Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, The University of Western Australia

The Greek poet Crinagoras of Mytilene (1st century BC–1st century AD) once addressed a little poem to an earthquake. He asked the quake not to destroy his house:

Earthquake, most dread of all shocks … spare my new-built house, for I do not know of any terror equal to the quivering of the earth.

Like us, ancient people had many things to say about natural disasters. So, what information did they leave behind for us, and what can we learn from them?

The story of Nicomedia

One of the most vivid ancient accounts of an earthquake is found in the writings of the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330–395 AD).

On August 24 358 AD, there was a huge earthquake at Nicomedia, a city in Asia Minor.

As Ammianus recounts:

A terrific earthquake completely overturned the city and its suburbs … since most of the houses were carried down the slopes of the hill, they fell one upon another, while everything resounded with the vast roar of their destruction.

The human effect was devastating.

Most people were “killed at one blow”, says Ammianus. Others, he tells us, were “imprisoned unhurt within slanting house roofs, to be consumed by the agony of starvation”.

Hidden in the rubble “with fractured skulls or amputated arms or legs”, injured survivors “hovered between life and death”, but most could not be recovered, “despite their pleas and protestations” resounding from beneath the rubble, according to Ammianus.

Famous natural disasters in the ancient world

A number of natural disasters involving earthquakes and tsunamis were especially famous in ancient Greek and Roman times.

In 464 BC, in Sparta, there was a huge earthquake. People at the time said it was greater than any earthquake that had ever occurred beforehand.

According to the Greek writer Plutarch (c. 46–119 AD), the earthquake “tore the land of the Lacedaemonians into many chasms”, collapsed the peaks of the surrounding mountains, and “demolished the entire city with the exception of five houses”.

In 373–372 BC, the Greek coastal cities of Helice and Buris were destroyed by tsunamis. They were permanently submerged beneath the waves.

An anonymous Greek poet evocatively wrote that the walls of these cities, which had once been thriving with many people, were now silent under the waves, “clad with thick sea-moss”.

But arguably the most famous ancient tsunami occurred on July 21 365 AD on the northern coast of Africa, at that time controlled by the Romans.

Again according to Ammianus, early in the morning there was a huge earthquake. Then, not long after, the water retreated from the shore:

the sea with its rolling waves was driven back and withdrew from the land, so that in the abyss of the deep thus revealed people saw many kinds of sea-creatures stuck fast in the slime … and vast mountains and deep valleys, which nature had hidden in the unplumbed depths.

Then, suddenly, the sea returned with a vengeance. As Ammianus tells us, it smashed over the land destroying everything in its path:

The great mass of waters killed many thousands of people by drowning … the lifeless bodies of shipwrecked persons lay floating on their backs or on their faces … great ships, driven by the mad blasts, landed on the tops of buildings, and some were driven almost two miles inland.

Earthquakes were famous for their sound. The Roman scholar Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) explained that earthquakes have a “terrible sound” – like “the bellowing of cattle or the shouts of human beings or the clash of weapons struck together”.

Ancient ideas about what causes earthquakes and tsunamis

Like today, ancient people wanted to know what caused these phenomena. There were various different theories.

Some people thought Poseidon, god of the sea, earthquakes and horses, was responsible.

As the Greek writer Plutarch (c. 46–119 AD) comments, “men sacrifice to Poseidon when they wish to put a stop to earthquakes”.

However, other people looked beyond divine explanations.

One interesting theory held by the philosopher Anaximenes (6th century BC) was that the earth itself was the cause of earthquakes.

According to Anaximenes, huge parts of the earth beneath the ground can move, collapse, detach or tear away, thus causing shaking.

“Huge waves”, said Anaximenes, are “produced by the weight [of falling earth] crashing down into the [waters] from above”.

Ancient people knew nothing of tectonic plates and continental drift. These were discovered much later, mainly through the pioneering work of Alfred Wegener (1880–1930).

Preparing for natural disasters

Ancient Greeks and Romans had little way of predicting or preparing for earthquakes and tsunamis.

Pherecydes of Samos (6th century BC) was said to have predicted an earthquake “from the appearance of some water drawn from a well”, according to the Roman statesman Cicero (106–43 BC).

For the most part, though, ancient people had to live at the mercy of these occurrences.

As the anonymous author of a treatise titled On the Cosmos once wrote, natural disasters are part of life on earth:

Violent earthquakes before now have torn up many parts of the earth; monstrous storms of rain have burst out and overwhelmed it; incursions and withdrawals of the waves have often made seas of dry land and dry land of seas…

While our understanding of these events (and our ability to prepare for them, and recover afterward) has improved immeasurably since ancient times, earthquakes and tsunamis are things we will always have to deal with.

Konstantine Panegyres 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 great mass of waters killed many thousands’: how earthquakes and tsunamis shook ancient Greece and Rome – https://theconversation.com/the-great-mass-of-waters-killed-many-thousands-how-earthquakes-and-tsunamis-shook-ancient-greece-and-rome-262358

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Martin, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, School of Biomedical Sciences, Pathology and Laboratory Science, The University of Western Australia

It’s a cold, crisp evening and the air carries a chill that bites. As temperatures drop and houses get colder, we turn to trusted sources of warmth such as wood fires, heaters, hot water bottles and warm drinks.

But these winter comforts come with the risk of burns.

Staying warm in winter is important, but so is staying safe. So, a little caution can go a long way to prevent serious injury.

Let’s start with children

Young children are naturally curious, and in winter, their explorations often take them dangerously close to sources of heat. One common scenario involves toddlers reaching out to touch a glowing wood-fired heater.

These are attractive to curious children because they are bright, warm and often within reach. Tragically, these burns can cause significant injuries to small hands and fingers, often requiring long recovery times and specialist care.

Scalds from hot drinks are also very common in young children. These accidents tend to happen during everyday moments, such as when a parent is trying to juggle a hot drink with a sick, unsettled child on their lap.

Seasonal colds and viruses mean children often need more comfort and physical contact, increasing the likelihood of accidents. A hot drink, even one that has cooled slightly, can cause deep burns to a child’s skin if spilled.

In many parts of Australia at this time of year, bonfires, fire pits and campfires become common. Extinguishing a fire with sand may seem safe, but embers underneath can retain enough heat to burn skin hours later.

Children running in light shoes can be unaware of where a fire has been and step directly onto it, resulting in severe burns to their feet.

Beware of hot water bottles, wheat bags

Hot water bottles are one of the most common causes of scalding and burns in both adults and children.

Hot water bottles can cause scald burns from spills when being filled, can leak or burst if cuddled or rolled on, or cause contact burns if placed directly on the skin. Always check the bottle for wear, use hot tap water instead of boiling water, and keep a layer between the bottle and the skin.

Wheat bags can also cause burns over winter, particularly when overheated or applied directly to skin without a cover. Rarely, wheat bags have caught fire, especially when overheated or re-heated repeatedly without allowing them to fully cool between use.

Older people can also be at risk

Elderly people face a unique set of risks in winter. For some, underlying health issues, such as diabetes or poor circulation, can reduce sensitivity to heat, making them unaware they have been burnt.

A classic example is burns to the lower legs caused by sitting too close to a bar heater for extended periods. These burns may go unnoticed until they become painful or infected.

In some cases, financial strain plays a role. Many older adults live on fixed incomes and may hesitate to heat their entire home to save on energy bills. Instead, they may rely on small portable heaters in closed rooms or heated blankets and hot water bottles. These workarounds are cost-effective, but can increase the risk of burns.

How can I stay safe?

Burns are preventable injuries. Here’s how to reduce the risk:

1. use a barrier around heaters to protect exploring hands

2. keep hot drinks out of reach when holding a child, and consider using mugs with lids for added safety

3. supervise young children closely around campfires, bonfires and fire pits, and extinguish with water not sand

4. ensure hot water bottles are in good condition. Never fill a hot water bottle with boiling water, use the hot tap, and do not use if there are signs of wear or damage. Don’t overheat wheat bags

5. regularly check your heater is safe and is working as it should. Sit at least a metre away.

When should I seek medical care?

If a burn happens, run the burn under cool running water for at least 20 minutes, while keeping the person warm. Don’t apply ice, creams or ointments, as they can cause more damage by trapping in the heat. Remove tight clothing or jewellery. Cover the burn with a loose, clean cloth or non-stick dressing.

Seek medical attention if the burn:

• is deep, even if the person isn’t in pain

• is larger than a 20c piece or has blisters

• involves the airway, face, hands or genitals

• looks leathery, or there are patches of brown, black or white

• if the person has trouble breathing.

Lisa Martin receives funding from Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation, Perron Foundation, The Kids Research Institute, and is employed by The Fiona Wood Foundation.

– ref. Wood fires, warm drinks, hot water bottles: 5 expert tips on how to avoid burns this winter – https://theconversation.com/wood-fires-warm-drinks-hot-water-bottles-5-expert-tips-on-how-to-avoid-burns-this-winter-261254

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zoë Prebble, Lecturer in Criminal Law, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Among the 138 recommendations of the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry’s final report to parliament was a clear call: remove the legal time limits that prevent survivors of historic abuse from seeking justice in civil court.

That report – Whanaketia – Through pain and trauma, from darkness to light – was published on July 24 last year. One year on, the government has yet to act.

Without that reform, survivors of historic abuse remain vulnerable to being turned away by the legal system – not because their experiences aren’t credible, but because the law still treats them as being out of time.

The royal commission heard from thousands of survivors of childhood abuse in the care of state and faith-based institutions between 1950 and 1999. What stood out was how often that harm was made worse by silence, disbelief and legal systems that failed to respond.

Limitation periods in abuse cases

Under New Zealand law, people generally have six years from the time a harm occurs to bring a civil claim. That limit is set out in the Limitation Act 2010 for events after 2011, and in the Limitation Act 1950 for events before that.

For survivors of historic abuse, particularly childhood abuse, that six-year window rarely reflects how trauma actually works. Survivors often take decades to feel sufficiently safe and supported to come forward and name what happened to them.

The 1950 law allowed limitation periods to be paused if a claimant was under a “disability” – a legal term meaning they were either a child or, in the language of the time, of “unsound mind”. In practice, this meant the six-year clock usually didn’t start for children until they reached adulthood.

The 2010 law clarified this by explicitly saying the limitation period for children begins at 18. It also introduced a new “incapacitated” exception, allowing the clock to pause for adults who are unable to make decisions or take legal action because of trauma or other conditions.

But in practice it’s a narrow doorway. Courts require survivors to prove not just trauma, but a high legal incapacity threshold.

This means that even when the abuse is acknowledged, and even when survivors have strong evidence, civil cases are often barred. The bar is not that the harm didn’t happen, but that it happened “too long ago”.

How civil time limits deny justice

In 2019, former Air Force servicewoman Mariya Taylor brought a civil claim against the sergeant who had sexually abused her in the 1980s while both were stationed at the Whenuapai base.

The court accepted the abuse had occurred. But because Taylor was not legally considered “disabled” by trauma, and the six-year window had closed, her case was struck out under the Limitation Act 1950. Adding insult to injury, she was ordered to pay costs to her abuser.

At 18, Taylor had entered a rigid military hierarchy where power and discipline made reporting abuse nearly impossible.

Her case shows how limitation periods can block even well-evidenced claims, and how institutional dynamics such as silence, shame and obedience often delay disclosure.

These same patterns were pivotal to the royal commission’s findings.

Australia is ahead of NZ

Australia has taken a markedly different approach. In line with the final report of its own Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2017, every state and territory removed civil limitation periods for survivors of childhood abuse.

Survivors can now bring civil claims regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred. In landmark case in 2023, GLJ v. The Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Diocese of Lismore, the High Court of Australia rejected a request to shut down proceedings even though the alleged abuser and other witnesses had died. The court said the case could still go ahead using available evidence.

The GLJ decision is important for New Zealand courts. It shows that while removing time bars doesn’t guarantee victory for survivors, it does give them the chance to be heard.

Delayed but not denied

Removing time limits for civil claims involving historic abuse, as the royal commission recommended, is now overdue.

A first step would be for the government to clearly commit to amending the Limitation Act 2010 to exclude claims of historic abuse – especially child sexual abuse – from the six-year deadline.

This would bring New Zealand into line with Australia and recognise what we now know about the delayed nature of disclosure, trauma and institutional silence. It would also honour the spirit of the royal commission’s work.

As courts and commissions have recognised, removing limitation periods doesn’t guarantee a win for survivors. But it does mean they’re at least allowed to try.

For years, survivors have been told they’ve spoken too late. Reforming limitation laws won’t undo the harm they suffered. But it will show their testimony matters, and that justice delayed does not have to mean justice denied.

Zoë Prebble 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 royal commission recommended abolishing time limits on abuse cases – a year on, nothing has changed – https://theconversation.com/the-royal-commission-recommended-abolishing-time-limits-on-abuse-cases-a-year-on-nothing-has-changed-261831

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joel Scanlan, Senior Lecturer in Health Information Management, University of Tasmania

Australian schools are seeing a growing number of incidents in which students have created deepfake sexualised imagery of their classmates. The eSafety Commissioner has urged schools to monitor the situation.

In 2024, the problem of deepfakes became a crisis in South Korea: more than 500 schools and universities were targeted in a coordinated wave of deepfake sexual abuse.

AI-generated sexualised images of students — mostly girls — were circulated in encrypted Telegram groups. The perpetrators were often classmates of the victims.

A new report from global child-protection group ECPAT with funding from the UK-based Churchill Fellowship takes a close look at what happened in Korea, so other countries can understand and avoid similar crises. Here’s what Australia can learn.

A glimpse into our future?

The events in South Korea were not just about deepfake technology. They were about how the technology was used.

Perpetrators created groups on the Telegram messaging platform to identify mutual acquaintances in local schools or universities. They then formed “Humiliation Rooms” to gather victims’ photos and personal information so they could create deepfake sexual images.

Rooms for more than 500 schools and universities have been identified, often with thousands of members. The rooms were filled with deepfake imagery, created from photos on social media and the school yearbook.

Bots within the app allowed users to generate AI nudes in seconds. One such bot had more than 220,000 subscribers. The bot gave users two deepfake images for free, with additional images available for the equivalent of one Australian dollar.

This wasn’t the dark web. It was happening on a mainstream platform, used by millions.

And it wasn’t just adult predators. More than 80% of those arrested were teenagers. Many were described as “normal boys” by their teachers — students who had never shown signs of violent behaviour before.

The abuse was gamified. Users earned rewards for inviting friends, sharing images, and escalating the harm. It was social, yet anonymous.

Could this happen in Australia?

We have already seen smaller, less organised deepfake incidents in Australian schools. However, the huge scale and ease of use of the Korean abuse system should be cause for alarm.

The Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation recorded 58,503 reports of pictures and videos of online child abuse in the 2023–24 financial year. This is an average of 160 reports per day (4,875 reports a month), a 45% increase from the previous year.

This increase is likely to continue. In response to these risks, the Australian government, through the eSafety Commissioner, is applying the existing Basic Online Safety Expectations to generative AI services. This creates a clear expectation these services must work proactively to prevent the creation of harmful deepfake content.

Internationally, the European Union’s AI Act has set a precedent for regulating high-risk AI applications, including those that affect children. In the United States, the proposed Take It Down Act aims to criminalise the publication of non-consensual intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes.

These are a start, but a lot more work remains to be done to provide a safe online environment for young people. The Korean experience shows how easily things can escalate when these tools are used at scale, especially in peer-to-peer abuse among adolescents.

5 lessons from Korea

The South Korean crisis holds several lessons for Australia.

1. Prevention must start early. Korea’s crisis involved children as young as 12 (and even younger in some primary schools targeted). We need comprehensive digital ethics and consent education in primary schools, not just in high schools.

2. Law enforcement needs AI tools of their own to keep up. Just as offenders are using AI to scale up abuse, police must be equipped with AI to detect and investigate it. This may include facial recognition, content detection, and automated triage systems, all governed by strict privacy protocols.

3. Platforms must also be held accountable. Telegram only began cooperating with South Korean authorities after immense public pressure. Australia must enforce safety-by-design principles and ensure encrypted platforms are not safe havens for abuse.

4. Support services must be scaled up. Korea’s crisis caused trauma for entire communities. Victims often had to continuing going to school with perpetrators in the same classrooms. Australia must invest in trauma-informed support systems that can respond to both individual and collective harm.

5. We must listen to victims and survivors. Policy must be shaped by those who have experienced digital abuse. Their insights are crucial to designing effective and compassionate responses.

The Korean crisis didn’t happen overnight. The warning signs were there: in 2023 Korea produced more than half the world’s celebrity deepfakes). This has been accompanied by rising misogyny online and the proliferation of AI tools. But they were ignored until it was too late. Australia mustn’t make the same mistake.

Joel Scanlan 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. Industrial-scale deepfake abuse caused a crisis in South Korean schools. Here’s how Australia can avoid the same fate – https://theconversation.com/industrial-scale-deepfake-abuse-caused-a-crisis-in-south-korean-schools-heres-how-australia-can-avoid-the-same-fate-262322

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cesar Alvarez, Lecturer in Terrorism and Security Studies, Charles Sturt University

Imagine an area larger than the Australian Capital Territory, nearly twice the size of London and four times that of New York City covered in coca plantations.

That’s the scale of Colombia’s coca cultivation, according to an estimate from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Colombia produces an estimated 2,664 metric tonnes of cocaine annually. That is enough to fill 20 Boeing 747 cargo planes per year.

Not even during the darkest days of Pablo Escobar’s infamous empire did Colombia cultivate as much coca or produce as much cocaine as it does today.

In the past year alone, coca crops expanded by 10% and production capacity soared more than 50%.

So how did it come to this?

A worrying mix

Colombia did not arrive at this point overnight, nor by chance. A complex mix of radical and failed policy shifts, scientific innovation and global demand, among other factors, has shaped this trajectory.

For example, in 2015, Colombia’s Constitutional Court suspended aerial fumigation and banned the use of glyphosate. Despite the herbicide’s effectiveness in killing coca plants, the court cited concerns over its health risks and environmental impact.

Aerial spraying had allowed the government to reduce the risk that manual eradication brigades were exposed to over large areas.

In 2016, then-president Juan Manuel Santos introduced a scheme to substitute coca with non-illicit plants. Incentives were offered to farmers. However, it ended up encouraging many peasants who had never grown coca before to begin cultivating it, simply to qualify for the new subsidies.

It is no surprise that during Santos’ second term (2014–18), Colombia’s coca crops nearly doubled, from 96,000 hectares to more than 170,000.

This was all in an effort to secure a peace deal with the narco-terrorist group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

More recently, in 2022, President Gustavo Petro announced his Paz Total (Total Peace) policy. This was designed to bring trafficking organisations – including Colombia’s second largest narco-terrorist group, the National Liberation Army (ELN) – to the negotiation table.

Ironically, and paradoxically, Colombia is now producing more drugs than ever. It is also experiencing a sharp increase in violence by non-state armed groups.

The impact on Australia

What happens in Colombia matters to Australia because criminal innovation is fuelling greater cocaine volumes and higher purity. This means more is flowing towards Australian shores.

Colombia’s coca production is being reshaped by enhanced cultivation techniques, more secure and autonomous smuggling methods, and an increasingly fragmented criminal landscape.

Production is now more efficient and profitable than ever. Growers are planting improved coca leaf varieties and achieve more harvest cycles per year with higher alkaloid yields per kilo.

Smuggling methods have also evolved.

Semi-submersibles or narco-submarines are increasing in storage capacity. Recent seizures show manned vessels with four to five tonnes of capacity are now the rule rather than the exception.

Some networks are also transitioning from manned to unmanned operations.

Also, the growing presence and operational influence of Mexican cartels in Colombia has amplified the scope and scale of alliances between transnational organised crime groups across Europe, Asia and Oceania. International police investigations are even more complex.

Like much of the world, there is a growing demand for and increasing use of cocaine in Australia.

Despite record-high seizure numbers and total volumes intercepted, Australia is still among the most attractive destination markets for drug trafficking organisations because of the high price users pay for the drugs.

Unless something radically changes in Colombia, Australia continues to face growing risks from maritime trafficking routes. There is also an increased threat of being used as a transit and money laundering hub in the global drug economy.

Some possible solutions

Even if conditions in Colombia were to change swiftly and drastically, supply-focused strategies alone are insufficient to mitigate the risks facing Australia.

After all, Colombia cannot simply fumigate its way out of this cocaine crisis, just as Australia cannot arrest its way out of it.

However, continued collaboration between the Australian Federal Police and the National Police of Colombia remains essential to keep drugs at bay.

The appointment of Colombia’s first police attaché to Australia will be a welcome and meaningful step forward. (While not yet formally announced, the Colombian embassy in Australia has informed me and several other experts the country is appointing the attaché.)

Both countries must deepen this relationship and collectively engage meaningfully and frequently to help solve the problem.

Cesar Alvarez 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. Colombia is producing more cocaine than ever – and more is reaching Australian shores – https://theconversation.com/colombia-is-producing-more-cocaine-than-ever-and-more-is-reaching-australian-shores-261745

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marlee Bower, Senior Research Fellow, Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney

Without even realising it, your world sometimes gradually gets smaller: less walking, fewer days in the office, cancelling on friends. Watching plans disintegrate on the chat as friends struggle to settle on a date or place for a catch-up.

You might start to feel a bit flat or disconnected. Subtle changes in habit and mood take hold. Could you be … lonely?

It’s not a label many of us identify with easily, especially if you know you’ve got friends, or are in a happy relationship.

But loneliness can happen to us all from time to time – and identifying it is the first step to fixing it.

So, what is loneliness?

Loneliness is the distress we feel when our relationships don’t meet our needs – in quality or quantity.

It’s not the same as being objectively alone (otherwise known as “social isolation”).

You can feel deeply lonely even while surrounded by friends, or totally content on your own.

Loneliness is subjective; many people don’t realise they’re lonely until the feeling becomes persistent.

What are some of the signs to look for?

You may feel a physical coldness, emptiness or hollowness (I’ve heard it described as feeling like you are missing an organ). Some research shows social pain is experienced similarly in the brain to physical pain.

Behavioural signs may include:

• changes in routine
• trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep
• changed appetite (maybe you’re eating more or less than you normally would, or have less variety in your diet)
• withdrawing from plans you would usually enjoy (perhaps you’re skipping a regular exercise class, or going to shows or sports events less often).

Emotionally, you may feel:

• a persistent sadness
• tired
• disconnected
• like you don’t belong, even when you are with others.

You may also feel more sensitive to rejection or criticism.

But you’re not alone and you’re not broken.

Loneliness is a normal response to disconnection.

The late US neuroscientist John Cacioppo described loneliness as an evolutionary alarm system.

In the past, being separated from your tribe meant danger and risk from predators, so our brains developed a way to push us back towards connection.

The pain of loneliness is designed to keep us connected and safe.

Why is it often hard to recognise loneliness?

Sadly, there’s still a lot of stigma around admitting loneliness, especially for men.

Many people resist identifying as lonely, or feel this marks them as a “loser”.

But this silence can make the problem worse.

When no one talks about it, it becomes harder to break the cycle of loneliness, and the stigma remains.

While passing loneliness is normal, chronic or persistent loneliness can hurt our health.

Research shows chronic loneliness is associated with:

• depression
• anxiety
• weakened immunity
• heart disease
• earlier death.

Loneliness can also become self-reinforcing. When loneliness feels normal, it can start to shape how you see the world: you expect rejection, withdraw more and the cycle deepens.

The earlier you notice you’re lonely, the easier it is to break.

But I’m in a relationship, have loads of friends and a rewarding job

Yes, but you can still be lonely.

Most of us need different kinds of relationships to thrive. It’s not about how many people you know, but whether you feel connected and have a meaningful role in these relationships.

You may feel lonely even with strong friendships if you are lacking deeper connection, shared identity or a sense of community.

This doesn’t mean you’re ungrateful, or a bad friend.

It just means you need more or different kinds of connection.

OK, I’ve realised I am lonely. Now what?

Start by asking yourself: what kind of connection am I missing?

Is it one-to-one friendships? A partner? Casual social interactions? A shared purpose or community?

Then reflect on what’s helped you feel more connected in the past. For some, it’s joining a choir, a book club or a sports group. For others, it may be volunteering or just saying “yes” to small social moments, like chatting with your local barista or learning the name of the local butcher.

If you’re still struggling, a psychologist can help with tailored strategies for building connection.

The structural causes of loneliness

It’s also important to remember loneliness is often not because of personal failings or overall mental health.

My own research shows loneliness is often shaped by structural factors, such as poor planning in our local neighbourhood environments, financial inequality, work pressures, social norms, or even long-term effects of restrictions from the COVID pandemic.

We are also learning more about how climate change can disrupt social connection and worsen loneliness due to, for example, higher temperatures or bushfires.

Loneliness is normal, common, human and completely solvable.

Start by noticing it in yourself and reach out if you can.

Let’s start talking about it more, so others can feel less alone too.

Marlee Bower receives funding from the Henry Halloran Urban and Regional Research Initiative, the BHP Foundation, AHURI and NHMRC. She is affiliated with the University of Sydney Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use and Australia’s Mental Health Think Tank.

– ref. How can I tell if I am lonely? What are some of the signs? – https://theconversation.com/how-can-i-tell-if-i-am-lonely-what-are-some-of-the-signs-261262

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lucinda Chambers, PhD Candidate in Marine Bioacoustics, UNSW Sydney

Late in the evening, the Antarctic sky flushes pink. The male leopard seal wakes and slips from the ice into the water. There, he’ll spend the night singing underwater amongst the floating ice floes.

For the next two months he sings every night. He will sing so loudly, the ice around him vibrates. Each song is a sequence of trills and hoots, performed in a particular pattern.

In a world first, we analysed leopard seal songs and found the predictability of their patterns was remarkably similar to the nursery rhymes humans sing.

We think this is a deliberate strategy. While leopard seals are solitary animals, the males need their call to carry clearly across vast stretches of icy ocean, to woo a mate.

A season of underwater solos

Leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) are named after their spotted coats. They live on ice and surrounding waters in Antarctica.

Leopard seals are especially vocal during breeding season, which lasts from late October to early January. A female leopard seal sings for a few hours on the days she is in heat. But the males are the real showstoppers.

Each night, the males perform underwater solos for up to 13 hours. They dive into the sea, singing underwater for about two minutes before returning to the water’s surface to breathe and rest. This demanding routine continues for weeks.

A male leopard seal weighs about 320 kilograms, but produces surprisingly high-pitched trills, similar to those of a tiny cricket.

Within a leopard seal population, the sounds themselves don’t vary much in pitch or duration. But the order and pattern in which the sounds are produced varies considerably between individuals.

Our research examined these individual songs. We compared them to that of other vocal animals, and to human music.

Listening to songs from the sea

The data used in the study was collected by one author of this article, Tracey Rogers, in the 1990s.

Rogers rode her quad bike across the Antarctic ice to the edge of the sea and marked 26 individual male seals with dye as they slept. Then she returned to record their songs at night.

The new research involved analysing these recordings, to better understand their structure and patterns. We did this by measuring the “entropy” of their sequences. Entropy measures how predictable or random a sequence is.

We found the songs are composed of five key “notes” or call types. Listen to each one below.

A remarkably predictable pattern

We then compared the songs of the male leopard seals with several styles of human music: baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary, as well as songs by The Beatles and nursery rhymes.

What stood out was the similarity between the predictability of human nursery rhymes and leopard seal calls. Nursery rhymes are simple, repetitive and easy to remember — and that’s what we heard in the leopard seal songs.

The range of “entropy” was similar to the 39 nursery rhymes from the Golden Song Book, a collection of words and sheet music for classic children’s songs, which was first published in 1945. It includes classics such:

• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
• Frère Jacques
• Ring Around a Rosy
• Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
• Humpty Dumpty
• Three Blind Mice
• Rockabye Baby.

For humans, the predictable structure of a nursery rhyme melody helps make it simple enough for a child to learn. For a leopard seal, this predictability may enable the individual to learn its song and keep singing it over multiple days. This consistency is important, because changes in pitch or frequency can create miscommunication.

Like sperm whales, leopard seals may also use song to set themselves apart from others and signal their fitness to reproduce. The greater structure in the songs helps ensure listeners accurately receive the message and identify who is singing.

An evolving song?

Leopard seals sound very different to humans. But our research shows the complexity and structure of their songs is remarkably similar to our own nursery rhymes.

Communication through song is a very common animal behaviour. However, structure and predictability in mammal song has only been studied in a handful of species. We know very little about what drives it.

Understanding animal communication is important. It can improve conservation efforts and animal welfare, and provide important information about animal cognition and evolution.

Technology has advanced rapidly since our recordings were made in the 1990s. In future, we hope to revisit Antarctica to record and study further, to better understand if new call types have emerged, and if patterns of leopard seal song evolve from generation to generation.

Tracey Rogers receives funding from ARC.

Lucinda Chambers 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. Rockabye baby: the ‘love songs’ of lonely leopard seals resemble human nursery rhymes – https://theconversation.com/rockabye-baby-the-love-songs-of-lonely-leopard-seals-resemble-human-nursery-rhymes-262113

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexa Scarlata, Lecturer, Digital Communication, RMIT University

As the cool nights continue, it’s the perfect time to cozy up with a new batch of captivating films and series.

This month’s streaming highlights bring a little bit of everything, from gripping true crime, to thought-provoking political drama, and a nostalgic music documentary on the life and times of piano man Billy Joel.

So grab a blanket (and maybe a snack or two). Your next binge-watch awaits.

One Night in Idaho: The College Murders

Prime Video

I remember seeing the gruesome 2022 murder of four college students in Moscow, Idaho, splashed all over the news in Australia. The world seemed momentarily gripped by the brutality of the killings, which happened in off-campus housing, while two other roommates slept downstairs.

The ensuing investigation was given significantly less attention, though. So when Prime Video dropped this four-episode limited series, well, that was my weekend sorted.

The docuseries features exclusive interviews with the friends and families of the victims, so it doesn’t feel gratuitous. It respectfully recounts the tragedy and explores its continued impact, while honouring the victims. It also builds the kind of tension and disquiet that is so beloved in the true crime genre, but not in a way that makes you feel gross watching it.

Notably, legal proceedings for the case were still underway when One Night in Idaho was released. And the series made it clear there was more to the story which couldn’t be shared with, or by, the producers.

However, the trial has since concluded, with more information now available for anyone wanting to dive deeper into the case. This makes the series an absorbing watch.

– Alexa Scarlata

The Night of the Hunter

Various platforms

In 1955, director Charles Laughton crafted The Night of the Hunter: one of the darkest, strangest fairy tales ever to come out of Hollywood.

Shortly before Ben Harper is hanged for robbing a bank and killing two men, he hides the $10,000 loot in the toy doll of his young daughter Pearl. Only Pearl and her brother John know the secret – until the deranged serial killer-priest Harry Powell hears about the money and sets out to recover it.

Harry marries Willa, Harper’s widow, and then, after killing her, pursues John and Pearl relentlessly across West Virginia.

Robert Mitchum’s depiction of pure evil is one of cinema’s most vivid creations, with LOVE and HATE tattooed on the fingers of each hand.

The film did not align with the mainstream tastes of the era. Audiences and reviewers didn’t know what to make of this abnormal mix of fairy tale logic, nightmarish imagery and biblical allegory.

Successive generations of critics and filmmakers have caught on to its brilliance. Critic Roger Ebert said it was “one of the greatest of all American films”. In 2008, French film magazine Cahiers du cinéma voted it as the second-best film of all time, behind only Citizen Kane (1941).

The Night of the Hunter remains unsettlingly modern, 70 years on.

– Ben McCann

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Read more:
After 70 years, twisted gothic thriller The Night of the Hunter remains as disturbing and beguiling as ever

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Families Like Ours

SBS On Demand

The highest point in Denmark, Mollehoj, is 171 metres above sea level, so it is plausible to imagine the whole country being overrun by water due to rising sea levels, leading to mass evacuation. This is the basic premise of the Danish series Families Like Ours.

The cleverness of this premise is that it turns comfortable middle-class Danes into refugees, facing hostility, poverty and violence as they seek to resettle. Given Denmark’s hard line on refugees, this makes the series politically powerful, equally so for us in Australia.

The central figure is a young woman, Laura (Amaryllis August), who creates disaster for her family through what she believes is an act of huge empathy. The same is true of Henrik (Magnus Millang), who shoots an innocent man in what he believes is an act of self-defence.

Families Like Ours is not a comfortable series to watch, but it manages to raise central issues of our time, without ever seeming didactic or preachy. It succeeds in combining the personal and the political in a six-part show that is powerful – and leaves enough loose ends for a potential second season.

– Dennis Altman

The Man from Hong Kong

Various platforms

A cinematic firecracker of a film exploded onto international screens 50 years ago, blending martial arts mayhem, Bond-esque set pieces, casual racism – and a distinctly Australian swagger.

From its audacious visual style; to its complex, life-threatening stunts; to its pioneering status as an international co-production, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s The Man from Hong Kong has solidified its place as a cult classic.

A Sydney-based crime lord’s activities come under the scrutiny of a determined Hong Kong detective, Inspector Fang Sing Leng. A fiery East-meets-West martial arts showdown explodes across the Australian landscape, pushing both sides to their limits.

The movie is a playful pastiche that confidently combines martial arts action, police procedurals, spy thrillers, and Westerns, all filtered through a distinctly Australian “crash-zoom” lens.

The film was an influence to Quentin Tarantino and paved the way for films such as Mad Max (1979), particularly in what Trenchard-Smith and his partner in film, stunt legend Grant Page, might call its “cunning stunts”.

The elaborate car chases and explosive stunt setups in The Man from Hong Kong served as prototypes for iconic sequences that would inspire the Mad Max films, among others, a testament to a bygone era of practical effects and thrill seeking audacity.

The Man from Hong Kong remains an exhilarating piece of pure cinema, despite its relatively small budget. It’s an exemplar (and occasional cautionary tale) for filmmakers in terms of international co-production, its cunning stunts, and genre blending.

– Gregory Ferris

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Read more:
The Man from Hong Kong at 50: how the first ever Australian–Hong Kong co-production became a cult classic

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Dept Q

Netflix

Based on the book series by Jussi Adler-Olsen, Dept Q is a gripping television adaptation for fans of Nordic noir and British crime drama.

In Edinburgh, Scotland, Detective Chief Inspector Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) has returned to work after a shooting which left him physically and psychologically wounded, his colleague partially paralysed, and another colleague dead.

With the dregs of a budget assigned to cold cases, and a team of misfit officers, Morck sets out to solve the four-year-old case of missing Crown prosecutor, Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie).

We follow Merritt’s story across various stages of her life. We see her as a teenager in the lead-up to a devastating crime that left her brother with a traumatic brain injury, as well as later in life, when she loses a major case involving a wealthy man on trial for his wife’s death.

Shortly after the devastating verdict, Merritt went missing on a ferry ride to her childhood home, on the fictionalised island of Mhòr. Returning to the present, we see she has been held captive inside a hyperbaric chamber for the past four years.

The pressure under which Merritt is kept makes Morck’s investigation high stakes from the start, while the movement between past and present highlights the impacts of past traumatic events on both characters.

Dept Q is a fast-paced, breathless thriller which will leave viewers craving its rumoured second season.

– Jessica Gildersleeve

Billy Joel: And So It Goes

HBO Max

Produced by Tom Hanks, this two-part documentary about singer/songwriter Billy Joel covers more than five decades of music. Created very much from Joel’s perspective, who is also the main narrator, the archival content is fascinating, and the music difficult to deny.

Discussion of Joel’s early suicide attempts are a shocking and terrible reminder of how different things might have been. From here, the role of the women in his life – his wives, daughters, and mother (“his champion”) – becomes vital. Beyond the headlines (particularly with his second wife Christie Brinkley), are partners who were muses, business supporters and emotional support pillars – some of whom gave Joel ultimatums when the time came to battle his alcohol addiction.

Brinkley, as well as Joel’s first wife, Elizabeth Weber, are particularly moving interviewees. They would wait at home, or stand nervously backstage as Joel “went to work” to earn, repair and rebuild against the odds. No spoilers, but let’s just say Joel ended up in trouble more than once.

On the other hand, the men in Joel’s life are often distant: Jewish grandparents who escaped Nazi Germany; a father who left when Joel was small; a half-brother discovered later in life. These losses are never really healed.

Billy Joel: And So It Goes is a five-hour epic, a story of survival and ultimately, of peace. It is, of course, also a reminder of an incredible catalogue of music – joyful, ordinary and wonderful – and the extraordinary life behind it.

– Liz Giuffre

If you or someone you know needs help, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14

Gardening Australia, season 36

ABC iView

Since it first aired in 1990, Gardening Australia has offered tips and inspiration from every state and territory on a weekly basis. A perennial favourite, the show seems to possess perpetual appeal for world-weary viewers open to slowing down by growing plants.

The no-nonsense host Peter Cundall helmed the series until 2008 (Cundall died in 2021 at the age of 94). The honour of “King of Compost” now rests with the gregarious Costa Georgiadis, and a wider cast of presenters that has expanded to be more diverse and engaging. One stalwart from the start, Jane Edmanson, is still flourishing in season 36: her episode 4 segment titled “Fronds with Benefits” certainly caught my eye.

Topics covered this season range from small-space innovation and passion projects, to Indigenous knowledge and bush foods, through to permaculture and climate change. Episodes 6 and 20 – specials on native plants and NAIDOC Week, respectively – are both worth a watch.

While the series can distance renters, and might not be edgy enough for younger audiences, it has managed to stake out ground in the digital realm – with a blooming online presence for budding green thumbs.

One of the longest-running Australian shows still on air, it doesn’t look as though Gardening Australia will be pulling up roots anytime soon.

– Phoebe Hart

The Buccaneers, season two

Apple TV

Loosen your corsets, The Buccaneers is back for a second season of feminist sisterhood and fabulous gowns.

Adapted from Edith Wharton’s unfinished final novel, the series follows a group of outspoken young American women navigating the marriage market in 1870s Victorian England. Gleefully anachronistic with feisty girl power speeches and a contemporary pop music soundtrack, The Buccaneers is equal parts Bridgerton and Gossip Girl (complete with a character played by Leighton Meester).

Season two picks up where the first left off, with Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse) and Guy (Matthew Broome) fleeing the country to escape Jinny’s violent husband Lord James Seadown (Barney Fishwick).

Meanwhile, sister Nan (Kristine Froseth) is busy back home leveraging her position as Duchess of Tintagel to help facilitate Jinny’s return – a campaign that includes wearing a showstopping red gown to a black and white ball. In keeping with the series’ M.O., this might be narrative nonsense, but it looks exquisite.

While trysts and love triangles continue to provide escapist entertainment, Jinny’s abusive marriage dominates later episodes. If season one sought to expose the isolation and entrapment Jinny endured in her marriage, season two foregrounds her resistance in the face of it, intent on highlighting how perpetrators of violence manipulate legal and medical systems to tighten the noose around victims’ necks.

Season two’s veering between frothy excess and melodrama arguably results in some tonal patchiness. Nonetheless, it should be commended for its careful treatment of the corrosive impacts and dangers of coercive control. This – more than the downloadable soundtrack and dazzling costumes – makes it good viewing.

– Rachel Williamson

Dangerous Animals

Prime Video

Dangerous Animals is perhaps the most original and entertaining shark horror film we have seen since Jaws – incorporating traditional elements of the shark thriller genre, while challenging them at the same time.

The film starts with the primal fear of being eaten alive by monstrous sharks, with gruesome shock-thrill scenes of tourists being torn apart in a blood red ocean.

But later, the narrative reminds us it is the boat captain, not the great white, who is the real sadistic killer. Predictably, we see a young bikini-clad woman who gets horribly dismembered (just like the first unforgettable victim in Jaws).

However, it is also a fearless bikini-clad woman, Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) who turns the tables on the boat captain, outwits him, rescues her boyfriend and even makes friends with the shark.

Dangerous Animals includes some interesting subtext and commentary, such as when it compares women to fish – creatures hunted for sport – and when it highlights the inherent cruelty of fishing, and the hook that impales the prey.

The film delivers sophisticated special effects and gruesome eco-horror entertainment. It is a fun, self-aware and postmodern watch that will leave you thinking.

The Australian influence is delightfully evident in the irreverent humour. And for anyone who has been to the Gold Coast, there is much pleasure in seeing the film play out across its iconic locations.

This film will trigger your childhood fear of Jaws – but with a twist.

– Susan Hopkins

Shark Whisperer

Netflix

In Shark Whisperer, the great white shark gets an image makeover – from Jaws villain to misunderstood friend and admirer.

However the star of the documentary is not so much the shark, but the model and marine conservationist Ocean Ramsey (yes, that’s her real name).

The film centres on Ramsey’s self-growth journey, with the shark co-starring as a quasi-spiritual medium for finding meaning and purpose (not to mention celebrity status).

Whisperer and the Ocean Ramsey website tap into the collective fascination with dangerous sharks fuelled by popular culture. Many online images show Ramsey in a bikini or touching sharks – she’s small, and vulnerable in the face of great whites. As with forms of celebrity humanitarianism, what I have dubbed “sexy conservationism” leaves itself open to criticism about its methods – even if its intentions are good.

Globally at least 80 million sharks are killed every year. Thanks in part to the hashtag activism of Ocean Ramsey and her millions of fans and followers, Hawaii was the first state in the United States to outlaw shark fishing.

So, Ramsey may be right to argue her ends justify the means.

– Susan Hopkins

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Read more:
Netflix’s Shark Whisperer wants us to think ‘sexy conservation’ is the way to save sharks – does it have a point?

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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. Shark tales, a sinking city and a breathless cop thriller: what to watch in August – https://theconversation.com/shark-tales-a-sinking-city-and-a-breathless-cop-thriller-what-to-watch-in-august-261952

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Duncan Caillard, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology

Jason Momoa’s historical epic Chief of War, launching August 1 on Apple TV+, is a triumph of Hawaiians telling their own stories – despite the fact their film and TV production industry now struggles to be viable.

The series stars Momoa (Aquaman, Game of Thrones) as Kaʻaina, an ali’i (chief) who fights for – and later rises against – King Kamehameha I during the bloody reunification of Hawaii.

Already receiving advance praise, the nine-episode first season co-stars New Zealand actors Temeura Morrison, Cliff Curtis and Luciane Buchanan, alongside Hawaiian actors Kaina Makua, Brandon Finn and Moses Goods.

A passion project for Momoa, the Hawaiian star co-created the series with writer Thomas Pa’a Sibbett after years in development. With a reported budget of US$340 million, it is one of the most expensive television series ever produced.

It is also a milestone in Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) representation onscreen. Controversially, however, the production only spent a month in Hawaiʻi, and was mostly shot in New Zealand with non-Hawaiian crews.

Momoa has even expressed an interest in New Zealand citizenship, but the choice of location is more a reflection of the troubled state of the film industry in Hawaiʻi. On the other hand, it is a measure of the success of the New Zealand screen industry, with potential lessons for other countries in the Pacific.

Ea o Moʻolelo – story sovereignty

Set at the turn of the 19th century, Chief of War tells the moʻolelo (story, history) of King Kamehameha I’s conquest of the archipelago.

Hawaiʻi was historically governed by aliʻi nui (high chiefs), and each island was ruled independently. Motivated by the threat of European colonisation and empowered by Western weaponry, Kamehameha established the Hawaiian Kingdom, culminating in full unification in 1810.

The series is an important example of what authors Dean Hamer and Kumu Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu have called “Ea o Moʻolelo”, or story sovereignty, which emphasises Indigenous peoples’ right to control their own narrative by respecting the “the inalienable right of a story to its own unique contents, style and purpose”.

Chief of War is also the biggest Hawaiian television series ever produced. Although Hawaiʻi remains a popular setting onscreen, these productions have rarely involved Hawaiians in key decision-making roles.

Sea of troubles

The series hits screens at a time of major disruption in Hollywood, with streaming services upending established business models.

“Linear” network television faces declining viewership and advertising revenue. Movie studios struggle to draw audiences to theatres. The consequences for workers in the the industry have been severe, as the 2023 writers strike showed.

Those changes have had a catastrophic impact on the Hawaiʻi film industry, too.

Long a popular location – Hawaii Five-O (1968-1980, 2010-2020), Magnum P.I. (1980-1988, 2018-2024) and Lost (2004-2010) were all shot on location in Hawaiʻi – it is an expensive place to film.

Actors, crew and production equipment often have to be flown in from the continental United States, and producers compete with tourism for costly accommodation.

An industry in transition

These are not uncommon problems in distant locations, and many governments try to attract screen productions through tax incentives and rebates on portions of the production costs.

New Zealand, for example, offers a 20-25% rebate for international productions and 40% for local productions. Hawaiʻi offers a 22-27% rebate.

But this is less than other US states offer, such as Georgia (30%), Louisiana (40%) and New Mexico (40%). Hawaiʻi also has an annual cap of US$50 million on rebates.

To make things even harder, Hawaiʻi offers only limited support for Indigenous filmmakers. Governments in Australia and New Zealand provide targeted funding and support for Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori filmmakers.

By contrast, the Hawaiʻi Film Commission doesn’t provide direct grants to local filmmakers or producers (Indigenous or otherwise). Small amounts of government funding have been administered through the Public Broadcasting Service, but this is now in jeopardy after US President Donald Trump recently cut federal funding.

The Hawaiʻi screen industry faces a perfect storm. For the first time since 2004, film and TV production has ground to a halt. Many workers now doubt the long-term sustainability of their careers.

Lessons from Aotearoa NZ

While there are lessons Hawaiʻi legislators and industry leaders could learn from New Zealand’s example, there should also be a measure of caution.

The Hawaiʻi tax credit system is out of date. But despite industry lobbying, legislation to update it failed to reach the floor of the legislature earlier this year. New tax settings would help make local production viable again.

Secondly, decades of investment in Māori cinema have seen it become diverse, engaging and creatively accomplished. Hawaiʻi could benefit from greater direct investment in Hawaiian storytelling, respecting its cultural value even if it doesn’t turn a commercial profit.

On the other hand, New Zealand has a favourable currency exchange rate with the US which can’t be replicated in Hawaiʻi. And New Zealand film production workers have seen their rights to unionise watered down compared to their American peers.

But if Hawaiʻi can get its settings right, a possible second season of Chief of War may yet be filmed there, which could mark a genuine rejuvenation of its own film industry.

Duncan Caillard 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. A Hawaiian epic made in NZ: why Jason Momoa’s Chief of War wasn’t filmed in its star’s homeland – https://theconversation.com/a-hawaiian-epic-made-in-nz-why-jason-momoas-chief-of-war-wasnt-filmed-in-its-stars-homeland-261742

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

As any leader of a political party knows, when you demote people they can become difficult, or worse.

Among Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s multiple problems are two very unhappy former frontbenchers. Sarah Henderson, who was opposition education spokeswoman last term, and Jane Hume, who had a high profile in finance, were dumped to the backbench in Ley’s reshuffle.

There were mixed views about Ley’s judgement. But it was clear neither would take the relegation lying down.

Henderson at the time declared she found it regrettable that “a number of high-performing Liberal women have been overlooked or demoted”. Hume said, ominously, “there is something very liberating about being on the backbench and being able to speak without having to stick to the party line and without having to stick to talking points”.

This week, both women used their freedom to freelance.

On the government’s student debt legislation, Henderson made her presence felt by moving an amendment designed to cap indexation. It got only a handful of votes from the crossbench. The opposition abstained.

Also in the Senate, Hume put down her marker, on a motion moved by One Nation repudiating the net zero target. Predictably, Matt Canavan (Nationals) and Alex Antic (right-wing South Australian Liberal) voted for the motion. The Liberals’ official position – given they’re in no-man’s land, reviewing their policy – was to abstain. But Hume and Andrew McLachlan (a moderate from South Australia), voted against the motion.

Hume has kept a regular spot on Sky News Australia, an opportunity to use her “liberated” voice.

Then there’s Andrew Hastie who, despite being a frontbencher, doesn’t feel under collective discipline. Hastie, whom some see as a possible future leader, didn’t get his wish for a non-security portfolio in the reshuffle. Instead, the former defence spokesman was moved to home affairs, a broad job that presents many opportunities.

When the Western Australian Liberal council passed a motion rejecting net zero at the weekend, Hastie gave his enthusiastic backing.

He then got stuck into state Liberal leader Basil Zempilas, who had said the WA parliamentary party supported “the status quo on the net zero targets”.

Hastie fired off a newsletter to supporters declaring, “This motion – moved and supported by my division of Canning – reflects a growing concern from mainstream Australians about our expensive energy bills, unreliable supply, and the erosion of our national sovereignty.

“I was therefore disappointed to see [Zempilas] publicly dismiss those concerns.”

The government was quick to exploit this, with Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen telling parliament on Thursday Hastie “will undermine any opposition leader he can find. He’s taking a practice run in Perth for what he intends to do in Canberra, some time in the next 12 months as we all know. He loves undermining leaders of the opposition.”

Peter Dutton was a disaster for the Liberals, as the election drubbing showed. But he was (mostly) able to impose substantial unity on the parliamentary party.

That was seen as a big achievement. But it had two downsides. At the time, it stifled what might have been useful internal debate, or warnings, that could have helped the opposition. And now it has left some Liberals who felt they held their tongues last time determined not to do so again. Even those not aggrieved for specific reasons are likely to be more inclined to be outspoken this term.

Ley will not be able to impose the degree of discipline that Dutton did.

Meanwhile, as the aggrieved Liberals were stamping their feet, their colleague James Paterson, new to his post of finance spokesman, was seeking to repair some of the political damage the opposition did by its attacks on the public service.

The hostility to the public service goes back a long way – some might argue it’s ingrained in the Liberals’ DNA. It was strong during Scott Morrison’s prime ministership.

Dutton promised massive cuts to the Canberra-based public service, which even the Liberals admit would have been unattainable. Hume’s plan to force public servants back into the office five days a week, a policy the opposition had to drop midway through the election campaign, has also left deep suspicion.

For the Liberals, attacking the public service has always appeared a ready road to savings. But the political dangers are obvious. It is not the seats directly affected – the ACT always votes Labor. But assaults on the public service can be readily segued by the Coalition’s opponents into code for attacks on government services.

Paterson, who’s also shadow minister for the public service, told an Australian Financial Review summit on government services, “It is not lost on me that promising significant cuts to the size of the APS or changing the way public servants work from home was poorly received and not just here in Canberra.”

Paterson said, “I have great respect for public servants, and I recognise the significant contributions they make to our democracy.

“The Coalition aspires to have a respectful, constructive relationship with the APS. We want a motivated, high-performing public service that works in genuine partnership with government to deliver the services Australians rely on. And we want it to do so as a trusted steward of taxpayer dollars.”

On the basis of history, the public servants will remain suspicious of the Liberals; Paterson’s aim will be to mitigate that as much as possible.

In a twist on the working-from-home debate, the secretary of the health department, Blair Comley, this week expressed some concern about the implications of the trend.

“I don’t think anyone is suggesting we go back to a rigid five days a week and no flexibility,” Comley told the AFR summit. But he was worried about what was happening to “learning, development, mentoring, and what’s happening to the social capital”.

Knowing the sensitivities of the issue, Comley was extremely careful with his words. Hume, having been burned once, was not putting her hand into this particular fire again. “That is not a policy that the Coalition has now, not a policy that we took to the election”, she said. There is a limit to being liberated.

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. Grattan on Friday: Aggrieved Liberals stamp their feet, testing Sussan Ley’s authority – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-aggrieved-liberals-stamp-their-feet-testing-sussan-leys-authority-262026

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

Espionage cost Australia $12.5 billion in 2023-24, according to a study by ASIO and the Australian Institute of Criminology.

The figure includes the direct costs of known espionage incidents, including state-sponsored theft of intellectual property, as well as the indirect costs of countering and responding.

Details of the Cost of Espionage report were released by the head of ASIO, Mike Burgess, in delivering the annual Hawke Lecture on Thursday night. Espionage is defined as “the theft of Australian information by another country that is seeking an advantage over Australia”.

Burgess said the Institute estimated foreign cyber spies stole nearly $2 billion from Australian companies and businesses in trade secrets and intellectual property in 2023-24.

In one instance, spies hacked into a major Australian exporters computer network, stealing commercially sensitive information.

“The theft gave the foreign country a significant advantage in subsequent contract negotiations, costing Australia hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Burgess pointed to another espionage incident several years ago when an overseas delegation visited a sensitive Australian horticultural facility.

A delegation member entered a restricted area and photographed a rare, valuable variety of fruit tree. A staff member intervened and deleted the image but it later turned out several of the tree’s branches had been stolen and smuggled out of Australia.

“Almost certainly, the stolen plant material allowed scientists in the other country to reverse engineer and replicate two decades of Australian research and development.”

In another instance, an Australian defence contractor invented and sold a world-leading innovation.

At first sales boomed but then they collapsed, and “customers began flooding the company’s repair centre with faulty products. While the returns looked genuine, closer examination revealed they were cheap and nasty knock offs.

“An investigation uncovered what happened.

“One year earlier, a company representative attended a defence industry event overseas and was approached by an enthusiastic local. She insisted on sharing some content via a USB, which was inserted into a company laptop. The USB infected the system with malware allowing hackers to steal the blueprints for the product.

“Almost certainly, the ‘enthusiastic local’ worked for a foreign intelligence service. The blueprints were given to a state-owned enterprise which mass-produced the knock-offs and deprived the Australian company millions of dollars in lost revenue – the tangible cost of espionage.”

Burgess said many entities do not realise their secrets have been stolen by espionage.

He stressed the institute was deliberately conservative, only modelling costs it could confirm and calculate.

“That means many of the most serious, significant and cascading costs of espionage are not included in the 12.5 billion dollar figure. The potential loss of strategic advantage, sovereign decision-making and warfighting capacity hold immense value, but not a quantifiable dollar value.”

“The Institute estimates Australia prevented tens of billions of dollars of additional costs by stopping or deterring spying,” Burgess said.

He said ASIO estimated the espionage threat “will only intensify. It is already more serious and sophisticated than ever before, so our response must also be more serious and sophisticated than ever before.”

Russian spies booted out in 2022

Burgess confirmed that in 2022 a number of “undeclared Russian intelligence officers” were removed from Australia.

“The decision followed a lengthy ASIO investigation that found the Russians recruiting proxies and agents to obtain sensitive information, and employing sophisticated tradecraft to disguise their activities.”

Last year, two Russian born Australian citizens were charged with an espionage related offence.

Russian remained a persistent and aggressive espionage threat, Burgess said. “But Russia is by no means the only country we have to deal with.

“You would be genuinely shocked by the number and names of countries trying to steal our secrets.

“The obvious candidates are very active – I’ve previously named China, Russia and Iran – but many other countries are also targeting anyone and anything that could give them a strategic or tactical advantage, including sensitive but unclassified information.”

Burgess said increasingly foreign intelligence services were broadening their collection efforts beyond traditional categories. They were aggressively targeting science and technology, and public and private sector projects, negotiations and investments. This includes Antarctic research, green technology, critical minerals and rare earths extraction and processing.

‘A very unhealthy’ interest in AUKUS

Burgess said foreign intelligence services were “taking a very unhealthy interest in AUKUS and its associated capabilities.”

“Australia’s defence sector is a top intelligence collection priority for foreign governments seeking to blunt our operational edge, gain insights into our operational readiness and tactics, and better understand our allies’ capabilities.

“Targets include maritime and aviation-related military capabilities, but also innovations with both commercial and military applications.

“And with AUKUS, we are not just defending our sovereign capability. We are also defending critical capability shared by and with our partners.”

He said foreign intelligence services were “proactive, creative and opportunistic” in targeting present and former defence employees.

There was relentless cyber espionage, in-person targeting and technical collection.

“In recent years, for example, defence employees travelling overseas have been subjected to covert room searches, been approached at conferences by spies in disguise and given gifts containing surveillance devices.”

Two dozen major disruptions in the last three years

Burgess said that ASIO had detected and disrupted 24 major cases of foreign interference in the last three years alone.

This was more than in the previous eight years combined. They were just the major disruptions – there were many other cases. Among the examples he gave were:

• spies recruited a security clearance holder who handed over official documents on free trade negotiations

• foreign companies connected to intelligence services sought to buy access to personal data sets; sought to buy land near sensitive military sites, and sought to collaborate with researchers developing sensitive technologies

• foreign intelligence services tried to get someone employed as a researcher in a media outlet, aiming to shape reporting and receive early warning of critical stories

• spies convinced a state bureaucrat to login to a database to obtain details of people considered dissidents by a foreign regime

• nation state hackers compromised a peak industry body’s network getting sensitive information

• a foreign intelligence service had multiple agents and their family members apply for Australian government jobs to get access to classified information.

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. Espionage cost Australia $12.5 billion in 2023-24, ASIO boss Mike Burgess says – https://theconversation.com/espionage-cost-australia-12-5-billion-in-2023-24-asio-boss-mike-burgess-says-262349

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

Labor is well-placed to win three seats in the electorate of Bass at the Tasmanian election, although its party totals imply it deserves only two. This would give left-leaning MPs a total of 20 of 35 seats. Interstate, New South Wales Labor has surged to a large lead in a Resolve poll.

The postal receipt deadline for the July 19 Tasmanian state election passed at 10am Tuesday. Final statewide vote shares
were 39.9% Liberals (up 3.2% since the March 2024 election), 25.9% Labor (down 3.2%), 14.4% Greens (up 0.5%), 2.9% Shooters, Fishers and Farmers (up 0.6%), 1.6% Nationals (new) and 15.3% independents (up 5.7%).

Tasmania uses the proportional Hare-Clark system to elect its lower house. There are five electorates corresponding to Tasmania’s five federal seats, and each electorate returns seven members, for a total of 35 lower house MPs.

Under this system, a quota for election is one-eighth of the vote or 12.5%, but half of this (6.2%) is usually enough to give a reasonable chance of election. There’s no above the line section like for the federal Senate. Instead, people vote for candidates not parties, with at least seven preferences required for a formal vote.

Robson rotation means that candidates for each party are randomised across ballot papers for that electorate, so that on some ballot papers a candidate will appear at the top of their party’s ticket and on others at the bottom.

This means parties can’t control the ordering of their candidates. Independents can be listed in single-candidate columns.

Leakage occurs when party candidates with more than one quota are elected and their surplus distributed, or when minor candidates are excluded and their preferences distributed. In the federal Senate, the large majority of votes are cast above the line, and these votes cannot leak from the party that received a first preference vote.

The consequence of leakage is that parties will lose votes from their totals during the distribution of preferences when their own candidates are elected or excluded. Single-candidate tickets can’t lose votes, and will only gain as other candidates are excluded.

Unlike other states and federally, the Tasmanian distribution of preferences is done manually. Before the distributions, analyst Kevin Bonham had called 14 of the 35 seats for the Liberals, ten for Labor, five for the Greens and four for left-leaning independents, leaving two undecided (the final seats in Bass and Lyons).

Labor well-placed to win three seats in Bass

Final primary votes in Bass gave the Liberals 3.34 quotas, Labor 2.20, the Greens 1.32, the Shooters 0.32 and independent George Razay 0.27. The Shooters and Razay had single-candidate tickets that can’t leak votes.

After three days of preference distributions, vote shares in Bass are 3.30 quotas for the Liberals, 2.25 for Labor, 1.31 for the Greens, 0.40 for the Shooters and 0.37 for Razay.

On quota fractions, the final seat in Bass looks as if it should go to the Shooters or Razay. However, with one Labor candidate already elected, the two leading Labor candidates (Jess Greene and Geoff Lyons) each have about 0.37 quotas with two Labor candidates still to be excluded.

If the remaining Labor votes divide roughly evenly between Greene and Lyons, they would each have about 0.62 quotas. Greens preferences will then favour Labor whether their final opponent is the Shooters or the Liberals. So Labor is well-placed to win three seats in Bass despite their party total implying they only deserve two.

If Labor wins the final Bass seat, Labor, the Greens and left-leaning independents would have a total of 20 of the 35 seats, making any Labor attempt to form government easier.

In Lyons, final primary votes gave the Liberals 3.36 quotas, Labor 2.27, the Greens 1.08, the Shooters 0.53 and the Nationals 0.33. The Shooters had a single-candidate ticket.

The Liberals now have 3.36 quotas, Labor 2.44, the Greens one, the Shooters 0.68 and the Nationals 0.34. Neither Labor nor the Liberals have any chance of pulling off an even split across candidates, so the Shooters will win the final Lyons seat.

NSW Resolve poll: Labor surges to large lead

A New South Wales state Resolve poll for The Sydney Morning Herald, conducted July 13–18 from a sample of 1,054, gave Labor 38% of the primary vote (up five since April), the Coalition 32% (down four), the Greens 13% (up two), independents 8% (down six) and others 10% (up four).

Resolve does not usually give a two-party estimate for its state polls, but The Poll Bludger estimated a Labor lead by 57–43. Despite the strong voting intentions for Labor, Labor incumbent Chris Minns’ lead over Liberal Mark Speakman as preferred premier narrowed from 40–15 to 35–16. This indicates that Labor’s surge is due to the federal election result.

Resolve polls taken well before an election have overstated the independent vote as they give independent as an option in all seats, when many seats don’t have viable independents. The six-point drop for independents in this poll suggests a different method is now being used.

By 32–25, respondents expected their personal outlook in the next year to get better rather than worse, but by 25–21 they expected the NSW state outlook to get worse.

Additional questions from federal Resolve poll

I previously covered a national Resolve poll for Nine newspapers that gave Labor a 56–44 lead. On reforms, 36% thought the government should take the opportunity from its landslide re-election to undertake reforms, while 32% thought it should restrict itself to policies put forward at the election.

By 47–20, respondents opposed raising the GST rate even if it would reduce other taxes. By 31–26, they supported reducing or ditching negative gearing concessions. By 36–27, they supported reducing or ditching capital gains tax concessions on properties.

By 57–18, respondents thought the opposition should work with the government to negotiate changes, rather than just oppose major reforms.

By 53–18, respondents thought Donald Trump’s election as United States president last November a bad outcome for Australia (68–11 bad in April, after Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs).

By 46–22, they thought Australia becoming more independent from the US on foreign policy and national security would be good. By 38–26, voters blamed Trump more than Albanese for the lack of a meeting.

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

– ref. Labor well-placed to win three Bass seats in Tasmanian election, giving left a total of 20 of 35 MPs – https://theconversation.com/labor-well-placed-to-win-three-bass-seats-in-tasmanian-election-giving-left-a-total-of-20-of-35-mps-261751

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University; and Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Fellow, Australian National University

When it comes to dealing with two of the biggest current crises in the Muslim world – the devastation of Gaza and the Taliban’s draconian rule in Afghanistan – Arab and Muslim states have been staggeringly ineffective.

Their chief body, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in particular, has been strong on rhetoric but very short on serious, tangible action.

The OIC, headquartered in Saudi Arabia, is composed of 57 predominantly Muslim states. It is supposed to act as a representative and consultative body and make decisions and recommendations on the major issues that affect Muslims globally. It calls itself the “collective voice of the Muslim world”.

Yet the body has proved to be toothless in the face of Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza, triggered in response to the Hamas attacks of October 7 2023.

The OIC has equally failed to act against the Taliban’s reign of terror in the name of Islam in ethnically diverse Afghanistan.

Many strong statements

Despite its projection of a united umma (the global Islamic community, as defined in my coauthored book Islam Beyond Borders), the OIC has ignominiously been divided on Gaza and Afghanistan.

True, it has condemned Israel’s Gaza operations. It’s also called for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the starving population of the strip.

It has also rejected any Israeli move to depopulate and annex the enclave, as well as the West Bank. These moves would render the two-state solution to the long-running Israeli–Palestinian conflict essentially defunct.

Further, the OIC has welcomed the recent joint statement by the foreign ministers of 28 countries (including the United Kingdom, many European Union members and Japan) calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as well as France’s decision to recognise the state of Palestine.

The OIC is good at putting out statements. However, this approach hasn’t varied much from that of the wider global community. It is largely verbal, and void of any practical measures.

What the group could do for Gaza

Surely, Muslim states can and should be doing more.

For example, the OIC has failed to persuade Israel’s neighbouring states – Egypt and Jordan, in particular – to open their border crossings to allow humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza, the West Bank or Israel, in defiance of Israeli leaders.

Nor has it been able to compel Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco to suspend their relations with the Jewish state until it agrees to a two-state solution.

Further, the OIC has not adopted a call by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and the United Nations special rapporteur on Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, for Israel to be suspended from the UN.

Nor has it urged its oil-rich Arab members, in particular Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to harness their resources to prompt US President Donald Trump to halt the supply of arms to Israel and pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war.

Stronger action on Afghanistan, too

In a similar vein, the OIC has failed to exert maximum pressure on the ultra-extremist and erstwhile terrorist Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Since sweeping back into power in 2021, the Taliban has ruled in a highly repressive, misogynist and draconian fashion in the name of Islam. This is not practised anywhere else in the Muslim world.

In December 2022, OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha called for a global campaign to unite Islamic scholars and religious authorities against the Taliban’s decision to ban girls from education.

But this was superseded a month later, when the OIC expressed concern over the Taliban’s “restrictions on women”, but asked the international community not to “interfere in Afghanistan’s internal affairs”. This was warmly welcomed by the Taliban.

In effect, the OIC – and therefore most Muslim countries – have adopted no practical measures to penalise the Taliban for its behaviour.

It has not censured the Taliban nor imposed crippling sanctions on the group. And while no Muslim country has officially recognised the Taliban government (only Russia has), most OIC members have nonetheless engaged with the Taliban at political, economic, financial and trade levels.

Why is it so divided?

There are many reasons for the OIC’s ineffectiveness.

For one, the group is composed of a politically, socially, culturally and economically diverse assortment of members.

But more importantly, it has not functioned as a “bridge builder” by developing a common strategy of purpose and action that can overcome the geopolitical and sectarian differences of its members.

In the current polarised international environment, the rivalry among its member states – and with major global powers such as the United States and China – has rendered the organisation a mere talking shop.

This has allowed extremist governments in both Israel and Afghanistan to act with impunity.

It is time to look at the OIC’s functionality and determine how it can more effectively unite the umma.

This may also be an opportunity for its member states to develop an effective common strategy that could help the cause of peace and stability in the Muslim domain and its relations with the outside world.

Amin Saikal 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 Muslim world has been strong on rhetoric, short on action over Gaza and Afghanistan – https://theconversation.com/the-muslim-world-has-been-strong-on-rhetoric-short-on-action-over-gaza-and-afghanistan-262121

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Huw Griffiths, Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Sydney

The idea of the titular Crow in Ted Hughes’ poems is wild, untameable and irreducible to words. In an early poem in the sequence, words come at Crow from all angles but he just ignores them. Finally, “Words retreated, suddenly afraid / Into the skull of a dead jester / Taking the whole world with them”.

Crow just yawns: “long ago / He had picked that skull empty”. A figure that is ancient and beyond the reach of gods or human belief systems, Hughes’ Crow resists ever being pinned down or fully understood.

In Max Porter’s 2015 novella, Grief is the Thing with Feathers, a version of Hughes’ Crow enters the life of a bereaved Dad, newly left to look after his two sons after the death of his wife.

Dad is a literary scholar, writing a book about Ted Hughes, and Crow is a metaphor come to life, some version of the endless grief through which he is living.

But Porter’s Crow is not quite the same thing as Hughes’ irredeemable half-myth/half-beast. This crow cares: “I do eat baby rabbits, plunder nests, swallow filth, cheat death […] But I care, deeply. I find humans dull except in grief”. And he is self-aware, too – aware that Hughes’ mythical beast image can also just be a performance, a piece of schtick: “I do this, perform some unbound crow stuff, for him”.

Now, a new adaptation of the novella brings the story to the Belvoir stage.

Devastation and renewal

Toby Schmitz as both Dad and Crow is just brilliant. He exactly captures the messy contradictions of this situation, shifting between the quiet melancholy and stifled rage of the widower and the restless, contradictory energies of Crow.

The latter he performs in recognisable Schmitz fashion: a leery and mischievous outsider, challenging the audience and holding their attention just as much as he teases, taunts and cajoles both Dad and his two sons.

His performance brings out the humour of Porter’s book, the sense of its own absurdity that shadows his story of devastation and tentative renewal.

Also on stage are Philip Lynch and Fraser Morrison as the two boys, doing a great job (as the characters do in Porter’s book) of providing an emotional antidote to the wheeling terror that sometimes spins off Dad’s encounter with Crow.

Schmitz adapted the book with director, Simon Phillips, and designer, Nick Schlieper. They have only very subtly altered the text in ways that enable a dynamic live performance, conversations between Dad, Crow and Boys.

Tying the piece together are compelling video direction and live music. The former is genuinely exciting, as it etches the presence of Crow’s mythology across the stage, aided by Craig Wilkinson’s work as illustrator, clearly taking inspiration from Hughes’ original illustrator, Leonard Baskin. Composer and cellist, Freya Schack-Arnott provides a stunning and emotional soundtrack throughout, at times improvising to the action.

An intensity of purpose

Porter’s novel is ten years old this year. It has been ridiculously successful for a slender (114 pages) and apparently unconventional book.

Seeming to imitate some of the conventions of 20th century modernism (non-linear narratives; stream-of-consciousness; an interplay of myth and reality; shifting perspectives from miniscule detail to grand narrative), it should not have been destined to occupy the best-seller list.

And, yet, multiple awards later, it remains in regular rotation on the central displays of high street bookstores around the world. It has been adapted for the stage before, in a successful production in London starring Cillian Murphy in 2019, and in a less well-received 2025 film starrring Benedict Cumberbatch.

It would be easy to dismiss this success as something to do with the aesthetic world within which it situates itself. Careful to use Faber and Faber’s classic font, Albertus (something it shares with the Belvoir production when passages are projected above the stage), the book is an elegant product that advertises its own self-conscious literariness.

But this assessment would miss the brilliance, the sophistication and the tender power of Porter’s writing, as well as the way that the book has already got there before you.

Porter plays with his own contemporary taming of older and wilder literary traditions. If Hughes’ Crow has been domesticated in Porter’s use of him (I can’t imagine Hughes’ Crow leaving us with the line, “Just be kind and look out for your brother”), he knows that this sentimentality is now hard-earned and not to be ignored.

What this production adds to Porter’s beautiful book is an intensity of purpose. This is a gloriously collaborative effort, from theatre makers at the height of their powers, to communicate the beauty that persists through the pain and degradation that life throws at us.

Grief is the Thing with Feathers is at Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney, until August 24.

Huw Griffiths 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. Grief is the Thing with Feathers comes to the stage with a glorious intensity of purpose – https://theconversation.com/grief-is-the-thing-with-feathers-comes-to-the-stage-with-a-glorious-intensity-of-purpose-260414

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

With parliament now finished its first fortnight’s session, attention will soon be on the government’s August 19-21 economic reform roundtable, bringing together business, unions, experts and community representatives to pursue consensus on ways to lift Australia’s flagging productivity.

Independent member for Wentworth Allegra Spender is one of the 25 participants invited to the roundtable. She’s particularly focused on tax reform and last week held a tax roundtable of her own.

Spender joined the podcast to talk about making tax fairer, the need for greater economic reform, climate policy, the social media ban for under 16s, a ceasefire in Gaza, and more.

On her ambitions on tax policy, Spender says income tax indexation is something that would benefit younger, working Australians:

Myself and actually another number of crossbenchers […] wrote to both the government and the opposition last term, really pushing for tax indexation. And really the heart of this is startling statistics from last term. The [Reserve Bank of Australia] put out some information that showed that bracket creep was a bigger impost on average households’ budgets than the RBA increases in the interest rate.

[…] Just to give you two statistics about young working people: households over the age of 65, in the last 10 odd years, have grown their wealth by around 50%. Households under the age of 35 have not grown their worth at all, pretty much. So they are going backwards relative to the rest of the country. A household, two households, both on a $100,000, sitting next to each other. If [one] household is retired, they have to pay on average half the tax of a working age household.

Spender says the system is stacked against young people, who “are really struggling economically compared to previous generations”.

It’s in your early and midlife that you need money for housing, to raise kids and everything else. So we don’t have a tax system that works for younger people. We have a tax system that burdens younger people strongly and then actually gives people more tax breaks when they’re older, and normally wealthier.

On climate targets, Spender says while she’ll be guided by the yet-to-be-provided Climate Change Authority’s advice, she wants to see Australia “try and lead other countries” – pointing to the United Kingdom, which has set a target to cut emissions by at least 81% by 2035.

The Climate Change Authority put out their interim guidance to say that a target within 65 to 75% [emissions reduction on 2005 levels] was both achievable from an economic point of view and also appropriate towards a scientific point of view.

My view is that we should be at the very top end of that. Now, if the Climate Change Authority significantly reviews, you know, revises down their targets, I will reconsider. But I think really what we should be doing is to say how can we be as ambitious as possible. And the reason I think that is important is actually, you know, from a business point of view, ambition and certainty is what they need to make the big investments that will actually achieve it.

Ambition is needed from a scientific point of view, because if we took, say, less than 75% [emissions reduction], and the rest of the world did too, we would be looking at outcomes that are catastrophic for Australia. Regular days in Sydney and Melbourne that are above 50 degrees. A huge loss of coral reef. Continued adverse weather events.

On the news that the government will include YouTube in its social media ban for under 16s, Spender says it’s now up to social media companies to make their websites safer to lift the bans.

My eldest daughter [who’s 12] has a strong view on this. And she’s actually a big fan of the ban. She was like, ‘I just don’t understand how it makes sense to leave YouTube in and TikTok out’. […] She’s not on social media, but other people are, and she finds it sometimes frustrating.

But I think the challenge on this is always going to be the implementation. I think it’s fiendishly complicated to implement. I think genuinely the most valuable part of this ban is actually the signal to families and parents about what is expected and what isn’t.

[…] I think the ball’s in the social media companies’ courts. If they want to move to a life beyond the ban, they need to show how they can make their platforms safe for younger Australians, because I don’t think they have delivered that to date. So I’d be open if they can provide the evidence of how they can change things. I’m always open minded to reversing or changing those bans. But at the moment, [social media] isn’t safe.

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

– ref. Politics with Michelle Grattan: independent MP Allegra Spender on making tax fairer for younger Australians – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-independent-mp-allegra-spender-on-making-tax-fairer-for-younger-australians-262225

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magnus Söderberg, Professor and Director, Centre for Applied Energy Economics and Policy Research, Griffith University

Building a solar farm in Australia is getting about 8% cheaper each year as panel prices fall and technology improves, according to an official new report. Battery storage costs are falling even more sharply, dropping 20% over the past year alone.

But the same can’t be said for wind farms, the second-largest source of renewable energy in Australia. Onshore wind costs actually rose about 8% in 2023–24 and another 6% in 2024–25.

The findings are contained in the GenCost 2024–25 report by CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator, released this week.

Rising costs are putting real pressure on the wind industry, undermining investor confidence. Developers of offshore wind projects are walking away, and even cheaper on-shore wind projects are under strain. Even as wind energy becomes a mainstay in China, the United States and Germany, the industry faces real headwinds in Australia.

This is surprising. Wind, like solar, was projected to get steadily cheaper. The fuel is free and turbines are getting better and better. Instead, wind in Australia has remained stubbornly expensive. Solving the problem will be challenging. But solutions have to be found fast if Australia is to reach the goal of 82% renewable power in the grid by 2030 – now less than five years away.

Five reasons why this is happening

Here’s what’s going on:

1. Global supply chains have been disrupted

The cost of steel, copper, fibreglass and other materials vital for wind turbines shot up during the pandemic. As a result, turbine prices rose almost 40% between 2020 and 2022. While input costs have fallen, turbine prices remain high. Solar panels can be churned out in factories, but modern wind turbines are massive, complex structures that require specialised manufacturing and logistics. That makes them more sensitive to global price fluctuations.

2. Good wind is often in remote places

Australia’s best wind resources are typically far from cities and existing grid infrastructure. Connecting far-flung wind farms such as Tasmania’s Robbins Island to the grid can require new and very expensive transmission lines. Remote sites mean extra costs such as temporary worker accommodation. The GenCost report notes this has added about 4% to wind project budgets in 2024–25 compared with the year before.

Many other countries rely heavily on offshore wind, because wind blows more strongly and reliably over oceans. Unfortunately, spiking costs are likely to further delay the arrival of offshore wind in Australia. GenCost projects the first offshore wind projects in Australia will face even steeper costs.

3. Local construction and labour costs have soared

Australia faces a shortage of workers with the skills to build and maintain wind farms, resulting in higher wages and recruitment costs. Wind developers say construction costs have become a real issue. Wind farms are more labour-intensive than solar.

4. Interest rates have raised financing costs

Wind farms require large upfront investments and lengthy construction periods. Even a small increase in interest rates can make them unviable – and interest rates have been high for some time.

5. Reliability concerns, regulatory delay and community opposition

According to US researchers, technical issues have emerged for some new wind turbines, creating unexpected costs for developers. The long, complex process of getting permits, carrying out environmental assessments and building community support is pushing out project timelines, increasing costs and uncertainty for developers.

Will solar take over?

Solar faces far fewer challenges. Solar panels are mass-produced, meaning costs are steadily driven down through economies of scale. Panels can be deployed quickly and solar farms tend to face less community opposition.

Wind turbines have to spin to function, while solar panels have no moving parts (though systems that track the Sun do). As a result, solar farms require less maintenance and are more reliable.

It’s no surprise large-scale solar has been on a record-breaking run, growing 20-fold between 2018 and 2023.

Solar panels make electricity during daylight hours, especially in summer. By contrast, wind tends to produce more power at night and during winter months. This is why wind is so useful to a green grid.

Generating power from both wind and sunshine can slash how much storage is needed to ensure grid reliability, lowering overall system costs. A balanced mix of wind, solar and storage will meet Australia’s electricity needs more efficiently and reliably than just solar and storage, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency and independent researchers.

Could wind come back?

Making wind more viable will take work. Potential solutions do exist, such as expanding the skilled workforce and investing in specialised ships and equipment to install turbines offshore.

Shipping large turbines from Denmark or China is expensive. To avoid these costs, it could make sense to encourage local manufacturing of large and heavy parts such as the main tower.

Other options include finding lower-cost turbine suppliers and streamlining regulatory processes.

The newly announced expansion of the government’s Capacity Investment Scheme could help reduce risks and give certainty, alongside public investment in new transmission lines.

If nothing is done or if new measures don’t help, wind is likely to stall while solar and storage race ahead.

That’s not the worst outcome. Australia could get a long way by relying on batteries and pumped hydro to store power from solar during the day and release it in the evenings, as California is doing. But this strategy involves trade offs, such as higher storage-capacity needs and the risk of insufficient power during long cloudy periods.

For Australia to optimise its mix of renewables and storage, policymakers will have to tackle wind’s cost challenges. Effective action could lower costs, accelerate project timelines and bolster flagging investor confidence.

Magnus Söderberg 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. 5 reasons why wind farms are costing more in Australia – and what to do about it – https://theconversation.com/5-reasons-why-wind-farms-are-costing-more-in-australia-and-what-to-do-about-it-262126

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kasey Symons, Lecturer of Communication, Sports Media, Deakin University

Sports fans might love their teams, cheer or curse each game’s result and admire their favourite athletes, but we rarely associate sports with romance.

However, that may be slowly changing thanks to the recent spike in the popularity of romance fiction, which has created an unlikely sub-genre.

A genre on the rise

Romance fiction sales in Australia are up, with an average growth rate of 49% over three years.

Dedicated romance bookstores are popping all over the world thanks to the visibility of social media communities such as “BookTok” and “Bookstagram” and the avenues digital and self-publishing are creating.

Sports romance titles are contributing to the growing romance numbers and are helping to attract new and non-traditional fans to sport.

Sports bringing the spice

Sports romance fiction is not a new phenomenon. But it has gained popularity in the past few years, predominantly through ice hockey titles.

Ice hockey romance has a growing, passionate following. Authors such as Elle Kennedy, Hannah Grace, Tessa Bailey and Emily Rath – all New York Times-bestselling writers – bring a wide-reaching visibility to the sub-genre.

Kennedy’s Off Campus series is currently being developed as a TV series.

Formula 1 romance fiction also has a strong following, while football (soccer) is popular too. Meryl Wilsner’s soccer-based romance Cleat Cute is also getting the TV treatment through sporting legends Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird’s production company A Touch More.

You name the sport and there will be a title for you: golf, chess, lacrosse, tennis, basketball, pickleball, Australian rules football, swimming, ballet, baseball and e-sports, the list goes on.

Something for everyone

While a majority of sports romance texts reflect heteronormative relationships and depict some of the more stereotypical, idealised body types and aesthetics often associated with the romance genre and athletic bodies, there are also diverse titles. These explore relationships across genders, sexualities, ethnicities, body shapes and different sports.

The ability to self-publish and reach an audience through social media allows sports romance authors and the creator community to be responsive and representative.

Authors are motivated to create narratives that reflect their own experiences and identity or contribute perspectives they feel are missing in the sporting landscape.

Happily ever after?

What makes these diverse contributions significant is how the authors present their sporting narratives within the romance genre storytelling structure. This means the majority of texts conform to what romance readers call, the “HEA”: the happily ever after.

While some narratives will have drama, tension and tragedy, the “happily ever after” framework allows for stories and relationships to end on a happy note.

In sports romance, there are many authors using this approach to challenge social norms, restrictive sporting environments and advocate for inclusion by presenting narratives where these tensions are resolved and everything works out.

Examples include K.T. Hoffman’s The Prospects, which features a trans man as the protagonist who makes it onto a Major League Baseball team and finds true love. Esha Patel’s Offtrack presents a Middle Eastern woman as the first woman driver for a Formula 1 team this century — who also finds true love. Australian author Abra Pressler’s Love and Other Scores shares the coming out journey of a professional male tennis player while competing at the Australian Open — after he finds true love. You get it.

The romance genre allows these fictional stories to play out with the authors placing love and care for diverse communities at their centre, showing us a world where the inclusion for these diverse lived experiences are possible in sport.

Risks and rewards

There are opportunities for sports organisations to think more creatively about connecting with fans who may be interested in different elements of sporting culture and fandom.

That could be through sports romance, new forms of narrative storytelling such as docuseries like Netflix’s Drive to Survive, or intersections with pop culture such as Taylor Swift’s recent impact on NFL fandom.

What is important is understanding the community and serving that community rather than trying to retrofit diverse fans into preexisting fan engagement strategies.

Sports should understand fans are not a homogeneous group, and not all diverse fans will respond to and connect with this content.

There are also risks for sports that try to shoehorn non-traditional fans into their space without fully understanding the community, such as when the National Hockey League’s Seattle Kraken targeted the sports romance audience in 2023. The initiative went horribly wrong when the organisation misguidedly promoted social media engagement which led to some users crossing the line and allegedly harassing players.

But there are rewards when it is done right. Australian Ice Hockey League discovered this after developing a genuine connection with author Emily Rath and facilitating welcoming and safe spaces for romance readers at games. The result? A surge in attendances and fan connection.

The sports romance genre is a space for sport to pay attention to, and with the second annual Sports Romance Convention taking place in Minneapolis next year, its community will continue to grow.

Kasey Symons has received funding from the Victorian Government, and national and state sport governing bodies, including the Australian Football League and the National Rugby League. She is also one of the co-founders of Siren: A Women in Sport Collective.

– ref. Sporty spice: how romance fiction is adding a new dynamic to sports fandom – https://theconversation.com/sporty-spice-how-romance-fiction-is-adding-a-new-dynamic-to-sports-fandom-261569