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

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Associate Professor, New Testament, & Director of The Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy, University of Divinity

Wars are often waged in the name of religion. So what do key texts from Christianity, Islam and Judaism say about the justification for war?

We asked three experts for their views.

The Bible

Robyn J. Whitaker, University of Divinity

The Bible presents war as an inevitable reality of human life. This is captured in the cry of the Teacher in Ecclesiastes:

for everything there is a season […] a time for war and a time for peace.

In this sense, the Bible reflects the experiences of the authors and communities who shaped the texts over more than a thousand years as they experienced both victory and defeat as a small nation among the large empires of the ancient near east.

When it comes to God’s role in war, we cannot shirk from the problematic violence associated with the divine. At times, God orders the Hebrew people to go to war and enact horrendous violence. Deuteronomy 20 is a good example of this: God’s people are sent to war with the blessing of the priest but told to first offer terms of peace. If peace terms are accepted, the town is enslaved. Certain enemies, however, are decreed worthy of total annihilation, and the Hebrew army is commanded to destroy anyone and anything that doesn’t produce food.

On other occasions, war is interpreted as a tool, a punishment where God uses foreign nations against the Hebrew people because they have gone astray (Judges 2:14). You can also find an underlying ethic to treat the captives of war justly. Moses commands that women captured in war are to be treated as wives, not slaves (Deuteronomy 21), and in 2 Chronicles, captives are allowed to return home.

In contrast to war as divinely authorised, many of the Hebrew prophets express hope in a time where God will bring peace and people will “neither learn war any more” (Micah 3:4) but rather turn their weapons into tools for agriculture (Isaiah 2:4).

War is viewed as a result of human sinfulness, something that God will ultimately transform into peace. And that peace (Hebrew: shalom) is more than an absence of war. It is about human flourishing and unity between peoples and God.

Most of the New Testament was written during the first century CE, when Jews and emerging Christians were a minority within the Roman Empire. The military power of Rome is harshly critiqued as evil in resistance texts such as the Book of Revelation. Many early Christians refused to fight in the Roman army.

In this context, Jesus says nothing specific about war but generally rejects violence. When Jesus’s disciple Peter seeks to defend him with a sword, Jesus tells him to put away his sword because a sword only leads to more violence (Matthew 26:52). This is consistent with Jesus’s other teachings such as “blessed are the peacemakers” or his commands to “turn the other cheek” when struck or to “love your enemies”.

The reality is that we find various war ideologies in the Bible’s pages. If you want to find a justification for war in the Bible, you can. If you want to find a justification for peace or pacifism, that is there too. Later Christians would develop ideas of “just war” and pacifism based on biblical ideas, but these are developments rather than explicit within the Bible.

For Christians, Jesus’s teaching provides an ethical framework for interpreting earlier war texts through the lens of love for enemies. This counterpoint to divine violence and war points readers back to the prophets, whose hopeful visions imagine a world where violence and suffering are no more and peace is possible.

The Quran

Mehmet Ozalp, Charles Sturt University

Islam and Muslims emerged onto the world stage in the hostile environment of the seventh century. In response to major challenges, including warfare, Islam introduced pioneering legal and ethical reforms. The Quran and the Prophet Muhammad’s example laid out clear legal and ethical guidelines for the conduct of war, well before similar frameworks appeared in other societies.

Islam did this by defining a new term, “jihad” rather than the usual Arabic word for war, “harb”. While harb refers broadly to warfare, jihad was defined within Islamic teachings as a legal, morally justified struggle, which includes but is not limited to armed conflict. In the context of warfare, jihad refers specifically to fighting in a just cause under clear legal and ethical guidelines, rather than belligerent or aggressive warfare.

Between 610-622, Prophet Muhammad practised active non-violence in the face of the constant suffering, persecution and economic embargo he and his followers endured in Mecca, despite insistent approaches by his followers to take up arms. This showed that armed struggle cannot be taken up within the members of the same society, as this would lead to anarchy.

After leaving his home town to escape persecution, he established a pluralistic and multi-faith society in Medina. He took active steps to sign treaties with neighbouring tribes. Despite following a deliberate strategy of peace and diplomacy, the hostile Meccans and allied tribes attacked the Muslims in Medina. Engaging these attackers in an armed struggle was unavoidable.

The permission to fight was given to Muslims by the Quran verses 22:39-40:

The believers against whom war is waged are given permission to fight in response, for they have been wronged. Surely, God has full power to help them to victory. Those who have been driven from their homeland against all right, for no other reason than that they say, “Our Lord is God” […]

This passage not only permits armed struggle but also offers a moral justification for just war. It means war is clearly just when defensive — while aggression is unjust and condemned. Elsewhere, the Quran emphasises this point:

If they withdraw from you and do not fight against you, and offer you peace, then God allows you no way (to war) against them.

Verse 22:39 outlines two ethical justifications for warfare. The first is when people are driven from their homes (and land) – in other words, through occupation by a foreign power. The second is when people are attacked because of their beliefs to the point of violent persecution and attack.

Importantly, verse 22:40 includes churches, monasteries and synagogues. If believers in God do not defend themselves, all places of worship would be destroyed, so this is to be prevented by force if necessary.

The Quran does not allow for aggression, since “God loves not the aggressors” (2:190). It also provides detailed regulations on who is to fight and who is exempted (9:91); when hostilities must cease (2:193); and prisoners should be treated humanely and with fairness (47:4).

Verses such as 2:294 emphasise that warfare and any response to violence and aggression must be proportional and within limits:

Whoever attacks you, attack them in like manner as they attacked you. Nevertheless, fear God and remain within the bounds.

In the event of unavoidable war, every opportunity to end it must be pursued:

But if the enemy inclines towards peace, then you must also incline towards peace and trust in God.

The aim of military action is to end hostilities and remove the reason for warfare, not to humiliate or annihilate the enemy.

Military jihad cannot be pursued for personal ambition or to further nationalistic or ethnic disputes. Muslims cannot wage war on nations that have no hostility towards them (60:8). But if there is open hostility and attack, Muslims have a right to defend themselves.

The Prophet and the early caliphs specifically warned military leaders and all combatants that they must not act treacherously or engage in indiscriminate killing and pillage. He said:

Do not kill women, children, the elderly, or the sick. Do not destroy palm trees or burn houses.

Because of these teachings, Muslims have had legal and ethical guidelines throughout much of history to help limit human suffering caused by war.

The Torah

Suzanne D. Rutland, University of Sydney

Judaism is not a pacifist religion, but in its traditions it values peace above all else, and prayers for peace are central to Jewish liturgy. At the same time, there is a recognition of the need to fight defensive wars, but only within certain boundaries.

In the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, the recognition of the need for war is clear. Throughout their journeying in the desert, the Israelites (Children of Israel) fight various battles. At the same time, in Deuteronomy, the Israelites are instructed (chapter 12, verse 10):

When you go forth against your enemies and are in camp, then you should keep yourself from every evil thing.

The story of Amalek is the symbol of ultimate evil in Jewish tradition. Scholars argue this is because his army attacked the Israelites from the rear – killing defenceless women and children.

The Torah also stresses that army service is compulsory. Yet, Deuteronomy elaborates four categories of people who are exempt:

• someone who has built a home but has not yet dedicated it
• someone who has planted a vineyard but has not yet eaten of its fruit
• someone who is engaged or in his first year of marriage
• someone who is afraid, in case he influences other soldiers with his fear.

It is important to point out that the disdain of war is so strong that King David was not permitted to build the temple in Jerusalem because of his military career. His son, Solomon, was allocated this task, but no iron was to be used in the building because this represented war and violence, while the temple was to represent peace, the ideal virtue.

The vision of peace for all humanity is further developed in the prophetic writings and the concept of the Messiah. This is seen particularly in the writings of the prophet Isiah, who envisaged an age when, as he describes in his idyllic vision:

they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

The Mishnah, the first part of the Talmud, raises the concept of an “obligatory war” (milhemet mizvah). This encompasses the biblical wars against the seven nations said to inhabit the Promised Land, the war against Amalek, and the Jewish nation’s defensive wars. It is, accordingly, a clearly defined and recognisable class.

Not so the second category, “permitted war” (milhemet reshut), which is more open-ended and, as scholar Avi Ravitsky writes, “could relate to a preemptive war”.

After the Talmudic period, which ended in the 7th century, this debate became theoretical, since Jews living in Palestine and the diaspora no longer had an army. This was largely the case from the time of the defeat of the Bar Kokhba Rebellion against the Romans (132–135 CE), apart from a few small Jewish kingdoms in Arabia.

However, with the return of the early Zionist pioneers to the Land of Israel in the late 19th and 20th century, the rabbinic debates of what constitutes an obligatory, defensive war and what is a permitted war, as well as the characteristics of a forbidden war has reignited. This is a subject of deep concern and controversy for both academics and rabbis today.

Robyn J. Whitaker is affiliated with The Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy.

Mehmet Ozalp is affiliated with Islamic Sciences and Research Academy

Suzanne Rutland has received an Australian Research Council grant for her research on the Australian Jewry and funding from the Pratt Foundation, as well as an Australian Prime Ministers Centre (APMC) fellowship for her research on Soviet Jewry and Australia. She is also involved with numerous NGOs, including the Australian Jewish Historical Society (patron), the Australian Association for Jewish Studies (past president and committee member), and the Australian government’s expert delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. In addition, she is a board member of the Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry at ANU; she is on an academic advisory committee at the Sydney Jewish Museum; she is the director of the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism; and she is an Australian board member for Boys Town Jerusalem and a board member of Better Balance Futures for faith communities These roles are all undertaken in an honorary capacity. She is also writing the history of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry in an honorary capacity.

– ref. What do the Bible, the Quran and the Torah say about the justification for war? – https://theconversation.com/what-do-the-bible-the-quran-and-the-torah-say-about-the-justification-for-war-259679

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

Next week will be the 40th anniversary of the Hawke government’s tax summit. Dominated by then treasurer Paul Keating’s unsuccessful bid to win support for a consumption tax, it was the public centrepiece of an extraordinary political and policy story.

That story was about the possibilities for, but constraints on, bold reform; how a determined treasurer can muster a formidable department to push for change, and the way the ambitions of a minister can clash with the pragmatism of a prime minister.

Ken Henry, later secretary of the treasury, was then part of what they dubbed the “treasury tax reform bunker”. He kept a timesheet, averaging 100 hours work a week for a three-month period. Officials brought sleeping bags and their small children (Henry’s were aged three and five) into the office.

Before the summit, the government produced a comprehensive draft white paper. Keating battled to keep the conflicting interests “in the cart” for his blueprint. But the four-day summit, attended by business, unions, premiers and community groups, was inevitably divided by stakeholders’ self-interests. In particular, the unions couldn’t wear Keating’s consumption tax, and Bob Hawke kyboshed it unceremoniously. Keating, who had to settle for a more limited but still very significant set of reforms, was furious with Hawke, and it left a fracture in their relationship.

Jim Chalmers was aged seven in 1985. But he’s a student of Keating (he did his PhD on his prime ministership) and you can be sure he’s boned up on what went right and wrong in that tax reform exercise. Now he is preparing for the government’s August 19-21 “roundtable” and his own bid at major tax reform.

The roundtable, as first announced, focused on “productivity”, and that will be central. But Chalmers has taken to calling it an “economic reform” roundtable – its brief also includes budget sustainability and resilience – and he is effectively putting tax reform close to its heart, or at least letting others do so. After all, a fit-for-purpose tax system is one key to improving productivity.

The roundtable (for which invitations to business and the union movement are now going out, with more to follow) is nothing like on the scale, in size (the 1985 summit had about 160 attendees, the roundtable will have about 25) or preparation, of the elaborate 1985 conference.

And crucially, while that summit was the culmination of a process, Chalmers is using the roundtable to kick off a process.

Chalmers is lowering expectations in regard to specific outcomes from the summit on tax. While those might be obtainable on some productivity issues, on tax he is likely to look for broad support for a direction of reform. For instance, is there a general appetite for reshaping the tax system towards lower personal and company tax, offset by higher taxes on certain investments and savings? `

Most tax experts argue Australia’s system is too skewed towards taxing income rather than spending. This leads to calls to increase or broaden the GST, financing cuts to personal income tax.

Chalmers has been a long-term opponent of changing the GST, but he says he is not ruling the GST out for discussion at the roundtable. (That’s a contrast to when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, commissioning Henry to lead a major tax review, excluded the GST from its terms of reference.)

Almost certainly, however, it would not be possible to get “consensus” from business and unions for GST changes. Not least of the constraints is that compensating the losers in such a change is very expensive and there is not the money to do so these days.

That immediately limits the extent of reform.

Henry tells The Conversation’s podcast that if he were designing a tax reform package “I’d be looking at opportunities to broaden the GST and maybe to increase the rate as well”.

But “I do think it is possible to achieve major tax reform […] without necessarily increasing the [GST] rate or extending the base”.

Henry’s (non-GST) wish list includes getting rid of the remaining state transaction taxes, such as stamp duty on property conveyancing.

Notably, he argues for extracting more revenue from taxing natural resources and land, and also from taxing pollution from various sources. “We’re going to need to tax those things more heavily if we’re going to relieve the tax burden on young workers through lower personal income tax and introducing tax indexation.”

Henry is particularly focused on the unfair burden at present put on these younger taxpayers. He has come around to the idea of income tax indexation as one means of assisting them.

A system more geared to younger workers raises immediate questions about the present generous treatment of superannuants. Chalmers is already caught in that hornets’ nest with his proposed changes for those with balances more than $3 million.

To what extent will the roundtable tax debate revive the issues of negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount? The government hosed down before the election the prospect of any changes to negative gearing this term. Chalmers, however, had work done on this last term and he would likely favour reining it in. But would this be a bridge too far for the prime minister?

Indeed, where will Anthony Albanese’s limits be when it comes to reform? Would he only support changes that had strong consensus? And how far would he feel constrained in going beyond what he considers he has a mandate for?

If Chalmers stays serious about the tax push, it is going to take many months of intense work. It can’t be rushed, but nor can it be delayed. If it ran for much over a year it would likely find the government’s political capital had been eroded. The size of its capital store can appear deceptive because so much of it is thanks to Peter Dutton and Donald Trump.

In 2022, the Liberals boycotted Labor’s jobs and skills summit (although Nationals leader David Littlepround attended). This time, shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien has accepted Chalmers’ invitation and will participate in the roundtable.

It will be a tricky gig for O’Brien, new to this shadow portfolio. He has to avoid being too negative, but nor can he endorse things the opposition might later reject. The Coalition will not have a tax policy against which to judge what’s said.

The occasion will be a chance for O’Brien to make contacts and get more insight into stakeholders’ views on the key economic debates, much wider than just tax.

Importantly, however, O’Brien will need to remember judgements will be being made about him by other participants in the room. Business in particular will be seeking to get a fix on whether opposition leader Sussan Ley’s declarations about wanting to be constructive where possible are fair dinkum.

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

– ref. Grattan on Friday: Jim Chalmers juggles expectations and ambition in pursuing tax reform – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-jim-chalmers-juggles-expectations-and-ambition-in-pursuing-tax-reform-258971

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

In August, the Albanese government will hold an economic “roundtable” that will discuss productivity, budget sustainability and resilience. Australia’s tax system will be one of the central issues, and stakeholders are gearing up with their varying arguments for changes.

Ken Henry, a former secretary of the Treasury, has been part of the tax debates of the past 40 years. He was a treasury official working on tax at the time of the Hawke government’s 1985 tax summit and led the major review of the tax system commissioned by the Rudd government.

Henry is a passionate advocate of bold tax reform, especially reform that tackled intergenerational inequity, and he joins the podcast to discuss the issues.

Looking forward to the roundtable, Henry outlines some of the many changes that he thinks should be considered,

Firstly we’ve got to get rid of the remaining transactions taxes like stamp duty on property conveyancing and so on […] that alone means there has to be a commonwealth-state exercise.

Secondly, we’ve got to extract more revenue from the taxation of natural resources and also land.

Thirdly, we’ve got to get more revenue from the taxation of environmental externalities. In the tax review published in 2010, we were developing that at the same time as the Treasury and other departments were developing the Rudd government’s carbon pollution reduction scheme. We thought that there was going to be quite a significant carbon price in Australia. We don’t have it today – we should.

Henry wants a tax system that does not disadvantage younger people who are in the workforce; he says the present “lazy” reliance on bracket creep to “bring the budget back to anything approaching balance is doing enormous damage to younger people in particular”.

On reform generally, Henry says he’s “disappointed” that more hasn’t been done on the recommendations from his review.

I’m very disappointed, but I guess one would expect me to be very disappointed. And he laments Australia’s “abysmal” productivity performance over the last quarter century.

When I then reflect on what’s happened to Australia’s productivity performance, I mean we were saying in 2002 that we really should aim to get the productivity growth rate up from 1.75% to 2.25% a year and in fact if you look back now over the first 25 years of this century right what we actually achieved was only three quarters of one percent a year. That productivity performance is just abysmal.

To put it in terms that everybody will understand, had we achieved the two and a quarter percent a year rather than three quarters of a percent a year, the average wage and salary earner in Australia, their income would be 45% higher today than it is. This is not small stuff, this is huge stuff.

Despite backing significant reform, Chalmers has been a long-term opponent of GST reform, although not ruling it out completely. Henry says all options should be left on the table,

It would be better not to constrain the reform process by ruling the GST out and that was a shame for those of us who worked on the Rudd government’s tax review  […] that the terms of reference that we were given said that you’re not to make any recommendations concerning the GST.

Those who are having a good hard look at how to restructure the Australian taxation system should not have one hand tied behind their backs. Having said that, I do think it’s possible to achieve major reform of the Australian taxation system without necessarily increasing the rate or extending the base of the GST.

On Chalmers’ plan to tax unrealised capital gains on big superannuation balances, while not directly opposed, Henry says there are other ways to make the system fairer,

I’m not opposed to it. It’s just that I think there are other ways of increasing the taxation that applies to high superannuation balances and improving the intergenerational equity of the superannuation system. In the tax review that the Rudd government Commissioned, which I led, which was published in 2010, we spent quite a lot of time detailing how we thought the taxation arrangements applying to superannuation could be improved.

The thing that stands out is this big difference between the taxation of superannuation fund earnings in the so-called accumulation phase and the treatment that they get in the so-called pension phase, So […] these poor young workers, struggling, see the earnings on their accumulating superannuation balance as being taxed at 15%, whilst those who have big superannuation balances and are in the retirement, the earnings in their superannuation funds are completely tax-exempt, And that just seems rather weird.

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

– ref. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Ken Henry on changing the tax system to give struggling workers a fairer go – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-ken-henry-on-changing-the-tax-system-to-give-struggling-workers-a-fairer-go-259887

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hussein Dia, Professor of Future Urban Mobility, Swinburne University of Technology

As the world watches the US–Iran situation with concern, the ripple effect from these events are reaching global oil supply chains – and exposing their fragility.

If Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz as it is considering, it would restrict the global oil trade and trigger energy chaos.

Petrol in some Australian cities could hit A$2.50 a litre according to some economists. As global instability worsens, other experts warn price spikes are increasingly likely.

What would happen next? There is a precedent: the oil shocks of the 1970s, when oil prices quadrupled. The shock drove rapid change, from more efficient cars to sudden interest in alternative energy sources. This time, motorists would likely switch to electric vehicles.

If this crisis continues or if another one flares up, it could mark a turning point in Australia’s long dependence on foreign oil.

What would an oil shock mean?

Australia currently imports 80% of its liquid fuels, the highest level on record. If the flow of oil stopped, we would have about 50 days worth in storage before we ran out.

Our cars, buses, trucks and planes run overwhelmingly on petrol and diesel. Almost three-quarters (74%) of these liquid fuels are used in transport, with road transport accounting for more than half (54%) of all liquid fuels. Australia is highly exposed to global supply shocks.

The best available option to reduce dependence on oil imports is to electrify transport.

How does Australia compare on EVs?

EV uptake in Australia continues to lag behind global leaders. In 2024, EVs accounted for 9.65% of new car sales in Australia, up from 8.45% in 2023.

In the first quarter of 2025, EVs were 6.3% of new car sales, a decline from 7.4% in the final quarter of 2024.

Norway remains the global leader, with battery-electric passenger cars making up 88.9% of sales in 2024. The United Kingdom also saw significant growth – EVs hit almost 20% of new car registrations in 2024.

In China, EVs made up 40.9% of new car sales in 2024. The 12.87 million cars sold represent three-quarters of total EV sales worldwide.

One reason for Australia’s sluggishness is a lack of reliable public chargers. While charging infrastructure is expanding, large parts of regional Australia still lack reliable access to EV charging.

Until recently, Australia’s fuel efficiency standards were among the weakest in the OECD. Earlier this year, the government’s new standards came into force. These are expected to boost EV uptake.

Could global tensions trigger faster action?

If history is any guide, oil shocks lead to long-term change.

The 1970s oil shocks triggered waves of energy reform.

When global oil prices quadrupled in 1973–74, many nations were forced to reconsider where they got their energy. A few years later, the 1979 Iranian Revolution caused another major supply disruption, sending oil prices soaring and pushing much of the world into recession.

These shocks drove the formation of the International Energy Agency in 1974, spurred alternative energy investment and led to advances in fuel-efficiency standards.

Much more recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed the European Union to face up to its reliance on Russian gas and find alternatives by importing gas from different countries and accelerating the clean energy shift.

Clearly, energy shocks can be catalysts for long-term structural change in how we produce and consume energy.

The new crisis could do the same, but only if policy catches up.

If fuel prices shot up and stayed there, consumer behaviour would begin to shift. People would drive less and seek alternate forms of transport. Over time, more would look for better ways to get around.

But without stronger support such as incentives, infrastructure and fuel security planning, shifting consumer preferences could be too slow to matter.

A clean-energy future is more secure

Cutting oil dependency through electrification isn’t just good for the climate. It’s also a hedge against future price shocks and supply disruptions.

Transport is now Australia’s third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Now that emissions are falling in the electricity sector, transport will be the highest emitting sector emissions source as soon as 2030.

Building a cleaner transport system also means building a more resilient one. Charging EVs on locally produced renewable power cuts our exposure to global oil markets. So do biofuels, better public transport and smarter urban planning.

Improving domestic energy resilience isn’t just about climate targets. It’s about economic stability and national security. Clean local energy sources reduce vulnerability to events beyond our control.

What can we learn from China?

China offers a compelling case study. The nation of 1.4 billion faces real oil security challenges. In response, Beijing has spent the past decade building a domestic clean energy ecosystem to reduce oil dependency and cut emissions.

This is now bearing fruit. Last year, China’s oil imports had the first sustained fall in nearly two decades. Crude oil imports fell 1.5%, while oil refinery activity also fell due to lower demand.

China’s green energy transition was driven by coordinated policy, industrial investment and public support for clean transport.

China’s rapid shift to EVs and clean energy shows how long-term planning and targeted investment can pay off on climate and energy security.

What we do next matters

The rolling crises of 2025 present Australian policymakers a rare alignment of interests. What’s good for the climate, for consumers and for national security may now be the same thing.

Real change will require more than sustained high petrol prices. It demands political will, targeted investment and a long-term vision for clean, resilient transport.

Doing nothing has a real cost – not just in what we pay at the service station, but in how vulnerable we remain to events a long way away.

Hussein Dia receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the iMOVE Australia Cooperative Research Centre, Transport for New South Wales, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, Victorian Department of Transport and Planning, and Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.

– ref. Oil shocks in the 1970s drove rapid changes in transport. It could happen again if Middle East tensions continue – https://theconversation.com/oil-shocks-in-the-1970s-drove-rapid-changes-in-transport-it-could-happen-again-if-middle-east-tensions-continue-259670

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jasmine Titova, PhD Candidate, CQUniversity Australia

When tennis legend Serena Williams
retired in 2022, she stated:

If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labour of expanding our family.

Many elite athletes end their sporting careers prematurely to have children, with the physical burden of pregnancy one of many barriers.

Despite these barriers, a growing number of elite athletes are proving motherhood and elite sport are compatible and even complementary – but they need better support.

Responding to this need, the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) today announced new recommendations in this space, which are the most comprehensive of their kind globally.

Just seven years out from Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympics, this clearer new policy could give confidence to countless Australian athletes who are determined to become parents as well as striving for the podium.

The push for more support

Women can train safely during and after pregnancy but it is often practical challenges – like a lack of contract security, ranking and categorisation protection and limited access to parenting facilities – that prevent them from continuing in their sport.

In Australia, Olympic sprint kayaker Alyce Wood, marathon runner Genevieve Gregson and water polo player Keesja Gofers have gone on to reach personal bests and career-highs after having children. These athletes have highlighted the challenges and gaps they faced along the way, despite organisational support for athlete mums improving in recent years.

Alongside others athlete mums, they are now advocating for better support systems.

This call to action has become increasingly urgent as women’s sport experiences unprecedented growth through increased visibility, investment and professionalisation.

Research driving change

Our CQUniversity research team partnered with the AIS and the Queensland Academy of Sport to develop national evidence-based recommendations to guide sporting organisations in how to support pregnant and parenting athletes.

Underpinning these recommendations was a comprehensive series of studies spanning four years.

The project began by exploring global findings to understand the barriers and enablers faced by elite athletes during preconception, pregnancy, postpartum and parenting.

Our research found elite athletes encounter more than 30 unique barriers during these critical windows, including:

• challenges planning pregnancy around sporting competitions
• the physical impacts of pregnancy and childbirth
• training considerations
• the logistics and cost of caring for an infant while travelling.

Central to these findings was sporting organisations’ lack of pregnancy and parenting policies.

A subsequent review found only 22 out of 104 (21%) national sporting organisations had at least one policy detailing support for pregnant and parenting athletes.

Listening to athletes and staff

To better understand the gaps, our research team met with more than 60 elite women athletes, support staff (like coaches and health professionals) and organisational staff across 25 sports.

We investigated the experiences and needs of elite athlete mothers and those planning children.

We discovered the vast majority were unhappy with the level of pregnancy and parenting support provided by sporting organisations.

They cited a lack of clear frameworks and women’s health education, prevailing stigma, discrimination and limited access to parenting facilities as key barriers.

As one athlete shared:

No one ever talks about it [starting a family] in my environment. It feels like a taboo topic because it’s kind of expected that it’s something you think about after sport. Like, your priority should be training and performing.

Another athlete described:

I’ve got a lot of friends who have also tried [returning after children] and have just not wanted to return because of the environment and lack of [organisational] support […] you have to go back to club level and then work your way back up to state and national level without any help or support.

This input helped shape the AIS recommendations, which are the most comprehensive of their kind globally.

They comprise of 19 policy recommendations and 89 practice recommendations (practical, actionable steps for sporting organisations to follow).

The guide is also the first to include a suite of resources including pregnancy and return-to-sport plan templates, checklists, frameworks and helpful resources to support implementation.

With the adoption of these recommendations, athletes will be able to:

• disclose pregnancy on their own terms (excluding required medical clearances and safety precautions)
• develop and regularly review a comprehensive, individualised plan guiding them through preconception, pregnancy, postpartum and parenting, in collaboration with relevant staff
• take time away from their sport during preconception, pregnancy and postpartum without facing financial or ranking/categorisation implications
• have continued access to facilities, services and relevant professionals during preconception, pregnancy and postpartum
• maintain their preferred level of engagement with the sporting organisation while taking parenting leave.

Sporting organisations adopting the recommendations should:

• implement accessible pregnancy policies
• educate athletes and staff on reproductive health
• provide essential parenting facilities like designated breastfeeding and childcare spaces.

The recommendations mark a significant step forward for women’s sport, directly addressing longstanding barriers. They will ensure women athletes receive the same basic rights and privileges standard for parents in most Australian workplaces.

Jasmine Titova received funding from the Australian Institute of Sport and the Australian Government’s Research Training Program.

Melanie Hayman 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. Parenthood or podium? It’s time Australian athletes had the support to choose both – https://theconversation.com/parenthood-or-podium-its-time-australian-athletes-had-the-support-to-choose-both-257725

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jaimie Monk, Research Fellow, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research

New Zealand’s unaffordable housing market means low-income families face big constraints on their accommodation options. This involves often accepting housing that is insecure, cold, damp or in unsuitable neighbourhoods.

But little is known about the impact of housing type early in life on children’s wellbeing over time.

Using data from nearly 6,000 children in the Growing Up in New Zealand study, our new research compared outcomes for children provided with public housing support during the crucial earliest years (pregnancy through to nine months) with those in other types of housing.

What we found supports ongoing investment in secure, quality housing as a way to reduce inequalities in New Zealand – particularly for those with very young children.

Importantly, by the age of 12, children who started life in public housing had higher levels of wellbeing than some of their peers.

Tracking wellbeing

For our project, we used data on the type of housing at nine months of age, as well as mothers’ assessments of children’s social and emotional development across the period when the children were two to nine years old.

The final data we used were the children’s own responses regarding their quality of life at 12 years old.

Housing was categorised into four types: private ownership (52.3% of children), public rental (9.1%), private rental (35.8%) or other (2.9%).

The New Zealand government provides housing subsidies to approximately 7% of the population. Public housing comprises around 4% of the country’s housing stock.

Demand for help has remained high, with 20,300 people on the waitlist for social housing in December 2024. At the same time, Kāinga Ora has axed 212 housing projects because they did not stack up financially, or were in the wrong locations.

Housing influences behaviour

Throughout our research, we found children who began life in public housing were the group facing the most disadvantage. They exhibited higher levels of behavioural difficulties in early childhood than those in other housing types.

These behavioural difficulties include conduct, hyperactivity and emotional or peer relationship problems. However, their difficulty scores declined more steeply over time, getting closer to their peers by age nine.

In contrast, children’s trajectories of prosocial behaviour, such as being kind and helpful, were the same for each group.

By 12, self-reported wellbeing for children who started life in public housing was at or above that of their peers in private rentals, despite being in the most disadvantaged group in their early years.

These results are different to the outcomes seen in similar research from Australia which found children in public housing had widening gaps in wellbeing compared with their peers in privately owned houses.

In New Zealand, factors such as strong relationships with important adults such as parents and teachers, and reduced exposure to bullying, were found to be more strongly associated with quality of life at this age than housing type or frequency of moving house.

The importance of a stable home

Our work focuses on the early years of a child’s life where security, financial stability and a warm, dry home are important for children’s healthy development. Public housing filled this need for many low-income families.

Despite the positive results seen at 12, gaps in behavioural development between children from the public housing group and their peers were apparent when children started school.

These differences in school readiness mean these children are likely to need wider support to ensure they can make the most of long-term educational opportunities.

But overall, having access to public housing in infancy appears to have cumulative benefits for vulnerable children in New Zealand, providing a stable base for families as children start their lives.

Jaimie Monk received funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Endeavour Programme for this research and has previously received funding from the Ministry of Social Development.

– ref. Stable public housing in the first year of life boosts children’s wellbeing years down the track – new research – https://theconversation.com/stable-public-housing-in-the-first-year-of-life-boosts-childrens-wellbeing-years-down-the-track-new-research-259534

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Daniel, Associate Lecturer in Communication, Western Sydney University

Filmgoers have long been captivated by stories about robots. We are fascinated by their utopian promise, their superhuman intelligence and, in the case of the cyborg, their often uncanny resemblance to humans.

But it is the evil robot – the machine that malfunctions, rebels or was built to harm – that has most powerfully gripped the collective imagination of audiences.

From the silent menace of Maschinenmensch in 1927’s Metropolis, to the relentless pursuit of the Terminator, to the campy violence of M3GAN, evil robots continue to resonate.

These films not only thrill, scare and entertain audiences. They also reflect deep-seated cultural anxieties about the unpredictable consequences of the current and future human-robot relationship.

The killer robot is far from a simple villain. It is a mirror held up to some of the most pressing cultural questions we have about human autonomy and responsibility in the digital age.

The precarity of human control

The enduring appeal of the evil robot narrative lies in the way horror often channels our deepest cultural anxieties about the speed of technological advancement and the precarity of human control in an increasingly digital (and robotic) world.

In The Spark of Fear, scholar Brian Duchaney posits that improvements in technology necessitate new types of horror stories, and that horror as a genre acts out our distrust of the social advances that new technology brings.

In the late 1960s, there was unease about the growing sophistication of computers and the impacts of the Space Race. HAL 9000 of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) represented this threat through a disembodied AI that icily turned against its human creators.

The android Ash in Alien (1979) added another layer of menace, disguised as a human embedded in the spacecraft crew and programmed to prioritise corporate interests over human life. In this case, Ash became a proxy for concerns over corporate adoption of automation, and the increasing role of technology in military and industrial contexts.

During the Cold War era, fears of nuclear annihilation and concerns over reaching a point where we could no longer switch off the machines led to the unforgettable T-800 and shape-shifting T-1000 in the first two Terminator films (1984 and 1991).

In the 21st century, as artificial intelligence and robotics became more prevalent in everyday life, the cinematic robot has entered our homes, culminating in M3GAN’s companion-gone-rogue.

In M3GAN (2022), Gemma (Allison Williams) is a robotics designer who creates an AI-powered companion doll to help her orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw) cope with her grief. But the doll becomes dangerously overprotective.

In M3GAN 2.0 (2025), the consciousness of the titular robot appears to have survived the 2022 film and, in a move that borrows from The Terminator 2, M3GAN shifts from villain to protector.

The new film explores the consequences of the underlying tech for M3GAN being stolen and misused by a powerful defence contractor to create a military-grade robot, known as Amelia. The only option to counteract Amelia is for Gemma to resurrect M3GAN – complete with upgrades to make her faster, stronger and more deadly.

Our technological anxieties

Why is M3GAN such an effective avatar for our contemporary anxieties?

Horror theorist Noël Carroll argues that monsters are often frightening because they don’t fit neatly into normal categories. They may be “in-between” things (such as part human, part machine) or contradictory (for example a zombie: both alive and dead at the same time).

M3GAN is a great example of both. She looks and acts like a young girl, with expressive facial features and a snarky sense of humour. But she’s really just artificial intelligence inside a robot body.

She’s also contradictory: she is designed to care for and protect her owner, yet she does so in exceedingly violent and deadly ways. These paradoxes make her both frightening and fascinating for audiences.

M3GAN and M3GAN 2.0 bring to the surface our technological anxieties, and defuse them through their camp qualities.

One sequence in the earlier film sees M3GAN break into a fluid yet unsettling dance, mimicking the performance of many a TikTok teen, only for the dance to end abruptly when she snatches a paper cutter blade and returns to stalking her victim.

This meme-ified moment – combined with some deadpan one-liners and often comically ironic facial expressions – have led to M3GAN becoming a gay icon in the wake of the original film.

M3GAN’s campiness doesn’t completely neutralise the horror. It reformulates it, offering a cathartic release that makes the subject matter more digestible. While we feel fear, we do so without real-world consequences. The fear is disarmed through humour.

This multifaceted horror experience more fully reflects the complexities of our evolving relationship with new technology. These relationships often move through a spectrum of concern, anxiety and fear before we find ways to manage and normalise those feelings.

Humour and catharsis are two of these coping mechanisms. Movies provide us with a way of neatly and temporarily resolving what often remain unresolved questions.

Films like M3GAN 2.0 illustrate how horror narratives can also transform alongside the technologies they critique, offering not only tension and jump scares, but also philosophical consideration, comedy and cathartic release.

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

– ref. From HAL 9000 to M3GAN: what film’s evil robots tell us about contemporary tech fears – https://theconversation.com/from-hal-9000-to-m3gan-what-films-evil-robots-tell-us-about-contemporary-tech-fears-258397

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trivess Moore, Associate Professor in Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University

On the question of gas, Victoria’s government faces pressure from many directions.

The Bass Strait wells supplying Australia’s most gas-dependent state are running dry. Gas prices shot up in 2020 and have stayed high. Natural gas is mainly methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

But weaning more than two million gas-using households off the fossil fuel is hard. The gas lobby pushed back against proposed changes, as did the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, while resistance from some stakeholders led to a backdown on plans to phase out gas cooktops.

That’s why the government’s decision to introduce most of the proposed changes is good news. Early plans to require dead gas heaters to be replaced with electric are gone for private housing. But from 2027, new homes have to be all-electric, while landlords will have to replace defunct gas appliances with electric and have ceiling insulation. The move will cut energy bills and accelerate the shift away from gas.

How did we get here?

This week’s announcement comes after lengthy consultation on changes first proposed in 2021.

Some early responses have been supportive, though the gas industry isn’t happy, claiming the reforms will restrict customer choice and cost households more.

Premier Jacinta Allan pitched the announcement as a way to reserve dwindling and more expensive gas supplies for industry, stating:

by 2029, these reforms will unlock just under 12 petajoules of gas every year […] by 2035, they’ll deliver 44 PJ annually – enough to meet 85% of Victoria’s forecast industrial demand.

What are the main changes?

From January 2027, all newly built homes have to be all-electric. This closes a loophole in existing rules where the all-electric rule only applied to new houses requiring a planning permit.

When a gas hot water system reaches end of life in an existing house, it will have to be replaced with an efficient electric alternative from March 2027.

The news is even better for the rental sector.

In 2021, the state government introduced minimum requirements for rentals. These are now being upgraded to include improved energy efficiency.

From March 2027, new energy efficiency rules will apply to rentals and public housing, including:

• gas hot water systems and heaters must be replaced with efficient heat pumps at end of life

• at the start of a new lease, the rental must have draught proofing, ceiling insulation installed with a minimum R5.0 rating when there is no insulation already, and an efficient electric cooling system in the main living area.

To help households transition, all upgrades are covered under the Victorian Energy Upgrades program which will help reduce capital costs.

These plans are welcome. They will cut household energy bills and help meet wider sustainability goals.

As any Victorian who has sweltered over summer or frozen through winter knows, many of the state’s houses are not great on thermal performance. Most existing homes were built before the introduction of minimum standards in the early 2000s.

Older homes are also more likely to present health risks such as mould and damp.

Trade-offs proved necessary

During the consultation period, the Victorian government floated even more ambitious plans, such as requiring all households to replace dead gas heaters with efficient electric options.

The government originally explored making electric induction cooktops mandatory in new builds. These plans didn’t get through, potentially because of the attachment some householders feel to their gas heaters and cooktops, as we found in our research.

The state government looks to have decided not to let perfect be the enemy of the good. Better to make significant improvements even with some trade-offs.

When the market isn’t enough

Policymakers usually prefer the market to find solutions rather than requiring change through regulations.

This isn’t always possible. Here, Victoria’s gas supply challenges, subpar housing stock and the pressing need to act on climate change means regulatory nudges are needed.

Could the government’s changes trigger a backlash? It’s possible, especially if the changes are framed as an added cost to landlords and their tenants. All-electric households are cheaper to run, but it costs money upfront to replace appliances. Waiting until an appliance’s end of life and providing upgrade subsidies will help reduce the cost impact. High gas-users save more – a Melbourne household quitting gas would save almost A$14,000 over ten years.

18 months until launch

The first of these changes will be in place in just 18 months.

Schemes such as this have to be structured carefully. To ensure they work as well as possible for renters in particular, we suggest measures to avoid unintended consequences, such as means-testing any subsidy schemes to avoid leaving out lower-income households.

We found many householders cannot access reliable information on retrofits and don’t always trust the skills and information given by tradespeople. This is why it’s vital to have accessible, independent, accurate and trustworthy support in understanding how best to replace gas appliances with electric – and how to assess tradie qualifications.

The government’s decision to exempt rentals with existing ceiling insulation means rentals with old or compacted insulation will miss out.

Victoria should instead look to the Australian Capital Territory, which mandates installation of new R5.0 insulation if existing insulation isn’t at least R2.

The government must also ensure renters don’t carry the upfront cost of the upgrades in higher rent. In Sweden, rent increases linked to energy efficiency upgrades were banned.

For the public to take to these changes, the government must ensure communication is clear and early and that any financial support is adequate and targeted to those most in need.

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

Nicola Willand has received funding for research from various organisations, including the Australian Research Council, the Victorian state government, the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, the Future Fuels Collaborative Research Centre, the National Health and Medical Research Council, Energy Consumers Australia and the British Academy. She is a trustee of the Fuel Poverty Research Network charity and affiliated with the Australian Institute of Architects.

Sarah Robertson has received funding from various organisations, including the Australian Research Council, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Victorian state government, Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, and VicHealth. She is a Steering Committee member for Future Earth Australia.

– ref. Yes, Victoria’s efforts to wean households off gas have been dialled back. But it’s still real progress – https://theconversation.com/yes-victorias-efforts-to-wean-households-off-gas-have-been-dialled-back-but-its-still-real-progress-259695

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Daniel, Associate Lecturer in Communication, Western Sydney University

Filmgoers have long been captivated by stories about robots. We are fascinated by their utopian promise, their superhuman intelligence and, in the case of the cyborg, their often uncanny resemblance to humans.

But it is the evil robot – the machine that malfunctions, rebels or was built to harm – that has most powerfully gripped the collective imagination of audiences.

From the silent menace of Maschinenmensch in 1927’s Metropolis, to the relentless pursuit of the Terminator, to the campy violence of M3GAN, evil robots continue to resonate.

These films not only thrill, scare and entertain audiences. They also reflect deep-seated cultural anxieties about the unpredictable consequences of the current and future human-robot relationship.

The killer robot is far from a simple villain. It is a mirror held up to some of the most pressing cultural questions we have about human autonomy and responsibility in the digital age.

The precarity of human control

The enduring appeal of the evil robot narrative lies in the way horror often channels our deepest cultural anxieties about the speed of technological advancement and the precarity of human control in an increasingly digital (and robotic) world.

In The Spark of Fear, scholar Brian Duchaney posits that improvements in technology necessitate new types of horror stories, and that horror as a genre acts out our distrust of the social advances that new technology brings.

In the late 1960s, there was unease about the growing sophistication of computers and the impacts of the Space Race. HAL 9000 of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) represented this threat through a disembodied AI that icily turned against its human creators.

The android Ash in Alien (1979) added another layer of menace, disguised as a human embedded in the spacecraft crew and programmed to prioritise corporate interests over human life. In this case, Ash became a proxy for concerns over corporate adoption of automation, and the increasing role of technology in military and industrial contexts.

During the Cold War era, fears of nuclear annihilation and concerns over reaching a point where we could no longer switch off the machines led to the unforgettable T-800 and shape-shifting T-1000 in the first two Terminator films (1984 and 1991).

In the 21st century, as artificial intelligence and robotics became more prevalent in everyday life, the cinematic robot has entered our homes, culminating in M3GAN’s companion-gone-rogue.

In M3GAN (2022), Gemma (Allison Williams) is a robotics designer who creates an AI-powered companion doll to help her orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw) cope with her grief. But the doll becomes dangerously overprotective.

In M3GAN 2.0 (2025), the consciousness of the titular robot appears to have survived the 2022 film and, in a move that borrows from The Terminator 2, M3GAN shifts from villain to protector.

The new film explores the consequences of the underlying tech for M3GAN being stolen and misused by a powerful defence contractor to create a military-grade robot, known as Amelia. The only option to counteract Amelia is for Gemma to resurrect M3GAN – complete with upgrades to make her faster, stronger and more deadly.

Our technological anxieties

Why is M3GAN such an effective avatar for our contemporary anxieties?

Horror theorist Noël Carroll argues that monsters are often frightening because they don’t fit neatly into normal categories. They may be “in-between” things (such as part human, part machine) or contradictory (for example a zombie: both alive and dead at the same time).

M3GAN is a great example of both. She looks and acts like a young girl, with expressive facial features and a snarky sense of humour. But she’s really just artificial intelligence inside a robot body.

She’s also contradictory: she is designed to care for and protect her owner, yet she does so in exceedingly violent and deadly ways. These paradoxes make her both frightening and fascinating for audiences.

M3GAN and M3GAN 2.0 bring to the surface our technological anxieties, and defuse them through their camp qualities.

One sequence in the earlier film sees M3GAN break into a fluid yet unsettling dance, mimicking the performance of many a TikTok teen, only for the dance to end abruptly when she snatches a paper cutter blade and returns to stalking her victim.

This meme-ified moment – combined with some deadpan one-liners and often comically ironic facial expressions – have led to M3GAN becoming a gay icon in the wake of the original film.

M3GAN’s campiness doesn’t completely neutralise the horror. It reformulates it, offering a cathartic release that makes the subject matter more digestible. While we feel fear, we do so without real-world consequences. The fear is disarmed through humour.

This multifaceted horror experience more fully reflects the complexities of our evolving relationship with new technology. These relationships often move through a spectrum of concern, anxiety and fear before we find ways to manage and normalise those feelings.

Humour and catharsis are two of these coping mechanisms. Movies provide us with a way of neatly and temporarily resolving what often remain unresolved questions.

Films like M3GAN 2.0 illustrate how horror narratives can also transform alongside the technologies they critique, offering not only tension and jump scares, but also philosophical consideration, comedy and cathartic release.

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

– ref. From HAL 9000 to ME3AN: what film’s evil robots tell us about contemporary tech fears – https://theconversation.com/from-hal-9000-to-me3an-what-films-evil-robots-tell-us-about-contemporary-tech-fears-258397

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato

The winter school holidays will mean families across Aotearoa New Zealand will be looking for indoor activities to entertain children. With millions of visitors each year, museums focused on the country’s history will inevitably play host to local and international visitors.

Museums tend to enjoy a high level of trust among the public. They’re widely seen as neutral, factual sources of historical knowledge.

But like all forms of storytelling, museums present the past in particular ways. They narrate events from a certain group’s or individual’s perspective and explain why events unfolded in the way they did.

In this respect, museums are not so different from historical films. Consider the different ways two recent movies – 1917 and the remake of All Quiet on the Western Front – narrate the first world war.

In 1917, the storyteller takes the British side, encouraging viewers to invest in the bravery and endurance of British soldiers. But All Quiet on the Western Front is narrated from a German perspective, inviting viewers to grieve for German soldiers as victims of a political system that glorified war.

Museum exhibitions tell stories in a similar way. Visitors should be asking not just what story is told, but why.

Spoiler alert: it often has to do with national identity. Museums tell particular stories of the past because these stories support a particular image of New Zealand as a nation.

Four questions for your next museum visit

At its core, every story has two basic ingredients: actors and events. To turn these into a compelling narrative, the storyteller connects the events into a plot, so they build on each other. The storyteller also transforms actors into characters by giving them particular traits — brave, selfish, wise, cruel and the like. Museums do this, too.

As you move through a museum exhibition, try asking yourself the following questions:

1. Which historical events are included — and which are left out?

Every story begins somewhere. Museums choose which events to include and which to leave out, shaping how visitors understand what happened and why.

Take Te Papa’s Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War exhibition. It opens with the landing at ANZAC Cove but skips over events in the lead-up to WWI — such as Britain’s earlier moves to seize Ottoman territories like Cyprus and Egypt.

Leaving these out helps frame Gallipoli as a noble – albeit tragic – “coming of age” for New Zealand. But in reality, ANZAC soldiers were fighting to support Britain’s imperial ambitions in the Middle East.

2. How are events organised into a plot?

Museums don’t just say “this happened, then that happened”. They link events into a larger plot — a chain of cause and effect that explains how one thing led to another. This can happen through text, but also through spatial layout, lighting, sound and other techniques that guide visitors through rising and falling moments of narrative tension.

Often, museums use familiar plot types to connect events. One common example is the quest narrative — a story in which heroes must navigate unknown terrain, and where mistakes are part of the journey and threaten to derail the mission. It’s a bit like The Lord of the Rings: a journey full of challenges, wrong turns and personal growth.

At Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi, Aotearoa New Zealand’s Treaty story is told using this quest structure. The Treaty is presented as something unique and unfamiliar and the British, confronted with this unknown, fall back on familiar colonial practices — the “mistake” that led to the New Zealand wars.

Because this misstep is treated as part of the learning curve typical of any quest, the exhibition avoids harder questions about this violent part of history, and instead preserves the image of Aotearoa New Zealand as fundamentally tolerant and respectful.

3. Who are the main actors in the story — and who is missing?

Every story needs protagonists, and whose perspective frames the story matters. In many smaller regional museums, history is still told almost entirely from the viewpoint of European settlers. But what about Māori experiences of colonisation? Or the histories of Chinese communities and other migrants who arrived in the 1800s?

By focusing narrowly on European settlers as the main actors, these museums present a one-sided view of the past and construct an image of New Zealand as a European nation — one that expects others to assimilate.

4. How are the main actors characterised — and how are we meant to feel about them?

It’s not surprising that museums portray some actors positively and others less so. What’s more revealing is how certain individuals are elevated as symbols of the nation and how museums invite us to form personal connections with them.

In Te Papa’s Gallipoli exhibition, visitors can open drawers and boxes containing soldiers’ personal belongings. This intimate activity encourages us to feel close to these figures — not just learning about them, but identifying with them as embodying national qualities: bravery, resilience and a commitment to peace.

Why does this matter?

Historical museum narratives aren’t necessarily inaccurate — but, much like historical movies, they are selective. They highlight certain events, actors and cause-and-effect chains to tell a particular kind of story. Often, that story supports a specific idea of what it means to be an Aotearoa New Zealander.

By reading museum exhibitions with a critical eye, visitors can better understand not just the past, but how storytelling shapes national identity in the present — and imagine how it might be shaped differently.

Olli Hellmann 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. Whose story is being told — and why? 4 questions museum visitors should ask themselves this school holidays – https://theconversation.com/whose-story-is-being-told-and-why-4-questions-museum-visitors-should-ask-themselves-this-school-holidays-259538

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Zillmer, Professor of Neuropsychology, Drexel University

What makes you happy? Perhaps a good night’s sleep, or a wonderful meal with friends?

I am the director of the Happiness Lab at Drexel University, where I also teach a course on happiness. The Happiness Lab is a think tank that investigates the ingredients that contribute to people’s happiness.

Often, my students ask me something along the lines of, “Dr. Z, tell us one thing that will make us happier.”

As a first step, I advise them to spend more time outside.

Achieving lasting and sustainable happiness is more complicated. Research on the happiest countries in the world and the places where people live the longest, known as Blue Zones, shows a common thread: Residents feel they are part of something larger than themselves, such as a community or a city.

So if you’re living in a metropolis like Philadelphia, where, incidentally, the iconic pursuit of happiness charge was ratified in the Declaration of Independence, I believe urban citizenship – that is, forming an identity with your urban surroundings – should also be on your list.

Safety, social connection, beauty

Carl Jung, the renowned Swiss psychoanalyst, wrote extensively about the relationship between our internal world and our external environment.

He believed that this relationship was crucial to our psychological well-being.

More recent research in neuroscience and functional imaging has revealed a vast, intricate and complex neurological architecture underlying our psychological perception of a place. Numerous neurological pathways and functional loops transform a complex neuropsychological process into a simple realization: I am happy here!

For example, a happy place should feel safe.

The country of Croatia, a tourist haven for its beauty and culinary delights, is also one of the top 20 safest countries globally, according to the 2025 Global Peace Index.

The U.S. ranks 128th.

The availability of good food and drink can also be a significant factor in creating a happy place.

However, according to American psychologist Abraham Maslow, a pioneer in the field of positive psychology, the opportunity for social connectivity, experiencing something meaningful and having a sense of belonging is more crucial.

Furthermore, research on happy places suggests that they are beautiful. It should not come as a surprise that the happiest places in the world are also drop-dead gorgeous, such as the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mauritius, which is the happiest country in Africa, according to the 2025 World Happiness Report from the University of Oxford and others.

Happy places often provide access to nature and promote active lifestyles, which can help relieve stress. The residents of the island of Ikaria in Greece, for example, one of the original Blue Zones, demonstrate high levels of physical activity and social interaction.

Philly Happiness Map

I asked my undergraduate psychology students at Drexel, many of whom come from other cities, states and countries, to pick one place in Philadelphia where they feel happy.

From the 243 student responses, the Happiness Lab curated 28 Philly happy places, based on how frequently the places were endorsed and their accessibility.

Philadelphia’s founder, William Penn, would likely approve that Rittenhouse Square Park and three other public squares – Logan, Franklin and Washington – were included. These squares were vital to Penn’s vision of landscaped public parks to promote the health of the mind and body by providing “salubrious spaces similar to the private garden.” They are beautiful and approachable, serving as “places to rest, take a pause, work, or read a book,” one student told us.

Places such as the Philadelphia Zoo, Penn’s Landing and the Philadelphia Museum of Art are “joyful spots that are fun to explore, and one can also take your parents along if need be,” as another student described.

The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, a historic library with eclectic programming, feels to one student like “coming home, a perfect third place.”

Some students mentioned happy places that are less known. These include tucked-away gardens such as the John F. Collings Park at 1707 Chestnut St., the rooftop Cira Green at 129 S. 30th St. and the James G. Kaskey Memorial Park and BioPond at 433 S. University Ave.

My students said these are small, unexpected spots that provide an excellent opportunity for a quiet, peaceful break, to be present, whether enjoyed alone or with a friend. I checked them out and I agree.

The students also mentioned places I had never heard of even though I’ve lived in the city for over 30 years.

The “cat park” at 526 N. Natrona St. in Mantua is a quiet little park with an eclectic personality and lots of friendly cats.

Mango Mango Dessert at 1013 Cherry St. in Chinatown, which is a frequently endorsed happiness spot among the students because of its “bustling streets, lively atmosphere and delicious food,” is a perfect pit stop for mango lovers. And Maison Sweet, at 2930 Chestnut St. in University City, is a casual bakery and cafe “where you may end up staying longer than planned,” one student shared.

I find that Philly’s happy places, as seen through the eyes of college students, tend to offer a space for residents to take time out from their day to pause, reset, relax and feel more connected and in touch with the city.

Happiness principals are universal, yet our own journeys are very personal. Philadelphians across the city may have their own list of happy places. There are really no right or wrong answers. If you don’t have a personal happy space, just start exploring and you may be surprised what you will find, including a new sense of happiness.

See the full Philly Happiness Map list here, and visit the exhibit at the W.W. Hagerty Library at Drexel University to learn more.

Read more of our stories about Philadelphia.

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

– ref. Philly psychology students map out local landmarks and hidden destinations where they feel happiest – https://theconversation.com/philly-psychology-students-map-out-local-landmarks-and-hidden-destinations-where-they-feel-happiest-258790

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

The opposition is commencing the challenging task of framing a new energy policy, including deciding whether to stick by its commitment to net zero emissions by 2050.

Liberal leader Sussan Ley, appearing at the National Press Club, announced a Coalition working group on energy and emissions reduction policy. It will report to her and Nationals leader David Littleproud.

Led by energy spokesman Dan Tehan, the group will include shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien, resources spokeswoman Susan McDonald, industry spokesman Alex Hawke, environment spokeswoman Angie Bell and shadow assistant ministers Dean Smith and Andrew Willcox.

The work comes against the background of a significant number of the Nationals and some Liberals wanting to drop the commitment to 2050 net zero. The Coalition signed up to net zero under then Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Ley said over the course of the term the Coaltion’s task would be to develop a plan with two goals

• a stable energy grid producing affordable and reliable power for households and businesses, and

• reducing emissions so Australia was playing its part in the global effort.

“Our approach must be practical and principled as we address both these goals,” she said.

Ley said every member of both Coalition parties would have the opportunity to engage with the work.

She said crippling power price increases had been taking small businesses and factories to the brink.

The opposition this week is having meetings of its frontbenchers and party room, as it ponders on the election disaster. Ley declared bluntly in her speech that the Liberals didn’t just lose – they were “totally smashed”.

The Liberal party has already set up a review of the election defeat but Ley said more was needed.

“This is why our federal executive will soon discuss a more broad-ranging and wider review process of the fundamentals of the Liberal party.

“I believe there is a need for the party as a whole to have a deeper look at the existential issues we face, how our divisional constitutions operate and how we can better serve, support and most importantly grow our membership.

“This will not be an academic exercise. My parliamentary team and I will stay in close touch with out state and territory divisions to ensure success in this important area.”

Queensland Liberal senator James McGrath “will play an integral role in bringing this longer term body of work together”.

“It will be a crucial part of our efforts to better respect, reflect and represent modern Australia.”

Ley stressed she was highly committed to getting more women into the Liberal ranks, without being wedded to a particular way of doing it.

“I’m agnostic on specific methods to make it happen, but I am a zealot that it does actually happen.

“Current approaches have clearly not worked, so I am open to any approach that will.

“The Liberal Party operates as a federated model, meaning each state division determines its own preselection rules.

“If some state divisions choose to implement quotas, that is fine. If others don’t, that is also fine.

“But what is not fine is not having enough women.

“As the first woman leader of our federal party, let me send the clearest possible message: we need to do better, recruit better, retain better and support better.

“That is why I will work with every division, as will my parliamentary team, to ensure we preselect more women for the 2028 election.”

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

– ref. Opposition starts on challenge of crafting (yet another) energy policy – https://theconversation.com/opposition-starts-on-challenge-of-crafting-yet-another-energy-policy-259683

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kit Prendergast, Postdoctoral Researcher, Pollination Ecology, University of Southern Queensland

After a devastating bushfire, efforts to help nature recover typically focus on vertebrates and plants. Yet extreme fires can threaten insects, too.

After the Black Summer fires of 2019–20, I embarked on world-first research into whether “bee hotels” – a type of artificial nesting structure – could help native bees recolonise an area.

I installed 1,000 bee hotels in the Jarrah forests of Western Australia, parts of which burned during the Black Summer fires.

After months of monitoring, I concluded – with great excitement and relief – that the project was a success. Native bees were using the structures to lay eggs and raise young. The work shows pollinators such as bees can be aided after fires, to help bring damaged landscapes back to life.

Vital wild pollinators

Australia has more than 2,000 species of native bees. They help keep our ecosystems healthy, and play a crucial role in pollinating wildflowers.

Native bees typically nest in holes in trees that occur naturally when beetles bore through wood. When fire destroys trees, bees can be left without a place to nest and reproduce. This prevents them from recolonising habitats after fire.

Under climate change, bushfires in Australia are becoming more frequent and severe. Wood-nesting bees are especially vulnerable to bushfires. For example, fires are recognised as a major threat to the glittering green carpenter bee (Xylocopa aerata), which creates its own holes in wood to nest in.

The worsening fires take place at a time when global populations of wild pollinators, such as bees, are in steady decline. This problem has been well-publicised, although the plight of Australia’s native bees has received less attention.

My research tested whether bee hotels could help our native bees bounce back after fire.

What the research found

The Jarrah Forest of southwest Western Australia is a biodiversity hotspot. The 1,000 bee hotels were installed across five sites in the northern part of the forest, where bushfires burned during the summer of 2019–20.

Bee hotels replicate the holes in wood that native bees nest in. In August 2021, I installed bee hotels of two types: wooden blocks with 15 holes drilled in them, and bunches of about 50 bamboo stems bundled together. I monitored them from September 2021 to March 2022.

At the end of the period I concluded – with great excitement and relief – that the project was a success. Across all bee hotels at the five sites, 832 cavities were occupied by native bees.

Assuming four cells per cavity for each offspring, this meant more than 3,300 native bees would likely emerge in the next generation.

Uptake by bees was initially slow. This was to be expected, because the main group of species that used bee hotels – from the Megachile genus – tend to not be active in the region until late spring.

I found the nests were also used by bees of the genus Hylaeus, as well as tiny Exoneura bees. Other inhabitants included wasps, spiders, ants and crickets.

I also surveyed three burnt sites where bee hotels were not installed. There, I recorded the numbers of native bees foraging on flowers, and compared it to the sites with bee hotels. More native bees were present at the latter sites, which reinforced my findings.

Importantly, the research allowed natural recolonisation. It did not involve installing bee hotels at unburnt sites, then moving them to burnt areas once they were occupied. This could have been disastrous.

Aside from depleting one population, it may have meant native bees were moved to an area where there were not enough flowers, or were forced to compete with existing bee populations.

The research also showed European honey bees could pose a problem for native bees in fire-damaged landscapes. At sites with a higher density of honey bees, fewer native bees were foraging and fewer nests were occupied in the bee hotels.

This supports previous findings by myself and others that honey bees can negatively affect native bees. It adds further evidence that honey bees should not be permitted in sensitive habitats, such as bushland following fire or in national parks.

Empowering bee-saving efforts

My research provides proof that bee hotels can aid in the recovery of cavity-nesting native bees after fires.

This work fills a major gap. While there has been much attention on the recovery of furry animals and plants after fires, there has been far less investment into the recovery of plant pollinators.

Leaving insects to languish after fires isn’t just bad for those species. It also hampers the ability of ecosystems to recover from fire and other damage. This is especially true for pollinators such as native bees, which are vital for plant reproduction.

This work empowers us to help native bees after fires, by providing nesting resources to promote populations.

Kit Prendergast received funding from the federal government’s Bushfire Recovery Grant to undertake this research project, and from Flow Hive to write the research paper. She was previously a member of the Australian Native Bee Association.

– ref. Australia’s native bees struggled after the Black Summer fires – but a world-first solution brought them buzzing back – https://theconversation.com/australias-native-bees-struggled-after-the-black-summer-fires-but-a-world-first-solution-brought-them-buzzing-back-258299

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Head, Canberra School of Government, University of Canberra

It looks, at least for now, as though tensions in the Middle East are easing somewhat. It appears much less likely Iran will try to close the
Strait of Hormuz, through which flows about a fifth of the world’s oil.

In response, oil prices have dropped to a two-week low below US$70 a barrel.

The economists at the Reserve Bank will be breathing a sigh of relief. A surge in oil prices would have injected more uncertainty into the global outlook. It would have made a decision on whether to cut interest rates in July harder.

Financial markets are betting on a rate cut at the July 7–8 meeting, but three of the four major bank economists are tipping August as more likely.

A tough global backdrop

The global economic environment is particularly challenging. Even before the recent increased tensions in the Middle East, the Trump tariff announcements (and withdrawals and re-impositions) were the major cause of the uncertainty around the domestic economy.

And there is a lot of “uncertainty”. Journalist Shane Wright noted the word “uncertain” appeared 134 times in the Reserve Bank’s latest Statement on Monetary Policy. Something similar has been noted in the United Kingdom.

There have been wild swings in the oil price in recent days. There was a surge on market fears Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz. The price slid when a ceasefire was announced. It rose again when the ceasefire was broken within hours. As the fragile truce appeared to hold, the price of oil has now gone back down.

Assumptions on the oil price

Forecasting where it will be in a day or week, let alone in a month or a year, is difficult. But economic forecasts underlying monetary policy decisions need to incorporate some view. The Reserve Bank generally assumes the oil price stays at its current level in the short term. It then uses the price in forward contracts as a basis for its forecasts beyond that.

A sustained jump in oil prices would have posed quite a dilemma for the Reserve Bank.

Generally a shock that adds to inflation would lead to the bank raising interest rates. In contrast, a shock that weakens economic activity would lead to the Bank lowering rates.

But a surge in oil prices would likely both increase inflation (by pushing up petrol prices) and weaken activity (by disrupting world trade and eroding consumers’ purchasing power).

If the oil price surge was expected to be short-lived, it is unlikely to get baked into inflationary expectations. The bank would then probably disregard it. But assessing the longevity of disruptions to the global oil market is not easy.

Monthly inflation drops to 2.1%

On Wednesday, the monthly consumer price index (CPI) fell to 2.1% in May from 2.4% in April. This is the equal lowest level since March 2001.

But the monthly reading will probably not impress RBA Governor Michele Bullock. In her most recent press conference, she commented that “we get four readings on inflation a year”, referring to the quarterly inflation reports. She was dismissive of what she termed “the monthly indicator which is very volatile”.

In taking its decisions, the bank often relies on an underlying inflation measure called the “trimmed mean”. This excludes items with the largest price movements up or down, so it removes petrol prices when they move by large amounts. This measure was 2.4% in the monthly report.

Petrol prices are also a significant contributor to the volatility of the monthly CPI.

Further cuts are likely

Both headline and underlying inflation are now within the central bank’s 2–3% target range. In its most recent outlook, the Reserve Bank forecast underlying inflation would remain in the target band, even if it made another two cuts in rates this year.

So a further interest rate cut remains likely. If it doesn’t cut in July, the bank could wait for the next quarterly inflation report on July 30, and then cut at the August 12 meeting.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers described the global economy as being “in a pretty dangerous place right now”.

“There’s a lot of volatility, unpredictability, uncertainty in the global economy,” he said. That is one thing that is not uncertain.

John Hawkins was formerly a senior economist at the Reserve Bank.

– ref. Wild swings in the oil price make the Reserve Bank’s job harder – https://theconversation.com/wild-swings-in-the-oil-price-make-the-reserve-banks-job-harder-259555

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gemma Sharp, Researcher in Body Image, Eating and Weight Disorders, Monash University

Following a particular diet or exercising a great deal are common and even encouraged in our health and image-conscious culture. With increased awareness of food allergies and other dietary requirements, it’s also not uncommon for someone to restrict or eliminate certain foods.

But these behaviours may also be the sign of an unhealthy relationship with food. You can have a problematic pattern of eating without being diagnosed with an eating disorder.

So, where’s the line? What is disordered eating, and what is an eating disorder?

What is disordered eating?

Disordered eating describes negative attitudes and behaviours towards food and eating that can lead to a disturbed eating pattern.

It can involve:

• dieting

• skipping meals

• avoiding certain food groups

• binge eating

• misusing laxatives and weight-loss medications

• inducing vomiting (sometimes known as purging)

• exercising compulsively.

Disordered eating is the term used when these behaviours are not frequent and/or severe enough to meet an eating disorder diagnosis.

Not everyone who engages in these behaviours will develop an eating disorder. But disordered eating – particularly dieting – usually precedes an eating disorder.

What is an eating disorder?

Eating disorders are complex psychiatric illnesses that can negatively affect a person’s body, mind and social life. They’re characterised by persistent disturbances in how someone thinks, feels and behaves around eating and their bodies.

To make a diagnosis, a qualified health professional will use a combination of standardised questionnaires, as well as more general questioning. These will determine how frequent and severe the behaviours are, and how they affect day-to-day functioning.

Examples of clinical diagnoses include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder.

How common are eating disorders and disordered eating?

The answer can vary quite radically depending on the study and how it defines disordered behaviours and attitudes.

An estimated 8.4% of women and 2.2% of men will develop an eating disorder at some point in their lives. This is most common during adolescence.

Disordered eating is also particularly common in young people with 30% of girls and 17% of boys aged 6–18 years reporting engaging in these behaviours.

Although the research is still emerging, it appears disordered eating and eating disorders are even more common in gender diverse people.

Can we prevent eating disorders?

There is some evidence eating disorder prevention programs that target risk factors – such as dieting and concerns about shape and weight – can be effective to some extent in the short term.

The issue is most of these studies last only a few months. So we can’t determine whether the people involved went on to develop an eating disorder in the longer term.

In addition, most studies have involved girls or women in late high school and university. By this age, eating disorders have usually already emerged. So, this research cannot tell us as much about eating disorder prevention and it also neglects the wide range of people at risk of eating disorders.

Is orthorexia an eating disorder?

In defining the line between eating disorders and disordered eating, orthorexia nervosa is a contentious issue.

The name literally means “proper appetite” and involves a pathological obsession with proper nutrition, characterised by a restrictive diet and rigidly avoiding foods believed to be “unhealthy” or “impure”.

These disordered eating behaviours need to be taken seriously as they can lead to malnourishment, loss of relationships, and overall poor quality of life.

However, orthorexia nervosa is not an official eating disorder in any diagnostic manual.

Additionally, with the popularity of special diets (such as keto or paleo), time-restricted eating, and dietary requirements (for example, gluten-free) it can sometimes be hard to decipher when concerns about diet have become disordered, or may even be an eating disorder.

For example, around 6% of people have a food allergy. Emerging evidence suggests they are also more likely to have restrictive types of eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder.

However, following a special diet such as veganism, or having a food allergy, does not automatically lead to disordered eating or an eating disorder.

It is important to recognise people’s different motivations for eating or avoiding certain foods. For example, a vegan may restrict certain food groups due to animal rights concerns, rather than disordered eating symptoms.

What to look out for

If you’re concerned about your own relationship with food or that of a loved one, here are some signs to look out for:

• preoccupation with food and food preparation

• cutting out food groups or skipping meals entirely

• obsession with body weight or shape

• large fluctuations in weight

• compulsive exercise

• mood changes and social withdrawal.

It’s always best to seek help early. But it is never too late to seek help.

In Australia, if you are experiencing difficulties in your relationships with food and your body, you can contact the Butterfly Foundation’s national helpline on 1800 33 4673 (or via their online chat).

For parents concerned their child might be developing concerning relationships with food, weight and body image, Feed Your Instinct highlights common warning signs, provides useful information about help seeking and can generate a personalised report to take to a health professional.

Gemma Sharp receives funding from an NHMRC Investigator Grant. She is a Professor and the Founding Director and Member of the Consortium for Research in Eating Disorders, a registered charity.

– ref. What’s the difference between an eating disorder and disordered eating? – https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-an-eating-disorder-and-disordered-eating-256787

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Mickel, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology

The new documentary film Joh: The Last King of Queensland offers a dramatised account of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s premiership from 1968 to 1987.

Directed by Kriv Stenders, using reenactments (Bjelke-Petersen is played by Richard Roxburgh), archival footage and contemporary interviews, the film portrays him as a complex and polarising figure.

We are given a man who is socially conservative, economically ambitious and politically divisive. A man who profoundly shaped Queensland’s governance and development.

But while the film effectively captures his popular appeal and role in the state’s economic transformation, it simplifies key aspects of his political ascent.

In particular, it doesn’t capture the complexities of electoral mechanics, internal party maneuvering and the influence of the public service.

National Party dominance

We start with Bjelke-Petersen’s rural upbringing. Stenders emphasises the formative impact of his Lutheran faith, personal abstinence, strong work ethic and family values. These would be foundational to his leadership style.

Roxburgh highlights Bjelke-Petersen’s rhetorical simplicity. He presented himself as an advocate for “ordinary” Queenslanders, especially in rural and conservative communities.

A central critique of Bjelke-Petersen was his manipulation of Queensland’s electoral system.

The film illustrates how electoral malapportionment advantaged rural constituencies, fuelling the National Party’s dominance. But this treatment lacks nuance.

Former MP David Byrne’s claim that Bjelke-Petersen remained premier solely due to the electoral system is presented uncritically.

The National Party outpolled the Liberals from 1977 on. Labor failed to win a statewide majority until 1989, under boundaries drawn by Bjelke-Petersen’s administration in 1986.

The narrative also omits the fact that electoral bias originated under earlier Labor governments.

While Roxburgh’s character mentions this legacy, his claim that there was “not a peep” of dissent overlooks sustained criticism from opposition leader Frank Nicklin throughout the 1950s.

The party apparatus

The film omits several key figures whose contributions were instrumental to the success of the Bjelke-Petersen era.

The organisational acumen of National Party president Robert Sparkes and state secretary Mike Evans played a critical role in constructing a highly efficient party apparatus.

Through the coordination of financial resources and the strategic mobilisation of grassroots support, Sparkes and Evans substantially reinforced Bjelke-Petersen’s leadership and electoral resilience.

Also excluded are prominent members of the premier’s personal staff, such as media advisor Allen Callaghan and policy researcher Wendy Armstrong. Both contributed significantly to shaping public messaging and policy development.

We do not hear about the contributions of senior public servants such as Sydney Schubert, coordinator-general, and Leo Hielscher, under-treasurer.

Schubert was instrumental in expediting infrastructure development across the state. Hielscher ensured Queensland maintained its AAA credit rating and successfully attracted international investment.

These administrative achievements were central to the state’s economic growth.

Bjelke-Petersen was frequently detached from the formal processes of cabinet and Westminster governance. But his reliance on a capable and loyal bureaucracy underscores a distinct, if unconventional, mode of operation.

This model, characterised by strong administrative delegation, contributed to the longevity and effectiveness of his premiership.

Winning seats, suppressing rights

The film addresses his opposition to the Whitlam government and his promotion of states’ rights. Both cemented his popularity. It highlights his decision to abolish death duties – a move that allowed him to present a low-tax, pro-development agenda.

Bjelke-Petersen’s authoritarian style is explored through archival footage of the 1971 protests during South Africa’s rugby tour of Australia. But the film fails to contextualise electoral reaction.

The government won seats, including central Brisbane and Maryborough, in by-elections held at the height of the protest activity.

His later suppression of civil liberties, particularly against students, unions and Indigenous activists, is acknowledged.

The depiction of the “Joh for PM” campaign presents it as a significant strategic miscalculation. Stenders illustrates the limits of Bjelke-Petersen’s political judgement beyond the state level.

Investigative journalist Chris Masters is interviewed about his role in creating the Four Corners exposé which served as a catalyst for the Fitzgerald Inquiry (1987–89).

This inquiry uncovered extensive political and police corruption. It exposed entrenched institutional malpractice, and contributed decisively to the erosion of Bjelke-Petersen’s political legitimacy.

Such corruption was longstanding and predated Bjelke-Petersen’s tenure. It flourished under his administration due to insufficient oversight and a permissive political culture.

Emotional resonance, but not fully nuanced

While the film suggests that Bjelke-Petersen was never personally corrupt (and he was never convicted of any criminal offence) it omits a pivotal episode in his political downfall.

According to journalist Matthew Condon, Springwood MP Huan Fraser publicly accused the Premier of corruption during a 1987 National Party meeting.

Fraser’s confrontation, reportedly triggered by Bjelke-Petersen’s push to approve what was then the world’s tallest building, marked a significant rupture within the party.

The proposed project symbolised growing concerns about impropriety and unchecked executive power during his premiership.

Joh: The Last King of Queensland succeeds in capturing the emotional resonance of Bjelke-Petersen’s political persona. But it stops short of delivering a fully nuanced account.

His legacy continues to polarise. To supporters, he remains a visionary who championed economic growth and conservative values. To critics, he presided over an era of democratic erosion, civil rights suppression and entrenched corruption.

His story reflects the enduring tension between executive authority and democratic accountability in modern Australian political history.

Joh: The Last King of Queensland is on Stan now.

John Mickel 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. Joh: The Last King of Queensland captures Bjelke-Petersen’s political persona – but omits key details of the story – https://theconversation.com/joh-the-last-king-of-queensland-captures-bjelke-petersens-political-persona-but-omits-key-details-of-the-story-257813

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne

Broadcast journalist Antoinette Lattouf was sacked by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for her political opinions concerning the war in Gaza, the Federal Court has found.

Lattouf has been awarded $70,000 in damages for non-economic loss, based on findings that her sacking caused her what the judge called “great distress”.

Justice Darryl Rangiah said this was obvious from her demeanour in the witness box. She had given evidence of feeling shock and humiliation at being sacked, and that this had affected her sleep and put strain on her personal relationships.

However, the court found Lattouf’s race or ethnicity had played no part in the ABC’s decision to sack her, as she had claimed.

The decision to sack her had been made by Chris Oliver-Taylor, who at the time was chief content officer of the ABC. His decision had been fortified by the views of the then managing director and editor-in-chief of the ABC, David Anderson, that Lattouf had expressed antisemitic opinions.

The court found Oliver-Taylor was under pressure from many sources: the external complaints, Anderson’s view of the matter, and the wishes of the then chair Ita Buttrose to put an end to it.

There was also a desire to appease the pro-Israel lobby, to defend the ABC’s reputation for impartiality, and to mitigate the impact of a story that he knew The Australian newspaper was about the publish on the issue.

Oliver-Taylor has since resigned from the ABC.

The case arose from events that occurred in December 2023.

The ABC hired Lattouf, a journalist of Lebanese heritage, as a relief presenter on the mornings program of Sydney ABC Radio for one week leading up to Christmas. The mornings program consisted of light entertainment interspersed with hourly news bulletins. It did not otherwise offer news or current affairs content.

Lattouf had worked for the ABC previously and was well-regarded inside the organisation. Her appointment was uncontroversial among those involved in making it, and she started work on Monday December 18.

Before this stint began, Lattouf had made a series of personal social media posts accusing Israeli soldiers of using rape as a weapon of war. Then, early in the week she was on air, she posted on her personal social media profile a report by Human Rights Watch alleging Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. A few days earlier, the ABC had also posted this report on its own website.

Like the ABC, Lattouf posted it without comment.

However, an orchestrated campaign by the Jewish lobby to have her taken off air had already begun, on the basis of what she had previously published on her private social media account, and Justice Rangiah observed that this had caused consternation among senior ABC management.

This consternation turned to panic after the posting of the Human Rights Watch report, and the campaign intensified. A coordinated email campaign by a pro-Israel lobbying group called “Lawyers for Israel”, and another group called “J.E.W.I.S.H creatives and academics”, demanded Lattouf be sacked, threatening legal action if she was not.

Messages from a WhatsApp group leaked to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age showed that in this way, the campaigners put intense pressure on the ABC’s most senior officers at the time, Anderson and Buttrose.

On December 20, Lattouf was told when she came off air she would not be required for the final two days of her engagement. The Fair Work Commission subsequently found this amounted to sacking her. She then sued the ABC in the Federal Court for unlawful termination, alleging she had been dismissed because of her race and political views.

When the matter came before the Federal Court in February 2025, the ABC argued she had been dismissed not because of her race or political views but because she had disobeyed a lawful instruction not to post anything “controversial” on social media while working for the ABC.

The ABC alleged her act of disobedience was the posting of the Human Rights Watch report. In the course of the proceedings, emails between Anderson and Buttrose were admitted into evidence. They showed Buttrose telling Anderson she was “over” getting these complaints about Lattouf, and asking “can’t she come down with flu or COVID or a stomach upset? We owe her nothing.”

Giving evidence during the court hearing, Buttrose said she had proposed this as a face-saving device for Lattouf’s benefit.

In making a formal determination that Lattouf had been terminated, Justice Rangiah dismissed the ABC’s argument that she had simply been told there would be no work for her on the final two days of her contracted period of employment.

He also found Lattouf had not been instructed not to post on her social media account but had merely been told she would be ill-advised to publish anything “controversial” while on air.

In dismissing Lattouf for her political opinions, the ABC breached section 772 of the Fair Work Act, and by depriving her of an opportunity to defend herself before dismissing her it also breached the ABC’s enterprise bargaining agreement.

The question of whether the ABC should suffer a financial penalty for these breaches will be decided at a later date.

It was evident throughout the proceedings that the ABC had been concerned not just to put an end to the complaints about Lattouf but to protect the organisation’s reputation for impartiality.

In the event, the way the case was handled has done substantial damage to the ABC’s reputation, not just for impartiality but for its capacity to stand up for its journalists and presenters when they come under external attack.

Read more:
Antoinette Lattouf sacking shows how the ABC has been damaged by successive Coalition governments

Lattouf is one of several journalists whom the ABC has failed to defend from attacks by politicians, pressure groups and News Corporation. The latter’s flagship newspaper, The Australian, has conducted virulent campaigns against ABC journalists, most notably Stan Grant, as well as Lattouf and others.

The managerial consternation and panic observed by Justice Rangiah in Lattouf’s case were discernible also in the Grant case and in the way the ABC handled the controversy over star journalist Laura Tingle’s observation at a writer’s festival that Australia was a racist country.

This is a cultural weakness in the ABC. Its editorial leadership seems not to understand that the first duty of an editor is to create a safe space in which their staff can do good journalism.

It is a malaise that goes back at least as far as the 2018 debacle in which a former chair, Justin Milne, and former managing director, Michelle Guthrie, showed themselves susceptible to pressure from the Turnbull government.

Both resigned within a few days of each other after a stream of sensational allegations leaked to the press about Milne allegedly calling on Guthrie to fire the chief economics correspondent, Emma Alberici, and the political editor, Andrew Probyn.

Perhaps the Lattouf case will at last stiffen their sinews and make standing up for their journalists a primary qualification for editorial leadership.

The Lattouf case also leaves unresolved the question of the extent to which a media organisation is entitled to place restrictions on a staff journalist’s private activities to protect its interests and reputation.

Denis Muller 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. Antoinette Lattouf’s unfair dismissal win shows ABC must be more courageous in defending its journalists – https://theconversation.com/antoinette-lattoufs-unfair-dismissal-win-shows-abc-must-be-more-courageous-in-defending-its-journalists-259445

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Wu, Lecturer in Wildlife Ecology, Murdoch University

Bats are often cast as the unseen night-time stewards of nature, flitting through the dark to control pest insects, pollinate plants and disperse seeds. But behind their silent contributions lies a remarkable and underappreciated survival strategy: seasonal fattening.

Much like bears and squirrels, bats around the world bulk up to get through hard times – even in places where you might not expect it.

In a paper published today in Ecology Letters, we analysed data from bat studies around the world to understand how bats use body fat to survive seasonal challenges, whether it’s a freezing winter or a dry spell.

The surprising conclusion? Seasonal fattening is a global phenomenon in bats, not just limited to those in cold climates.

Even bats in the tropics, where it’s warm all year, store fat in anticipation of dry seasons when food becomes scarce. That’s a survival strategy that’s been largely overlooked. But it may be faltering as the climate changes, putting entire food webs at risk.

Climate shapes fattening strategies

We found bats in colder regions predictably gain more weight before winter.

But in warmer regions with highly seasonal rainfall, such as tropical savannas or monsoonal forests, bats also fatten up. In tropical areas, it’s not cold that’s the enemy, but the dry season, when flowers wither, insects vanish and energy is hard to come by.

The extent of fattening is impressive. Some species increased their body weight by more than 50%, which is a huge burden for flying animals that already use a lot of energy to move around. This highlights the delicate balancing act bats perform between storing energy and staying nimble in the air.

Sex matters, especially in the cold

The results also support the “thrifty females, frisky males” hypothesis.

In colder climates, female bats used their fat reserves more sparingly than males – a likely adaptation to ensure they have enough energy left to raise young when spring returns. Since females typically emerge from hibernation to raise their young, conserving fat through winter can directly benefit their reproductive success.

Interestingly, this sex-based difference vanished in warmer climates, where fat use by males and females was more similar, likely because more food is available in warmer climates. It’s another clue that climate patterns intricately shape behaviour and physiology.

Climate change is shifting the rules

Beyond the biology, our study points to a more sobering trend. Bats in warm regions appear to be increasing their fat stores over time. This could be an early warning sign of how climate change is affecting their survival.

Climate change isn’t just about rising temperatures. It’s also making seasons more unpredictable.

Bats may be storing more energy in advance of dry seasons that are becoming longer or harder to predict. That’s risky, because it means more foraging, more exposure to predators and potentially greater mortality.

The implications can ripple outward. Bats help regulate insect populations, fertilise crops and maintain healthy ecosystems. If their survival strategies falter, entire food webs could feel the effects.

Fat bats, fragile futures

Our study changes how we think about bats. They are not just passive victims of environmental change but active strategists, finely tuned to seasonal rhythms. Yet their ability to adapt has limits, and those limits are being tested by a rapidly changing world.

By understanding how bats respond to climate, we gain insights into broader ecosystem resilience. We also gain a deeper appreciation for one of nature’s quiet heroes – fattening up, flying through the night and holding ecosystems together, one wingbeat at a time.

Nicholas Wu was the lead author of a funded Australian Research Council Linkage Grant awarded to Christopher Turbill at Western Sydney University.

– ref. Bats get fat to survive hard times. But climate change is threatening their survival strategy – https://theconversation.com/bats-get-fat-to-survive-hard-times-but-climate-change-is-threatening-their-survival-strategy-259560

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Mark, Adjunct Lecturer, Faculty of Economics, Hosei University

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has sent a clear signal to the Trump administration: the Japan–US relationship is in a dire state.

After saying just days ago he would be attending this week’s NATO summit at The Hague, Ishiba abruptly pulled out at the last minute.

He joins two other leaders from the Indo-Pacific region, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, in skipping the summit.

The Japanese media reported Ishiba cancelled the trip because a bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump was unlikely, as was a meeting of the Indo-Pacific Four (IP4) NATO partners (Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan).

Japan will still be represented by Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, showing its desire to strengthen its security relationship with NATO.

However, Ishiba’s no-show reveals how Japan views its relationship with the Trump administration, following the severe tariffs Washington imposed on Japan and Trump’s mixed messages on the countries’ decades-long military alliance.

Tariffs and diplomatic disagreements

Trump’s tariff policy is at the core of the divide between the US and Japan.

Ishiba attempted to get relations with the Trump administration off to a good start. He was the second world leader to visit Trump at the White House, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

However, Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs imposed a punitive rate of 25% on Japanese cars and 24% on all other Japanese imports. They are already having an adverse impact on Japan’s economy: exports of automobiles to the US dropped in May by 25% compared to a year ago.

Six rounds of negotiations have made little progress, as Ishiba’s government insists on full tariff exemptions.

Japan has been under pressure from the Trump administration to increase its defence spending, as well. According to the Financial Times, Tokyo cancelled a summit between US and Japanese defence and foreign ministers over the demand. (A Japanese official denied the report.)

Japan also did not offer its full support to the US bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities earlier this week. The foreign minister instead said Japan “understands” the US’s determination to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Japan has traditionally had fairly good relations with Iran, often acting as an indirect bridge with the West. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe even made a visit there in 2019.

Japan also remains heavily dependent on oil from the Middle East. It would have been adversely affected if the Strait of Hormuz had been blocked, as Iran was threatening to do.

Unlike the response from the UK and Australia, which both supported the strikes, the Ishiba government prioritised its commitment to upholding international law and the rules-based global order. In doing so, Japan seeks to deny China, Russia and North Korea any leeway to similarly erode global norms on the use of force and territorial aggression.

Strategic dilemma of the Japan–US military alliance

In addition, Japan is facing the same dilemma as other American allies – how to manage relations with the “America first” Trump administration, which has made the US an unreliable ally.

Earlier this year, Trump criticised the decades-old security alliance between the US and Japan, calling it “one-sided”.

“If we’re ever attacked, they don’t have to do a thing to protect us,” he said of Japan.

Lower-level security cooperation is ongoing between the two allies and their regional partners. The US, Japanese and Philippine Coast Guards conducted drills in Japanese waters this week. The US military may also assist with upgrading Japan’s counterstrike missile capabilities.

But Japan is still likely to continue expanding its security ties with partners beyond the US, such as NATO, the European Union, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and other ASEAN members, while maintaining its fragile rapprochement with South Korea.

Australia is now arguably Japan’s most reliable security partner. Canberra is considering buying Japan’s Mogami-class frigates for the Royal Australian Navy. And if the AUKUS agreement with the US and UK collapses, Japanese submarines could be a replacement.

Ishiba under domestic political pressure

There are also intensifying domestic political pressures on Ishiba to hold firm against Trump, who is deeply unpopular among the Japanese public.

After replacing former prime minister Fumio Kishida as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) last September, the party lost its majority in the lower house of parliament in snap elections. This made it dependent on minor parties for legislative support.

Ishiba’s minority government has struggled ever since with poor opinion polling. There has been widespread discontent with inflation, the high cost of living and stagnant wages, the legacy of LDP political scandals, and ever-worsening geopolitical uncertainty.

On Sunday, the party suffered its worst-ever result in elections for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, winning its lowest number of seats.

The party could face a similar drubbing in the election for half of the upper house of the Diet (Japan’s parliament) on July 20. Ishiba has pledged to maintain the LDP’s majority in the house with its junior coalition partner Komeito. But if the government falls into minority status in both houses, Ishiba will face heavy pressure to step down.

Craig Mark 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. Japanese prime minister’s abrupt no-show at NATO summit reveals a strained alliance with the US – https://theconversation.com/japanese-prime-ministers-abrupt-no-show-at-nato-summit-reveals-a-strained-alliance-with-the-us-259694