Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Hurlimann, Associate Professor in Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne

Cities have a central role to play tackling climate change. They contribute 67–72% of the greenhouse gas emissions which are heating up the planet.

At the same time, cities are increasingly at risk from global warming. Flood, fire and drought are affecting everything from the cost of insuring homes and businesses, through to impacts on health and safety.

This is critical given 90% of Australians live in urban areas. Globally, cities are home to more than four billion people.

Our new study identifies 16 priority actions to address climate change in the construction and management of cities.

Building smarter

Climate change must be a key consideration when designing, building and managing our cities. The emissions generated need to be minimised and eventually eliminated.

We must build in locations, and in ways, that reduce climate risks. But policies governing how our cities are designed and constructed don’t achieve this.

A recent study of three local government areas identified only limited action on adaptation and mitigation. Other research has found few urban development policies include carbon reduction goals that meet international targets.

The National Housing Accord will see more than one million houses built by 2029. These new homes must address the climate challenge.

16 areas for priority action

The priority areas in our new study were informed by interviews with more than 150 stakeholders working in urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, sustainability, construction and property.

The actions they identified cover the entire life cycle of the built environment.

One of the first barriers to overcome is the perceived lack of agency among industry professionals to initiate or demand climate action. They perceive others, such as property owners or clients, to have more influence.

Climate change risks should be identified in the early stages of planning new developments, backed up by effective tools to make risk identification and action easier:

There were areas that were identified as being flood prone or risk prone. But there was no strategy to deal with what happens to those areas – An urban planner

Once specific projects are being considered it is important to prioritise early stage climate assessments, supported by policies which mandate climate action:

Everyone has good intentions but without big formal legislation around it, everyone’s just sort of making their way in the dark – A construction industry professional

In the design stage, steps to improve the climate knowledge and skills of the workforce beyond disciplinary boundaries is critical. The selection of low-impact products and materials will also help ensure design is more climate responsive.

The highest number of hurdles to climate action were found to occur during the costing and approvals stage. Participants spoke of a highly competitive building industry. If climate change initiatives introduced at an earlier stage aren’t required by law, they are likely to be cut.

unless there’s something in it for them in terms of return on investment, it’s going to be hard to get them to do it, unless we make them – An urban planner

During the construction phase, product and material substitutions that have detrimental environmental impact should be eliminated. Innovation should be encouraged:

If you want to push the envelope a little bit in terms of using recycled materials […] that’s a bit of a barrier. To push innovation is difficult – A landscape architect

Post-construction

Once construction is complete and buildings and public spaces are being used, it is important to invest in a thorough evaluation process. Building users should be involved to ensure buildings are maintained for optimal climate outcomes:

[We] tried to achieve the six star rating […] the client has to maintain it [the building] for a year, and that’s when things start to fall off – An architect

When it comes to area upgrades or building renewals, advocating for reuse and materials circularity is important. But the custom of demolishing and building anew, is hard to shift:

The reuse of the existing building obviously generates significantly less waste and involves less material. So, design decisions and strategic decisions around using existing buildings is really important – An urban designer

Working together

This is a time of significant change in our urban areas.

We need to make sure climate action is embedded in every stage of decision making. This may mean more efficient use, and reuse, of the existing built stock. This will require an overhaul of policies regarding building retrofits, and a change in mindsets.

The priority actions to address climate change in cities can be implemented across a range of levels for:

• individual professionals – pursue development of their climate change skills, including opportunities provided by professional associations

• professional practices – review internal processes to ensure climate action is mainstreamed across projects, and in company decision making

• universities teaching built environment professional degrees – embed climate change knowledge, skills, and competencies across the curriculum

• governments at all levels – review policy settings to mandate mitigation and adaption.

By addressing these actions, we can collectively work towards achieving our emission reduction targets and making sure our cities minimise climate change risks.

Anna Hurlimann received funding for the research reported in this article from the Australian Research Council – Discovery Grant DP200101378, with co-chief investigators Georgia Warren-Myers, Alan March, Sareh Moosavi and Judy Bush. She is a member of the Planning Institute of Australia.

Sareh Moosavi received funding for the research reported in this article from the Australian Research Council – Discovery Grant DP200101378, with co-chief investigators Anna Hurlimann, Georgia Warren-Myers, Alan March, and Judy Bush.

– ref. Cities are heating up the planet – how they can do more to fight climate change – https://theconversation.com/cities-are-heating-up-the-planet-how-they-can-do-more-to-fight-climate-change-259391

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Theobald, Postdoctoral researcher, Institute for Ethics and Society, University of Notre Dame Australia

From 2015 to 2018, I spent 15 months doing research work in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city. As an anthropologist, I was interested in everyday life in Iran outside the capital Tehran. I was also interested in understanding whether the ambitions of the 1979 Revolution lived on among “ordinary” Iranians, not just political elites.

I first lived on a university campus, where I learned Persian, and later with Iranian families. I conducted hundreds of interviews with people who had a broad spectrum of political, social and religious views. They included opponents of the Islamic Republic, supporters, and many who were in between.

What these interviews revealed to me was both the diversity of opinion and experience in Iran, and the difficulty of making uniform statements about what Iranians believe.

Measuring the depth of antipathy for the regime

When Israel’s strikes on Iran began on June 13, killing many top military commanders, many news outlets – both international and those run by the Iranian diaspora – featured images of Iranians cheering the deaths of these hated regime figures.

Friends from my fieldwork also pointed to these celebrations, while not always agreeing with them. Many feared the impact of a larger conflict between Iran and Israel.

Trying to put these sentiments in context, many analysts have pointed to a 2019 survey by the GAMAAN Institute, an independent organisation based in the Netherlands that tracks Iranian public opinion. This survey showed 79% of Iranians living in the country would vote against the Islamic Republic if a free referendum were held on its rule.

Viewing these examples as an indicator of the lack of support for the Islamic Republic is not wrong. But when used as factoids in news reports, they become detached from the complexities of life in Iran. This can discourage us from asking deeper questions about the relationships between ideology and pragmatism, support and opposition to the regime, and state and society.

A more nuanced view

The news reporting on Iran has encouraged a tendency to see the Iranian state as homogeneous, highly ideological and radically separate from the population.

But where do we draw the line between the state and the people? There is no easy answer to this.

When I lived in Iran, many of the people who took part in my research were state employees – teachers at state institutions, university lecturers, administrative workers. Many of them had strong and diverse views about the legacy of the revolution and the future of the country.

They sometimes pointed to state discourse they agreed with, for example Iran’s right to national self-determination, free from foreign influence. They also disagreed with much, such as the slogans of “death to America”.

This ambivalence was evident in one of my Persian teachers. An employee of the state, she refused to attend the annual parades celebrating the anniversary of the revolution. “We have warm feelings towards America,” she said. On the other hand, she happily attended protests, also organised by the government, in favour of Palestinian liberation.

Or take the young government worker I met in Mashhad: “We want to be independent of other countries, but not like this.”

In a narrower sense, discussions about the “state” may refer more to organisations like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij, the paramilitary force within the IRGC that has cracked down harshly on dissent in recent decades. Both are often understood as being deeply ideologically committed.

Said Golkar, a US-based Iranian academic and author, for instance, calls Iran a “captive society”. Rather than having a civil society, he believes Iranians are trapped by the feared Basij, who maintain control through their presence in many institutions like universities and schools.

Again, this view is not wrong. But even among the Basij and Revolutionary Guard, it can be difficult to gauge just how ideological and homogeneous these organisations truly are.

For a start, the IRGC relies on both ideologically selected supporters, as well as conscripts, to fill its ranks. They are also not always ideologically uniform, as the US-based anthropologist Narges Bajoghli, who worked with pro-state filmmakers in Tehran, has noted.

As part of my research, I also interviewed members of the Basij, which, unlike the IRGC proper, is a wholly volunteer organisation.

Even though ideological commitment was certainly an important factor for some of the Basij members I met, there were also pragmatic reasons to join. These included access to better jobs, scholarships and social mobility. Sometimes, factors overlapped. But participation did not always equate to a singular or sustained commitment to revolutionary values.

For example, Sāsān, a friend I made attending discussion groups in Mashhad, was quick to note that time spent in the Basij “reduced your [compulsory] military service”.

This isn’t to suggest there are not ideologically committed people in Iran. They clearly exist, and many are ready to use violence. Some of those who join these institutions for pragmatic reasons use violence, too.

Looking in between

In addition, Iran is an ethnically diverse country. It has a population of 92 million people, a bare majority of whom are Persians. Other minorities include Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Baloch, Turkmen and others.

It is also religiously diverse. While there is a sizeable, nominally Shi’a majority, there are also large Sunni communities (about 10-15% of the population) and smaller communities of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Baha’is and other religions.

Often overlooked, there are also important differences in class and social strata in Iran, too.

One of the things I noticed about state propaganda was that it flattened this diversity. James Barry, an Australian scholar of Iran, noticed a similar phenomenon.

State propaganda made it seem like there was one voice in the country. Protests could be dismissed out of hand because they did not represent the “authentic” view of Iranians. Foreign agitators supported protests. Iranians supported the Islamic Republic.

Since leaving Iran, I have followed many voices of Iranians in the diaspora. Opposition groups are loud on social media, especially the monarchists who support Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed Shah.

In following these groups, I have noticed a similar tendency to speak as though they represent the voice of all Iranians. Iranians support the shah. Or Iranians support Maryam Rajavi, leader of a Paris-based opposition group.

Both within Iran, and in the diaspora, the regime, too, is sometimes held to be the imposition of a foreign conspiracy. This allows the Islamic Republic and the complex relations it has created to be dismissed out of hand. Once again, such a view flattens diversity.

Over the past few years, political identities and societal divisions seem to have become harder and clearer. This means there is an increasing perception among many Iranians of a gulf between the state and Iranian society. This is the case both inside Iran, and especially in the Iranian diaspora.

Decades of intermittent protests and civil disobedience across the country also show that for many, the current system no longer represents the hopes and aspirations of many people. This is especially the case for the youth, who make up a large percentage of the population.

I am not an Iranian, and I strongly believe it is up to Iranians to determine their own futures. I also do not aim to excuse the Islamic Republic – it is brutal and tyrannical. But its brutality should not let us shy away from asking complex questions.

If the regime did fall tomorrow, Iran’s diversity means there is little unanimity of opinion as to what should come next. And if a more pluralist form of politics is to emerge, it must encompass the whole of Iran’s diversity, without assuming a uniform position.

It, too, will have to wrestle with the difficult questions and sometimes ambivalent relations the Islamic Republic has created.

Simon Theobald received funding from the Australian National University during his research.

– ref. Do all Iranians hate the regime? Hate America? Life inside the country is more complex than that – https://theconversation.com/do-all-iranians-hate-the-regime-hate-america-life-inside-the-country-is-more-complex-than-that-259554

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Leask, Professor, School of Public Health, University of Sydney

The United States used to be a leader in vaccine research, development and policymaking. Now US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr is undermining the country’s vaccine program at the highest level and supercharging vaccine skepticism.

Two weeks ago, RFK Jr sacked the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices responsible for reviewing the latest scientific evidence on vaccines. RFK Jr alleged conflicts of interest and hand-picked a replacement panel.

On Wednesday, RFK Jr announced the US would stop funding the global vaccine alliance, Gavi, because he claimed that “when the science was inconvenient today, Gavi ignored the science”. RFK Jr questioned the safety of COVID vaccines for pregnant women, as well as the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine.

On Thursday, when the new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met, the person who first drew RFK Jr into vaccine scepticism, Lyn Redwood, shared disproved claims about a chemical called thimerosal in flu vaccines being harmful.

The undermining of regulation, advisory processes and funding changes will have global impacts, as debunked claims are given new levels of apparent legitimacy. Some of these impacts will be slow and insidious.

So what should we make of these latest claims and funding cuts?

Thiomersal is a distraction

Thiomersal (thimerosal in the the US) is a safe and effective preservative that prevents bacterial and fungal contamination of the vaccine contained in a multi-dose vial. It’s a salt that contains a tiny amount of mercury in a safe form.

Thiomersal is no longer used as a preservative in any vaccines routinely given in Australia. But it’s still used in the Q fever vaccine.

Other countries use multi-dose vials with thiomersal when single-dose vials are too expensive.

In the US, just 4% of adult influenza vaccines contain thiomersal. So focusing on removing vaccines containing thimerosal is a distraction for the committee.

COVID vaccines in pregnancy prevent severe illness

On Wednesday, RFK criticised Gavi’s encouragement of pregnant women to receive COVID-19 vaccines.

A COVID-19 infection before and during pregnancy can increase the risk of miscarriage two- to four-fold, even if it’s only a mild infection.

Conversely, there is good evidence vaccination during pregnancy is safe and can reduce the chance of hospitalisation of pregnant people and of infants by passing antibodies through the placenta.

In Australia, pregnant people who have never received a primary COVID-19 vaccine are recommended to have one. However, they are not generally recommended to have booster unless they have underlying risk conditions or prefer to have one. This is due to population immunity.

COVID-19 vaccine advice should adapt to changes in disease risk and vaccine benefit. It doesn’t mean previous decisions were wrong, nor that vaccine boosters are unsafe.

RFK’s criticism of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy may influence choices individuals make in other countries, even when unvaccinated pregnant women are encouraged to consider vaccination.

The diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine is safe

RFK Jr also questioned the safety of the combined diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) vaccine as he announced the withdrawal of US funding support for Gavi.

In the early 2000s, three community-based observational studies reported a possible association between increased chance of death in infants and use of the DTP vaccine.

A few subsequent studies also reported associations, with higher risk in girls, prompting a World Health Organization (WHO) review of safety.

Real world studies are complicated and the data can be difficult to interpret correctly. Often, the very factors that influence whether someone gets vaccinated can also be associated with other health risks.

When the WHO committee reviewed all the studies on DTP safety in 2014, it did not indicate serious adverse events. It concluded there was substantial evidence against these claims.

What will de-funding Gavi mean for vaccination rates?

Gavi, the vaccine alliance, supports vaccine purchasing in low-income countries.

The US has historically accounted for 13% of all donor funds.

However, RFK Jr said Gavi needed to re-earn the public trust and “consider the best science available” before the US would contribute funding again.

Gavi predicted in March that the impact of US funding cuts could result in one million deaths through missed vaccines.

Could something like this happen in Australia?

Australia is fortunate to be buffered from these impacts.

Our vaccine advisory body, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, has people with deep expertise in vaccination. We have robust decision processes that weigh evidence critically and make careful recommendations to government.

Our governments remain committed to vaccination. The federal government released the National Immunisation Strategy in mid-June with a comprehensive plan to continue to strengthen our program.

The federal government also announced A$386 million to support the work of Gavi from 2026 to 2030.

All of this keeps our vaccine policies strong, preventing disease and increasing life expectancy here and overseas.

But to mitigate the possible influence of the US in Australia, our governments, health professionals and the public need to be ready to rapidly tackle the misinformation, distortions and half-truths RFK Jr cleverly packages – with quality information.

Julie Leask receives research funding from NHMRC, WHO, US CDC, NSW Ministry of Health. She received funding from Sanofi for travel to an overseas meeting in 2024. She has consulting fees from RTI International and the Task Force for Global Health.

Catherine Bennett has received honoraria for contributing to independent advisory panels for Moderna and AstraZeneca, and has received NHMRC, VicHealth and MRFF funding for unrelated projects. She was the health lead on the Independent Inquiry into the Australian Government COVID-19 Response .

– ref. RFK Junior is stoking fears about vaccine safety. Here’s why he’s wrong – and the impact it could have – https://theconversation.com/rfk-junior-is-stoking-fears-about-vaccine-safety-heres-why-hes-wrong-and-the-impact-it-could-have-259986

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

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people.

The brutal homicide of 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, Cassius Turvey, by a group of white men revealed the racial schisms in Western Australian society. Turvey was walking home from school in October 2022 when he was abruptly beaten to death.

On Friday, the Western Australian Supreme Court sentenced the three perpetrators. Twenty-nine-year-old Brodie Palmer and 24-year-old Jack Brearley were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

A third man, 27-year-old Mitchell Forth, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years behind bars.

This was an opportunity for the Supreme Court to send a strong message against racial violence. While the punishment of the men involved is clear, the role of race, and what legally qualifies as racially motivated crime, is muddier.

Wrong place, wrong time?

Racism has been front and centre of the public discussion of this tragedy from the outset.

Shortly after the 2022 attack, Western Australian Police Commissioner Col Blanch said of the homicide:

it may be a case of mistaken identity, it may be a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This was met with strong condemnation from the First Nations community.

Rallies in solidarity with Turvey’s family were held across the country, with Gumbaynggirr, Bundjalung, and Dunghutti activist Lizzie Jarrett declaring:

no black child is ever, ever, ever in the wrong place at the wrong time on their own land.

Racism at trial

Over the course of the trial, the court heard Turvey and his peers, a group of Aboriginal high school students, were approached by an angry group.

This comprised the three men convicted and a woman, 23-year-old Aleesha Gilmore, who was acquitted of homicide, and 21-year-old Ethan McKenzie, who with Gilmore, was convicted of other offences relating to the attack.

Turvey was chased and Brearly fatally beat him with a metal pole.

Earlier this year, the trial of the three perpetrators heard arguments by the defendants that the actions were not racially motivated.

Rather, the defence argued they were acting out of self-defence on the basis that Brearly had his car window smashed a few days prior.

In contrast, the prosecution brought evidence of a phone call that revealed Brearley was bragging about beating Turvey, stating that “he learnt his lesson”.

The prosecution argued the homicide was not a personal gripe, but a collective response.

The prosecution didn’t allege the attack was racially motivated, but it was open to the judge to consider this basis for the homicide.

At trial, 91 witnesses came forward. Witnesses gave evidence that the accused were using racial slurs.

This direct racism raises the issue of race as a motive in the attack, and is consistent with evidence of systemic racism in Western Australia.

The killing of Turvey comes after 14-year-old Elijah Doughty was targeted and killed in Kalgoorlie in 2016.

Both cases show white male motorists seeking to avenge Aboriginal children for alleged vehicle offences.

This is reinforced by a penal system in which Aboriginal children are 53 times more likely to be detained than non-Aboriginal children.

What did the judge say?

On the morning of the sentence hearings, Cassius Turvey’s mother, who described her son as respected, bright, loving and compassionate, said the killing was a “racially motivated” and based on “discriminatory targeting”.

This sentiment has been echoed across the country, including by June Oscar, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission, in 2022.

Chief Justice Peter Quinlan strongly condemned the attacks.

However, he stated the attack was not racially motivated, despite recognising that the perpetrators were “calling them n-words and black c—ts — you in particular Mr Brearley used language like that”.

He noted that it creates a “fear” of racial vilification:

it’s no surprise […] that the kids would think they were being targeted because they were Aboriginal, and the attack would create justifiable fear for them and for the broader community that this was a racially motivated attack.

This amounts to a message of general deterrence about violence and vigilante behaviour.

But messages to deter racial targeting and racial violence specifically were omitted from the public safety concerns expressed by the court.

Making racial violence invisible

Munanjahli and South Sea Islander professor Chelsea Watego, and colleagues, have remarked that the Australian psyche is more comfortable with an “abstract concern with racism; racism without actors, or rather perpetrators”.

This, they argue, sanitises racial violence and holds no one responsible.

The court demonstrated this abstract concern for racism.

This Supreme Court’s reasoning has set an impossibly high bar for racial vilification, and specifically racial violence, to be identified, denounced and redressed.

The judgement seems to relegate racism to being an unfortunate and unintended incident of co-existence, rather than willed harm.

The failure to regard the racial slurs, the targeting of a group of Aboriginal children, and the killing of one of these children, as “racially motivated”, upholds the idea that white people’s racist treatment and crimes against Aboriginal people exist in a vacuum free of a long history of colonial violence, massacres and occupation.

Thalia Anthony receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Matthew Walsh 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 sentencing of Cassius Turvey’s killers shows courts still struggle to deal with racism – https://theconversation.com/the-sentencing-of-cassius-turveys-killers-shows-courts-still-struggle-to-deal-with-racism-259541

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane McAdam, Scientia Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney

In just four days, one-third of the population of Tuvalu entered a ballot for a new permanent visa to Australia.

This world-first visa will enable up to 280 Tuvaluans to move permanently to Australia each year, from a current population of about 10,000. The visa is open to anyone who wants to work, study or live in Australia. Unlike other visa schemes for Pacific peoples, a job offer in Australia is not required.

While the visa itself doesn’t mention climate change, the treaty that created it is framed in the context of the “existential threat posed by climate change”. That’s why when it was announced, I described it as the world’s first bilateral agreement on climate mobility.

The Australian government, too, has called it “the first agreement of its kind anywhere in the world, providing a pathway for mobility with dignity as climate impacts worsen”.

The high number of ballot applications may come as a surprise to many, especially given there were multiple concerns within Tuvalu when the treaty was first announced. Even so, some analysts predicted all Tuvaluans would apply eventually, to keep their options open.

Grabbing the chance

The visa highlights the importance of creating opportunities for people to move in the context of climate change and disasters. The dangers of rising sea levels are clearly apparent, including coastal flooding, storm damage and water supplies. But there is a lot more at play here.

For many, especially young families, this will be seen as a chance for education and skills training in Australia. Giving people choices about if, when and where they move is empowering and enables them to make informed decisions about their own lives.

For the government of Tuvalu, the new visa is also about shoring up the economy. Migration is now a structural component of many Pacific countries’ economies.

The money migrants send back to their home countries to support their families and communities is known as remittances. In 2023, remittances comprised 28% of GDP in Samoa and nearly 42% of GDP in Tonga – the highest in the world. Currently, Tuvalu sits at 3.2%.

A long time coming

Well before climate change became an issue of concern, Tuvalu had been lobbying Australia for special visa pathways. Demographic pressures, combined with limited livelihood and educational opportunities, made it a live policy issue throughout the 1980s and ‘90s. In 1984, a review of Australia’s foreign aid program suggested improved migration opportunities for Tuvaluans may be the most useful form of assistance.

By the early 2000s, the focus had shifted to the existential threats posed by climate change. In 2006, as then-shadow environment minister, Anthony Albanese released a policy discussion paper called Our Drowning Neighbours. It proposed that Australia create Pacific migration pathways as part of a neighbourly response. In 2009, a spokesperson for Penny Wong, then minister for climate change, stated permanent migration might eventually be the only option for some Pacific peoples.

When combined with other Pacific pathways to Australia and New Zealand, nearly 4% of the population could migrate each year. This is “an extraordinarily high level”, according to one expert. Within a decade, close to 40% of the population could have moved – although some people may return home or go backwards and forwards.

How will the new arrivals be received?

The real test of the new visa’s success will be how people are treated when they arrive in Australia.

Will they be helped to adjust to life here, or will they feel isolated and shut out? Will they be able to find work and training, or will they find themselves in insecure and uncertain circumstances? Will they feel a loss of cultural connection, or will they be able to maintain cultural traditions within the growing Tuvaluan diaspora?

Ensuring sound and culturally appropriate settlement services are in place will be crucial. These would ideally be co-developed with members of the Tuvaluan community, to “centralise Tuvaluan culture and values, in order to ensure ongoing dialogue and trust”.

It has been suggested by experts that a “liaison officer with Tuvaluan cultural expertise and language skills could assist in facilitating activities such as post-arrival programs”, for instance.

Learning from experience

There are also many important lessons to be learned from the migration of Tuvaluans to New Zealand, to reduce the risk of newcomers experiencing economic and social hardship.

Ongoing monitoring and refinement of the scheme will also be key. It should involve the Tuvaluan diaspora, communities back in Tuvalu, service providers in Australia, as well as federal, state/territory and local governments.

By freeing up resources and alleviating stress on what is already a fragile atoll environment, migration may enable some people to remain in Tuvalu for longer, supported by remittances and extended family networks abroad.

As some experts have suggested, money sent home from overseas could be used to make families less vulnerable to climate change. It might help them buy rainwater tanks or small boats, or improve internet and other communications. Remittances are also beneficial when they are invested in services that lift the level of education of children or boost social capital.

Delaying a mass exodus

It is difficult to know when a tipping point might be reached. For instance, some have warned that if too few people remain in Tuvalu, this could constrain development by limiting the availability of labour and skills. A former president of Kiribati, Teburoro Tito, once told me migration was “a double-edged sword”. While it could help people secure employment overseas and remit money, “the local economy, the local setup, also has to have enough skilled people” – otherwise it’s counterproductive.

With visas capped at 280 a year – and scope to adjust the numbers if concerns arise – we are still a long way from that point. Right now, the new visa provides a safety net to ensure people have choices about how they respond to climate change. With the visa ballot open until July 18, many more people may yet apply.

Read more:
Fresh details emerge on Australia’s new climate migration visa for Tuvalu residents. An expert explains

Jane McAdam receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and is the Director of the ARC Evacuations Research Hub at the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney.

– ref. 1 in 3 Tuvaluans is bidding for a new ‘climate visa’ to Australia – here’s why everyone may ultimately end up applying – https://theconversation.com/1-in-3-tuvaluans-is-bidding-for-a-new-climate-visa-to-australia-heres-why-everyone-may-ultimately-end-up-applying-259990

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jye Marshall, Lecturer, Fashion Design, School of Design and Architecture, Swinburne University of Technology

After 37 years at the helm, fashion industry heavyweight Anna Wintour is stepping down from her position as editor-in-chief of American Vogue.

It’s not a retirement, though, as Wintour will maintain a leadership position at global fashion and lifestyle publisher Condé Nast (the owner of Vogue and other publications, such as Vanity Fair and Glamour).

Nonetheless, Wintour’s departure from the US edition of the magazine is a big moment for the fashion industry – one which she has single-handedly changed forever.

Fashion mag fever

Fashion magazines as we know them today were first formalised in the 19th century. They helped establish the “trickle down theory” of fashion, wherein trends were traditionally dictated by certain industry elites, including major magazine editors.

In Australia, getting your hands on a monthly issue meant rare exposure to the latest European or American fashion trends.

Vogue itself was established in New York in 1892 by businessman Arthur Baldwin Turnure. The magazine targeted the city’s elite class, initially covering various aspects of high-society life. In 1909, Vogue was acquired by Condé Nast. From then, the magazine increasingly cemented itself as a cornerstone of the fashion publishing.

The period following the second world war particularly opened the doors to mass fashion consumerism and an expanding fashion magazine culture.

Wintour came on as editor of Vogue in 1988, at which point the magazine became less conservative, and more culturally significant.

Not afraid to break the mould

Fashion publishing changed as a result of Wintour’s bold editorial choices – especially when it came to the magazine’s covers. Her choices both reflected, and dictated, shifts in fashion culture.

Wintour’s first cover at Vogue, published in 1988, mixed couture garments (Christian Lacroix) with mainstream brands (stonewashed Guess jeans) – something which had never been done before. It was also the first time a Vogue cover had featured jeans at all – perfectly setting the scene for a long career spent pushing the magazine into new domains.

Wintour also pioneered the centring of celebrities (rather than just models) within fashion discourse. And while she leveraged big names such as Beyonce, Madonna, Nicole Kidman, Kate Moss, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, she also featured rising stars as cover models – often helping propel their careers in the process.

Wintour’s legacy at Vogue involved elevating fashion from a frivolous runway to a powerful industry, which is not scared to make a statement. Nowhere is this truer than at the Met Gala, which is held each year to celebrate the opening of a new fashion exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.

The event started as a simple fundraiser for the Met in 1948, before being linked to a fashion exhibit for the first time in 1974.

Wintour took over its organisation in 1995. Her focus on securing exclusive celebrity guests helped propel it to the prestigious event it is today.

This year’s theme for the event was Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. In a time where the US faces great political instability, Wintour was celebrated for her role in helping elevate Black history through the event.

Not without controversy

However, while her cultural influence can’t be doubted, Wintour’s legacy at American Vogue is not without fault.

Notably, her ongoing feud with animal rights organisation PETA – due to the her unwavering support for fur – has bubbled in the background since the heydays of the anti-fur movement.

Wintour has been targeted directly by anti-fur activists, both physically (she was hit with a tofu cream pie in 2005 while leaving a Chloe show) and through numerous protests.

This issue was never resolved. Vogue has continued to showcase and feature fur clothing, even as the social license for using animal materials starts to run out.

Fashion continues to grow increasingly political. How magazines such as Vogue will engage with this shift remains to be seen.

A changing media landscape

The rise of fashion blogging in recent decades has led to a wave of fashion influencers, with throngs of followers, who are challenging the unidirectional “trickle-down” structure of the fashion industry.

Today, social media platforms have overtaken traditional media influence both within and outside of fashion. And with this, the power of fashion editors such as Wintour is diminishing significantly.

Many words will flow regarding Wintour’s departure as editor-in-chief, but nowhere near as many as what she oversaw at the helm of the world’s biggest fashion magazine.

Rachel Lamarche-Beauchesne has been affiliated with the Animal Justice Party.

Jye Marshall 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. Celebrities, blue jeans and couture: how Anna Wintour changed fashion over 37 years at Vogue – https://theconversation.com/celebrities-blue-jeans-and-couture-how-anna-wintour-changed-fashion-over-37-years-at-vogue-259989

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Theobald, Postdoctoral researcher, Institute for Ethics and Society, University of Notre Dame Australia

From 2015 to 2018, I spent 15 months doing research work in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city. As an anthropologist, I was interested in everyday life in Iran outside the capital Tehran. I was also interested in understanding whether the ambitions of the 1979 Revolution lived on among “ordinary” Iranians, not just political elites.

I first lived on a university campus, where I learned Persian, and later with Iranian families. I conducted hundreds of interviews with people who had a broad spectrum of political, social and religious views. They included opponents of the Islamic Republic, supporters, and many who were in between.

What these interviews revealed to me was both the diversity of opinion and experience in Iran, and the difficulty of making uniform statements about what Iranians believe.

Measuring the depth of antipathy for the regime

When Israel’s strikes on Iran began on June 13, killing many top military commanders, many news outlets – both international and those run by the Iranian diaspora – featured images of Iranians cheering the deaths of these hated regime figures.

Friends from my fieldwork also pointed to these celebrations, while not always agreeing with them. Many feared the impact of a larger conflict between Iran and Israel.

Trying to put these sentiments in context, many analysts have pointed to a 2019 survey by the GAMAAN Institute, an independent organisation based in the Netherlands that tracks Iranian public opinion. This survey showed 79% of Iranians living in the country would vote against the Islamic Republic if a free referendum were held on its rule.

Viewing these examples as an indicator of the lack of support for the Islamic Republic is not wrong. But when used as factoids in news reports, they become detached from the complexities of life in Iran. This can discourage us from asking deeper questions about the relationships between ideology and pragmatism, support and opposition to the regime, and state and society.

A more nuanced view

The news reporting on Iran has encouraged a tendency to see the Iranian state as homogeneous, highly ideological and radically separate from the population.

But where do we draw the line between the state and the people? There is no easy answer to this.

When I lived in Iran, many of the people who took part in my research were state employees – teachers at state institutions, university lecturers, administrative workers. Many of them had strong and diverse views about the legacy of the revolution and the future of the country.

They sometimes pointed to state discourse they agreed with, for example Iran’s right to national self-determination, free from foreign influence. They also disagreed with much, such as the slogans of “death to America”.

This ambivalence was evident in one of my Persian teachers. An employee of the state, she refused to attend the annual parades celebrating the anniversary of the revolution. “We have warm feelings towards America,” she said. On the other hand, she happily attended protests, also organised by the government, in favour of Palestinian liberation.

Or take the young government worker I met in Mashhad: “We want to be independent of other countries, but not like this.”

In a narrower sense, discussions about the “state” may refer more to organisations like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij, the paramilitary force within the IRGC that has cracked down harshly on dissent in recent decades. Both are often understood as being deeply ideologically committed.

Said Golkar, a US-based Iranian academic and author, for instance, calls Iran a “captive society”. Rather than having a civil society, he believes Iranians are trapped by the feared Basij, who maintain control through their presence in many institutions like universities and schools.

Again, this view is not wrong. But even among the Basij and Revolutionary Guard, it can be difficult to gauge just how ideological and homogeneous these organisations truly are.

For a start, the IRGC relies on both ideologically selected supporters, as well as conscripts, to fill its ranks. They are also not always ideologically uniform, as the US-based anthropologist Narges Bajoghli, who worked with pro-state filmmakers in Tehran, has noted.

As part of my research, I also interviewed members of the Basij, which, unlike the IRGC proper, is a wholly volunteer organisation.

Even though ideological commitment was certainly an important factor for some of the Basij members I met, there were also pragmatic reasons to join. These included access to better jobs, scholarships and social mobility. Sometimes, factors overlapped. But participation did not always equate to a singular or sustained commitment to revolutionary values.

For example, Sāsān, a friend I made attending discussion groups in Mashhad, was quick to note that time spent in the Basij “reduced your [compulsory] military service”.

This isn’t to suggest there are not ideologically committed people in Iran. They clearly exist, and many are ready to use violence. Some of those who join these institutions for pragmatic reasons use violence, too.

Looking in between

In addition, Iran is an ethnically diverse country. It has a population of 92 million people, a bare majority of whom are Persians. Other minorities include Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Baloch, Turkmen and others.

It is also religiously diverse. While there is a sizeable, nominally Shi’a majority, there are also large Sunni communities (about 10-15% of the population) and smaller communities of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Baha’is and other religions.

Often overlooked, there are also important differences in class and social strata in Iran, too.

One of the things I noticed about state propaganda was that it flattened this diversity. James Barry, an Australian scholar of Iran, noticed a similar phenomenon.

State propaganda made it seem like there was one voice in the country. Protests could be dismissed out of hand because they did not represent the “authentic” view of Iranians. Foreign agitators supported protests. Iranians supported the Islamic Republic.

Since leaving Iran, I have followed many voices of Iranians in the diaspora. Opposition groups are loud on social media, especially the monarchists who support Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed Shah.

In following these groups, I have noticed a similar tendency to speak as though they represent the voice of all Iranians. Iranians support the shah. Or Iranians support Maryam Rajavi, leader of a Paris-based opposition group.

Both within Iran, and in the diaspora, the regime, too, is sometimes held to be the imposition of a foreign conspiracy. This allows the Islamic Republic and the complex relations it has created to be dismissed out of hand. Once again, such a view flattens diversity.

Over the past few years, political identities and societal divisions seem to have become harder and clearer. This means there is an increasing perception among many Iranians of a gulf between the state and Iranian society. This is the case both inside Iran, and especially in the Iranian diaspora.

Decades of intermittent protests and civil disobedience across the country also show that for many, the current system no longer represents the hopes and aspirations of many people. This is especially the case for the youth, who make up a large percentage of the population.

I am not an Iranian, and I strongly believe it is up to Iranians to determine their own futures. I also do not aim to excuse the Islamic Republic – it is brutal and tyrannical. But its brutality should not let us shy away from asking complex questions.

If the regime did fall tomorrow, Iran’s diversity means there is little unanimity of opinion as to what should come next. And if a more pluralist form of politics is to emerge, it must encompass the whole of Iran’s diversity, without assuming a uniform position.

It, too, will have to wrestle with the difficult questions and sometimes ambivalent relations the Islamic Republic has created.

Simon Theobald received funding from the Australian National University during his research.

– ref. Do all Iranians hate the regime? Hate America? Life inside the country is much more complex and nuanced – https://theconversation.com/do-all-iranians-hate-the-regime-hate-america-life-inside-the-country-is-much-more-complex-and-nuanced-259554

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Koplin, Evidence and Translation Lead, National Allergy Centre of Excellence; Chief Investigator, Centre of Food Allergy Research; Associate Professor and Group Leader, Childhood Allergy & Epidemiology Group, Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland

With the school holidays approaching, many families will be travelling, including on planes interstate and overseas. But travel can pose unique challenges for people with serious food allergies.

Research shows air travel is a significant source of anxiety for people living with or caring for someone with a food allergy. In a global survey of 4,704 people with food allergies and their caregivers published in 2024, 98% said having a food allergy adds anxiety to air travel.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to help keep yourself or children with food allergies safe in the skies.

What are the concerns about plane travel with allergies?

Reassuringly, documented allergic reactions during flights are very rare. A 2023 review that combined data from 17 studies estimated about seven in every 10 million passengers had an allergic reaction while flying.

While many people have more mild food allergies, some are at risk of anaphylaxis (a life-threatening allergic reaction) and need to carry adrenaline with them at all times in the form of an EpiPen or Anapen. The review found reports of severe reactions needing adrenaline were even rarer – about eight cases per 100 million passengers.

In fact, this study concluded people were less likely to experience an allergic reaction on a plane than in their everyday lives. However, some of this might be due to the precautions passengers with food allergies already take.

People with food allergies are sometimes worried about food particles travelling in the air of the plane cabin and causing a reaction.

Thankfully, research has shown this risk is very low. It’s difficult for food proteins (the part of the food that causes the allergic reaction) to become airborne. And if they do, air filters fitted on large commercial planes can remove any airborne food particles quickly from the cabin air.

Peanuts are one of the foods commonly associated with anaphylaxis. Studies that have tested opening and shaking containers containing peanuts and de-shelling peanuts found peanut proteins were only detected directly above the container, at a low level, and for a short period of time.

Other studies have found airborne peanut was not detected when eating peanuts in a confined space. And studies found no severe reactions among people with peanut allergy when peanut butter or peanuts were held close to their face or kept in a bowl close by in a small room.

A bigger risk for reactions is the food protein ending up on a seat or tray table. However, casual contact with food crumbs or smears is highly unlikely to cause a severe allergic reaction. This type of contact can cause mild to moderate skin reactions that can be treated with antihistamines if needed.

Staying safe on a plane with allergies

For people at risk of anaphylaxis:

1. take your adrenaline in your hand luggage (not your checked baggage). Store it under the seat in front of you or in the seat pocket so it’s in easy reach

2. carry a travel plan and action plan for anaphylaxis, completed and signed by a medical professional, or similar documentation, showing the traveller’s food allergy status and what to do in an emergency. (Templates of these plans are available via the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy)

3. let the flight crew know you have an allergy and indicate the location of your adrenaline and anaphylaxis action plan. This is particularly important for people travelling alone, since anaphylaxis can be mistaken for other non-allergic symptoms, which could lead to a delay in receiving adrenaline.

For people with food allergies generally:

1. let the airline know you have a food allergy and ask about their food and medication policies when booking or before travelling

2. take allergy-safe food from home. Airlines don’t guarantee allergy-safe food will be available, and not all food supplied on a plane will have an ingredient label (but check liquid restrictions and be aware of potential restrictions on taking fresh food across borders)

3. wipe down surfaces such as the seat, armrests and tray table with wet wipes when boarding. You can request early boarding from airlines to do this

4. wash your hands before eating (wet wipes and handwashing with soap are more effective than plain water or hand sanitiser)

5. you may choose to sit a child with food allergy away from areas where food or drink will be passed over the top of them (for example, next to a window or between family members). Tell passengers sitting next to your child about their allergy so they don’t offer to share food or drink

6. if you think you’re experiencing an allergic reaction, let the flight crew know immediately.

What can other passengers and airlines do?

If you’re travelling, you could wipe down surfaces around you at the end of the flight. Remove rubbish from seatbacks and other areas around your seat and aisle before disembarking.

Also, ask about allergies before offering to share any food with your neighbours during the flight (and check with parents before offering anything to their children).

Airlines, meanwhile, should have clear policies relating to food allergies easily available and consistently applied by ground staff and cabin crew, such as allowing early boarding on request.

The patient support organisation Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia has a Food Allergy Travel Hub with advice on how to stay safe when travelling with food allergies.

Jennifer Koplin receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. She is a member of the Executive Committee for the National Allergy Centre of Excellence (NACE), which is supported by funding from the Australian government.

Christopher Warren receives institutional research funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Food Allergy Research and Education, Genentech Inc, and The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Desalegn Markos Shifti is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)-funded Centre for Food Allergy Research (CFAR) Postdoctoral Funding.

– ref. Travelling with food allergies? These 8 tips can help you stay safer in the skies – https://theconversation.com/travelling-with-food-allergies-these-8-tips-can-help-you-stay-safer-in-the-skies-258387

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karen Cummings, Lecturer in Singing, University of Sydney

The star of the 40th anniversary production of Cats – which premiered at the Theatre Royal Sydney last week – is the performing ensemble.

Some ensemble scenes, such as The Jellicle Ball, offered the same joy and exhilaration as the original 1985 production. In these moments of song and dance, the invisible connection between the performers’ hearts, voices and bodies, and those in the audience, is truly felt. There is still magic here.

Yet, 40 years on, it’s clear other aspects of the show have become too tired for modern audiences.

Comfort for frightening times

By today’s standards, Cats is a modest show where the biggest investment is in the extraordinary performers and performances.

But back in 1985, when it first premiered in Australia, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical was at the forefront of a wave of mega-musicals that swept the world. A review published in the Los Angeles Times that year called it “one of the most imaginative and eye-catching musicals of the century”.

Cats ran for decades, all around the world. On the West End it ran for 21 years and 8,949 performances. On Broadway, it replaced A Chorus Line as the longest-running musical, playing for 18 years.

First performed in London in 1981, the show is based on a set of poems from T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939). Some may know the poems from their primary school elocution classes (we both did).

Eliot wrote Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats in the period between the two world wars, when the world was teetering on the edge of fascism. It spoke to an audience that was probably eager to escape from its frightening reality.

Commitment lifts the show

In the musical, the cats move between songs and ensembles that describe the characteristics of each individual. The musical styles include rock, classical, pop, jazz, musical hall, blues and everything in between. Each cat has a specific musical and movement language.

The committed and exuberant performers lift the show. Gabryel Thomas, who plays Grizabella, brings new life and intense musicality in her singing of the iconic song Memory.

Axel Alverez performs the role of Mr. Mistoffelees with exuberance and charisma. And Todd McKenney’s charming and nuanced characterisation of Bustopher Jones makes him an audience favourite.

The cameo roles feature strong performances by well-known music theatre performers, such as Lucy Maunder as Jellylorum, along with some newer faces, such as Claudia Hastings as White Cat.

Stagnation or reinvention?

In this re-launch, the score, direction and choreography are almost identical to what we saw back in 1985.

The dancing and choreography are the heart and soul of the show, just as they were back then. For those who appreciate performance, this alone will make Cats worth seeing.

Yet, the quality of the performances couldn’t completely make up for the tired and largely unchanged musical score. The 80s style synthesisers and guitars, and reduced orchestration, are oddly nostalgic, but in an unsatisfying way.

Nostalgia is big business, and no doubt this production taps into this. As music journalist Peter C Baker wrote in an article last year:

More and more of what we’re offered […] feels motivated by the logic that what people want, or can most easily be sold, is what they already liked before.

At the same time, there’s much discussion these days about reinterpretations of classic musicals and opera – which are often a gamble.

In the 2024 re-imagined New York production of Cats, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, the gamble paid off. The Jellicle Ball was set in a queer ballroom culture where competitive performers rehearse on a catwalk.

The show premiered to wide acclaim, with some reviewers saying Cats finally made sense. As reviewer Jeanine T. Abraham put it:

The ballroom version takes this story into the twenty-first century with flavor, sass, and reverence for the Black Queer Ballroom community who created this joyous form out of so much pain and trauma.

This positive reception was far removed from the very badly reviewed 2019 feature film starring James Corden.

Cats is a musical that has always been controversial – both celebrated and derided, depending on who you ask.

What makes a show spectacular?

Since around the mid 1980s, audiences have become acclimatised to the spectacular. Whether it’s Wicked, the Olympic ceremonies, or Kendrick Lamar’s Superbowl halftime show, we’ve come to expect spectacle and jaw-dropping visual effects. But Cats is not that kind of show.

Rather, it deals with the idea of community, and of a world where particular kinds of difference are accepted and others are rejected. The narcissistic elderly male cats are revered, while the glamour cat Grizabella is an outcast. A utopian ending brings reconciliation for all.

Cats is a musical that defied expectations. Many initially predicted it would flop, and the song Memory was the only real hit. Yet it enjoyed enormous success.

In 2025, the show leans heavily on its 30 or so performers who still manage to transport us to another world, despite the dated music and lack of story. The success of future interpretations will likely come down to how well those gaps can be filled.

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

– ref. Cats at 40: a dazzling cast – stuck in an outdated show – https://theconversation.com/cats-at-40-a-dazzling-cast-stuck-in-an-outdated-show-256881

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney

How do you measure climate change? One way is by recording temperatures in different places over a long period of time. While this works well, natural variation can make it harder to see longer-term trends.

But another approach can give us a very clear sense of what’s going on: track how much heat enters Earth’s atmosphere and how much heat leaves. This is Earth’s energy budget, and it’s now well and truly out of balance.

Our recent research found this imbalance has more than doubled over the last 20 years. Other researchers have come to the same conclusions. This imbalance is now substantially more than climate models have suggested.

In the mid-2000s, the energy imbalance was about 0.6 watts per square metre (W/m2) on average. In recent years, the average was about 1.3 W/m2. This means the rate at which energy is accumulating near the planet’s surface has doubled.

These findings suggest climate change might well accelerate in the coming years. Worse still, this worrying imbalance is emerging even as funding uncertainty in the United States threatens our ability to track the flows of heat.

Energy in, energy out

Earth’s energy budget functions a bit like your bank account, where money comes in and money goes out. If you reduce your spending, you’ll build up cash in your account. Here, energy is the currency.

Life on Earth depends on a balance between heat coming in from the Sun and heat leaving. This balance is tipping to one side.

Solar energy hits Earth and warms it. The atmosphere’s heat-trapping greenhouse gases keep some of this energy.

But the burning of coal, oil and gas has now added more than two trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. These trap more and more heat, preventing it from leaving.

Some of this extra heat is warming the land or melting sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. But this is a tiny fraction. Fully 90% has gone into the oceans due to their huge heat capacity.

Earth naturally sheds heat in several ways. One way is by reflecting incoming heat off of clouds, snow and ice and back out to space. Infrared radiation is also emitted back to space.

From the beginning of human civilisation up until just a century ago, the average surface temperature was about 14°C. The accumulating energy imbalance has now pushed average temperatures 1.3-1.5°C higher.

Tracking faster than the models

Scientists keep track of the energy budget in two ways.

First, we can directly measure the heat coming from the Sun and going back out to space, using the sensitive radiometers on monitoring satellites. This dataset and its predecessors date back to the late 1980s.

Second, we can accurately track the build-up of heat in the oceans and atmosphere by taking temperature readings. Thousands of robotic floats have monitored temperatures in the world’s oceans since the 1990s.

Both methods show the energy imbalance has grown rapidly.

The doubling of the energy imbalance has come as a shock, because the sophisticated climate models we use largely didn’t predict such a large and rapid change.

Typically, the models forecast less than half of the change we’re seeing in the real world.

Why has it changed so fast?

We don’t yet have a full explanation. But new research suggests changes in clouds is a big factor.

Clouds have a cooling effect overall. But the area covered by highly reflective white clouds has shrunk, while the area of jumbled, less reflective clouds has grown.

It isn’t clear why the clouds are changing. One possible factor could be the consequences of successful efforts to reduce sulfur in shipping fuel from 2020, as burning the dirtier fuel may have had a brightening effect on clouds. However, the accelerating energy budget imbalance began before this change.

Natural fluctuations in the climate system such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation might also be playing a role. Finally – and most worryingly – the cloud changes might be part of a trend caused by global warming itself, that is, a positive feedback on climate change.

What does this mean?

These findings suggest recent extremely hot years are not one-offs but may reflect a strengthening of warming over the coming decade or longer.

This will mean a higher chance of more intense climate impacts from searing heatwaves, droughts and extreme rains on land, and more intense and long lasting marine heatwaves.

This imbalance may lead to worse longer-term consequences. New research shows the only climate models coming close to simulating real world measurements are those with a higher “climate sensitivity”. That means these models predict more severe warming beyond the next few decades in scenarios where emissions are not rapidly reduced.

We don’t know yet whether other factors are at play, however. It’s still too early to definitively say we are on a high-sensitivity trajectory.

Our eyes in the sky

We’ve known the solution for a long time: stop the routine burning of fossil fuels and phase out human activities causing emissions such as deforestation.

Keeping accurate records over long periods of time is essential if we are to spot unexpected changes.

Satellites, in particular, are our advance warning system, telling us about heat storage changes roughly a decade before other methods.

But funding cuts and drastic priority shifts in the United States may threaten essential satellite climate monitoring.

Steven Sherwood receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Mindaroo Foundation.

Benoit Meyssignac receives funding from the European Commission, the European Space Agency and the French National Space Agency.

Thorsten Mauritsen receives funding from the European Research Council, the European Space Agency, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish National Space Agency and the Bolin Centre for Climate Research.

– ref. Earth is trapping much more heat than climate models forecast – and the rate has doubled in 20 years – https://theconversation.com/earth-is-trapping-much-more-heat-than-climate-models-forecast-and-the-rate-has-doubled-in-20-years-258822

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edward Johnson, Lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship and Co-Founder of Umbo, University of Sydney

Each year, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) reviews its pricing rules to ensure services funded under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) remain sustainable.

This year’s annual pricing review outlines changes that will take effect from July 1 2025.

Among the updates are changes to therapy pricing, travel reimbursement, and rural loadings. The NDIA says this will bring NDIS pricing in line with other government schemes and private health insurance.

But what do these changes mean for people outside the big cities?

What’s changing

Key changes include:

• adjusted therapy support rates, including a $10 per hour reduction for physiotherapists to $183.99 per hour.

• travel reimbursement for therapists will be halved (from 100% to 50% of the hourly rate during any time spent travelling)

• price loadings for some rural and remote areas will be removed.

The NDIA justifies these decisions with a dataset that includes the average of hourly rates from Medicare, private health claims, and 13 other government programs.

The agency says some NDIS therapy prices exceed mainstream equivalents by up to 68%.

Why pricing comparisons don’t always translate to rural services

While these comparisons might make sense for metropolitan clinics, they do not capture the realities of service delivery in rural and remote areas.

For example, allied health professionals such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech pathologists in cities can see multiple clients in a row at one location (although this isn’t always realistic or best practice in cities either).

In contrast, rural and remote providers may drive hundreds of kilometres between appointments. Much of their time, including travel, planning, and follow-up, is essential but often unbilled.

So while $193.99 (soon $183.99) per hour for physiotherapy might look generous, it does not reflect what is left after factoring in travel and unpaid care coordination.

Disabilities are complex and often lifelong, so clinical support is time-consuming. However, that is something clinicians are passionate about – therapists so often squirm at the thought of billing our clients for anything other than direct clinical services.

The NDIA’s own data confirm most therapy providers are small operators. In fact, 90% are unregistered, and many serve fewer than five participants.

The result is a fragile “market”, particularly in towns with limited infrastructure. If pricing makes it unviable for local clinicians to offer services, the only remaining options may involve families travelling long distances or forgoing support entirely. This has knock-on effects for local economies and contributes to professional burnout and workforce shortages.

What this means for rural families

For families living in towns with limited services, travel is not optional. It is a lifeline. If providers cannot afford to travel, many people with disability simply go without.

Telepractice can be used in some clinical situations, but not all. The most effective kind of telepractice also includes support from local clinicians and coworkers, and ideally a mix of in-person and online consultations.

One family I worked with during my PhD research lived four hours from the nearest regional centre. After an 18-month wait, their child’s therapy appointment was cancelled twice due to workforce shortages. They eventually paid privately for a service in another state.

This story is not unusual. Many families said they did not necessarily want more funding; they just wanted support delivered in ways that worked for them. Being able to access help locally allowed their children to remain part of the school community and reduced pressure on carers already juggling other responsibilities. Clinicians, communities, and families are continuing to tell very similar stories.

Is there a better way?

My research found rural families preferred flexible models that blended telepractice with local capacity-building. These hybrid approaches worked well when supported by policy that allowed for coordination, community involvement, and some in-person time. They were not luxury add-ons. They were what made services possible.

There is also a long-term benefit in supporting local service ecosystems. When therapists can build relationships within a community, they are more likely to stay, collaborate with other professionals, and mentor early-career clinicians.

This helps reduce churn and provides continuity of care. However, with travel reimbursement and rural loadings cut, sustaining these models becomes more difficult.

What happens next?

The NDIA’s strategy includes a shift toward “differentiated pricing”, which could eventually support more tailored approaches. The Department of Social Services has also promised to offer “foundational supports” outside the NDIS, but it is currently unclear what the nature of these supports will be. Right now, though, rural communities are being asked to absorb the reduced funding and limited flexibility. Without further adjustment, these changes risk widening the gap between metropolitan and non-metropolitan service access.

A single national price does not guarantee equal access. Equity comes from recognising and responding to different contexts. For rural and remote Australians living with disability, that recognition is long overdue.

Until then, it will be up to 7 million rural Australians to make it work for themselves in places where resources are already stretched thin.

I am a co-founder of Umbo Pty Ltd (an NDIS therapy provider which provides telepractice services)

– ref. The NDIA is changing how it pays for disability supports. What does that mean for rural communities? – https://theconversation.com/the-ndia-is-changing-how-it-pays-for-disability-supports-what-does-that-mean-for-rural-communities-259148

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alyson Crozier, Senior Lecturer, Exercise and Sport Psychology, University of South Australia

Umpires’ decisions often upset sports fans, especially during a close contest.

At most games, spectators boo loudly, coaches throw their hands up in frustration and players can yell or even physically intimidate officials.

It seems abusing umpires is acceptable. But why? It’s certainly not something generally tolerated in other workplaces.

Without umpires, games simply couldn’t go ahead.

That’s why we sought to shed light on the situation by researching what it’s really like to be an Australian rules umpire.

Not for the faint-hearted

Umpires (also called referees or match officials) apply the rules of their respective sports to ensure fair and safe competitions for all players.

They participate in training and accreditation programs to learn rules and apply them based on the demands of the game.

They need to be physically fit and position themselves appropriately around the playing field.

But many sport organisations are struggling to provide enough qualified officials at grassroots levels. Between 1993 and 2010, there was a 28% decline in active sport officials in Australia.

Football Australia, soccer’s governing body here, boasts 11,000 officials but estimates around 4,200 leave their roles every year.

In many sports, teenagers are increasingly stepping in to umpire junior and senior games to back-fill shortages.

However, Australian rules football appears to be defying this trend – the number of community umpires surpassed 20,000 for the first time in 2024. This is an 18% increase in umpire registrations compared to 2023, largely driven by a 31% rise in registrations by women and girls.

Despite these record numbers, the Australian Football League (AFL), and many sports organisations including Rugby Australia and the A-League, are worried about retaining officials.

Abuse towards officials is one of the primary areas of concern.

Our research focused particularly on what was happening in Australian rules football.

Abuse and even death threats

We surveyed 356 umpires across all levels of Australian rules football competition to examine their experiences of abuse.

Almost half reported receiving regular verbal abuse (name-calling, insults, swearing and threats). Worryingly, 21% said they had experienced physical abuse (pushing, hitting, or assault).

As one state-level umpire remarked:

Over time, you end up developing a thick skin.

Encouragingly, most umpires knew the process to officially report any abuse received, with more than half indicating they had formally reported at least one incident of abuse.

While many felt supported through the reporting process, only 62% were satisfied with the outcome.

As one state-league umpire recalled:

I was assaulted two years ago by a spectator. Lucky I was bigger than him. I was disappointed he only got a one-year suspension from attending games.

Further, a senior community football umpire commented:

I was threatened with my life this year and the league did nothing about it.

What can be done?

Many respondents commented on the need to support young umpires to have positive experiences.

One potential strategy is to make it clearer when officials are underage.

As one example, Netball Victoria provides a green band or scrunchie to any umpire under the age of 18 to promote respect from players, coaches and spectators.

Other codes could look to implement similar strategies.

Most of our responding umpires called for the introduction of tougher penalties in games and through tribunal systems.

Some called for clubs to be fined or spectators banned for repeated incidents of abuse.

Others commended the AFL’s stricter interpretation of umpire abuse in 2022, which mandated a 50-metre penalty for any player showing dissent.

Additionally, umpires felt clubs needed to take greater responsibility for the actions of players, coaches and spectators.

One umpire told us:

Cultural change needs to come from within clubs because top-down campaigns encouraging respect don’t change hearts and minds.

This could be in the form of creating a positive club culture and zero-tolerance abuse policies.

In our research, umpires said it was crucial that governing bodies communicated both the level of evidence required to report abuse, and how tribunals worked.

As younger officials may not know the process, having this information embedded in umpire training may help umpires feel more supported in reporting abuse.

Equally, appropriate penalties must be handed down to ensure umpires have faith in the reporting system.

While the number of Australian rules football umpires has increased in recent years, these numbers can also decrease quickly.

If we want to retain umpires for the medium and long-term, we need governing bodies such as the AFL to address the frequency and severity with which umpire abuse occurs.

As one umpire commented:

Cases of abuse need to have consequences, not just a slap on the wrist. Why would anyone want to go out and be abused for two hours?

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

– ref. 1 in 5 community footy umpires have been assaulted, while others cop death threats: new research – https://theconversation.com/1-in-5-community-footy-umpires-have-been-assaulted-while-others-cop-death-threats-new-research-257804

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Parker, Adjunct Fellow, Naval Studies at UNSW Canberra, and Expert Associate, National Security College, Australian National University

After lobbying by US President Donald Trump, NATO leaders have promised to boost annual defence spending to 5% of their countries’ gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035.

A NATO statement released this week said:

United in the face of profound security threats and challenges, in particular the long-term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security and the persistent threat of terrorism, allies commit to invest 5% of GDP annually on core defence requirements as well as defence-and security-related spending by 2035.

This development comes at a tricky time for the Albanese government. It has so far batted away suggestions Australia should increase its defence spending from current levels of around 2% of gross domestic product (GDP), or almost A$59 billion per year (and projected to reach 2.33% of GDP by 2033–34). Trump has called on Australia to increase this to about 3.5%.

With this NATO agreement, global security deteriorating and defence capability gaps obvious, pressure is mounting on the Australian government to increase defence spending further.

Pressure from Trump

A long‑time critic of NATO, Trump and his key officials have castigated NATO’s readiness and spending.

Meanwhile, Russia’s war on Ukraine, now in its fourth year, and a spate of suspected Russian sabotage across Europe have sharpened concerns about allied preparedness.

Against this backdrop, the NATO summit saw Trump publicly reaffirms US commitment to the alliance, and European members pledged to lift defence spending.

What exactly did NATO promise and why?

The headlines say NATO members agreed to increase annual defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.

In fact, the actual agreement is more nuanced.

The summit communique, notably shorter than in previous years, broke the pledge down into two parts.

The first is 3.5% of GDP on what is considered traditional defence spending: ships, tanks, bullets, people and so on.

The second part – the remaining 1.5% of GDP – is to

protect our critical infrastructure, defend our networks, ensure our civil preparedness and resilience, unleash innovation, and strengthen our defence industrial base.

Exactly what strategic resilience initiatives this money will be spent on is up to the individual member nation.

It might be tempting to paint NATO’s commitment to increased defence spending as evidence of European NATO partners bowing to US political pressure.

But it’s more than that. It is a direct response to the increased threat posed by Russia to Europe, and perhaps an insurance policy against any doubts European NATO partners may have about the US reliability and enduring commitment to the 76-year-old alliance between the US and Europe.

However, not all countries are keen on the defence spending commitment, with notable reservations from Spain and Belgium.

These two countries are yet to meet NATO’s 2014 commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence.

What’s all this mean for Australia?

The commitment to hike NATO defence spending will have an indirect impact on Australia’s own beleaguered defence spending debate.

As mentioned, Australia’s main strategic ally – the US – has pressured Australia to hike defence spending to 3.5% of GDP, up from around 2.02% of GDP this financial year (which the government projects will reach 2.33% by 2033–34).

Australia is not the only Indo-Pacific partner being pushed to spend more on defence. Japan is too.

This is consistent with US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Shangri-La speech in May, when he urged Asian allies to step up on defence spending, pointing to Europe as the model.

The NATO announcement will likely embolden the US to apply greater pressure on the Australia to increase defence spending.

Trump’s strategy towards NATO has clearly been to sow ambiguity in the minds of European countries as to the US’ commitment to NATO, to get them to come to the table on defence spending.

This may well be a future Australia faces, too. It could mean a bumpy road ahead for Australia and its most crucial alliance partner.

Where to from here?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said Australia will determine its own level of defence spending, and that arbitrary GDP limits are unhelpful. Defence spending, he argues, should be based on capability needs, not demands from allies.

And he is right, to a point.

That said, allies have a right to have an expectation all parties in the alliance are holding up their end of the bargain.

Australian defence spending should be based on the capabilities it needs to resource its stated defence strategy and defend its core interests. Currently, in my view, Australia’s defence capability does not match its current strategy.

There are clear gaps in Australia’s defence capabilities, including:

• its aged naval capability
• a lack of mine warfare, replenishment and survey capabilities
• a limited ability to protect critical infrastructure against missile attack
• space capabilities.

These are key risks, at the moment of possibly most significant strategic circumstances since the second world war.

In the event of a major crisis or conflict in the region, Australia would not presently be able to defend itself for a prolonged period. To address this requires structural reform and defence investment.

In response to this week’s NATO announcement, Defence Minister Richard Marles said:

We have gone about the business of not chasing a number, but thinking about what is our capability need, and then resourcing it.

During the election campaign both the prime minister and defence minister left the door open to increasing defence spending.

The real unknown is how long it will take to make it happen, and how much damage it may do in the meantime to Australia’s relationship with the US and overall defence-preparedness.

Jennifer Parker is affiliated with UNSW Canberra and ANU’s National Security College.

– ref. NATO’s 5% of GDP defence target ramps up pressure on Australia to spend vastly more – https://theconversation.com/natos-5-of-gdp-defence-target-ramps-up-pressure-on-australia-to-spend-vastly-more-259886

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology

Children’s play is essential for their cognitive, physical and social development. But in cities, spaces to play are usually separated, often literally fenced off, from the rest of urban life.

In our new study, we compare children’s use of such spaces in Auckland, New Zealand, and Venice, Italy. Our findings present a paradox: playgrounds built for safety can stifle creativity and mobility, while self-organising open spaces offer rich opportunities to explore and belong.

In Auckland, places such as Taumata Reserve are a testimony to contemporary playground design – grassy, shaded, equipped with slides and swings, and buffered from traffic. Such places are an oasis cherished by caregivers for the sense of perceived safety they provide.

Yet during our observations, we noted how these spaces function not necessarily as an oasis or a point for social encounter, but rather as isolated refuge islands, disconnected from the city’s everyday life. Children’s independent mobility and opportunities for diverse play activities remained limited and predefined.

Contrast this with Venice’s Santa Croce neighbourhood. Car-free streets and piazzas, such as Campo San Giacomo dell’Orio above, pulsate with life. We saw children play ball, draw on pavements, chase each other and even water plants. These spaces are shared inter-generational stages.

To compare children’s experience, we measured the diversity of activities (a proxy for creativity). Auckland’s Taumata Reserve scored just 1.46. In contrast, Venice scored 2.33, with more than 2,600 spontaneous acts in the streets, reflecting a child-led play culture.

Why this matters

Play is not a luxury. It is a fundamental necessity of life to understand, navigate and adapt to the complexities of the world.

From a deterministic perspective, contemporary Western cultures (such as in Europe and New Zealand) prescribe diverse benefits of play. This includes learning and developing resilience, spatial awareness and social skills.

In Auckland, safety is the focus. While inclusion for children with special needs is understandable, it may inadvertently limit the collective capacity for vital and formative developmental experiences at the neighbourhood scale.

Global research shows declining children’s mobility, linked to car dependency and adult-controlled routines. This reduces children’s activity radius, constrains confidence and diminishes connection to place. For one of us, a father of two, watching his daughters navigate parks underscores this: children need to be able to learn risk competency.

Venice is a cultural model we can draw lessons from. Its pedestrian streets let children roam, climb statues and play hide-and-seek on bridges. This exposure to risks builds judgement, adaptability and agency. It also makes children co-creators of urban life.

Our study uses what we call “temporary appropriation” – when children use spaces in unplanned, creative ways – and a design framework called SPIRAL, which draws from individual experiences and cultural narratives to build public spaces.

Auckland’s rules and fences curb this; Venice’s human-scale design invites it.
Venice’s conditions foster risk competency in children and caregivers, strengthening community bonds through a culture of care. Auckland’s spaces for play are spatially fragmented, limiting social encounters and the risk-taking skills vital for development.

From a New Zealand perspective, it is also essential to recognise the significance of place-based belonging from a Māori worldview. Concepts such as whakapapa (genealogy), whenua (land) and whanaungatanga (relational ties) emphasise deep, inter-generational connections to place.

In this view, play is not merely recreation but a cultural expression; a way for children to experience turangawaewae (a place to stand).

What other cities can learn

From our research, we can draw lessons for how urban spaces might be reimagined to better support children’s wellbeing and autonomy. This includes:

• Designing public spaces with natural elements, “risky art”, loose parts and creative equipment for open-ended play that balances safety without compromising opportunities for discovery and risk-taking

• reducing the number of cars and slowing speeds to achieve better outcomes for children

• reclaiming streets so that all people and animals can have positive adventures

• prioritising policies for car-free or traffic-calmed areas across neighbourhoods and in proximity to social places (schools, libraries, shops, parks) to contribute to a culture where safety is a collective responsibility and a commitment towards a stronger social cohesion

• proactively involving children in urban design through place-making and temporary appropriation; it is their right to be heard and listened to through the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

• encouraging participatory co-design workshops and action-focused initiatives to harness children’s insights to design spaces that meet needs

• considering nuanced and emotional indicators for success such as belonging, curiosity, joy and inter-generational exchange rather than just efficiency or maintenance cost

• and collaboratively modifying the environment over time.

We envision cities where children roam freely, invent and experience deeper and authentic belonging. Venice proves that shared public spaces help children enrich and shape cities, as much as the rest of the population does.

Safe playgrounds are only a starting point. For healthy, regenerative and vibrant cities to work, we need to realise that children should have agency to shape the complex assemblage that cities really are. Let’s build urban futures where children don’t just play, but can have positive adventures.

The choices we make today matter. We can either feed the fear or meet the cultural challenge together by embracing the positive adventures of life, with a sense of collective wellbeing, care and stewardship.

Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez received funding for the Horizon 2020 CRUNCH project and was a member of the curatorial team of the Italian Pavilion for the Venice Biennale 2021. He is a senior member of City Space Architecture and the International Society of City and Regional Planners.

Gregor Mews has previously served as a founding director of the Australian Institute of Play and currently serves as a council board member of City Space Architecture as well as a member of the International Society of City and Regional Planners.

– ref. Beyond playgrounds: how less structured city spaces can nurture children’s creativity and independence – https://theconversation.com/beyond-playgrounds-how-less-structured-city-spaces-can-nurture-childrens-creativity-and-independence-257481

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Sollis, Research Fellow, University of Tasmania

The Albanese government devoted time and energy in its first term to developing a wellbeing agenda for the economy and society.

It was a passion project of Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who wanted better ways to measure national welfare beyond traditional economic indicators such as growth, jobs and inflation.

Chalmers developed the Measuring What Matters framework to try to better align economic, social and environmental goals as

part of a deliberate effort to put people and progress, fairness and opportunity at the very core of our thinking about our economy and our society.

As Labor settles into its second term, what has happened to its wellbeing agenda? And how much was a poor consultation process to blame for it apparently falling by the wayside?

Measuring What Matters

Measuring What Matters was badged as a wellbeing framework to improve the lives of Australians and help better inform policy-making across all levels of government.

It tracked 50 indicators spread across five overarching themes:

• healthy
• secure
• sustainable
• cohesive
• prosperous.

There was also a standalone indicator on life satisfaction.

The data is updated annually by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with the Treasury due to report on outcomes every three years.

The first Measuring What Matters statement in 2023 showed improvements across some indicators, such as life expectancy, job opportunities and accepting diversity. But it also revealed higher rates of chronic illness and problems with housing affordability.

The fanfare surrounding the release has since fizzled, and wellbeing is now seldom mentioned.

Furthermore, there is little evidence insights have been taken up by the government. The Australian National Audit Office recently noted the challenge of embedding Measuring What Matters in policy, as well as the absence of any evaluation work to gauge its effectiveness.

The wellbeing agenda appears to have been sidelined for two reasons: an insufficient consultation process to properly develop the framework, and the cost-of-living crisis.

Poor consultation

Wellbeing frameworks have high potential to impact policy. But they need to be developed and implemented in the right way.

One crucial factor is adequate community engagement, which would have helped ensure accurate representation of what people truly value in terms of wellbeing. Done properly, it could also have secured buy-in from the community, depoliticised the initiative, and even strengthened democracy.

But adequate time was not taken to get the consultation process right, with the government in a rush to release Measuring What Matters. Announced in the October 2022 Budget, two consultation phases were undertaken.

The first, mainly with technical experts, took three months. The second, which sought feedback from individuals and community groups, was even shorter. It was over in just one month.

Measuring What Matters was released shortly after, in July 2023.

Our research, recently published in the Australian Journal of Social Issues, analysed the public consultation phase. We found it was inadequate across four areas.

Comprehensiveness: the timeframe for phase two was too short to allow organisations and communities to meaningfully engage.

Reach: there was limited engagement with the general public.

Transparency: the community was not informed how feedback would be incorporated in the framework and no consultation report was published.

Genuineness: while some feedback was incorporated in the framework, key topics raised in the consultation were not acted on, including greater involvement of First Nations people.

Greater community engagement would have ensured the framework, and any policy it produced, better reflected what Australians value for their wellbeing. It would have also promoted people’s ownership of the framework, helping to foster greater understanding and support for the initiative.

Although Measuring What Matters is now established, it is not too late to realise proper community engagement.

Taboo subject

The other factor to run interference was the cost-of-living crisis, which dominated the government’s first term.

Ministers were hesitant to talk about much else. Any references to wellbeing, which for some may elicit images of people meditating or practising yoga, might have been seen as risky.

This is a shame. Wellbeing policies have the potential to improve people’s lives.

We can draw some inspiration from an alliance of countries, including New Zealand, Scotland, Finland, Iceland and Wales, which have at various times put people’s wellbeing at the forefront of policy development and evaluation.

For example, while progress has been slow and there have been key challenges to overcome, the Welsh Well-being of Future Generations Act has led to policy changes such as a moratorium on roads being built to improve people’s health and the environment.

Perhaps if the Albanese government had leaned in to its own wellbeing framework to help navigate the cost-of-living crisis, people may have fared better.

The agenda’s future?

The Albanese government’s large majority gives it space to revitalise its wellbeing framework.

Undertaking a national conversation, similar to the one rolled out in Wales, would help build grassroots support and ensure it truly “measures what matters” to people.

A stronger Measuring What Matters would not only provide the electorate with a clear indication the government is listening, but would also help ensure policy improves people’s lives in a meaningful way.

Kate Sollis is a consultant to the Wellbeing Government initiative at the Centre for Policy Development and President of the Bega Valley Data Collective. She was previously employed at the Australian Bureau of Statistics

Paul Campbell is a research fellow, whose work is supported by the ANU-Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government Wellbeing Framework research partnership. He was previously employed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Nicholas Drake 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. Whatever happened to the Albanese government’s wellbeing agenda? – https://theconversation.com/whatever-happened-to-the-albanese-governments-wellbeing-agenda-258580