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

In these scrappy days before the prime minister announces the election date, the mud and the personal insults are flying, despite the politicians knowing voters hate this sort of thing.

On Wednesday morning TV, shadow finance minister Jane Hume, usually reasonably restrained with her language, called Employment Minister Murray Watt “king grub” of the “grubbiest people you will ever come across” – a reference to Labor’s pursuit of Peter Dutton’s past share trading. As Watt remarked, “That’s quite an accusation”.

Hume was later on the warpath in a Senate estimates hearing, where Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy fended off an opposition attack suggesting, in essence, that Treasurer Jim Chalmers had sought to make Treasury his political pawn.

Dutton spent most of his Wednesday news conference pushing back on attacks on his integrity relating to his purchase of bank shares during the global financial crisis, and dealing with questions about his acquisition of an extensive property portfolio over decades.

What the opposition dubs Labor’s “dirt unit” apparently drove the share story. The core of it is that Dutton bought bank shares just before the Rudd government announced its guarantee to ensure the financial security of the banks.

Labor demanded to know whether Dutton had insider knowledge of the imminent guarantee through a Rudd government briefing of the opposition. Dutton, who declared the share purchase, says he had no information other than what was in the public domain.

The story about Dutton’s property portfolio – which he has unloaded, no doubt as part of preparations in pursuit of the prime ministership – ran in Nine media. The report said

Peter Dutton has made $30 million of property transactions across 26 pieces of real estate over 35 years, making him one of the country’s wealthiest-ever contenders for prime minister.

Dutton was late with declaring on the parliamentary register some of the transactions.

Nine says the story didn’t come from a Labor “dirt unit”, but it was grist for an embattled government.

Dirt digging, mud throwing, and exploitation of the politics of envy are recurring features of election campaigns. Whether they’ll have much resonance this time is doubtful.

The share story, going back the best part of a couple of decades, doesn’t sound like a smoking gun. We’ve heard about Dutton’s property buying before. We know he has plenty of money. Not as much, of course, as earlier PMs Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd.

Dutton, working on the assumption these stories will be brief wonders, kept his cool.

He hasn’t provided more details about the bank shares, relying on a general response that everything had been above board. On his property purchases, he made it clear he’s proud of his climb up the aspirational ladder since he was a “butcher’s boy” in those days when he had a job in a butcher’s shop.

For Dutton, the mud is all in a day’s work. The attack on Kennedy is in a rather different category.

In the run-up to an election, Treasury often finds itself in a awkward position, as a government seeks to use it, while an opposition objects. This time, Chalmers employed it to discredit the opposition’s policy to give a tax break to small businesses for taking their workers or clients to a meal.

Treasury doesn’t cost opposition policies. So the government asked it to cost a theoretical policy that was similar to that of the Coalition. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Treasury came up with a much bigger cost than the opposition said was produced by the Parliamentary Budget Office.

Kennedy insisted to the Senate hearing, “we do not act politically”.

“I have behaved no differently with this government, nor have I observed the department’s behaving any differently,” he said. “I understand how the circumstances might lead you to question that, but all I can do is assure you that that has not been the case.”

If Dutton became prime minister, would Kennedy’s position be at risk?

It shouldn’t be. Kennedy, appointed by the Coalition, served the previous Liberal government very well and was a key figure in its ambitious economic response to the COVID pandemic. That response kept many people in jobs and the economy out of recession.

While Kennedy was taking the flak in estimates, Chalmers had been in Washington making Australia’s case for an exemption of the Trump aluminium and steel tariffs.

Chalmers’s visit was timely and carefully managed. The treasurer said before he left Australia he wouldn’t obtain an outcome on tariffs – it was about making Australia’s case. So when there was not an outcome, it was not a disappointment. “My task here in DC wasn’t to try and conclude that discussion, it was to try and inform it,” Chalmers told a news conference after his talks.

Chalmers spent time with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett. He said the discussion was “wider-ranging than just steel and aluminium”. Bessent also was a speaker at the superannuation summit held at the Australian embassy (a coup for ambassador Kevin Rudd as well as Chalmers).

In his 2023 Monthly essay, Chalmers argued for the super funds to invest more widely in Australia, notably in social housing.

At the embassy conference, Chalmers was able to look to a much wider horizon for the funds.

The current value of Australian super fund investments in the US is around $400 billion – due to reach $1 trillion over the next decade. So, Australia’s superannuation sector has the size, scale and presence to play a big role in driving new American industries and creating jobs.

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

– ref. View from The Hill: the mud flies, but will the voters take much notice? – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-the-mud-flies-but-will-the-voters-take-much-notice-250897

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland

Debate over the future of Australia’s energy system has erupted again after a federal parliamentary inquiry delivered a report into the deployment of nuclear power in Australia.

The report casts doubt on the Coalition’s plan to build seven nuclear reactors on former coal sites across Australia should it win government. The reactors would be Commonwealth-owned and built.

The report’s central conclusions – rejected by the Coalition – are relatively unsurprising. It found nuclear power would be far more expensive than the projected path of shifting to mostly renewable energy. And delivering nuclear generation before the mid-2040s will be extremely challenging.

The report also reveals important weaknesses in the Coalition’s defence of its plan to deploy nuclear energy across Australia, if elected. In particular, the idea of cheap, factory-built nuclear reactors is very likely a mirage.

A divisive inquiry

In October last year, a House of Representatives select committee was formed to investigate the deployment of nuclear energy in Australia.

Chaired by Labor MP Dan Repacholi, it has so far involved 19 public hearings and 858 written submissions from nuclear energy companies and experts, government agencies, scientists, Indigenous groups and others. Evidence I gave to a hearing was quoted in the interim report.

The committee’s final report is due by April 30 this year. It tabled an interim report late on Tuesday, focused on the timeframes and costs involved. These issues dominated evidence presented to the inquiry.

The findings of the interim report were endorsed by the committee’s Labor and independent members, but rejected by Coalition members.

What did the report find on cost?

The report said evidence presented so far showed the deployment of nuclear power generation in Australia “is currently not a viable investment of taxpayer money”.

Nuclear energy was shown to be more expensive than the alternatives. These include a power grid consistent with current projections: one dominated by renewable energy and backed up by a combination of battery storage and a limited number of gas peaking plants.

The Coalition has identified seven coal plant sites where it would build nuclear reactors. Some 11 gigawatts of coal capacity is produced on those sites. The committee heard replacing this capacity with nuclear power would meet around 15% of consumer needs in the National Electricity Market, and cost at least A$116 billion.

In contrast, the Australian Energy Market Operator estimates the cost of meeting 100% of the National Electricity Market’s needs – that is, building all required transmission, generation, storage and firming capacity out to 2050 – is about $383 billion.

What about the timing of nuclear?

On the matter of when nuclear energy in Australia would be up and running, the committee found “significant challenges” in achieving this before the mid-2040s.

This is consistent with findings from the CSIRO that nuclear power would take at least 15 years to deploy in Australia. But is it at odds with Coalition claims that the first two plants would be operating by 2035 and 2037 respectively.

The mid-2040s is well beyond the lifetime of Australia’s existing coal-fired power stations. This raises questions about how the Coalition would ensure reliable electricity supplies after coal plants close. It also raises questions over how Australia would meet its global emissions-reduction obligations.

Recent experience in other developed countries suggests the committee’s timeframe estimates are highly conservative.

Take, for example, a 1.6GW reactor at Flamanville, France. The project, originally scheduled to be completed in 2012, was not connected to the grid until 2024. Costs blew out from an original estimate of A$5.5 billion to $22 billion.

The builder, Électricité de France (EDF), was pushed to the edge of bankruptcy. The French government was forced to nationalise the company, reversing an earlier decision to privatise it.

EDF is also building two reactors in the United Kingdom – a project known as Hinkley C. It has also suffered huge cost blowouts.

Recent nuclear reactor projects in the United States have also fallen victim to cost overruns, sending the owner, Westinghouse, bankrupt.

What does the Coalition say?

The committee report included dissenting comments by Coalition members.

As the Coalition rightly points out, global enthusiasm for nuclear power remains steady. The UK, France and the US all signed a declaration in 2023 at the global climate change conference, COP28, pledging to triple nuclear power by 2050.

And in the UK and France, advanced plans are afoot to construct new nuclear reactors at existing sites.

But even there, progress has been glacial. The UK’s Sizewell C project has been in the planning stage since at least 2012. The French projects were announced by President Emmanuel Macron in 2022. None of these projects have yet reached a final investment decision. Delays in Australia would certainly be much longer.

The Coalition also draws a long bow in claiming Australia’s existing research reactor at Lucas Heights, in New South Wales, means we are “already a nuclear nation”.

At least 50 countries, including most developed countries, have research reactors. But very few are contemplating starting a nuclear industry from scratch.

At least one issue seems to have been resolved by the committee’s inquiry. Evidence it received almost unanimously dismissed the idea small modular reactors (SMRs) will arrive in time to be relevant to Australia’s energy transition – if they are ever developed.

The Coalition’s dissenting comments did not attempt to rebut this evidence.

Looking ahead

Undoubtedly, existing nuclear power plants will play a continued role in the global energy transition.

But starting a nuclear power industry from scratch in Australia is a nonsensical idea for many reasons – not least because it is too expensive and will take too long.

In the context of the coming federal election, the nuclear policy is arguably a red herring – one designed to distract voters from a Coalition policy program that slows the transition to renewables and drags out the life of dirty and unreliable coal-fired power.

John Quiggin is a former member of the Climate Change Authority. His submission to the nuclear electricity generation inquiry was cited in the interim report

– ref. New report skewers Coalition’s contentious nuclear plan – and reignites Australia’s energy debate – https://theconversation.com/new-report-skewers-coalitions-contentious-nuclear-plan-and-reignites-australias-energy-debate-250912

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

We see the political parties’ frantic election campaigns, but behind the scenes the Australian Electoral Commisison is working just as hard.

An often overlooked part of Australia’s democracy, the AEC is vital in ensuring our elections are both efficient and fair, a task full of challenges.

We’re joined today by Tom Rogers, recently retired as Electoral Commissioner. As commissioner, Rogers oversaw three federal elections and the Voice referendum. He is now a member of the advisory board of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and provides his expertise on elections globally.

Rogers describes running a modern Australian election as

the largest peacetime logistic exercise in the life of Australia […] it’s so complex administratively to run these events.

It’s a bit like setting up a fortune 500 company in four weeks, running it, then dismantling it a couple of weeks after the event. It is just phenomenally complex. And the amazing thing is that because we’ve got good systems in place, it works pretty well.

The agency goes from, I’ll use very rough figures here, about a thousand people all over Australia during the non-electoral period up to about 105,000 people during that very short period.

There are a lot of calls for truth in advertising laws and some calls for it to be managed by the AEC. Rogers insists the AEC should not be involved,

I was a firm believer that that would be very inappropriate for the AEC. It’s one of those rare things where we were very, very proactive in talking to people about that. And one of the reasons is because I think it would ruin the AEC’s reputation for neutrality. It’s as simple as that.

It will impact on the AEC’s level of trust with the community.[…] given trust is so important, that people trust electoral outcomes, I think it’s incredibly dangerous.

While not wanting to be involved with truth in advertising, Rogers does see the importance in the AEC countering misinformation on Australia’s electoral process,

We’ve established a ‘defending democracy unit’. We ran a national campaign called Stop and Consider to get people to think about the source of information.

But I think the bit that we can do and that’s still missing is we really need a national digital literacy campaign for our citizens. When you correct disinformation about electoral matters, there’s a whole body of research that shows that it’s kind of effective. What is more effective rather than debunking is ‘prebunking’ and what is more effective again, is giving citizens the skills they need to make up their own mind about the accuracy of information.

The Stop and Consider campaign, I might be wrong, but is still the only national campaign focussed on giving citizens skills. We need to run something like that all the time. I think there’s a real need for this in the modern era and that’s what we should be doing.

Rogers also highlights the importance of civics education

It’s critical. The AEC is already doing good work in this space. Up until I left at the end of last year, generally speaking the AEC was getting about 100,000 kids a year through the Electoral Education Centre in Canberra, which is excellent. They are in the process of digitising much of the materials so that that could be spread to schools that are unable to visit Canberra.

I do think we need to do more.

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: Tom Rogers calls for national digital literacy campaign and more civics teaching – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-tom-rogers-calls-for-national-digital-literacy-campaign-and-more-civics-teaching-250901

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wendy Hargreaves, Senior Learning Advisor, University of Southern Queensland

It was 2009. John Farnham walked on stage at the disaster relief concert for the most devastating bushfires in Australian history. He belted out You’re The Voice to 36,000 people at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Then, as he lowered his microphone, 36,000 voices belted it right back.

Farnham knew the real star that day was not himself, but the thousands of everyday Australians singing in solidarity with their hurting nation.

Singing together is electrifying, but can Australians tap into this magic without the tragedy?

The science behind the magic

Group singing has a proven ability to produce positive social bonding and help us tune in to others’ feelings.

That sense of connecting and relating can boost our mental health; particularly crucial given many Australians seriously neglect self-care.

After taking part in a year-long community singing program, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander adults reported reduced depression, increased resilience and a greater sense of social connection.

Physiologically, research shows group singing can increase the hormone oxytocin which helps us bond with people and feel good. It can decrease cortisol levels to positively modulate our immune system. Making music together may also release endorphins that help our tolerance of pain.

Rewinding on Australian singing

Australia’s identity as a singing nation has never quite matched countries like Wales, “the land of song”. Centuries-old singing traditions are well-suited to huddling indoors in snowy northern hemisphere villages.

Indeed, the tradition of singing Christmas carols was devised as a cure for the European winter blues. Our warmer Australian climate, in contrast, coaxes us outdoors for other activities in wide open spaces.

Australia’s choral tradition grew initially through church music; printed on tiny 12x7cm pages, books from the early 1800s provide a glimpse at the hymns church choirs and congregations once sang.

Music researcher Dianne Gome reports these books were also used for official state occasions and in the home. They were so popular, Australians began to create their own versions.

Singing was part of 19th century Australian life. At home, pianos were treasured for family singalongs and a sign of wealth and culture. Choirs blossomed, such as the The Brisbane Musical Union (now The Queensland Choir) which formed in 1872 with 112 members. Singing was valued, and local journals critiqued technique. Even The Wireless Weekly reported a radio poll “to decide the worst singer” in 1942.

Work songs – morale boosters as workers labour through repetitive tasks – also showed our early singing culture. One Queensland man recently described life as a 14-year-old in a 1930s tram track foundry:

Every night I came home exhausted. It was hard work, but we used to sing […] How many people sing at their work today?

Alongside its presence in churches, work places and social gatherings, singing became a pillar of Australian education.

A book on education history in Victoria reports singing was introduced in the 1850s for “harmonising and refining the mind” and as a “most favourable influence […] on the moral associations of the goldfields”.

While some traditions in schools continue today, claims of a crowded curriculum and de-valuing of the arts have pushed school singing from essential to optional.

There also exists a social pressure on Australian boys to play sport rather than sing in choirs.

Today’s Aussie group singing style

A fair dinkum Aussie singing style is well established in sporting circles.

The 1978 World Cricket Series jingle C’mon Aussie C’mon was so simple and catchy its tune still rings through stadiums today. Likewise, Mike Brady’s Up There Cazaly – inspired by the 1910s footballer whose name was used in World War II battle cries – has been a favourite crowd singalong at AFL Grand Finals for decades.

Footy club theme songs aside, Brisbane Lions fans will be particularly familiar with a modern opportunity for sports singing: goal songs. After every goal at a Lions’ home game, a snippet from a player-chosen track blares across the stands.

Not all of these song selections make successful singalongs, but Charlie Cameron’s choice of Take Me Home Country Roads is a clear favourite. Tellingly, the crowd keeps singing after the music stops.

At the other end of the spectrum of group size and vocal expertise is the small Australian-bred a capella group The Idea of North. Their expert musical arrangements and blended sound perfectly encapsulates collaborative singing with unity, harmony and joy.

For a quirky Australian choral option, a group of men from Mullumbimby formed the “fake” Russian choir, Dustyesky (a wordplay on the famous Russian writer Dostoevsky). They don’t speak the language, yet their energy and passion for singing made them a hit in Russia and brought about an invitation to sing in Moscow.

With millions of internet views, another highly successful Australian response to group singing came from Astrid Jorgensen, creator of Pub Choir. With laughter and a drink, members of the public meet at a licensed venue to learn a song in three-part harmony.

Jorgensen’s tailored musical arrangements of popular songs suit untrained singers, don’t require music reading skills and make singing in harmony with complete strangers easy and fun. Jorgensen found the key to motivating Aussies to sing together is crowds, humour and a social beer.

Wendy Hargreaves 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. Church hymns and social beers: how Australia is reviving the magic of singing together – https://theconversation.com/church-hymns-and-social-beers-how-australia-is-reviving-the-magic-of-singing-together-250254

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Melatos, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Sydney

If you are a member of a super fund, some of your long-term savings are probably invested in private markets.

Public markets are familiar to most of us – the stock market and government and corporate bond markets. Private markets include unlisted assets such as companies owned by private equity firms, infrastructure investments and private credit markets.

Corporate watchdog the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), has today released a discussion paper that emphasises the growth in private capital, seemingly at the expense of public markets. While the number of listed companies and the value of initial public offerings has shrunk, private equity and infrastructure funds have boomed.

Should we be worried about this?

Public vs private markets

Public markets tend to be transparent, tightly regulated and liquid. Companies listed on the stock exchange publish their financial accounts, hold annual general meetings and their shares can be readily traded.

In contrast, private markets are lightly regulated. Private capital investments are more opaque, less liquid and, hence, more risky. But they can deliver much higher returns (or losses).

Often, obtaining capital from private sources makes sense. For example, entrepreneurs whose startup firms are short of revenue, profit and tangible assets are unlikely to be able to raise capital in public markets, or from banks. Instead, they turn to private equity firms for funding.

What are the concerns?

In its report, ASIC raises several concerns:

• the shrinking of Australia’s public equity markets might hurt the economy

• the rise of private markets may create new or amplified risks

• the lack of transparency of private markets poses a challenge for investors and regulators.

Public markets play an important role connecting investors with companies seeking capital. The shrinking of public markets, therefore, has important economic implications. Will private markets be able to pick up the slack?

Notwithstanding the growth in private capital markets, they are still small compared to their public counterparts. The total capitalisation of the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) is $3 trillion. Total private capital funds under management are only $150 billion.

The lack of disclosures in private capital markets might also create more and different risks for financial markets and the economy; risks that regulators may not understand, nor know how to anticipate or effectively mitigate.

The role of Australian super funds

ASIC is concerned about the implications for the superannuation industry of the growth of private capital markets and decline in public markets.

Australia’s superannuation assets now total $4.1 trillion, greater than the value of Australia’s GDP and more than the total value of all companies listed on the ASX. Anything that alters the playing field for Australian super has the potential to create outsized risk (or opportunity) for the Australian economy.

The ASIC report highlights the growing involvement of Australia’s superannuation funds in private markets. Australia’s two largest super funds, Australian Super and Australian Retirement Trust, each have about 20% of their total funds invested in private markets.

The fact is that Australia’s superannuation sector has outgrown Australian public markets. They cannot trade shares on the ASX without moving share prices significantly to their detriment. On the other hand, having super funds, which are highly regulated to protect member savings, investing in unregulated private capital markets is jarring, if not potentially risky.

Having said this, the size of Australia’s super funds means they can set the terms and price at which they invest. This power is most valuable in private deals; less so in public markets where a company’s stock price and its financial accounts are public knowledge.

Increasingly, super funds directly invest in infrastructure projects such as ports and airports rather than buy shares in listed infrastructure firms.

What’s behind the shift in markets?

The ASIC report points the finger at the usual culprits for the shift from public to private capital markets, including the regulatory burden on public companies and the rise of technology companies that prefer to tap private capital.

However, another problem is bedevilling policymakers everywhere: too much capital is chasing too few profitable investment opportunities. Companies have lots of cash on their books and nothing to spend it on.

Increasingly, such companies have resorted to share buybacks (reducing the number of their shares on issue) to reward investors in a tax-effective way. A lot of the shrinkage in public equity is due to share buybacks that in 2022 alone totalled US$1.3 trillion.

Why does all this matter?

The ASIC report is notable for what it does not say; nothing, for example, on its own chequered history of investigative and enforcement action.

The growing importance of opaque private markets matters more if regulators are asleep at the wheel. ASIC’s tendency for weak oversight and sclerotic enforcement can hardly have raised investor confidence in Australia’s public capital markets.

Its oversight of initial public offerings (IPOs) has also been questionable over a long period. How can ASIC be expected to adequately manage complex private capital market risks given its woeful performance managing simpler public market risks?

The apparent decline of public markets has been spooking even sophisticated private financial market players – including, most notably, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan. If Dimon is concerned, then ASIC – and all of us – should probably also be concerned.

Mark Melatos 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. Your super fund is invested in private markets. What are they and why has ASIC raised concerns? – https://theconversation.com/your-super-fund-is-invested-in-private-markets-what-are-they-and-why-has-asic-raised-concerns-250788

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Omid Aliasghar, Senior Lecturer, Management and International Business, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

When it comes to turning research into real-world success, New Zealand has a problem.

Despite the country’s NZ$3.7 billion research and development spending in 2023 – a 17% jump from the previous year — too many New Zealand businesses fail to commercialise innovation.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, New Zealand ranks 21st for innovation inputs. This means we’re good at investing in research and development. But we rank 45th in knowledge outputs and 78th in industry diversification. Essentially, we’re spending more but getting less.

So, what’s holding the country back? In a lot of cases, it can boil down to a lack of collaboration with universities.

Universities are typically focused on generating novel or new-to-the world knowledge, with researchers, cutting-edge technology and deep industry connections.

Working with universities can connect businesses to researchers, government agencies, private industry and global networks. Collaboration can also offer businesses credibility. It signals to investors, partners and customers that they are serious about innovation.

Yet many businesses underestimate their value. They assume collaboration is slow, academic or bureaucratic.

Our study – based on a digital survey of 541 firms across a wide range of industries and regions in New Zealand – looked at whether collaborating with universities could help businesses to bring ideas to market, sell intellectual property and develop technology.

We also considered whether there was a difference in working with international universities versus collaborating with local institutions. While identifying details of the individual businesses were kept confidential, here is what we learned.

The case for foreign university partnerships

Our research found partnering with foreign universities allowed New Zealand businesses to tap into global expertise and advanced research. It also provided access to diverse knowledge networks, where businesses could learn from various real-world applications of scientific knowledge.

For example, a New Zealand business specialising in artificial intelligence (AI) can gain game-changing insights by collaborating with top universities in the United States.

The partnerships can provide access to leading AI models, advanced algorithms, and global industry connections. These partnerships can enable the business to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive market.

Additionally, many universities had well-established technology transfer offices. These had experience in helping businesses commercialise research.

In short, foreign university collaborations opened doors to the world’s best knowledge and technology – critical for firms operating in fast-moving industries.

The strength of local university collaborations

We also found local university collaborations had their own advantages, including
an understanding of New Zealand’s specific challenges, from climate change impact on agriculture to AI adoption in small businesses.

This contextual knowledge made their expertise highly relevant for firms aiming to commercialise innovation within New Zealand’s unique market conditions.

Working with local universities also allowed businesses to build strong, personal relationships with researchers, fostering faster and more effective knowledge exchange.

Unlike foreign partnerships, where interactions may be limited to emails and virtual meetings, local collaborations allowed for regular in-person brainstorming, experimentation and problem solving.

Finally, collaborating with New Zealand’s universities gave businesses access to top local talent, helping them recruit skilled graduates familiar with the domestic market and its needs.

A balanced approach

Investing in research and development alone won’t drive innovation for businesses. Without strategic collaboration, firms risk wasting resources on ideas that never reach the market.

Businesses should take a balanced approach. Foreign university collaborations can offer groundbreaking advances, cutting-edge knowledge and global networks. At the same time, local university collaborations offer accessible knowledge, local expertise and stronger working relationships.

By embracing these partnerships, New Zealand businesses can turn research into commercial success, drive national economic growth, and position themselves as global innovation leaders. The question is no longer if firms should collaborate with universities – it’s how quickly they can start.

This research was completed with Annique Un (Northeastern University), Kazuhiro Asakawa (Keio University), Jarrod Haar (Massey University) and Sihong Wu (University of Auckland).

Omid Aliasghar receives funding support for this research provided by Building New Zealand’s Innovation Capacity Spearhead within the Science for Technological Innovation National Science Challenge.

– ref. Ignore the ‘ivory tower’ clichés – universities are the innovation partners more Kiwi businesses need – https://theconversation.com/ignore-the-ivory-tower-cliches-universities-are-the-innovation-partners-more-kiwi-businesses-need-249129

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jesse Ruse, Clinical Psychologist, PhD Candidate, University of Sydney

Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar has renewed interest in Belle Gibson’s infamous wellness scam, reminding us how vulnerable we can be to deception. While Gibson’s scheme eventually collapsed, her story highlights how fraudsters can exploit our psychological and cultural biases to lure us into wellness traps.

Part of our culture includes the shared mythologies and symbols that help us make sense of the world. These stories and symbols seem to make our lives more “efficient” by surpassing tedious fact-checking. Over time, these cultural codes become embedded into our psychologies, operating as background biases that shape our decision-making.

By becoming aware of these biases, we can develop a more critical approach to evaluating information presented to us. In doing so, we can protect ourselves from the Belle Gibsons of the world.

A desire for inner bodily purity

One pervasive wellness mythology suggests health can be found in the “pure” state of the body, and that illness occurs when outside contaminants pollute the body.

As anthropologist Mary Douglas notes, we symbolically equate the “inner” with purity and the “outer” with pollution. This leads to efforts to protect ourselves from outside threats. We are disgusted by the idea of the harmful “outside” getting inside and violating the body’s inner sanctum.

Gibson’s cookbook and app promoted a diet that claimed inner health problems (such as cancer) are the result of outside contamination, in this case by “bad” foods.

This symbolism also appears in various diets that advocate for removing certain types of food, such as sugar or gluten, to achieve a state of inner sanctity and, therefore, health.

Similarly, various “clean eating” diets will specifically link certain foods to cleanliness and others to dirtiness. In their most extreme form, these diets constitute orthorexia, a clinical condition defined by an “obsession” with healthy eating.

The allure of ‘ancient wisdom’

Each day we face an overwhelming array of choices, from the products we use to how we construct our identities. As people living in modern, affluent societies we are, as philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre put it, “condemned to be free”.

In this context of choice overload and decision fatigue, ancient wisdom offers a seductive simplicity: a return to simpler times.

In 1953, psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan observed that we possess a nostalgia for an idealised golden age (regardless of whether it ever truly existed). We yearn for a mythical era of simplicity, safety and happiness. This psychological bias for the past manifests as a deep reverence for “ancient wisdom”, seemingly passed down through generations and untainted by modern influence.

This preference can be seen in our instinctive trust in grandparents’ remedies and traditional healing practices, even when scientific evidence doesn’t always support them. Gibson and others co-opt this nostalgia by selling us products that connect us to the past.

Suspicion of industrial-scale production

Our minds are often suspicious of large-scale and complex manufacturing processes, and will often devalue industrially produced products.

This scepticism of scale stems from negative associations with factory work, questionable standards and a history of multinational corporations prioritising profit over people. As a public, we are growing understandably weary of the multinational companies whose influence we can’t seem to escape. Politicians often further this narrative by claiming that globalisation – replacing local cottage industries with industrialised mega-companies – screws the little guys like you and me.

Gibson capitalised on a growing suspicion of the industrial-scale pharmaceutical industry to promote her bespoke “homegrown” wellness products. Locally-made goods often have increased value simply because they are made on a smaller scale, regardless of their quality or materials.

Historically, various groups including the Luddites and the hippie movement have rejected the industrial push. More recently, we saw these dynamics play out in COVID-19 vaccine denial, which partially stems from suspicions of the pharmaceutical companies.

A preference for natural over artificial

Culturally, the concept of the “natural” holds powerful meaning, positioning things found in nature as inherently superior to those manufactured by humans (deemed “artificial”).

This natural/artificial dichotomy establishes a symbolic framework in which natural remedies, raw foods and authenticity represent the “proper” order of things – how life should be. The “appeal to nature” bias persists because it resonates with our collective intuition that modern life has somehow disconnected us from important truths or healthier ways of living.

Research has demonstrated we tend to have a positive association with the concept of the “natural”, which we understand as objects not altered by human intervention. This preference isn’t merely aesthetic. It also reflects our belief in a moral order.

Gibson famously claimed alternative therapies – most notably apple cider vinegar – helped treat her alleged cancer. Similar patterns appear throughout the wellness industry, where influencers and companies market products by emphasising their natural origins and minimal processing.

These claims leverage our psychological bias toward natural remedies, even when the scientific evidence for their efficacy is lacking.

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

– ref. Why do we fall for wellness scams? Our cultural biases and myths are often to blame – https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-fall-for-wellness-scams-our-cultural-biases-and-myths-are-often-to-blame-250790

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie Harkin, Lecturer, Games, School of Design, RMIT University

24/7 companionship. Spend time with him whenever you want.

This is the promise made by Love and Deepspace, a mobile romance game by the Chinese company Papergames.

Some think video games are all guns and cars, but romance games or “dating simulators” are immensely popular, especially among young women.

Love and Deepspace reached 50 million users across more than 170 countries and regions in January. Despite their popularity, dating sims, as they are known for short, usually fly under the radar in discussions about games.

Meanwhile, a recent major update for Love and Deepspace has furrowed some brows by introducing an unusual new feature: a period tracker.

Need help keeping track of tasks?

Dating sims offer a fantasy of romantic, intimate companionship. Otome games (from the word “maiden” in Japanese) are a sub-genre of dating sims that are catered to women. They offer a suite of boyfriends to choose from – each attentive, caring and, of course, incredibly handsome.

Ideal in every way except being fictional.

Love and Deepspace is a science-fiction otome game that stands out with its unusual blend of combat, magic, dating and gacha (meaning random rewards) microtransactions – which are controversial for their parallels to gambling.

Its latest update introduced a Remind Me feature, where players can ask their virtual boyfriends to remind them of daily tasks and special events, as well as their upcoming period. Players input information about their menstrual cycle and the game then generates its own predictive calendar and notifications.

The player’s in-game boyfriend will offer to pick up some sanitary products or even reach towards the screen and provide an imaginary abdomen massage.

The millions of users drawn to a fantasy about considerate men says a lot about the frustrations women have with modern dating and dating apps.

Women are conscious of the conservative gender roles within otome games, but at the same time find pleasure in their focus on the female gaze and ability to explore their sexual desire privately.

In China, where otome games are especially popular, censorship of explicit content for women has intensified. These games are able to convey sexually suggestive themes that are subtle enough to elude censorship.

Otome games are not new

Otome games have been around for three decades.

Angelique, a game made by an all-women team in 1994, is considered to be the first. It helped set the stage for other boyfriend fantasy media for women as seen in the rising popularity of “boyfriend ASMR” on audio and video platforms today. These are designed to directly address the listener in both sensual and everyday scenarios.

Video games have changed a lot since then, especially as mobile devices have evolved to be more intimate, accompanying us everywhere.

Love and Deepspace is introducing more features including “Quality Time”, which rewards players for working or studying with the game open. The rewards come in the form of an animated man sighing and whispering into the player’s headphones.

Periods and privacy

Love and Deepspace’s period reminders mirror existing period tracker apps, though they do not incorporate the usual fertility date predictions or ability to log symptoms and sexual activity. That’s probably a good thing.

Period tracker apps have faced scrutiny for mishandling users’ data. Popular period tracker app Flo has faced a lawsuit in the British Columbia Supreme Court in Canada for sharing personal data to third-party tech firms, including Facebook and Google, which use the data for targeted advertising.

Meanwhile, the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States has threatened many people’s bodily autonomy and made them concerned about the legal risks of sharing personal biological information.

Love and Deepspace’s privacy policy states any menstruation data is only used for the prediction and reminder features, and that it will not be shared with any third parties without the player’s consent.

The banning of the Chinese-owned platform TikTok in the US was driven by fears of foreign influence and data privacy. Yet our privacy may not be safer with a US company than a Chinese one.

US-owned companies have been just as liable to sell sensitive information to third parties, such as location data to abortion clinics and gay clubs.

Australia’s Privacy Act does not just apply to Australian companies. Papergames could be sanctioned if it breaches its privacy policy.

That said, it is unlikely many users will be familiar with the policy or read future changes made to it. It is best to always practise caution when entering any kind of personal information in platforms, apps or video games.

A potential shift

Period tracking is not a core component in the game. But this new feature signals a potential shift towards more mobile games integrating popular app functions, such as health data.

Instead of a casual time-filler, mobile games like Love and Deepspace are competing for players’ attention over other apps – which is concerning given its controversial gacha random rewards.

It’s also possible the game’s designers are picking up on a widespread desire for men to care more about their partner’s periods.

Stephanie Harkin 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. Chinese dating simulator Love and Deepspace now has a period tracker – it signals a shift in mobile gaming – https://theconversation.com/chinese-dating-simulator-love-and-deepspace-now-has-a-period-tracker-it-signals-a-shift-in-mobile-gaming-250497

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gerald Roche, Lecturer in Linguistics, La Trobe University

Three days after he was released from prison in December, a Tibetan village leader named Gonpo Namgyal died. As his body was being prepared for traditional Tibetan funeral rites, marks were found indicating he had been brutally tortured in jail.

His crime? Gonpo Namgyal had been part of a campaign to protect the Tibetan language in China.

Gonpo Namgyal is the victim of a slow-moving conflict that has dragged on for nearly 75 years, since China invaded Tibet in the mid-20th century. Language has been central to that conflict.

Tibetans have worked to protect the Tibetan language and resisted efforts to enforce Mandarin Chinese. Yet, Tibetan children are losing their language through enrolment in state boarding schools where they are being educated nearly exclusively in Mandarin Chinese. Tibetan is typically only taught a few times a week – not enough to sustain the language.

My research, published in a new book in 2024, provides unique insights into the struggle of other minority languages in Tibet that receive far less attention.

My research shows that language politics in Tibet are surprisingly complex and driven by subtle violence, perpetuated not only by Chinese authorities but also other Tibetans. I’ve also found that outsiders’ efforts to help are failing the minority languages at the highest risk of extinction.

Tibetan culture under attack

I lived in Ziling, the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau, from 2005 to 2013, teaching in a university, studying Tibetan and supporting local non-government organisations.

Most of my research since then has focused on language politics in the Rebgong valley on the northeast Tibetan Plateau. From 2014 to 2018, I interviewed dozens of people, spoke informally with many others, and conducted hundreds of household surveys about language use.

I also collected and analysed Tibetan language texts, including government policies, online essays, social media posts and even pop song lyrics.

When I was in Ziling, Tibetans launched a massive protest movement against Chinese rule just before the Beijing Olympics in 2008. These protests led to harsh government crackdowns, including mass arrests, increased surveillance, and restrictions on freedom of movement and expressions of Tibetan identity. This was largely focused on language and religion.

Years of unrest ensued, marked by more demonstrations and individual acts of sacrifice. Since 2009, more than 150 Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule.

Not just Tibetan under threat

Tibet is a linguistically diverse place. In addition to Tibetan, about 60 other languages are spoken in the region. About 4% of Tibetans (around 250,000 people) speak a minority language.

Government policy forces all Tibetans to learn and use Mandarin Chinese. Those who speak only Tibetan have a harder time finding work and are faced with discrimination and even violence from the dominant Han ethnic group.

Meanwhile, support for Tibetan language education has slowly been whittled away: the government even recently banned students from having private Tibetan lessons or tutors on their school holidays.

Linguistic minorities in Tibet all need to learn and use Mandarin. But many also need to learn Tibetan to communicate with other Tibetans: classmates, teachers, doctors, bureaucrats or bosses.

In Rebgong, where I did my research, the locals speak a language they call Manegacha. Increasingly, this language is being replaced by Tibetan: about a third of all families that speak Manegacha are now teaching Tibetan to their children (who also must learn Mandarin).

The government refuses to provide any opportunities to use and learn minority languages like Manegacha. It also tolerates constant discrimination and violence against Manegacha speakers by other Tibetans.

These assimilationist state policies are causing linguistic diversity across Tibet to collapse. As these minority languages are lost, people’s mental and physical health suffers and their social connections and communal identities are destroyed.

Why does this matter?

Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule dates back to the People’s Liberation Army invasion in the early 1950s.

When the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959, that resistance movement went global. Governments around the world have continued to support Tibetan self-determination and combat Chinese misinformation about Tibet, such as the US Congress passage of the Resolve Tibet Act in 2024.

Outside efforts to support the Tibetan struggle, however, are failing some of the most vulnerable people: those who speak minority languages.

Manegacha speakers want to maintain their language. They resist the pressure to assimilate whenever they speak Manegacha to each other, post memes online in Manegacha or push back against the discrimination they face from other Tibetans.

However, if Tibetans stop speaking Manegacha and other minority languages, this will contribute to the Chinese government’s efforts to erase Tibetan identity and culture.

Even if the Tibetan language somehow survives in China, the loss of even one of Tibet’s minority languages would be a victory for the Communist Party in the conflict it started 75 years ago.

Gerald Roche has received funding for this research from the Australian Research Council. He is also affiliated with the Linguistic Justice Foundation.

– ref. Tibet is one of the most linguistically diverse places in the world. This is in danger of extinction – https://theconversation.com/tibet-is-one-of-the-most-linguistically-diverse-places-in-the-world-this-is-in-danger-of-extinction-246316

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Franks, Professor and Director – Global Centre for Mineral Security, The University of Queensland

Every year, the world consumes around 50 billion tonnes of sand, gravel and crushed stone. The astonishing scale of this demand is hard to comprehend – 12.5 million Olympic sized swimming pools per year – making it the most-used solid material by humans.

Most of us don’t see the sand and gravel all around us. It’s hidden in concrete footpaths and buildings, the glass in our windows and in the microchips that drive our technology.

Demand is set to increase further – even as the extraction of sand and gravel from rivers, lakes, beaches and oceans is triggering an environmental crisis.

Sand does renew naturally, but in many regions, natural sand supplies are being depleted far faster than they can be replenished. Desert sand often has grains too round for use in construction and deserts are usually far from cities, while sand alternatives made by crushing rock are energy- and emissions-intensive.

But there’s a major opportunity here, as we outline in our new research. Every year, the mining industry crushes and discards billions of tonnes of the same minerals as waste during the process of mining metals. By volume, mining waste is the single largest source of waste we make.

There’s nothing magical about sand. It’s made up of particles of weathered rock. Gravel is larger particles. Our research has found companies mining metals can get more out of their ores, by processing the ore to produce sand as well.

This would solve two problems at once: how to avoid mining waste and how to tackle the sand crisis. We dub this “nose-to-tail” mining, following the trend in gastronomy to use every part of an animal.

The failings of tailings

The metal sulphides, oxides and carbonates which can be turned into iron, copper and other metals are only a small fraction of the huge volumes of ore which have to be processed. Every year, the world produces about 13 billion tonnes of tailings – the ground-up rock left over after valuable metals are extracted – and another 72 billion tonnes of waste rock, which has been blasted but not ground up.

For decades, scientists have dreamed of using tailings as a substitute for natural sand. Tailings are often rich in silicates, the principal component of sand.

But to date, the reality has been disappointing. More than 18,000 research papers have been published on the topic in the last 25 years. But only a handful of mines have found ways to repurpose and sell tailings.

Why? First, tailings rarely meet the strict specifications required for construction materials, such as the size of the particles, the mineral composition and the durability.

Second, they come with a stigma. Tailings often contain hazardous substances liberated during mining. This makes governments and consumers understandably cautious about using mining waste in homes and our built environment.

Neither of these problems is insurmountable. In our research, we propose a new solution: manufacture sand directly from ore.

Converting rock into metal is a complex, multi-step process which differs by type of metal and by type of ore. After crushing, the minerals in the ore are typically separated using flotation, where the metal-containing sulphide minerals attach to tiny bubbles that float up through the slurry of rock and water.

At this stage, leftover ore is normally separated out to be disposed of as waste. But if we continue to process the ore, such as by spinning it in a cyclone, impurities can be removed and the right particle size and shape can be achieved to meet the specifications for sand.

We have dubbed this “ore-sand”, to distinguish it from tailings. It’s not made from waste tailings – it’s a deliberate product of the ore.

More from ore

This isn’t just theory. At the iron ore mine Brucutu in Brazil, the mining company Vale is already producing one million tonnes of ore-sand annually. The sand is used in road construction, brickmaking and concrete.

The move came from tragedy. In 2015 and 2019, the dams constructed to store tailings at two of Vale’s iron ore mines collapsed, triggering deadly mudflows. Hundreds of people died – many of them company employees – and the environmental consequences are ongoing.

In response, the company funded researchers (such as our group) to find ways to reduce reliance on tailings dams in favour of better alternatives.

Following our work with Vale we investigated the possibility of making ore-sand from other types of mineral ores, such as copper and gold. We have run successful trials at Newmont’s Cadia copper-gold mine in Australia. Here, using innovative methods we have produced a coarser ore-sand which doesn’t require as much blending with other sand.

Ore-sand processing makes the most sense for mines located close to cities. This is for two reasons: to avoid the risk of tailings dams to people living nearby, and to reduce the transport costs of moving sand long distances.

Our earlier research showed almost half the world’s sand consumption happens within 100 kilometres of a mine which could produce ore-sand as well as metals. Since metal mining already requires intensive crushing and grinding, we found ore-sand can be produced with lower energy consumption and carbon emissions than the extraction of conventional sands.

The challenge of scale

For any new idea or industry, the hardest part is to go from early trials to widespread adoption. It won’t be easy to make ore-sand a reality.

Inertia is one reason. Mining companies have well-established processes. It takes time and work to introduce new methods.

Industry buy-in and collaboration, supportive government policies and market acceptance will be needed. Major sand buyers such as the construction industry need to be able to test and trust the product.

The upside is real, though. Ore-sand offers us a rare chance to tackle two hard environmental problems at once, by slashing the staggering volume of mining waste and reducing the need for potentially dangerous tailings dams, and offering a better alternative to destructive sand extraction.

Daniel Franks would like to acknowledge funding and collaboration support from the Queensland Government, Australian Economic Accelerator, Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Trailblazer, Newcrest Mining, Newmont, Vale, The University of Geneva, The University of Exeter, The Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, and The University of Queensland. Daniel Franks is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT240100383) funded by the Australian Government.

– ref. Nose-to-tail mining: how making sand from ore could solve a looming crisis – https://theconversation.com/nose-to-tail-mining-how-making-sand-from-ore-could-solve-a-looming-crisis-250284

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Georgina Dimopoulos, Associate Professor, Law, Southern Cross University

When parental separation ends up in the family courts, serious risks such as family violence, child abuse, drug, alcohol or substance misuse, and mental health issues are often involved.

But many children feel shut out of family court processes that decide what is in their “best interests”.

My new paper, co-authored with Southern Cross University researchers Eliza Hew, Meaghan Vosz and Helen Walsh and published in the journal Child and Family Social Work, looked at how children felt about their experiences in the family courts.

We interviewed 41 children and young people aged ten to 19 from Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria. Four key themes emerged.

1. Children feel silenced

Some children we spoke with felt they were heard by family law professionals. Many, however, described feeling silenced. Penny (all names in this article changed to protect identies), aged 14, said:

[It was like] someone was standing there and putting something over my mouth so I couldn’t speak […] I should have been allowed in the courtroom and been allowed to say what I wanted.

Chelsea, 15, felt:

squashed and I just had to do what I was told and be quiet and suck it up, even if it wasn’t what I wanted.

Family court orders required Paige, 17, and her sister to spend time with their father, contrary to their expressed wishes. Paige blamed herself, saying:

That was always one of my biggest regrets because I’m like, maybe if I had said something differently, or emphasised it more, they would have understood what I was trying to say and actually listened […] it wouldn’t have made such traumatic memories, which happened afterwards, when we were forced to see him.

The children in our study wanted to be heard directly. As Troy, 14, put it:

Talk to us, not about us.

Children also told us that they wanted their words conveyed accurately by family law professionals to the court. Lisa, 10, said:

It’s like whispering to another person, and then you keep whispering, whispering, and then eventually, something comes out differently. People get it mixed up.

Other children felt speaking up was futile. Ari, 11, said:

I had some ideas that I wanted, that I thought would be fair, but it never really changed […] So I just stopped talking.

2. Children feel ‘in the dark’

Most children we interviewed felt “in the dark” about family court processes. Olive, 11, said she had “no clue what was going on”, while Leo, 13, said:

I didn’t know anything. I was playing the guessing game.

Some children got information through their own proactive, even covert efforts. Ava, 13, said:

I was snooping through Mum’s room and I found some papers.

Ava then Googled the family court judge who decided her parents’ case, because “she, like, ruined my life. Need to know who.”

Other children got more information than they wanted.

Eva, 12, said:

Mum shared with me lots of the law court stuff and I really wish she didn’t, because I should just be a kid. That was the sort of thing that made me feel […] sort of responsible and it sort of made me look at my mum in a bad way.

3. Some children will vote with their feet

Some children said they’d refused to comply with family court parenting orders. As Ava, 13, put it:

If they can’t listen to me, I’m not going to listen to them.

Chelsea, 15, explained:

I wasn’t listened to at all […] in the end, I finally put my foot down, and I was like, “I’m not going to Dad’s”.

Aaron, 16, and his siblings chose to live with their father, contrary to family court orders. He explained:

When they said that we had to live with Mum, we just lived with Dad anyway […] They’re meant to help and did the complete opposite.

4. Children feel less able to trust others

Children stressed the importance of family law professionals creating space to build trust. But several children felt they were betrayed by law professionals who’d shared what the children had said with their parents.

Troy, 14, said:

If I knew what I said was going to get back to Dad, I wouldn’t have said it.

Jessica, 16, wanted:

More support on knowing that what I said directly wouldn’t get back to my dad in case I was sent back there, because stuff I said could have really, really, really hurt me if I was sent back.

Gabrielle, 18, said:

Adults are meant to be the people that you can trust, particularly when they say that they’re there for your best interest. I lost a lot of trust. I couldn’t trust anyone again.

Protecting children

Our study didn’t ask children about details of their family court orders, so it’s possible that, as Aaron, 16, observed, “the people that probably want to do this [research] are probably the people that got messed around”.

But our findings are important because they expose concerning attitudes about children and their rights in the family courts, and the capacity and skills of professionals to support children to participate meaningfully and safely.

We’re now working with the children and young people we interviewed to co-create a children’s participation toolkit, which will give children information about their right to participate in family law processes.

Olive, 11, captures it best:

You gotta listen to the children, ‘cause it’s their lives. But it’s also like, sometimes they’ve got some pretty great ideas too.

Georgina Dimopoulos’ research upon which this article is based was partially funded by the Children’s Rights Research Fund (University of Maastricht). She is also a member of the Policy Working Group of the Australian Child Rights Taskforce.

– ref. ‘They’re meant to help and did the complete opposite’: many children feel silenced by family courts – https://theconversation.com/theyre-meant-to-help-and-did-the-complete-opposite-many-children-feel-silenced-by-family-courts-250636

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rex Mitchell, Postdoctoral Fellow, Flinders University

When it comes to how hard an animal can bite, size always matters.

There may be no truer a case of this than the desert rat-kangaroo (Caloprymnus campestris), known as the ngudlukanta to the traditional custodians of its Country of origin, the Wangkangurru Yarluyandi people.

This small, possibly extinct marsupial from the inhospitable Sturt Stony Desert may have had a solid skull built for hard biting. But not enough to bite through the kinds of foods biologists used to think it ate.

We discovered the lack of chomping power in the skull of this rat-kangaroo while testing new approaches for analysing skull biomechanics.

Our results, published today in the Journal of Experimental Biology, may help with ongoing searches for the elusive species.

Declared extinct 30 years ago, there remains hope the critter might still emerge in some parts of its original home range.

A difficult desert

The Sturt Stony Desert in the far north-east of South Australia is one of the world’s most inhospitable places. Few animals can make it their home.

However, one small marsupial species was known to brave the heat, drought, and scarcity of food: the ngudlukanta.

The species was previously thought to be long extinct, until mammal researcher Hedley Herbert Finlayson led the rediscovery of the animal in the 1930s.

But soon after, it vanished again.

Sadly, the tiny desert dweller was officially declared extinct in 1994. Weighing just under 1kg, it would have been a perfect snack for introduced predators like foxes and cats. It was further pushed towards extinction by competition with rabbits, overstocking with cattle and sheep, and poor fire management.

Yet, exciting reports of possible sightings of the ngudlukanta still emerge sporadically. Descriptions of its distinctive compact size, combined with its short face and the hopping gait of a kangaroo, have sparked renewed interest in rediscovering this animal.

In the quest to find this elusive little battler, information about its diet is key. It can help people to keep a closer eye on areas where its favourite foods would be found.

From a bite to a diet

To better understand its diet and feeding behaviour, we turned to the animal’s skull.

The ngudlukanta had a solidly built skull, with a short and wide face. This led researchers to suggest that it could eat harder desert foods like roots, nuts and seeds.

But in our latest analysis, we showed that these assessments were probably incorrect. Instead, the animal’s diet was more likely restricted to softer materials, rather than the tougher foods eaten by some of its harder-headed relatives like the burrowing bettong.

The reason for this? It all comes down to its size.

Previous interpretations of its biting ability had drawn conclusions from comparisons of skull shape between species, but without considering size differences between them.

Our results form part of a paper that addresses this issue in the methods that researchers use. We used a method called finite element analysis, which helps to predict how a structure – in this case, a skull – would handle the forces it experiences in the real world.

But what we did differently to other researchers was to keep information about size differences between the skulls in the models.

What did we find?

The skull of the ngudlukanta is definitely efficient at biting, but it is also about one quarter smaller than the skull of the next smallest species in our sample, the northern bettong.

When we included its smaller size in the analysis, the results suggested its relatively short face and robust jaw were unlikely to help it eat harder foods.

Instead, its solid skull features mostly compensated for its small size, but would only allow it to support bites about as hard as those of the long-nosed potoroo – a larger species with a much less efficient skull at biting.

Early investigations of stomach contents from the 1930s tell us the ngudlukanta fed mostly on leaves and small amounts of insects. But little further detail exists. A more restricted range of softer, fresher plant materials, as suggested by our analysis, would narrow its range of preferred foods in the deserts it lived in.

Our results therefore paint a picture of a species occupying a delicate position within the desert ecosystem.

An unsolved mystery in a vast desert

In recent years, one of us (Karl Vernes) has mounted several expeditions into the ngudlukanta‘s habitat, hoping to find evidence of its continued existence.

However, finding this tiny marsupial in a vast desert is a challenge – not just because it was probably always rare and elusive, but also because we still know precious little about its ecology.

Eyewitness accounts, remote camera traps, analysis of predator scat (poo) for mammal remains, genetic testing of scats, and the expert ecological knowledge of Traditional Owners have all been used to investigate the possibility of the survival of the ngudlukanta. No definitive evidence has yet emerged.

Whether the ngudlukanta is extinct or not, therefore, remains an unsolved mystery.

But history is replete with examples of rediscovered species believed to be extinct, known as “Lazarus species”. The desert’s vast, inhospitable terrain means it is plausible for a small nocturnal species to be evading detection.

In fact, the desert rat-kangaroo was already a Lazarus species after its rediscovery in the 1930s. The story of the ngudlukanta therefore serves as a reminder that extinction declarations are not always the end of the story.

If the species is still roaming the most inhospitable regions of the continent, the new knowledge gained from our analysis could help pinpoint areas where the ngudlukanta might persist.

Who knows? The next chapter in the story of this desert-dweller may yet surprise us.

Rex Mitchell has received funding from the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH).

Karl Vernes has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, Experiment.com, the Hermon Slade Foundation and Parks Australia. He is a member of the Australian Mammal Society.

Vera Weisbecker receives funding from The Australian Research Council. She is affiliated with The Australian Mammal Society and member of the Australian Greens Party.

– ref. Presumed extinct, this desert rat-kangaroo may still be alive in hiding. New analysis reveals its delicate diet – https://theconversation.com/presumed-extinct-this-desert-rat-kangaroo-may-still-be-alive-in-hiding-new-analysis-reveals-its-delicate-diet-250283

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Kirkland, Professor of Geochronology, Curtin University

Imagine floating in space, gazing on a frozen white orb. The ball hangs in the void, lonely and gleaming in the light from its star. From pole to equator, the sphere is covered in a thick crust of ice. In orbit around the white planet is a single cratered moon.

You are gazing on Earth in the Cryogenian period, 700 million years ago. This is about three times as long ago as the earliest dinosaurs roamed – but still not long in the scheme of Earth’s mind-bending 4.5 billion years of history.

During the Cryogenian, our planet was plunged into a series of deep freezes when enormous glaciers flowed across the globe.

In new research published in Geology, we show that these crushing rivers of ice, sometimes kilometres deep, pulverised the planet’s rocky surface like enormous bulldozers. When the ice eventually thawed, the ground-up minerals washed into the oceans where they may have provided the nutrients needed for the evolution of complex life.

Into the fridge

According to the Snowball Earth hypothesis, Earth underwent at least two extreme global glaciations during the Cryogenian. Traces of these events can be seen across the globe in sedimentary rocks formed under glacial conditions, strongly suggesting that ice spread from the poles to reach the equatorial region.

Nobody is sure exactly what triggered these deep-freeze events, though scientists have proposed a range of possibilities. One key may have been a significant decline in atmospheric greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO₂).

The CO₂ levels in the atmosphere may have fallen because of increased weathering of rocks situated on a large tropical continent that existed at the time. When continents are positioned in tropical regions, warm, moist conditions accelerate chemical weathering, pulling CO₂ out of the atmosphere, locking it away in carbonate minerals.

Tectonic activity during the breakup of continents that happened during this period may have also played a part. It could have created conditions such as shallow seas, leading to more removal of CO₂ from the air.

As ice sheets advanced toward the tropics, they reflected more sunlight back into space, leading to further cooling. These processes together caused ice to spread rapidly until the planet was almost entirely frozen.

How did Snowball Earth end?

Volcanic activity may have played a crucial role in ending these ice ages. As glaciers covered the planet, interactions between Earth’s crust, oceans and atmosphere slowed dramatically. As a result, when volcanic eruptions injected CO₂ into the atmosphere, it would not have been re-absorbed but rather accumulated over millions of years.

These high levels of CO₂ created a runaway greenhouse effect, warming the planet and eventually melting the ice. The resulting thaw caused rapid sea level rise and an influx of nutrients into the oceans.

Distinct rock formations were created during this abrupt climate change, as the chemistry of the oceans responded to the new conditions. The surge of nutrients may have contributed to a cascade of biological changes, possibly setting the stage for the rise of complex life.

Many scientists have considered the idea that changing atmospheric conditions on the thawing of Snowball Earth led to changes in ocean chemistry. In our new research, we found that material scraped off the continents during the thaw may also have played a role.

Snowball to slushball, glacial bulldozer to planetary power hose

We studied sections of rock, from older to younger, through the snowball period to melt down. By doing this, we built up a picture of what the glaciers and the subsequent river systems were doing to the crust of our planet.

We explored minerals with these sequences of rock and found consistent distinctive changes during periods of time when snowball events started and also when thawing occurred.

Snowball Earth events were associated with a pronounced increase in older, deeper crust being exposed and ground down under kilometres of ice.

As the glaciers retreated during thaw periods, massive outflows of melt water transported mineral grains that had been trapped and stabilised under the ice. Once exposed to liquid water, fragile minerals dissolved, releasing chemicals.

This process – like the changes in the atmosphere – would have changed the chemistry of the oceans. The glacial retreat help shaped the distribution of elements critical to ocean ecosystems.

Lessons from the past

The timescales of Earth’s natural processes are important to keep in mind. Over thousands, millions and billions of years, processes such as plate tectonics, erosion, and atmospheric cycles will continue to shape the planet’s future.

On shorter timescales, however, human activities have become the dominant force driving climate change.

While Earth itself will endure, the survival of complex human societies depends on our actions today. We are passengers on an extraordinary “spaceship Earth”, a planet that recycles its chemical building blocks through dynamic geochemical cycles, using matter originally forged in ancient stars.

These processes regulate Earth’s surface and sustain life, even as our planet’s fate is tied to the evolution of the Sun and the cosmos. Humanity, uniquely among Earth’s species, has developed the tools and systems to mitigate existential threats such as climate change, famine, war and even asteroid impacts, yet the effective use of these capabilities remains in our hands.

The deep past provides a guide on how chemical cycles on our planet operate. Whether we will be wise enough to use this information is yet to be seen.

Chris Kirkland 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. Giant glaciers pulverised Earth’s ancient rocks, setting the stage for complex life – https://theconversation.com/giant-glaciers-pulverised-earths-ancient-rocks-setting-the-stage-for-complex-life-249612

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Karnon, Professor of Health Economics, Flinders University

People with a high body weight living in England can now access subsidised weight-loss drugs to treat their obesity. This includes Wegovy (the weight-loss dose of Ozempic, or semaglutide) and Mounjaro (one of the brand names for tirzepatide).

These drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, can improve the health of people who are overweight or obese and are unable to lose weight and keep it off using other approaches.

In Australia, the government subsidises the cost of semaglutide (Ozempic) for people with diabetes.

But it is yet to subsidise semaglutide (Wegovy) on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for weight loss.

This is despite Australia’s regulator approving GLP-1 agonists for people with obesity, and for overweight people with at least one weight-related condition.

This leaves Australians who use Wegovy for weight loss paying around A$450–500 out of pocket per month.

But could Australia follow the England’s lead and list drugs such as Wegovy or Mounjaro on the PBS for weight loss? Doing so could bring the price down to $31.60 ($7.70 concession).

Australia has already knocked back Wegovy for subsidies

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) reviews the submissions pharmaceutical companies make for their drug therapies to be subsidised through the PBS.

For every such recommendation, PBAC publishes a public document that summarises the evidence and the reasons for recommending that the drug should be added to the PBS – or not.

In November 2023, PBAC reviewed Novo Nordisk’s submission. It proposed including semaglutide on the PBS for adults with an initial BMI of 40 or above and a diagnosis of at least two weight-related conditions. At least one of these related conditions needed to be obstructive sleep apnoea, osteoarthritis of the knee, or pre-diabetes.

However, PBAC concluded semaglutide should not be subsidised through the PBS because it didn’t consider the drug cost-effective at the price proposed.

PBAC referred to evidence on the long-term benefits from weight loss for people at increased risk of developing heart disease, diabetes or having a stroke. However, it didn’t factor these effects into its calculations when estimating the cost-effectiveness of semaglutide.

The committee suggested a future submission could focus on patients with either pre-existing cardiovascular (heart) disease, type 2 diabetes, or at least two markers of “high cardiometabolic risk”. This could include hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol, chronic kidney disease, fatty liver disease or pre-diabetes.

What did England decide?

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has a similar role to the PBAC, informing decisions to subsidise medicines in England.

As a result of NICE’s recommendation, semaglutide is subsidised in England for adults with at least one weight-related condition and BMI of 30 or above. Patients must be treated by a specialist weight-management service and prescriptions are for a maximum of two years.

More recently, NICE approved another GLP-1 agonist, tirzepatide, for adults with at least one weight-related condition and a BMI of 35 or above.

This approval didn’t restrict prescriptions to those treated in a specialist weight-management service. However, only 220,000 of the 3.4 million who meet the eligibility criteria will receive tirzepatide in the next three years. It is not clear how the 220,000 patients will be selected.

The limits on tirzepatide will reduce the impact of GLP-1 agonists on the health budget. It is also intended to inform the broader roll-out to all eligible patients.

For both semaglutide and tirzepatide, NICE noted that clinicians should consider stopping the treatment if the patient loses less than 5% of their body weight after six months of use.

Why did they reach such different decisions?

NICE assessed the use of GLP-1 agonists for a broader population than PBAC: people with one weight-related condition and a BMI of 30 or above.

Another difference was that NICE’s cost-effectiveness analysis included estimates of the longer-term benefits of these drugs in reducing the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular (heart) disease, stroke, knee replacement and bariatric surgery.

The proposed prices of the GLP-1 agonists in England and Australia are not reported. We can only observe the estimated health benefits. These are represented as the additional number of “quality-adjusted life years” (QALYs) associated with using the drugs. One QALY is the equivalent of one additional year of life in best imaginable health.

Committees estimate the amount of additional health spending required to gain QALYs, to see if it’s worth the public investment. Looking at the committees’ estimates of weight-loss drugs (without a two-year maximum):

• NICE reported a gain of 0.7 QALYs per patient receiving semaglutide for a target population with a BMI of 30 or more

• PBAC reported a gain of 0.3 QALYs, but for a population with a BMI of 40 and above.

Part of the explanation for the difference in estimated QALY gains is that PBAC did not consider the reduced risk of future weight-related conditions, only the impact on existing conditions.

In contrast, NICE referred to substantial cost offsets due to reduced weight-related conditions, in particular because some patients would avoid developing diabetes.

Time to rethink PBAC’s focus?

Both NICE and PBAC are clearly concerned about the impact of GLP-1 agonists on the health budget.

PBAC is trying to restrict access to a limited pool of people at highest risk. It is also being more conservative than NICE in estimating the expected benefits of GLP-1 agonists. This would require manufacturers to reduce their price in order for PBAC to consider these drugs cost-effective.

Maybe this approach will work and the Australian government will pay less for these drugs the next time it considers publicly funding them.

However, GLP-1 agonists are not on the agenda for the forthcoming PBAC meetings, so there is no timeline for when GLP-1 agonists might be funded in Australia for weight loss.

Read more:
People on Ozempic may have fewer heart attacks, strokes and addictions – but more nausea, vomiting and stomach pain

Jonathan Karnon receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Future Fund.

– ref. England subsidises drugs like Ozempic for weight loss. Could Australia follow? – https://theconversation.com/england-subsidises-drugs-like-ozempic-for-weight-loss-could-australia-follow-245367

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Narelle Miragliotta, Associate Professor in Politics, Murdoch University

With Western Australia heading to the polls on March 8, the Cook Labor government will likely prove the exception to the rule that incumbency is a liability for contemporary governments.

Despite incumbent governments around the world losing office, Labor looks headed for a comfortable re-election.

The WA contest begins from an unusual position. In 2021, Labor won a historic victory, driven by the popularity of the then premier Mark McGowan. It won 53 of 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly, with the Liberals reduced to two elected members in that chamber.

Since then, however, Labor’s popularity has slipped.

In September 2024, the Freshwater Strategy poll reported Labor’s primary vote had declined from 60% to 39%, while the Liberals’ primary vote had increased to 32% from 21% since the 2021 state election.

A January-February 2025 Newspoll had Labor’s primary vote down from 59.9% to 42%, and its two-party preferred primary vote down from 69.7% to 56%.

Nevertheless, on a two-party preferred basis, Labor is ahead on 56% to the Liberals’ 44%. While Premier Roger Cook is no McGowan, his approval rating is higher than that of the Liberal leader, Libby Mettam.

The WA Labor government has several factors working in its favour.

First is the healthy (two-party preferred) margins that Labor holds in many seats, including traditionally safe Liberal seats. After 2021, the WA Electoral Commission (WAEC) reclassified several former Liberal-held seats as “very safe” or “safe” Labor seats. Labor’s margins in Dawesville, South Perth, Riverton and Darling Range make it far from certain these seats will return to the Liberals in 2025.

Second, Labor is presiding over a strong local economy. While it has faced criticism for weak responses on housing, equitable access to government concessions, and climate action, Labor’s fiscal record is not in contention.

Third, Cook is not shy about activating WA’s sensitivities about the east coast. He has railed about “laws which damage Western Australia’s economy”, and complained that the nation’s high “standard of living […] is because of West Australian industry and the West Australian economy”.

The Cook government can back in its “WA-first” position by pointing to policy wins against federal governments. These include securing increases in WA’s GST share and forcing the shelving of proposed federal nature-positive legislation.

However, WA Labor cannot take all the credit for its strong position. The WA opposition is doing itself remarkably few favours.

A challenge for the Liberals is the loss of (people) presence due to their spectacular electoral losses in 2021. In addition to losing the status of the official opposition, the remaining party room lacked star power, featuring a National party defector, an upper house member later sacked for lying to the party leader, and divisive figures such as Nick Goiran and Peter Collier, both key players in the destabilisation that contributed to the party’s 2021 defeat.

Mettam has also been undermined by forces within her own party.

Her most serious challenger is the media personality, Lord Mayor of Perth, and Liberal candidate for Churchlands, Basil Zempilas.

In November 2024, an employee of Zempilas admitted to leaking an internal poll to the media that suggested Mettam’s continued leadership would cause a 3% swing against the party. While Zempilas denied knowledge of the poll, Mettam was forced to hold a party room meeting to defend her leadership five months before the election.

Then there are some questionable decisions taken by Mettam.

She flipped on the Voice to parliament referendum and later adopted federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton’s position on refusing to stand in front of the First Nations Flag. Such positions will be popular among some voters, but not the inner metropolitan constituencies that the party hopes to win back.

The final complication is the Liberals’ tetchy relationship with the Nationals, the official opposition since 2021.

The WA Liberals and Nationals have always had a tense relationship. Not even the shared experience of a depleted parliamentary presence inspired camaraderie. Despite their alliance, the Labor government exploited policy tensions between them.

In preparation for even more fraught times ahead, the two parties signed an election code of conduct, agreeing to play nice at elections. However, the Nationals face an existential crisis owing to changes to the state upper house electoral rules. Introducing a single statewide upper house electorate ended the malapportionment that had bolstered the Nationals’ representation in the Legislative Council.

The Nationals responded by fielding additional lower house candidates, although fewer than the party had foreshadowed. Crucially, the Nationals are competing in the seats of South Perth and Bateman, which are key inner metropolitan seats for the Liberals. Labor, however, is doing the Nationals no favours by preferencing the Liberals.

There is also an assortment of minor parties and independents. Climate 200 is backing several independents, two of whom are contesting the prized former Liberal seats of Churchlands and Nedlands. Now that McGowan fever has abated, the “Teals” might swoop in as the progressive middle path between Labor and Liberals. Green victories will be likely restricted to the Legislative Council.

The election might be a foregone conclusion in WA but it would be a mistake to think it is a prelude to the federal election. While WA Labor remains broadly popular among the state’s voters, polling suggests there is less love for the federal Labor party.

Nothing to disclose.

Nardine Alnemr and Narelle Miragliotta 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. Labor likely to win WA election, but the campaign is exposing faultlines in the state’s politics – https://theconversation.com/labor-likely-to-win-wa-election-but-the-campaign-is-exposing-faultlines-in-the-states-politics-249690

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Karnon, Professor of Health Economics, Flinders University

People with a high body weight living in England can now access subsidised weight-loss drugs to treat their obesity. This includes Wegovy (the weight-loss dose of Ozempic, or semaglutide) and Mounjaro (one of the brand names for tirzepatide).

These drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, can improve the health of people who are overweight or obese and are unable to lose weight and keep it off using other approaches.

In Australia, the government subsidises the cost of semaglutide (Ozempic) for people with diabetes.

But it is yet to subsidise semaglutide (Wegovy) on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for weight loss.

This is despite Australia’s regulator approving GLP-1 agonists for people with obesity, and for overweight people with at least one weight-related condition.

This leaves Australians who use Wegovy for weight loss paying around A$450–500 out of pocket per month.

But could Australia follow the England’s lead and list drugs such as Wegovy or Mounjaro on the PBS for weight loss? Doing so could bring the price down to $31.60 ($7.70 concession).

Australia has already knocked back Wegovy for subsidies

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) reviews the submissions pharmaceutical companies make for their drug therapies to be subsidised through the PBS.

For every such recommendation, PBAC publishes a public document that summarises the evidence and the reasons for recommending that the drug should be added to the PBS – or not.

In November 2023, PBAC reviewed Novo Nordisk’s submission. It proposed including semaglutide on the PBS for adults with an initial BMI of 40 or above and a diagnosis of at least two weight-related conditions. At least one of these related conditions needed to be obstructive sleep apnoea, osteoarthritis of the knee, or pre-diabetes.

However, PBAC concluded semaglutide should not be subsidised through the PBS because it didn’t consider the drug cost-effective at the price proposed.

PBAC referred to evidence on the long-term benefits from weight loss for people at increased risk of developing heart disease, diabetes or having a stroke. However, it didn’t factor these effects into its calculations when estimating the cost-effectiveness of semaglutide.

The committee suggested a future submission could focus on patients with either pre-existing cardiovascular (heart) disease, type 2 diabetes, or at least two markers of “high cardiometabolic risk”. This could include hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol, chronic kidney disease, fatty liver disease or pre-diabetes.

What did England decide?

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has a similar role to the PBAC, informing decisions to subsidise medicines in England.

As a result of NICE’s recommendation, semaglutide is subsidised in England for adults with at least one weight-related condition and BMI of 30 or above. Patients must be treated by a specialist weight-management service and prescriptions are for a maximum of two years.

More recently, NICE approved another GLP-1 agonist, tirzepatide, for adults with at least one weight-related condition and a BMI of 35 or above.

This approval didn’t restrict prescriptions to those treated in a specialist weight-management service. However, only 220,000 of the 3.4 million who meet the eligibility criteria will receive tirzepatide in the next three years. It is not clear how the 220,000 patients will be selected.

The limits on tirzepatide will reduce the impact of GLP-1 agonists on the health budget. It is also intended to inform the broader roll-out to all eligible patients.

For both semaglutide and tirzepatide, NICE noted that clinicians should consider stopping the treatment if the patient loses less than 5% of their body weight after six months of use.

Why did they reach such different decisions?

NICE assessed the use of GLP-1 agonists for a broader population than PBAC: people with one weight-related condition and a BMI of 30 or above.

Another difference was that NICE’s cost-effectiveness analysis included estimates of the longer-term benefits of these drugs in reducing the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular (heart) disease, stroke, knee replacement and bariatric surgery.

The proposed prices of the GLP-1 agonists in England and Australia are not reported. We can only observe the estimated health benefits. These are represented as the additional number of “quality-adjusted life years” (QALYs) associated with using the drugs. One QALY is the equivalent of one additional year of life in best imaginable health.

Committees estimate the amount of additional health spending required to gain QALYs, to see if it’s worth the public investment. Looking at the committees’ estimates of weight-loss drugs (without a two-year maximum):

• NICE reported a gain of 0.7 QALYs per patient receiving semaglutide for a target population with a BMI of 30 or more

• PBAC reported a gain of 0.3 QALYs, but for a population with a BMI of 40 and above.

Part of the explanation for the difference in estimated QALY gains is that PBAC did not consider the reduced risk of future weight-related conditions, only the impact on existing conditions.

In contrast, NICE referred to substantial cost offsets due to reduced weight-related conditions, in particular because some patients would avoid developing diabetes.

Time to rethink PBAC’s focus?

Both NICE and PBAC are clearly concerned about the impact of GLP-1 agonists on the health budget.

PBAC is trying to restrict access to a limited pool of people at highest risk. It is also being more conservative than NICE in estimating the expected benefits of GLP-1 agonists. This would require manufacturers to reduce their price in order for PBAC to consider these drugs cost-effective.

Maybe this approach will work and the Australian government will pay less for these drugs the next time it considers publicly funding them.

However, GLP-1 agonists are not on the agenda for the forthcoming PBAC meetings, so there is no timeline for when GLP-1 agonists might be funded in Australia for weight loss.

Read more:
People on Ozempic may have fewer heart attacks, strokes and addictions – but more nausea, vomiting and stomach pain

Jonathan Karnon receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Future Fund.

– ref. England subsidises drugs like Ozepmic for weight loss. Could Australia follow? – https://theconversation.com/england-subsidises-drugs-like-ozepmic-for-weight-loss-could-australia-follow-245367

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, The University of Melbourne

When the growing gets tough, the tough trees and shrubs get growing.

Australia’s environment is brutal. Its ancient, low-nutrient soils and generally low rainfall make it a hard place for plants to grow. Despite this, the continent is filled with wonderfully diverse plant ecosystems.

If you don’t know what you’re looking for, it can be easy to miss these seemingly unremarkable species. So, here are three little-known Australian plant species and ecosystems to look out for during your next roadtrip.

1. Cycads and eucalypts

If you are driving a coastal route along southern New South Wales, keep an eye out for the stunning combination of burrawang cycads (Macrozamia communis) and spotted gum (Corymbia maculata). These species live in harmony along the NSW coastline, from Kempsey to Bega, and inland as far as Mudgee.

If you’re on a road trip, now is the perfect time to talk to children about ancient moving continents, volcanoes and dinosaurs.

Cycads are ancient gymnosperms (cone-bearing plants) which evolved long before the Gondwanan supercontinent separated. These tough, hardy plants saw the dinosaurs come and go, and their relatives are found all around the world.

These cycads form a striking understorey to the spotted gum. As their scientific name (Macrozamia communis) suggests, they form a dense community.

Further north in Queensland, pineapple cycads (Lepidozamia peroffskyana), and Western Australia’s zamia palm (Macrozamia riedlei) are also worth spotting.

Cycad seeds are poisonous, but First Nations Australians worked out a complex process to prepare them for safe eating. This involved dissolving the plant’s toxins in running water, cooking, working and grinding the seeds into a powder.

Spotted gums evolved long after dinosaurs went extinct. Early eucalypt fossils date from about 34 million years ago, while current species are often only a few million years old.

Spotted gums are a great example of how plants that survive tough environments often also do well in difficult urban situations.

Cycads are similarly found growing in poor soils and arid conditions. They have long, glossy leaves up to about 1.5 metres in length with lots of leaflets.

There are both male and female plants. The female cone is an impressive, wide-domed structure that can be almost half a metre across. Its bright orange-red seeds are eaten by foraging marsupials, large birds and flying foxes.

Spotted gums are tall, straight eucalyptus trees with dark green, glossy leaves. Old bark creates dark grey spots against their cream coloured trunk, giving them a mottled look.

It is interesting to see ancient and modern species in such a close community relationship in cycad-spotted gum forests. Both are also well-adapted to the fires that frequent their habitat.

2. Ancient acacias

Travelling inland, the environment gets even tougher. Most large trees disappear and are replaced by woodlands dominated by inland acacia (wattle) species.

These inland acacias are short but mighty, with deep, extensive root systems.

Two of these species, mulga (Acacia aneura) and brigalow (A. harpophylla) are part of Australian folklore. A Banjo Paterson character says: “You know how the brigalow grows […] saplings about as thick as a man’s arm”.

Nutrients and water resources are limited, so mulga and brigalow trees are often evenly spaced across the landscape. This eerie symmetry makes it look like they were planted by humans.

Many people are unaware that the twisted, stunted specimens they see are more than 250 years old and occupy vast tracts of the Australian landscape.

Waddy-wood (Acacia peuce) is a rare species of acacia, found in just three locations on the edge of the Simpson Desert. This tree has very strong wood, and was used by Indigenous Australians for making clubs (waddys) and tools for carrying fire.

Inland acacias were widely used by Indigenous Australians for their wood, resins and medicinal properties. They have also been used as fodder for livestock, especially during drought.

These crucial species provide important habitat for other plants and animals. But they are under threat.

As old trees collapse and die, there are no young trees replacing them. This is because of drought and grazing, compounded by climate change.

Desertification – where fertile land is degraded until it essentially becomes desert – is becoming a huge problem due to the massive area dominated by acacias.

3. Boabs

If you’re driving across the Northern Territory and Western Australia, you might come across the mighty boab (Adansonia gregoryii).

These close relatives of the African and Madagascan baobabs floated to Australia as seeds or seedlings around 12 million years ago.

These deciduous trees live in mostly dry environments that also experience strong monsoonal-type rains. Boabs trap and store water in their trunks, allowing them not only to survive but thrive.

Their African and Madagascan baobab relatives are sometimes called trees of life, as they support many species.

Australian boabs are similar. They offer habitat, roosting and nesting sites. Their flowers and fruits are food sources to many species of insects and birds.

They were – and are – important trees in First Nations cultures. Carvings and symbols on their trunks can last for more than a century, much longer than on other trees. These are called dendroglyphs.

For example, snake carvings dated to more than 200 years old have been found on boab trees in Northern Australia’s Tanami Desert.

While these special trees are usually found far from the beaten track, they can be spotted growing around Darwin and other remote towns. If you get the chance to see them, count yourself lucky.

Tough terrain, tough trees

Plant communities are remarkably resilient. They also display great creativity when evolving ways to survive tough environments.

Make sure to keep an eye out as you’re exploring Australia and enjoy the fascinating plants our country has to offer.

Gregory Moore 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. I spy with my little eye: 3 unusual Australian plant ecosystems to spot on your next roadtrip – https://theconversation.com/i-spy-with-my-little-eye-3-unusual-australian-plant-ecosystems-to-spot-on-your-next-roadtrip-246129

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Penny Van Bergen, Associate Professor in the Psychology of Education, Macquarie University

Once upon a time, university lectures were accompanied by the sound of pens scribbling on paper. But if you go into a lecture hall today, you will hear students tapping on laptops.

Devices are now an accepted and important part of modern learning. But this does not necessarily mean students should forget the old-fashioned ways of taking notes.

Research shows pen and paper can help students learn and remember more from class.

The benefits of note-taking

Studies have long shown students who take notes during a lecture, class, or while reading are able to remember more of that content later.

One reason is note-taking is more active than listening or reading, which helps us maintain attention.

And students often go beyond just recording the information being said.

Note-taking means students are trying to understand their teacher by making assessments about what is important in real time. They might also organise the content into themes and sub-themes or highlight things that stand out.

These activities are examples of active engagement which strengthens the “encoding process”: the way new knowledge moves into long-term memory and forms memory pathways.

Strong memory pathways enable knowledge to be more easily accessed later, such as when problem solving in class or doing an exam.

Read more:
Avoid cramming and don’t just highlight bits of text: how to help your memory when preparing for exams

Note-taking on a laptop

Research shows the kinds of notes students take when typing on a laptop differ from those taken with traditional pen and paper.

A 2018 study in the United States found college students took longer lecture notes (both in word count and quantity of ideas) when typing on a laptop than when writing by hand. They also recorded longer sections verbatim from the lecture. This might occur because students typically type faster than they handwrite.

However, while students are faster on a laptop, they are also likely to become distracted.

A 2021 study of US college students used tracking software and found the average student was distracted for about half their lecture by social media, assignments, shopping and other off-task internet activities.

Note-taking with a pen

So how do pen and paper compare?

A 2024 meta-analysis of 24 international studies showed taking lecture notes by hand resulted in stronger overall test performance and course grades for undergraduate students.

This is because handwriting engages the brain in a more active way than typing, which is better for learning.

Students who take notes by hand use more shorthand, visual signals (for example, bolding, underlining, arrows and stars) and images (diagrams, graphs and tables) than those who type.

Taking notes by hand is particularly helpful if a lecturer or teacher pauses during a lecture or lesson, so students can revise or add to their notes in real time. In one US study, students using longhand added three times as many new ideas to their notes during lecture pauses as laptop users did.

Are there times laptops might be better?

Despite the benefits of handwriting, there are some situations where laptops may be more appropriate for note-taking.

Students who struggle with slow handwriting or spelling may find pen and paper note-taking interferes with their learning. This is because they need to focus more on the physical act of writing so it becomes harder to process new knowledge.

Some neurodivergent students may also find handwriting challenging. For instance, autistic students often experience difficulties with fine motor skills like handwriting. Similarly, students with dyslexia or dysgraphia may struggle with handwriting tasks.

For these students, typing with features like spell-check and auto-correction can allow them to focus on understanding and fully participating in class.

But for those who find both handwriting and typing equally comfortable, the research shows using a pen and paper are more effective for learning.

Penny Van Bergen receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Google and the Marsden Fund.

Emma Burns receives funding from the Australian Research Council, is an associate editor for the Australian Educational Researcher and is on the board of the Australian Educational Research Organisation.

Hua-Chen Wang receives funding from Google on a research project regarding vocabulary learning.

– ref. Which type of note-taking is better for learning: laptop or pen and paper? – https://theconversation.com/which-type-of-note-taking-is-better-for-learning-laptop-or-pen-and-paper-250404

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jeannie Marie Paterson, Professor of Law, The University of Melbourne

Last week the Federal Court fined Australia’s biggest superannuation company, AustralianSuper, A$27 million for overcharging customers.

The company had breached its legal obligations under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 by failing to identify and merge the duplicate accounts of customers.

Given the individual errant fees were about $1.50 per duplicate account, the penalty might sound disproportionate to the wrongdoing.

But over the nine years the duplicate account and other fees were being charged, they collectively cost customers about $69 million.

As revealed in court, the double charging continued even though AustralianSuper’s employees and officers were aware that duplicate accounts were widespread.

Not a precedent

This court case was not the first. It follows a damning series of cases brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) against banks, insurers and super funds for overcharging.

In 2022, ASIC reported six of Australia’s largest financial services institutions had paid almost $4.4 billion in compensation to customers for overcharging or providing no service.

Financial penalties were also imposed. Westpac and associated entities were fined $40 million for charging $10.9 million to more than 11,800 dead customers.

ANZ was also hit with a $25 million penalty for failing to provide promised fee benefits to about 689,000 customer accounts over more than 20 years.

These cases were highlighted in the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, which ran from December 2017 to February 2019. But even after that, new instances emerged.

In 2023, a review by ASIC resulted in general insurers repaying more than $815 million to more than 5.6 million customers for pricing failures since 1 January 2018“.

After this, ASIC imposed penalties on insurers IAG-subsidiaries and QBE. It was alleged they misled customers by promising them loyalty discounts to renew their home insurance policies. But the customers actually had their premiums raised by an amount similar in size to the discounts.

In 2024, ASIC announced the findings of an inquiry into excessively high fees for superannuation fund advice. The fees were not proportionate to the advice needs of members or the cost of advice.

More than 300 members across seven of the funds had advice fees of more than $15,000 deducted from their accounts.

Despite repeated calls by ASIC and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority for the industry to improve its operations, a 2024 ASIC review found major banks left at least two million low-income customers in high-fee accounts. Those affected were refunded more than $28 million.

Why has this litany of pricing misconduct cases occurred?

Put in the best light, the failures represent a combination of poor legacy payment systems and increasingly complex modern payment structures and products.

Recognising these constraints, the Federal Court has stated that the obligation under the Corporations Act to ensure financial services are provided “efficiently, honestly and fairly” does not demand “absolute perfection”.

In other words, some mistakes are inevitable. But this does not relieve banks, insurers and superannuation funds from responsibility for payment errors.

The buck stops with the institutions

Charging more money than permitted or failing to pass on discounts will usually be a breach of the financial institution’s contract with its customers, and may also amount to misleading conduct.

It’s unlawful. Even if the individual amounts in question are small compared with the turnover of the financial institution, they are significant to the customers affected.

This means, as courts have consistently recognised, that financial institutions have a responsibility to put in place “systems and processes” to identify and correct payment errors. And they need to remediate affected customers promptly.

The ongoing misconduct suggests banks, insurers and superannuation trustees have ignored this.

Notably, in 2023, a court found NAB waited more than two years to correct overcharging, despite being aware of it.

And in 2025, the court was critical of AustralianSuper for taking years to address the problem of duplicate customer accounts even after it was identified.

The judge in the AustralianSuper case said:

nobody was responsible for ensuring compliance with legislative requirements and [this] resulted in no resources being dedicated to that task.

When no one takes responsibility

After the Royal Commission, ASIC was criticised for not being sufficiently rigorous in enforcing the law. It now appears ASIC is working through the fee practices of banks, insurers and super funds armed with considerable penalties.

ASIC’s clear aim is to ensure payment misconduct doesn’t pay, and enforcement by the regulator cannot be dismissed as a mere cost of doing business.

But is this enough? Customers may wait years for payment errors to be identified and redressed through enforcement by ASIC.

We need to rethink how these institutions understand their obligations to customers. Notably, the United Kingdom has introduced a “consumer duty”, which requires banks to promote customers’ interests and demonstrate how they are doing this.

Australia doesn’t have this obligation. But it may be worth learning from the UK. Banks, insurers and superannuation funds here should be obligated to show they are using processes that produce good ongoing outcomes for their customers.

Jeannie Marie Paterson receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a project on treating customers fairly commencing July 2025.

– ref. Multiple warnings and huge fines are not stopping super funds, insurers and banks overcharging customers – https://theconversation.com/multiple-warnings-and-huge-fines-are-not-stopping-super-funds-insurers-and-banks-overcharging-customers-250658

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Phoebe Hart, Associate Professor, Film Screen & Animation, Queensland University of Technology

The Academy Awards represent the screen industry’s biggest annual global recognition for the very best of moviemaking. And in these troubled times, many recognise the power of documentaries to transform the world for the better.

Like last year, the 2025 nominations for Best Documentary are international in their scope, continuing an Academy trend of placing more emphasis on voices outside of the United States.

This year’s nominations feature a few milestones: it’s the first time a Japanese filmmaker has been put forward, and the first time an Indigenous North American filmmaker has been nominated in Oscars history.

All exhibit outstanding craftsmanship while exploring intense themes. The following roundup will hopefully encourage you to check them out at the cinema or online, and see why the experts also think they deserve the top gong.

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

Johan Grimonprez’s experimental essay examines the Cold War politics of the 1950s and 60s. At this time, many African nations were gaining independence from their colonial masters.

In Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, the uranium and mineral rich Democratic Republic of the Congo becomes a poignant case study.

As the first prime minister Patrice Lumumba breaks the country away from Belgian rule, a murderous plot by global superpowers to destroy the country’s newfound sovereignty unfolds.

And underneath it all: the frenetic beat of jazz as a revolutionary reaction against racism on both sides of the Atlantic.

A wealth of archival material featuring former world leaders, the Congolese situation, and the musical stylings of Nina Simone, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and others make this documentary effortlessly cool. The edit and sound design has a wonderful syncopated rhythm, revealing fascinating facets of modern history and the scramble for power.

Sugarcane

St. Joseph’s Mission was a residential school for Indigenous children in Canada, which closed in 1981.

When ground penetrating radar begins looking for unmarked graves at the school, Julian Brave NoiseCat – whose father was born on the site – and co-director Emily Kassie embark on a quest of accountability for a myriad of institutional abuses.

Editors Nathan Punwar and Maya Daisy Hawke interweave archival reels alongside Emily Kassie and Christopher LaMarca’s stark verité cinematography. The film captures members of the Williams Lake First Nation community reckoning with generations of trauma at the hands of Catholic clergy.

Together, they present some disturbing facts in the film, which won a directing award at the Sundance Film Festival.

National Geographic has routinely received a documentary Oscar nomination. This film is a challenging topic for Australian and New Zealand audiences. We also have a troubling history with the placement of Aboriginal children in homes, where many faced hardships and mistreatment.

Sugarcane gives a platform for truth-telling and healing.

Porcelain War

Ceramists Slava Leontyev and Anya Stasenko are inspired by the nature of Ukraine and each other. Their friend, and fellow creator, Andrey Stefanov documents their lives on tape after his wife and children flee at the start of the Russian invasion.

All become involved in active defiance.

The film combines nonprofessional video, body cams and drone footage alongside wildlife photography and charming animations of Anya’s delicate paintings on clay.

There are gripping scenes of armed conflict from the viewpoint of Slava’s squad of reservists. These are everyday folks who have become involved in fighting on the ground.

Porcelain War benefits from a soundtrack composed and performed by folk music quartet DakhaBrakha. This adds an eerie texture to this portrait of hope.

The film thoughtfully balances light and shade with grace, demonstrating that art remains a potent way to oppose erasure.

Black Box Diaries

When her high-profile #MeToo sexual assault case is dropped on the grounds of insufficient evidence, Japanese journalist, director and producer Shiori Itō commences chronicling her journey to justice.

Deploying abstract imagery over recorded conversations with investigators and witnesses, Itō builds her argument over several years. The passage of time is interspersed with her unfiltered video diary entries.

There has been controversy about the director including hotel footage of her drugged and being dragged out of a taxi by her attacker, senior reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi, without permission. Itō had been given the footage for the legal case, but had agreed it would not be used outside of the courtroom.

The debate has prevented the film from showing on Japanese screens. However, Itō has argued the public good of using this material outweighs commercial interests – especially considering the pressure of Yamaguchi’s influential connections to quell the case, which include then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Itō doesn’t shy away from exposing the raw emotional depths of her remarkably brave undertaking against fierce odds, and she serves as an inspiring change-maker we should all heed.

No Other Land

No Other Land takes stock of the West Bank situation from the perspective of Basel Adra, who documents evictions of Palestinians in his home village of Masafer Yatta.

Basel works with journalist Yuval Abraham to bear witness to the army’s gradual destruction of his village to make way for a military training ground.

No Other Land features some great observational camerawork with many poetic images of resilience. Things kick up a notch when a villager, Harun, is shot by Israeli soldiers while trying to confiscate his building tools. Basel is targeted for filming the ensuing protests – but Adra and Abraham continue undeterred.

A friendship develops amid the chaos between the Palestinian activist and Israeli reporter, who co-direct and edit with Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor. It’s the touching humanity of their relationship that goes to the core of the film; compassion is key to deescalating tensions in the region.

In Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, Porcelain War, Black Box Diaries and No Other Land are streaming on DocPlay; Sugarcane is streaming on Disney+.

Phoebe Hart 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. Outstanding craftsmanship and international voices: the 5 films up for best documentary at the 2025 Oscars – https://theconversation.com/outstanding-craftsmanship-and-international-voices-the-5-films-up-for-best-documentary-at-the-2025-oscars-249151

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ivan Vinogradov, Animal Behaviour Researcher, Australian National University

We humans often underestimate the intelligence of other animals. You’ve probably seen videos of monkeys, ravens or parrots solving puzzles.

But fish also possess impressive problem-solving skills, despite the notorious slander that goldfish have a three-second memory.

The intelligence of animals can be a useful tool when testing various ideas in biology. For example, could intelligence have evolved in part thanks to sexual selection, rather than as a means of survival?

In a new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, we used distinct tests to measure cognitive abilities of male mosquitofish – a thumb-sized fish endemic to central America but now a major pest in many parts of the world, including Australia.

We then tracked how many offspring each male produced when competing for mates in small ponds. Our study showed that smarter males had more offspring than their less intelligent brethren.

Our findings imply that the evolution of cognitive abilities may have been driven by sexual selection, with smarter males gaining more mating opportunities.

To be smart is to survive

Cognitive abilities, such as learning and problem solving, likely arose because they helped animals gather food, find shelter and avoid predators.

Individuals that were better at these tasks lived longer and passed on genes to their offspring that improved the offspring’s performance. Natural selection favoured smarter survivors who had more descendants than the average individual.

As a result, populations became smarter over time.

But there is another explanation for the evolution of intelligence: smarter is sexy. A better brain might help an animal find more mates, have more sex, and eventually have more babies.

If this is the case, intelligence partly evolved through sexual selection, where traits that boost mating and fertilisation success become more common over generations.

We did our study on male fish – sexual selection is usually stronger on males than females, because in most species there are more males seeking mates than females ready to mate and breed.

Measuring animal IQ

Even in humans, intelligence can be difficult to pin down: maths skills, creativity, street smarts, and standardised IQ tests all capture different aspects of human braininess.

For animals, this challenge is tougher still. But biologists broadly agree that cognition is the ability to acquire, store, process, and act on information; and that distinct cognitive abilities are governed by different brain regions.

We designed four special underwater tests to tap into these distinct cognitive abilities of our male mosquitofish.

First, we measured their spatial learning by placing fish in a maze with a single correct route that led them to a shoal of their compatriots. Mosquitofish are highly motivated to swim with other fish, so reaching this shoal acts as a reward for solving the maze.

Second, we measured their self-control (formally called “inhibitory control”) by placing a transparent barrier between the fish and a reward. We then documented how quickly a male learned not to swim into the barrier but to detour around it.

Then, we measured associative learning by presenting a fish with two coloured corridors once a day. One colour (for example, green) led to a dead end, while the other (for example, red) to a reward.

The number of days it took a male to consistently choose the correct corridor – the one with a reward – indicated how quickly they learned the association.

Lastly, we reversed the colour cues to measure reversal learning. If green, for example, was previously the dead end, it now became the reward corridor, while red became the dead end. This tested how quickly the fish could “overwrite” his previously learned association to learn the new one.

A winning edge in mating

After these tests, we moved the males to ponds where they competed for mates. Two months later, the females gave birth, and genetic paternity tests revealed who fathered each offspring.

Males that scored highly on self-control and spatial learning had significantly more children. But why?

Something about these males seemingly gave them an edge in securing mating opportunities. Perhaps females recognised and preferred smarter males? Maybe smarter males were better at chasing the females and forcing them to mate (a common, if unpleasant, practice in mosquitofish).

Future research is needed to observe the males’ mating behaviours more closely and see if smarter and dumber males differ in how they court mates.

Our research sheds light on the evolution of our most prized possession – the brain. It seems that sophisticated intelligence isn’t only driven by our need to find food or avoid danger to survive, but also by the complex challenges of finding love.

Ivan Vinogradov 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. Smart is sexy – new study on fish doing puzzles hints intelligence partly evolved via sexual selection – https://theconversation.com/smart-is-sexy-new-study-on-fish-doing-puzzles-hints-intelligence-partly-evolved-via-sexual-selection-249862

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Birchall, Senior Lecturer in Law, Macquarie University

In our complex, interconnected world, there are risks of human rights violations throughout global supply chains. Examples include not only modern slavery and child labour, but also gender discrimination and violations of land, food and water rights.

Many people care deeply about whether the companies they support are monitoring and addressing these issues. So, how do some of the biggest Australian companies measure up?

To answer this question, we analysed the human rights commitments of 25 of the top companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), including some of our largest banks and mining companies.

We found Australian companies have a long way to go in “knowing and showing” a commitment to respect human rights, suggesting an urgent need for reform.

One response could be for Australia to follow the European Union’s lead and create a mandatory human rights due diligence regime.

Read more:
Many global corporations will soon have to police up and down their supply chains as EU human rights ‘due diligence’ law nears enactment

International best practice

Our analysis used the World Benchmarking Alliance’s Corporate Human Rights Benchmark Core UNGP Indicators.

This benchmark uses 12 indicators that draw on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP), the authoritative international standard.

The indicators are grouped into three themes:

1. policy commitments to respect human rights
2. embedding respect through ongoing human rights due diligence
3. enabling accessible remedies and grievance mechanisms for workers and external stakeholders.

Companies score between zero and two points on each indicator, depending on how they satisfy its requirements. The maximum possible score is 24.

It’s important to understand that the aim of our study was not to assess whether these companies have been violating human rights. Rather, it was to evaluate whether companies have disclosed their policies and processes to respect human rights.

The UN Guiding Principles expect companies to have suitable due diligence processes in place and make these publicly available in an accessible form.

Ideally, companies should clearly state that they respect all human rights. This includes rights such as nondiscrimination, the prohibition on forced or child labour, freedom to join trade unions, and the right to a clean environment.

They should outline in detail the mechanisms in place to identify and address actual or potential abuses. On top of this, detail which officials in the company hold responsibility for managing these issues.

The better companies would even disclose examples of human rights abuses that they discovered in their operations, such as modern slavery or a gender pay gap.

Poor performance overall

Our research covered the 25 largest Australian companies by market capitalisation that had not previously been assessed under this benchmark.

This included some of the leading Australian companies from a range of sectors – mining, banks, energy, insurance, transportation, telecommunication, media, health care and pharmaceuticals.

Scores were poor overall. The best-performing company scored eight out of a possible 24 points. The average score was 3.6.

Many companies were found to be making vague or ambiguous human rights commitments or only focusing on a narrow set of modern slavery risks.

No company disclosed all of the human rights due diligence processes needed to identify, prevent, mitigate and remediate human rights risks. Nor did any disclose how they consulted with relevant stakeholders such as workers or displaced communities to help them understand and identify relevant human rights risks in company operations.

Only ten of the 25 companies provided a mechanism for external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints or concerns.

Companies scored particularly poorly on the second group of indicators: embedding respect through ongoing human rights due diligence. The average score here was 0.58 out of 12.

Many companies only focused on identifying and addressing modern slavery in their operations, to the exclusion of other human rights risks such as sexual harassment or environmental pollution.

It was also concerning that companies we assessed often passed the burden of compliance to suppliers. That is, they established higher expectations for suppliers’ conduct than they set for their own.

Legal requirements made a difference

Our research found that companies scored well in making human rights commitments where there was a legal obligation to do so.

Every company, for example, scored the point available for hosting a grievance mechanism for workers to raise concerns about the company. This is because Australia’s Corporations Act requires companies to create a whistleblower mechanism.

Similarly, most companies disclosed elements of their modern slavery due diligence process, because this is legally required under the Modern Slavery Act.

Proactive steps

It is clear from our research that many large Australian companies are not operating in line with international standards.

That means they also aren’t ready to comply with the ripple effects of the mandatory human rights due diligence laws recently introduced in Europe.

These laws will require large Australian companies that do significant business in Europe to conduct comprehensive human rights due diligence.

Australian companies must take proactive steps to comply with international standards. This means making a public commitment to respect all human rights, establishing and publicly disclosing their human rights due diligence process.

It will also mean involving everyone who is affected by or has an interest in the company’s activities throughout the due diligence process. This includes making sure they have a way to raise concerns and seek remedies.

The Australian government has a vital role in ensuring that companies take their human rights responsibilities seriously. The current reporting regime under the Modern Slavery Act has proven very weak, confirmed under a recent formal review.

Our findings suggest the government should enact a stronger and broader mandatory human rights due diligence law covering all human rights.

David Birchall is Deputy Director of the B&HR Access to Justice Lab at Macquarie Law School.

Ebony Birchall is the Deputy Director of the B&HR Access to Justice Lab at Macquarie University. She has previously received research funding from the Australian Government, Macquarie University and the Freedom Fund.

Surya Deva is Director of the B&HR Access to Justice Lab at Macquarie University. He is currently UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development. He has previously received funding from the GIZ, the UNDP, the Freedom Fund and the International Commission of Jurists. He is part of the World Benchmarking Alliance’s Expert Review Committee. The Lab received funding from Maurice Blackburn Lawyers and the World Benchmarking Alliance to cover the costs of hosting an event to launch this report.

– ref. Some of Australia’s largest companies are failing to ‘know and show’ their respect for human rights – https://theconversation.com/some-of-australias-largest-companies-are-failing-to-know-and-show-their-respect-for-human-rights-250055

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT University

People could soon make mobile calls and send SMS text messages from the remotest parts of Australia, under a new election promise from the federal Albanese government to overhaul the country’s mobile phone network.

The proposal would create a new universal outdoor mobile obligation for Australian mobile carriers such as Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. This obligation would require carriers to work with companies operating low Earth orbit satellites to provide access to mobile voice, SMS and the Triple Zero (000) service almost everywhere across Australia.

This world-first reform would be a major step forward for public safety – especially in regional and remote areas, where mobile coverage is currently poor to nonexistent. The Albanese government says that if it wins the upcoming election, it would implement the reform by late 2027.

However, implementing it will come with some technical challenges.

Satellites boost mobile access

Low Earth orbit satellites operate at an altitude of between 160km and 2,000km above the Earth’s surface. Examples include the roughly 7,000 Starlink satellites owned and operated by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, that are currently in orbit.

The new generation of these satellites incorporates a technology known as “direct to device”. This means they can directly connect with mobile phones. And it is this feature the Labor government’s new proposal seeks to utilise.

Specifically, the proposal aims to:

• expand Triple Zero (000) access for Australians across the nation
• expand outdoor voice and SMS coverage into existing mobile black spots
• improve the availability of mobile signals during disasters and power outages.

The proposal adds to carriers’ existing obligations to provide fixed phone and internet services across Australia.

In a few years, low Earth orbit satellites should also be able to provide data using an enhanced direct to device technology. The government has said it will consider including data in the obligation when the opportunity arises.

Staying safer and better connected in the bush

The telecommunications industry has long worked towards a goal of providing universal outdoor mobile coverage in Australia. Labor’s new proposal provides the impetus for the industry to take this major step forward.

It would also provide the guidance necessary to ensure a consumer safety focus remains the fundamental rationale for telecommunications.

This policy would ensure everyone can connect to emergency services, friends and family during emergencies or natural disasters.

The benefits for people living and working in regional and remote areas would be considerable.

For example, truck drivers experiencing a breakdown in the outback would be able to call for assistance. And farmers working in the remote wheat belt regions of Western Australia could stay connected with other workers and their families.

Technical problems to solve

However, there are some technical problems the telecommunications industry will need to overcome to achieve universal outdoor mobile coverage.

Across the world, nations are rolling out mobile networks that use different radio frequencies. For the universal outdoor mobile obligation to be successful, the mobile carriers will need to work with satellite providers to ensure the spectrum bands used in Australia for the 4G, and in the future 5G, mobile networks will also work with satellites.

Mobile devices connect with the network when the user makes a phone call, sends an SMS text message or browses the internet.

When the mobile is connected to a low Earth orbit satellite, it’s important that it can tell apps to “shut up” and stop trying to connect to the network to transmit data. Otherwise the connected mobiles could cause congestion and limit service reliability and resilience.

There are mobile handsets that have this capability today. But the vast majority of older mobile handsets do not. A list of compatible mobile handsets would need to be compiled and made available, so that consumers can consider this information when purchasing a mobile.

To connect to a low Earth orbit satellite, it is anticipated a mobile will need to be used in a location where the sky can be seen directly. And initially at least, using a satellite-connected mobile inside a vehicle will require an external antenna.

A timely step forward

The government says the introduction of a universal outdoor mobile obligation would provide an opportunity to modernise and expand existing service obligations for mobile carriers. For both to be successful, there is also a need for minimum performance standards.

Providing mobile voice call and SMS text access across Australia is of little value if the service quality is poor, and fails during an emergency or natural disaster.

That being said, Labor’s proposal should gain bipartisan support. It is a timely step forward that will bring positive outcomes for all Australians, especially those living and working in regional and remote areas.

Mark A Gregory has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network grants program and the auDA Foundation. Life member of the Telecommunications Association.

– ref. Calling 000 for help in an emergency doesn’t work in parts of Australia – but a new plan could change that – https://theconversation.com/calling-000-for-help-in-an-emergency-doesnt-work-in-parts-of-australia-but-a-new-plan-could-change-that-250762

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yuting Zhang, Professor of Health Economics, The University of Melbourne

Unaffordable GP visits has become a pressing issue amid the increasing cost-of-living crisis. About 30% of Australians delayed or didn’t see a GP in 2023–24.

To solve this problem, Labor has proposed extending bulk billing incentives to all Australians. It hopes to increase bulk billing from 78% to 90% by 2030.

The Coalition has promised to match Labor’s plan.

Why not aim for 100%? It might seem a worthy goal to make GP care free for everyone, for every visit. But the evidence suggests there’s benefit to getting those on higher incomes to contribute a small amount to the cost of seeing a GP.

GP care should be free for these Australians

We should aim for access to GP care to be affordable and equitable. For some people, this should mean they can access the services for free.

Appointments for children should be free. Making health checks regular and accessible during childhood is an effective long-term investment which can delay the onset of disease.

GP visits should also be free for people with low incomes. Free primary care can mean people who would otherwise avoid seeing a GP can have their ongoing conditions managed, undergo preventive health checks, and fill prescriptions.

When people skip GP visits and can’t afford to fill their prescriptions, their conditions can worsen. This can reduce the person’s quality of life, and require higher-cost emergency department visits and hospital care.

Appointments in rural and remote areas should also be free. Australians living in rural and remote areas currently pay more to see a GP, have less access to care when they need it, and experience poorer health outcomes and shorter lives than their city counterparts.

Making GP visits free for rural and remote Australians would help reduce this rural–urban gap.

However, providing free GP care for everyone can cause unnecessary strain on health budgets and make the policy unsustainable in the long run.

What can happen if you make care free for all?

In general, when the price is low, or something is free, people use these services more. This includes medical care and medications. Free GP care may encourage more people to see their GP more than is necessary.

Previous research showed that free care increased the use of health care but does not necessarily improve health outcomes, especially for those who are relatively healthy.

If people are using GP services when they’re not really needed, this takes limited resources from those who really need them and can increase waiting times.

Australia is already experiencing a GP shortage. Higher patient volumes could leave existing GPs overwhelmed and overstretched. This can reduce the quality of care.

Countries that have made primary health care free for all, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, still report issues with access and equity. In Canada, 22% of Canadian adults do not have access to regular primary care. In the United Kingdom, people who live in poor areas struggle to get access to care.

Make co-payments more affordable

To balance affordability for patients with the financial viability of primary care, Australians who can afford to contribute to the cost of their GP care should pay a small amount.

However, the A$60 many of us currently pay to visit a GP is arguably too expensive, as it may prompt some to forego care when they need it.

A relatively smaller co-payment in the range of around $20 to $30 to visit the GP would help discourage unnecessary visits when resources are limited, but be less likely to turn patients off seeking this care.

Providing free GP visits for all may not be efficient or sustainable, but making it more affordable and equitable can lead to a more efficient and sustainable care system and doing so is within our reach.

Read more:
Should we aim to bulk-bill everyone for GP visits? We asked 5 experts

Yuting Zhang has received funding from the Australian Research Council (future fellowship project ID FT200100630), Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Victorian Department of Health, and National Health and Medical Research Council. In the past, Professor Zhang has received funding from several US institutes including the US National Institutes of Health, Commonwealth fund, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She has not received funding from for-profit industry including the private health insurance industry.

Karinna Saxby has previously received funding from the Department of Health and Aged Care,

– ref. The major parties want 9 in 10 GP visits bulk billed by 2030. Here’s why we shouldn’t aim for 100% – https://theconversation.com/the-major-parties-want-9-in-10-gp-visits-bulk-billed-by-2030-heres-why-we-shouldnt-aim-for-100-249605

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dirk Baur, Professor of Finance, The University of Western Australia

The gold price has surged to a new all-time high above US$2,900 (A$4,544) an ounce this month.

It has risen by 12% since the start of the year and clearly outperformed US and Australian stock markets. The US stock index S&P500 is up 4% and the ASX 200 has gained just 2% in that time.

That follows an extraordinary run in 2024, when the precious metal surged 27%, the biggest rise in 14 years.

The drivers behind this surge include heightened uncertainty and fear of inflation that has been stoked by US President Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs, together with increased demand from central banks.

What explains gold’s recent rally?

There are many factors at play.

The supply of gold through gold mine production and recycling is relatively constant over time. But the demand is more variable, and consists of four major components: jewellery, technology, investment and central banks.

In 2024, jewellery accounted for about 50% of total demand, technology or industrial demand was 5%, investment demand was 25% and central bank demand was 20%.

Investment demand refers to investors who buy gold as an asset. Central banks generally buy gold to diversify their reserve holdings.

As all four demand components vary over time (some more than others), gold price movements are sometimes driven by jewellery demand, sometimes by investor demand, and sometimes – as has happened recently – by central bank demand.

What adds to the difficulty is that both the gold supply and gold demand are global. The supply comes from gold mines across the globe, from emerging countries in Africa and industrial countries such as Australia and Canada.

The same is true for demand. While China and India dominate jewellery demand, the demand comes from many countries, as does investment demand. Central bank demand stems from large and small central banks around the world.

Why is there demand for gold?

One key reason for the popularity of gold is that it is considered to be a store of value. This means gold rises with inflation and maintains its value in the long run.

In other words, an ounce of gold buys the same basket of goods (or more) today than 20 years ago. This is not the case for money (or fiat currency) such as the US or Australian dollars.

Due to inflation, the value of money is not constant but depreciates over time. Because gold holds its value, it is also called an inflation hedge.

While the store of value property holds in the long run, there is another important property that is more short-lived and particularly relevant during crisis periods.

Gold is seen as a safe haven in troubled times

The safe haven property of gold means gold prices increase when investors seek shelter in response to a shock or crisis. For example, investors bought gold in reaction to the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks, the start of the global financial crisis in 2008, and the outbreak of COVID in 2020.

The safe haven effect of gold is generally short-lived, often resulting in falling gold prices after about 15 days.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the subsequent sanctions on Russia – especially the freeze of Russia’s foreign government bond holdings abroad – has highlighted the risk to governments of losing access to foreign currency holdings.

It appears some governments or central banks reacted to this with increased gold purchases. This led to a record high of 1,082 tonnes of central bank gold purchases in 2022.

2023 saw the second-highest annual purchase in history at 1,051 tonnes, followed by 1,041 tonnes in 2024.

The potential reaction of central banks to the Russian invasion of Ukraine is akin to investors seeking a safe haven, but is a rather new phenomenon for central banks.

There is an additional, secondary, effect of such central bank purchases and rebalancing from US dollars to gold.

Selling US dollars for gold implies a weakening US dollar, which increases the price of gold. (If the US dollar weakens, you need more US dollars to buy gold.) The inverse relationship between gold prices and currencies also makes gold a currency hedge. That means gold can protect investors from potential losses due to fluctuating exchange rates. This effect is particularly strong for rather volatile currencies such as the Australian dollar.

In contrast to the shock caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the more recent increase in gold prices is harder to associate with a single shock.

Broader economic worries

The election of Trump has not only increased the risk of higher inflation due to tariffs and a trade war, it has also increased geopolitical risk as the US government reassesses its alliances with other countries.

The relative unpredictability of Trump compared with his predecessors and with politicians more generally may have increased uncertainty and gold prices.
The recent gold price trend highlights that “gold loves bad news”.

Gold prices may anticipate geopolitical shocks or higher inflation. Gold prices rose well before inflation increased after the pandemic and started to fall when inflation had peaked in 2022.

It is not clear exactly why gold has risen to all-time highs in 2025, but it’s possibly not good news for the world economy.

Dirk Baur 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 gold price has surged to record highs. What’s behind the move? – https://theconversation.com/the-gold-price-has-surged-to-record-highs-whats-behind-the-move-250391

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

The multi-Grammy award winner Roberta Flack has passed away at 88.

Her approach and sound were a unique combination of soul, folk, rhythm and blues, jazz, pop and musicianship, and arranging skills so broad she had had a lasting impact on future artists.

Her sustained career laid a foundation for pop and neo-soul artists Alicia Keys, Erykah Badu, Solange, J Dilla, Flying Lotus, and D’Angelo.

Over her career, Flack performed some original songs, but she is better known for her myriad of covers and performances of songs written for her. No matter who wrote the songs, she made all of them her own. She was a master of musical interpretation.

An early life of music

Flack was born in North Carolina in 1937. Both of her parents played piano; her mother was the church organist.

Her early interest in gospel tunes was encouraged and supported with her participation in a local Baptist church in Arlington, Virginia, and many relatives who sang.

Her formal classical musical training continued at Howard University. After a brief period teaching at a junior high school, Flack started landing regular bookings at Mr. Henry’s, a Washington DC bar where Flack performed a range of traditional spirituals, jazz, blues and folk repertoire.

In 1968, she signed with Atlantic Records.

Her brilliant debut

Her debut album, First Take, was recorded over just ten hours in 1969 at Atlantic Recording Studios, New York. First take indeed! Genius!

Considering Flack’s background, religious inspiration and being surrounded by the social movements of the 1960s, it is not surprising that her first album features songs that address race and religion. The album creates a fusion of music with themes of spiritually and compelling political issues.

Flack blended genres effortlessly. One of the highlights of the album is Flack’s interpretation of the folk song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. Written in 1957 by British political singer-songwriter Ewan MacColl for the vocalist Peggy Seeger, Flack’s interpretation is notably delivered with a deliberately slower tempo, and with legato phrasing – smooth, and connected.

The lesser-known second track, the Venezuelan/Mexican song Angelitos Negros, offers a soulful statement of black rights.

Flack’s powerful vocal delivery evokes a haunting sense of loss and refined passion. This, combined with her choice of musical arrangement with repeating lyrics, forms a commanding protest song.

Always forging her own path

Labels often described her work as “adult contemporary” or “easy-listening”.

This barely addresses the diversity within her catalogue, which features Broadway ballads like The Impossible Dream, her definitive interpretation of Leonard Cohen’s Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye, Bee Gees and Beatles songs, and folk classics.

Blending genres like jazz, latin, rock and folk with nuanced elements of classical into her own arrangements and song interpretations, to the listener Flack’s interpretation becomes authorship.

In this way, Flack played a role in defining pop music’s processes.

Flack is best known for her majestic indelible early hits songs like Killing Me Softly with His Song, Where Is the Love and The Closer I Get to You.

The 1973 live recording of Killing Me Softly With His Song, written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, is breathtaking.

Flack opens without an introduction: straight in, delicately infusing the lyrics with a vast array of tonal shades. The smooth phrases are delivered with a beautifully aligned dynamic, like the most carefully crafted expression.

In 1996 Killing Me Softly with His Song, was reinvented by the Fugees with lead vocalist Lauryn Hill.

Where Is the Love, a duet with Donny Hathaway, brings together their two legendary voices perfectly. Here were two highly skilled pianists with incredible musicality with voices that blended perfectly together.

I have always enjoyed Flack’s version of Compared to What. Flack’s emotive delivery; the warmth of her tone; the panache; the edgeless smooth phrasing pulls you near in complete comfort.

For Flack the lyric meaning – telling the story with clarity and honesty – was paramount. Her expression is refined with understated inventiveness. There is such power in her performances. She is spellbinding, reaching a deep soulful place that is both classically and contemporarily informed.

While Flack wrote some songs, such as You Know What It’s Like, she was not predominantly a songwriter. Instead, she was a virtuosic interpreter of music. Whether penned by Flack or not, each song’s interpretation sounds authored by her. That is the sense you are getting when you listen to her music: it doesn’t matter who it’s written by, her interpretation makes you believe it is by her.

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

– ref. Remembering Roberta Flack, a spellbinding virtuoso of musical interpretation – https://theconversation.com/remembering-roberta-flack-a-spellbinding-virtuoso-of-musical-interpretation-250763

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philippa Collin, Professor, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University

Ahead of the Australian election, candidates, advisers and political parties might be paying attention to what young people think. And if they’re not, they should be.

This election will be the first in which Gen Z and Millennial voters (aged 18–40) will outnumber Baby Boomers (aged 60–79). Many of these young people were in high school during the previous two elections.

While there are concerns about the effectiveness of civics and citizenship education, there is also evidence young people are interested in, and active on, many issues.

So what do young people care about most? We analysed thousands of pieces of writing by young Australians to find out.

What matters to young people?

For the past 20 years, young people have been telling us what matters to them as part of the Whitlam Institute’s What Matters? writing competition. Students in years 5–12 can write about whatever they like. Most are directed by their schools to contribute as a part of their civics curriculum. Some opt to enter the competition out of interest.

A unique sample, our analysis of 22,500 entries from 2019 to 2024 provides insight into the issues that resonate most with this generation.

We identified common themes: society and democracy, mental health, environment and climate change, intergenerational justice and (social) media.

1. Society and democracy

We found young people were actively grappling with complex and diverse issues in an increasingly fragmented political landscape. They are also concerned about anti-democratic forces.

They reflect on what makes this moment exceptional – climate change, war and violence, rapid technological change – and consider actions needed from individuals, communities and institutions for them to have a future.

Our research shows young people prioritise care in local and global futures, valuing peer support, family, intergenerational ties, and connections across communities and borders. The most common topic was family, followed by pollution, racism and poverty.

An ethics of care shapes their sense of belonging and responsibility –
and the responsibilities of government. As a senior student wrote in 2022:

Children are being abused, or watching one of their parents be abused countless times. The Government needs to step up and do their job properly by using more effective ways of helping children and their parents get out of unsafe environments.

Our sentiment analysis shows that they write with hope – and frequently with anxiety and fear.

2. Mental health

Many young people write about “health”, including physical health and the health of communities and natural environments. Most often, though, they write about mental health and the causes of worry, distress and illness.

Young people want governments and leaders to tackle the causes of the causes of ill-health. In other words, they want action on what creates the drivers of ill-health, including climate change, inequality and loneliness.

For policymakers and advocates, this means recognising mental health as deeply connected to broader social and political issues – issues young people believe governments must address if they are serious about improving wellbeing.

3. Environment and climate change

Environmental issues, particularly climate change, were dominant themes — more so than in previous years. Students write about their relationship to the environment and the benefits of connecting to nature.

Some are calling out extractive relationships with the environment, particularly by large corporations. They demand urgent action from individuals and institutions, advocating for policies that prioritise future generations and the planet.

A senior student wrote in 2019:

our future is under threat because of climate change […] it is our generation’s future that is on the line, yet we continue to be unheard.

4. Intergenerational justice

Young people see intergenerational justice and social justice as interconnected, demanding climate action, economic opportunity and democratic participation. Their concerns reflect a commitment to human rights including refugee rights, gender equality and Indigenous justice.

Their writing shows awareness of Australia’s role in the world. Many discuss global conflicts and the responsibilities of nations in promoting peace and security. They want to contribute to efforts to address these issues.

Young people want to trust and have more of a role in Australian democracy. They want those in power, and the institutions and agencies over which they preside, to be more transparent, to communicate regularly and honestly, and to show how they are taking action for a better future for all generations.

Key areas where young people want greater accountability are in government, the media and business. Twelve-year-old Ivy said in an interview:

young children should have a direct voice to parliament […] adults would take us more seriously instead of just viewing us as just kids. If issues affect kids right now or this generation, they should have a say about that to parliament.

Young people want their activism and efforts recognised and supported. They hope for a democracy in which they’re not just heard, but are actively engaged by leaders, with a direct voice in government (at all levels) and institutions.

5. (Social) media

Young people highlight social media’s pros and cons, calling for strategies that better engage with them to reduce harm and maximise benefits.

They stress the need for digital literacy to navigate online information critically, and they want online environments to be supportive and safe.

Young people are concerned about how they are represented in the media generally. They argue that inclusive and accurate portrayals are key to having their voices heard and respected – crucial for meaningful civic participation.

Candidates on notice

Young people are not just future constituents – they are voting at the next election.

The young people whose writing we analysed have formed civic and political values during a turbulent time in Australian and world history: catastrophic bushfires and floods, a climate crisis, a pandemic, and digital technologies that are changing our lives.

They reject the idea they are too young to understand issues, and instead want a participatory democracy in which their voices influence real decisions. Indeed, the public has shown a desire to let young people have more of a say.

Our analysis tells us many of this year’s 18–24-year-old voters are informed, engaged and ready to hold leaders accountable. They want action on climate, mental health, economic justice and democratic accountability. They’re tired of being ignored and sidelined.

The authors would like to acknowledge research assistant Ammar Shoukat Randhawa for their work on the research this article reports.

Philippa Collin receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Telstra Foundation, Google, batyr, Whitlam Institute, Academy Of The Social Sciences In Australia and NSW Health. In recent years she has received funding from the NHMRC, the Federal Department of Education, Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies.

Azadeh Dastyari is the Director, Research and Policy at the Whitlam Institute. She also receives funding from the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN).

Michael Everitt Hartup has no conflict of interest.

Sky Hugman receives funding from The Whitlam Institute

– ref. What do young people want to see in politics? More than 20,000 pieces of their writing hold some answers – https://theconversation.com/what-do-young-people-want-to-see-in-politics-more-than-20-000-pieces-of-their-writing-hold-some-answers-250062

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Wesselbaum, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Otago

Climate change is no longer a distant threat. It’s here, it’s real and it increasingly affects us all.

But predicting climate change and its associated costs, particularly over long periods of time, is inherently uncertain. And based on the best available evidence from organisations such as the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the economic costs of climate change appear to be small – making this a relatively weak argument for environmental action.

At its most basic, climate is the long-term average of the weather we experience. Or, as former president of the American Meteorological Society, Marshall Shepherd, famously put it, “weather is your mood, and climate is your personality”.

It’s widely accepted that climate change refers to a shift in long-term weather patterns, typically driven by human activities.

But the impact of climate change, ranging from rising temperatures and extreme weather events to health impacts and disruptions to food and water supply, varies greatly. Some areas experience more extreme impacts than others, exacerbating social and economic disparities.

There also appears to be a false sense about our state of knowledge. For example, many believe climate change already causes more frequent and intense storms, but the evidence for this is inconclusive.

Trying to predict the unpredictable

To understand the economic costs of climate change, we must first grasp how climate affects socioeconomic outcomes.

The relationship between temperature and socioeconomic outcomes can be modelled using a “dose-response” function, which shows how much a given change in temperature (the “dose”) influences the outcome (for example, temperature-related mortality).

A key challenge is to understand the shape of the dose-response function. Is the relationship between temperature and mortality linear or is it more complex? Does it have thresholds beyond which the effects substantially change? Is there only one function or are there different ones for different populations?

As climate change shifts the distribution of weather variables, it alters the outcomes as well. Yet, predicting how these distributions will evolve is difficult.

The further into the future we look, the harder it is to make reliable predictions about both weather and the associated economic costs.

If you were asked in 1925 to predict the economy in 2000, for example, how accurate would you have been? In 1925 you drove a Ford Model T, used coal-fired steam trains and passenger ships for travel, and a trip from London to Auckland took up to eight weeks by sea. You used a telegraph for long-distance communication and a radio for entertainment.

Compare that with the globalised, interconnected economy of the year 2000. Given the technological advancements, would your prediction have been even close?

Cost estimates

There are a wide range of estimates on the economic costs of climate change. But one of the most reliable has come from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The panel’s latest assessment report avoids quantifying the economic costs of climate change. So, to understand the economic costs of climate change, we can use the best estimate based on the previous report and the insights from meta studies. These analyses posit a temperature rise of 3.7°C will reduce global gross domestic product (GDP) by about 2.6% (ranging from 0.5 to 8.2%) by 2100.

For New Zealand, this is equivalent to about NZ$11 billion, or twice the cost of Auckland’s City Rail Link.

However, this comparison is extremely misleading. The value of 2.6% today will differ substantially from 2.6% in 75 years.

The New Zealand economy grew at a compound annual rate of 1.4% between 1960 and 2000. Using this same average growth rate, New Zealanders will have a 184% higher standard of living in 2100. If nothing is done to address climate change, and given the best cost estimate, our standard of living would still be 176% higher than it is now.

Reporting costs

There are also issues with how some people report costs. For instance, while the total damage caused by floods and hurricanes in the United States has gone up in dollar amounts, it has not actually increased as a percentage of peoples’ incomes.

In this context, it is crucial to distinguish between the damage caused by climate change and that resulting from human activities – such as the construction of more houses, higher property prices and river management practices.

The economic costs of climate change based on the best available evidence appear to be small and highly uncertain.

Shifting the focus

Even if we accept our best estimates, economic costs are not the issue, but saving the environment is.

Instead of focusing the debate of climate change around economic costs, we need to refocus the debate on tangible impacts happening right now: retreating glaciers, species extinction, shifting seasons and coastal erosion, to name a few.

Addressing these issues is costly, but action will be needed to save the environment and ensure a liveable world into the future.

Dennis Wesselbaum 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. Calculating the economic cost of climate change is tricky, even futile – it’s also a distraction – https://theconversation.com/calculating-the-economic-cost-of-climate-change-is-tricky-even-futile-its-also-a-distraction-248862

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yi Li, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Macquarie University

When you’re deciding what to eat for lunch or dinner, do you consider the meal’s greenhouse gas emissions? How do you compare the carbon footprint of a beef sandwich with that of a falafel wrap?

Most people can’t tell what’s better for the climate. Even those who care deeply about making sustainable food choices can struggle.

In Australia, meat products are responsible for almost half (49%) the greenhouse gas emissions of products consumed at home. Switching from these high-emission foods to lower-emission foods, such as plant-based meals, can significantly reduce household emissions. But a lack of knowledge may be stopping people doing the right thing.

The good news is my colleagues and I have a simple solution. Highlighting the source of the food as animal- or plant-based on carbon labels makes a big difference to consumer choices. In our latest research, we show this new carbon label encourages switching from animal-based to plant-based foods.

Closing the knowledge gap

Previous research has shown consumers consistently underestimate the vast difference in greenhouse gas emissions between animal- and plant-based foods. For instance, producing one kilogram of beef emits 60kg of greenhouse gases, whereas producing the same quantity of peas emits just 1kg of greenhouse gases. However, most people think the gap between the two is much smaller.

This matters because collectively, our food choices have a big impact on climate change. Agriculture generates almost a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, with animal products the biggest contributors.

Making carbon labels more informative

A “carbon footprint” refers to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with a product.

Globally, there is increasing interest in carbon food labelling, given its potential to nudge consumers towards more sustainable food choices. In Australia, such labelling is voluntary and not yet widespread.

Most carbon labels follow a similar approach. They typically display a number representing greenhouse gas emissions, and a traffic-light system indicating the level of environmental impact from green (low) to red (high). But such labels do not indicate whether the food is animal- or plant-based. So a high carbon score does not help people identify the source of the emissions.

We designed a new type of label. It clearly displays whether the food is sourced mainly from animals or plants, along with the standard emissions score and traffic-light colour code. This approach is especially useful for the growing segment of pre-prepared and packaged foods such as soups and other ready-to-eat meals, which often contain a mix of meat and plant-based food.

Our label creates a mental link between a food source and its carbon impact. When a consumer sees high carbon scores and red traffic lights appearing more frequently on meat and other animal products, they begin to make the connection between those products and higher emissions. This is key to addressing a lack of knowledge around food carbon emissions.

We tested our label against the existing labels in a series of experiments with 1,817 everyday consumers from Australia, the United States and the Netherlands.

One experiment involved soup. Compared with the group exposed to the standard carbon label, the group exposed to our label learned to associate animal-based soups with higher greenhouse gas emissions more effectively. They were more accurate at estimating the greenhouse gas emissions of a second batch of soups without labels.

This improved knowledge also translates to more climate-friendly food choices. In another experiment with Australian consumers, we encouraged participants to choose five meals from ten options. Five were animal-based and five were plant-based.

Half the participants saw the meal options with our carbon labels, and the other half did not see the carbon labels. The group exposed to our carbon labels chose fewer animal-based options in their weekly meal plan. In this case, we don’t know whether a third group exposed to the standard label would also make more climate-friendly choices, but our earlier experiments suggested our label was more effective.

In the final experiment conducted in the Netherlands, displaying our carbon label made university students more likely to choose the plant-based snack option rather than the animal-based option.

When knowledge isn’t enough

While people who care most about sustainable eating may think they know better than others, we found that is not the case. These people were not better able than other participants to tell the difference in greenhouse gas emissions between animal- and plant-based foods without seeing our carbon label.

But they were better learners. When confronted with the facts about the differences between animal and plant-based foods on our labels, they were more likely to change their choices and switch to plant-based foods.

What this means for consumers and businesses

A simple change to food labels could help consumers make more informed environmental choices. For businesses and policymakers, it shows displaying only carbon numbers isn’t enough – the food source is crucial.

Some forward-thinking restaurants and food companies are already experimenting with adding carbon labels to the menu to encourage diners to choose climate-friendly dishes. Our research suggests this approach could be more effective when combined with the new carbon labels we designed.

Implications for climate action

As Australia grapples with meeting its climate commitments, helping consumers understand the environmental impact of their food choices will become increasingly important.

The challenge for businesses, policymakers and researchers isn’t convincing people to care about sustainability – they already do. Almost half of Australian shoppers (46%) say sustainability is important to them and influences their purchases, despite cost-of-living pressures.

But most sustainable actions in retail involve recyclable packaging, products and materials, and local produce. The carbon emission implications of these actions, sadly, are far less than reducing animal-based food consumption.

Instead, we need to focus on giving people the tools to make their environmental concerns count. Our carbon labels could be the key to helping consumers turn their sustainable intentions into meaningful climate action.

Yi Li 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. Want a side of CO₂ with that? Better food labels help us choose more climate-friendly foods – https://theconversation.com/want-a-side-of-co-with-that-better-food-labels-help-us-choose-more-climate-friendly-foods-250513

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron J. Cavosie, Senior lecturer, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University

In the 1970s, images from the NASA Mariner 9 orbiter revealed water-sculpted surfaces on Mars. This settled the once-controversial question of whether water ever rippled over the red planet.

Since then, more and more evidence has emerged that water once played a large role on our planetary neighbour.

For example, Martian meteorites record evidence for water back to 4.5 billion years ago. On the young side of the timescale, impact craters formed over the past few years show the presence of ice under the surface today.

Today the hot topics focus on when water appeared, how much was there, and how long it lasted. Perhaps the most burning of all Mars water-related topics nowadays is: were there ever oceans?

A new study published in PNAS today has made quite a splash. The study involved a team of Chinese and American scientists led by Jianhui Li from Guangzhou University in China, and was based on work done by the China National Space Administration’s Mars rover Zhurong.

Data from Zhurong provide an unprecedented look into rocks buried near a proposed shoreline billions of years old. The researchers claim to have found beach deposits from an ancient Martian ocean.

Blue water on a red planet

Rovers exploring Mars study many aspects of the planet, including the geology, soil and atmosphere. They’re often looking for any evidence of water. That’s in part because water is a vital factor for determining if Mars ever supported life.

Sedimentary rocks are often a particular focus of investigations, because they can contain evidence of water – and therefore life – on Mars.

For example, the NASA Perseverance rover is currently searching for life in a delta deposit. Deltas are triangular regions often found where rivers flow into larger bodies of water, depositing large amounts of sediment. Examples on Earth include the Mississippi delta in the United States and the Nile delta in Egypt.

The delta the Perseverance rover is exploring is located within the roughly 45km wide Jezero impact crater, believed to be the site of an ancient lake.

Zhurong had its sights set on a very different body of water – the vestiges of an ancient ocean located in the northern hemisphere of Mars.

The god of fire

The Zhurong rover is named after a mythical god of fire.

It was launched by the Chinese National Space Administration in 2020 and was active on Mars from 2021 to 2022. Zhurong landed within Utopia Planitia, a vast expanse and the largest impact basin on Mars which stretches some 3,300km in diameter.

Zhurong is investigating an area near a series of ridges – described as paleoshorelines – that extend for thousands of kilometres across Mars. The paleoshorelines have previously been interpreted as the remnants of a global ocean that encircled the northern third of Mars.

However, there are differing views among scientists about this, and more observations are needed.

On Earth, the geologic record of oceans is distinctive. Modern oceans are only a few hundreds of millions of years old. Yet the global rock record is riddled with deposits made by many older oceans, some several billions of years old.

What lies beneath

To determine if rocks in Utopia Planitia are consistent with having been deposited by an ocean, the rover collected data along a 1.3km measured line known as a transect at the margin of the basin. The transect was oriented perpendicular to the paleoshoreline. The goal was to work out what rock types are there, and what story they tell.

The Zhurong rover used a technique called ground penetrating radar, which probed down to 100 metres below the surface. The data revealed many characteristics of the buried rocks, including their orientation.

Rocks imaged along the transect contained many reflective layers that are visible by ground penetrating radar down to at least 30 metres. All the layers also dip shallowly into the basin, away from the paleoshoreline. This geometry exactly reflects how sediments are deposited into oceans on Earth.

The ground penetrating radar also measured how much the rocks are affected by an electrical field. The results showed the rocks are more likely to be sedimentary and are not volcanic flows, which can also form layers.

The study compared Zhurong data gathered from Utopia Planitia with ground penetrating radar data for different sedimentary environments on Earth.

The result of the comparison is clear – the rocks Zhurong imaged are a match for coastal sediments deposited along the margin of an ocean.

Zhurong found a beach.

A wet Mars

The Noachian period of Martian history, from 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago, is the poster child for a wet Mars. There is abundant evidence from orbital images of valley networks and mineral maps that the surface of Noachian Mars had surface water.

However, there is less evidence for surface water during the Hesperian period, from 3.7 to 3 billion years ago. Stunning orbital images of large outflow channels in Hesperian land forms, including an area of canyons known as Kasei Valles, are believed to have formed from catastrophic releases of ground water, rather than standing water.

From this view, Mars appears to have cooled down and dried up by Hesperian time.

However, the Zhurong rover findings of coastal deposits formed in an ocean may indicate that surface water was stable on Mars longer than previously recognised. It may have lasted into the Late Hesperian period.

This may mean that habitable environments, around an ocean, extended to more recent times.

Aaron J. Cavosie has received funding from Australian Research Council and the Space Science and Technology Centre at Curtin University.

– ref. Scientists have discovered a 3 billion-year-old beach buried on Mars – https://theconversation.com/scientists-have-discovered-a-3-billion-year-old-beach-buried-on-mars-250496

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Valeria Maria Rigobon, Lecturer in Literacy, Australian Catholic University

It is common for Australian children to grow up with languages other than English in their family lives.

More than one-fifth of Australians report speaking a language other than English at home.

But when it comes time to start school, it’s common for parents to worry about raising a child to be bilingual or multilingual.

They may wonder, am I harming my child’s English development if I speak another language at home?

The short answer is no. Research shows speaking more than one language doesn’t hinder a child’s academic progress – in fact, it can even help.

What does the research say?

Up until the 1980s, some studies incorrectly suggested early exposure to more than one language could harm a child’s academic achievement. But these findings have since been widely criticised because many of the children in the studies came from economically disadvantaged backgrounds (and so were already disadvantaged in terms of their schooling).

More recent Australian research has found when socioeconomic status is accounted for, multilingual children are “indistinguishable from their monolingual peers” in literacy and numeracy by the time they are eleven years old. This is provided they have adequate English vocabulary skills by the time they finish Year 2.

Some studies show multilingual students even surpass monolingual children in different academic areas. This includes English reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation as well as numeracy. Research suggests multilingual students’ enhanced mental flexibility from switching between languages may explain their higher academic performance later in school, but this is not yet confirmed.

Do you need to learn one language before starting the other?

Research shows children can learn multiple languages at the same time, starting from infancy.

This means you don’t have to wait for a child to become fluent in one before you start learning another.

Similarly, a child does not have to be a highly skilled English speaker to start to learn to read in English. They can develop their spoken and written/reading language skills at the same time.

It is also important to look at children’s skills across all the languages they know.

Research on children aged up to 30 months found multilingual children often had smaller vocabularies in English than their monolingual peers. But they had a healthy range when assessed on words they knew in all languages.

A common misconception is multilingual children may “confuse” words between languages, but this is not the case. They actually learn quite quickly whom they can communicate with in each language, and switch between languages without much effort.

For example, Valeria’s niece Aurora is four and is already fluent in Hungarian, Spanish and Ukrainian. There are videos of Aurora speaking Spanish with her Venezuelan father and grandmother, turning to respond to her grandfather in Hungarian, and switching to Ukrainian to speak with her mother, all in one conversation.

How can I help my child learn multiple languages?

Research shows it is important a child receives lots of exposure to each language through meaningful interactions with people who speak those languages.

There is no clear definition of the amount needed, but it should be regular – for example, everyday talk with parents or visits or phone calls with grandparents who share the home language.

Also, if you’re worried your child isn’t getting enough English exposure outside school, do not abandon your home language. Instead, create other English opportunities, such as in playgroups, daycare, sports teams or other out-of-school activities.

Ultimately, the best thing parents can do to support their children’s multilingual learning is build a community filled with native speakers of English and the home language(s).

Staying consistently connected to this community of people who value each language, especially after children start school, will also support a child’s motivation to keep growing in each language.

Rauno Parrila receives funding from Australian Research Council and Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Valeria Maria Rigobon 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. Do you speak other languages at home? This will not hold your child back at school – https://theconversation.com/do-you-speak-other-languages-at-home-this-will-not-hold-your-child-back-at-school-250405

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrei Lux, Lecturer of Leadership and Research Cluster Lead, Edith Cowan University

Dictatorships would appear to be on the rise. Russian president Vladimir Putin, US president Donald Trump and even un-elected tech entrepreneur, Elon Musk are ruling by decree like “kings”.

Some might naively call these leaders “authentic” for saying and often doing what they believe. But that’s not the whole story.

Such unilateral decisions are deeply divisive, and often opposed. In the US, the federal court blocked Trump’s executive order banning workplace diversity, equity and inclusion programs to try to contain the damage.

Researchers used to think that authenticity was inherently good and moral. But as authentic leadership research gets more sophisticated with robust experimental methods, what we know about this powerful approach is changing quickly.

Experiments use controlled simulations and real-world field trials to show how leadership behaviour influences followers. These new methods are the gold standard for establishing cause-and-effect relationships, and they’re challenging old ideas.

Authentic leadership redefined

After 20 years of research, we’ve redefined authentic leadership as a process of sending leadership “signals”. What leaders say and do sends powerful messages about their values.

In a digital age where every tweet and public act is scrutinised, understanding these signals is important for employees and voters. And keeping up with this new way of expressing authentic leadership is vital for anyone seeking to lead in today’s volatile world.

In our latest article, we looked at what authentic leadership involves and why signalling is so important.

But what exactly is “signalling”?

Sending leadership ‘signals’

Everything leaders do or say – how they behave, express themselves, look, and communicate – sends messages to everyone watching. These messages are “signals”. Leaders influence their followers by sending signals that will trigger specific thoughts or emotions.

But executive life is complex and full of inherent contradictions between personal authenticity and the demands of leadership roles.

High-profile figures such as Musk and Trump show how leadership signals can be polarising. Just last week Musk used his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to call for an unconstitutional election in Ukraine.

Signalling authentic leadership

Demonstrating authentic leadership depends on sending clear, observable signals that reflect the leaders’ principles and ethical convictions.

Here are some tips for spotting authentic leadership signals in everyday interactions. It is notable that it’s easier to find examples of leaders displaying the complete opposite.

1. Self-awareness

Leaders signal self-awareness by regularly seeking honest feedback and reflecting on their own strengths and weaknesses. They openly acknowledge mistakes and share their learning. They value personal growth and continuous improvement.

Instead, Trump repeatedly ignores his own mistakes, even after they are exposed. His latest claim to be debunked was that Ukrainian President Zelensky’s approval was 4%, while his actual approval is closer to 60%.

2. Internal moral perspective

Leaders signal an internal moral perspective by making decisions – even if they are unpopular – firmly rooted in core ethical values. Upholding these values and encouraging open discussions on ethics is a principled approach to leadership.

Instead, Musk has given federal workers 48 hours to justify their employment. The directive leaves little room for open dialogue on the ethical rationale or moral implications of such a drastic measure. He relies, instead, on top-down command.

Key federal agencies including the FBI and Pentagon have told employees to ignore the email.

3. Balanced processing

Leaders signal balanced processing by seeking different views and considering all options before making a decision. Admitting any biases and using team brainstorming or surveys, ensures fair and informed decision-making.

Instead, Trump has signed more than 50 executive orders since taking office in January. These include some that are unlawful, as an open display of personal bias and unilateral decision-making.

4. Relational transparency

Leaders signal relational transparency by sharing appropriate personal experiences and vulnerabilities with their teams. Being honest about limitations and inviting open dialogue builds trust through genuine and consistent communication.

Instead social media guru, Mark Zuckerberg, another Trump ally, assured staff his charity the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative would continue its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Then, only weeks later, he dismantled it.

You can’t just fake it, either

Leadership signals can convey honest information or be manipulated to send contrived messages.

Trying to fake it doesn’t work. Leadership behaviour has to align with the leaders’ real values and internal sense of self – otherwise it’s not authentic leadership. It’s just impression management.

Learning the difference empowers us to understand leaders’ actions and better navigate the post-truth era of global business and politics.

Andrei Lux works for Edith Cowan University and is a Member of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management.

Kevin Brian Lowe 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. Trump, Putin and Musk all share a leadership style – we’ve figured out what it is – https://theconversation.com/trump-putin-and-musk-all-share-a-leadership-style-weve-figured-out-what-it-is-250502