress tend to be high in people diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder.

Certain experiences in childhood are also more likely to lead to narcissistic personality disorder. These might be either particularly negative, such as trauma or rejection, or overly positive, such as excessive praise or being constantly told you have extraordinary abilities. Parenting styles that are either very neglectful or overly protective are also associated with the development of narcissism.

People with narcissistic personality disorder often have other mental health conditions, particularly mood disorders. They also have a high rate of suicide. These conditions may have a common cause or they may be a result of the difficulties people with narcissistic personality disorder have with social interactions.

Can it be treated?

Narcissistic personality disorder is a lifelong condition that is considered manageable but not curable. There is no standard medicine or psychological treatment for narcissistic personality disorder.

Psychological treatment aims to reduce the severity of symptoms, improve mood, manage impulses, and build communication and relationship skills. One of the main goals of therapy is to develop more realistic expectations of others.

Medicines that help with other mental health problems like anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder may also help reduce some symptoms.

People are more likely to seek help for another mental health condition, such as depression. Getting treatment for these conditions can also positively impact on personality disorder symptoms.

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

Paula Ross is a psychologist and consultant in the alcohol and other drug sector and has a private practice.

Nicole Lee works as a consultant in the health sector and a psychologist in private practice. She currently and has previously been awarded funding by Australian and state governments, NHMRC and other bodies for evaluation and research work.

– ref. Is narcissism a mental health problem? And can you really diagnose it online? – https://theconversation.com/is-narcissism-a-mental-health-problem-and-can-you-really-diagnose-it-online-188360

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Virginia Barbour, Director, Open Access Australasia, Queensland University of Technology

Last week, the United States announced an updated policy guidance on open access that will substantially expand public access to science not just in America, but worldwide.

As per the guidance, all US federal agencies must put in place policies and plans so anyone anywhere can immediately and freely access the peer-reviewed publications and data arising from research they fund.

The policies need to be in place by the end of 2025, according to President Biden’s White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

A substantial step

The new guidance builds on a previous memo issued by then president Barack Obama’s office in 2013. That one only applied to the largest funding agencies and, in a crucial difference, allowed for a 12-month delay or embargo for the publications to be available.

Now we’re seeing a substantial step forward in a lengthy effort – extending back to the beginning of this century – to open up access to the world’s research.

We can expect it to act as a catalyst for more policy changes globally. It’s also especially timely given UNESCO’s Open Science Recommendation adopted in 2021. The new OSTP guidance emphasises the primary intention is for the US public to have immediate access to research funded by their tax dollars.

But thanks to the conditions for opening up said research, people worldwide will benefit.

Read more:
Busting the top five myths about open access publishing

A discriminatory system

It might seem obvious that with our ubiquitous internet access, there should already be immediate open access to publicly funded research. But that isn’t the case for most published studies.

Changing the system has been challenging, not least because academic publishing is dominated by a small number of highly profitable and powerful publishers.

Open access matters for both the public and academics, as the fast-moving emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic amply demonstrated.

Even academics at well-funded universities can mostly only access journals their universities subscribe to – and no institution can afford to subscribe to everything published. Last year, estimates suggest some 2 million research articles were published. People outside a university – in a small company, a college, a GP practice, a newsroom, or citizen scientists – have to pay for access.

As the new guidance notes, this lack of public access leads to “discrimination and structural inequalities… [that] prevent some communities from reaping the rewards of the scientific and technological advancements”. Furthermore, lack of access leads to mistrust in research.

The accompanying OSTP memo highlights that future policies should support scientific and research integrity, with the aim of increasing public trust in science.

COVID-19 is not the first rapid global emergency, and it won’t be the last. For example, doctors not being able to access research on Ebola may have directly led to a 2015 outbreak in West Africa.

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House led calls for publishers to make COVID-19 publications open to all. Most (but not all) did and that call led to one of the biggest databases of openly available papers ever assembled – the CORD-19 database.

But not all of those COVID-19 papers will be permanently openly available, since some publishers put conditions on their accessibility. With the current spread of monkeypox, we are potentially facing another global emergency. In August this year, the White House once again called for publishers to make relevant research open.

The OSTP guidance will finally mean that, at least for US federally funded research, the time of governments having to repeatedly call for publishers to make research open is over.

Read more:
Not just available, but also useful: we must keep pushing to improve open access to research

The situation in Australia

In Australia, we don’t yet have a national approach to open access. The two national research funders, the NHMRC and ARC, have policies in place similar to the 2013 US guidance of a 12-month embargo period. The NHMRC consulted last year on an immediate open access policy.

All Australian universities provide access to their research through their repositories, although that access varies depending on individual universities’ and publishers’ policies. Most recently, the Council of Australian University Librarians negotiated a number of consortial open access deals with publishers. Cathy Foley, Australia’s Chief Scientist, is also considering a national model for open access.

So what’s next? As expected, perhaps, some of the larger publishers are already making the case for more funding for them to support this policy. It will be important that this policy doesn’t lead to a financial bonanza for these already very profitable companies – nor a consolidation of their power.

Rather, it would be good to see financial support for innovation in publishing, and a recognition that we need a diversity of approaches to support an academic publishing system that works for the benefit of all.

Read more:
Making Australian research free for everyone to read sounds ideal. But the Chief Scientist’s open-access plan isn’t risk-free

Virginia Barbour is the Director Of Open Access Australasia, which advocates for Open Access in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

– ref. The US has ruled all taxpayer-funded research must be free to read. What’s the benefit of open access? – https://theconversation.com/the-us-has-ruled-all-taxpayer-funded-research-must-be-free-to-read-whats-the-benefit-of-open-access-189466

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

The solicitor-general’s recent finding that former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s furtive accrual of ministerial portfolios “fundamentally undermined” the principles of responsible government has drawn attention to the precarity of democracy. In seeking to safeguard our democracy, we must consider the extent to which Australians’ long-standing apathy about our democratic system allowed Morrison to treat it with such contempt.

Democracy is under threat around the world. Donald Trump’s autocratic populism and the attempted coup at the Capitol in January 2021 are familiar to Australians, but so-called “strongmen” have been white-anting democratic conventions in countries including the Philippines, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Venezuela and Brazil for the past two decades.

Democratic government is a compact between the people and the state. It relies on robust institutions and an engaged and informed citizenry that holds its elected representatives to account. Complacency and ignorance provide fertile ground for populists and autocrats to spread misinformation, undermine institutions and disregard democratic conventions.

Read more:
Morrison’s multiple portfolios: why the law has nothing to do with it

Australians have recently shown enough concern to reject Morrison’s secretive and misleading government even before the ministries scandal was revealed.

Yet, worryingly, there is plenty of evidence that Australians remain both apathetic and ignorant about their democracy and its institutional guardrails.

Civics education was reintroduced in Australian schools in 1997. Yet, the most recent review of the civics curriculum indicated only 38% of Year 10 students – the level at which the compulsory civic curriculum finishes – are proficient in civics and citizenship knowledge. Young people care passionately about issues such as gender equality and climate change, yet are ill-equipped to participate in Australian democracy.

The data about civics education sit within a wider context that is highly concerning. Faith in our democracy has been plummeting since the early 21st century.

The 2019 ANU Australian Election Study found that trust in government had reached its lowest level on record, with only one in four Australians saying they had confidence in their political leaders and institutions.

The Edelman Trust barometer indicated a spike in trust in democracy in Australia during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. That pattern has not been sustained. The 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer found trust in democracy among Australians had fallen six points since 2021, the second biggest decline behind Germany.

If we are to protect our democracy from bad-faith actors in the future, we need to restore faith in government and equip people with the skills to be vigilant custodians. This formidable task must begin with encouraging a sentimental attachment to Australian democracy.

Federation disappeared from view

Unlike Americans, whose precarious democracy is extravagantly mythologised, Australians are not inclined to celebrate their democratic achievement. This tendency can be traced to our national beginnings.

When the Commonwealth of Australia was created in 1901, Australians were more inclined to believe that nations were made in war rather than an act of the British parliament. Some, like the first Attorney-General Alfred Deakin, sought to establish a commemorative tradition on January 1. Deakin suggested the date be known as Commonwealth Day but found little support among his colleagues. The Federation poet George Essex Evans tried to muster pride in the fact that Australia was “Free-born of nations, Virgin white, Not won by blood nor ringed with steel”. But the sentiment of journalist and author A.G. Hales more accurately represented the view of the majority:

A nation is never a nation

Worthy of pride or place

Till the mothers have sent their firstborn

To look death on the field in the face […]

The peaceful achievement of a national democratic government at Federation simply disappeared from view.

Anzac became our founding myth

Australians manufactured a creation myth 14 years later, during the first world war. According to the Anzac legend, Australia was born on April 25 1915 when Australian and New Zealander soldiers stormed the cliffs at Gallipoli.

The popularity of the Anzac legend declined during the 1960s and 1970s but has undergone a massive resurgence since then. Bob Hawke’s “pilgrimage” to Gallipoli with a group of elderly veterans in 1990 began the pattern of prime ministers inserting themselves at the heart of Anzac commemoration.

Since 2012, governments have channelled more than A$1 billion of taxpayer money into Anzac commemoration. This spending bonanza includes $550 million on the centenary of the first world war – more than any other nation and possibly more than all other nations combined. Governments have also spent $100 million John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux in France and the controversial $500 million renovation of the Australian War Memorial.

This extraordinary outlay of money would be more wisely spent by our political leaders on sponsoring a mythology of Australian democracy.

Why we need a mythology of Australian democracy

Australia has more than enough material with which to build a democratic legend. As the political scientist Judith Brett has written, the Australian colonies and the early Commonwealth were

a laboratory for new ideas about democracy, and new methods of achieving them.

The colonies pioneered government-provided ballot papers and provided separate voting booths, which allowed people to cast their votes in secret. Women were early to get the vote, though when the Commonwealth enfranchised women in 1902 it disenfranchised Indigenous women and men.

In 1911, Saturday voting was introduced, making it easier for working people to cast their ballots. Preferential voting was introduced in 1918 and compulsory voting in 1924. Along with our non-partisan, bureaucratically managed election campaigns, compulsory voting helps Australia ameliorate the polarisation and voter suppression that are eroding American democracy.

While the Anzac legend is rooted in Australia’s Anglo-Celtic heritage, a democratic legend has the potential to appeal more widely. The latest census results confirm the cultural diversity of our population: 27.6% of us were born overseas, and 48.7% have at least one parent born overseas.

In addition to those who feel no connection to the Anzac legend, some of us come from places where democratic mores are not culturally entrenched. We need to include all Australians in the democratic project.

A concerted public education program must reckon with the failures of Australian democracy. These are most glaring in the treatment of Indigenous Australians and non-white people. The United States stands as a cautionary tale of a nation whose democratic swagger does not match reality.

Creating a sense of civic custodianship will not only protect our democratic system. It is also essential to achieving major initiatives such as an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, a republic and the federation reform that is urgently needed. Only eight of 44 referendums have succeeded since Federation, because Australians who are uncertain or disengaged simply vote “No”.

Read more:
Changing the Australian Constitution is not easy. But we need to stop thinking it’s impossible

Humans protect what they value. Australians are not inclined to learn about their democracy because they feel little attachment to it. This sentimental deficit must be filled by a concerted effort by government to enthuse Australians about our democratic system.

Imagine if the Commonwealth showed the same commitment to fanning a mythology of Australian democracy as it has to propagandising the Anzac legend. A $1 billion campaign to mythologise the democracy sausage – that could work.

Carolyn Holbrook receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She volunteered for the independent candidate for Goldstein in the May 2022 federal election.

– ref. Democracies are fragile. Australians must act urgently to safeguard ours – https://theconversation.com/democracies-are-fragile-australians-must-act-urgently-to-safeguard-ours-188580

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roy Robins-Browne, Honorary Professorial Fellow, medical microbiology, The University of Melbourne

While much of our attention during the past few years has been focused on COVID, a more insidious and more dangerous pandemic has been spreading unabated. This pandemic concerns antimicrobial resistance, which is when bacteria evade the antibiotics we use to treat them. You’ve probably heard these bacteria called “superbugs” in the mainstream press.

A recently published study found that in 2019 around 5 million deaths were associated with antibiotic resistance, more than twice those due to COVID in 2020.

Read more:
We know _why_ bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, but _how_ does this actually happen?

The two main contributors to the emergence and persistence of antibiotic resistance are the ways antibiotics work and the ability of bacteria to combat them.

Bacteria are highly evolved lifeforms that have significant evolutionary advantages over us. One of these is their doubling time, which, for many of the common varieties of bacteria that infect us, is only 15 to 40 minutes.

In addition, bacteria grow exponentially, which means the time for one bacterium to become two, is the same as that for 100 million to become 200 million.

One consequence of this is if we kill 99.99% of bacteria, they can restore their numbers within a few hours. Importantly, some or all these bacteria may be resistant to the agent that originally killed most of their ancestors.

This process of bacterial survival is driven by evolution and the Darwinian principle of natural selection (survival of the fittest), which applies as much to microorganisms as it does to animals and plants.

How does antibiotic resistance come about?

Almost all current antibiotics work by killing microbes or inhibiting their replication. Bacteria acquire resistance to these antibiotics in two ways: mutation and horizontal gene transfer.

Mutations occur when cells replicate. Some random errors in the replication process may make bacteria better able to evade our treatments.

Horizontal gene transfer is the transfer of genes between bacteria. Most organisms only pass on genes vertically – that is from parent to offspring. But bacteria can exchange genes among themselves, including genes that enable them to resist antibiotics.

Another worrisome feature of current antibiotics is the fact they are indiscriminate. If you consume an antibiotic for an infection in your foot, it does not magically go to your foot alone, but is distributed throughout the body, affecting some of the “good” bacteria that live on and in us.

For this reason, many of the 100 trillion bacteria that live in each of us have become resistant to commonly used antibiotics. These “good” bacteria can then transfer resistance to their disease-causing companions.

Read more:
Five of the scariest antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the past five years

We need to change how antimicrobials work

In order to control antibiotic resistance we need to think about antimicrobial therapy in new ways. One of these ways is to tackle disease-causing bacteria selectively, without killing them.

This can work because most bacteria don’t need to cause disease in order to survive, and if our treatments aren’t designed to kill them, the selection for resistant mutants will be weak, and they can go on living, while causing us no harm.

This may sound fanciful, but it is already proving effective. For example, there are drugs for urinary tract infections, that do not kill the bacteria, but instead target the molecules the bacteria need to stick to the bladder wall. This means the bacteria can’t colonise our bladders and make us sick. But as we are not trying to kill them, they have no need to learn to evade our treatments.

Another approach is to target the genes bacteria require to cause disease, making them harmless without killing them.

An advantage of antimicrobials which target pathogens specifically is that they won’t affect the “good” bacteria some of which contribute to our resistance to infection.

One limitation of these types of treatment is they will need to be specific for each type of bacterium. This means it will take significant time and effort to develop treatments for the many different types of bacteria that infect us. However we know this can be done, since we already do it for viruses (anti-virals).

What has to happen now?

Until recently, major pharmaceutical companies responded to antibiotic resistance by developing new drugs to which bacteria were susceptible. Now, however, few such companies are showing interest in new agents. This is because it isn’t cost-effective to develop traditional, resistance-inducing antibiotics, which will become obsolete within a few years.

Read more:
Use them and lose them: finding alternatives to antibiotics to preserve their usefulness

As with climate change and other existential threats, antibiotic resistance will need to be tackled by governments in collaboration with scientists and industry.

There are other ways to combat bacterial resistance, including vaccines and ensuring antibiotics are used appropriately. But a coordinated effort comprising these strategies together with specially targeted anti-bacterial drugs, similar to those currently being used to treat viral infections, offers our best hope.

If we don’t act, we face an era resembling that before the advent of penicillin when a minor scratch could result in a fatal infection.

Roy Robins-Browne has received funding from The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, The Australian Research Council, the Bill and Melinda Gates Research Foundation, The US National Institutes of Health. He is affiliated with The University of Melbourne, The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, The Royal Children’s Hospital, The University of Maryland, The Australian Society for Microbiology.

– ref. We need to change how antibiotics target bugs if we want them to keep working – https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-change-how-antibiotics-target-bugs-if-we-want-them-to-keep-working-183135

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gill Armstrong, Senior Project Manager – Buildings, Climateworks Centre

Energy-efficiency standards for new homes in Australia are being upgraded for the first time in a decade. New homes will be required to improve minimum performance from 6 stars to 7 stars under the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS). Federal, state and territory building ministers agreed on the change last Friday.

The rating will also use a whole-of-home energy “budget”. This will allow homes to meet the new standard in different ways. The standard will come into force in May 2023, and all new homes will have to comply by October 2023.

On Monday, the NSW government also announced large commercial developments, as well as big state projects, will have to submit a “net-zero statement” to gain planning approval. The statement must show their buildings are either all-electric or can fully convert to renewable energy by 2035. In addition, new homes and renovations will have to reach a 7-star rating under the state’s Building Sustainability Index (BASIX). The current minimum is 5.5 stars.

These upgrades represent a step in the right direction, but much more remains to be done to future-proof Australian homes. Buildings account for about 20% of the nation’s emissions. Further upgrades to the National Construction Code (NCC) are needed before 2030 to achieve Australia’s climate targets.

Read more:
Better building standards are good for the climate, your health, and your wallet. Here’s what the National Construction Code could do better

We’re still short of zero-carbon buildings

Across Australia, more than 5.5 million houses are predicted to be built between 2023 and 2050. The upgraded construction code means they will perform better in climate extremes and emit less carbon.

So this long-overdue change is good news for households and the planet. It means new houses will use an average of 24.5% less energy to keep warm and cool. And new condensation provisions will help to control mould growth, a health problem for tightly sealed homes with poor ventilation.

The International Energy Agency recommends advanced economies such as Australia have a “zero-carbon-ready building code” in place by the end of the 2020s. This would ensure all new buildings in the 2030s will be zero or near-zero carbon.

Governments around the world have already moved in this direction, including the European Union and California. Australia is still well behind international best practice in design and construction.

Best-in-class energy efficiency, full electrification and renewable energy supply will be crucial to fully decarbonise the building sector. Further updates to the National Construction Code in 2025 and 2028 will need to ensure Australia implements a “zero-carbon-ready” building code by 2030. Only then can Australia deliver on its legislated climate targets and protect Australians from a warming climate and higher energy prices.

Cost arguments against further upgrades don’t stack up

Australia can’t wait another decade to upgrade building standards again. Arguments against higher standards tend to focus on the ticket price of new houses, but most homes are bought with mortgage loans and monthly repayments.

Higher standards would reduce energy consumption to near zero, providing a buffer against energy price spikes and increases. Low or negative energy bills (as a result of payments for exporting electricity) will largely offset the initial cost of building better-performing homes. Households will also be less vulnerable to wider climatic events such as heatwaves.

A cornerstone of the policy-making process is cost-benefit analysis undertaken by government. The analysis behind the NCC update failed to fully grasp the economic, social and environmental benefits of higher standards.

Cost-benefit guidelines, which are set by the Office of Best Practice Regulation, should be reviewed. Any analysis must properly reflect costs and benefits over the lifetime of a home, including the impacts of reduced energy and health bills on mortgage repayments. Ensuring further changes to the NCC accurately represent the full benefits will be critical to avoid another decade of stalled action.

Banks have already started to recognise the value of sustainable housing. Their lowest mortgage rates are for new green homes.

What about all the existing homes?

While ensuring all new buildings are built to zero-carbon standards after 2030 will be important, improving the quality and performance of the majority of Australia’s 10.9 million homes is equally if not more important. Existing building stocks are inadequate – most housing was built before energy performance standards existed.

Read more:
The other 99%: retrofitting is the key to putting more Australians into eco-homes

A major wave of retrofitting is needed to upgrade these homes. Deeper upgrades can be done during renovations to deliver improved performance, safe indoor temperatures and lower energy use and bills.

Existing Australian homes for the most part rate below 2 stars in energy performance. Their occupants experience extremes of temperature during summer and in winter in areas such as Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Tasmania.

Extreme hot and cold are harmful to human health. The impacts are greatest for people on low incomes and/or who rent.

We have many examples of how to cost-effectively retrofit housing. These changes can have significant impacts on household bills and health.

Retrofitting will be more resource-efficient than demolishing and rebuilding. It will also retain the architectural and heritage value of our cities and suburbs.

However, a number of measures will be required to retrofit housing on the scale needed. These include financial incentives from banks, government subsidies, minimum requirements at point of sale, minimum rental standards, education of landlords, etc.

Read more:
Keen to retrofit your home to lower its carbon footprint and save energy? Consider these 3 things

Net-zero code and retrofitting should be top of the agenda

Australian building ministers are due to meet again early next year. They must quickly turn their attention to ensuring the 2025 and 2028 upgrades pave the way to a zero-carbon-ready building code by 2030.

Governments should also work towards a national retrofit wave strategy that aims for a step change in the energy performance of existing homes. Essential elements of the strategy include the introduction of mandatory disclosure of home energy performance and the full electrification of Australian homes.

Without such changes, Australian housing and households risk being locked into poor-quality, under-performing and costly housing for decades.

Gill Armstrong is part of Climateworks Centre which receives funding from several philanthropic foundations, and project-specific financial support from a range of private and public entities. Gill is also part of a research project at University of Technology Sydney, which has received funding from City of Sydney for the STAR Toolkit research project

Alan Pears receives funding from RACE for 2030 CRC, Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity, Energy Efficiency Council and University of Melbourne. He is affiliated with Renew and several other community groups.

Margot Delafoulhouze is part of Climateworks Centre, which receives funding from several philanthropic foundations, and project-specific financial support from a range of private and public entities. Margot is a Board Director of Climate for Change, a not-for-profit organisation empowering individuals to act on climate.

Trivess Moore has received funding from various organisations including the Australian Research Council, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Victorian Government and various industry partners. He is a trustee of the Fuel Poverty Research Network.

– ref. 7-star housing is a step towards zero carbon – but there’s much more to do, starting with existing homes – https://theconversation.com/7-star-housing-is-a-step-towards-zero-carbon-but-theres-much-more-to-do-starting-with-existing-homes-189542

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Beryl Exley, Professor, Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Griffith University, Griffith University

Australia’s state and federal education ministers recently agreed to work on a plan to fix the country’s teacher shortage.

The plan is due in December and one of five priority areas is “strengthening initial teacher education”.

Initial teacher education is the university degree students undertake to become registered classroom teachers. Worried that too many students are not completing their teaching degrees, federal Education Minister Jason Clare has asked Sydney University vice-chancellor Professor Mark Scott to report back on the issue by the end of the year.

We draw on our experience as teacher educators and educational researchers to suggest four ways to help increase the pace and rate of students completing their teaching degrees.

But first: what is the problem?

It looks like there is no shortage of people wanting to be a teacher – at least to begin with.

Figures from the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership show there is actually a modest increase in students signing up to initial teacher education courses. Between 2005 and 2019, numbers rose from 24,285 students to 28,694.

Even accounting for some natural attrition, these numbers are enough to sustain the teaching workforce. But the figures for program completion are significantly lower.

In 2005, 16,526 teachers graduated and in 2019 it was 16,644. We also know that while the number of students graduating from all fields of study at university increased by 40% from 2009 to 2019, the number of students graduating from teacher education declined by 5%.

Why might this be so?

1. Unreasonable testing demands

LANTITE is the national Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education. It’s a two-hour literacy test and a two-hour numeracy test, undertaken in formal exam-like conditions. All student teachers must pass both components in order to graduate.

There are logistical challenges with undertaking LANTITE. Opportunities to sit the test are limited to four testing windows a year, with in-person testing centres in a relatively small number of locations.

Read more:
‘It hurt my heart and my wallet’: the unnecessary test stressing teachers before they even make it to the classroom

This forces student teachers from regional and rural areas who prefer to attend a physical test centre to bear the extra effort associated with time away from home, including travel and accommodation costs.

The test is in addition to other university courses and costs A$196 per attempt. Research has found the test is not only highly stressful, but also expensive and not an accurate indicator of teacher quality.

It’s time to find more convenient and less costly ways to assess student teachers’ literacy and numeracy skills.

2. Costs of getting qualified

Student teachers must undertake uninterrupted blocks of professional experience in schools in each year of their degree. While this is a critical part of the degree, it comes at great personal cost.

The intensity of the professional placement, including full days in schools and time spent in the evenings gathering resources, planning lessons and marking students’ work, means student teachers can’t do other paid work.

It may mean they can’t earn an income for up to six weeks at a time. On top of this, there are also travel expenses to get to school each day. They may also need to buy stationery and resources to use in their lessons.

A guaranteed stipend that takes into account the real costs of undertaking a teaching placement is essential.

3. No guarantee of a permanent job

Despite the media talk about the teacher shortage, many student teachers are unable to secure permanent employment in their preferred subjects, especially in city areas. The greatest need for teachers, and the greatest opportunity for permanent employment, is in rural and remote areas. However, it is not possible for all graduates to relocate for work.

Many new teachers seeking a job close to home are forced to cobble together a series of part time or short-term contracts, across a range of schools, year levels and subjects. Teaching out of their field of expertise is not unusual.

This means student teachers face uncertainty around their careers and the links between their studies and job prospects. High-performing student teachers need to know at the outset that there will be fair and reasonable opportunities to get a secure job close to home in their areas of expertise.

4. Declining status

In March 2022, when he was acting federal education minister, Stuart Robert blamed
“dud public school teachers” for the decline of academic results of Australian students.

Read more:
No wonder no one wants to be a teacher: world-first study looks at 65,000 news articles about Australian teachers

Recent research that looked at media reporting on teachers in Australia for the past 25 years also found “teacher bashing” to be the norm. The media also made out that teachers’ work was simple, and easy.

This reporting devalues the profession and weighs heavily on students when they are considering their commitment to their teaching studies (which are already costly and don’t guarantee a job close to home and in their area of expertise).

We need to make sure student teachers know they are doing important and complex work and that it is valued by the schools and communities where they teach.

Beryl Exley is an AITSL Accreditation Panel Chair and interstate panellist.

Donna Pendergast is a Director of AITSL and Chair of the Queensland Council of Deans of Education.

– ref. Too many people drop out of teaching degrees – here are 4 ways to keep them studying – https://theconversation.com/too-many-people-drop-out-of-teaching-degrees-here-are-4-ways-to-keep-them-studying-189233

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darryl Gobbett, Visiting Fellow, South Australian Centre for Economic Studies, University of Adelaide

This article is part of The Conversation’s series looking at Labor’s jobs summit. Read the other articles in the series here.

With historically low unemployment and “we’re hiring” signs all over the place, there’s an understandable push for more skilled migrants. There’s a session on it at the jobs summit on Friday morning.

But there’s a quicker fix: an untapped source of hundreds of thousands of skilled workers, who are already in the country, many of whom would like to work but would be penalised for it.

Age pensioners who earn more than a minimal amount from paid work (A$490 a fortnight for singles) lose 50 cents out of every extra dollar they earn in reduced pension payments.

It’s a powerful disincentive. $490 a fortnight is $245 per week: that’s about nine hours’ income for a worker on the minimum wage with a casual loading.

Read more:
Forget more compulsory super: here are 5 ways to actually boost retirement incomes

Relaxing the income test – or at least the test on income from work – would have benefits beyond helping to meet our immediate need for skills and experience.

Longer term, it would reduce the need for bureaucrats to compile lists of skill shortages and attempt to pick migrants with the right skills to fill those gaps.

It would also ease the pressure that higher migration puts on the housing market, putting upward pressure on prices.

Given the jobs summit is looking for solutions with widespread support, unlocking retirees’ skills would be a good place to start.

Few pensioners work

The idea is backed by small and big business lobby groups, as well as National Seniors Australia and key federal independent MPs.

As of March 2021, about 2.5 million people were receiving the age pension. Only 92,000 – just 3.6% of them – declared earnings from employment.

There are three main ways we could make it easier for pensioners to work:

1. lift the income test threshold for how much can be earned from working

2. cut the income test when the threshold is reached

3. remove the income test entirely

The third option isn’t as radical as it seems. Several countries, including Britain and New Zealand, don’t apply an income test.

The simplest would be option 1, allowing age pensioners to earn (say) an additional $500 per fortnight, which would amount to $990 per fortnight, or $25,700 per annum.

Getting more into work needn’t cost much

Our calculations suggest giving age pensioners who are currently working these hours the full pension would cost less than $442 million per year.

This cost would amount to 0.8% of the $54,153 million budgeted to be paid as support to seniors in 2022/23.

If more pensioners worked more hours, the cost would climb to $1,664 million, which is 3.1% of this year’s budgeted support for seniors.

The benefits would be substantial.

Each one percentage point increase in workforce participation of those 65 years and older would boost the Australian labour force by around 43,000.

Hundreds of thousands more workers

As importantly, Australians aged 65 years and over are expected to be the fastest growing population group by 2030.

On current population projections, by then each one percentage point increase in labour force participation by this age group would amount to 54,000 people.

If the change boosted participation by several percentage points, it would produce hundreds of thousands more workers, all of them already locals and most already trained.

It looks to us to be an idea too good for the summit to pass up.

Read more:
Is education or immigration the answer to our skills shortage? We asked 50 economists

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. A fast fix for the jobs summit: let retirees work without docking their pension – https://theconversation.com/a-fast-fix-for-the-jobs-summit-let-retirees-work-without-docking-their-pension-188704

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Forsyth, Distinguished Professor of Workplace Law, RMIT University

This article is part of The Conversation’s series looking at Labor’s jobs summit. Read the other articles in the series here.

The trade union movement’s push to reform Australia’s enterprise bargaining system looks set to be a major issue at this week’s Jobs and Skills Summit.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions’ plan for sectoral or industry-level bargaining was outlined by secretary Sally McManus last week:

The way we’d see it working is that, where it makes sense to have multi-employer bargaining, both the workers’ representatives and the employers sit down and negotiate across their sector.

Innes Willox, chief executive of Australian Industry Group, labelled the proposal “seriously misguided” and a “throwback” to the 1960s. He warned it “would reduce opportunities for employers and employees to negotiate genuine improvements in productivity and work conditions that suit their workplace”.

But employer groups’ reactions have been far from unanimous.

The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia has agreed to work with the ACTU on industry bargaining reforms. The council’s chief executive, Alexi Boyd, said:

The current bargaining system was not built for us. It is not efficient and is too complicated. We welcome the opportunity to explore new flexible single- or multi-employer options that can be customised to our circumstances. The one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work.

What is industry bargaining?

Industry bargaining is a common approach to wage negotiations in most European countries. It involves representatives of workers and employers negotiating over the pay and conditions to apply across specific sectors of the economy.

New Zealand is in the midst of introducing a form of industry bargaining through its Fair Pay Agreements Bill, currently before the NZ parliament.

An industry-level approach to award wage negotiations also operated in Australia up to the early 1990s, before the Hawke-Keating government introduced enterprise bargaining (negotiating agreements by workplace).

Enterprise bargaining is broken

Hawke and Keating saw enterprise bargaining as the way to modernise the industrial relations system in line with their mission to make Australia globally competitive.

Thirty years on, though, it is not delivering for employers or workers.

Unions can be involved in enterprise bargaining where they are strong enough. However, in many workplaces there is no negotiation. The employer simply puts out its proposed agreement for a vote by the employees, then submits it to the industrial relations umpire (the Fair Work Commission) for approval.

It has become increasingly apparent over the past decade that enterprise bargaining is broken. In 2012, 27% of employees were covered by an enterprise agreement. By 2021 it was just 15%.

Read more:
There’s one big reason wages are stagnating: the enterprise bargaining system is broken, and in terminal decline

Fears of militant unions

A major concern of business advocates such as the Australian Industry Group is that industry bargaining – backed by the right to take industrial action – will further empower unions such as the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union to pursue “pattern bargaining” claims – by which a union secures gains from one employer and then demands the same from others.

There is indeed a risk that extending the right to bargain and strike across industries will add to the potency of some already powerful unions.

But this cannot be the perennial excuse for doing nothing to give greater leverage to hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers, doing the vital work that keeps our economy and society functioning.

The ACTU’s proposal will not be a return to the 1960s or ‘70s, when union membership was more than 50% of the workforce and there were regular strikes in support of wage demands.

In those days, unions were able to push for better pay and conditions through adjustments to awards, overseen by the industrial relations court, the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. Awards no longer serve that purpose, now being a “safety net” for workers on minimum wages.

Why care workers would benefit

Changing the Fair Work Act to enable industry bargaining would particularly benefit workers in industries such as child care, aged care and disability support.

These are highly feminised sectors where enterprise bargaining has not delivered for a variety of reasons – including the role of government funding in setting wages, and workers’ reluctance to take industrial action that is detrimental to their clients. This has led to care workers being stuck on award-level wages.

Read more:
Wages and women top Albanese’s IR agenda: the big question is how Labor keeps its promises

Industry bargaining would enable funding bodies to be brought into pay negotiations in these sectors.

It would also enable workers and unions to negotiate with other business entities beside direct employers that have influence over the wages ultimately paid to employees.

This is important given the use of franchising structures, labour hire arrangements and complex supply chains to obscure the employment relationship between the worker and the business employing their labour.

To take one example, a union representing cleaners and security guards working out of the same CBD building must currently make separate agreements with the different contracting firms that employ those workers.

In a system of multi-employer bargaining, the building owner or building services management company – which ultimately benefits from the workers’ labour and determines its price through the contracts it makes with the cleaning and security companies – would be brought into the equation.

In this way, industry or multi-employer bargaining would ensure a level playing field.

Businesses would not have to fear a competitive disadvantage from having to pay higher wages than rival businesses. Nor could they undercut each other by outsourcing to avoid higher wages and conditions in an agreement.

Anthony Forsyth is affiliated with the Centre for Future Work (Australia Institute) and the Migrant Workers Centre in Victoria. He has received funding from the Australian Research Council Linkage Program (industry partners: Australian Council of Trade Unions & The Union Education Foundation).

– ref. Why unions and small business want industry bargaining from the jobs summit – and big business doesn’t – https://theconversation.com/why-unions-and-small-business-want-industry-bargaining-from-the-jobs-summit-and-big-business-doesnt-189394

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helena Gjone, PhD candidate (creative writing), Griffith University

As an international student at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow in 2012, I remember studying Rekviem (requiem) by Russian poet Anna Ahkmatova, an elegy she penned in secret as a tribute to the countless victims of Stalin’s murderous purges.

Akhmatova’s writing revived the atrocities, delivering their darkness into the light.

Her words spoke of constant fear permeating lives; of distrust, anxiety and betrayal; of the secret police arriving to drag you or your family away.

To avoid detection and retribution, Ahkmatova whispered the poem to her friends who committed it to memory. She burned the incriminating scraps of paper.

In the first four-and-a-half months following Putin’s attack against Ukraine, over 13,000 anti-war protesters were detained in Russia.

Some estimates are that hundreds of thousands fled Russia in early 2022, among them thousands of artists who no longer felt safe in the climate of increasing censorship.

Some of these artists have found themselves in Kirkenes, a small Norwegian town 15 kilometres from the Russian border.

Russia’s protest art

Russian and Soviet artists have a long history of art as protest.

The poem Stalin’s Epigram (1933) authored by Osip Mandelstam depicted Stalin as a gleeful killer. Authorities imprisoned and tortured Mandelstam, then deported the poet to a remote village near the Ural Mountains.

After returning from exile, he persisted writing about Stalin until he was sent to a labour camp in Siberia, where he died in 1938 at the age of 47.

Under the comparatively liberal rule of Stalin’s successor Nikita Khrushchev from 1953, the Soviet Union began to enjoy previously unimagined freedoms.

Protest art reflected these newfound liberties, becoming increasingly provocative and experimental.

Many famous art movements surfaced during this period, including Sots Art — a fusion between Soviet and Pop Art — as Russian artists tested the boundaries, exposing the grim realities and unhappiness of life under Stalin’s regime.

In 1962, the legendary composer Shostakovich set his 13th symphony to a series of poems by his contemporary, Yevgeny Yevtushenko. One of these poems was Babi Yar, which criticised the Soviet government for concealing the massacre of 33,371 Jews in a mass grave outside Kyiv.

Read more:
Decoding the music masterpieces: Shostakovich’s Babi Yar

In contemporary Russia, Pussy Riot came to the attention of the world in 2012 when members stepped behind the altar in Moscow’s golden-domed Christ the Saviour Cathedral wearing neon-coloured balaclavas to deliver a “punk rock prayer”.

Their voices echoed off the cavernous, hand-painted ceilings, raging against Putin’s affiliation with the Orthodox church and the homophobic, anti-feminist policies that followed.

They were sentenced to two years imprisonment.

Today, pictures from Russia reveal anonymous anti-war graffiti on the sides of buildings, “no war” chiselled into a frozen river, and yellow and blue chrysanthemums and tulips left at the feet of Soviet war memorials.

Cross-border collaborations

Pikene på Broen (girls on the bridge) is an arts collective based in Kirkenes.

They have spent the past 25 years curating art projects to promote cross-cultural collaboration and tackle political problems in the borderland region.

Pikene på Broen is host to the the annual art festival Barents Spektakel (spectacle), an international artist residency including Russian, Norwegian and Finnish creatives, the gallery and project space Terminal B in Kirkenes town, and the debate series Transborder Café.

The venue has become a hub for open discussions relating to current political and cultural issues, drawing contributions from artists, musicians, writers, politicians and researchers.

Evgeny Goman, an independent theatre director from Murmansk, Russia – about 200 kilometres from Kirkenes – has been collaborating with Pikene på Broen for over 10 years.

After moving to Norway in early 2022, Pikene på Broen worked with Goman to organise Kvartirnik (from the word kvartira, meaning apartment), an online talk group for Russian and Norwegian artists to exchange ideas.

Following Putin’s attack on Ukraine, Kvartirnik shifted to an underground movement for dissident artists. Ironically, the name Kvartirnik derives from the clandestine concerts arranged in people’s apartments during the Soviet Era when musicians were banned from performing in public.

Party of the Dead is one of several Russian protest art groups who participated in Kvartirnik.

Pictures from the snow-decked Piskaryovskoye Cemetery in Saint Petersburg reveal members dressed as skeletons, holding placards reading: “are there not enough corpses?”.

I spoke with Goman about the art coming out of Kvartirnik today.

“In peaceful times, art is more about entertaining,” he says.

But in war and conflict, art is more important because it’s the language we use to express our pain. And through metaphors and symbolism, it allows us to speak about things that are censored.

Countering propaganda

Kvartirnik collaborators in Murmansk have also produced and distributed Samizdat (self-publishing), an anonymous newsletter containing art suppressed by the state.

“We have to be really smart now about how we do things in Russia,” Goman says. “Subtle.”

Goman is pessimistic about Russia’s future. But he believes the key to moving forward is keeping communication open. He tells me the West’s decision to ban Russian culture has backfired on their plan to pressure Putin into ending the war against Ukraine.

Instead, he says, the divide is steadily increasing, leaving dissident artists isolated inside a country operating on fear and propaganda, furthering Putin’s agenda.

“Putin wants us to not affect Russian minds. And that’s why we have to keep the dialogue going,” he says of the importance of cross-border collaborations like those he has undertaken in Kirkenes.

If we stop communicating, Putin wins. Propaganda wins.

Read more:
A former journalist recalls Ukraine’s 1991 vote for independence — and how its resilience endures

Helena Gjone 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 we stop communicating, Putin wins. Propaganda wins’: how a Norwegian organisation is supporting Russian protest art – https://theconversation.com/if-we-stop-communicating-putin-wins-propaganda-wins-how-a-norwegian-organisation-is-supporting-russian-protest-art-186911

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University

On Saturday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with former NBA star and current TV personality Shaquille O’Neal in Sydney to enlist the sport star’s support for constitutional recognition for an Indigenous voice. O’Neal voiced his support for changes to the Australian Constitution, but is his voice the right one?

The prime minister claimed O’Neal reached out to him because “he wanted to inform himself about what this debate was about”.

Now O’Neal will be a part of the government’s campaign to change the constitution, recording a 15-second advertisement for free. He is meant to be the first of many stars, including unnamed players in the AFL, NRL basketball and netball organisations, to offer their public support for an Indigenous Voice to parliament.

Whose voice should be heard on the issue?

For many, the selection of “Shaq” as a spokesperson for the Indigenous Voice to parliament is a strange one. O’Neal is well-known for his viral and sometimes problematic performances on and off the court.

During his NBA career, O’Neal built a reputation as an overpowering post presence and a savvy media jokester. In his current job as a sports analyst on the popular television show Inside the NBA, he hosts a popular segment known as “Shaq’tin A Fool,” which features bloopers from recent games.

Read more:
Sit on hands or take a stand: why athletes have always been political players

He has made some foolish decisions himself over the years: his feud with Kobe Bryant filled the tabloids for years, the film Kazaam was a ratings failure, and he has made and apologised for a range of racist or possibly homophobic comments.

Most Americans see O’Neal as a charismatic, even playful, person rather than as an engaged athlete activist. The prime minister claimed O’Neal had done great work in the US around “social justice and lifting people up who are marginalised” but has not followed up those comments with any specifics.

Raising awareness

Averill Gordon, Senior Lecturer in Public Relations at Auckland University of Technology, believes the choice of O’Neal will garner widespread domestic and international awareness and support for the Voice to Parliament.

“Athletes are a great way to internationalise an issue as sport and music are key themes used to drive most global PR campaigns.”

“The biggest challenge in a PR campaign is to move the people who are unaware of an issue to become aware,” she said. “Shaquille’s involvement and subsequent communication means people will become aware of this issue and may even become active. It also creates global traction that will feed back to Australia and circulate the message further, adding global interest that will ironically increase Australian awareness.”

Read more:
Establishing a Voice to Parliament could be an opportunity for Indigenous Nation Building. Here’s what that means

She notes the Australian government is addressing a global issue that “affects Australia’s country branding.”

“The (Albanese) government is garnering popular international support to drive a national issue. By using a US opinion leader, it moves this national issue to be recognised as a common global issue.”

Support for conservative causes

The inclusion of O’Neal in the Voice campaign undoubtedly brings attention to the government’s position, but the choice is still considered an odd one by many. Albanese’s problem is not people’s unfamiliarity with the debate over the Indigenous voice, but rather that few people yet know the proposed language of any constitutional change.

It’s important to also note that O’Neal is not an avatar of the sort of progressive politics that encompasses issues like the Voice. In the increasingly political NBA, players such as Lebron James and general managers like Daryl Morey have opened political firestorms with their critiques of Donald Trump and the Chinese government.

O’Neal has previously been tied to more conservative causes. He is a strong supporter of police and sheriff’s departments across the United States, including in Los Angeles, Miami and, controversially, Maricopa Country, Arizona. Maricopa County’s former sheriff, Joe Arpaio, faced criticism for racial profiling, poor conditions for undocumented immigrants, and eventually received a pardon from Trump following his conviction for criminal contempt of court.

O’Neal’s strong support for law enforcement, despite the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, might make activists working in the Stop First Nations Deaths in Custody uncomfortable, as it has for many African Americans too.

Read more:
‘I can’t breathe!’ Australia must look in the mirror to see our own deaths in custody

If O’Neal has become a progressive, the change happened recently, since he admitted in 2020 that he had never voted. In subsequent political commentary, he argued athletes should keep quiet in the press and social media. He told Sports Illustrated:

My thought is that if you are not an expert on it, or if you haven’t been doing it, don’t do it.

So when did he become an expert on constitutional issues in Australia?

Indigenous voices divided?

The government must also take care that any Voice spokespeople, including O’Neal, do not replace the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander people. There is a vigorous debate among Indigenous people about the shape of any Voice to parliament.

Minister for Indigenous Australians and Wiradjuri woman Linda Burney was with Albanese and O’Neal on Saturday. She lauded O’Neal’s efforts, presenting the American with a boomerang made by Indigenous artist Josh Evans and a South Sydney Rabbitohs Indigenous round jersey.

Indigenous politicians from across the political spectrum have illustrated the complexity of this issue in Australia and the unsuitability of O’Neal as a commentator on it. On the political right, Country Liberal Party Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, a Warlpiri woman, said “I’ve no doubt Shaq’s a top bloke but it’s a bit insulting to call on a black American to help with black Australians as if this is all about the colour of one’s skin.” She followed up by calling Albanese’s move a desperate measure.

Green Party’s Senator Lidia Thorpe, of DjabWurrung, Gunnai, and Gunditjmara descent, also took aim at O’Neal. She wrote on Twitter:

‘Nothing about us without us’

In fact, there is reason to worry the selection of O’Neal as a spokesperson might overshadow the work Indigenous Australians have done in the sports space already.

In the past, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athletes in a range of disciplines including athletics, AFL and Rugby League have used their sporting prestige to bring attention to Indigenous issues. Albanese could conceivably call on a range of beloved current and retired indigenous sports stars, such as Cathy Freeman, Adam Goodes or Ash Barty, to address this complicated issue.

Many Australian sporting institutions, including the Australian Olympic Committee, already have committees devoted to including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices. But that would require Albanese to wade into the complexities of Indigenous politics in Australia rather than take advantage of a celebrity from America.

Read more:
Most Australians support First Nations Voice to parliament: survey

Polling shows many Australians are already supportive of an Indigenous Voice to parliament. Many in the public, as well as in Canberra, are wary of any decision made without appropriate consultation with Indigenous people and without clear language dictating the relationship between the Indigenous Voice and parliament.

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. Is Albanese ‘Shaqtin’ a fool’ over the Indigenous Voice to parliament? – https://theconversation.com/is-albanese-shaqtin-a-fool-over-the-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-189533

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Guangyi Pan, PhD candidate, UNSW Sydney

Two months of scorching heatwaves and drought plunged China into an energy security crisis.

The southwest province of Sichuan, for example, relies on dams to generate around 80% of its electricity, with growth in hydropower crucial for China meeting its net-zero by 2060 emissions target.

Sichuan suffered from power shortages after low rainfall and extreme temperatures over 40℃ dried up rivers and reservoirs. Heavy rainfall this week, however, has just seen power in Sichuan for commercial and industrial use fully restored, according to official Chinese media.

The energy crisis has seen Beijing shift its political discourse and proclaim energy security as a more urgent national mission than the green energy transition. Now, the government is investing in a new wave of coal-fired power stations to try to meet demand.

In the first quarter of 2022 alone, China approved 8.63 gigawatts of new coal plants and, in May, announced C¥ 10 billion (A$2.1 billion) of investment in coal power generation. What’s more, it will expand the capacity of a number of coal mines to ensure domestic supply as the international coal market price jumped amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

China is responsible for around a third of global carbon dioxide emissions, which makes this latest rebound to fossil fuels a climate change emergency.

How did it come to this?

In 2021, China’s CO₂ emissions rose above 11.9 billion tonnes – their highest level in history and dwarfing those of other countries. And according to the International Energy Agency, rapid GDP growth and electrification of energy services caused China’s electricity demand to grow by 10% in 2021. This is faster than its economic growth at 8.4%.

China had been attempting to reduce its dependency on coal for decades, with the growth of coal consumption gradually flattening from 2014.

During its 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), the government called off a number of coal power projects. Thermal power investment halved over this time, dropping from C¥ 117.4 billion in 2016 to 55.3 billion in 2020 (A$24.7-11.2 billion).

In September 2020, President Xi Jinping delivered China’s “dual carbon” goal at the United Nations General Assembly, saying China will hit peak emissions before 2030 and reach net-zero by 2060.

A few months later, this goal was moved ahead of schedule. At a summit of global leaders, Jinping promised that China’s coal use would peak in 2025.

Read more:
China just stunned the world with its step-up on climate action – and the implications for Australia may be huge

But the downward trend of coal consumption started to rebound in 2021, with a 4.6% year-on-year increase, the highest growth rate in a decade.

Over 33 gigawatts of coal power generation, including at least 43 new power plants and 18 new blast furnaces, started construction in China in 2021. This is the highest level since 2016 and almost three times the rest of the world combined.

Then, in 2022, we witnessed the international coal market skyrocket as geopolitical tension from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and economic recovery from the pandemic boosted global demand. Beijing, in turn, increased domestic coal production with double-digit growth in the first half of 2022.

Tug of war between green energy and security

The current energy crisis is not only an unintended consequence of the drought, but also a result of its long-term net-zero emissions goal. Increased coal import costs and rash control of domestic coal production put China’s energy supply in question, and renewable energy wasn’t ready to fill the gap.

Indeed, it isn’t the first energy security crisis China has endured in recent years. Last year, dozens of provinces experienced “power cuts” partly due to long-term reductions in coal production between 2016-2020.

In response to the crisis, the People’s Daily newspaper – the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party – stated “the rice bowl of energy must be held in your own hands”. And Chinese Energy News called energy security a matter of national destiny.

Caught between green energy promises and dwindling energy supply, Beijing turned to see green energy as a secondary goal that could be put aside after energy security is fully guaranteed.

Read more:
China is gunning for supremacy in the global green hydrogen race. Will it shatter Australia’s dreams?

The principle of “establishment before abolition” (establishment of energy security before abolition of coal, xian li hou po) was reaffirmed in “Two Sessions”, an important political event in China held in March this year.

Chinese premier Li Keqiang positioned energy security to the same level of importance as food security in a Two Sessions government report.

A global emergency

The push for more coal power is at odds with China’s climate goals. According to China’s 13th Five Year Plan, coal-fired plants should be capped at generating 1,100 gigawatts of electricity.

To date, China has 1,074 gigawatts of coal power in operation, but more than 150 gigawatts of new plants have either been announced or permitted, according to the Global Energy Monitor.

The China Electricity Council – the industry group for China’s power sector – recommends the country reaches 1,300 gigawatts of coal-fired power in 2030 to meet the rising demand and strengthen energy security. If this occurs, it would see more than 300 new plants built.

Read more:
Beyond net-zero: we should, if we can, cool the planet back to pre-industrial levels

Without more restrictions against China’s use of fossil fuels, the world will hardly meet Paris Agreement climate targets.

China is expected to cease coal use entirely by 2050 in order to successfully meet promised climate targets. But the more resources are invested, the harder it’ll be for China to get rid of fossil fuels.

The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) will be crucial in determining how China meets its carbon commitments and whether the world is on track to meet the 1.5℃ target. Under this plan, China wants carbon to peak by 2030, but the action plan remains vague.

As Professor David Tyfield of the Lancaster Environment Centre asserted: “until China decarbonises, we’re not going to beat climate change.”

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

– ref. ‘Matter of national destiny’: China’s energy crisis sees the world’s top emitter investing in more coal – https://theconversation.com/matter-of-national-destiny-chinas-energy-crisis-sees-the-worlds-top-emitter-investing-in-more-coal-189142

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Guangyi Pan, PhD candidate, UNSW Sydney

Two months of scorching heatwaves and drought plunged China into an energy security crisis.

The southwest province of Sichuan, for example, relies on dams to generate around 80% of its electricity, with growth in hydropower crucial for China meeting its net-zero by 2060 emissions target.

Sichuan suffered from power shortages after low rainfall and extreme temperatures over 40℃ dried up rivers and reservoirs. Heavy rainfall this week, however, has just seen power in Sichuan for commercial and industrial use fully restored, according to official Chinese media.

The energy crisis has seen Beijing shift its political discourse and proclaim energy security as a more urgent national mission than the green energy transition. Now, the government is investing in a new wave of coal-fired power stations to try to meet demand.

In the first quarter of 2022 alone, China approved 8.63 gigawatts of new coal plants and, in May, announced C¥ 10 billion (A$2.1 billion) of investment in coal power generation. What’s more, it will expand the capacity of a number of coal mines to ensure domestic supply as the international coal market price jumped amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

China is responsible for around a third of global carbon dioxide emissions, which makes this latest rebound to fossil fuels a climate change emergency.

How did it come to this?

In 2021, China’s CO₂ emissions rose above 11.9 billion tonnes – their highest level in history and dwarfing those of other countries. And according to the International Energy Agency, rapid GDP growth and electrification of energy services caused China’s electricity demand to grow by 10% in 2021. This is faster than its economic growth at 8.4%.

China had been attempting to reduce its dependency on coal for decades, with the growth of coal consumption gradually flattening from 2014.

During its 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), the government called off a number of coal power projects. Thermal power investment halved over this time, dropping from C¥ 117.4 billion in 2016 to 55.3 billion in 2020 (A$24.7-11.2 billion).

In September 2020, President Xi Jinping delivered China’s “dual carbon” goal at the United Nations General Assembly, saying China will hit peak emissions before 2030 and reach net-zero by 2060.

A few months later, this goal was moved ahead of schedule. At a summit of global leaders, Jinping promised that China’s coal use would peak in 2025.

Read more:
China just stunned the world with its step-up on climate action – and the implications for Australia may be huge

But the downward trend of coal consumption started to rebound in 2021, with a 4.6% year-on-year increase, the highest growth rate in a decade.

Over 33 gigawatts of coal power generation, including at least 43 new power plants and 18 new blast furnaces, started construction in China in 2021. This is the highest level since 2016 and almost three times the rest of the world combined.

Then, in 2022, we witnessed the international coal market skyrocket as geopolitical tension from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and economic recovery from the pandemic boosted global demand. Beijing, in turn, increased domestic coal production with double-digit growth in the first half of 2022.

Tug of war between green energy and security

The current energy crisis is not only an unintended consequence of the drought, but also a result of its long-term net-zero emissions goal. Increased coal import costs and rash control of domestic coal production put China’s energy supply in question, and renewable energy wasn’t ready to fill the gap.

Indeed, it isn’t the first energy security crisis China has endured in recent years. Last year, dozens of provinces experienced “power cuts” partly due to long-term reductions in coal production between 2016-2020.

In response to the crisis, the People’s Daily newspaper – the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party – stated “the rice bowl of energy must be held in your own hands”. And Chinese Energy News called energy security a matter of national destiny.

Caught between green energy promises and dwindling energy supply, Beijing turned to see green energy as a secondary goal that could be put aside after energy security is fully guaranteed.

Read more:
China is gunning for supremacy in the global green hydrogen race. Will it shatter Australia’s dreams?

The principle of “establishment before abolition” (establishment of energy security before abolition of coal, xian li hou po) was reaffirmed in “Two Sessions”, an important political event in China held in March this year.

Chinese premier Li Keqiang positioned energy security to the same level of importance as food security in a Two Sessions government report.

A global emergency

The push for more coal power is at odds with China’s climate goals. According to China’s 13th Five Year Plan, coal-fired plants should be capped at generating 1,100 gigawatts of electricity.

To date, China has 1,074 gigawatts of coal power in operation, but more than 150 gigawatts of new plants have either been announced or permitted, according to the Global Energy Monitor.

The China Electricity Council – the industry group for China’s power sector – recommends the country reaches 1,300 gigawatts of coal-fired power in 2030 to meet the rising demand and strengthen energy security. If this occurs, it would see more than 300 new plants built.

Read more:
Beyond net-zero: we should, if we can, cool the planet back to pre-industrial levels

Without more restrictions against China’s use of fossil fuels, the world will hardly meet Paris Agreement climate targets.

China is expected to cease coal use entirely by 2050 in order to successfully meet promised climate targets. But the more resources are invested, the harder it’ll be for China to get rid of fossil fuels.

The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) will be crucial in determining how China meets its carbon commitments and whether the world is on track to meet the 1.5℃ target. Under this plan, China wants carbon to peak by 2030, but the action plan remains vague.

As Professor David Tyfield of the Lancaster Environment Centre asserted: “until China decarbonises, we’re not going to beat climate change.”

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

– ref. ‘Matter of national destiny’: China’s energy crisis see the world’s top emitter investing in more coal – https://theconversation.com/matter-of-national-destiny-chinas-energy-crisis-see-the-worlds-top-emitter-investing-in-more-coal-189142

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Jennings, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, University of Divinity

The newly formed “Diocese of the Southern Cross” has broken away from the Anglican Church of Australia to form a denomination committed to a highly conservative position on sexuality and marriage equality.

Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON), the association supporting the breakaway denomination, claim Anglican bishops “were unable to uphold the Bible’s ancient teaching on marriage and sexual ethics”, making their defection necessary.

One question Australians, the majority of whom support marriage equality, may ask is – why is sexuality such a significant issue for the Christians who have left to form this group, and many conservative Christians generally?

According to GAFCON, the answer is “orthodoxy”. In the sense used here, orthodoxy refers to “right teaching” (this is broader than the word’s more specific meaning in Eastern Orthodox Christianity). Permitting anything other than heterosexual relations or marriage, GAFCON argues, is a departure from Christianity’s long-held orthodox stance.

However, this understanding of orthodoxy is not “ancient teaching”, but new.

The claim that sexuality has always been central to Christianity is shaky

Historically, Christian orthodoxy had nothing to do with sexuality.

The first time there was a need for Christians to define orthodoxy was in the late third century. Around this time, a renegade priest named Arius began teaching that Jesus Christ was an important human being, but not the divine Son of God.

Beginning with the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, seven Ecumenical Councils of the church were convened in order to establish the orthodox “doctrines and dogmata” – theological statements and principles – about the nature of God and Jesus.

The formal statements of belief were orthodox because they concerned what might be called Christianity’s “logic of salvation” – how humanity was saved from sin and death by Jesus.

“Heresy”, or false teaching, was perceived as a threat to the faith’s existence.

Read more:
Anglican disunity on same-sex marriage threatens to tear the church apart

Not only is the claim that sexuality is central to Christian orthodoxy dubious, but it’s not certain same-sex sexuality has always been condemned by the church. Bible scholars such as William Loader and Heather R. White call into question the interpretation of Biblical passages that conservative Christians claim exclude same-sex sexuality.

Historians like John Boswell, Judith C. Brown, and Mark D. Jordan have shown that while same-sex sexuality was at times prohibited, at other times it was tolerated and even celebrated over the course of Christian history.

So the argument that sexuality has always been central to Christian orthodoxy is shaky. Yet, it seems that for some conservative Christians, this view of sexuality has become more important than doctrines that really are central to orthodoxy, traditionally understood.

Read more:
A thousand years ago, the Catholic Church paid little attention to homosexuality

So why is sexuality so important to conservative Christians now?

This leaves us with our initial question unanswered – why is sexuality so important for this group of Christians now?

One answer is to be found in the work of the 20th century French academic Michel Foucault.

Foucault was fascinated by how certain ways of understanding and speaking about the world actually shape what we can see and say – making some things very visible and important, while other things become invisible and impossible.

Foucault called this “discourse”, which for him had a broader meaning than our everyday usage. He argued discourse was more than words or discussion on a topic. Discourse includes that, but also the practices, language, techniques and overall conditions that produce the acceptable “truth” in relation to something.

In The History of Sexuality, Foucault argued sexuality was the discourse of sex, or the set of conditions that create the acceptable “truth” concerning sex. He observed two such discourses, both emerging in the mid-19th century.

The first was concerned with classifying sexual practices in order to declare some healthy and normal, and others wrong or requiring “treatment”.

The second was a “reverse discourse”, opposed to the criminalisation of homosexuality and promoting sexual freedom.

Conservative Christians tend to align with the first discourse, firmly holding that same-sex sexuality is opposed to God’s “truth” of sex. In fact, being the ones who have the authority to say what is and is not the “truth” of sexuality has become a marker of who is “really” Christian. As Church of England priest and educator Mark Vasey-Saunders puts it, “an issue that had never featured in any evangelical basis of faith came to represent the definitive mark of authentic Christian identity”.

The conflict that has led to the Diocese of the Southern Cross breaking away from the Australian Anglican church isn’t based on ancient teachings, as the new group claim. The ancient meaning of “orthodoxy” had nothing to do with sexuality, but concerned matters related to the nature of God and Christian salvation.

The position of the new denomination is the result of a modern discursive conflict over the “truth” of sex. The fact that sexuality has become central in a way it never has been before helps explain why this group decided it was important enough to leave their former church. It couldn’t be more important, as in this new “orthodoxy” the cost of giving ground is ceasing to be truly Christian at all.

Mark Jennings is employed by the Anglican Diocese of Perth

– ref. The Anglican split: why has sexuality become so important to conservative Christians? – https://theconversation.com/the-anglican-split-why-has-sexuality-become-so-important-to-conservative-christians-189130

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Conley Tyler, Honorary Fellow, Asia Institute, The University of Melbourne

The government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has just reached 100 days, a time to assess its performance.

Looking at foreign policy, the question is whether there has been continuity or change from the policies of prior governments. The correct answer is usually both.

Commentators will rightly say there has been great continuity on international policy with no revolutionary change in direction. As Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong recently said,

I have made clear that our national interests, our strategic policy settings haven’t changed – but obviously the government has, and how the government approaches engaging with the world and articulating those interests has changed.

Read more:
First Newspoll since election gives Albanese ‘honeymoon’ ratings; Australia’s poor success rate at referendums

So where can we see this change?

Increased international engagement

The first change is in the simple volume of international engagement. The day after he was sworn in, Albanese was in Tokyo for the Quad Leaders’ Summit, quickly followed by his first bilateral visit to Indonesia.

Wong has made four separate trips to the Pacific (Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, New Zealand and Solomon Islands, as well as July’s Pacific Islands Forum Summit) and three to Southeast Asia (Vietnam and Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia twice).

Minister for Defence Richard Marles has visited Singapore, India, the United States and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda. And Minister for Trade Don Farrell was busy in Geneva with the WTO Ministerial Conference and bilateral meetings.

Some of this activity is due to the fortuitous timing of international meetings, but the rest is a conscious choice to prioritise international engagement. It suggests a certain amount of pent-up energy among new ministers with much on their agendas after so long in opposition.

The overall impression is of a government focused on international matters, which has perhaps adopted the mindset that external policy is as important as domestic policy. Albanese defended his trip to the NATO summit and Ukraine saying,

we can’t separate international events from their impact on Australia and Australians.

Resetting key relationships

The second change is a reset in some key relationships. Every new government should use the opportunity to get rid of barnacles that have attached themselves to the ship of state.

This was most notable in the reset in relations with France, still seething from the cancellation of its submarine construction deal in favour of AUKUS, the trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The diplomatic freeze with China was broken by the two ministers for defence meeting at the Shangri-La Dialogue and the ministers for foreign affairs meeting soon after. This was presented as “stabilising the relationship”, with the government stressing that there has been no change in policy position.

Changes in climate, Pacific and South-East Asia

Third, there has been a substantive policy change on climate action. This has had an impact on Australia’s international relations, particularly in the Pacific, where there had been no secret about Pacific leaders’ disappointment in Australia’s lack of climate ambition.

Read more:
Laggard to leader? Labor could repair Australia’s tattered reputation on climate change, if it gets these things right

Only four days after being sworn in, Wong spoke to the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat to herald “a new era in Australian engagement in the Pacific” based on standing “shoulder to shoulder with our Pacific family” in response to the climate crisis.

Pacific leaders including the prime ministers of Samoa and Tonga welcomed this policy shift. While it won’t all be plain sailing ahead – with Australia likely to continue to face pressure around the speed of its transition away from fossil fuels – relations are much more positive.

Fourth, there has been a change in tone on some issues. For example, in South-east Asia former Prime Minister Morrison’s framing around an “arc of autocracies” was viewed as proposing a binary choice between democratic and authoritarian blocs. The Albanese government’s messaging emphasises “strategic equilibrium” where “countries are not forced to choose but can make their own sovereign choices, including about their alignments and partnerships”.

Increasing Australia’s international capability

Finally, the government is beginning the hard work of increasing Australia’s international capability across all tools of statecraft. It has announced a Defence Strategic Review and is updating its International Development Policy.

Read more:
Diplomacy is essential to a peaceful world, so why did DFAT’s funding go backwards in the budget?

The government has also committed to building the capability of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade after decades of declining funding. Allan Gyngell, National President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA), sees this as a significant change:

“After years of marginalisation, foreign policy has been restored to a more central part of Australian statecraft.”

Long-term goals

Overall, after the flurry of early visits, the Albanese government gives the impression of a government settling in for the long-term.

Looking back on nine years of the previous government – with three prime ministers creating a sense of constant campaign mode – domestic politics often seemed to dominate. The new government gives the impression it is building relationships for the long-term – three, six or more years.

In its first frenetic days, the Albanese government took the opportunity to reset some key relationships. Now it’s all about steadily building these relationships and the capability to enable Australia to pursue its national interests in the long-term.

Melissa Conley Tyler is Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue (AP4D), a platform for collaboration between the development, diplomacy and defence communities. It receives funding from the Australian Civil-Military Centre and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

– ref. Foreign policy and the Albanese government’s first 100 days – https://theconversation.com/foreign-policy-and-the-albanese-governments-first-100-days-189460

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

Arthritis is a disease that affects body joints. There are more than 100 types of arthritis, with more than 350 million people affected around the globe, including about four million Australians.

Arthritis causes pain and disability and commonly reduces quality of life. In Australia in 2015, about 54,000 people aged 45–64 couldn’t work due to severe arthritis. Their median income was only a quarter of the income of full-time workers who did not have arthritis.

So it is not surprising some people want to try different diets, supplements or therapies to see if they alleviate symptoms or help them gain a sense of control over their condition.

However, a major review found specific supplements or food components were unlikely to lead to significant improvements in arthritis outcomes such as stiffness, pain and function.

The main nutrition recommendation was to adopt healthy eating patterns.

Remind me, what causes arthritis? And what are the symptoms?

Risk factors for developing arthritis include ones you can’t control – such as genetics, sex, and age – and some you may be able to, such as smoking, repetitive injuries, body weight, occupation and some infections.

Types of arthritis include osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, juvenile arthritis, gout, systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus) and scleroderma.

Read more:
Arthritis isn’t just a condition affecting older people, it likely starts much earlier

Common symptoms include:

• pain
• stiffness or reduced joint movement
• swelling, redness and warmth in the joints.

Less specific symptoms include tiredness, weight loss or feeling unwell.

So what does the evidence say about supplements?

The European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology, the expert European group on arthritis, recently published a detailed critique on diet and supplement use in arthritis. It synthesised findings from 24 systematic reviews of existing research as well as an additional 150 extra studies, covering more than 80 different dietary components and supplements.

The alliance identified there were limited studies on each individual product with the majority of studies being of low quality. This means that for most supplements they couldn’t make recommendations about whether or not to use them.

However, for osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, although most studies were of low or moderate quality, a few supplements had positive effects.

Vitamin D, chondroitin and glucosamine

For osteoarthritis, there was moderate-quality evidence supporting a small positive effect on pain and function for taking vitamin D, chondroitin and glucosamine (both compounds found in cartilage) supplements.

Here, moderate quality means although the studies had some limitations and their results should be interpreted with caution, they can be used to guide recommendations.

This suggests people could choose to try these common supplements for a few months and see whether they get any benefit, but stop taking them if there is no improvement in their symptoms.

Fish oil

For rheumatoid arthritis, there was moderate quality evidence for a small positive effect on pain for omega-3 (fish) oils.

Again, people could try these supplements for a few months and see whether they get any benefit, but stop taking them if there is no improvement.

Other supplements

For all other arthritis categories, and other specific dietary components or supplements, the evidence was rated as low to very low (see tables 1–5 in this link).

This means any improvements in arthritis outcomes could be due to chance or bias, with positive results more likely to be published, or potential bias occurring when a trial was sponsored by a supplement manufacturer.

Read more:
I’m taking glucosamine for my arthritis. So what’s behind the new advice to stop?

What does it all mean?

Current research indicates it’s unlikely specific foods, supplements or dietary components affect arthritis outcomes to a large degree.

However, given the higher risk for heart disease associated with arthritis, the recommendation is to have a healthy diet and lifestyle in order to improve your overall health and wellbeing.

So how do you improve your health and wellbeing? Here are five key things to consider:

1. Eat a healthy, varied diet

Eating food – rather than taking supplements – means you get the other nutrients that foods contain, including healthy sources of fat, protein, dietary fibre and a range of vitamin and minerals essential to maintain a healthy body.

This is why the recommendation for people with arthritis is to eat a healthy diet, because vegetables, fruit, legumes and wholegrains contain a range of phytonutrients needed to help dampen down oxidative stress triggered by inflammatory processes associated with arthritis.

Read more:
What is a balanced diet anyway?

A healthy diet includes foods rich in omega-3 fats such as fatty fish (salmon, tuna, sardines), chia seeds, flaxseed oil, walnuts, canola oil, and vitamin D (eggs, fish, and milk or margarine fortified with vitamin D). And don’t forget sun exposure, which allows the body to produce vitamin D.

2. Avoid alcohol

Alcohol intake should be discussed with your doctor as it can interact with other treatments.

Small amounts of alcohol are unlikely to have negative impacts on arthritis, unless you have other health issues like liver disease or you take certain medications such as methotrexate or leflunomide.

For rheumatoid arthritis, moderate alcohol consumption could increase the risk of arthritis flare ups.

Alcohol can also increase the risk of gout flare ups.

Read more:
Got gout? Here’s what to eat and avoid

3. Aim for a healthy weight

Aiming for a healthy weight can help arthritis by reducing the load on affected joints such as hips and knees, and by boosting your intake of healthy foods rich in phytonutrients.

Ask your doctor for support to achieve well managed, intentional weight loss if you’re carrying excess weight. You may need referral to an accredited practising dietitian for personalised medical nutrition therapy or to a physiotherapist or exercise physiologist for specific help to improve mobility and physical activity.

Read more:
Health Check: what’s the best diet for weight loss?

4. Be cautious with supplements

If you decide to try specific complimentary therapies or dietary supplements, discuss potential side-effects or interactions with your regular medicines with your doctor and pharmacist.

Try the products for a few months (or as long as one container lasts) so you can monitor any side-effects versus your sense of wellbeing, reduction in use of pain medications and the cost. If you’re not getting any benefit then spend that money on more healthy foods instead.

Find out how healthy your diet is by taking our free Healthy Eating Quiz.

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

– ref. Can supplements or diet reduce symptoms of arthritis? Here’s what the evidence says – https://theconversation.com/can-supplements-or-diet-reduce-symptoms-of-arthritis-heres-what-the-evidence-says-184151

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milena Bojovic, PhD Candidate, Macquarie University

The global dairy industry is changing. Among the disruptions is competition from alternatives not produced using animals – including potential challenges posed by synthetic milk.

Synthetic milk is produced without animals. It can have the same biochemical make up as animal milk, but is grown using an emerging biotechnology technique know as “precision fermentation” that produces biomass cultured from cells.

More than 80% of the world’s population regularly consume dairy products. There have been increasing calls to move beyond animal-based food systems to more sustainable forms of food production.

Synthetic milks offer dairy milk without concerns such as methane emissions or animal welfare. But it must overcome many challenges and pitfalls to become a fair, sustainable and viable alternative to animal-based milk.

Not a sci-fi fantasy

My recent research examined megatrends in the global dairy sector. Plant-based milks and, potentially, synthetic milks, emerged as a key disruption.

Unlike synthetic meat – which can struggle to match the complexity and texture of animal meat – synthetic milk is touted as having the same taste, look and feel as normal dairy milk.

Synthetic milk is not a sci-fi fantasy; it already exists. In the US, for example, the Perfect Day company supplies animal-free protein made from microflora, which is then used to make ice cream, protein powder and milk.

In Australia, start-up company Eden Brew has been developing synthetic milk at Werribee in Victoria. The company is targeting consumers increasingly concerned about climate change and, in particular, the contribution of methane from dairy cows.

CSIRO reportedly developed the technology behind the Eden Brew product. The process starts with yeast and uses “precision fermentation” to produce the same proteins found in cow milk.

CSIRO says these proteins give milk many of its key properties and contribute to its creamy texture and frothing ability. Minerals, sugars, fats and flavours are added to the protein base to create the final product.

Towards a new food system?

Also in Australia, the All G Foods company this month raised A$25 million to accelerate production of its synthetic milk. Within seven years, the company wants its synthetic milk to be cheaper than cow milk.

If the synthetic milk industry can achieve this cost aim across the board, the potential to disrupt the dairy industry is high. It could steer humanity further away from traditional animal agriculture towards radically different food systems.

A 2019 report into the future of dairy found that by 2030, the US precision fermentation industry will create at least 700,000 jobs.

And if synthetic milk can replace dairy as an ingredient in the industrial food processing sector this could present significant challenges for companies that produce milk powder for the ingredient market.

Some traditional dairy companies are jumping on the bandwagon. For example, Australian dairy co-operative Norco is backing the Eden Brew project, and New Zealands largest dairy cooperative, Fonterra last week annouced a joint venture to develop and commercialise “fermentation-derived proteins with dairy-like properties”.

Synthetic milk: the whey forward?

The synthetic milk industry must grow exponentially before it becomes a sizeable threat to animal-based dairy milk. This will require a lot of capital and investment in research and development, as well as new manufacturing infrastructure such as fermentation tanks and bioreactors.

Production of conventional animal-milk in the Global South now outstrips that of the Global North, largely due to rapid growth across Asia. Certainly, the traditional dairy industry is not going away any time soon.

And synthetic milk is not a panacea. While the technology has huge potential for environmental and animal welfare gains, it comes with challenges and potential downsides.

For example, alternative proteins do not necessarily challenge the corporatisation or homogenisation of conventional industrial agriculture. This means big synthetic milk producers might push out low-tech or small-scale dairy – and alternative dairy – systems.

What’s more, synthetic milk could further displace many people from the global dairy sector. If traditional dairy co-ops in Australia and New Zealand are moving into synthetic milk, for example, where does this leave dairy farmers?

As synthetic milk gains ground in coming years, we must guard against replicating existing inequities in the current food system.

And the traditional dairy sector must recognise it’s on the cusp of pivotal change. In the face of multiple threats, it should maximise the social benefits of both animal-based dairy and minimise its contribution to climate change.

Milena Bojovic 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. Not like udder milk: ‘synthetic milk’ made without cows may be coming to supermarket shelves near you – https://theconversation.com/not-like-udder-milk-synthetic-milk-made-without-cows-may-be-coming-to-supermarket-shelves-near-you-189046

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ralf Buckley, International Chair in Ecotourism Research, Griffith University

Australia’s national parks in several states are under siege from privatisation by stealth. Developers are using the lure of ecotourism to build posh private lodges with exclusive access deep inside many iconic parks.

The problem is, not everyone can afford private lodges. There’s a real danger in letting developers take over precious parts of nature. We know nature is good for our mental health – and the wilder the better. One in five Australians report at least one episode of mental illness in the previous year.

Our new research shows protected areas in Australia boost the mental health of visitors, seen in productivity gains of up to 11% for people who visit at least once a month. Nationwide, that means our national parks give us a productivity gain of 1.8% and cut healthcare costs by 0.6%. We found the therapeutic effects of nature for mentally unhealthy park visitors are 2.5 times greater than for mentally healthy visitors.

Access to nature in national parks is one of the few free mental health boosts available to the less well-off as well as the wealthy. If creeping privatisation takes root in our parks – replacing campsites with expensive accommodation – those who most need the boost from nature will find it harder to get.

The public doesn’t want private development in parks

In national parks, the public wants signs, tracks, toilets, and tent sites, run by parks agencies and available to everyone. The public almost always opposes permanent accommodation in parks, whoever owns it, based on the belief private lodges and camps should be on private land.

But state governments in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia have enabled this regardless. Think of the pristine Ben Boyd National Park near Eden in NSW, slated for eco-tourism cabins at the expense of campers. Or of the Cooloola Recreational Area in Queensland’s Great Sandy National Park near Noosa, where luxury cabins are planned.

The examples go on: ecotourism cabins in Main Range National Park in Queensland, Tasmania’s private Three Capes walk in Tasman national park and a resort in Freycinet National Park, as well as Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

Read more:
Buzz off honey industry, our national parks shouldn’t be milked for money

While visitors to ecotourism developments report improved wellbeing and mental health, the issue is about who gets access. Private developments exclude the wider public, both physically and financially.

Some 70% of Australians visit a national park at least once a year. These visits reduces our healthcare costs by A$12.3 billion a year, and increases economic productivity by A$35 billion a year.

Worldwide, we have estimated the money saved through better mental health deriving from visits to protected areas to be around A$8.5 trillion per year.

Socialise the costs?

Private lodges impose costs on cash-strapped parks agencies, due to their fixed footprints, permanent occupation and need for new access roads and paths. Lodges can also increase management costs for park staff through weed control, pathogens, feral animals, noise, bushfires and water pollution.

When some in-park enterprises collapse, they can leave large clean-up costs for the taxpayer, as we’ve seen at Queensland’s Hinchinbrook Island.

Read more:
From Kangaroo Island to the Great Barrier Reef, the paradox that is luxury ecotourism

Parks agencies sometimes have to buy back rights given away free, such as after the collapse of the Seal Rocks centre on Victoria’s Phillip Island.

Private development also comes with increased legal and financial risks for the state, such as after the Thredbo landslide in 1997.

All these costs cut into funds allocated for conservation.

If we let the tourism industry take greater control over park access for private profit, we risk turning famous natural places into exclusive havens for people with money.

This is not to say tourist ventures have no place. Commercial nature tourism businesses can benefit, and contribute, by guiding inexperienced visitors to visit national parks. But the parks themselves, and all their facilities, should remain publicly owned and accessible to all.

National parks are a major tourism drawcard. Commercial enterprises benefit from visitor spending along access routes, in gateway settlements outside park boundaries, and by operating mobile guided tours inside parks under similar conditions to independent visitors. Private lodges inside parks compete with these existing businesses.

Read more:
‘Laid awake and wept’: destruction of nature takes a toll on the human psyche. Here’s one way to cope

We don’t have to give private interests everything they ask for

While some other countries do allow private lodges in national parks, the models are very different from those in Australia.

In Botswana, for example, private leases in protected areas are short, facilities are fully removable, and private tour operators pay 80% of the parks agency budget.

For comparison, proposals for a private island heli lodge in Tasmania’s Lake Malbena offered only A$4,000 a year.

In the US, the National Parks Service subcontracts visitor services to private concessionaires, but owns the facilities, requires bonds equal to 100% of capital value, and sets all conditions and prices.

In India, luxury lodges must generally be located outside park gates, while private hotels inside parks in China have been removed by the parks agency.

The quiet privatisation of access to national parks risks restricting nature’s mental and physical health benefits to the well-heeled. We need to protect public access to wild places meant for the public.

Read more:
Is nature-based tourism development really what our national parks need?

Funding for published research as cited here, declared in publications. Ralf Buckley 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.

Alienor Chauvenet 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. ‘Stealth privatisation’ in iconic national parks threatens public access to nature’s health boost – https://theconversation.com/stealth-privatisation-in-iconic-national-parks-threatens-public-access-to-natures-health-boost-188063

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leigh Carriage, Senior Lecturer in Music, Southern Cross University

After 45 years together the B-52’s have announced they are unplugging and de-wigging for their final US tour. “No one likes to throw a party more than we do, but after almost a half-century on the road, it’s time for one last blowout with our friends and family… our fans,” said Fred Schneider.

Who was to know that an impromptu jam session in 1976 in the American college town of Athens, Georgia, would be the foundation of a 45-year career?

The innovative band that formed in 1976 originally consisted of Cindy Wilson (vocals and guitar), Kate Pierson (vocals and keyboards), Fred Schneider (vocals), Ricky Wilson (guitar) and Keith Strickland (drums).

The world’s introduction to the B-52’s was the almost seven-minute song Rock Lobster. An unexpected hit, this uplifting musical concoction is comprised of a baritone-tuned Mosrite electric guitar riff, interspersed with stabbing Farfisa organ accents, and an array of vocal interplay with jazz-esque backing vocal parts.

These are interspersed with Pierson’s dolphin like vocal sounds while Schneider’s unique lead vocal spoken delivery offers lyrics about a crustacean. The accompanying video presented a mixture of pop culture’s past with 1950’s cartoonist hair styles, surf culture, combined with uniquely erratic choreography, but musically there are elements that serve as a disruption to pop music.

Rock Lobster reached number one in Canada, three in Australia, 37 on the UK singles charts and 56 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Influences and scene

The band’s influences draw from diverse sources across pop culture, such as B-grade movies, Captain Beefheart, 60’s dance moves, Dusty Springfield, comic books, animated cartoons, the composer Nino Rota (Fellini films), pulp science-fiction and Yoko Ono.

This is perhaps best illustrated in the song Planet Claire (1978) which opens instrumentally with intermittent radio frequencies that fade to a central guitar riff derived from Mancini’s Peter Gunn theme, then bongos and keyboards stabs, and Pierson’s mesmerising unison singing (chromatic long notes) with the DX7 keyboard part. This is followed by witty, farcical lyrics with an abundance of sci-fi references: satellites, speed of light, Mars.

The B-52’s emerged from the 1970’s New Wave (rock) scene with their own combination of non-threatening post-punk and alternative surf rock musical aesthetics. Subversion was in the form of less musical dissonance and less density, more freedom, more harmonies, more play. Less aggressive, more diva, with an infectious enthusiasm.

They created their own niche that was unquestionably southern, and importantly broke new ground as LGBTIQ+ icons, by infusing an uncompromisingly camp and queer sensibility into pop culture.

From 1979 to 1986, the band recorded four studio albums that were best known for dance grooves, featuring the distinctive vocals of Schneider using sprechgesang (a spoken singing style credited to Humperdinck in 1897 and Schoenberg in 1912), the highly experimental vocal approaches of Pierson, growls and harmonies by Wilson, and Strickland’s surf guitar riffs.

They made novel instrumentation choices: toy pianos, walkie talkies, glockenspiels, and bongos, coupled with the innovative use of up-cycled fashion and costumes evoking individuality and liberation.

The exception was the EP Mesopotamia (1982) produced by David Byrne, a significant departure from their previous song production. Most noticeable is the slower tempo of Mesopotamia, 119 beats per minute (BPM) compared with Rock Lobster’s (1978) 179 BPM and Private Idaho’s (1980) driving 166 BPM tempo. Mesopotamia features additional synthesizer parts, poly-rhythmic beats (the combination of two or more different rhythms following the same pulse) and world beat influences.

On the surface the B-52s lyrics could be misconstrued as merely comedic, or nonsensical, however there are deeper underlining lyrical meanings that speak for the marginalised, referencing the band’s political ideology: environmental causes, feminism, LGBTIQ+ rights, and AIDS activism.

Late 1980s and early 1990s

Bouncing Off The Satellites took three years to complete and was released in 1986. Sadly, Ricky Wilson died from HIV/AIDS related illness in 1985 just after the recording sessions were complete. The B-52s reshaped the band with Strickland switching from drums to lead guitar. Later, the band also added touring members for studio albums and live performances.

The B-52s album with the greatest commercial success was Cosmic Thing (1989) co-produced by Don Was and Nile Rodgers. The single Love Shack, went double platinum, reached number 1 for eight weeks, and sold 5 million copies.

The song opens with engaging drum sounds at an infectious dance tempo of 133 BPM (beats per minute). Schneider’s distinctive vocal enters, then the bass and guitar parts. The arrangement places the hooks at the front in the song, with chorus vocal parts in 4ths.

Adding to the infectious groove is the live band sound featuring real brass section, and bass guitar and a bluesy guitar riff with crowd noises in the background. The alluring backing vocal parts on the lyrics “bang, bang, bang, on the door baby” are clearly reminiscent of the Batman television theme music.

Into the 21st century

In 2008 the band re-emerged from a 16-year recording absence with the 11-track album Funplex. There are notable modifications to the B-52s signature sound. Funplex is not the frenetic and spontaneous party music of previous albums. There are a few adaptations vocally too, with a change of roles with spoken word from Wilson and Pierson.

The band has toured every summer, with a variety of other bands on the circuit, the Tubes, Go-Go’s, Psychedelic Furs and KC & The Sunshine Band building new audiences.

Their appeal is still broad. In 2020, Rock Lobster was used in Australia for an Optus ad.
The farewell tour billed as “their final tour ever of planet Earth” commences in August this year in Seattle.

Leigh Carriage 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. Get out your glitter and head down the Atlanta Highway – the B-52s are setting out on their final dance party! – https://theconversation.com/get-out-your-glitter-and-head-down-the-atlanta-highway-the-b-52s-are-setting-out-on-their-final-dance-party-182934

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Hall, Senior Researcher, Environmental Law Initiative and Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Law, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Hundreds of endangered sea turtles have been caught in New Zealand’s commercial fisheries since 2002, according to a recent report released by the Department of Conservation (DOC).

At least 80% are leatherback turtles, most likely from their western Pacific subpopulation which is considered critically endangered. The captures occur overwhelmingly in the surface longline fishery off the east coast of the North Island between January and April.

Although this DOC report is recent, the authors make it clear the underlying data have been known to the New Zealand government for years.

The lack of action to reduce the turtle bycatch risks damaging the reputation of New Zealand’s seafood industry.

The DOC report summarises observer and fisher data. It found 50 leatherback turtles were reported during 2020-2021.

Reporting of bycatch species by fishing vessels is known to under-represent actual capture numbers and observers are only onboard a small percentage of the time.

A 2021 report for the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) extrapolated data from vessels with observers across the rest of the fishing fleet and estimated that the average number of turtles caught across the New Zealand fleet each year ranges between 23 to 127.

Read more:
How a new app helps fishing boats avoid endangered species

Threat to turtles

To put these bycatch numbers in perspective, the estimated population of western Pacific leatherback turtles is as low as 1,000 nesting females per year.

All sea turtle species found in New Zealand waters – leatherback, green, hawksbill, loggerhead and olive ridley – are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species, but the leatherback western Pacific subpopulation is listed as critically endangered, due to a large and continuing drop in population size.

Read more:
Dolphins, turtles and birds don’t have to die in fishing gear – skilled fishers can avoid it

The DOC report cites other studies of what happens to turtles once they’ve been caught on a fishing line. About 5% are dead on capture, but many will die later from their injuries.

One study concluded 27% of turtles hooked externally or with line left attached die after release. This increases to 42% for those hooked in the mouth or ingesting the hook. Leatherback turtles are thought to suffer a slightly higher mortality rate than other turtle species.

The US government authority on marine management, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), acknowledges the impact on turtles from fishing bycatch. It states:

The primary threat to sea turtles is their unintended capture in fishing gear which can result in drowning or cause injuries that lead to death or debilitation.

New Zealand lacks bycatch mitigation measures

New Zealand currently has no mandatory mitigation measures to prevent the bycatch of turtles. DOC has a protected species liaison programme that issues guidance to fishers, but the measures are voluntary and unenforceable.

In fact, New Zealand has an exemption from the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) mitigation measures on the basis of a low rate of turtle bycatch.

However, as the DOC report details, a rate is a questionable way to decide whether mitigation measures should apply – total numbers are what matter to the turtle population. Regardless, the DOC report also suggests that New Zealand has frequently breached the rate below which the exemption applies.

The turtle bycatch figures provided by New Zealand at a recent WCPFC meeting in August paint a different picture to the DOC and MPI reports described here. Only turtle captures from when an observer was onboard are included.

Observer coverage in these fisheries in New Zealand is low – at only 5.8%, according to a 2016 DOC report. The same report also recommends a review of observer coverage as it is essentially in the wrong time and place to monitor turtle captures.

US mitigation and legislation

The lack of mitigation in New Zealand contrasts strikingly with other countries. For example, Hawai’i has reduced its turtle bycatch by 90% using a suite of measures, including hook and bait restrictions, a total fishery cap (16 leatherbacks), individual vessel limits, 100% observer coverage, oceanographic modelling to predict turtle location and closure of high-risk areas.

The US doesn’t focus solely on what happens in its own fisheries. Laws exist in the US in part to protect their own fishers from being undercut by seafood products from countries with lower environmental standards. The intention of these laws is to lift the performance of countries wanting to use US ports or to sell their seafood products in the US market.

Read more:
Catch-22: technology can help solve fishing’s environmental issues – but risks swapping one problem for another

One such law is currently being tested by the environmental organisation Sea Shepherd in relation to Māui dolphins. The group is challenging the US government under the Marine Mammals Protection Act (US) for its failure to ban seafood imports from New Zealand fisheries known to affect Māui dolphins.

Another law, the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act is relevant as well. It requires NOAA to identify countries whose fishing vessels catch protected marine life shared with the US and whose measures are less protective than those of the US.

NOAA undertakes a three-step process of identification, consultation and certification that can result in denial of US port access and potential import restrictions on fish or fish products.

The US takes a particular interest in the bycatch of turtles. US researchers have estimated that without concerted conservation measures Pacific leatherbacks could be extinct by the end of this century. Last year, NOAA identified Mexico and 28 states that fish for tuna under the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas for not having measures “comparable in effectiveness to those of the US to reduce or end the bycatch” of sea turtles.

Read more:
Scientists at work: Helping endangered sea turtles, one emergency surgery at a time

New Zealand has traditionally prided itself on having a world-leading fisheries management system. But unless it takes fast and concerted mitigation action on a par with that found in the US, the New Zealand government is placing itself at significant legal and reputational risk.

The fate of the Pacific leatherback turtle also hangs in the balance.

Matthew Hall is a Senior Researcher at the Environmental Law Initiative.

Ingrid O’Sullivan is a Senior Researcher at the Environmental Law Initiative.

– ref. NZ’s inaction on turtle bycatch in fisheries risks reputational damage — and it’s pushing leatherbacks closer to extinction – https://theconversation.com/nzs-inaction-on-turtle-bycatch-in-fisheries-risks-reputational-damage-and-its-pushing-leatherbacks-closer-to-extinction-189042

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist), The Conversation

The Victorian election will be held in three months, on November 26. A Victorian state Newspoll, conducted August 22-25 from a sample of 1,027, gave Labor a 56-44 lead (57.3-42.7 at the 2018 election). Primary votes were 41% Labor (42.9% at election), 36% Coalition (35.2%), 13% Greens (10.7%) and 10% for all Others (11.2%).

Labor Premier Daniel Andrews had a 54% satisfied and 41% dissatisfied rating, for a net approval of +13, while Liberal leader Matthew Guy was at 49% dissatisfied, 32% satisfied (net -17). Andrews led Guy as better premier by 51-34. Newspoll figures are from The Poll Bludger.

Labor has a large poll lead, and would easily retain its majority in the Victorian lower house if this poll were replicated at the election. There are still three months to go, and Coalition parties in the states should do better with a federal Labor government.

At the federal election, independents won ten of the 151 House of Representatives seats, an increase of seven from the 2019 election, and six of those seven new independents were “teals”. It will be interesting to see whether the teals succeed at the state election; a teal candidate has nominated for the normally safe Liberal seat of Kew.

A Victorian state Resolve poll for The Age, conducted with the federal Resolve poll last week that gave Labor a massive lead, had Labor leading the Coalition by 42-21 on best party to govern with integrity and honesty.

By 53-18, voters expected Labor to win the election. As this poll was a subsample of the national poll, the sample was only “more than 500” – not enough for a voting intentions poll.

Before the federal election campaign, Resolve was giving voting intentions from Victoria and NSW every two months based on state subsamples from their national monthly polls that averaged two months’ data. If Resolve does a national poll in September, I expect Victorian voting intentions from an average of that poll and this one.

Federal Essential: leaders’ favourability ratings

A federal Essential poll asked respondents to rate several party leaders on a scale from 0 to 10. Scores of 0-3 were counted as negative, 4-6 as neutral and 7-10 as positive. As well as neutral, there were “unsure” and “never heard of” categories. Ratings for Albanese and Dutton should not be compared with standard approve or disapprove questions.

Albanese was at 43% positive and 23% negative, Dutton was at 34% negative and 26% positive and Nationals leader David Littleproud was at 27% negative, 21% positive. Greens leader Adam Bandt was at 37% negative, 23% positive, Jacqui Lambie was at 27% positive, 27% negative and Pauline Hanson was at 48% negative, 22% positive.

80% thought the government should have an active role in shaping the economy, while 20% thought the government should stay out and leave it up to the market. 58% thought Australia’s economic system is broken and the government needs to make fundamental changes, while 42% thought our economic system is basically sound and only minor changes are required.

By 57-9, respondents thought small business views of the economy aligned with their best interests. Community organisations were at 51-9, unions at 36-28 and big business at 31-29 against alignment. This Essential poll was taken in the days before August 23 from a sample of 1,065.

There has not been a federal Newspoll since August 1. After a long break following the 2019 federal election, Newspoll usually appeared once every three weeks until it was ramped up early this year prior to the election. During the election campaign there was a Newspoll every week. It’s plausible the long gap between Newspolls now is to offset the intense campaign period.

Federal parliament resumes for two weeks on September 5. Labor will aim to pass their climate legislation through the Senate. The Greens supported it in the House of Representatives after Labor made changes. Labor has 26 of the 76 senators and the Greens 12, so Labor needs one more vote, most likely from either David Pocock or the Jacqui Lambie Network.

Read more:
Final Senate results: Labor, the Greens and David Pocock will have a majority of senators

Australia Institute survey on China

Dynata conducted surveys about China in both Taiwan and Australia for the left-wing Australia Institute, from samples of just over 1,000 in both countries. The Poll Bludger reported that 47% of Australians expected a Chinese attack on Australia soon (9%) or sometime (38%), with just 19% opting for never and 33% uncommitted.

By 60-21, respondents did not think Australia would be able to defend itself from such an attack without international assistance. 57% thought support would come from the US, 11% thought not and 19% said “it depends”. 35% thought the US and Australia would defeat China, 9% that China would win and 24% a draw of some sort.

The surveys were conducted August 13-16, after US Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan on August 2, and China responded with military exercises from August 4 to 7.

Tasmanian EMRS poll: Liberals regain ground

A Tasmanian state EMRS poll, conducted August 8-11 from a sample of 1,000, gave the Liberals 41% of the vote (up two since June), Labor 31% (up one), the Greens 13% (steady) and oll Others 15% (down three). Liberal incumbent Jeremy Rockliff led Labor’s Rebecca White as preferred premier by 47-35 (47-34 in June).

A Tasmanian upper house byelection will occur in the Labor-held Pembroke on September 10. According to analyst Kevin Bonham, the upper house currently has an 8-7 left majority, so a Liberal win would see the right gain control.

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. Victorian Newspoll gives Labor big lead three months before election – https://theconversation.com/victorian-newspoll-gives-labor-big-lead-three-months-before-election-189473

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gretchen Benedix, Professor, Curtin University

With weather conditions currently at 80% favourable, NASA is launching the Artemis 1 mission today from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch window opens at 8.33am EDT (10.33pm AEST).

This milestone mission will usher in a new era of human space exploration beyond low Earth orbit, and the first step in getting humans back to the Moon.

The 42-day uncrewed mission will test the capabilities of the new heavy lift Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, as well as the space readiness and safety of the Orion spacecraft. Orion is designed to send humans further into space than ever before.

In addition, Orion will launch ten small satellites called CubeSats for both scientific and commercial purposes.

These will be used to investigate different areas of the Moon, look at sustainability in the use of spacecraft, and even send one spacecraft to a near-Earth asteroid. All these CubeSats have been built by industry (small and large) and/or scientific groups in the effort to expand space exploration.

A fitting name for a long-awaited step

A lunar deity, Artemis is the Greek goddess of the hunt, and Apollo’s twin sister. It’s a fitting name for the program that will send the first woman and first person of colour to the Moon by 2030.

The Artemis program will build capacity in steps, similar to how the Apollo program worked in the 1960s. Each mission will build on the knowledge gained from the previous one to test equipment and instruments under controlled conditions, until finally, all is ready for a crewed landing on the Moon.

With the Artemis program, Earth as a global community has the opportunity to participate and push back the frontiers of human knowledge and innovation.

Humans were last on the Moon nearly 50 years ago, when the Apollo 17 astronauts spent 12 days roving and exploring an area known as the Taurus-Littrow Valley.

Since that time, most human exploration of space has been from the International Space Station, which orbits about 400km above the surface of Earth. For comparison, the Moon is around 950 times further (around 385,000km) away, representing a much more significant challenge.

As a global community, we have already learned much from using robotic missions to the Moon and other planets in our Solar System. The Moon has been imaged at a resolution of roughly 5 metres per pixel, therefore we can see and pick safer landing areas in heavily cratered areas like the south polar regions.

The Indian Chandrayaan-1 mission discovered water ice, and China’s Chang’e 5 mission recently brought samples back to Earth that come from the youngest known area of the Moon. We will apply this information to our next steps.

Read more:
Artemis 1: maiden flight of spacecraft set to take humans back to the Moon – here’s what needs to go right

This time, the ‘space race’ is different

The 20th century “space race” that drove humans to the Moon in the 1960s and ‘70s was fuelled by competition between the two global superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, with the rest of the planet experiencing the excitement of visiting a world other than Earth.

Chinese officials recently announced an International Lunar Research Station jointly planned with Russia, a project that includes a new crew launch vehicle and the heavy lift rocket Long March 9, but details on this program are relatively scant for now.

While NASA leads the charge this time around, the Artemis program will be an international effort. It will take lessons from the success of the International Space Station, which was built by five, and has been used by astronauts from, 20 countries.

For this first Artemis mission, several European countries are involved in both the SLS and Orion. More (including Australia) will contribute to building and operating a base and rovers on the Moon in the future. Global collaboration is at the forefront of this effort.

The benefit is for all

Space exploration leads to new scientific discoveries, significant economic benefits, and inspiration for people to reach farther and higher. It is not just financial expenditure with no return – it earns back in spades and sometimes in ways we can’t predict.

The invention of cordless tools and velcro are often associated with NASA and space exploration; in reality, those were invented before the Apollo program (NASA did, however, make good use of them).

Although those weren’t invented because of space exploration, there are plenty of things that have been – from memory foam to suits for race car drivers, to cancer-sniffing instruments. A landing on the Moon also provided a unique view of Earth that showed our big blue marble in space. We are a connected community.

We, the humans of this planet, need to go back to the Moon for many reasons, but the most important one is the challenge – to extend ourselves to innovate and progress.

The effort put into this will lead to new ways to look at and solve problems not only for living and working in Space, but for improving how we live and work on Earth.

Read more:
NASA’s Artemis 1 mission to the Moon sets the stage for routine space exploration beyond Earth’s orbit – here’s what to expect and why it’s important

Gretchen Benedix is a member of the Space Science and Technology Centre, in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Curtin University. She is also a (unfunded) senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute (based in Arizona, in the US). She receives funding from the Australian Research Council to conduct research on Mars and meteorites.

– ref. NASA is launching the 1st stage of the Artemis mission – here’s why humans are going back to the Moon – https://theconversation.com/nasa-is-launching-the-1st-stage-of-the-artemis-mission-heres-why-humans-are-going-back-to-the-moon-189137

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vlado Vivoda, Honorary Fellow, The University of Queensland

Average fuel prices in Australian capital cities remain well below the peaks seen in March and June. Recent data reveal fuel is around 30-35 cents per litre lower than the highs of two months ago. As of last week, the average price of 95 octane unleaded across eight capitals stood at A$1.90 per litre.

The question on the minds of many motorists and businesses relying on road transport to deliver goods and services is: have we seen the last of $2 petrol for a while?

Given this year’s trends in international oil prices (a key component of Australia’s petrol prices), the answer would be: “It depends on the fuel excise”.

Read more:
What Russia’s war means for Australian petrol prices: $2.10 a litre

A fuel excise cut after Russia invades Ukraine

A fuel excise is a tax on fuel levied by the Australian government.

In March this year, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began to drive international oil prices up, the previous federal government announced a 50% cut in fuel excise for six months. In other words, it would charge less tax on fuel until September (in an effort to soften the impact of soaring international oil prices on Australian consumers). After this decision, the cost of petrol reduced by 22 cents per litre.

While the general trend is downwards in recent months, crude oil prices have ranged between US$92 and US$123 per barrel – much higher than the norm in recent years.

With Australia’s halved fuel excise, this price range translates to average 95 octane unleaded petrol prices across eight capitals of between A$1.90 and A$2.25 per litre.

Globally, crude oil is down about 25% from the June high of US$123 per barrel. That’s in part due to growing fears a global economic slowdown would affect consumption, as central banks around the world raise interest rates to combat spiralling inflation.

The potential revival of a deal between Iran and Western countries that could lead to more Iranian oil exports has also helped drive oil prices down. This is generally good news for petrol prices in Australia.

What next for the fuel excise in Australia?

However, a lot will depend on what the Australian government does about the fuel excise.

It is uncertain whether the new government will extend the fuel excise cut brought in by their predecessors in March.

The excise cut is set to expire in September, right in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis in Australia.

In July, amid calls to extend the fuel excise, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said an extension is not an option:

We’ve tried to be upfront with people and say they shouldn’t expect that petrol price relief to continue forever.

According to the federal budget, the six-month excise cut has resulted in a A$3 billion hit on the economy.

Recent news reports indicated the prime minister was “examining” a fuel excise cut extension, but remains adamant the cut is a temporary measure.

If the cut is not extended, average petrol prices in Australia will almost certainly return to the above $2 territory by early October.

However, the solution to Australians being held hostage to volatile global prices and geopolitical developments will not come from extending the fuel excise cut.

The solution will come from reducing demand for oil-based fuels through policies promoting local energy generation and switching to low-emissions vehicles.

The longer-term outlook

Over the longer term, there is hope oil and petrol prices will not affect the pockets of Australian motorists and the Australian economy to the same extent as they have earlier this year.

The new Australian government has acknowledged the country is “significantly behind the pack when it comes to electric vehicles.”

Only 2% of cars sold in Australia are electric, five times lower than the global average.

The government recently released some detail on plans to set up a National Electric Vehicle Strategy, with a discussion paper on the matter due to be released soon for consultation.

At the heart of the strategy will be a plan to grow the Australian electric vehicle market, in a bid to improve uptake of electric vehicles and improve affordability and choice.

Australia is the only OECD country to not have, or be in the process of developing, mandatory fuel-efficiency standards for road transport vehicles.

The new government will seek to introduce vehicle fuel efficiency standards to help increase the supply of electric cars, improve affordability for motorists and drive down emissions.

Read more:
High petrol prices hurt, but cutting excise would harm energy security

Vlado Vivoda 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. Have we seen the last of $2 petrol for a while? – https://theconversation.com/have-we-seen-the-last-of-2-petrol-for-a-while-189330

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University

This article is part of The Conversation’s series looking at Labor’s jobs summit. Read the other articles in the series here.

The Albanese government’s Jobs and Skills Summit this week owes something to Hawke government precedent and inspiration. Held in in April 1983 in what is now Old Parliament House, the National Economic Summit enacted one of the slogans of the campaign that had recently carried Bob Hawke’s Labor Party to victory in a federal election: “Bringing Australia Together.” The National Economic Summit was all about “consensus”, another buzzword of the day.

The implied point of contrast was with the outgoing prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, seen as a divisive figure since the Whitlam dismissal of 1975. “Consensus” was also a contrast with the confrontational industrial relations of Fraser’s time in government. In 1981 alone, a bad year for industrial relations, over four million working days were lost through workplace disputes. By the time Hawke came to office, unemployment, inflation and interest rates were all in double-digits. The economy was in recession. The country was in drought.

In February 1983, before the election, the Labor opposition and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) had signed the Prices and Incomes Accord. Its basic concept was that unions would agree to wage restraint in return for social and economic benefits – a “social wage”. Labour governments in Britain had experimented with such a compact in the 1970s, with disappointing results for the unions that signed up to it. Still, in Australia the accord had widespread support, including on the left of the union movement.

The National Economic Summit was an effort by the Hawke government to turn the accord into a tripartite agreement also involving employers. And amid a sea of men in suits, he largely succeeded.

The economic journalist Max Walsh thought Hawke was “justified in seeing the summit as a stunning political success”. In contrast with government and unions, business leaders were divided. Some wanted future wage increases to be disconnected from the inflation rate, and to be limited to improvements in productivity. Others were more willing to play ball.

The ACTU vice-president, Simon Crean, warned that in the absence of support for centralised wage determination, there would be a push by individual unions for wage increases – and they were likely to succeed. It was the kind of thing a union leader could say when his members still had serious industrial clout. That is not an asset the current ACTU leadership has at its disposal.

The young ACTU secretary, Bill Kelty, his hair “everywhere”, emerged as the summit’s star. The ACTU would practice wage restraint and accept higher taxes, he promised. Geoffrey Barker of The Age thought the ACTU leaders had “taken all the points as public performers”.

Read more:
What can unions and the Albanese government offer each other at the jobs summit?

Business bosses soon saw that, in the face of such an assault of sweet reasonableness, they would need to be more conciliatory. Sir Keith Campbell, who had chaired a ground-breaking enquiry into the financial system for the Fraser government, said things that were music to the ears of the ACTU and new Labor government. He told the summit that unemployment and inflation should be fought together.

In the United States and the United Kingdom, governments of the right and central bankers were pursuing a policy of fighting inflation first, thereby throwing millions out of work. The National Economic Summit endorsed a different approach, at the same time as it provided cover for the Hawke government in moving away from election promises and what were then considered traditional Labor policies such as higher wages and higher spending.

It also seems remarkable today that in his opening address, Hawke could declare those present as “the representatives of the Australian people”. His critics were unimpressed. Some thought the summit an exercise in “state corporatism”, a threat to “representative democracy”. There was no place at the table for the sick, poor or old, for women, ethnic groups or Aboriginal people, or for consumers.

Read more:
Grattan on Friday: Can Albanese government wring consensus from union-business impasse over industrial relations?

Peter Beilharz, in the Marxist journal Arena, saw the summit as committed

to the principle that those who do not work productively should be maintained by the state, but are to be effectively excluded from political processes.

By the following year, he had joined with another academic of the left, Rob Watts, in arguing (in the magazine Australian Society) that Hawke’s leadership had

produced, at best, a right-wing Labor government and, at worst, a Tory government whose policies are indistinguishable from those of its predecessors.

The summit, some complained, had accepted the continuation of high unemployment, and it marginalised ideas for stimulatory spending or investment in high-tech industry, such as advocated by the new science minister Barry Jones.

The Albanese government is unlikely to attract similar criticisms. Its summit will have greater diversity than that of 1983. The nation has its economic problems, but unemployment is low and neither the sense of crisis nor of malaise is anywhere near as deep as forty years ago.

The National Economic Summit was intended to lower public expectations of government. Anthony Albanese has shown interest in modestly raising them in the wake of years of declining political trust. At the very least, his summit continues the orderly, systematic and constructive approach to governing that stands in stark contrast to the confirmed style of his predecessor.

Frank Bongiorno 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. Summits old and new: what was Bob Hawke’s 1983 National Economic Summit about? – https://theconversation.com/summits-old-and-new-what-was-bob-hawkes-1983-national-economic-summit-about-187763

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University

This article is part of The Conversation’s series looking at Labor’s jobs summit. Read the other articles in the series here.

The greatest workforce challenge Australia faces is in health, an issue that will likely be with us for another decade.

Shortages of health workers reduce access to care, increase waiting times and reduce patient safety. They can even increase avoidable deaths.

However, we don’t need the upcoming Jobs and Skills Summit to solve this problem. There is already low-hanging fruit to pick.

We need to broaden the scope of practice for some health workers, engage in better workforce planning, and reform how existing and new resources are deployed.

Read more:
General practices are struggling. Here are 5 lessons from overseas to reform the funding system

Health workers burnt out and leaving

Burnt-out health workers leaving the workforce are a key driver of a rise in job vacancies across Australia.

While much of this is due to the unprecedented nature of COVID, Australia has had problems staffing its health-care system for years. The workforce shortage is particularly acute in rural and remote regions.

The natural response is to throw money at the problem but the Australian government has little spare cash. Its budget deficit is projected to be more than A$800 billion by 2025-26. State governments are also cash-strapped.

More immigration of skilled health workers may also have limited success. Australia will be competing with countries including New Zealand, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, which are looking to fill their own health worker shortages.

Read more:
Despite what political leaders say, New Zealand’s health workforce is in crisis – but it’s the same everywhere else

Health workers could take on more roles

Health worker registration, along with standards and protocols, are essential for ensuring safe and effective care. However, this also stops health workers taking on new roles typically performed by others.

The potential for broadening health workers’ roles has been discussed for more than two decades. There has been some progress. Pharmacists now administer some vaccines, which was traditionally the domain of GPs and nurses.

A broader scope of practice for some health workers can increase people’s access to care, create more job satisfaction for the health worker, and lead to more efficient health care. It could also help the health-care system respond better and quicker to future pandemics or large-scale reform.

Overall, peak organisations and specialist colleges have effectively protected their turf. This may have resulted in more expensive care for the public and the government because it has stopped less-costly health workers from delivering care.

We are now faced with a more serious problem. A broader scope of practice for some health workers is needed to secure timely access to care. That stronger message will help government bash through future turf wars.

Read more:
How rivalries between doctors and pharmacists turned into the ‘turf war’ we see today

New roles for paramedics, pharmacists, physios

Health workers in other countries are becoming more flexible in the scope of tasks they perform.

The UK’s National Health Service has “extended roles”, such as nurses being more involved in managing chronic diseases. There are also “advanced roles”, which require a master’s degree in advanced practice. One example is allowing advanced nurse practitioners to manage people with mental health issues in the community, under the guidance of a psychiatrist.

Australia is also starting to think differently. The ten-year National Medical Workforce Strategy released in 2021 seeks to re-balance from sub-specialisation to a more generalist workforce to improve access to care. The hope is to create more GPs and specialists with additional skills, such as emergency care, and other select specialist skills.

There are opportunities to expand the roles of paramedics, especially in rural and remote regions without enough GPs and nurses.

Paramedics have evolved from delivering emergency care to managing chronic disease, mental health and social care. Additional paramedic education to understand diagnostic tests, prescribe some medicines and deliver wound care could increase patients’ access to health care.

Physiotherapists could be the first point of contact for musculoskeletal conditions. They could give steroid injections and refer patients to orthopaedic specialists.

Pharmacists could also take a greater role, administering medicines over the counter rather than requiring a prescription from GPs.

Sexual health is one area. Allowing women to access the oral contraceptive pill without a prescription would be cost effective with minimal risk. Viagra requires a prescription in Australia but is sold over the counter in the UK.

How do we fund this?

Any health workforce reform to address shortages must ensure quality and safety are maintained and provide at least as good an experience to patients compared to current practice.

It must also be accompanied by supportive funding models.

Nurse practitioners provide a good example. They were introduced in Australia in 1998 to fill doctor shortages, allowing registered nurses with additional education to diagnose, perform procedures and prescribe drugs – within tightly defined parameters.

Today, most nurse practitioners work in public health, particularly emergency departments.

More nurse practitioners aren’t in private practice for a number of reasons, including restricted access to Medicare and pharmaceutical item numbers.

With appropriate funding models, expanding nurse practitioner roles could substantially increase access to care and reduce health-care costs.

Read more:
Australia could do so much more with its nurse practitioners

We need better planning

Health workforce shortages are an endemic, multifaceted, cross-jurisdictional problem. COVID has amplified shortages, but poor planning and limited government investment are mostly to blame.

There is an under-supply of specialists in some areas, and oversupply of specialists in others. Redistributing the health workforce, from metropolitan regions to rural and remote regions, would fill some shortages.

Australia also needs another independent agency such as Health Workforce Australia. This was established to support workforce reform initiatives in 2009 but abolished in 2014.

Roles of a new agency should include independently identifying workforce needs across the health-care system, helping coordinate investment in education and training, and providing evidence for broadening workforce scope, retention and reform.

What policies would we need?

The health-care system must also reform to reduce waste and redeploy valuable resources more effectively.

Digital health and other technology advancements offer opportunities to improve workplace productivity, alongside reorganisation of care models.

Reducing bureaucracy and better allocating administration tasks to non-clinical staff can also create more time for clinical care.

Henry Cutler 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 physio will see you now. Why health workers need to broaden their roles to fix the workforce crisis – https://theconversation.com/the-physio-will-see-you-now-why-health-workers-need-to-broaden-their-roles-to-fix-the-workforce-crisis-188984

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Lusk, Associate Professor of Ecology, University of Waikato

Recent genetic research has shed new light on the long-running debate about the evolutionary origins of some of New Zealand’s quirkiest plants.

More than one in ten native trees and shrubs have small leaves spaced far apart on wiry interlaced branches, often growing in a zig-zag pattern. Once the preserve of botanists, some of these plants have recently gained popularity as ornamentals.

Nowhere else on Earth has this “divaricate” growth form arisen independently in so many plant families.

It is a spectacular case of convergent evolution in response to environmental pressures. But what environmental pressures? The answer might help us decide how to manage New Zealand ecosystems.

Climate or moa?

The 19th-century German botanist Ludwig Diels noted that small-leaved shrubs are typical of dry climates. He thought the divaricate form might have arisen in response to cold, dry conditions during the Ice Ages.

In the 1970s, the competing “moa browsing” hypothesis emerged, arguing the divaricate form is a now-anachronistic defence against browsing by the large flightless birds that went extinct shortly after Polynesian settlement.

Read more:
How did ancient moa survive the ice age – and what can they teach us about modern climate change?

Experiments have since lent support to the browsing hypothesis. Yet the concentration of divaricate plants in frosty and droughty districts suggests climate is also somehow involved.

So does evidence that the small leaves of divaricates are less vulnerable to chilling than large leaves. But climate does not seem to explain the unusual toughness of the branchlets of divaricate plants.

A synthetic hypothesis

Molecular dating shows most divaricate plant species arose within the last five million years. But fossils and genetic evidence show moa have been here much longer than that. This means moa browsing alone does not explain the evolution of divaricate forms in so many plant families.

The evidence seems more consistent with a newer synthetic hypothesis that moa browsing had more impact when plants were exposed to a new combination of circumstances: worldwide cooling, the development of frosty, droughty climates in the lee of the recently uplifted Southern Alps, and fertile new soils derived from glacial outwash.

Frosty and droughty climates posed direct physiological challenges to plants, but they also left them more exposed to browsing by preventing them from growing quickly out of reach of moa. Climatic restrictions on growth thus probably made anti-browsing defences more important for plant survival.

Read more:
Dead as the moa: oral traditions show that early Māori recognised extinction

Support for this hypothesis comes from a recent experiment, which found climate influenced the impact of deer browsing on competition between divaricate plants and their broad-leaved relatives growing in treefall gaps.

Furthermore, the fertile new soils created by outwash from glaciers would have enhanced the nutrient content of plant tissues, probably resulting in increased browsing pressure. Studies of African savannas show that thorns and divaricate-like growth forms are typical of fertile soils with abundant browsing mammals.

Do deer act as moa surrogates?

For several centuries after the extinction of the moa, there were no large browsers in New Zealand, until European settlers introduced deer and other hoofed animals. Although valued as game animals and a food source, deer are also considered pests because of their impact on native vegetation.

Feeding experiments have shown both avian and hoofed herbivores are unenthusiastic about eating divaricate plants if alternatives with large soft leaves are available. The spacing of small leaves far apart along wiry branchlets reduces bite size and makes it difficult for browsers to meet their nutritional needs.

Scientists have studied ancient moa diets by identifying pollen grains in fossilised poo (coprolites). Data interpretation is hampered by our inability to identify pollen to species level in plant groups that include both divaricate and broad-leaved species. But it would seem likely that divaricate plants presented similar nutritional challenges to moa.

Analysis of moa coprolites suggests forest understories a millennium ago were more diverse than those we see today, after more than 150 years of browsing by deer. This suggests moa had less impact on vegetation than deer do today.

Factors limiting the impact of moa on vegetation

Unlike deer in contemporary New Zealand, moa faced a deadly predator throughout the entire country: the now-extinct Haast’s eagle. Although moa could safely browse under forest canopies, they would have been at risk at watering sites and in open areas.

In contrast, although deer face strong hunting pressure in some areas, recreational hunting has little impact in remote and rugged areas like the Kaweka ranges, where uncontrolled populations of sika deer threaten regeneration of even relatively unpalatable trees like mountain beech.

Fast-growing palatable shrubs and small trees like karamū, patē and māhoe probably got their best chance to escape moa browsing when treefalls let in enough light to enable them to grow quickly out of reach, at least in warmer districts where such plants can grow more than a metre in one growing season.

Treefall gaps must have offered two other advantages for palatable plants. The remains of fallen trees can hamper access by large herbivores, and canopy openings would have exposed moa to attack by Haast’s eagle.

Moa were probably less able to exploit vegetation on steep slopes than deer and goats are today. The impact of moa across New Zealand landscapes would therefore probably have been less pervasive than the current impact of hoofed browsers.

Lastly, moa probably had a more sluggish metabolism than mammalian browsers of comparable size, implying lower energy requirements and hence lower feeding rates. Close living relatives of moa (kiwis and emus) burn less energy than herbivorous mammals of similar body weight or large flighted birds like swans and geese.

The future of deer in New Zealand

Deer could act as imperfect surrogates for moa, but only if subject to effective control throughout the country.

Aerial 1080 drops to control rats, stoats and possums also usually kill deer, though the mortality rate varies widely. That is one way deer populations could be kept to acceptable levels in remote and rugged areas, where recreational hunting pressure is insignificant. Aerial culling by shooting has also shown potential.

Commercial hunting cannot be relied on to control deer, because of the vagaries of the market. When the price of venison falls, there is little incentive to hunt deer. Aerial 1080 or aerial culling therefore currently seem the only realistic ways to curb the impact of deer in remote and rugged areas.

Chris Lusk receives funding from the Marsden Fund, administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand.

– ref. How the Ice Ages spurred the evolution of New Zealand’s weird and wiry native plants – https://theconversation.com/how-the-ice-ages-spurred-the-evolution-of-new-zealands-weird-and-wiry-native-plants-188140

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gretta Pecl, Professor, ARC Future Fellow & Director of the Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of Tasmania

As the planet heats up, many marine plants and animals are moving locations to keep pace with their preferred temperatures. In the Southern Hemisphere, this means species are setting up home further south.

This shift alters what we see when we go snorkelling, and when and where we catch our seafood. Crucially, it also changes sensitive marine ecosystems.

But it’s not always easy for scientists to know exactly what’s happening below the ocean’s surface. To help tackle this, we examined tens of thousands of photographs taken by Australian fishers and divers submitted to citizen science programs over the last decade.

They revealed climate change is already disrupting the structure and function of our marine ecosystems – sometimes in ways previously unknown to marine scientists.

Species on the move

Warming over the Pacific Ocean has strengthened the East Australian Current over the past several decades, as the below-right animation shows. This has caused waters off Southeast Australia to warm at almost four times the global average.

There is already irrefutable evidence climate change is causing marine species to move. Understanding this phenomenon is crucial for conservation, fisheries management and human health.

For example, if fish susceptible to carrying toxins start turning up where you go fishing, you’d want to know. And if an endangered species moves somewhere new, we need to know so we can protect it.

But the sheer scale of the Australian coastline means scientists can’t monitor changes in all areas. That’s where the public can help.

Fishers, snorkelers and divers often routinely visit the same place over time. Many develop strong knowledge of species found in a given area.

When a new or unusual species appears in their patch, these members of the public can excel at detecting it. So our project set out to tap into this invaluable community knowledge.

Read more:
Climate-driven species on the move are changing (almost) everything

The value of citizen science

The Redmap citizen science project began in Tasmania in 2009 and went national in 2012. It invites the public to share sightings of marine species uncommon in their area.

Redmap stands for Range Extension Database and Mapping project. Redmap members use their local knowledge to help monitor Australia’s vast coastline. When something unusual for a given location is spotted, fishers and divers can upload a photo with location and size information.

The photos are then verified by a network of almost 100 marine scientists around Australia. Single observations cannot tell us much. But over time, the data can be used to map which species may be extending their range further south.

The project is supported by the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, together with other Australian universities and a range of Commonwealth and state-government bodies.

Read more:
Warming oceans are changing Australia’s fishing industry

We also examined data from two other national marine citizen science programs: Reef Life Survey and iNaturalist Australasian Fishes Project. The resulting dataset encompassed ten years of photographed species observations made by almost 500 fishers, divers, snorkelers, spearfishers and beachcombers.

The citizen scientists recorded 77 species further south than where they lived a decade ago. Many were observed at their new location over multiple years and even in cooler months.

For example, spearfisher Derrick Cruz got a surprise in 2015 when he saw a coral trout swimming through a temperate kelp forest in his local waters off Sydney, much further south than he’d seen before. He submitted the below photo to Redmap, which was then verified by a scientist.

Citizen scientists using Redmap were also the first to spot the gloomy octopus off Tasmania in 2012. Subsequent genetic studies confirmed the species’ rapid extension into Tasmanian waters.

Similarly, solo eastern rock lobsters have been turning up in Tasmania for some time. But Redmap sightings recorded dozens of individuals living together in a “den”, which had not been observed previously.

Other species recorded by citizen scientists moving south include the spine-cheek clownfish, Moorish idol and tiger sharks.

Supporting healthy oceans

Using the citizen science data, we produced a report outlining the assessment methods underpinning our study. We’ve also produced detailed state-based report cards for Western Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales, where coastal waters are warming much faster than the global average.

We also generated a map of the species shifts this revealed, and a downloadable poster summarising the findings. This allows the public – including those who contributed data – to see at a glance how climate change is affecting our oceans.

Citizen science has benefits beyond helping us understand changes in natural systems. Projects such as Redmap open up a community conversation about the impacts of climate change in Australia’s marine environment – using the public’s own knowledge and photos.

Our research suggests this method engages the community and helps get people involved in documenting and understanding the problems facing our oceans and coasts.

A better understanding – by both scientists and the public – will help ensure healthy ecosystems, strong conservation and thriving fisheries in future.

Read more:
How you can help scientists track how marine life reacts to climate change

Gretta Pecl receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Fisheries Research & Development Corporation (FRDC), the Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment through the National Environmental Science Program (NESP), and the Department of Primary Industries NSW. She is also a Lead Author on the recent IPCC assessment report, and received funding from the Department of Environment and Energy to support travel to IPCC meetings.

Barrett Wolfe receives funding from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, the Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment through the National Environmental Science Program, Department of Primary Industries NSW and NRE Tasmania. He has received past research funding from Seaworld Research and Rescue Foundation and PADI Foundation.

Curtis Champion receives funding from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. He works for the NSW Department of Primary Industries.

Jan Strugnell receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC), the Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment through the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) and the Queensland Government through the Queensland Citizen Science Grants.

Sue-Ann Watson receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment through the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) and Queensland Government through the Queensland Citizen Science Grants.

– ref. Thousands of photos captured by everyday Australians reveal the secrets of our marine life as oceans warm – https://theconversation.com/thousands-of-photos-captured-by-everyday-australians-reveal-the-secrets-of-our-marine-life-as-oceans-warm-189231

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Andrews, Visiting Fellow and Director – Micro heterogeneity and Macroeconomic Performance program, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

This article is part of The Conversation’s series looking at Labor’s jobs summit. Read the other articles in the series here.

After 20 years of declining educational standards, as well as recent disruptions to migrant flows, discussions at this week’s jobs summit will rightly emphasise the importance of growing skills.

But reforms to education policy can take a long time to reap benefits, and there is no guarantee that changes to migration policies can rapidly return Australia to pre-pandemic population intakes.

This means discussions at the summit should focus not only on growing our stock of
talent, but also on allocating our existing talent more efficiently.

In a study entitled Better Harnessing Australia’s Talent released this morning prepared for the non-profit e61 Institute we demonstrate that’s not yet happening.

We find there aren’t enough people changing jobs, there aren’t enough new firms being created, and there isn’t enough competition between firms.

What we need is for Australians to be resigning from jobs and seeking new ones along the lines of the great resignation that was said to be taking place in the United States.

We find the industries that are the least dynamic (where there are the least resignations) are the ones where the rate at which productivity growth is turned into wages growth has slipped the most, probably because of a decline in worker bargaining power.

The probability that the average Australian worker switches jobs has fallen from 12.8% in the mid-1990s to 9.5%.

Workers that do switch jobs get an 8% pay bump on average. And it’s better for their mental health. Switching from a poorly-matched to a well-matched job gives a boost to reported mental health equivalent to getting married. Singles: take note.

We also have fewer new companies. The rate at which new companies were being created fell from 13% in the mid-2000s to 11% in the mid-2010s.

Industry concentration has increased. The share of industry revenue going to the four biggest companies has doubled since 2010.

Those at the top are safer than ever. The probability of a market leader being displaced from the top has declined by about seven percentage points since the mid-2000s.

So, what can we do to make Australia more dynamic? It needs to be easier to change jobs. There’s lots we could look at.

Easier job switching

We could harmonise and reduce occupational licensing restrictions across states (something the states and the Commonwealth are working on) and remove taxes like stamp duties that make it expensive for people to relocate.

We could reduce barriers faced by new firms. Non-compete clauses, planning and zoning laws, and visa quotas are ripe areas for reassessment.

And we could shift our tax breaks for small business supports towards new small businesses. It is young employers, not small employers, that most create jobs. Old employers (taken together) destroy them.

Read more:
Australia’s ‘great resignation’ is a myth — we are changing jobs less often

Penalties for anti-competitive conduct and laws restricting mergers in already concentrated markets ought to be strengthened, as suggested by Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh last week.

But we need to acknowledge that market dynamism is not great for everyone.

Most workers benefit from dynamic markets, in jobs, in wages and in choice. But more dynamism would mean more workers would lose jobs and struggle to get new ones.

An improved safety net

The decline in reported mental health that follows the loss of a job is equivalent to that following a serious injury or illness. Lost earnings take years to recover.

We need to consider reforms to our income support system. Our present system of unemployment benefits offers support, but not much insurance for workers considering a change of jobs.

To meaningfully help workers, the summit will need a plan to fix Australia’s stagnant economy. Anything less will be addressing the symptoms, not the cause.

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the e61 Institute.

The e61 Institute is a not for profit economic research institute whose foundation partners include the Macquarie Business School, the Becker Friedman Institute, and the Susan McKinnon Foundation.

Adam Triggs and Gianni La Cava 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 summit needs to get us switching jobs. It’d make most of us better off – https://theconversation.com/the-summit-needs-to-get-us-switching-jobs-itd-make-most-of-us-better-off-189462

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janine Dixon, Economist at Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University

This article is part of The Conversation’s series looking at Labor’s jobs summit. Read the other articles in the series here.

Skills shortages are set to be a key theme at this week’s jobs summit. With the unemployment rate at its lowest level in a generation, employers and consumers are looking for solutions.

To understand where the shortages are, researchers can survey employers or count the number and duration of job vacancies. These methods are useful for establishing where shortages exist, but not so helpful in anticipating where new shortages might emerge.

At Victoria University we have created a model-based analysis in which likely paths for supply and demand of many types of jobs are forecast. This will be useful in anticipating where shortages might emerge over the next couple of years.

Read more:
Yes, we know there is a ‘skills shortage’. Here are 3 jobs summit ideas to start fixing it right away

For jobs where supply is not keeping up with demand, the model finds that wages increase relative to the average wage. And for jobs where growth in supply is exceeding demand, the model finds that wages fall relative to the average.

Although business groups are calling for an increase in immigration, we don’t consider this in the analysis. Instead, we focus on how to organise the people we have (which already factors in plenty of immigration) into the jobs that can best deliver the goods and services consumers want or need.

Forecasting the economy through to mid-2024, we put the occupations most likely to run into shortages or surpluses into four groups.

1. Supply struggles to keep up

Jobs with high wage growth and high employment growth are where we traditionally think of labour shortages.

For these jobs, demand is strong and supply will struggle to keep up. Most of the jobs in this group will be in demand from local consumers as our spending returns to normal after the pandemic.

They include jobs like education aides who assist teachers in schools, personal carers and assistants in disability care and aged care, and several construction-related roles, which require certificate-level qualifications.

Nursing is another job where supply will struggle to keep up. Nursing requires at least a bachelor degree qualification, which means new nurses cannot be trained quickly.

2. Jobs nobody wants

Then there are the “jobs nobody wants” (at least, as indicated by this analysis). These are jobs employers will struggle to fill, even though demand growth isn’t terribly strong.

Most of these roles require either a certificate qualification or no post-school qualification at all, and may be physically arduous or have inherently difficult working conditions.

This category includes prison security guards, truck drivers, food preparation assistants (who do dishwashing, prepare fast foods and assist chefs with ingredient preparation) and bricklayers.

3. Attractive jobs

Jobs with low wage growth are the attractive jobs. Remember that in the modelling, if supply to an occupation is strong, it will depress wage growth.

We find attractive jobs are those requiring bachelor degrees or higher qualifications. Young people are twice as likely to have these qualifications than older Australians. Three in ten people aged between 25 and 34 hold a bachelor degree, compared to just three in 20 people aged over 55.

As the older cohort retires and the younger cohort enters the job market, the supply of workers with bachelor degrees will grow, creating a strong supply of lawyers, engineers, accountants and architects.

Although these jobs are modelled to have relatively slow wage growth, these are generally high-wage white collar jobs offering good conditions and fulfilling work.

4. Attractive but declining jobs

These are jobs for which demand is expected to grow relatively slowly over the next two years, for a variety of reasons.

Unlike the jobs nobody wants, these jobs should not be difficult to fill. Demand for these roles will grow slowly due to workplace change. For example, hardly anybody uses typists these days. There are also fewer jobs for personal assistants, which have been replaced by more general roles such as “general clerk” who perform a range of administrative tasks. This is one of the roles where we find supply struggles to keep up.

While international travel remains in the doldrums, pilots are also on this list.

What to do next?

Labour shortages in some occupations make it difficult for businesses and governments to deliver the goods and services society wants. To address the shortages without changing the overall size of the population forecast (which already includes a large contribution from migration), increases in some types of jobs will mean reductions in others.

This makes the task more complicated than simply declaring we need more workers in the jobs that are in short supply.

Here are three suggestions:

• encourage and enable people to qualify quickly and cheaply for occupations where supply is not keeping up – in particular, personal carers, education aides and the construction-related occupations. This may require more places to be offered in existing courses at TAFEs or other vocational education providers, and it may require design of new, shorter qualifications. Fees for these qualifications should be reduced or removed altogether

• offer more domestic bachelor degree places for students to study nursing and midwifery. These students may be diverted from other bachelor degree courses. These courses necessarily take time to complete, so including nurses in our migration intake will also need to play a role

• allow wages to climb in low-skilled, less fulfilling jobs such as checkout operators and sales assistants, until such time as automation becomes worthwhile. After that, people who would have been doing these jobs can instead address shortages in hospitality, which is more difficult to automate, or undertake a small amount of training to qualify as personal carers and assistants or education aides.

Read more:
Yes, we know there is a ‘skills shortage’. Here are 3 jobs summit ideas to start fixing it right away

Janine Dixon 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. As the jobs summit talks skills – we predict which occupations will have shortages and surpluses in the next 2 years – https://theconversation.com/as-the-jobs-summit-talks-skills-we-predict-which-occupations-will-have-shortages-and-surpluses-in-the-next-2-years-188831

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

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the biggest outcome he wants from this week’s jobs and skills summit “is the beginning of a new culture of co-operation”.

In a Monday speech to mark his first 100 days in office, Albanese will say he is looking for progress on skills and training, wages and apprenticeships, and hopes there will be “some immediate actions” out of the summit.

But the basic aim is “a renewed understanding – between unions and industry and small business and government and community groups – that building a stronger, fairer and more productive economy is our shared responsibility, and our common interest.

“This is how we get employers and employees and small business negotiating for genuine win-win outcomes,” Albanese says in his speech, excerpts of which were released ahead of delivery.

“It’s how we make the federation work better, lifting efficiency, improving services and boosting productivity.

“This is how we sweep aside the persistent, structural barriers that prevent women from securing decent jobs and careers and enjoying financial security over their lives.”

The sharpest issue in the lead up to the Thursday-Friday summit, to be attended by about 140 participants, is the ACTU’s bid for the wages system to allow multi-employer bargaining – that is, bargaining across sectors.

Read more:
Grattan on Friday: Can Albanese government wring consensus from union-business impasse over industrial relations?

This sectoral bargaining, which could be accompanied by industrial action, would strengthen the hands of unions and employers in winning pay rises.

The government has said it is very interested in the proposal but there has been push back from employers.

Albanese in his speech stresses the end of the summit is not the end of the story. Summit ideas would feed into an Employment White Paper expected to take about a year to complete.

Participants will hope some more immediate initiatives that the government accepts could be included in the October budget.

In a joint statement on skills and training, the ACTU and business groups at the weekend called for the budget to include more funding to reinvigorate the apprenticeship system.

“Investment must increase apprentice wage subsidies, provide incentive completion payments for both employers and apprentices, and payments for mentoring programs for apprentices.”

The groups also called for the Albanese government to work with unions and employers and state and territory governments to “guarantee foundational skills, including digital literacy, for all Australians”, and “support lifelong learning”.

The business groups that signed the joint statement were the Australian Industry Group, the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Asked about the union push for multi-employer bargaining. Treasurer Jim Chalmers told Sky: “We don’t kid ourselves that everybody’s got an identical view about it. But if there’s a view about fixing enterprise bargaining, then it should be heard and it should be teased out on the floor at the summit for sure.”

Chalmers said:

We’re not looking for unanimity. We’re just looking for those areas of broad common ground so that we can move forward together, whether it be on getting wages growing again after a decade of stagnation, whether it’s boosting productivity by investing in our people and their skills, whether it’s dealing with these skills and labour shortages.

“We’ve been really energised and really enthused by the genuine spirit of collaboration and cooperation that has emerged in the lead up to the Summit.”

Read more:
The Morrison inquiry, Robodebt royal commission, and the jobs summit

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet expressed concern that “it seems to be that the jobs summit to many degrees has been overtaken by the unions”.

On the pandemic, Albanese in his speech spells out the phases the government sees. “We’ve been through the pandemic response. We are in the middle of the recovery.

“And reform will be the key to renewal. From response and recovery, to reform and renewal.” This would be “the guiding focus of government action for the coming years”.

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

– ref. View from The Hill: Albanese seeks ‘new culture of co-operation’ out of summit – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-albanese-seeks-new-culture-of-co-operation-out-of-summit-189526

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

This article is part of The Conversation’s series looking at Labor’s jobs summit. Read the other articles in the series here.

Investing in Australians’ education is far more important than immigration in resolving the nation’s skills shortages, according to leading economists surveyed in the lead-up to this week’s jobs and skills summit.

The 50 top Australian economists polled by the Economic Society of Australia and The Conversation are recognised by their peers as leaders in their fields, including economic modelling, labour markets and public policy.

Asked to select from a list of topics to be discussed at the summit, and which offered the most promise of delivering better outcomes, two-thirds picked “education and skills”. Only one-third picked “migration policy”.

The biggest concerns among those who picked “education and skills” relate to school and vocational education.

The Australian National University’s Bruce Chapman, who designed Australia’s higher education loans scheme (HECS) in the late 1980s, described funding for vocational education as a “mess”.

Vocational training is a “mess”

“There are up-front fees alongside no-charge regimes, both of which are poor and inequitable,” Chapman said. “A small number of courses offer income-contingent loans along the lines of the university scheme, but most do not.”

Universities have income-contingent loans that don’t require payments until the recipient’s income climbs above A$48,361.

If applied to all vocational education courses (including TAFE courses), it would allow reasonable charges and protect students from hardships and default.

“Governments should have been aware of this for the 34 years that HECS has existed, but have shown no leadership in the area,” Chapman said.

High school outcomes remain poor

Saul Eslake said all levels of Australian education – from primary school, up to vocational education and universities – are “failing to equip Australians with the skills required for the jobs of both today and the future”.

Among the many causes of that failure were inequities in how education funding is distributed, which have led to sustained gaps between Australia’s high and low socio-economic students’ results.

Paul Frijters suggested levelling the playing field between private and public schools by ditching subsidies to private schools, banning mobile phones in schools, and allowing children with low grades to repeat years instead of setting standards so low they were generally promoted.

Read more:
Many jobs summit ideas for wages don’t make sense – upskilling does

Almost half of those surveyed wanted measures to promote productivity. Julie Toth, formerly with the Australian Industry Group and now with the digital property settlement company PEXA, suggested shifting governments’ focus away from “creating local jobs” to automating tasks wherever possible.

“We should be aiming to reduce the need for lower-skill and lower-value tasks and jobs, rather than simply seeking more bodies to do them,” she said.

Full working rights for refugees

Of those who nominated “migration policy” as a priority, two warned against using more migration to fix skills shortages. Labour market economist Sue Richardson said she knew of no evidence that migration increased either productivity or the living standards of pre-existing Australians.

“It does increase aggregate gross domestic product,” she said. “But that is just because the population is bigger”. It enabled Australia to avoid a close examination of why it did not generate the skills it needed itself.

Margaret Nowak of Curtin University pointed to the absurdity of not giving refugees and those awaiting determination an unfettered right to work. She said it would be an “easy early win”.

Read more:
Asylum seekers and the dignity of work

“We already have in this country a ready and willing supply of labour,” Nowak said. “We should get rid of the paranoia and ideology inherent in the current administration of the policy and welcome our resident refugees into full participation and education rights.”

Many economists also nominated workforce participation, care jobs and equal pay for women as key priorities for the summit.

Calibrating care

Several, including RMIT University’s Leonora Risse, called for more accurate measurement of the benefits generated by the care sector, “in the same way as we compute the cost/benefit dividend of government investments in other infrastructure”.

Risse said a proper measure of the economy-wide value of the care sector could be factored into the budget, and used to provide a mechanism to lift the wages and status of care workers.

Macquarie University’s Lisa Magnani said the pandemic had shown Australia has a crisis of care work “manifested in the shortage of teachers, in overworked hospital workers, in exhausted parents”. Traditional measures of labour productivity failed to capture the impact of care jobs on wellbeing, as well as their economic value.

Read more:
If the PM wants wage rises, he should start with the 1.6 million people on state payrolls

Alison Preston of Macquarie University said health care and social assistance had become Australia’s biggest employing industry, eclipsing, retail and construction.

Specific measures to assist the health care and social assistance sector’s 76% female workforce included extending parental leave, minimising the need to hold multiple jobs, and setting and monitoring employment standards.

One of the 50 surveyed economists nominated a summit priority that was not on the proffered list. John Quiggin of the University of Queensland nominated “full employment”, which he thought had been the original idea for the summit.

Regardless of the present state of the labour market it was important to renew to full employment in the 1945 Employment White Paper, and to consider measures along the lines of the proposed Green New Deal in the United States.

Detailed responses:

Peter Martin 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 education or immigration the answer to our skills shortage? We asked 50 economists – https://theconversation.com/is-education-or-immigration-the-answer-to-our-skills-shortage-we-asked-50-economists-189388

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Buxton-Namisnyk, Lecturer, School of Law, Society and Criminology, UNSW Sydney

In July this year the NSW government released a draft bill outlining a proposed standalone offence of coercive control for NSW.

Under the proposed law, repeated abusive behaviours such as controlling an intimate partner’s finances, isolating them from their family, or monitoring their movements, could amount to a criminal offence attracting up to seven years in prison.

Like NSW, Queensland has also committed to introducing coercive control as an offence. However this will only be done after it undertakes wider systemic reforms. This includes conducting an inquiry into domestic violence policing.

Both states have committed to criminalise coercive control despite First Nations women expressing ongoing concerns about it. These advocates have stated introduction of a coercive control offence could lead to further criminalisation of First Nations victim-survivors of violence.

Read more:
Carceral feminism and coercive control: when Indigenous women aren’t seen as ideal victims, witnesses or women

‘Victimhood’ and misidentification

There is an ongoing problem with police misidentifying victim-survivors of violence as perpetrators. Various Aboriginal-led organisations have expressed concerns this will worsen with the introduction of a new coercive control offence.

The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service has observed:

as well as experiencing […] general risk factors [for victim misidentification] at a higher rate, Aboriginal women are also more likely to be misidentified simply because they are Aboriginal, as a result of racism and bias among police and service providers.

Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Legal Centre also detailed this issue in their submission to the NSW Joint Select Committee on Coercive Control:

[if an] Aboriginal woman is uneasy or unable to persuade a police officer that she is the primary victim of physical violence [under the current law] what hope, or incentive is there to persuade a police officer that she has experienced ongoing psychological and economic abuse [under the new law]?

Sisters Inside and the Institute for Collaborative Race Research described in 2021:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are routinely misidentified as “offenders” rather than “victims”. Not only will Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls not be afforded protection by this legislation, they will be squarely targeted.

First Nations organisations and communities have repeatedly identified the role of racism in victim-misidentification by police. This needs to be addressed before governments proceed with implementing coercive control as an offence.

Concerns of racism and perpetrator misidentification are reinforced by co-author Emma Buxton-Namisnyk’s recent research. This analysis found almost a third of First Nations women killed in domestic violence homicides had been previously identified by police as domestic violence perpetrators.

This research also identified police were likely to describe First Nations women as “uncooperative” or “unwilling” to work with police.

Police had used terminology such as this to describe victims in almost three quarters of domestic violence homicides where police had previously been involved in relation to domestic violence. In many cases police used this language to justify their decision to not provide protection or assistance for First Nations women when they experienced abuse.

Queensland’s ongoing domestic and family violence-related policing inquiry has also highlighted racism and sexism within the Queensland Police Service. This has included failures to properly investigate domestic violence-related deaths of First Nations women, and common victim misidentification.

Read more:
Women’s police stations in Australia: would they work for ‘all’ women?

The consequences of misidentification

In addition to entangling victim-survivors in the criminal justice system, victim misidentification can expose women to increased child protection intervention and the threat of child removal.

First Nations womens’ children already enter out of home care at an unacceptable rate.

Victim misidentification can also limit women’s access to support services and enable perpetrators to use legal systems to further abuse victim-survivors. For example, a perpetrator may attempt to draw out legal proceedings to intimidate or financially harm a victim-survivor.

‘Unintended’ but not unanticipated consequences

Both the Queensland and NSW inquiries have acknowledged there may be “unintended consequences” in criminalising coercive control, especially for First Nations women.

Saying these consequences are “unintended” implies these outcomes are also unanticipated. In this case, the consequences of criminalising coercive control for First Nations women are far from unanticipated. They have been repeatedly, explicitly identified and acknowledged during the law reform process. Using the language of “unintended consequences” seems to be a way to avoid accountability in law and policy making.

A similar example of law reform negatively impacting First Nations people can be found with previous changes to bail laws in Victoria. The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service observed:

changes to bail laws introduced in 2018 were opposed by expert stakeholders, including The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, on the basis that they would disproportionately affect Aboriginal people. This expertise was disregarded, and the changed bail laws have resulted in Aboriginal women – including victim-survivors of domestic violence – being remanded in custody at alarming rates.

Both the NSW and Queensland governments have been told repeatedly what could happen if they proceed with criminalising coercive control. Instead they are pursuing a “tough on domestic violence” stance risking significant harm to its most marginalised victims.

Governments must listen and respond to First Nations womens’ lived experiences, advocacy and evidence-based concerns before proceeding down this path. Because it is First Nations women who will suffer the “unanticipated consequences” of these new laws.

Peta MacGillivray is affiliated with the Community Restorative Centre (CRC NSW) as Chair of the Board of Directors.

Althea Gibson and Emma Buxton-Namisnyk do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Unintended, but not unanticipated: coercive control laws will disadvantage First Nations women – https://theconversation.com/unintended-but-not-unanticipated-coercive-control-laws-will-disadvantage-first-nations-women-188285

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Curtin, PhD Candidate, Charles Darwin University

An application from Traditional Owners to block the construction of a fertiliser plant near ancient rock art in the Pilbara was denied by the federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek this week. This decision is deeply concerning, and points to a much larger problem with Indigenous heritage management.

Plibersek says she went with the views of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation in making her decision, calling it the “most representative organisation on cultural knowledge” in the region. Yet, she also acknowledged that these views don’t represent all Traditional Owner perspectives in the area.

Save Our Songlines, a separate organisation of Murujuga Traditional Owners, oppose the fertiliser plant, which they say poses a threat to sacred rock art sites. They say the minister’s decision is “based on faulty reasoning and false conclusions”.

In 2020, the world reacted in horror when Rio Tinto lawfully destroyed Juukan Gorge – sacred Aboriginal rock shelters in the Pilbara some 46,000 years old. Broader community understanding of the value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges for looking after Country can help us avoid repeating this tragedy. Tourism and community education is an important way to do that.

‘Enough is enough’

The A$4.5 billion Perdaman fertiliser plant will be constructed in the World Heritage nominated Murujuga National Park in Western Australia. It is home to the world’s largest rock art gallery, with more than 1 million images scattered across the entire Burrup Peninsula and Dampier Archipelago.

As many as 20 sacred sites may be impacted by the plant, according to Save Our Songlines.

Read more:
Rio Tinto just blasted away an ancient Aboriginal site. Here’s why that was allowed

In an interview with ABC Radio National, Plibersek said the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation have agreed that some of these rock carvings can be moved safely, and others can be protected on site even if the plant goes ahead.

However, the situation isn’t so clear cut. For example, the ABC revealed on Thursday that the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation refused permission to move the rock art sites multiple times, preferring they remain undisturbed. Elders finally agreed after receiving advice that this wasn’t possible.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen issues regarding consultation processes with Traditional Owners, such as during the notorious battle for the Kimberley against a major gas plant in 2012.

Traditional Owner and co-author Clinton Walker has been sharing his intimate knowledge of the Pilbara with visitors through his tourism venture Ngurrangga Tours for the past 11 years. He has the cultural authority and capacity to speak for his Country.

Clinton was a signatory on the open letter from Traditional Owners and Custodians of Murujuga concerning threats to cultural heritage in the area. He describes the potential impact of the fertiliser plant:

This hill is a very very sacred site to my people. If they build their plant here we’re not gonna have the same access we do now to go visit our rock art and teach our kids and family their culture.

This impact is going to damage our culture and it will damage us as the Traditional Owners because we’re connected to these sites in a spiritual way. I want people to know how important these sites are. We need to protect them. Enough is enough.

The need for consent

The federal inquiry into the Juukan Gorge disaster highlighted the need for free, prior and informed consent from any affected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander group.

The inquiry also called for the removal of so-called “gag clauses” from land-use agreements, which prevent Aboriginal people from speaking out against developers.

Save Our Songlines Traditional Owners say principles from the inquiry aren’t being upheld, and are concerned gag clauses are silencing members of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation.

We find it deeply problematic that Plibersek did not acknowledge these concerns around gag clauses in announcing her approval of the fertiliser plant. It is the role of the government to keep industry accountable for their obligations to abide by Indigenous heritage laws and to ensure proper consultation processes are undertaken.

This decision is also not in line with the federal government’s vocal commitment to the environment and to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs prior to winning the election.

In a submission to the United Nations about how to “decolonise our legal system”, Nyikina Warrwa Indigenous leader and respected researcher Professor Anne Poelina said:

If the Lawful Laws which are awful, are enabled as lawful, what chance do Indigenous people and our lands, water, lifeways, and livelihoods stand against destruction?

Read more:
Juukan Gorge inquiry puts Rio Tinto on notice, but without drastic reforms, it could happen again

Understanding Indigenous connection to Country

Non-Indigenous people need to better understand the importance of Country for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Classrooms are a good place to start.

Deficits in the Australian education system have led to poor knowledge and frequent and pervasive misunderstandings of Aboriginal people, places and cultures. A psychological hangover from White Australia’s assimilation policies persists.

When school education doesn’t provide accurate and truthful accounts of Australian histories, harmful stereotypes are left unchallenged.

Clinton Walker describes a common response from visitors on his tours showcasing the culture, Country and history of the Pilbara:

People say ‘how the hell don’t we know that? Why have we never learnt this stuff?’

Improvements in education have been slow. For example, the Australian Institute for Teacher and School Leadership only released their report “Building a culturally responsive Australian teaching workforce” in June this year.

Resources to support teachers are said to be scheduled for release in the coming months.

Read more:
First Nations students need culturally safe spaces at their universities

Learn about Country through tourism

Tourism is one context where the visibility and recognition of Indigenous people as knowledge-holders can be promoted and celebrated.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tourism operators are delivering truthful accounts of Australian history and telling their stories of their connection to Country and culture. This work is an emotional labour as they challenge entrenched colonial narratives.

Indigenous tourism operators are agents of reconciliation. Operators speak about wanting to educate visitors to build awareness of social and environmental issues facing their communities. The potential destruction of cultural sites at Murujuga is one such issue.

Ongoing research from lead-author Nicole Curtin involves conversations with Aboriginal tourism operators and their visitors. It finds that deep listening is required for visitors to interrogate their own biases and privileges during their tourism experience. Visitors must be willing to “go and sit and learn” about Indigenous sovereignty and knowledges in their own lives.

Indeed, an enhanced sense of connection to our local communities may help to drive people to speak out about the destruction of sites of environmental and cultural significance.

Raising community awareness to fuel social momentum is one way of exerting pressure on decision makers to protect Australia’s rich cultural heritage and environment.

Read more:
‘Although we didn’t produce these problems, we suffer them’: 3 ways you can help in NAIDOC’s call to Heal Country

We acknowledge the Bininj, Larrakia, Noongar, Ngarluma, Yindjibarndi and Yawuru peoples as the Traditional Owners of Country where this article, and our research, was conducted and written. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.

Nicole Curtin is an associate member of the Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council. She is also a member of Reconciliation WA.

Clinton Walker is the owner of Ngurrangga Tours. He is a board member of Brida and the Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council.

Tracy Woodroffe is affiliated with Charles Darwin University and a lecturer in the College of Indigenous Futures, Arts & Education (CIFEA). Tracy is an associate supervisor for the author Nicole Curtin.

Ruth Wallace is affiliated with Charles Darwin University and the Director of the Northern Institute, a social and policy research institute in the Northern Territory. Ruth is an associate supervisor for the author Nicole Curtin.

– ref. Sacred Aboriginal sites are yet again at risk in the Pilbara. But tourism can help protect Australia’s rich cultural heritage – https://theconversation.com/sacred-aboriginal-sites-are-yet-again-at-risk-in-the-pilbara-but-tourism-can-help-protect-australias-rich-cultural-heritage-188524

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tania Lewis, Professor of Media and Communication and Co-Director, Digital Ethnography Research Centre, RMIT University

In 2020, propelled by the pandemic and the push to work from home, thousands of Australian households made the decision to move from the city to the country. A significant swathe of these internal migrants were “e-changers”, workers holding on to their city jobs and working remotely.

During the thick of the lockdown period, as growing numbers of city slickers swapped their urban lifestyles to work in remote and rural settings, we undertook online interviews with householders in e-change coastal hotspots and “lifestyle towns” in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. We were interested in their experiences of lifestyle migration, including the challenges facing these pioneers of remote working and living. We then spoke to our e-changers one year later to see how they fared.

Read more:
Fancy an e-change? How people are escaping city congestion and living costs by working remotely

One of the early pandemic e-changers was Charles and his partner. They relocated to a coastal location two hours’ drive from Melbourne in March 2020.

Before the pandemic Charles was a busy librarian in a large inner-urban university. Working in the buzzing heart of the city, his day job involved regular face-to-face engagement with academic staff and students in the library and across the campus.

Fast forward to today and Charles’s daily routine when working remotely looks very different. His workday – now largely spent online – is still extremely busy, but it might start with a surf and end with a walk on the beach.

To many, this scenario probably sounds like a dream lifestyle, especially for those of us who spent large chunks of the past two years under lockdown. But is the shift to remote regional work as idyllic as it seems? What kinds of people decided to become e-changers? And what have their experiences been?

Read more:
Flexibility makes us happier, with 3 clear trends emerging in post-pandemic hybrid work

3 kinds of e-changers

The e-changers in our study were a diverse group of people with various motivations for moving to the country. We found three broad groups of e-changers, marked by different stages of life.

The first group – represented by older couples like Charles and Di – had often been planning a lifestyle change for some time, in early anticipation of retirement.

The second group were younger couples and singles. They were often motivated by a desire to live closer to natural amenities such as beaches, forests or mountains. Research manager Irene and her partner, for instance, moved from inner Melbourne to Mt Macedon in Victoria in May 2020. Irene recalled:

We’d been talking about this for a while because we’re both from regional areas.
But after the first Melbourne lockdown, we thought ‘let’s just do it’, so we found a rental here. For us it was about having greater access to the outdoors – we both enjoy biking, hiking, running and climbing.

The third and largest group were households with dependent children. They were generally seeking more affordable and larger homes with space for their children to spend time outdoors. Kevin, an engineer whose family relocated from Sydney to Wollongong, is a good example of these aspirations:

When we had our second child […] we wanted to buy a family house but were priced out of Sydney, so we cast our net around remote and regional areas – the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast, but Wollongong came top of the list based upon distance to my office, a more relaxed lifestyle, closer to beach and bush, good schools, good health care, wasn’t too small, wasn’t too large.

Read more:
The ‘city’ is becoming increasingly digital, forcing us to rethink its role in life and work

Different groups, different outcomes

We spoke with our e-changers one year later. How were they finding the experience of living a significant distance from the cultural life and amenities of a major city?

While they miss the cosmopolitanism and vitality of the city, Charles and Di are still enjoying the calmness, daily encounters with wildlife and close connection to neighbours in their small coastal locale. But they now rent an Airbnb in Melbourne for a couple of nights a week. These regular commutes enable them to reconnect with colleagues and get a dose of urban vibrancy.

By contrast, Irene and her partner have returned to Melbourne from Mount Macedon. While the e-change experience was a “fun break from the city and an experience of regional life”, Irene’s commitment to her career meant she wanted to be near her office. Lengthy commutes on the train – made worse by service cancellations and delays – made her city workdays long and tiring.

Read more:
It seemed like a good idea in lockdown, but is moving to the country right for you?

Long-term e-changers Kevin and his family have no regrets about the move. They cannot imagine returning to the city. For Kevin, the flexibility of working from home has enabled him to share more of the role of home care, such as cooking dinner and doing school drop-offs, with his partner, a busy healthcare worker.

It’s [working from home] the way forward. I don’t think anyone’s gonna go back.

However, for professionals like Kevin, living and working remotely still has some limitations in terms of access to transport and airports.

We have to have access or a link to a major centre, whether through rail, public transport, so we never lose that ability to be able to go into a meeting in the city if they need to. And I think Australia is going to get better at that.

Tania Lewis received funding from The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) to conduct this research.

Andrew Glover received funding from The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) to conduct this research.

Julian Waters-Lynch received funding from The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) to conduct this research.

– ref. ‘Let’s just do it’: how do e-changers feel about having left the city now lockdowns are over? – https://theconversation.com/lets-just-do-it-how-do-e-changers-feel-about-having-left-the-city-now-lockdowns-are-over-188009

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

University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and Associate Professor of journalism Dr. Caroline Fisher talk about this week in politics.

They discuss the government’s announcement of a royal commission into Robodebt, and the inquiry into former prime minister Scott Morrison’s power grab, when he was secretly appointed to multiple ministries.

They also canvass the coming jobs and skills summit, where a “broken” industrial relations system and the push by employers for more migrants will be central and contentious issues.

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

– ref. The Morrison inquiry, Robodebt royal commission, and the jobs summit – https://theconversation.com/the-morrison-inquiry-robodebt-royal-commission-and-the-jobs-summit-189458

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Shaw, Professor of Politics, Massey University

The final act in this week’s protest on the lawns of parliament was the announcement by Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki of a new political party. Perhaps this was the whole point of the event, as it was never entirely clear what the protest was actually against in the first place.

According to Tamaki, the proposed Freedoms NZ party (which has yet to be formally registered) would be a coalition of three existing fringe parties: the New Nation Party (which is keen to leave the United Nations), Vision NZ (which promotes the idea “Kiwis will once again be First, no longer playing the runner up to immigrants or refugees”), and the anti-5G Outdoors and Freedom Party.

Given the fractious nature of extreme-right politics, it was perhaps not surprising when the last of that triumvirate announced it had not agreed to any alliance. But tempting though it might be to dismiss the latest attempt by extremists to take their place in the very institutions they publicly denounce, there are important reasons we should not be complacent.

While extremist parties have historically struggled at general elections in New Zealand, the political landscape has altered significantly in the past two years. Recent polls are now registering support for those on the extreme right.

It is true this support is fragmented across small parties, which have a terrible track record of cooperation. And at this point none is close to the 5% threshold (or single constituency seat) required to secure a place in parliament. But even if it seems unlikely Tamaki will be able to persuade other prominent figures on the right to hand their own platforms to him, it won’t be for lack of effort.

Strange bedfellows

More importantly, by refusing to rule out working with them in the next parliament, National Party leader Christopher Luxon has potentially given Tamaki and his fellow travellers a sniff of credibility.

Luxon’s equivocation is slightly mysterious. Tamaki has said he believes COVID was the work of Satan and that Christians would be protected from the virus. He has compared life in Auckland under lockdown with concentration camps. And his views on migrants, family values and the place of women in public life have seen him compared with Hungary’s autocratic leader Viktor Orban.

Read more:
Spirit of resistance: why Destiny Church and other New Zealand Pentecostalists oppose lockdowns and vaccination

It’s hard to imagine this sitting comfortably with at least some of Luxon’s own caucus colleagues – particularly its women MPs.

And while it might also be easy to agree with Luxon that fringe parties have little chance of clearing electoral thresholds, this also minimises the threat such movements pose to the fabric of liberal democracy in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Lessons from Europe

There are two lessons about the influence of right wing populists in other countries that should be heeded.

The first is that it is reckless to glibly assume such parties cannot enjoy electoral success. In the 1980s, no European government required the support of populists to take or remain in office. But during this century, as many as 11 European governments have relied for their existence on coalition with right wing populist parties.

Read more:
Mid-term pressures test Jacinda Ardern’s Labour government, but National must still find the new political centre

Moreover, once the dust had settled on the 2019 European Parliament elections, the populist/right-wing nationalist bloc held 112 (15%) of the 751 seats.

The term “bloc” suggests a degree of ideological, strategic and policy coherence that doesn’t necessarily characterise Europe’s populists. But that shouldn’t obscure the fact they are emphatically there.

What’s more, populists do not need to be in office to have an impact. They can exert significant influence indirectly in a number of ways: by occupying the news cycle (thereby securing public visibility), by shaping the political agenda, by pushing mainstream parties to the right, and by moulding the language with which politics is transacted.

Rise of the far right

In the United Kingdom, the influence of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party on the Conservative Party’s sharp tilt to the right in recent times is just one example.

And Boris Johnson’s decision to prorogue parliament to force through a “no deal” Brexit, while unsuccessful, was widely seen as a tactic to bring back voters who had deserted the Tories at the European elections.

Read more:
Who are Donald Trump’s supporters in New Zealand and what do we know about them?

Not so many years ago people laughed at the idea that extreme right populists could win parliamentary seats. No one’s laughing any more. In many parts of the world, populist parties are no longer constitutional oddities – they are institutionalised features of party politics and acceptable partners in government.

By refusing categorically to rule out a political accommodation with Tamaki and his followers, Luxon is keeping alive the possibility – however faint – this may also come to pass in New Zealand. Until we hear otherwise, not ruling them out means they could be ruled in.

Richard Shaw 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. Refusing to rule out working with Brian Tamaki, Luxon gives NZ’s populist right a ‘sniff of credibility’ – https://theconversation.com/refusing-to-rule-out-working-with-brian-tamaki-luxon-gives-nzs-populist-right-a-sniff-of-credibility-189368