Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judy Friedlander, Adjunct Fellow, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney

Citizen science is touted as a way for the general public to contribute to producing new knowledge. But citizen science volunteers don’t always represent a broad cross-section of society. Rather, they’re often white, male, middle-aged, educated and already interested in science.

This lack of representation has several problems. It can undermine the potential of citizen science to bridge the divide between lay people and experts. It also means fewer people benefit from the chance to advance their informal science education and gain valuable life skills.

It’s important that citizen science projects engage volunteers from across society, including young people. A new Australian initiative is doing just that.

The B&B BioBlitz aims to get school students gathering data about Australia’s natural environment. This year’s event shows how citizen science in school can help develop STEM skills and make gains in biodiversity research.

More hands on deck

It’s broadly acknowledged that Australia needs more hands on deck when it comes to scientific data collection. For example, only about 30% of Australia’s estimated 750,000 species have been formally named and documented. Rectifying this will require an enormous uptick in information gathering.

What’s more, Australia has one of the world’s worst extinction records. Citizen science is an important way to fill information gaps, identify species’ declines and their causes, inform conservation decisions and evaluate their effectiveness.

This year’s State of the Environment report recognised the need for more citizen science. It said the level of biodiversity research required “cannot be achieved by professionals and institutions alone”.

That’s where the B&B BioBlitz comes in.

Read more:
From counting birds to speaking out: how citizen science leads us to ask crucial questions

What exactly is a BioBlitz?

The B&B BioBlitz is a national school citizen science program co-ordinated by PlantingSeeds Projects – a non-profit sustainability organisation founded by the lead author of this article. The inaugural event ran in National Biodiversity Month in September this year. Both authors of this article were project organisers and educators.

Sixty schools from across every Australian state and territory participated. Participants comprised students from infants to high school, and their teachers.

Most schools are located in urban areas, which makes them particularly valuable sites for scientific research. Many threatened plant and animal species live in urban areas, yet, only 5% of citizen science projects in Australia are urban-based.

The project involved students taking images of plant and animal species in their school grounds on devices such as tablets and smartphones provided by the school. Students also recorded information such as the time, date and location of the photo.

A designated teacher uploaded the photos and data to the B&B BioBlitz project on iNaturalist, one of the world’s most popular biodiversity citizen science platforms and apps. At the time of writing, iNaturalist contained more than 121 million observations uploaded by citizens from around the world.

Throughout September, students made more than 2,300 observations in school grounds, involving 635 plant, animal and fungi species. Students could log onto iNaturalist to see a project “leaderboard”, browse the observations submitted and learn about species’ taxonomy and distribution.

A study has demonstrated young people can contribute observations to iNaturalist that are “research grade” – and therefore more accessible and potentially useful to biodiversity research and monitoring. And the longer they participate for, the better their observations become.

Observations of species during this project contributed to more comprehensive datasets that scientists can now draw upon. Of note were images of an uncommon “Balsam Beast” katydid and the iconic Sturt’s desert pea.

Almost all observations uploaded to iNaturalist are also directly exported to the CSIRO’s Atlas of Living Australia.

The pros and cons

Verbal and online feedback by students reveals how citizen science can be a practical and positive experience.

One North Melbourne primary school student said the activity made her feel “like being more a part of a community”.

One student in Darwin said the activity was “the most fun he had ever had” and his teacher reported that while taking part, the student was “the most engaged he had seen”.

But the B&B BioBlitz was not without its challenges.

Many teachers, including science teachers, had limited knowledge of citizen science and often hadn’t heard of the term. This meant that teachers needed basic education on the topic prior to any school involvement in the BioBlitz.

Teachers are busy and face many pressing demands. However, if the benefits of citizen science are to be fully realised, there’s a need to broaden teacher awareness of the practice, and improve their skills in accessing databases such as iNaturalist.

Read more:
Thousands of photos captured by everyday Australians reveal the secrets of our marine life as oceans warm

8 tips for successful biodiversity citizen science

So how can young people be helped to take a good citizen science observation? The following eight tips offer a guide:

1. Capture as many angles and as much information as you can. While some groups such as birds can often be recognised from a single photograph, many other taxa require multiple features for a positive identification to be made

2. When observing plants, photograph as many features as possible. This includes flowers and leaves (from above and below), bark, fruit if present, a branch showing leaf arrangement, and a shot of the whole plant to give a sense of its growth habit

3. Photograph fungi from above, below (showing the gills or pores) and the side

4. Record the “substrate” you find a fungus on, such as soil or dead wood, and the type of soil a plant is growing in

5. Insect identification can often be helped by the number and position of veins in an insect’s wing. Try and capture this by getting shots from directly above

6. Noting the plant you find a beetle or bug on can aid identification and provide useful ecological data

7. If you find a spider in a web, photographs of both the upper and undersides can be helpful

8. If in doubt, just record as much information as you can. You never know who might find your data useful!

Read more:
B&Bs for birds and bees: transform your garden or balcony into a wildlife haven

Judy Friedlander is the founder of the not-for-profit organisation, PlantingSeeds Projects, which steered the B&B BioBlitz.

Thomas Mesaglio 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. Scientists need help to save nature. With a smartphone and these 8 tips, we can get our kids on the case – https://theconversation.com/scientists-need-help-to-save-nature-with-a-smartphone-and-these-8-tips-we-can-get-our-kids-on-the-case-192622

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Munn, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Waikato

This week’s Supreme Court judgment on lowering New Zealand’s legal voting age has, at times, been interpreted as some kind of mandate for change. That’s not quite the case, but the court’s ruling does at least make change a possibility.

What the court has done is accept the claims made by members of the Make It 16 campaign that the current voting age limit of 18 is inconsistent with section 19 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. Essentially, it found, preventing 16- and 17-year-olds from voting discriminates against them on the basis of their age.

The court also accepted that this inconsistency has not been justified. While that doesn’t mean the age limit cannot be justified, the New Zealand Bill of Rights (Declarations of Inconsistency) Amendment Bill means legislation can be found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights.

The decision effectively means parliament now has to defend the 18 age limit if it wants to keep it. However, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has already announced her government will draft a bill to lower the voting age (requiring a three-quarter majority to pass). She’s also said she personally supports lowering the voting age.

This rapid shift of the electoral landscape provides a good opportunity to restate the arguments in favour of lowering the voting age – and to ask whether retaining the 18 age limit can be justified at all.

Voting is a human right

When the 2020 general election was delayed due to COVID, it meant a group of young people were suddenly eligible to vote because they had turned 18 in the interim.

As I noted then, the choice of where to set the voting age is not made on the basis of some immutable facts about the capacity of the young to vote. Rather, it is a procedural decision.

Read more:
Lowering New Zealand’s voting age to 16 would be good for young people – and good for democracy

Setting the voting age at 18 made some sense when it was introduced in 1974 (down from 21). It was a convenient number that coincided with some (but not all) other age limits for the granting of rights in our society.

But the right to vote is different to the right to buy alcohol, for example, which is also restricted to those 18 or over. Unlike buying alcohol, voting is a human right. Any restrictions on human rights must be demonstrably reasonable restrictions.

The Make It 16 campaign argued, and the Supreme Court has now agreed, that parliament has not provided that justification for setting the voting age at 18.

Improve civic education

Parliament will find it difficult to provide a satisfactory justification for continuing to exclude 16- and 17-year-olds.

The most popular arguments against letting these young people vote – that they aren’t interested or capable – are subjective, anecdotal or simply not very good. Another common argument – that they don’t pay tax – is both wrong (many work and they also pay GST) and irrelevant to enfranchisement.

A key part of a good argument is that it can be applied consistently. If we wanted to exclude young people for being uninterested or incapable, we would have to be willing to exclude the many adults who are uninterested or incapable. We do not do this, and nor should we.

If an adult doesn’t want to vote, they don’t have to. The same would be true for a 16-year-old if the voting age was lowered. Making the voting age 16 simply gives young citizens the opportunity to vote.

It then falls to society to encourage them to learn who they should vote for. If we want better-educated voters, we should look to improve civic education.

Read more:
Young U.S. voters reduced the ‘Red Wave’ to a ‘Pink Splash’ in the midterm elections — why didn’t polls predict it?

Good habits start young

There are, however, two good arguments in favour of lowering the voting age: it seems to improve voter turnout, and voting from a young age increases the likelihood people will become regular voters, consistently participating in the democratic process.

Both these claims may seem counter-intuitive. After all, isn’t it well known that young people vote in lower numbers than older people? It is. But that may simply be because we don’t give young people the opportunity to vote until it’s too late.

In Austria, which has allowed voting from 16 since 2008, participation rates among young voters improved significantly once the voting age was lowered.

Read more:
How lowering the voting age to 16 could save democracy

One theory is that 16- and 17-year-olds are often in more stable situations than 18- or 19-year-olds – still in school, usually still living with family. When they are allowed to vote, they are more likely to be supported or encouraged by their family and school.

A strong indicator of whether someone will vote is whether they voted the last time they had the opportunity. Given more young people vote when offered the chance earlier in life, a lower voting age will result in higher levels of lifetime voting.

It is much easier to care about politics when you are allowed to participate in it. Lowering the voting age will give young people more reason to be invested in their political system. Over time, this will make our democracy stronger and more legitimate.

Nick Munn 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. Parliament now has to justify keeping the voting age at 18 – it’s a hard argument to make – https://theconversation.com/parliament-now-has-to-justify-keeping-the-voting-age-at-18-its-a-hard-argument-to-make-195009

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marion Terrill, Transport and Cities Program Director, Grattan Institute

An election campaign can sometimes feel like Groundhog Day, but this Victorian election is genuinely different. While the major parties are still making plenty of transport promises, they’ve dialled them way down from the dizzy heights of 2018.

Our hope for the next election? Stop promising projects on the hoof, and start listening to what Infrastructure Victoria and Infrastructure Australia assess as worthwhile.

The biggest difference between the transport promises made this campaign compared to last time is scale. Back in 2018, the Coalition promised to spend $68 billion and Labor an eye-watering $95 billion, of which about half was for the Suburban Rail Loop. This time around, we calculate the Coalition’s promised new spending is just 25% of last time’s, at $16.7 billion, and Labor’s a tiny 2%, at $2.3 billion.

The most fundamental distinction between the two major parties, though, is not so much in what they are promising as in what they’re not promising. The Andrews government’s signature policy, the Suburban Rail Loop, is no longer just an election promise for Labor, but scrapping the loop is very much an opposition promise.

Back in 2018, we expected to pay $50 billion for a 90km tunnel looping from Cheltenham through Glen Waverley, Box Hill, the airport, and terminating at Werribee. We’ve since learned that the government thinks the eastern and northern sections will cost between $31 billion and $51 billion to build and run for 50 years. The Parliamentary Budget Office thinks it’ll cost $200 billion.

The opposition plans to scrap the loop and redirect the $34.5 billion committed so far to health care.

Read more:
Budget restraint? When it comes to transport projects, it’s hard to find

Pitching to different voters

It’s perhaps less surprising that parties are playing to different heartlands. The Coalition favours roads, right across the state, while Labor favours public transport, with a focus on the city. These preferences show up repeatedly in elections, and they’re quite pronounced.

The Greens favour public, active and electrified transport, and are firmly focused on Melbourne.

The two major parties have promised 32 projects valued at $100 million or more, but they agree on just one: stage 2 of the Barwon Heads Road duplication. 2018 wasn’t much better, with the parties agreeing only on North East Link and Airport Rail Link.

New South Wales does things differently: in the 2019 NSW election campaign, Labor and the Coalition agreed on three of the four largest projects promised.

Independent advisory bodies ignored

One reason the Victorian parties diverge so markedly on transport priorities is that they don’t pay much attention to the views of the independent advisory bodies, Infrastructure Victoria and Infrastructure Australia.

Infrastructure Victoria has produced a 30-year strategy for the state’s infrastructure, and it doesn’t mention some key policies of both parties. For instance, the Coalition has promised $2 tram and bus fares, and Labor has promised to cap regional public transport fares. But what Infrastructure Victoria recommends is a nuanced combination of off-peak discounts, reduced tram and bus fares, removal of the free tram zone, parking reform, and a congestion pricing trial in inner Melbourne.

Infrastructure Australia is supposed to scrutinise the business case of any infrastructure project where the proponent is seeking $250 million or more in federal funding. Up to 11 promised Victorian projects are in this category, but Infrastructure Australia has assessed only one as being investment-ready. The other ten are not even at the stage of evaluating potential investment options.

Read more:
Of Australia’s 32 biggest infrastructure projects, just eight had a public business case

The one project that is investment-ready is Labor’s proposal to upgrade the Melton line. Of the rest, three are what Infrastructure Australia calls early-stage proposals, and seven have not been submitted to it at all. The three that have reached early-stage status are the Coalition’s proposals to commit $10 billion to road maintenance and to reinstate the country roads and bridges program, and the Greens’ Big Bike Build.

A shift to many smaller projects

This election also stands out for the large number of smaller projects worth less than $100 million. That was also a feature of the federal election in May. About half of both the Coalition’s and Labor’s promised projects in Victoria are worth less than $100 million.

Read more:
As federal government spending on small transport projects creeps up, marginal seats get a bigger share

Interesting for its absence from Labor’s platforms is a focus on electric cars and bikes. The Coalition promises to pause the distance-based charge for electric vehicles until 2027, at a cost of $82 million, and spend $50 million establishing 600 new electric vehicle charging stations across the state. The Greens want to manufacture 3,000 electric buses, subsidise the purchase of electric cars, subsidise two-way chargers, fund more public chargers and ban petrol car sales from 2030; none of these policies have been costed. What’s the bet we’ll see a lot more action in this sphere in 2026?

Read more:
Australia could rapidly shift to clean transport – if we had a strategy. So we put this plan together

In the end, this Victorian election campaign has turned out to be far less profligate than the last one. The promised spend is a small fraction of what it was in 2018 – but the quality of the promises is no better.

Voters should demand more. Whoever wins the election should commit to a transport program that focuses not so much on the political advantage to be had from dreaming up new projects as on rigorous business cases before – not after – the promise to invest.

Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and Grattan uses the income to pursue its activities. Marion Terrill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any other company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Ingrid Burfurd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any other company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

– ref. Transport election promises are much smaller this time round in Victoria, but the quality control is no better – https://theconversation.com/transport-election-promises-are-much-smaller-this-time-round-in-victoria-but-the-quality-control-is-no-better-194740

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Gleeson, Associate Professor in Public Health, La Trobe University

Global inequities in access to COVID vaccines have turned out to be a “catastrophic moral failure”, just as the World Health Organization warned they would in January 2021. Yet it took 20 months of negotiations for members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to agree to a limited relaxation of patent rules for COVID vaccines – a move decried by civil society organisations as too little, too late.

Treatments and diagnostic tests are also very important in managing the pandemic, and like vaccines, are very unequally distributed globally. Unfortunately, negotiations to expand the WTO decision on COVID vaccine patents to include treatments and tests are in a sorry state. There is little chance of a decision by the December deadline WTO members set for themselves.

In the meantime, deaths and hospitalisation from COVID continue to place pressure on health-care systems.

Read more:
What should rich countries do with spare masks and gloves? It’s the opposite of what the WHO recommends

Inequities in access

By the end of 2021, more than a year after the first COVID vaccines went into arms, more than 76% of people in high- and upper-middle-income countries had received a dose, compared with 8.5% in low-income countries. Even now, with almost 13 billion doses administered around the world, less than 25% of people in low-income countries have received a dose.

By September 2022, more than 330 COVID tests per 100,000 people were being performed daily in high-income countries, in comparison to 5.4 per 100,000 in low-income nations. And of the three billion tests used globally by March 2022, only 0.4% were administered in low-income countries.

Treatments are even more inequitably distributed. Most low-income countries are unable to access the new oral antivirals such as Paxlovid (made by Pfizer) and Lagevrio (Merck Sharpe & Dohme). These companies charge around US$530 and US$700 (A$800 and A$1,050) respectively for a five-day course of treatment in high-income markets such as the United States.

Pfizer has agreed to deals with UNICEF and the Global Fund to provide 10 million courses of Paxlovid to lower-income countries at lower prices. But this represents a very small proportion of the treatments Pfizer is making.

Both Pfizer and Merck Sharpe & Dohme have established licensing agreements with the Medicines Patent Pool, enabling generic manufacturers to make their antiviral treatments for poorer countries in future. But they have restricted the number of countries that will be able to purchase the generic drugs to mainly low- and lower-income countries (106 and 95 respectively).

This leaves many upper-middle income countries (such as Thailand, China and Mexico) in a difficult situation. They are unable to pay the high prices for the originator drugs but are excluded from accessing the lower-priced generics.

It’s clear more needs to be done to ensure all countries can access the tools they need to manage the pandemic.

Read more:
We were on a global panel looking at the staggering costs of COVID – 17.7m deaths and counting. Here are 11 ways to stop history repeating itself

Negotiations at the WTO

India and South Africa first put a proposal to the WTO in October 2020 to temporarily relax certain intellectual property rules in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights for COVID medical products during the pandemic.

The proposed waiver would have enabled companies around the world to freely produce COVID health products and technologies – vaccines, treatments, tests, and personal protective equipment (such as face masks) – without fear of litigation over possible infringements of intellectual property rights.

These intellectual property rights included not only patents, but copyright, trademarks and trade secrets or know-how. Specifically, know-how is often essential for manufacturing vaccines and some treatments. However, under existing rules, there are limited pathways to compulsorily licence know-how and other confidential information.

The proposal eventually gained the support of more than 100 of the WTO’s 164 member countries and was sponsored by more than 60. But it faced strong opposition from wealthy countries that house multinational pharmaceutical companies, particularly the European Union, United Kingdom and Switzerland.

On June 17 2022, WTO members belatedly agreed on a narrow, limited waiver, applying only to patents, and only to COVID vaccines in the first instance. In the end it waives only a single rule, making it easier for vaccines made using its provisions to be exported from the country of manufacture to a second developing country.

While the decision applied only to vaccines, it included a clause committing the parties to decide whether to expand the waiver to include COVID treatments and tests within six months.

That six-month period ends on December 17. Unfortunately, the same dynamics that slowed and watered down the initial proposal threaten to prevent a timely decision this time too. The EU, Switzerland, Japan and the UK are particularly reluctant to allow negotiations to move forward.

As with the original waiver debate, many countries lack the know-how to commence domestic vaccine manufacturing, particularly for novel vaccine platforms. Lack of know-how was an even greater barrier to widespread COVID vaccine manufacturing than patents.

Many more countries have the capacity to produce treatments, but therapeutic patents are more prevalent than COVID vaccine patents. So, expanding the waiver to include COVID therapeutics could help countries quickly scale up domestic manufacturing of essential treatments.

Read more:
Wealthy nations starved the developing world of vaccines. Omicron shows the cost of this greed

Help where it’s needed

Low and middle-income countries have been impacted disproportionately by the pandemic so far, suffering 85% of the estimated 14.9 million excess deaths in 2020 and 2021.

Globally, progress in reducing extreme poverty was set back three to four years during 2020–21. But low-income countries lost eight to nine years of progress.

Expanding the WTO decision on COVID vaccines to include treatments and tests could be vital to reduce the health burden on poorer countries from COVID and enable them to recover from the pandemic. The Australian government should get behind this initiative and encourage other countries to do the same.

Deborah Gleeson has received funding in the past from the Australian Research Council. She has received funding from various national and international non-government organisations to attend speaking engagements related to trade agreements and health. She has represented the Public Health Association of Australia on matters related to trade agreements and public health

Dianne Nicol has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Medical Research Futures Fund, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Federal Department of Health. She is chair of the NHMRC Embryo Research Licensing Committee and co-lead of the Regulatory and Ethics Work Stream of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health

James Scheibner has received funding from Health Translation SA, as well as the Swiss National Science Foundation through the Personalized Health and Related Technologies project.

– ref. Intellectual property waiver for COVID vaccines should be expanded to include treatments and tests – https://theconversation.com/intellectual-property-waiver-for-covid-vaccines-should-be-expanded-to-include-treatments-and-tests-194918

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aysu Kuru, Lecturer in Architecture and Construction, University of Sydney

Almost all buildings today are built using similar conventional technologies and manufacturing and construction processes. These processes use a lot of energy and produce huge carbon emissions.

This is hardly sustainable. Perhaps the only way to truly construct sustainable buildings is by connecting them with nature, not isolating them from it. This is where the field of bioarchitecture emerges. It draws on principles from nature to help solve technological questions and address global challenges.

Take desert organisms, for example. How do they survive and thrive under extreme conditions?

One such desert species is the Saharan silver ant, named for its shiny mirror-like body. Its reflective body reflects and dissipates heat. It’s an adaptation we can apply in buildings as reflective walls, or to pavements that don’t heat up.

There are so many aspects of nature we can drawn on. Picture cities with shopping centres based on water lilies, stadiums resembling seashells, and lightweight bridges inspired by cells.

Water lilies can teach us how to design large buildings efficiently with smooth pedestrian circulation. Seashells can inspire the walls of large-span buildings without the need for columns. Cells can show us how to develop lightweight suspending structures.

Read more:
Building a ‘second nature’ into our cities: wildness, art and biophilic design

Bioarchitecture works with nature, not against it

Bioarchitecture can reinvent the natural environment in the form of our built environment, to provide the ultimate and somehow obvious solutions for the threats Earth is facing.

Most industry-led and research-based approaches focus on the “technology to save us” from climate change. In contrast, bioarchitecture offers a more sustainable approach that aims to develop a positive relationship between buildings and nature.

Living organisms constantly communicate with the natural world. They move around their environment, employ chemical processes and undergo complex reactions, patterning their habitat. This means living systems constantly model and organise the environment around them. They are able to adapt and, in doing so, they change their environment too.

Can buildings do the same in cities? If buildings could grow, self-repair and adapt to climate, they might ultimately become truly sustainable.

Early examples of bioarchitecture can be found in traditional and early modern buildings. Their architects observed nature to copy its principles and design more habitable, locally made and environmentally friendly buildings. For example, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, is inspired by natural shapes that give the church its organic form.

More recent works showcase bioarchitecture that learnt from nature coupled with technology and innovation. Examples include using bio-based materials such as wood, hemp and bamboo, applying biophilia through using greenery on external walls and plants indoors to boost our connection with nature, and restoring the environment by making buildings part of it.

Considering the climate emergency, we should strengthen buildings’ coherence with nature. Bioarchitecture can do this.

Read more:
Bamboo architecture: Bali’s Green School inspires a global renaissance

So what can a butterfly teach us?

The blue Menelaus butterfly offers another striking example of design solutions from nature. Despite its radiant blue colour, it is not actually blue and does not have any pigments. Producing and maintaining pigments is expensive in nature, as it requires a lot of energy.

The Menelaus butterfly has an ingenious way to achieve its unique colour without pigments. Its brilliant blue shine comes from scattering light, similar to soap bubbles glimmering in rainbow colours under the sun, despite being completely transparent. The light is scattered by micro-grooves on the butterfly’s wings – so small that they can only be seen with an ultra-high-resolution microscope.

This is nature’s way to achieve high performance with cheap forms instead of costly materials. Learning from the Menelaus butterfly, we can have windows with climate-adaptable properties – changing their colour and scattering light according to the position of the sun. Butterfly wings have already inspired the development of new materials, and the next step is to use these on buildings.

In this way, we can design biobuildings that reflect excessive radiation and reduce cooling needs and glare. And the beautiful part is that this may all be done without obstructing views and without the need for shading devices or tinted windows.

Read more:
Five ways that natural nanotechnology could inspire human design

And what does a pot plant have to do with buildings?

Then there is Monstera, a sought-after indoor plant that climbs up the walls. It’s also called the “Swiss cheese plant” for the holes on its leaves. Have you ever thought about how it thrives and grows like no other plant indoors?

Monstera simply needs to sustain fewer cells to maintain extra large leaves because of their holes. This enables it to capture more of the sunlight it needs to grow and spread out over a bigger area.

Now imagine if we designed hollow building structures such as columns and beams. This could help minimise the need for materials and cut carbon emissions by reducing the embodied energy that goes into making these materials.

Read more:
How the wings of owls and hummingbirds inspire drones, wind turbines and other technology

Nature offers a vast design catalogue

We can look at nature as a catalogue of designs and solutions to be reimagined as bioarchitecture. So, we could have shiny silver pavements like the silver ant, metallic-coloured but transparent windows like the Menelaus butterfly, and buildings that use the minimum of materials like Monstera’s leaves.

Nature is wealthy, nature is generous. Through bioarchitecture, buildings can dive into that wealth and become a part of the generosity. Truly sustainable biobuildings can be constructed that work with nature and reverse the harm our conventional building technologies have done to the planet.

Aysu Kuru 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. What mirrored ants, vivid blue butterflies and Monstera house plants can teach us about designing buildings – https://theconversation.com/what-mirrored-ants-vivid-blue-butterflies-and-monstera-house-plants-can-teach-us-about-designing-buildings-194636

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edward Doddridge, Research Associate in Physical Oceanography, University of Tasmania

There’s a piece of gardening lore in my hometown which has been passed down for generations: never plant your tomatoes before Show Day, which, in Tasmania, is the fourth Saturday in October. If you’re foolhardy enough to plant them earlier, your tomato seedlings will suffer during the cold nights and won’t grow.

But does this kind of seasonal wisdom still work as the climate warps? We often talk about climate change in large-scale ways – how much the global average surface temperature will increase.

Nations are trying to keep the temperature rise well under 2℃. Taken as an average, that sounds tiny – after all, the temperature varies much more than that when day gives way to night. But remember – before the industrial revolution, the world’s average surface temperature was 12.1℃. Now it’s almost a degree hotter – and could be up to 3℃ hotter by the end of the century if high emissions continue.

For many of us, climate change can seem abstract. But the natural world is very sensitive to temperature change. Wherever we look, we can see that the seasons are changing. Gardening lore no longer holds. Flowering may happen earlier. Many species have to move or die. Here’s what you might notice.

Spring is coming earlier

Warmer temperatures mean spring is arriving earlier and earlier. In Australia, it’s also now five days shorter than the 1950–1969 period, according to Australia Institute research. Trees and plants put out new leaves days earlier.

For some Australian plants, earlier spring means early flowering and fruiting – an average of 9.7 days earlier per decade.

Japan’s famous spring cherry blossoms are blooming earlier than they have in centuries. The cherry blossom peak last year was the earliest recorded bloom in a data record going back to the year 812.

Not only are flowers blooming earlier, birds are also migrating earlier, and may also be delaying their autumn migrations.

Summer is getting hotter and longer

A hotter planet means hotter and longer summers.

It might not feel like it this year with all the rain, but the overall trend is clear. In turn, this means bushfire risk is growing year on year, with more days of high to catastrophic fire danger. Every year for the last three decades, an extra 48,000 hectares of forest has burnt across Australia.

Longer fire seasons are making it harder to schedule fuel reduction burns, and reducing the amount of time for firefighters to rest and recover between fire seasons.

Hotter temperatures are already posing challenges for salmon farmers in Tasmania. Atlantic salmon grow best in cold water and climate change has already pushed ocean temperatures up. In summers now, the waters around Tasmania are close to the fish’s limit. Warmer summers will be a substantial challenge for salmon farmers in the future.

Hotter water has also killed off almost all Tasmania’s giant kelp, and made it possible for warm-water fish to migrate south.

For millennia, the North Pole has been covered by sea ice. This, too, is changing. Arctic sea ice is melting earlier in summer and freezing later in winter. As warming intensifies, the central Arctic is likely to go from permanent ice cover to ice free over summer by 2100.

Read more:
Australia’s Black Summer of fire was not normal – and we can prove it

Autumn is falling behind

At the beginning of autumn, the leaves of nothofagus, Australia’s only temperate deciduous tree, change colour and fall to the ground, just as many Northern Hemisphere trees do.

Here, too, we can see the climate changing. Around the world, warmer temperatures and rising atmospheric carbon dioxide are delaying the arrival of autumn colours by up to a month.

Winter is disappearing

Alpine species such as the mountain pygmy possum have life cycles built around winter snow, while many of the world’s cities rely on snow melt for their water supply. In Australia, snowfall has been decreasing in recent decades.

In a warmer world, there’s less snow and ice. That’s posing major challenges for cities like Santiago in Chile, as well as semi-arid areas in the United States which have relied on snowmelt.

Species are on the move

What else might you notice? Different animals, birds, fish and plants. Not only are the seasons changing, but many species are now found in areas they could never have survived before.

Tropical corals have now been found happily growing near Sydney. Coral reef fish, too, are heading south to areas well outside their historic range.

You can see some of the surprising new finds on the citizen science project Redmap, such as sightings of the tropical yellow bellied sea snake in Tasmanian waters.

Read more:
Thousands of photos captured by everyday Australians reveal the secrets of our marine life as oceans warm

For First Australians, climate change brings a different upheaval. The seasonal link between, say, a wattle flowering and the arrival of fish species is breaking down.

Changes everywhere

Climate change really does mean change – both large scale and small. From extreme weather to ecosystems changing all the way through to the time when you can plant tomatoes.

For gardeners, this means accepted wisdom no longer holds. In Tasmania, you can now safely plant tomatoes 18 days earlier than you could in the 1990s. That’s because minimum temperatures in October are now about 1℃ warmer than they were in 1910.

Climate change is altering our seasons and changing our world in both obvious and subtle ways.

So while planting tomatoes may seem like a trivial example, it’s yet another sign of the climate changing all around us. It’s no longer a problem for the far-off future. It’s our problem, now.

Edward Doddridge 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. What planting tomatoes shows us about climate change – https://theconversation.com/what-planting-tomatoes-shows-us-about-climate-change-193830

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maya Gunawardena, Assistant professor, University of Canberra

It is not uncommon for kids to complain about school, but studies show significant numbers of Australian students are actually disengaged with their education.

A 2017 Grattan Institute report found as many as 40% are unproductive in a given year because they are disengaged.

This is a huge concern. Not being engaged can lead to issues with learning, behaviour, attendance and dropping out.

We know the disruptions of COVID and school closures have only increased the risks of student disengagement.

One answer could be “personalised learning”. Proponents of this approach say it allows students to engage more with what and how they learn at school. Although critics are not convinced.

My research with Australian teachers trialling personalised learning suggests it “makes sense”. But we need to think carefully about how it is rolled out.

What is personalised learning?

Personalised learning is an educational approach that aims to customise learning for each student’s strengths, needs and interests

In the United States, most states use personalised learning in some form. Tech moguls Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have also donated millions to research on the approach.

The United Kingdom, Finland and New Zealand are also exploring personalised learning for their school systems.

Personalised learning in Australia

Australia is also looking at personalised learning. The 2012 Gonski report talked of the importance of “personalised learning strategies” to improve school outcomes.

ACT government policy now explicitly states:

the ACT education system of the future will be personalised to each child.

Other jurisdictions are also looking at how personalised learning can be implemented. Last year, NSW said it would trial “untimed syllabusses”, so students move through school at their own pace.

Personalised learning is not without its critics. Some educators say it isolates kids and risks an over-reliance on technology as a teaching tool. But this very much depends on how personalised instruction is implemented.

What does this look like in practice?

Under personalised learning, the existing curriculum is tailored to each student’s interests and needs. Students also have a say in how and what they learn.

For example, a history teacher allows students to pick their own project to work out how the past influences the present.

The teacher helps them frame the research questions and makes sure they are accessing relevant and robust data. But it is the students who are directing the project, be it about civil rights and Black Lives Matter, women’s liberation and #MeToo or the history of how computer games have been developed and marketed.

During a research trip to the US this year, I visited five schools in Vermont where I saw three key ways of personalising learning and culturally responsive teaching.

1. Personalised learning portfolios

These are used to gather information about students’ strengths, needs, passions, interests, and identities. This enables teachers to know their students well to design projects that fit with the students’ interest and abilities.

2. Flexibility

Teachers are flexible about both how students learn and the time and pace they do it in. They do projects instead of essays where they research topics they are interested in or they connect with communities to extend their knowledge about real-life matters.

The focus is on skills such as critical thinking, collaborative learning, communication, cultural understanding, and social action. For example, in one high school I visited, children worked with local farmers to help them resolve food waste issues, with teachers providing necessary guidance.

Read more:
Why the curriculum should be based on students’ readiness, not their age

3. Different ways of assessment

Assessment is not grade based (where students in the same year level are compared) but proficiency based. This looks at whether students are learning and whether they are meeting a certain standard. It also allows students to be involved. In a “student-led conference,” students update each other on what they have learned.

US students who had done personalised learning told colleagues and I this self-paced approach was relaxed and less stressful. It allowed them to be themselves and they felt like their opinions and choices were respected.

But there are challenges

Personalised learning will take time to roll out in schools and communities, given it is so different from the mass education approach teachers, parents and students are used to.

Colleagues and I are studying three ACT schools where teachers are trialling personalised learning. Our initial findings shed light on the challenges of implementing personalised learning. As one high school teacher told us:

Personalised learning makes sense […] particularly at the moment I have a class where one half is really hard working, and the other half for whatever reason, they just are not interested in work at all.

But another teacher said it was difficult to get their students interested in a different approach to learning.

I think, probably personalising is easier with primary students. I’m trying to implement my personal reading project in my high school, but it’s looking harder.

While noting the benefits, teachers are also wary of what this might mean for their (already significant) workloads.

So each and every student, we have to cater to their learning and that is why I feel that personalised learning helps them, you know, grasp the concepts. But isn’t this a lot of work for teachers?

The future of school?

Personalised learning is not a magic wand, but it has to potential to prepare learners who are self-regulating and self-motivated for life beyond school.

Read more:
Gonski’s vision of ‘personalised learning’ will stifle creativity and lead to a generation of automatons

However, it is a paradigm shift for many schools, teachers, parents, and communities.

Moving forward, a key obstacle to overcome will be assuring already overworked teachers it will not lead to more work and educating parents about the potential benefits for their children.

Maya Gunawardena receives funding from the ACT Education Directorate.

– ref. Personalised learning is billed as the ‘future’ of schooling: what is it and could it work? – https://theconversation.com/personalised-learning-is-billed-as-the-future-of-schooling-what-is-it-and-could-it-work-194630

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Signe Dean, Science + Technology Editor, The Conversation

This year, Australia’s prestigious Prime Minister’s Prize for Science has been awarded to a physical oceanographer whose work has had a “transformative impact” on our understanding of Earth’s oceans.

Professor Trevor McDougall AC from the University of New South Wales has made major contributions to unveiling the fundamental physics of the ocean.

During his illustrious career, McDougall has discovered previously unknown ocean mixing processes – the turbulent ways seawater churns and irreversibly changes under various conditions.

His discoveries have improved climate models, allowing us to better predict our planet’s fast-changing future.

“The ocean is notoriously difficult to observe; we know more about the surface of the Moon than we do about the seafloor,” McDougall said.

“We study the ocean because it transports a lot of heat from the equatorial regions towards the poles and also because it acts as the thermal flywheel of the climate system.”

A world-leading authority on ocean mixing, McDougall was recognised for his many contributions, including a redefinition of the thermodynamic description of seawater. The latter was accepted by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in 2009 as a new international standard.

“To receive the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science is an incredible honour, and it’s also an honour for the early career researchers that I’ve been working with for the past ten years,” said McDougall.

“They’ve been integral to some of the results that have been recognised in this prize.”

Read more:
The ocean is becoming more stable – here’s why that might not be a good thing

Predicting sea level rise

Earth’s oceans and their role in climate change are also the focus of another prize recipient this year – physical oceanographer and ocean modeller Dr Adele Morrison from the Australian National University (ANU).

She won the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year for her innovative methods of modelling ocean circulation around Antarctica.

Morrison’s research has greatly reduced uncertainty in predicting future sea level rise from Antarctic ice sheet melt, driven by warm ocean currents in the Southern Ocean.

Such work is particularly pertinent to Australia, with 85% of Australians living in places that could soon be affected by rising sea levels.

Morrison hopes to “inspire the next generation of scientists to unravel new discoveries and technologies that limit the impacts of climate change and our transition to a zero-emissions world”.

Read more:
Satellites reveal ocean currents are getting stronger, with potentially significant implications for climate change

Molecular diagnostics and solar cell improvements also recognised

Several other researchers and inventors received accolades at the ceremony held on November 21 at Parliament House in Canberra.

• Adjunct Professor Alison Todd and Dr Elisa Mokany, co-founders of the molecular diagnostics company SpeeDx, received the Prize for Innovation. Their highly advanced diagnostic tests have improved diagnosis and treatments for several infectious diseases and cancers.

• The other Prize for Innovation went to Dr Nick Cutmore, Dr James Tickner and Mr Dirk Treasure of the company Chrysos. They have successfully commercialised an X-ray technology that measures the presence of gold and minerals in ore samples.

• Professor Si Ming Man from ANU was awarded the Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year for his work on inflammation and new therapies for inflammatory diseases.

• The Prize for New Innovators went to University of Melbourne’s Dr Pip Karoly, whose unique seizure forecasting technology is improving the lives of millions of people with epilepsy.

• UNSW Associate Professor Brett Hallam was also awarded the Prize for New Innovators, whose discoveries and patented tech have improved solar cell performance by a whopping 10%.

Inspiring our youngest future scientists

Each year, the prizes also include recognition for outstanding achievements in science teaching.

Mr George Pantazis from Marble Bar Primary School in Western Australia was awarded the Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools for his work integrating First Nations cultural knowledge, including the critically endangered Nyamal language, in the school’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program.

This “wouldn’t be possible without the support of our teachers and the community, in particular the Nyamal people and their Elders”, said Pantazis.

“This prize is the highlight of my career. I owe it all to the students. Without them, I have nothing.”

The Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools went to Ms Veena Nair from Viewbank College, Victoria. She has collaborated with countless academics and industry leaders to not only show students the practical application of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) subjects, but also find pathways for them in STEAM careers.

“As a first-generation migrant, I’m deeply thankful to my birth country India, where I got my foundation skills – and to my adopted country Australia, where I was given the wings to fly,” said Nair.

For 23 years now, the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes have been awarded for outstanding achievements in scientific research, research-based innovation and excellence in science teaching. The recipients share a prize pool of $750,000.

This is the first year since 2019 the prizes were held at the Parliament House again, with the 2020 and 2021 events having taken place virtually.

Read more:
Explainer: what’s the difference between STEM and STEAM?

– ref. Groundbreaking studies of Earth’s churning oceans recognised at Australia’s most prestigious science prizes this year – https://theconversation.com/groundbreaking-studies-of-earths-churning-oceans-recognised-at-australias-most-prestigious-science-prizes-this-year-195015

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University

By rights, Victorians marking their ballot papers in the 2022 election this week should be casting judgment on the unprecedented emergency powers enforced during the COVID-19 crisis, while also evaluating the health, education and economic policies put forward in Australia’s second-most-populous state.

Instead, anti-women and anti-First Nations sentiments expressed by hard-line Liberal candidates have dominated the headlines.

Days out from the November 26 poll, the Liberal Party led by Matthew Guy (for the second time) has been rocked by revelations that some of its endorsed candidates hold extreme racist, anti-gay and anti-abortion positions, and would cross the floor against climate targets.

Read more:
Nine days from Victorian election, a new poll gives Labor a modest lead; US Republicans win House

The extreme views were either not revealed or never enquired about during the Liberal Party’s preselection and candidate vetting processes.

Personal convictions include opposition to: abortion, the constitutional enshrinement of the Voice to Parliament, and even kindergarten.

Most of these convictions, which are seriously out of step with community attitudes and official Liberal Party policy, appear to originate from the dogma of ultra-conservative Christian churches.

One candidate has been forced to apologise. Another is considering legal action after being told she will not be able to sit in the Liberals’ party room when elected.

Despite several scandals and what many believe were excessive restrictions during 2020 and 2021, including night-time curfews, the Andrews Labor government is believed to be in a stronger position following the revelations.

Often described as the most locked-down city in the (democratic) world, deep resentments linger in Melbourne and beyond about the psycho-social harm and ruinous economic effects of Australia’s longest-running and most comprehensive pandemic restrictions.

Yet the long underperforming Liberal opposition has struggled to harness that community and business disquiet into an electoral force. Instead, it has grabbed headlines for internal intrigue, and now extreme views, which had been kept under wraps.

The result is a Victorian Liberal Party that is further away from the middle-spectrum voters it desperately needs to win over if it is to form government.
Hitherto undisclosed loyalties to hard-line fundamentalist Pentecostal groups have fuelled fears of an orchestrated strategy by extreme right-wing Christians to control the Liberal Party. From there, it could exercise unseen influence over the state.

The controversy suggests the Victorian Liberals have allowed themselves to be infiltrated by ultra-conservative Christians in exchange for the influx of new members, and the funds and organisational wherewithal they bring.

Heading into the pivotal final week of the campaign, Guy is now battling on several fronts.

He is embroiled in an awkward public disagreement with the Victorian Electoral Commission over potentially explosive questions relating to political donations. This is because the VEC took the unusual step of referring Guy and his former chief of staff to the anti-corruption watchdog, the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC).

Electoral Commissioner Warwick Gately explained that “the VEC had exhausted its attempts to fully investigate what may constitute a breach of Victoria’s funding and disclosure laws under section 218B of the Electoral Act 2002 (Vic)”. He added the VEC was not satisfied with the level of co-operation it had received and therefore was “not in a position to allege wrongdoing based on the allegations it has sought to investigate”.

Within hours of that bombshell, new problems emerged concerning two ultra-conservative Liberal candidates. The first is Renee Heath, who heads the upper-house ticket for Eastern Victoria. The second is Timothy Dragan, the candidate for Narre Warren North.

Political parties being embarrassed by the beliefs, statements or backgrounds of candidates is not new. What is astonishing, though, is that they keep getting themselves into trouble with sloppy or non-existent vetting.

Pauline Hanson first entered the federal parliament in 1996 as an independent.
But she had joined the electoral contest as the Liberal Party candidate for the lower house seat of Oxley. She only lost that endorsement when she made controversial comments suggesting Indigenous people received undue advantages.

Read more:
Pauline Hanson built a political career on white victimhood and brought far-right rhetoric to the mainstream

Political parties have generally become more professional in their recruitment processes after a series of embarrassments on both sides in campaigns in recent years. However, this rigour tends to be short-circuited when selecting candidates for seats the party regards as unwinnable.

For these seats, it can be difficult to find anyone prepared to do the hard yards of letter-boxing and door-knocking. Due process may be left undone.

One of federal Labor’s leading lights, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, came to parliament at short notice when the Labor candidate for the safe seat of Hotham, Geoff Lake, had his endorsement withdrawn by Kevin Rudd in 2013. This followed reports Lake had verbally abused a wheelchair-bound local government representative.

Instances of candidates embarrassing their parties seem to occur in most election cycles. However, the Victorian example points to the problem of hard-line groups surreptitiously infiltrating the major parties for the express purpose of exercising undeclared influence in key policy areas.

Allegations of organised influence can be hard to verify. But in recent years, there have been claims of foreign and internationally controlled faith-based bodies deliberately training devotees to become candidates or to become active at the local branch level to sabotage socially moderate candidates.

It has been alleged members of the City Builders Church, to which Heath belongs, actively orchestrated a campaign of resistance against the federal member for Gippsland, Darren Chester, after the moderate Nationals MP advocated a “yes” vote in the marriage equality plebiscite.

Moderate Liberals complain Pentecostal Christian members have come to dominate the right wing of the NSW party.

Read more:
View from The Hill: Without those ‘lefties’ the Liberals can’t regain government

The recent scandals in Victoria may remind voters of the 2022 federal election, where the Pentecostal Scott Morrison hand-picked the Liberal candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves – a trenchant opponent of transgender policies.

It backfired, not just in Warringah, but across the country, where it tied the then-prime minister and his government to social attitudes not shared by the broader community.

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

– ref. Victorian Liberals embarrassed by extremists within: how does this keep happening? – https://theconversation.com/victorian-liberals-embarrassed-by-extremists-within-how-does-this-keep-happening-194984

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Davina Jackson, Visiting Scholar, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge

With Brisbane to host the 2032 Olympic Games, Queensland is accelerating “smart” and “green” infrastructure projects right across the coast from Coolangatta to Coolum.

So what practical steps is the state government taking to bring Brisbane closer to being a smart city while managing rapid growth? And what differences can city residents realistically expect to see for themselves?

Read more:
Urban planning is now on the front line of the climate crisis. This is what it means for our cities and towns

Exploiting a quarter century of technological progress

Vastly more ambitious than the South Bank building boom, which preceded Brisbane’s World Expo 88 in the pre-internet era, Queensland’s current infrastructure programs are exploiting the last quarter-century of technological progress.

Think sensor-triggered street lights, automated air conditioning and watering of parks and green facades. Envision robots for cleaning and construction, satmaps, swipe cards and QR codes. Data technology will be embedded in 32 existing and planned Olympic venues, the future athletes’ village at Northshore Hamilton (near Breakfast Creek) and the international media centres.

Technology will also underpin a substantial city centre at Maroochydore. Here, a mid-rise precinct will be powered via a solar farm at nearby Valdora, and will include fibre-optic telecommunications cables. In what may be a first for Australia, a new system will sluice garbage from chutes through underground vacuum pipes.

A ‘New Norm’ Olympics

All Games facilities must align with a set of 118 reforms the International Olympic Committee (IOC) calls its “New Norm” guidelines.

These were introduced in 2018 to improve energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness and long-term value from the huge development expenditure required of host governments. There had been concerns about integrity and wastefulness in the IOC’s old-school supervision of Games bidding and delivery processes.

Brisbane’s Games win is accelerating and expanding some major public mobility programs offering “turn up and go” transport routes for the 4.4 million people expected to live in South-East Queensland by 2031.

Aerial taxis without pilots

The most provocative proposal – still speculative – is to introduce aerial taxis to fly passengers without pilots, but remotely supervised, between future “vertiports”.

A prototype eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft is in Brisbane while its American manufacturer, Wisk Aero, seeks approval from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to operate commercially before the 2032 Games.

Wisk (backed by Boeing) has completed more than 1,600 test flights with six generations of aircraft. The Brisbane model has 12 lift fans on two 15-metre wings and is powered by a battery in the tail.

Delegates at a recent Smart Cities Council transport workshop I attended noted the potential of autonomous aerial vehicles to change patterns of housing development beyond road and rail links. Even so, Queensland is rapidly expanding its terrestrial network.

Land transport projects

Brisbane’s Cross River Rail line is being extended northwards through a new twin tunnel under Brisbane River and four new underground stations at Boggo Road, Woolloongabba, Albert Street and Roma Street.

This project uses smart tunnel-boring machines to carve through the tuff (a type of volcanic rock, pronounced toof) that formed Brisbane’s geology more than 200 million years ago.

As well as supporting the new health, science and education precinct near Boggo Road, this rail extension will connect the city’s southern suburbs with the existing line north from Bowen Hills.

And work continues on extending the Brisbane-to-Gold Coast light railway (also known as the G:Link).

This extension will provide eight new stations along a 6.7km track from Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads. The G:Link service uses German Bombardier Flexity carriages that are bi-directional and air-conditioned, with low-level floors matching station platforms and storage for wheelchairs, bikes, prams and surfboards. These are electric-powered via 750V overhead cables.

Superfast bus charging

More innovative is the Brisbane Metro project, which is being tested to potentially supply 60 electric buses (or “trackless trams”) to supplement the city’s existing fleet. These would be battery-powered by a combination of 600kW, six-minute, superfast “flash chargers” at end-of-line stations and 50kW, overnight, slow chargers at depots.

Each bus can be recharged up to 85 times faster than an electric car at home – but the flash system degrades batteries more than slow charging overnight.

Healthy footbridges

Although two of Brisbane’s four proposed “green bridges” for pedestrians and cyclists were paused to prioritise flood recovery, new crossings from the city to Kangaroo Point and Newstead to Albion are expected to open in 2024.

The Kangaroo Point green bridge will include a restaurant overlooking the botanic gardens. Newstead bridge will join the 1.2km-long Lores Bonney Riverwalk.

These are examples of a new phenomenon in public transport planning – to not merely move people between destinations but also boost their health and enjoyment outdoors.

As Corey Gray, global CEO of the Smart Cities Council, told me at the Smart Cities Council conference:

Smart cities are not ultimately about data and technology, but improving human systems.

Read more:
In a year of sporting mega-events, the Brisbane Olympics can learn a lot from the ones that fail their host cities

Davina Jackson 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. Queensland’s high-tech plan to make the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games smarter and greener – https://theconversation.com/queenslands-high-tech-plan-to-make-the-2032-brisbane-olympic-games-smarter-and-greener-193949

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabriella Edelstein, Lecturer in English, University of Newcastle

Review: The Tempest, directed by Kip Williams, Sydney Theatre Company.

The Tempest, first performed in 1611 and probably Shakespeare’s last solo-written play before his late collaborations with John Fletcher, used to be read as the playwright’s swan-song goodbye to the magic of theatre. But since postcolonial theory emerged in the mid-20th century, The Tempest is now usually performed to comment on the beginnings of the British Empire in the early 1600s.

The play is, after all, about the powerful Prospero – the exiled Duke of Milan – who claims an island as his own and uses his magic to enslave the dispossessed inhabitants, Caliban and Ariel.

Postcolonial rewrites of The Tempest take Caliban’s accusation of Prospero, “This island’s mine […] Which thou tak’st from me”, as their cue to reposition Shakespeare’s “thing of darkness”, Caliban, at the centre of the story.

Perhaps most famously, Martinique writer Aimé Césaire’s 1969 adaptation of the play overtly criticises Prospero and asserts Caliban’s right to the island.

The Sydney Theatre Company’s The Tempest, directed by Kip Williams, is the latest adaptation in a performance tradition that “writes back” to empire, here from an Australian perspective.

Taking a play that sometimes justifies the enslavement of the island’s original peoples and performing it to convey an optimistic message about Australia’s future is not an easy task.

Williams’ solution is rewriting Caliban, played feelingly by Guy Simon, a Biripi/Worimi man. This Caliban is liberated from slavery and returned his Country by the humbled Prospero (Richard Roxburgh).

Alongside Simon, Williams collaborated with several Indigenous colleagues to create a beautiful and affecting production that speaks to Australia on the hopeful cusp of the First Nations Voice to Parliament. There is also Megan Wilding as the knowing and compassionate Gonzalo; Jacob Nash’s set design which evokes the wonder of Country; and Shari Sebbens’ dramaturgy which reworks the audience’s relationship to Caliban.

This is not Shakespeare’s The Tempest with its knotty ambivalence towards colonisation. Rather, the play is heavily altered to become an allegory for the possibilities of forgiveness and Reconciliation in Australia.

But even if rewriting the text seems like a revolutionary intervention into Shakespeare’s intentions, within the history of Shakespeare performance this production of The Tempest is not as radical as it may seem.

Read more:
Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ explores colonialism, resistance and liberation

Something rich and strange

To achieve an ending that allows Caliban his dignity, the production team had to revise the text so Caliban does not submit and “seek for grace”, as he does at the conclusion of the original play.

Lines with racist overtones are cut and elements of the plot are changed to increase compassion for the “Hagseed” Caliban.

More drastically, the production team adds passages from several of Shakespeare’s other plays, such as Richard II, to articulate Caliban’s connection to Country:

Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand
Though rebels wound thee with their horses’ hoofs.

Shakespeare purists may baulk at this postmodern melange of Shakespeare’s speeches. But Williams and his team are taking part in a 400-year-old tradition of reshaping Shakespeare’s plays for performance to suit changing theatrical tastes and political ideas.

Early modern plays were never stable entities. They were often revised, either by those who first wrote them or by playwriting collaborators. Plays had lines or whole scenes cut and added, new characters incorporated and even endings changed. It was the playwright Thomas Middleton who added the Hecate scenes to Macbeth in the early 1620s.

Later, with the reopening of the theatres during the Restoration in 1660, theatrical companies continued touching up Shakespeare’s texts. Richard III became a tragicomedy; Macbeth turned into an opera; and The Tempest was given a host of new female characters to take advantage of women being allowed on stage.

Even now, Shakespeare plays are often edited for performance, cutting them down to a running length to suit a contemporary audience.

Williams’ changes to The Tempest to humanise Caliban can thus be situated within a history of theatrical revision and postcolonial readings in Shakespearean performance.

What’s past is prologue

Alongside theatrical revision, Williams’ production also takes part in another, Australian performance tradition: using Shakespeare to reflect on Reconciliation.

Over the past 30 years, there have been several performances of The Tempest which featured Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples, allegorising discrimination or gesturing towards a hopeful future for race relations.

Revising The Tempest for Australian audiences is complex. When adapting this play, with its complex meanings and history, Shakespeare is simultaneously undermined and authorised, criticised and praised by artists and audiences alike.

This production of The Tempest builds on other Australian confrontations of Shakespeare’s play. But earlier postcolonial adaptations, such as Simon Phillips’ 1999 Queensland Theatre Company production, showed reconciliation whilst also critiquing how Australian society authorises the racism that Shakespeare’s plays can promote.

By focusing on the disturbing language in The Tempest, the audience can see how our literary icons are part of our nation’s fabric of discrimination. In contrast, whilst the STC’s The Tempest restores Caliban his dignity by removing racist language, the audience does not have to confront the racist history of Shakespeare.

Changing the language of Shakespeare’s plays is not a radical act. It is common, historical theatrical practice.

But by removing the racism in the play, Williams and his team are idealising a Shakespeare that doesn’t exist. It is the Shakespeare we wish we had – but it is also important to remember the Bard was as much of a product of his time as we are.

STC’s The Tempest plays at the Roslyn Packer Theatre until December 17.

Read more:
Shakespeare’s musings on religion are like curious whispers – they require deep listening to be heard

Gabriella Edelstein 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. We’ve been editing Shakespeare’s plays for 400 years – but does a new Australian production of The Tempest idealise the Bard? – https://theconversation.com/weve-been-editing-shakespeares-plays-for-400-years-but-does-a-new-australian-production-of-the-tempest-idealise-the-bard-194635

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darryl Veitch, Professor of Computer Networking, University of Technology Sydney

Meeting in Versailles, France, on Friday, the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) has called time-out on “leap seconds” – the little jumps occasionally added to clocks running on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), to keep them in sync with Earth’s rotation.

From 2035, leap seconds will be abandoned for 100 years or so and will probably never return. It’s time to work out exactly what to do with a problem that has become increasingly urgent, and severe, with the rise of the digital world.

Why do we have leap seconds?

Roll back to 1972, when the arrival of highly accurate atomic clocks laid bare the fact that days are not exactly 86,400 standard seconds long (that being 24 hours, with each hour comprising 3,600 seconds).

The difference is only in milliseconds, but accumulates inexorably. Ultimately, the Sun would appear overhead at “midnight” – an indignity metrologists (people who study the science of measurement) were determined to prevent. Complicating matters further, Earth’s rotation, and thus the length of a day, actually varies erratically and can’t be predicted far in advance.

The solution arrived at was leap seconds: one-second corrections applied at the end of December and/or June on an ad hoc basis. Leaps were scheduled to ensure the timekeeping system we all use, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), is never more than 0.9 seconds away from the Earth-tracking alternative, Universal Time (UT1).

But all this was before computers ruled the Earth. Leap seconds were an elegant solution when first proposed, but are diabolical when it comes to software implementations.

This is because a leap second is an abrupt change that badly breaks key assumptions used in software to represent time. Base concepts such as time never repeating, standing still, or going backward are all at risk – as well as other quaint notions like each minute lasting exactly 60 seconds.

Leaping into danger

Question: what’s worse than mixing computers and leap seconds? Answer: mixing billions of interconnected networked computers, all trying to execute a leap second jump at (theoretically) the same time, with a great many failing in a wide variety of ways.

It gets better: most of those computers are learning about the impending leap second from the network itself. Better still, almost all are constantly synchronising their internal clocks by communicating over the internet to other computers called time servers, and believing the timing information these supply.

Imagine this scene then: during leap-second madness, some time-server computers can be wrong, but client computers relying on them don’t know it. Or they can be right, but client computer software disbelieves them. Or both client and server computers leap, but at slightly different times, and as a result software gets confused. Or perhaps a computer never receives word that a leap is happening, does nothing, and ends up a second ahead of the rest of the world.

All of this and more was seen in the analysis of timing data from the last leap-second event in 2016.

The ways in which computer confusion over time can impact networked systems are too numerous to describe. Already there are documented cases of significant outages and impacts arising from the most recent leap second events.

More broadly though, consider the networked critical infrastructure our world runs on, including electricity grids, telecommunications systems, financial systems, and services such as collision avoidance in shipping and aviation. Many of these rely on accurate timing at millisecond scales, or even down to nanoseconds. An error of one second could have huge and even deadly impacts.

Time’s up!

In recognition of the growing costs to our computer-based world, the idea of doing away with leap seconds has been on the table since 2015.

The International Telecommunications Union, the standards body that governs leap seconds, pushed back a decision several times. But pressure continued to grow on multiple fronts, including from major tech players such as Google and Meta (formerly Facebook).

The majority of international participants in the vote, including the US, France and Australia, supported the recent decision to drop the leap second.

The Versailles decision is not to abandon the idea of keeping everyday timekeeping (UTC) aligned with Earth. It’s more a recognition that the disadvantages of the current leap second system are too high, and getting worse. We need to stop it before something really bad happens!

The good news is we can afford to wait the suggested 100 years or so. During this time, the discrepancy may grow to as much as a minute, but that’s not very significant if you consider what we endure with daylight savings time each year. The logic is that by dropping the leap second right now, we can avoid its dangers and allow plenty of time to work out less disruptive ways to keep time aligned.

Read more:
A brief history of telling time

How could we deal with this down the track?

An extreme approach would be to fully adopt an abstract definition of time, abandoning the long-held association between time and Earth’s movements. Another is to make larger adjustments than a second, but far less frequently and with far better preparation to limit the dangers – perhaps in an age where software has evolved beyond bugs.

The decision of how far we’re willing to let things drift before a new approach is decided upon has its own deadline: the next meeting of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures is set for 2026. In the meantime, we’ll be stuck with leap seconds until 2035.

Since the Earth has surprisingly begun to spin faster in recent decades, the next leap second may, for the first time, involve removing a second to speed up UTC, rather than adding a second to slow it down.

Software for this case is largely already in place, but has never been tested in the wild – so be prepared to leap into the unknown.

Read more:
Scientists are hoping to redefine the second – here’s why

Darryl Veitch has received funding from the ARC for network timing research.

– ref. It’s time-out for leap seconds: an expert explains why the tiny clock adjustments will be paused from 2035 – https://theconversation.com/its-time-out-for-leap-seconds-an-expert-explains-why-the-tiny-clock-adjustments-will-be-paused-from-2035-194922

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karin Hammarberg, Senior Research Fellow, Global and Women’s Health, School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University

The demand for donor eggs and sperm outstrips supply in Australia. To find out what can make donor recruitment more successful, we surveyed 1,000 people about whether they had ever donated gametes (eggs or sperm) and if they hadn’t, we asked for the reasons why.

Only eight people had donated their gametes. Of those who hadn’t donated, some gave reasons that showed that they would never even consider being a donor. However, others indicated that, under some circumstances, they might be willing to donate.

Read more:
Problems conceiving are not just about women. Male infertility is behind 1 in 3 IVF cycles

Who needs donor eggs and sperm?

In Australia and some other countries including the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Sweden, egg and sperm donors can’t be paid, and must agree that their identity can be known by any child born as a result of their donation once they turn 18. In other counties, including the United States and some countries in Europe, donors can be paid and remain anonymous.

Donor eggs and sperm allow people who otherwise are unable to have children to become parents. Men in same-sex relationships can become parents with the help of an egg donor and a surrogate.

For women in same-sex relationships, single women, and heterosexual couples where the male partner doesn’t produce sperm, donor sperm makes parenthood possible. And for women who, due to their age, don’t produce viable eggs, eggs donated by a younger woman give them a good chance of having a baby.

In countries where donors are paid to donate their eggs and sperm and can remain anonymous, donor eggs and sperm are available for those who need it and can afford it.

But in most countries where only altruistic donations are permitted and where donors can’t be anonymous, there is a shortage of donors. This means some people who need donor eggs or sperm have to join a waiting list, try to find their own donor (friend or relative), or travel to a country where they can access donor eggs or sperm.

The Victorian government recently announced Australia’s first public sperm and egg bank will be established in Victoria. The announcement didn’t elaborate how this bank would find donors. The findings of our research about why people don’t donate their eggs or sperm might help recruitment strategies for donors to this and other donor programs.

Why people don’t donate

We know most people who donate their eggs and sperm are motivated by altruism and a desire to help infertile people have children. Where donors are paid, financial compensation is also a motivator.

But little is known about the vast majority of people who don’t donate. We conducted an online survey where people were asked if they had ever donated sperm or eggs and if they hadn’t, we asked them to tell us why.

Of the 1,035 people who completed the survey, only eight had donated eggs or sperm. The written responses non-donors gave for why they hadn’t donated eggs or sperm were analysed and revealed four distinct themes.

1: Barriers:

Some people couldn’t donate, perhaps because they had had a vasectomy or were themselves infertile.

2. Conscientious objectors:

Some considered donating eggs or sperm to be against their religious beliefs or cultural norms, and some made comments which reflected a firm refusal without mention of any specific reason, for example, “There is no way I would do this in a million years.”

3. Conditional willingness:

Some comments suggested that some non-donors might consider becoming an egg or sperm donor if specified requirements were fulfilled. This included things like if they had more information about what donation entails, a family member or close friend needed eggs or sperm, they had completed their own family, a future partner supported them to donate eggs or sperm, or if they were paid to donate.

4.Unconsidered:

Some people had never thought about or made an active decision about whether they would donate or not. This was reflected in comments such as “I’ve never really thought about it”, or “Nobody has asked me”.

Some people gave multiple reasons for not donating, and these sometimes fell into more than one theme. The most common theme was conditional willingness (approximately 65%) followed by the “unconsidered” (approximately 35%), and “barriers” themes (approximately 20%). The least common theme was the “conscientious objector” (approximately 12%).

How can we attract more donors?

This study shows there is potential to increase the number of egg and sperm donors by improving awareness about the need for donors and how donations can help people who can’t have children any other way.

The Independent Review of Assisted Reproductive Treatment commissioned by the Victorian government also emphasised the importance of public education, stating “a social marketing campaign that speaks to the value of donation and seeks to influence social views on donation” is needed to grow the pool of local donors.

Donors’ wellbeing also needs to be a priority if we want more people to volunteer to donate their eggs or sperm. Access to counselling and support before and after donation, out-of-hours options for donating, user-friendly booking systems, and exceptional and person-centred care are essential in donor programs.

And finally, although altruism is a cornerstone in egg and sperm donation regulation in Australia, reasonable compensation for time and effort might increase the number of people willing to donate to help others achieve parenthood.

Read more:
Thinking about freezing your eggs to have a baby later? Here are 3 numbers to help you decide

Karin Hammarberg works for the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority

Benno Torgler, Ho Fai Chan, and Stephen Whyte do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. We asked people why they don’t donate their eggs or sperm. Their responses could help us attract more donors – https://theconversation.com/we-asked-people-why-they-dont-donate-their-eggs-or-sperm-their-responses-could-help-us-attract-more-donors-193386

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Speck, Emerita Professor, Art History and Curatorship, University of Adelaide

Contemporary Indian artist Nalini Malani, born in 1946, is infinitely experimental.

Her work traverses video, photography, multi-media installation, painting and digital animations.

The latter is the medium employed in an evocative set of 88 stop-motion images viewers first encounter in Gamepieces at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

The vicious murder of an eight-year-old child in Karachi in 2018 was the springboard for the challenging series of highly emotive and immersive iPad drawings that are now digital animations.

These animations read like a stream of consciousness thoughts about contemporary life.

A cast of characters, including Alice from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, appear in the animations along with text from literary, philosophical, and linguistic figures including Samuel Beckett, Noam Chomsky and Paul Klee.

Fragments of text flash by ranging from “I am exhausted” and “dystopia” to those capturing a sense of wonder, such as “do clouds divide”.

Malani says the ordered chaos of her Animation Chamber simulates the mind at work.

Maybe, but there is a simmering level of violence. An innocent Alice skipping on her rope, before we see her being abused. It is as if Alice calls out “can you hear me?”.

This is part of Malani’s wider practice of social critique.

Experimental art making

On display are early works made in a climate of idealism under the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, a secularist who in the 1960s talked about changing the class system and making a new India for all.

Read more:
Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision for a just and equitable post-colonial world, with India leading the way

Malani, fresh out of art school and a member of the experimental Vision Exchange Workshop in Mumbai began exploring the possibilities of image making with photography and film.

Stunning abstract photograms (where objects are placed on photographic paper to make images) such as Precincts, 1969, are on display. Abstract shapes have been exposed on photosensitive bromide paper to light. They speak of an idealism present in modernism itself and in India.

Such idealism was short lived. Malani was in Paris amid the 1968 student demonstrations, and unable to access her university training there. She began making monochromes of photographic images superimposed on xrays.

Again she is highly innovative in approach, protesting against nuclear testing in her Mushroom cloud, 1970/2018.

At the same time, Malani befriended influential literary, film and feminist practitioners and theorists in Paris which set her on the path of melding art with literature in numerous theatrical productions.

Idealism fails

That theatrical approach underscores her dramatic but chilling video play Unity in Diversity, 2003.

The impetus for the piece was the violent 2002 riots in Gujarat between Hindus and Muslims where more than 1,000 people died – a dramatic reminder of the failure of the Nehru’s idealism for a peaceful, pluralistic India.

We are in a living room with its familiar décor. A sofa, reading lamp and framed photographs of yet another idealist for modern India, Mahatma Gandhi, hang tellingly on blood red walls.

Across from the sofa, a video shows 11 culturally diverse Indian female musicians. Their performance is then disrupted by gunshots ringing out against a background of speeches by Nehru for nationalism, and footage of the riots showing bloodied victims, some taking on a deathly pallor.

But what to make of this compelling multi-laden narrative – that idealism fails, or as its title suggests, unity can be found in diversity?

Malani herself knows the price of racial and religious difference. As a Pakistani, she was relocated with her family to India during the traumatic Partition of 1947.

Read more:
75 years ago, Britain’s plan for Pakistani and Indian independence left unresolved conflicts on both sides – especially when it comes to Kashmir

An epic production

Malani’s political critique takes in environmental tragedies such as India’s worst chemical leak ever in 1984 at the Union Carbide Factory, which killed 15,000 people and left a lingering presence in deformities.

Her political critique has a distinct feminist bent too, focusing on protagonists such as Sita and Yaśodharā in traditional Hindu mythic paintings in her Stories Retold.

And then there is Gamepieces, 2003-2020. This is a wondrous video/shadow play, almost lo-tech in its fabrication, developed in response to nuclear tests in India and Pakistan in 1998.

Reverse painting is where a painting is created on glass, designed to be seen through the reverse side. Here, Malani has reverse painted six rotating transparent mylar cylinders.

The imagery on these cylinders is projected onto a screen mashed up with multi-directional video imagery of the nuclear attacks on Japan in 1945. A cast of mythical wounded characters and creatures parade by, all underscored by a Hindustani musical score.

The word “epic” best fits this wholly immersive affective encounter as Malani intended, knowing the audience would complete the narrative.

Nalini Malani’s powerful survey exhibition curated by gallery director Rhana Devenport is important in Australia’s exhibition calendar.

Malani is a senior contemporary artist whose theatrical installations, often based around historical events, meld with present global issues.

She moves easily from the past to present, from cultural memory to contemporary subjects by taking the viewing audience with her in immersive theatrical experiences, crossing artforms from the literary to visual to the musical, all the while underpinned by critique.

Nalini Malani: Gamepieces is at the Art Gallery of South Australia until 22 January.

Catherine Speck has received ARC funding (with Joanna Mendelssohn, Catherine De Lorenzo and Alison Inglis) to research Australian art exhibitions.

– ref. Why you should know the exciting experimental, political and feminist work of senior Indian artist Nalini Malani – https://theconversation.com/why-you-should-know-the-exciting-experimental-political-and-feminist-work-of-senior-indian-artist-nalini-malani-194343

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stacy Blythe, Deputy Director Translational Research and Social Innovation Group at the Ingham Institute, Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University

Foster and kinship carers are volunteers who provide day-to-day care to children who are unable to live safely with their parents. A kinship carer is someone who is either related to the child or has a previous relationship with the child (such as a neighbour or family friend). Prior to placement in their care, a foster carer is a stranger to the child.

There are roughly 9,000 foster carer households and 15,600 kinship carer households in Australia, providing care to nearly 46,000 children. Babies (under one year of age) enter out-of-home care at a higher rate than any other aged children.

Foster and kinship carers undergo an extensive screening process prior to authorisation and should receive ongoing support and training to assist them in their caregiving role.

However, our research, launched recently at the National Permanency Conference, found these carers are not well supported to care for babies.

Read more:
Adoption law should be reformed to give children legal connections to both of their families – here’s why

40% of carers got no information or training on infant care

Typically, when a person discovers they are becoming a parent, they have access to pregnancy and parenting classes, and many other resources to prepare them to care for their baby.

When a baby is born, parents are taught by nurses and midwives how to hold, feed, bath and settle their baby.

After leaving the hospital, many also receive home visiting services which provide ongoing support for parents and their babies.

Unfortunately, foster and kinship carers of infants do not receive this same level of support.

We surveyed 232 foster and kinship carers who had provided care to a baby in out-of-home care sometime in the past five years. We also interviewed 13 carers to understand how to best support them in their caregiving role.

The survey asked carers whether they had received information or training related to eight key areas regarding infants:

• nutrition

• feeding

• bathing

• sleeping and settling

• immunisation

• developmental milestones

• attachment; and

• trauma.

Around 25% of carers received information on infant nutrition (such as what formula to use or when to introduce solids) and about 33% were given information on feeding (such as how to bottle-feed a baby).

Only 16% of carers reported receiving information to help them bathe a baby, settle a crying baby or put them to bed.

Only 25% of carers received information regarding childhood immunisation and 20% received information regarding typical developmental milestones (such as when babies should be able to lift their head, roll over or crawl).

These rates are surprisingly low given that the health care system provides basic caregiving information to all expectant parents either shortly before or after the birth of a child.

Babies who require separation from their parents due to safety issues often experience developmental trauma and struggle to form healthy attachments to others.

Poor attachment and during infancy can have major negative long-term effects on children.

Despite this, only 25% of carers received information on attachment and about 33% received information on developmental trauma.

In total, 40% of the carers in our study received no information or training at all related to caring for a baby.

‘We had to Google a lot of information’

The carers in our study were resourceful.

We asked those who reported receiving information or training whether it had been offered to them or if they had found it themselves.

The majority reported finding the information themselves. While this shows a desire to provide good quality care, it is concerning as we don’t know whether this information is from a credible source.

As one carer told us:

We had to Google a lot of information because we hadn’t had a baby for so long!

Carers were also motivated. While only 29% of carers reported receiving home visiting services, over 80% reported taking the babies in their care to the community health nurse.

Also, it should not be assumed carers don’t need information because they’ve done it before.

Just over 30% of the carers surveyed had no previous parenting experience before providing out-of-home care.

Many of those with parenting experience had not cared for a baby for several years.

In their interviews carers described themselves as “unprepared” and needing a “refresher” before receiving care of a baby.

Three key recommendations

The United Nations says governments have the responsibility to ensure children grow and develop healthily.

This includes babies living in out-of-home care. But how can carers provide quality care if they are not trained and supported to do so?

When carers are not supported, they may worry about their ability to meet the needs of the baby in their care. This anxiety and self-doubt can cause carers to stop providing care.

As one carer put it:

I’m still in two minds myself about whether I would do this again.

Australia is already facing a shortage of carers and increasing numbers of babies are requiring care.

The carers in our study found caring for babies to be “rewarding” but indicated they would welcome training and support, such as home visiting services, to help them provide the best possible care to babies.

We recommend that foster and kinship carers caring for babies are provided:

1. training related to basic infant care
2. credible resources, and
3. home visiting services.

This will help retain carers and ensure the best possible care is provided to babies in out-of-home care.

Read more:
We checked the records of 6,000 kids entering care. Only a fraction received recommended health checks

This research was jointly funded by My Forever Family and the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Western Sydney University. Stacy Blythe is an authorised foster carer for the NSW Department of Communities and Justice. .

Emma Elcombe 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. ‘We had to Google a lot’: what foster and kinship carers looking after babies told us about the lack of support – https://theconversation.com/we-had-to-google-a-lot-what-foster-and-kinship-carers-looking-after-babies-told-us-about-the-lack-of-support-194459

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zareh Ghazarian, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Monash University

There are now just five days until the last day of voting in the Victorian state election.

Much of the focus of the campaign so far has been on the Legislative Assembly, or lower house. To win government, a party or coalition of parties must win a majority of seats in this chamber.

At the last state election in 2018, Labor won 55 of the 88 seats, while the Liberal and National coalition won just 27 seats.

Like other jurisdictions, COVID-19 had a major impact on Victoria. In responding to the pandemic, the Andrews government introduced a range of policy measures that sought to limit the transmission of the virus in the community. These included lengthy lockdowns, curfews, and limits on how far people could travel from their homes.

While the Victorian political debate appeared to become more polarised during this time, opinion polls have continually favoured a third consecutive win for the Dan Andrews-led Labor Party.

In contrast, the Coalition has seemingly struggled to generate support, despite being out of government for eight years. The decision to bring back Matthew Guy as Liberal Party leader last year sought to build the opposition’s momentum ahead of the election. Based on recent polls, Guy appears to have stopped voters leaving the Coalition, but the opposition still trails Labor on the all-important two-party-preferred measure.

Minor parties and new challengers

While the major parties continue to be central to the campaign coverage, minor parties are also working to increase their representation in the lower house.

The Greens currently hold three inner-metropolitan seats: Melbourne, Prahran and Brunswick. Two of these seats are on very fine margins. Melbourne is held by just 1.6%, while the Brunswick margin is 2%.

In addition to defending these seats, the Greens are hoping to win Richmond, another inner-metropolitan electorate held by Labor by 5.8%. The seat is currently held by Labor minister Richard Wynne, who will be retiring after 23 years. This opens an opportunity for the Greens to make further inroads in the Victorian parliament.

There is also a lot of interest in how the “teal” independents will perform. At the federal poll in May, teal candidates won Kooyong and Goldstein from the Liberal Party. There is an expectation they may win eastern metropolitan seats including Kew, Hawthorn and Caulfield, which had once been safe electorates for the Liberal Party.

This election will provide the teals with an opportunity to consolidate themselves in Australian politics if they are able also to win state representation.

The upper house

The state’s upper house is made up of 40 parliamentarians, with five MPs elected from each of the eight Legislative Council regions. At the last election, Labor won 18 seats, while the Coalition won 11.

The proportional voting system used to elect candidates is similar to that used in the Senate prior to 2016. To win, a candidate must win 16.7% of the vote across the region in which they are standing.

Furthermore, the controversial Group Voting Ticket (GVT) system is used to elect candidates. This means voters can simply indicate their most preferred party above the line on the ballot paper. Their preferences will then be distributed according to the preference flows designed by the party.

While this makes voting straightforward, the GVT system has been criticised for giving too much power to parties to determine where votes end up through preference deals.

Of course, voters can also choose to vote below the line by numbering at least five boxes.

Read more:
How Victorian Labor’s failure on upper house electoral reform undermines democracy

At the last election, the Greens won just one seat thanks to poor preference flows. In contrast, parties with beneficial preference deals were able to win representation in the state’s upper house. These included the Liberal Democrats, Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party, the Reason Party, and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party.

The use of the GVT system has also come under scrutiny after so-called “preference whisperer” Glenn Druery, who has regularly designed beneficial preference deals for parties, was shown on video talking about these deals.

Irrespective of the debates about the GVT, it remains a feature of the Victorian system and could be used in future state elections unless changes are made to the electoral system following this election.

As such, the final outcome of the upper house election may replicate the existing result, which would mean neither major party controls the chamber and must work with cross-bench MPs to form a majority.

The final countdown

Opinion polls have been consistently pointing to a Labor win in Victoria. If successful, Andrews may become the longest-serving premier of the state since John Cain junior, another Labor leader, held the post from 1982 to 1990.

A third straight loss for the Liberals in Victoria will presumably lead to further introspection and analysis within the party about its policy agenda and leadership.

With many Victorians have already voted early, the future of the state’s government and party system will be revealed when counting starts on Saturday night.

Zareh Ghazarian 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. As Victorians head to the polls, will voters punish the major parties? – https://theconversation.com/as-victorians-head-to-the-polls-will-voters-punish-the-major-parties-193724

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josephine Barbaro, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, Psychologist, La Trobe University

With better awareness and acceptance, approximately one out of every 50 children is receiving an autism diagnosis. More and more families are deciding when to share this information with their child. Some parents worry that doing so will “label” their child, or make others treat them differently.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disability that presents as differences in socialising, communicating, and processing information (including thinking, sensing and regulating). The earlier a child is identified as autistic, the earlier supports and services are provided. This leads to better outcomes for the child and family.

These benefits also flow from talking about the diagnosis. But what’s the best way to start that conversation? And what does your child need to know?

Getting in early

Children are receiving diagnoses as early as 12-18 months in our program, which helps maternal and child health nurses screen for autism during regular health checks.

Early identification of autism allows parents and professionals to learn how their child communicates as early as possible. Then they can match that child’s communication style to help them learn important, everyday life skills.

Rather than a focus on “changing” or “fixing” an autistic child to suit others, it’s better to encourage acceptance.

While some parents may worry about stigma and labelling, those within the Autistic community report that labelling happens regardless of whether parents discuss diagnosis or not. It can instead take the form of harmful labels like “weird” or “strange”. In fact, others are more likely to form negative first impressions when they do not know someone is autistic.

Parents may also think they need to wait until their child seems “ready” to understand a diagnosis. But this can lead to people not knowing they are autistic until many years after their diagnosis, and fuel feelings of shame.

An empowering truth

Telling children they are autistic as early as possible has several benefits.

Research shows teenagers talk about themselves in a more positive way when their parents have had open conversations with them about being autistic, compared to those who did not. When this conversation is had earlier, autistic people have better quality of life and wellbeing in adulthood.

By understanding themselves at an earlier age, autistic people can feel empowered, advocate for themselves, and potentially gain access to supports and services earlier.

An open discussion around diagnosis also provides an earlier opportunity to “find a community”. Some autistic people say they feel understood and accepted when they connect with other autistic people. This can increase positive identity and self-esteem.

Read more:
Autism is still underdiagnosed in girls and women. That can compound the challenges they face

Having the chat – 3 ideas to guide parents

1. Check in with your own feelings

First, identify where you are at with your feelings around the diagnosis. You may still be coming to terms with this new path for your child and family – and this may make it difficult to have a discussion without becoming distressed or emotional. Wherever you are on your journey to acceptance, it’s important you are in a positive frame of mind when raising this topic with your child.

If you’re not ready, you may choose to wait while you process your own emotions. But don’t wait too long, given the importance of knowing about an autism diagnosis early – especially if your child starts asking about their differences compared to other children.

2. Build awareness into everyday talk

We recommend parents or carers start by talking about autism in everyday life. If your child is very young, not yet talking or communicating much, you could use autistic figures on TV, such as Julia on Sesame Street. For example, you could say: “Did you see how Julia needed to have some quiet time, like you need sometimes? Julia is autistic, just like you.”

Older children and teens already know the world is diverse. They may have classmates or neighbours from different cultural backgrounds or have friends or family from the LGBTQIA+ community. You can start discussions about autism as part of neurodiversity. For example, you could say: “There are different types of brains, just like there are different cultures and ways people express their gender.”

3. Choose a good time

For younger children, it’s best to incorporate everyday talk about autism during times they are calm and alert – for example, in the morning, after a nap, or during calming and wind-down routines like bath time or reading books before bed.

When explicitly telling your older child or teen they are autistic, you might want to do this during “low-demand” times such as during the school holidays. It may be easier for your child to take on new information when they are not busy with school and other activities.

Many autistic children may not have the privilege of fully understanding what being autistic means. This could include autistic children who also have a significant intellectual disability, who may not yet be able to communicate using speech, or who are not able to use assistive technology. However, parents of these children should not assume they have no understanding at all. Such conversations should be part of everyday life for all autistic children.

Looking for more information

We recommend resources which describe autism using neutral language (such as “differences” and “challenges”) rather than those which use negative language (terms like “deficits” or “symptoms”). As well as reading material developed by professionals, parents can learn a lot from the lived experience of autistic people.

Our colleague Raelene Dundon’s book is a good example. The Brain Forest by Sandhya Menon (also a colleague) is about different types of brains.

There are free online resources to help you and your child learn about neurodiversity. Reframing Autism has developed resources on next steps after a childhood diagnosis and ways to talk about it.

For older children and young teenagers, this self-help guide is by autistic authors. And this video by the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, covers many of the traits, challenges and strengths of autistic people.

Ultimately, we want all children to accept themselves and their differences, and be happy about who they are. But this is a two-way street – society also needs to accept that being different is OK. This begins with parents and carers and their early conversations with children about their differences, and acceptance of themselves, regardless of their neurological make-up.

Read more:
Kids on the autism spectrum experience more bullying. Schools can do something about it

Josephine Barbaro receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services

Marie Camin 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. How to talk to your child about their autism diagnosis – the earlier the better – https://theconversation.com/how-to-talk-to-your-child-about-their-autism-diagnosis-the-earlier-the-better-193942

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meena Jha, Researcher in Information Communications Technology, CQUniversity Australia

Contract cheating – where commercial cheating services provide assignments for university students – has become a global problem.

Australia is not immune. According to the latest data, record numbers of Australian students are paying someone else to do their assessments.

This comes amid broader concerns about rising levels of cheating during COVID.

Last week, the University of New South Wales said it was detecting more than double the amount of cheating among its students post COVID. Before the pandemic, just under 2% of students were caught in misconduct processes each year. Now it is close to 4.5%.

“It’s really taken off during the pandemic,” Deputy Vice-Chancellor George Williams told Radio National.

This isn’t just problem for individual universities. It threatens the integrity and reputation of a university degree and the whole higher education system.

Our research suggests the way to address this is to revert to more traditional ways of holding exams.

Read more:
If unis stick with online assessment after COVID, they’ll have do more to stop cheating

Harsh penalties are not working

There are harsh penalties for cheating if a student is caught. They can been expelled from their course or even have their degree revoked.

However, these deterrents are not working. Research in 2021 showed one in ten students either pay someone to write their essays or use content they find that was not written by them. Other studies show up to 95% of cases go undetected.

If assignments and many exams are done online or at home, this provides new opportunities to collude with other students. Or to pay a cheating service to do it.

Students can also use artificial intelligence tools to write essays which prevent plagiarism software from picking this up.

Meanwhile, academic staff are already overworked and may not have the time or capacity to detect and report misconduct cases.

The issue, of course, has been made worse by the increased use of online assessments during COVID.

Our research

Our research looked at how 47 academics working in computing courses were upholding academic integrity during COVID and the move online.

We focused on bachelors degree and coursework masters degrees across 41 Australian universities.

Our interviewees told us that pre-pandemic, the majority of final exams were done in person and were monitored by academic staff. During COVID, many assessments moved online and simply could not be supervised.

As one interviewee told us,

There was a lot more cheating, both plagiarism and collusion […] students are cheating in way that they were not able to cheat with paper, supervised exams.

Another explained:

we would release the exam at 8am […] and about 20 minutes later the questions were appearing on the contract cheating sites […] we did think of limiting the time they had available to do the exam, but clearly, the internet moves faster than we do.

The random interview approach

Interviewees told us how post-exam interviews were used way to try and detect and prevent cheating during online assessments.

In these interviews (also called vivas) academics can check whether an exam was completed by the appropriate student and that they worked by themselves.

Read more:
When does getting help on an assignment turn into cheating?

Before an exam, students were warned they might be required to do an interview after the exam. They might be selected randomly or might be chosen because of suspicions raised by their exam answers.

But as one interviewee explained, even this wasn’t enough to stop cheating – “the thought of a viva didn’t stop them”.

Our research suggests universities should strongly consider going back to the past and holding exams in person. As one interviewee noted:

We haven’t come up with an answer as to how to do assured assessment online […] all of the solutions that we’ve tried for online invigilation [monitoring] have problems of one kind or another.

Another academic was more blunt:

you cannot ensure academic integrity in online assessment.

Why we need old fashioned methods

There is huge interest in moving university life online post-COVID, as the sector moves to make learning as flexible as possible.

Read more:
We took away due dates for university assignments. Here’s what we found

Some universities in our study are considering moving entirely to online exams. This obviously presents ongoing integrity issues. And it suggests we may be employing and trusting qualified experts who have not earned those qualifications.

But rather than fancier technology or harsher penalties, our research suggests we need to be reverting to more traditional methods of assessing students.

This means traditional face-to-face exams, with student identity card checks, arranged seating, and exam rooms monitored by staff.

This will be less flexible for students, particularly for those who are still overseas or who still need to practice social distancing. But it remains a tried and trusted method of ensuring students are doing their own exams.

The author would like to acknowledge the team members who worked on this research: Sander Leemans, Queensland University of Technology, Regina Berretta, University of Newcastle, Ayse Bilgin, Macquarie University, Trina Myers, Queensland University of Technology, Judy Sheard, Monash University, Simon, formerly of the University of Newcastle and Lakmali Herath Jayarathna, Central Queensland University.

Meena Jha received funding for this project from the Australian Council of Deans of Information and Communication Technology (ACDICT), under the ALTA grant scheme.

– ref. With record numbers of students cheating, unis should revert to old school in-person exams – https://theconversation.com/with-record-numbers-of-students-cheating-unis-should-revert-to-old-school-in-person-exams-194341

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toby Phillips, Public Policy Researcher, University of Oxford

Increasingly, climate change is at the centre of government decision-making.

This year’s federal budget devoted pages to an examination of the fiscal impact of climate change; Treasury has established a climate change modelling unit; and it’ll be front and centre of next year’s intergenerational report.

Yet it is still nowhere near the centre of the deliberations of Australia’s Reserve Bank – one of the nation’s most important economic decision-making institutions.

The Reserve Bank’s enabling legislation is the Reserve Bank Act 1959. That 63-year old legislation requires the bank to make decisions that are directed to the “greatest advantage of the people of Australia” in three specific areas:

• the stability of the currency of Australia

• the maintenance of full employment in Australia

• the economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia

The first objective is interpreted in an agreement signed by the treasurer as aiming to get “inflation between 2% and 3%, on average over time”.

The second and third aren’t clearly defined in the agreement, leaving most of the focus on the first.

Climate given second-order status

While it is beyond doubt that the third objective – “economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia” – includes a liveable climate and a sustainable environment, not spelling this out relegates climate and sustainability to second-order status as the bank makes decisions.

In a submission to the independent review of the bank, set up by the treasurer and due to report in March, I put forward an argument for adding a fourth objective along with my colleagues from the Centre for Policy Development:

• an orderly transition to, and maintenance of, net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, and management of climate-related risks and opportunities

Should that be seen as too much of a change, we suggest a fallback: adding the word “sustainability” to the existing third objective, making it refer to

• the economic prosperity, sustainability and welfare of the people of Australia

In addition, our submission asks the government to include in its written directions to the bank a statement setting out the government’s view of the ways in which the bank’s objectives relate to climate change.

What’s the climate got to do with the bank?

Climate change is a first-order financial stability issue and will be the dominant economic theme of this century, due to both the scale of likely damage and the opportunities in the transition to net-zero.

The bank needs to build out a more sophisticated toolkit for dealing with the impacts of this transition.

The bank’s primary tool – the interest rate – is particularly good at sending signals to the “demand” side of the economy, but climate risks are more likely to present supply-side inflationary shocks.

This means an obsessive focus on short-term inflation without considering the transition could be self-defeating, as it might encourage the continued use of fossil fuels even as they play an increasingly less stable and more inflationary role in the economy.

One way this could play out would be a decision by the bank to push up interest rates in response to inflation caused by high fossil fuel prices. In turn, this could make it more expensive to invest in renewable energy – the very thing that would decouple prices from fossil fuels.

Beyond setting interest rates, a less public part of the Reserve Bank’s role is maintaining liquidity in the financial system by lending to private banks against collateral, some of which includes corporate bonds.

The bank can insist on climate risk reporting

The international task force on climate-related financial disclosures – which reports to the Bank for International Settlements, of which Australia’s Reserve Bank is a member – is pushing for the standardised reporting of corporate climate risks.

If Australia’s Reserve Bank insisted on this from firms whose corporate bonds it held as collateral (as the European Central Bank is planning to), it would help spread awareness of accounting for the importance of accounting for climate risks throughout the financial system.

The bank could go further and consider the impact of climate-related risks on expected default rates when assessing the creditworthiness of assets used as collateral, preferencing corporate debt from companies with credible transition plans. The effects of this repricing would ripple through the financial system.

Read more:
Why it’s not anti-environmental to be in favour of economic growth

It could even decide to preference government debt from “green sovereigns” (foreign states or Australian states whose activities involve little climate risk) over those of less-green sovereigns by offering differentiated interest rates.

In 2019 the Centre for Policy Development hosted a landmark address in which then Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Guy Debelle emphasised the importance of an orderly climate transition to financial stability, saying:

decisions that are taken now can have significant effects on future climate trends and can limit or eliminate the ability to mitigate the effect of those trends

The Reserve Bank, Australia’s oldest and arguably most important public financial regulator, has the ability to help smooth the transition.

An early step would be to update the bank’s 1950s rules, and put beyond doubt that climate change is one of its 21st century responsibilities.

Toby Phillips is a Program Director at the Centre for Policy Development, an independent non-partisan think tank.

– ref. It’s time to add climate change and net-zero emissions to the RBA’s top 3 economic goals – https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-add-climate-change-and-net-zero-emissions-to-the-rbas-top-3-economic-goals-194068

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt McDonald, Associate Professor of International Relations, The University of Queensland

For 30 years, developing nations have fought to establish an international fund to pay for the “loss and damage” they suffer as a result of climate change. As the COP27 climate summit in Egypt wrapped up over the weekend, they finally succeeded.

While it’s a historic moment, the agreement of loss and damage financing left many details yet to be sorted out. What’s more, many critics have lamented the overall outcome of COP27, saying it falls well short of a sufficient response to the climate crisis. As Alok Sharma, president of COP26 in Glasgow, noted:

Friends, I said in Glasgow that the pulse of 1.5 degrees was weak. Unfortunately it remains on life support.

But annual conferences aren’t the only way to pursue meaningful action on climate change. Mobilisation from activists, market forces and other sources of momentum mean hope isn’t lost.

One big breakthrough: loss and damage

There were hopes COP27 would lead to new commitments on emissions reduction, renewed commitments for the transfer of resources to the developing world, strong signals for a transition away from fossil fuels, and the establishment of a loss and damage fund.

By any estimation, the big breakthrough of COP27 was the agreement to establish a fund for loss and damage. This would involve wealthy nations compensating developing states for the effects of climate change, especially droughts, floods, cyclones and other disasters.

Most analysts have been quick to point out there’s still a lot yet to clarify in terms of donors, recipients or rules of accessing this fund. It’s not clear where funds will actually come from, or whether countries such as China will contribute, for example. These and other details are yet to be agreed.

We should also acknowledge the potential gaps between promises and money on the table, given the failure of developed states to deliver on US$100 billion per year of climate finance for developing states by 2020. This was committed to in Copenghagen in 2009.

But it was a significant fight to get the issue of loss and damage on the agenda in Egypt at all. So the agreement to establish this fund is clearly a monumental outcome for developing countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change – and least responsible for it.

It was also a win for the Egyptian hosts, who were keen to flag their sensitivity to issues confronting the developing world.

The fund comes 30 years after the measure was first suggested by Vanuatu back in 1991.

Not-so-good news

The loss and damage fund will almost certainly be remembered as the marquee outcome of COP27, but other developments were less promising. Among these were various fights to retain commitments made in Paris in 2015 and Glasgow last year.

In Paris, nations agreed to limit global warming to well below 2℃, and preferably to 1.5℃ this century, compared to pre-industrial levels. So far, the planet has warmed by 1.09℃, and emissions are at record levels.

Read more:
Global carbon emissions at record levels with no signs of shrinking, new data shows. Humanity has a monumental task ahead

Temperature trajectories make it increasingly challenging for the world to limit temperature rises to 1.5℃. And the fact keeping this commitment in Egypt was a hard-won fight casts some doubt on the global commitment to mitigation. China in particular had questioned whether the 1.5℃ target was worth retaining, and this became a key contest in the talks.

New Zealand Climate Change Minister James Shaw said a group of countries were undermining decisions made in previous conferences. He added this:

really came to the fore at this COP, and I’m afraid there was just a massive battle which ultimately neither side won.

Perhaps even more worrying was the absence of a renewed commitment to phase out fossil fuels, which had been flagged in Glasgow. Oil-producing countries in particular fought this.

Instead, the final text noted only the need for a “phase down of unabated coal power”, which many viewed as inadequate for the urgency of the challenge.

Likewise, hoped-for rules to stop greenwashing and new restrictions on carbon markets weren’t forthcoming.

Both this outcome, and the failure to develop new commitments to phase out fossil fuels, arguably reflect the power of fossil fuel interests and lobbyists. COP26 President Alok Sharma captured the frustration of countries in the high-ambition coalition, saying:

We joined with many parties to propose a number of measures that would have contributed to [raising ambition].

Emissions peaking before 2025 as the science tells us is necessary. Not in this text. Clear follow through on the phase down of coal. Not in this text. Clear commitments to phase out all fossil fuels. Not in this text. And the energy text weakened in the final minutes.

And as United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres lamented: “Our planet is still in the emergency room”.

Read more:
‘Toxic cover-up’: 6 lessons Australia can draw from the UN’s scathing report on greenwashing

Beyond COP27?

In the end, exhausted delegates signed off on an inadequate agreement, but largely avoided the backsliding that looked possible over fraught days of negotiations.

The establishment of a fund for loss and damage is clearly an important outcome of COP27, even with details yet to be fleshed out.

But otherwise, the negotiations can’t be seen as an unambiguously positive outcome for action on the climate crisis – especially with very little progress on mitigating emissions. And while the world dithers, the window of opportunity to respond effectively to the climate crisis continues to close.

It’s important to note, however, that while COPs are clearly significant in the international response to the climate crisis, they’re not the only game in town.

Public mobilisation and activism, market forces, aid and development programs, and legislation at local, state and national levels are all important sites of climate politics – and potentially, significant change.

Read more:
How young climate activists are making their voices heard at COP27 over Egypt’s protest suppression

There are myriad examples. Take the international phenomenon of school climate strikes, or climate activist Mike Cannon-Brookes’ takeover of AGL Energy. They point to the possibility of action on climate change outside formal international climate negotiations.

So if you’re despairing at the limited progress at COP27, remember this: nations and communities determined to wean themselves off fossil fuels will do more to blunt the power of the sector than most international agreements could realistically hope to achieve.

Matt McDonald has received funding from the Australian Research Council and the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council

– ref. COP27: one big breakthrough but ultimately an inadequate response to the climate crisis – https://theconversation.com/cop27-one-big-breakthrough-but-ultimately-an-inadequate-response-to-the-climate-crisis-194056

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

With the Albanese government now at its six months mark and the end of the parliamentary year fast approaching, it’s tick-off time.

In a Monday speech to the International Trade Union Confederation, the prime minister lists measures the government has introduced into parliament “in the past month”.

They include protections against sexual harassment, measures to improve job security, initiatives to revitalise bargaining and “get wages moving”, and a “new focus” on closing the gender pay gap.

He and his ministers are feasting on a substantial list of the government’s early legislative and other achievements, especially those that fulfil election promises. And of course the past week, with the breakthrough meeting with Xi Jinping, has put the icing on a strong half year for Anthony Albanese’s foreign policy.

It will be interesting, when commentators start reflecting on the 50th anniversary of the election of the Whitlam government – which comes on Friday week – what comparisons are made of the early days of these two Labor administrations, in substance and style.

To cap off 2022 as it would wish, the Albanese government wants to “tick off” two crucial pieces of legislation: one setting up the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), and the other introducing substantial industrial relations change, notably widening multi-employer bargaining.

Both have undergone short parliamentary inquiries. The report on the NACC is bipartisan, but with some amendments proposed.

The government can be confident it will get that legislation through this sitting.

Peter Dutton has expressed backing for the commission. Integrity was a big issue at the election and the Coalition would have nothing to gain and a good deal to lose by failing to support the bill. The issue has already cost it a lot politically.

Independents Helen Haines in the House of Representatives and David Pocock in the Senate want a change made to the provision that the commission would only hold public hearings in “extraordinary circumstances”. They will press for the qualification to be taken out, so widening the opportunity for public interrogations.

That, however, could jeopardise Coalition support – which the government would like to have, to underpin the new body with maximum political authority. Anyway, Labor is determined to keep the provision for public hearings narrow.

Read more:
Grattan on Friday: A lot may be changing in China-Australia relations, but a lot is staying the same

The NACC bill is in the lower house this week and the Senate next week.

The government is currently going through the process of selecting a head for the NACC. This is a crucial appointment. For the commission to work well and gain all-round respect, that choice needs to have support from both sides of politics.

The anti-corruption commission is a necessary step, but we shouldn’t kid ourselves that it won’t bring its own problems and face its own challenges. That’s obvious when we look at the operation of comparable bodies in NSW and Victoria.

Before the next federal election political players could try to use it as a weapon, with referrals. That’s why its head must be someone of stature, also possessing a certain quality of savviness, and its processes have to be rigorous.

The fate of the industrial relations bill is more up in the air, with Pocock the key player at the moment.

The Senate report on the bill comes out on Tuesday, and it will divide along party lines.

Pocock, among other parliamentarians, and the bill’s business critics, have complained of inadequate time for consideration of this complex legislation. Albanese said on Sunday the government was willing to extend the Senate sitting if necessary. This could be done by sitting on the next couple of Fridays (which might be necessary anyway to get through its program) or going into a third week as well.

The crunch will be what more concessions the government is willing to give to get Pocock over the line. It’s already signalling it will agree to a review to determine how the changes are working.

In addition, Pocock wants a higher threshold for the definition of small business. He also has concerns about unions being able to veto the holding of a vote on a proposed multi-employer agreement, and about some other aspects of that bargaining.

Read more:
Grattan on Friday: Government throws everything at securing workplace reforms before Christmas but Pocock keeps it guessing

One thing that has to be squeezed into the Senate sitting for Pocock, who represents the ACT, is a vote on the territory rights bill – already through the lower house – which will allow the ACT and the Northern Territory to legislate for voluntary assisted dying. It’s a free vote and the numbers are there to pass it.

Before Christmas Pocock will be doing his own “ticking off” on his list of demands.

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

– ref. View from The Hill: What Anthony Albanese wants from parliament for Christmas – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-what-anthony-albanese-wants-from-parliament-for-christmas-194985

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Bisley, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of International Relations at La Trobe University, La Trobe University

Every November, the annual summit meetings of Asia’s key regional institutions attracts the world’s attention. The APEC leaders’ meeting started the trend in 1993, adopting a much-derided practice of an awkward photo op where presidents and prime minister dress in “local” attire. ASEAN’s own leaders’ summit and its outgrowths, especially the East Asia Summit (EAS), are scheduled in close proximity to APEC, creating an annual “summit season”.

This year, Indonesia’s hosting of the G20 leader’s jamboree gives the season added significance. The Ukraine war, global economic turmoil and the dismal state of Sino-American relations makes for an extremely challenging context for the groupings.

Across all of the summits, the ASEAN-centred ones as well as at the G20 and APEC, the sideline meetings stole the show. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three hour discussion with US President Joe Biden was the most significant of all. Both leaders came to Southeast Asia with added confidence due to recent domestic political successes. Xi had secured a third term as paramount leader and solidified his hold on the Chinese Communist Party in the 20th Party Congress.

Read more:
Albanese-Xi meeting won’t resolve Australia’s grievances overnight. But it is a real step forward

Biden had beaten the historical odds, and pundits’ expectations, to retain the Democratic majority in the Senate while minimising losses in the House at the mid-term elections.

As leaders, they had met previously only online, and their first in-person interaction appeared to go well. No major breakthroughs were reached but they agreed to recommence some high level discussions that had been cut off. Given how fraught things have been, this is a positive move.

Xi took the opportunity to re-emerge on the global stage after the COVID years. Beyond the Biden meeting, he held an extensive array of bilaterals across the week. This included discussions with Australian Prime Minister Albanese, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Singapore’s PM Lee Hsien Loong and Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau, while a planned meeting with new UK PM Rishi Sunak had to be rescheduled.

Most of these meetings indicated the Chinese leader was seeking to improve ties, notably with Australia and Japan, where bilateral relations have been difficult in recent years. Xi uncharacteristically publicly admonished Trudeau for purportedly leaking remarks from their meeting to the press.

Prior to the summits, much speculation centred on who would and would not attend, with Russian participation causing the most unease. As a member of the EAS, G20 and APEC, the risk the war in Ukraine would divide members and derail the summits was significant. At one point, it appeared several countries might boycott the summits if Russia attended.

In the end, Vladimir Putin did not attend. This revealed a lack of confidence on his part stemming from the war’s circumstances and the embarrassing way in which he was treated by the China at the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization gathering in Uzbekistan.

Russia was represented by foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who firmly pushed his country’s line. This led to the scuppering of the EAS efforts to produce its usual joint communique. And while the G20 statement was agreed, through much Indonesian effort, it was not as unified or firm in its criticism of Russia as many may have preferred. Equally, the APEC statement did appear, but with similar equivocation.

Biden’s decision not to attend APEC – it clashed with his granddaughter’s wedding – meant the Chinese leader’s remarks obliquely blaming the US for destabilising the region received more attention than they might otherwise. But a sense of summit fatigue was palpable in Bangkok.

So, what actually was achieved?

The improvement in tenor of US-China relations is unquestionably positive and the less hard-edged face that Xi presented to the world is also encouraging. But summit season showed us that the institutions themselves are in an uneven state.

ASEAN is resilient as an organisation, but the grouping’s manifest failure to deal with the ongoing turmoil in Myanmar is causing even the most ardent supporter to have doubts about it.

APEC’s primary focus is on international on trade and it has found the rise of economic nationalism especially challenging. The geopolitical crosswinds are adding to this and the 2022 summit showed no signs the grouping is capable of grappling with the times.

The EAS appears to have suffered most. The gathering brings together the ten ASEAN members alongside Japan, China, South Korea, US, Russia, Australia, NZ and India at the highest level. It has, ostensibly, a full spectrum policy remit. The potential in the grouping was immense, yet it has failed to capitalise on this. Jammed in the middle of meetings that are higher profile and politically more valued, the EAS was almost invisible, for which it may be grateful given its inability to reach any kind of significant common ground.

Read more:
The G20 may be a talk fest, but it’s a talk fest we need at a time of growing division

Notwithstanding the tensions caused by Russian participation, the G20 showed that members value it sufficiently to provide a level of accommodation and flexibility. While its ability to provide the kind of macro-economic coordination that was behind its establishment is not optimal, it and its president had a generally sound week.

But it was unmistakable just how significant the gaps are that exist between many of the world’s most important powers. The institutions can only do so much to bridge those gaps. Institutions are there to help states cooperate with one another, to build trust and foster collaboration action. These bodies seem to be more appealing to members as convenient places to convene than as mechanisms through which to coordinate shared policy goals.

This should not be surprising given the heightened geopolitical tensions in today’s world. But it is a sobering reminder of the limits of collective action at a time when it has never been so needed.

Nick Bisley has received funding from Australia’s federal government to support research in areas related to this topic.

– ref. As APEC winds up, ‘summit season’ brought successes but also revealed the extent of global challenges – https://theconversation.com/as-apec-winds-up-summit-season-brought-successes-but-also-revealed-the-extent-of-global-challenges-193934

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stan Karanasios, Associate professor, The University of Queensland

The football teams of 32 nations are gathered in Qatar for the quadrennial FIFA World Cup. Some 5 billion people around the world are expected to tune in to watch matches over the course of the month-long tournament.

These enormous audiences will be ready to applaud great play – and to howl ferociously when a referee’s decision goes against their team. To ensure the tough decisions are fair and accurate, FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the sport’s global governing body) has invested not only in the best human referees but also in the latest and greatest in technological tools.

Video replays and other tools can help cut down on blatant mistakes and human oversights, but will they ever eradicate errors entirely?

We are researchers who study how organisations use technology, and we’re not so sure. In the messy and complex world of football, human judgement – with all its fallibility – will always reign supreme.

What is the video assistant referee (VAR)?

The video assistant referee (VAR) system uses a team of people watching multiple angles of match video to help referees make tough decisions. It was used at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and since then in many competitions all over the world.

At this year’s World Cup, the VAR team can get involved in only four types of situation involving goals and other match-changing events.

Read more:
Why is the Qatar FIFA World Cup so controversial?

The VAR team continuously watches for clear and obvious errors related to those situations. When they spot such an error (or an incident that has been missed) they will let the referee know.

The VAR team also has access to extra tools to assess whether a ball has fully crossed the goal line, as well as a semi-automated system that tracks players and the ball to determine whether any player is offside.

Grey areas

Technologies such as these can be powerful tools, and they are being applied more heavily across all areas of sport. However, they will always be in tension with the inherent complexity of real-world incidents on the pitch.

Handball decisions in football are one example that is open to interpretation regardless of the technology. Video alone can’t truly determine whether there was contact between the ball and the player’s arm below the shoulder, which constitutes a handball.

Read more:
Why Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal is priceless — and unforgettable

In a game earlier this year, Manchester City’s Rodri appeared to handle the ball but the VAR team and match referee did not award a foul because there was not conclusive evidence. After the game, however, the refereeing body Professional Game Match Officials Limited admitted there had been an error.

These controversies are less common in more clear-cut contexts. Similar technologies used in tennis are rarely disputed, as the ball is either “in” or “out” – there is no grey area.

Interpretation and doubt

The application of VAR in subjective contexts raises questions about who is correct, what is the truth, and how to interpret information.

For instance, when a referee calls a foul and the VAR team recommends they review their decision, the referee may see something they missed and should have considered. This is how the system is meant to work.

However, the review may also lead the referee to doubt their initial decision, because many incidents are open to interpretation and remain subjective.

At the World Cup, there will be four people on the VAR team. This means there are as many VAR officials as there are officials monitoring the game in person.

Matters of context

In some situations, the VAR team may offer a snippet of slow-motion footage to a referee (usually only seconds long) – which can lack context and miss the nuance of the situation at hand.

In September, a goal was scored in an English Premier League game between Newcastle United and Crystal Palace – and the VAR team immediately asked the referee to review an incident that had occurred just prior to the goal. The ref reviewed a snippet of footage, interpreted it as a foul against the goalkeeper by an attacking player, and disallowed the goal.

Read more:
Goal! Or is it? How technology – and not just VAR – is changing sport

However, the snippet didn’t show that the attacker had himself been pushed by a defender, which was why he collided with the goalkeeper. The Professional Game Match Officials Limited later accepted the decision was wrong, but still the goal did not count.

Incidents such as these show how lack of context can result in incorrect decision reversals, because the replay is not necessarily a faithful representation of the action.

Tech problems

In addition to the human component, technology has its fair share of issues.

In an Italian Serie A game between Juventus and Salernitana in September, a goal was disallowed on the basis of a VAR decision – but it turned out the VAR cameras had left a crucial player out of the frame, and the goal should have stood.

Another notorious technology failure occurred in a 2020 Premier League game between Aston Villa and Sheffield United: the ball crossed the goal line but, because the goal-line cameras were obstructed by players, it failed to register with the goal decision system. The match officials, not receiving the automatic notification they expected if a goal had been scored, did not award the goal.

What these examples show is that technology struggles to offer answers to inherently messy and subjective matters.

Reality is up for grabs

So, during this World Cup, when a player makes the most of contact in the box and everyone turns to VAR and the referee to make the right decision over whether to give a penalty, it is worth acknowledging that VAR may only provide partial help. Any 50–50 call is debatable, and reality is up for grabs!

These decisions don’t take place in a vacuum. There is an intense interplay between the unfolding of the game (some games are more physical than others), players and coaches (protesting and trying to influence decisions), passionate spectators cheering and protesting, and team dynamics between the referees on the field and the VAR team.

At the World Cup repercussions for errors will be high and the spotlight will shine heavily on VAR. And yet again, a few controversies are likely to overshadow the correct decisions.

Stan Karanasios is a member of the Association for Information Systems.

Bikesh Raj Upreti is a member of the Association for Information Systems

Federico Iannacci 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. VAR and peace? Why tech-assisted refereeing won’t do away with disputed decisions at the World Cup – https://theconversation.com/var-and-peace-why-tech-assisted-refereeing-wont-do-away-with-disputed-decisions-at-the-world-cup-194640

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bekessy, Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning, Leader, Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group (ICON Science), RMIT University

If we learnt anything from the past federal election, it’s that Australians care about climate change and nature. A survey released this week suggests the same dynamic is at play as we head into the Victorian state election.

The poll, prepared for the Victorian National Parks Association, found 36% of Victorians say their vote would be influenced by policy announcements regarding saving threatened species and stopping extinction.

The Victorian government’s own surveys have highlighted the enormous number of people who value nature. And research this year for the Australian Conservation Foundation found 95% of Australians agree it’s important to protect nature for future generations.

Despite the weight of public concern, Victoria is failing its wildlife. Last year the Victorian Auditor General’s Office handed down a damning report on biodiversity protection. It concluded that about a third of Victoria’s land-based plants, animals and ecological communities face extinction, their continued decline will likely have dire consequences for the state, and funding to protect them is grossly inadequate.

We know what’s primarily behind Australia’s extinction crisis: land clearing, invasive species and climate change-induced impacts such as extreme bushfires.

So, what have the different political parties promised in the lead up to the Victorian election, and how do they stack up? Here’s a brief guide to what’s on offer.

Funding and policy commitments

Let’s start with one of the key shortfalls discussed by the Auditor General – funding for biodiversity conservation. Labor has announced:

• a $10 million nature fund to match biodiversity projects proposed by private or philanthropic groups

• $2.8 million for Trust for Nature

• $7.35 million for six large-scale conservation projects to reduce the impact of pests, predators and invasive weeds

• $773,000 to extend Victoria’s Icon Species Program for another year

• $160,000 for platypus conservation.

These funds don’t come close to the estimated annual shortfall of $38 million in ongoing funding needed for the government to deliver its biodiversity strategy, as identified by the Auditor General.

Read more:
This is Australia’s most important report on the environment’s deteriorating health. We present its grim findings

The Victorian Liberals have denounced Labor’s relatively dismal promises and their record of under-funding biodiversity. But, so far, new Liberal-National Coalition announcements have been limited. They include:

• $20 million to increase canopy cover in metropolitan Melbourne from 15% to 35% by 2050 (it’s unclear whether this will benefit biodiversity)

• $200,000 in environmental grants for Dandenong Creek, its catchments and wetlands

• $1 million to rehabilitate and protect wetlands in Mount Eliza.

But the Coalition has also announced anti-environmental commitments, such as ending feral horse culling and $10 million to dredge Mordialloc Creek.

The Greens plan is to create an ongoing, $1 billion per year “zero extinction” fund to support a Save our Species program.

This would double the funding for national parks and create a program to restore land, including through a First Nations Caring for Country investment. It would also fund Trust for Natures’s work to protect and restore private land and urban biodiversity.

The Greens also commit to reforming nature laws and to offer First Nations people greater rights and control over land, water and oceans.

Teal candidate Melissa Lowe supports significant investment towards reforestation and the rehabilitation of native habitats.

Response to native forest harvesting

Native forest timber harvesting continues to be a prickly issue in Victoria. This month the Supreme Court ruled state-owned logging company VicForests broke the law by failing to protect threatened species. Despite this, an ABC investigation this week found old growth forests continue to be cleared.

Greater gliders, Leadbeater’s possums and other forest-dwelling animals are facing a greater risk of extinction, and logging is one of the key threats. Without a significant change in protection, their numbers will continue to decline.

Labor’s policy is to phase out native forest logging by 2030 – but this leaves plenty of time for a lot of damage to be done. Labor also hasn’t legislated this phase-out, nor has it responded to VicForests’ failure to protect biodiversity.

Other election commitments relating to forestry include increasing fines to protesters who disrupt native forest logging.

Read more:
Greater gliders are hurtling towards extinction, and the blame lies squarely with Australian governments

The Liberal-Nationals have pledged to immediately reverse both of the Andrews government’s 2019 decisions to end old-growth forest logging and to phase-out native forest logging by 2030. This would take us backwards in terms of biodiversity protection.

The Greens have committed to legislating an end to native forest logging in 2023. This includes a transition plan to move workers into new jobs and a shift towards greater use of plantations.

The Reason Party and two Teal candidates have also articulated commitments for an immediate end to native forest logging.

How about land clearing from other causes?

Proportional to its size, Victoria has the highest amount of cleared land than all other states and territories. According to the Victorian Auditor General, about 10,380 habitat hectares of native vegetation is removed from Victorian private properties each year.

The state government is a significant land clearer. This includes clearing for infrastructure projects, such as new highways (including 26,000 trees cleared for the Northeast Link, though this may be a gross underestimate), and, of course, enabling native timber harvesting via VicForests, a state-owned business.

Substantial clearing also takes place under the state planning system, which the Auditor General said fundamentally fails to protect biodiversity on private land. In particular, critically endangered grasslands on Melbourne’s fringe continue to be lost at an alarming rate.

Further, the state’s planned 1,447 kilometres of strategic fuel breaks will occupy an area of around 5,790 hectares (equivalent to approximately 2,894 MCGs) of bushland that will be either cleared or altered.

Read more:
40 years ago, protesters were celebrated for saving the Franklin River. Today they could be jailed for months

Labor and the Coalition have both been silent on reforms to land clearing in the lead up to this election.

The Greens have committed to strengthening Victoria’s environmental assessment process so it can better protect the environment. Teal candidate Sophie Torney has committed to stopping the destruction of tree canopy in Kew by amending planning laws.

Links to climate change

Climate change is a key driver of extinction, so it’s also important to analyse political commitments on emissions reduction.

Labor has announced new targets for renewable energy in Victoria’s electricity supply of 65% by 2030, and 95% by 2035. It has also set an emissions reduction target of 75-80% by 2035, and brought forward its net-zero emissions target by five years to 2045.

The Liberal opposition has promised to legislate an emission reduction target of 50% by 2030 and is committing to a $1 billion hydrogen strategy. It also endorsed net-zero emissions by 2050.

The Greens have stepped up further, committing to replacing coal and gas with 100% renewable energy powering the state by 2030, committing to 75% carbon emissions reduction target by 2030, and net zero by 2035.

A net-zero by 2035 target is matched by all Teal candidates.

So, what would zero extinction commitments look like?

We know it would cost approximately $2 billion per year nationally to prevent future extinctions of Australia’s threatened plants and animals.

At least 270 (15%) of Australia’s threatened species live in Victoria. So it’s reasonable to assume around $300 million per year of focused threatened species recovery funding is required to prevent their extinction. This is likely a conservative estimate.

Regulatory reform to prevent further habitat loss, and a significant increase in spending on threatened species recovery are the two key actions to prevent further extinctions.

Preventing extinctions will also require a shift in thinking. While the major parties seem stuck in the biodiversity-versus-development mindset, others recognise development can occur in ways that enhance ecosystems.

Read more:
‘Existential threat to our survival’: see the 19 Australian ecosystems already collapsing

The natural world underpins our own health and prosperity via productive agriculture and liveable cities. Keeping it healthy is an enlightened act of self-interest.

Without adequate investment, regulatory reform and reframing nature as an asset rather than a problem, we’re likely to see more plants and animals on the threatened species list. Indeed, whole ecosystems may be lost.

Sarah Bekessy receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Ian Potter Foundation and the European Commission. She is a Board Member of Bush Heritage Australia, a member of WWF’s Eminent Scientists Group and a member of the Advisory Group for Wood for Good.

Brendan Wintle has received funding from The Australian Research Council, the Victorian State Government, the NSW State Government, the Queensland State Government, the Commonwealth National Environmental Science Program, the Ian Potter Foundation, the Hermon Slade Foundation, and the Australian Conservation Foundation. Wintle is a Board Director of Zoos Victoria.

– ref. If you care about nature in Victoria, this is your essential state election guide – https://theconversation.com/if-you-care-about-nature-in-victoria-this-is-your-essential-state-election-guide-194805

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra

The latest figures on the economic performance of Australia’s states and territories shows Victoria leading the nation and New South Wales falling to last place.

The annual gross state product accounts from the Australian Bureau of Statistics record the equivalent of gross domestic product (the total value of goods and services bought and sold).

In the 2021-22 financial year Australia’s real gross domestic product – that is, adjusted for inflation – grew by 3.6%.

Victoria’s real gross state product grew by 5.6%, followed by South Australia (5.1%), Northern Territory (4.7%), Queensland (4.4%), Tasmania (4.3%), Western Australia (3.1%), the Australian Capital Territory (1.9%) and New South Wales (1.8%).

This isn’t as impressive for Victoria as it might seem.

Victoria’s GSP contracted in the previous year due to the state’s extensive COVID lockdowns. This left more scope for a rebound in 2021-22. The state’s construction sector in particular had a backlog of projects.

South Australia has benefited from a strong grain harvest. In the Northern Territory, oil and gas extraction were the prime drivers of growth.

In Tasmania, and to a lesser extent Queensland, the major contributor to growth was the rural sector.

Western Australia’s growth was restrained by a fall in iron ore exports. The Australian Bureau of Statistics attributes this to adverse weather – there was record rainfall in the Pilbara – and falling overseas demand.

NSW’s growth was driven by the services sector. Services were also the major driver of growth in the Australian Capital Territory.

Western Australia is still the most affluent

The state accounts allow us to get a sense of the relative affluence of each state and territory.

This can be done by dividing the total real gross state product by the population. Of course, these averages say nothing about how the income from this production is actually distributed within the state. But they are a useful indicator.

Western Australia and Northern Territory top the list, due to their large mining sectors.

The Australian Capital Territory’s high per capita income reflects its highly educated workforce, with an economy dominated by professional services and education.

Longer term structural factors such as the relative decline in manufacturing explain incomes lagging in South Australia.

Tasmanian economist Saul Eslake attributed the lower average income in Tasmania to a smaller proportion of Tasmanians working, tending to work fewer hours and being less productive due to less education.

John Hawkins 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. Victoria’s economic growth leads nation, as NSW falls to last place – https://theconversation.com/victorias-economic-growth-leads-nation-as-nsw-falls-to-last-place-194721

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Sanders, Senior Research Fellow on Law and the Future of War, The University of Queensland

On November 17 2022, the Hague District Court in the Netherlands convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian of murder in relation to the downing of flight MH17 by a Buk-TELAR surface-to-air missile in 2014 over rebel-held territory in Ukraine.

This conviction is the first concluded legal action in relation to the incident. It is important not only because it provides some answers for the families of the 298 people killed on that flight, but because it demonstrates that states intend to pursue justice against Russian acts of violence connected with the Ukrainian conflict, regardless of the time or cost involved.

This conviction can, in some respects, be considered shallow. Many family members have still not achieved closure in terms of recovery of their loved ones’ remains. Those most responsible have not been prosecuted or held to account.

Read more:
MH17 charges: who the suspects are, what they’re charged with, and what happens next

However, this prosecution is an important first step in bringing those responsible to justice. It serves as an indicator that the international community will not tolerate such actions; and as a signal to Russians involved in atrocities in the ongoing Ukrainian conflict that they may yet be held to account.

It further demonstrates the value of in-absentia trials – where those who are being tried do not have to be present. The Dutch convictions regarding the downing flight MH17 occurred without having custody over the perpetrators. The convicted men remain at large, and it is unlikely Russia will agree to their extradition.

However, their convictions will remain in place for their entire lives and can form the basis of subsequent legal action in relation to the incident.

Australia’s war crimes prosecution regime allows for the prosecution of crimes without any traditional jurisdictional nexus to the perpetrators; that is, without connection in geography or citizenship to the victims. It does not allow for prosecution without the presence of the accused.

It does, however, allow for proceedings to begin with the attorney-general’s permission. Extradition requests could then be sent to the Russian government to seek custody over the alleged perpetrators in order to continue the prosecution. Such action sends a strong message in support of the rule of law and accountability, even if the prosecution does not proceed.

The principle of double jeopardy (or ne bis in idem) does not apply between countries. That is, prosecutions in Australian will not prejudice other states from prosecuting the same offending. This means there is little risk to Australia in pursuing this course of action in terms of jeopardising other mechanisms for justice related to these crimes.

Australia provided expert investigators from the Australian Federal Police to support the MH17 investigation. Their evidence was used to secure these convictions.

Australian investigators will also support the investigation of war crimes in Ukraine. The prosecution of war crimes offences in Ukraine is going to take many years and will likely overwhelm their domestic criminal justice system.

One concern if these prosecutions occur outside of Ukraine is that victim participation will be reduced. Careful case selection and victims being able to participate remotely through technology can mitigate this.

Historical examples, such as in the case of Rwanda, demonstrate that concentrating prosecutions in one tribunal means prosecutions can continue for decades after the conflict; and justice delayed is justice denied.

Australia has the expertise and the opportunity to be seen as a leader in at least pressing for accountability for crimes in Ukraine.

Read more:
Does the UN aviation body have the power to punish Russia for the MH17 downing? An aviation law expert explains

Among other judicial activism in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Australia and the Netherlands have commenced proceedings against Russia in the International Civil Aviation Organization, on the basis that Russia is internationally responsible for downing the aircraft.

The Russians have rejected this legal action and the Netherlands prosecution as acts of “political favour”, which should be dismissed for a lack of impartiality. Effectively, Russia accuses Australia of using tactics of “lawfare” – using the law to affect a strategic outcome.

Rather than resile from these claims, Australia should embrace them, and continue to use lawfare to seek accountability for war crimes committed in the Ukraine conflict. There is value in launching carefully investigated domestic prosecutions for atrocity crimes. There is also value in reinforcing international criminal justice and accountability measures. This would prevent impunity and discourage further atrocity crimes being committed in this and future conflicts.

Specifically, there is political value in reinforcing the importance of the rule of law. Our political motivations should be to seek out and punish those guilty of committing atrocities.

Lauren Sanders receives funding from the Truster Autonomous Systems CRC. She is a Reserve Legal Officer, however, the views presented do not represent the views of the Australian Defence Force or the Australian Government.

– ref. MH17 convictions pave the way for war crime prosecutions from Ukrainian invasion – https://theconversation.com/mh17-convictions-pave-the-way-for-war-crime-prosecutions-from-ukrainian-invasion-194909

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Htwe Htwe Thein, Associate professor, Curtin University

The fate of Myanmar has major implications for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

An undemocratic Myanmar serves no one’s interests except China, which is consolidating its economic and strategic influence in its smaller neighbour in pursuit of its two-ocean strategy.

Read more:
Friday essay: if growing US-China rivalry leads to ‘the worst war ever’, what should Australia do?

Since the coup China has been – by far – the main source of foreign investment in Myanmar.

This includes US$2.5 billion in a gas-fired power plant to be built west of Myanmar’s capital, Yangon, that will be 81% owned and operated by Chinese companies.

Among the dozens of infrastructure projects China is funding are high-speed rail links and dams. But its most strategically important investment is the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, encompassing oil and gas pipelines, roads and rail links costing many tens of billions of dollars.

The corridor’s “jewel in the crown” is a deep-sea port to be built at Kyaukphyu, on Myanmar’s west coast, at an estimated cost of US$7 billion.

This will finally give China its long-desired “back door” to the Indian Ocean.

Natural gas from Myanmar can help China reduce its dependence on imports from suppliers such as Australia. Access to the Indian Ocean will enable China to import gas and oil from the Middle East, Africa and Venezuela without ships having to pass through the contested waters of the South China Sea to Chinese ports.

About 80% of China’s oil imports now move through the South China Sea via the Malacca Strait, which is just 65 kilometres wide at its narrowest point between the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia’s Sumatra.

Overcoming this strategic vulnerability arguably makes the Kyaukphyu port and pipelines the most important element of China’s Belt and Road initiative to reshape global trade routes and assert its influence over other nations.

Read more:
Conflict in the South China Sea threatens 90% of Australia’s fuel imports: study

Deepening relationship

Most of China’s infrastructure investment was planned before Myanmar’s coup. But whereas other governments and foreign investors have sought to distance themselves from the junta since it overthrew Myanmar’s elected government in February 2021, China has deepened its relationship.

China is the Myanmar regime’s most important international supporter. In April Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China would support Myanmar “no matter how the situation changes”. In May it used its veto power on the United Nations Security Council to thwart a statement expressing concern about violence and the growing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.

Work continues on projects associated with the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor. New ventures (such as the aforementioned power station) have been approved.
More projects are on the cards. In June, for example, China’s embassy in Myanmar announced the completion of a feasibility study to upgrade the Wan Pong port on the Lancang-Mekong River in Myanmar’s east.

Read more:
As Myanmar suffers, the military junta is desperate, isolated and running out of options

Debt trap warnings

In 2020, before the coup, Myanmar’s auditor general Maw Than warned of growing indebtedness to China, with Chinese lenders charging higher interest payments than those from the International Monetary Fund or World Bank.

At that time about 40% of Myanmar’s foreign debt of US$10 billion was owed to China. It is likely to be greater now. It will only increase the longer the Myanmar’s military dictatorship, with few other sources of foreign money, remains in power, dragging down Myanmar’s economy.

Efforts to restore democracy in Myanmar should therefore be seen as crucial to the long-term strategic interests of the region’s democracies, and to global peace and prosperity, given the increasing belligerence of China under Xi Jinping.

Xi, now president for life, this month told the People’s Liberation Army to prepare for war. A compliant and indebted Myanmar with a deep-sea port controlled by Chinese interests tips the scales towards that happening.

A democratic and independent Myanmar is a counter-strategy to this potential.

Calls for sanctions

Myanmar’s democracy movement wants the international community to impose tough sanctions on the junta. But few have responded.

The United States and United Kingdom have gone furthest, banning business dealings with Myanmar military officials and state-owned or private companies controlled by the military.

The European Union and Canada have imposed sanctions against a more limited range of individuals and economic entities.

Read more:
As Myanmar suffers, the military junta is desperate, isolated and running out of options

South Korea has suspended financing new infrastructure projects. Japan has suspended aid and postponed the launch of Myanmar’s first satellite. New Zealand has suspended political and military contact.

Australia has suspended military cooperation (with some pre-existing restrictions on dealing with military leaders imposed following the human rights atrocities committed against the Rohingya in 2017.

But that’s about it.

Myanmar’s closest neighbours in the ten-member Association of South-East Asian Nations are still committed to a policy of dialogue and “non-interference” – though Malaysia and Indonesia are increasingly arguing for a tougher approach as the atrocities mount.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project says the only country now more violent than Myanmar is Ukraine.

Given its unique geo-strategic position, self-interest alone should be enough for the international community to take greater action.

Htwe Htwe Thein receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery grant.

– ref. China’s influence in Myanmar could tip the scales towards war in the South China Sea – https://theconversation.com/chinas-influence-in-myanmar-could-tip-the-scales-towards-war-in-the-south-china-sea-189780

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Niro Kandasamy, Lecturer in History, University of Sydney

Review: The Jungle and the Sea, directed by Eamon Flack, Belvoir.

After the roaring success of their debut collaboration, Counting and Cracking, S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack have produced another play that will captivate audiences.

Sri Lanka was in a civil war from 1983 to 2009, about a Tamil national liberation struggle for independence in the north and east. This followed decades of discrimination by the Sri Lankan state against Tamils.

The Jungle and the Sea revolves around the story of one Tamil family who are separated after church bombings in 1995, following them through to 2009.

The Jungle and the Sea is an expression of the many stories of Tamils that remain untold. This play will hold immense value for the Tamil community in Australia, not least because there is very little in the way of Australian public acknowledgement about their war histories.

As The Jungle and the Sea reminds us, war is never only about nationalist politics. It is also profoundly local, intimate and involves negotiation of human relationships that can challenge political boundaries.

We are taken along the multiple trajectories of the members of one Tamil family.

A revolving floor symbolises the constant movement of the Tamil community, which endured 26 years of intense armed conflict. Accompanied by musicians Indu Balachandran and Arjunan Puveendran, the music takes the audience through constantly revolving worlds of loss and survival.

Read more:
Sri Lanka’s crisis is not just about the economy, but a long history of discrimination against minority groups

Into the chaos of war

On July 9 1995, the Sri Lankan government bombed St Peter’s Church in Navaly, following the collapse of peace talks between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and the resumption of fighting.

Just days before, the government had dropped leaflets across the Jaffna peninsula instructing civilians to seek shelter in churches and temples ahead of the military’s new mission to capture Jaffna.

The opening scenes of The Jungle and the Sea reimagine this horrific moment.

Children go from playing a game of cricket to suddenly reorganising their lives to ensure their survival and the survival of those around them. The scenes foreshadow the rest of the play, which traces entanglements of violence, loss, joy and compassion.

The Jungle and the Sea is about the vulnerabilities and agency of people navigating the chaos of war.

After the bombing, father Siva (Prakash Srinivasan) and daughter Lakshmi (Emma Harvie) seek refuge in Sydney. The son Ahilan (Biman Wimalaratne) is recruited into the Tamil Tigers. The mother Gowrie (Anandavalli) and two more daughters – Abi (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) and Madhu (Nadie Kammallaweera) – remain in the war zones foregoing the chance to escape.

In agony after the family’s separation, the mother decides to blindfold herself and refuses to leave her homeland until she can be reunited with all her children.

Shakthidharan gives us the diverse experiences of war: those of liberation fighters, civilians and refugees. We are given multifaceted identities, as the actors take us into their kaleidoscopic worlds.

In one of several comedic scenes, Lakshmi, the only child who flees Sri Lanka, celebrates her university graduation by taking her father to a candle-lit dinner by the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There, she comes out to him as a lesbian.

The father’s response to her being Tamil, atheist and lesbian highlights intergenerational tensions in a humorous and humbling manner.

Survivors of war are more than the traumas of war they carry with them.

Truth-telling in the aftermath of war

In the final act, the cast takes up the contested terrain of remembering the atrocities against Tamils in the aftermath of the war.

Gowrie finally removes her blindfold when she is reunited with her family – those who survived, and those who died. Gowrie’s determination to continue searching for her children renders the war an internal fight to keep alive hope and resistance.

Played by Anandavalli, a renowned bharatanatyam dancer, Gowrie’s dance is a fitting close to the story and an ode to the genre of theatre as a creative medium through which stories about war can be used to reflect, mourn, and educate.

Gowrie captures the particular plight of Tamil mothers. Some 13 years after the war ended, those mothers whose children were forcibly disappeared in the final days of the war continue to make visible through protesting that there can be no peace or reconciliation without justice.

History in the aftermath of the war is contested, especially for Tamils whose losses are beyond measure. The Jungle and the Sea is one story among many about a history that breathes in the present, serving as a reminder that there are hundreds of Tamil refugees in Australia without permanent protection, each of them carrying stories like this one.

The Jungle and the Sea is at Belvoir, Sydney, until December 18.

Read more:
Why do Tamil asylum seekers need protection — and why does the Australian government say they don’t?

Niro Kandasamy is affiliated with the Tamil Refugee Council.

– ref. The Jungle and the Sea reminds us war is profoundly local, with the intimate negotiation of human relationships – https://theconversation.com/the-jungle-and-the-sea-reminds-us-war-is-profoundly-local-with-the-intimate-negotiation-of-human-relationships-194044

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mike Armour, Senior research fellow in reproductive health at NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University

Endometriosis is a painful condition caused by the presence of tissue similar to the lining of the uterus found outside the uterus. It affects around one in nine women and people assigned female at birth.

Common symptoms include painful periods, pelvic pain, fatigue, pain with sexual intercourse, pain while urinating or passing bowel motions, and infertility.

While mild endometriosis involves superficial deposits on or around the reproductive organs, severe endometriosis causes nodules and adhesions – bands of scarring that can attach organs to each other.

There’s currently no known cure for endometriosis. Symptoms can be managed with surgery, medications, hormonal treatments, pelvic physiotherapy and complementary therapies such as acupuncture.

Read more:
You no longer need surgery to be diagnosed with endometriosis. Here’s what’s changed

What happens during surgery?

Endometriosis surgery is usually performed by laparoscopy or keyhole surgery. Most people will have a camera inserted through the belly button and three to four other incisions (about half a centimetre across) for other instruments to cut, grab, burn and hold.

The first step is to look around for abnormalities. Surgeons will look for endometriosis in the pelvis, abdomen, and under the diaphragm. They will look in, around and under every possible fold of tissue.

Surgeons use two different techniques to treat endometriosis:

1) excision involves cutting out endometriosis. The aim is to remove as much of the visible endometriosis as possible and repair any damage it may have caused. Excised lesions can be examined under a microscope to see if endometrial-like cells are present to confirm diagnosis, which is not possible with ablation

2) ablation attempts to destroy the endometriosis where it lies, using heat energy.

Since most surgeries are laparoscopic, many centres discharge patients home on the same day.

Recovery after surgery varies. Within a few weeks, some people are back to relatively regular activities like work, household duties, and socialising. Most people who have laparoscopic surgery will feel almost back to normal by six weeks after their operation.

Which surgical technique is better?

Some evidence suggests excision surgery may be better than ablation at reducing pain during sexual intercourse.

However, overall, several recent meta-analyses (a type of study that combines the results of many clinical trials) concluded there is little-to-no difference in most symptoms between ablation and excision at 12 months after surgery.

Many surgeons use excision, as this can remove the lesions as completely as possible. However, there may be circumstances where the lesions may be more suitably treated with ablation – for instance, to remove endometriosis on the surface of the uterus, ovary or fallopian tube – where excision may cause more harm.

Read more:
I have painful periods, could it be endometriosis?

How effective is surgery?

Clinical guidelines in Australia and New Zealand and Europe recommend laparoscopic surgery be offered as one way to reduce pain from endometriosis. This is based on evidence that it successfully reduces pain. However, the current quality of evidence assessing the effectiveness of surgery in reducing pain is low because the studies were small and didn’t follow participants for long.

For treating infertility, there may be some benefit to surgically treating endometriosis, but it’s impossible to say exactly how much.

Often, people may seek assisted reproductive therapies (ART) such as IVF. However, there is little research comparing whether surgery or IVF is more effective at achieving the goal of a live birth.

The risks and benefits of surgery and ART differ based on the individual circumstances.

What happens after surgery?

After the recovery period, patients will be able to assess how their symptoms have changed.

They may need to continue to use or start other strategies to manage pain. While surgery can reduce inflammation pain associated with endometriosis lesions, it may be less effective for treating pain from the pelvic floor muscles that may be short, tight, or tender.

Read more:
Considering surgery for endometriosis? Here’s what you need to know

In some people, endometriosis symptoms resolve after surgery, then sometimes return. After five years, 15-56% of people who had surgery for endometriosis experience a recurrence of symptoms.

This may be due to new lesions developing or growth of residual disease if the previous endometriosis lesions were not completely removed, were overlooked or not detected.

In some cases, it may be due to other gynaecological conditions. Or it may represent a change in the nervous system, often due in part to endometriosis, called central sensitisation.

Part of the problem is the definition of “recurrence” is inconsistent and ranges from pain symptoms returning (with an assumption they must be due to endometriosis recurring) to endometriosis lesions actually being seen again (by imaging or repeat surgery).

Ultimately, any health decision is an intimately personal decision and people have to weigh the pros and cons after speaking with their doctors.

Mike Armour is affiliated with Endometriosis Australia. He reports funding from Endometriosis Australia and the Medical Research Futures Fund, outside this work.

Cecilia Ng receives funding from the Medical Research Future Fund.

Mathew Leonardi reports grants from Endometriosis Australia, AbbVie, CanSAGE, Medical Research Future Fund, Hamilton Health Sciences, Hyivy; honoraria for lectures/writing from GE Healthcare, Bayer, AbbVie, TerSera, affiliations with Imagendo, outside the submitted work.

– ref. I’m thinking of surgery for endometriosis. What’s involved? Does it work? – https://theconversation.com/im-thinking-of-surgery-for-endometriosis-whats-involved-does-it-work-182509

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Summer May Finlay, Senior Lecturer – Indigenous Health, University of Wollongong

This article contains information on violence experienced by First Nations young people in the Australian carceral system. There are mentions of racist terms, and this piece also mentions self harm, trauma and suicide.

The ABC Four Corners report “Locking up Kids” detailed the horrific conditions for young Aboriginal people in the juvenile justice system in Western Australia.

The report was nothing new. In 2016, Four Corners detailed the brutalisation of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, in its episode “Australia’s Shame”. Also in 2016, Amnesty International detailed the abuse children were receiving in Queensland’s juvenile detention facilities.

Children should be playing, swimming, running and exploring life. They do not belong behind bars. Yet, on any given day in 2020-21, an average of 4,695 young people were incarcerated in Australia. Most of the young people incarcerated are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.

Despite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in WA making up just 6.7% of the population, they account for more than 70% of youth locked up in Perth’s Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre.

The reasons so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are detained are linked to the impacts of colonisation, such as intergenerational trauma, ongoing racism, discrimination, and unresolved issues related to self-determination.

Read more:
Raising the age of criminal responsibility is only a first step. First Nations kids need cultural solutions

The Four Corners documentary alleged children in detention were exposed to abuse, torture, solitary confinement and other degrading treatment such as “folding”, which involves bending a person’s legs behind them before sitting on them – we saw a grown man sitting on a child’s legs in this way in the documentary.

The documentary also found Aboriginal young people were more likely to be held in solitary confinement, leading to the young people feeling helpless. Racism was also used as a form of abuse, with security calling the young detainees apes and monkeys. One of the young men detained at Banksia Hill expressed the treatment he received made him consider taking his own life.

How does incarceration impact young people’s mental health?

Many young people enter youth detention with pre-existing neurocognitive impairments (such as foetal alcohol spectrum disorder), trauma, and poor mental health. More than 80% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in a Queensland detention centre reported mental health problems.

Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare revealed that more than 30% of young people in detention were survivors of abuse or neglect. Rather than supporting the most vulnerable within our community, the Australian justice system is imprisoning traumatised and often developmentally compromised young people.

Research has shown pre-existing mental health problems are likely exacerbated by experiences during incarceration, such as isolation, boredom and victimisation.

This inhumane treatment brings about retraumatisation of the effects of colonisation and racism, with feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness and low self-esteem.

Youth detention is also associated with an increased risk of suicide, psychiatric disorders, and drug and alcohol abuse.

Locking young people up during their crucial years of development also has long-term impacts. These include poor emotional development, poor education outcomes, and worse mental health in adulthood. As adults, post-release Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are ten times more likely to die than the general population, with suicide the leading cause of death.

You don’t have to look far to see the devastating impacts of incarceration on mental health. Just last year, there were 320 reports of self-harm at Banksia Hill, WA’s only youth detention centre.

Read more:
Reunifying First Nations families: the only way to reduce the overrepresentation of children in out-of-home care

Locking up kids increases the likelihood of reoffending

Imprisoning young offenders is also associated with future offending behaviours and continued contact with the justice system.

Without proper rehabilitation and support post-release, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young peoples often return to the same conditions that created the patterns of offending in the first place.

Earlier this year, the head of Perth Children’s Court, Judge Hylton Quail condemned the treatment of a young person in detention at Banksia Hill, stating:

When you treat a damaged child like an animal, they will behave like an animal […] When you want to make a monster, this is how you do it.

What needs to be done?

There needs to be substantive change in how young people who come in contact with the justice system are treated. We need governments to commit, under Closing the Gap, to whole-of-system change through:

1. recognising children should not be criminalised at ten years old. The Raise the Age campaign is calling for the minimum age of responsibility to be raised to 14. Early prevention and intervention approaches are necessary here. Children who are at risk of offending should be appropriately supported, to reduce pathways to offending.

2. an approach addressing why young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are locked up in such great numbers is required, driven by respective First Nations communities. This means investing in housing, health, education, transport and other essential services and crucial aspects of a person’s life. An example of this is found in a pilot program in New South Wales called Redefining Reinvestment, which tackled the social determinants of incarceration using a community approach.

3. future solutions must be trauma-informed and led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Read more:
The criminal legal system does not deliver justice for First Nations people, says a new book

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are not born criminals. They are born into systems that fail them, in a country that all too often turns a blind eye before locking them up.

The Australian government needs to work with First Nations communities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including our future generations.

If this article has caused distress, please contact one of these helplines:
13yarn,
Lifeline,
Headspace

Summer May Finlay receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. She is also a member of the Labor party, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the Public Health Association of Australia. Sumer is the Deputy Chair of Thirilli and Co-chair of the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW.

Ee Pin Chang receives funding from Suicide Prevention Australia, and Western Australian Office of Crime Statistics and Research at the WA Department of Justice.

Jemma Collova receives funding from the Australian Department of Health.

Pat Dudgeon receives funding from the Australian Department of Health. She is the Director of the Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention and lead Chief Investigator on a NHMRC Million Minds Mission Grant. She is the chair and member of the Australian Indigenous Psychologist’s Association, and sits on the board of Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Australia.

– ref. Locking up kids has serious mental health impacts and contributes to further reoffending – https://theconversation.com/locking-up-kids-has-serious-mental-health-impacts-and-contributes-to-further-reoffending-194657

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andres Gambini, Senior Lecturer, School of Agriculture and Food Science, The University of Queensland

You may not realise it, but the world’s donkeys are in trouble: many domestic breeds and wild species are headed for extinction. But my colleagues and I have developed a scientific breakthrough that may contribute to saving them.

We created the world’s first successful donkey embryo using in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). The embryo, from an endangered European breed, is frozen in liquid nitrogen. We’re now searching for a suitable female donkey to grow the embryo into a baby.

We hope to apply our findings to help conserve other endangered animals. Hopefully one day, we’ll have a genetic bank of embryos that form a “frozen zoo” – creating another weapon in our conservation ass-enal, so to speak.

Donkeys in decline

Donkeys share the same genus with horses and zebras. They’re thought to have been domesticated about 6,000 years ago and used for transport and food redistribution. They were particularly essential in the overland trade in Africa and western Asia.

Domestic donkeys are still used for transport in parts of Asia, South America and Africa. They are also kept for meat and milk production and as companion animals.

Seven of the 28 European domestic breeds are critically endangered and 20 are endangered. Populations of wild donkey species are also dwindling.

There are several reasons for this. People are using and breeding them less, and their grazing land has declined. Donkeys are also slaughtered for “ejiao”, a key ingredient in traditional Chinese food and remedies produced from collagen in donkey skin.

There’s an urgent need to improve donkey conservation programs to increase the animal’s numbers and distribution, and to broaden the genetic pool.

My research team set out to produce donkey embryos in the laboratory, in the hope of helping to repopulate species. I worked with colleagues from Argentina’s National University of Río Cuarto, and Spain’s University of Córdoba and Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Read more:
Feral desert donkeys are digging wells, giving water to parched wildlife

What we did

An embryo is the group of cells that form when a female egg is fertilised by male sperm.

Creating a viable donkey embryo is not easy. Once an egg is fertilised in the lab, it has only a 5% to 10% chance of growing into a good embryo that can be implanted into a female. By comparison, for horses the success rate is up to 30%.

We used an IVF process known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). It involves injecting a single sperm into the centre of an egg using very fine, specialist equipment.

Importantly, we added a step to the process. Before fertilising the egg, we immersed it for two days in fluids from the female donkey’s ovary. This simulates ovary conditions and gives the egg the molecules and hormones it needs to grow.

After three years of work, we produced the world’s first viable donkey embryo. It is currently frozen in a lab at the University of Cordoba in Spain.

Our research suggests that using ovary fluids as an egg matures in the lab supports the IVF process and could be more likely to lead to a viable embryo. These findings are a step forward in donkey conservation.

We produced the embryo by combining donkey semen with an egg from a different part of Spain. This aimed to avoid inbreeding problems that can occur when trying to reproduce an endangered species.

We hope to create more viable embryos and find suitable female donkeys to implant before the breeding season ends next year.

Read more:
Human reproductive technologies like sperm freezing and IVF could be used to save threatened species

So what next?

Throughout my research career, I’ve used assisted reproductive technologies to improve the genetic progress in a range of domestic animals. In 2020, for example, I and my colleagues reported the first in vitro zebra embryos. We now have ten frozen zebra embryos in storage, including clones.

We hope to build on our donkey embryo development, using IVF to improve the prospects of other endangered species.

Read more:
Scientists release world-first DNA map of an endangered Australian mouse, and it will help to save it

Andres Gambini 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. We created the world’s first donkey embryo using IVF in a bid to save species from extinction – https://theconversation.com/we-created-the-worlds-first-donkey-embryo-using-ivf-in-a-bid-to-save-species-from-extinction-194903

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Faith Gordon, Associate Professor in Law, Australian National University

Prison is no place for a child. Putting children in youth justice facilities can have long-lasting consequences for their physical, psychological and emotional health, wellbeing and development.

Prison can aggravate existing health conditions and result in new ones, such as depression, suicidal thoughts, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

We heard this firsthand from children interviewed by ABC’s Four Corners this week.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Australia became a signatory in 1990, states detention should only be used as a “last resort” and, if required, should only be for the least possible time (Article 37). Yet this is not what we see in Australia.

Rather than imprisoning children who come into conflict with the law, the evidence suggests diverting them away from the criminal justice system and providing appropriate supports gives children the best chance to “grow out” of the behaviours that are being criminalised.

A time of rapid brain development

Neuroscience shows children and young people undergo rapid brain development. This can affect risk-taking, particular kinds of decision-making, and the ability to control impulses.

As previous research has shown, many children and young people desist or stop involvement in crime and in effect “grow out” or “age out” of it as they get older.

Reports demonstrate there is typically a peak in involvement in crime in the mid-teens and a decline at the beginning of adulthood.

Read more:
One year on from Royal Commission findings on Northern Territory child detention: what has changed?

How do other countries compare with Australia?

Australia has a very low minimum age of criminal responsibility compared to other parts of the world. Children as young as ten can be searched, arrested, detained and held criminally responsible.

Other countries have a much higher age of criminal responsibility. In Luxembourg and South America, it’s 18, Poland is 17 (with some exceptions from 15), Portugal is 16, and Denmark is 15.

In contrast to Australia’s heavy reliance on the police, courts and prisons, other countries prioritise diversion for children who come into conflict with the law and promote alternative, community-based and social care-focused responses, which have much better outcomes for children and for communities.

One example is the public health model approach to address violence in communities, which has been successful in Scotland.

This is where diverse sectors such as health, social services, education, justice and policy work together to solve problems that contribute to violence and criminality including homelessness, addiction and family violence.

Scotland’s homicide rate halved between 2008 and 2018 after the approach was implemented and the number of hospital admissions due to assault with a sharp object fell by 62% in Glasgow (knife crime has been a significant issue in the United Kingdom).

In other countries that have a much higher age of criminal responsibility, such as Norway (where it’s 15), children under 15 do not interact with courts, are not punished but rather supported by child protection services, and their identities are not released in the media.

For those over 15, suspended sentences and probation, as well as support from child protection services, are prioritised.

Norway’s approach appears to be effective with an overall rate of recidivism (the number of people who return to prison after release) of 20%. This is in stark contrast with Australia’s overall recidivism rate of 45.2%, with states and territories as high as 58.9% (Northern Territory).

No benefits, only losses

There is no credible evidence imprisoning children decreases levels of crime or improves community safety.

Yet there is a wealth of established evidence demonstrating interactions with formal criminal justice institutions negatively impact children and are counterproductive. As the data demonstrates, children who are first sentenced between the ages of ten and 12 are more likely to re-offend than those first sentenced when they are older.

Read more:
Don Dale royal commission demands sweeping change – is there political will to make it happen?

So what needs to happen?

We need to change our mindset about children who come into conflict with the law. We need a complete overhaul in our systems, with decarceration not incarceration.

Decarceration is a process of reducing the number of people in prison by diverting people away from the criminal justice system and reducing the focus on prison as a solution to crime.

In Australia this would mean detaining children as a last resort and prioritising other methods of diversion, such as fixing the social determinants of criminality, as described above.

Read more:
Locking up kids damages their mental health and sets them up for more disadvantage. Is this what we want?

We need to see youth justice facilities closing, not plans and financial resources being allocated to building more.

A major UN human rights review and longstanding national campaigns have called for the minimum age of criminal responsibility to urgently change nationally. The UN recommends 14 as the minimum age. Raising the age will prevent the criminalisation of younger children.

Children with neurodevelopmental disorders, disabilities or developmental delays should not be in the youth justice system, no matter their age.

The harsh bail laws in a number of states and territories also need to be amended, as they are resulting in large numbers of children spending periods in prison on remand.

Due to the bail laws, in Victoria in the decade to 2020 the number of children on remand doubled. Two-thirds spent time in detention but did not go on to receive a custodial sentence.

Justice reinvestment redirects resources from traditional criminal justice and related systems to communities, to instead invest those resources into programs that prioritise early intervention and prevention. Its core aim is to give communities back decision-making powers, allowing them to self-determine their own futures.

Community-designed and community-based diversion programs are much more effective than formal criminal justice system responses and evaluations show positive outcomes and reductions in reoffending.

National Children’s Commissioner, Anne Hollonds has called for a national taskforce to urgently address the crisis in youth justice in Australia. However, this needs to be coupled with action from the federal government, in full cooperation with the states and territories.

If there are further delays or a lack of political will to bring about such change, it’s the most vulnerable children and young people who will continue to pay the price. Their wellbeing and futures are at stake.

Faith Gordon receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the AIJA.

– ref. Diverting children away from the criminal justice system gives them a chance to ‘grow out’ of crime – https://theconversation.com/diverting-children-away-from-the-criminal-justice-system-gives-them-a-chance-to-grow-out-of-crime-194645

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Morris, Professor, Institute for Public Policy and Governance, University of Technology Sydney

One of the most common reasons people apply for social housing is because they or their immediate family members have a disability and they are unable to work. They need an affordable alternative to private rental housing that’s suitable for their disability-related needs.

Our research on the experiences and circumstances of people on the social housing waiting list has found many people with serious disabilities are not guaranteed access to social housing. The following three case studies, drawn from our interviews, illustrate how the long wait for social housing makes their extremely difficult situations worse.

Read more:
Not just ramps and doorways – disability housing is about choosing where, how and who you live with

Paul

Paul* has serious mobility problems and requires a wheelchair. He lives by himself in Sydney. He had been on the social housing priority waiting list for just under a year and had no idea of how much longer he would have to wait. But the house he was living in was unsuitable. As Paul explained:

“The nature of the accommodation has been assessed […] and it’s not suitable for me to live in […] There is a bathroom, but to do the shower you have to stand inside the tub […] so I can’t do that shower any more […] And the doors are not wide enough for the wheelchair to go through.”

Access to the house is also difficult.

“The condition of the [path] from the house going to the road it’s not good and it’s very difficult.”

Paul is on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and eligible for an electric wheelchair. But he says:

[T]hey won’t approve […] until I have a proper accommodation […] they want to make sure whether it’s going to be used in the house.“

Mark

Two of Mark’s three children have complex mental and physical disabilities. His wife also has a disability. He gave up paid work 20 years ago to be their full-time carer.

Through community housing he found a subsidised private rental property.

“We were there from 2002 until 2019 in the same house that was very not suitable for people with disabilities. It was just a three-bedroom normal house that was run down that as the kids grew up […] and my wife’s getting worse. The house was just absolutely not suitable […] for our situation.”

His pleas for suitable social housing fell on deaf ears. In 2019 Mark felt he had to move.

“I just couldn’t hack it anymore. The kids are getting bigger. It’s getting very hard for me to look after them cos I was the main carer and I have to shower them, toilet them, you know all that stuff, and you know the house was small […] sometimes they had to be in a wheelchair, [but] there was no wheelchair access.

“So eventually I just gave up and found a house that I’m renting now […] I’m paying private rent but being on priority housing I get subsidised from public housing […] It’s still not suitable, but it’s a bit bigger and a little bit better.

Mark summed up his experience:

“I’ve been on the waiting list for over 20 years without, you know, being given a public [housing] house or […] never offered suitable housing for our situation, and until today we’re still on the priority list.”

Read more:
‘Getting onto the wait list is a battle in itself’: insiders on what it takes to get social housing

Despite the permanent nature of his family members’ disabilities, to continue receiving the rental subsidy Mark has to get forms filled in by a GP every six months.

“There’s a lot of paperwork involved. Every six months you’ve got to bring bank statements […] you’ve got to bring medical certificates […] and the stress, and you know […] GPs these people don’t want to sit there filling up forms for three people.

“If I take my family and I go to a GP and say, ‘Listen, can you fill up these forms?”, they say, ‘No mate, […] it’s too much work for me”, and I’ve got that from my GP many times. You’ve got to beg the doctor, fight with the doctor […] and this is the life you live.“

Pippa

Pippa has an intellectual disability and lives with her carer who is also her partner. Despite being homeless at times, she has been on the waiting list for around 10 years.

“They refused to put me on priority […] and I said, ‘Yeah, but I don’t have anywhere to sleep. I don’t have a house or anything.’ And they basically just said, ‘Keep looking for private rental.’ We got 21 days of TA [temporary accommodation] and a little bit more during the whole year that me and my partner were homeless.”

Although they eventually found a private rental property, the insecurity and her lack of disposable income are deeply unsettling.

“I mean for me I think I need something more stable which would be [social] housing […] If it’s a place where I could kind of set my life up and you know get a job and not have to focus on, okay, the owner is going to sell or, you know, my rent’s going to go up […] if the owners sell tomorrow we would be back on the street cos there’s no way we could afford anything. There would be nowhere to go.”

Read more:
Stability and security: the keys to closing the mental health gap between renters and home owners

Pippa was scathing of the NSW Department of Communities and Justice – Housing.

“The fact that Housing can’t even assist someone with a disability is very concerning […] I just think they don’t have the right kind of tools or people or anything to kind of handle someone with a disability […] they just have no idea at all.”

The situations of Paul, Mark and Pippa (who is now on the priority list) starkly illustrate how not being able to get into social housing makes their lives even more challenging. Clearly, what is required is the urgent building of social housing that is suitable for people with different disabilities.

* All the names used are pseudonyms to protect individuals’ privacy.

Alan Morris receives funding from The Australian Research Council.

Jan Idle is employed though ARC funding.

– ref. ‘I’ve been on the waiting list for over 20 years’: why social housing suitable for people with disabilities is desperately needed – https://theconversation.com/ive-been-on-the-waiting-list-for-over-20-years-why-social-housing-suitable-for-people-with-disabilities-is-desperately-needed-193455

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Armstrong, Senior Lecturer in Special and Inclusive Education, RMIT University

At a press conference last week, paralympian Dylan Alcott recalled the pain of being a child with a disability.

“I had no friends when I was five,” the Australian of the Year told reporters. “I even got goosebumps saying that.”

He said one of the positives about the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was that it had helped today’s young kids develop almost twice as many friendships. But how?

School is a crucial place to think about friendships for kids with disabilities because, as research confirms, it’s a space where all kids learn to make and maintain friendships. Some studies imply that schooling plays an even more important social role for students with a disability than for typically developing kids – with non-disabled students modelling appropriate behaviours.

Friendships matter for kids with a disability – without them, kids will not flourish in school, feel lonely and be isolated. So how can we help some of our most vulnerable students make and maintain them?

Read more:
Everyone is talking about the NDIS – we spoke to participants and asked them how to fix it

Disability and social isolation

Alcott’s comments echo what experts know about disability and social connection. A study of English adults published last year shows: “Compared to the general population, people with disability have fewer friends, less social support and are more socially isolated”.

According to several studies, the quality of friendships for many young people with disabilities is reduced, compared to young people without a disability. (Friendship quality is measured against criteria including status as peers, variety of activities enjoyed together and these activities being spontaneous rather than prearranged or programmed group events.) This lowers quality of life.

Negative social attitudes toward disability compound this social disadvantage in schools and in our communities.

Although small progress has been made in Australia toward addressing these ingrained attitudes in the school system, they still persist as shown at the Disability Royal Commission public hearing on education in 2020.

At the 2020 hearing, students with disabilities reported losing access to friendships as well as learning if they are excluded from school and sitting at home. Once excluded, students have even fewer chances for social interactions and friendships.

Friendship is about access

My own research highlights how students with a disability are seriously over-represented among kids asked to leave settings or suspended, usually on account of their behaviour – and what might address this problem.

Lacklustre or tokenistic application of policies on educational inclusion is a more subtle problem. Well-meaning policies applied without considering a child’s social needs mean a child might be? physically present in the classroom of a regular school but without classroom friendships or experiencing the wider social life of the school.

Advocates point out genuine inclusion is about access to friendships and social opportunities children with and without disabilities? might not have considered or encountered otherwise.

And decades of international research finds strong friendships mean young people are less likely to develop aggressive behaviours or a mental health condition. This finding is particularly important for children and young people with a disability who may be at increased risk of severe psychological distress.

Read more:
Mental distress is much worse for people with disabilities, and many health professionals don’t know how to help

Making moments, calling out issues

The finding that NDIS participation boosts friendships shows that with sufficient support and adequate funding, social success is entirely achievable.

Parents, teachers, school leaders and concerned members of communities can help too. Parents play a key role in kids’ friendship development, facilitating opportunities for children with and without disabilities to bond in groups or one-on-one.

Adults can call out segregation, discrimination and cultures of low expectations lurking in school systems.

Kids with disabilities can be enabled to participate in whatever aspects of the wider school social life interest them. Non-disabled students may have a negative bias towards kids with a disability and that can prevent relationships. Resources such as the ABC’s You Can’t Ask That can be used in schools to tackle stereotyping.

Students with disabilities often face bullying. Effective school-wide anti-bullying programs are essential for helping them navigate positive relationships. The governments’s Bullying No Way program is a good example.

Friendships can have unique challenges for kids with autism, but providing explicit teaching about social rules among the neurotypical can help. Research-supported specialist programs exist. Nurture groups can give kids focussed support to gain and maintain relationships.

The benefits of friendships and strong social inclusion for children and young people with a disability are compelling. As a society we should do all we can to prevent some of the most vulnerable in our communities from falling into a lonely and isolated life.

David Armstrong 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. Dylan Alcott says he missed out on childhood friends. With support, disabled kids today can have a better shot socially – https://theconversation.com/dylan-alcott-says-he-missed-out-on-childhood-friends-with-support-disabled-kids-today-can-have-a-better-shot-socially-194620

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janneke Blijlevens, Senior Lecturer Experimental Methods, RMIT University

It’s been a long day. Your partner messages you: “let’s just order in, I don’t feel like cooking”.

With a sense of relief, you open your usual takeaway app and start scrolling through the many restaurants and dishes available. Thai, pizza, burgers, Korean, Lebanese… oooh this one has free delivery! Hmm, but they’re far away and I am famished… Soon that sense of relief is replaced by overwhelm and inability to decide what to order. And your partner is not much help either!

Sound familiar? What you are experiencing is called choice overload. This can sometimes go as far as leading to complete decision paralysis (when you give up and make a toastie instead) and ultimately leads to an overall reduced satisfaction with the choices we make.

Thankfully, marketing and psychology scholars have studied this phenomenon for years and can provide tips to make your life a little easier. But first, we need to understand it to fix it.

Where does choice overload come from?

In the dinner scenario above, “choice set complexity” – how choices are presented, how many options there are, how different the options are in their characteristics, how much we already know about each option – is the culprit.

There are simply too many things to consider to make the most optimal choice: cuisine, delivery time, delivery costs, distance, healthy or indulgent, and so on. What seems a simple decision at first glance, soon turns into quite a complex one.

With people making approximately 200 choices a day when it comes to food alone, you can easily relate to the fatigue our brains feel at the end of a day.

Being presented with yet another complex and multifaceted decision will lead to cognitive overload: it means your brain simply doesn’t have the cognitive resources (brain power) to consciously process all the options and consider all the information needed to make an optimal choice.

Why making ‘perfect’ decisions is impossible

As a matter of fact, our brains are rather limited in the amount of information they can process consciously at any given time.

Especially if a scenario is combined with high decision task difficulty – when there are time constraints (kids need to be in bed soon), we are likely to be held accountable (buying a wine for dinner at our boss’ rather than for ourselves), or potential losses are significant (buying a house) – it is no wonder the brain blows a fuse trying to make the most optimal decision.

And therein lies the problem and the solution: you don’t always have to make the optimal choice. What’s wrong with “good enough”?

Read more:
Clinical perfectionism: when striving for excellence gets you down

Expectation-disconfirmation – the expectation that the perfect choice must exist if so much choice is available to you – is seated in the idea that people tend to want to optimise results, rather than satisfice. It is like striving for happiness in life rather than contentment.

Especially perfectionists will find this often explains their choice overload.

Another reason you may experience choice overload is because you explicitly don’t want to put effort into making the decision. This is called minimising of cognitive demand goals (for example, forfeiting deciding what to cook to ordering take out).

How to overcome choice overload

So after a long day, when you have no energy left, accountability is low, and the potential consequences are minor, consider satisficing your choice:

• reduce the choice task to a binary one immediately. Only give yourself the choice of two options, randomly chosen, or the first that came to mind. For example, before you open a delivery app, decide you have to choose between the first two cuisines that pop up.

• stick with what you know. Habits are created when a choice was marked as a rewarding one by the brain in the past. This means the choices you make regularly are good ones according to yourself, the expert! In your app, navigate to your favourites section and pick one from there.

• stick with your first choice. Don’t waiver. Once you’ve decided, commit to your decision. Do you really want to spend all that time and effort reanalysing and going back and forth when the result is of minor consequence?

Satisficing may not work for everything

Of course, not all choices are without grave consequences. When you are buying a house, you do want to consider all information needed to make an optimal decision.

Choice overload is likely because your brain is trying to connect all the dots consciously. So what do you do then?

If the decision is becoming overwhelming, try to pause and do some “unconscious thinking”. When you get back to it after a good night’s sleep, your brain will have processed the information unconsciously and you will be able to make a more confident decision.

You know when people say “it just felt like the right choice”? Intuition is not some mythical creature whispering in your ear – it’s your unconscious mind having been able to connect the dots.

Perhaps a cold comfort, but choice deprivation has far greater consequences for our wellbeing than choice overload. Dissatisfaction with choices made is much higher when we are deprived of sufficient choices than when we have too many.

With a few simple tricks, even the luxury problem of what to order for dinner can be eliminated; now, you have some brain space left to agree on what to watch on Netflix as you dig into your pizza… or laksa.

Read more:
Does choice overload you? It depends on your personality – take the test

Janneke Blijlevens 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. ‘What shall we have for dinner?’ Choice overload is a real problem, but these tips will make your life easier – https://theconversation.com/what-shall-we-have-for-dinner-choice-overload-is-a-real-problem-but-these-tips-will-make-your-life-easier-193317