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

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lashed out at prime minister Anthony Albanese, accusing him of betraying Israel and abandoning Australia’s Jews.

The extraordinary outburst follows Israel revoking the visas of Australian diplomats to the Palestinian Authority in retaliation for the Albanese government announcing it will recognise a Palestinian state and also banning a visit by a right-wing Israeli parliamentarian.

In a post on X Netanyahu said, “History will remember Albanese for what he is: A weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews.”

One interpretation of the Netanyahu attack is that he is seeking to warn other countries from moving to recognise a Palestinian state.

The latest words and actions from Israel take the bilateral relationship to a new low.

The deteriorating relations is dismaying many in the Australian Jewish community.

Co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin, “Allies with extensive economic, scientific and cultural ties should not be engaging in a diplomatic tit-for-tat that erodes the goodwill and cooperation built up over decades.”

“Calm heads need to take control of the situation otherwise there will be a risk to some $2 billion in bilateral trade, extensive investment in Australian start-ups, vital security cooperation and the Israeli-made medicine and medical technology that we all rely on.

“There are real-life consequences here and we want to see the countries work through any issues before things get out of hand.”

The revoking of the Australian diplomats’ visas will make it much more difficult for the Australian government to have ready contact with the Palestinian authority.

The diplomats have been visiting the West-Bank daily and Australia has an office there.

Albanese spoke with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas before the recognition announcement and lined up a meeting when the two attend the United Nations in September. Australian recognition of a Palestinian state will take effect during Albanese’s UN trip.

Simcha Rotman had his visa blocked by the Home Affairs department on the grounds that his presence in Australia would risk provoking a reaction from the Muslim community.

It has been reported he had planned a speaking tour but is now intending to speak remotely to an Australian audience.

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. Israeli PM Netanyahu denounces ‘weak’ Albanese in social media outburst. – https://theconversation.com/israeli-pm-netanyahu-denounces-weak-albanese-in-social-media-outburst-263473

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sonia Mycak, Research Fellow in Ukrainian Studies, Australian National University

The last time Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House earlier this year, he was berated by Donald Trump.

On Monday, he returned with European leaders by his side. He emerged with some signs of progress on a peace deal to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The presence of the European leaders no doubt had a great impact on the meeting. After Trump’s recent summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, they were concerned he was aligning the United States with the Russian position by supporting Putin’s maximalist demands.

We see from Trump’s statements over the last couple of months, the only pullback from his erratic pronouncements, largely based on Russian disinformation, seems to come when a body politic around him brings him back to a more realistic and informed position. So, this show of European unity was very important.

Security guarantees remain vital

There was considerable progress on one critical part of the negotiations: security guarantees for Ukraine.

It is significant that the US is to be involved in future security guarantees. It was not that long ago Trump was placing all the responsibility on Europe. So, this signals a positive development.

I listened to the briefing Zelensky gave outside the White House in Ukrainian for Ukrainian journalists. He explained it will take time to sort out the details of any future arrangement, as many countries would be involved in Ukraine’s future security guarantees, each with different capabilities to assist. Some would help Ukraine finance their security needs, others could provide military assistance.

Zelensky also emphasised that funding and assistance for the Ukrainian military will be a part of any future security arrangement. This would involve strategic partnerships in development and production, as well as procurement.

Zelensky made a point of this at a news conference in Brussels prior to Monday’s meeting. It is a priority for Ukraine to have a military strong enough to defend itself from future Russian attacks.

Reports also indicate the security guarantees would involve Ukraine buying around US$90 billion (A$138 billion) of US military equipment through its European allies. Zelensky also suggested the possibility of the US buying Ukrainian-made drones in the future.

According to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, there was also discussion about an Article 5-type security guarantee for Ukraine, referring to the part of the NATO treaty that enshrines the principle of collective defence for all members.

However, contrary to popular belief, NATO’s Article 5 does not actually commit members of the alliance to full military intervention if any one member is attacked. It allows NATO states to decide what type of support, if any, to provide. This would not be enough for Ukraine.

Ukraine has already seen the result of a failed security arrangement. In the
Budapest Memorandum of 1994, the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia guaranteed to respect Ukraine’s borders and territorial integrity in exchange for Ukraine giving up the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world.

However, look what happened. Russia invaded in 2014 without any serious consequences, and then launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.

Given this, any future security guarantee for Ukraine will need to be rigorous. Ukrainians are very cognisant of this.

Loss of Ukrainian territory

Prior to his Alaska summit with Trump, I would have said Putin is not interested in any kind of deal. We saw how in previous meetings in Istanbul, Russia sent low-level delegations, not authorised to make any decisions at all.

However, I think the scenario has changed because, unfortunately, in Alaska, Trump aligned himself with Putin in supporting Russia’s maximalist demands. It’s highly likely Putin now believes he has an advocate for those demands in the White House.

This could mean Putin now perceives there is a realistic chance Russia could secure Donbas, the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

I don’t believe Ukraine would ever agree to any formal or legal recognition of a Russian annexation of Crimea or any of the other four regions that Russia now partly occupies – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Zelensky has been adamant Ukraine would not cede territory to Russia in any peace deal. And he alone cannot make such a decision. Changing any borders would need a referendum and a change to the constitution. This would not be easy to do. For one thing, it’s a very unpopular move. And Ukrainians living in Russian-occupied territory would not be given a free and fair vote.

Putin’s war against Ukraine is an attempt at illegally appropriating very valuable land. In Alaska, he demanded Russia essentially be gifted the entire regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, including land not currently occupied by the Russian military.

This land has extensive Ukrainian military fortifications. Giving up this territory would leave Ukraine completely exposed to future Russian invasions – the country would effectively have no military protection along its eastern border regions. This would put Russia in a very advantageous position in future plans to regroup and attack again.

Even if Zelensky felt compelled to agree to some kind of temporary occupation and a frozen conflict along the current front lines, I don’t believe Ukraine could give up any land still under Ukrainian control.

In a recent Gallup poll, 69% of Ukrainians favoured a negotiated settlement to the war as soon as possible. In my view, this reflects the fact the United States, under the Trump administration, is proving to be an unreliable partner.

A settlement that rewards Russia for its genocidal war against Ukraine would set a very dangerous precedent, not only for the future of Ukraine but for Europe and the rest of the world.

At recent negotiations between the two sides in Istanbul, the head of the Russian delegation reportedly said “Russia is prepared to fight forever”.

That has not changed, no matter what niceties have occurred between Trump and Putin. They are prepared to continue to fight.

Sonia Mycak 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. Zelensky leaves Washington with Trump’s security guarantees, but are they enough? – https://theconversation.com/zelensky-leaves-washington-with-trumps-security-guarantees-but-are-they-enough-263423

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

The Israeli government has revoked the visas of Australian diplomats to the Palestinian Authority, in the latest deterioration of relations between the two countries.

In a statement on social media Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he had also told the Israeli ambassador in Canberra “to carefully examine any official Australian visa application for entry to Israel”.

He said the decision followed Australia’s announcement that it will recognise a Palestine state.

It was “also against the backdrop of Australia’s unjustified refusal to grant visas to a number of Israeli figures”, he said.

These included former minister Ayelet Shaked and the Chairman of the Knesset’s constitution, law and justice committee, Simcha Rothman.

Rothman’s scheduled visit to Australia was stopped by the Home Affairs Department this week. The right-wing parliamentarian has made inflammatory comments including describing Gazan children as “enemies”. It was decided his presence in Australia would risk a reaction from the Islamic community.

Three Australian diplomats based in Israel have visas for the Occupied Palestinian Territories. They go to the West Bank every day, where they have an office and speak with the Palestinian Authority.

They also provide consular assistance to Australians when needed, and were involved in the exit of Australians and family members who received visas to come to Australia in the early stages of the conflict.

These diplomats are likely now to leave Israel, given they cannot do the work assigned to them.

Before announcing Australia’s planned recognition, which will happen at the United Nations next month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke with the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbes, and obtained various assurances ahead of the announcement.

The Israeli government’s decision will make the Australian government’s dialogue with the Palestinian Authority more difficult and complicated.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Israel’s decision was “an unjustified reaction” following the recognition decision.

“At a time when dialogue and diplomacy are needed more than ever, the Netanyahu government is isolating Israel and undermining international efforts towards peace.

“We will continue to work with partners as we contribute international momentum to a two-state solution, a ceasefire in Gaza and release of the hostages.”

Sa’ar said antisemitism was “raging in Australia”. “The Australian government is choosing to fuel it by false accusations, as if the visit of Israeli figures will disrupt public order and harm Australia’s Muslim population. It is shameful and unacceptable.”

Opposition leader Sussan Ley said she regretted how the relationship between the governments of Australia and Israel was deteriorating. On the visa rejection, she said Rothman was “an elected member of the Israeli parliament and it’s a very unusual thing to refuse a visa”.

This coming Sunday pro-Palestine marches will be held in more than 30 cities and towns across the country. There will also be a demonstration at Pine Gap, the joint Australian-US facility near Alice Springs.

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. Israel bans Australian diplomats from occupied territories, as bilateral relations dive further – https://theconversation.com/israel-bans-australian-diplomats-from-occupied-territories-as-bilateral-relations-dive-further-262604

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Turnbull, Senior Research Data Specialist, The University of Melbourne

In 1770, after Captain Cook’s Endeavour struck the Great Barrier Reef and was held up for repairs, botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander collected hundreds of plants.

One of those pressed plants is among 170,000 specimens in the herbarium at the University of Melbourne.

Worldwide, more than 395 million specimens are housed in herbaria. Together they comprise an unparalleled record of Earth’s plant and fungal life over time.

We wanted to find a better, faster way to tap into this wealth of information. Our new research describes the development and testing of a new AI-driven tool Hespi (short for “herbarium specimen sheet pipeline”). It has the potential to revolutionise access to biodiversity data and open up new avenues for research.

The digitisation challenge

To unlock the full potential of herbaria, institutions worldwide are striving to digitise them. This means photographing each specimen at high resolution and converting the information on its label into searchable digital data.

Once digitised, specimen records can be made available to the public through online databases such as the University of Melbourne Herbarium Collection Online. They are also fed into large biodiversity portals such as the Australasian Virtual Herbarium, the Atlas of Living Australia, or the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. These platforms make centuries of botanical knowledge accessible to researchers everywhere.

But digitisation is a monumental task. Large herbaria, such as the National Herbarium of New South Wales and the Australian National Herbarium have used high-capacity conveyor belt systems to rapidly image millions of specimens. Even with this level of automation, digitising the 1.15 million specimens at the National Herbarium of NSW took more than three years.

For smaller institutions without industrial-scale setups, the process is far slower. Staff, volunteers and citizen scientists photograph specimens and painstakingly transcribe their labels by hand.

At the current pace, many collections won’t be fully digitised for decades. This delay keeps vast amounts of biodiversity data locked away. Researchers in ecology, evolution, climate science and conservation urgently need access to large-scale, accurate biodiversity datasets. A faster approach is essential.

How AI is speeding things up

To address this challenge, we created Hespi – open-source software for automatically extracting information from herbarium specimens.

Hespi combines advanced computer vision techniques with AI tools such as object detection, image classification and large language models.

First, it takes an image of the specimen sheet which comprises the pressed plant and identifying text. Then it recognises and extracts text, using a combination of optical character recognition and handwritten text recognition.

Deciphering handwriting is challenging for people and computers alike. So Hespi passes the extracted text through OpenAI’s GPT-4o Large Language Model to correct any errors. This substantially improves the results.

So in seconds, Hespi locates the main specimen label on a herbarium sheet and reads the information it contains. This includes taxonomic names, collector details, location, latitude and longitude, and collection dates. It captures the data and converts it into a digital format, ready for use in research.

For example, Hespi correctly detected and extracted all relevant components from the herbarium sheet below. This large brown algae specimen was collected in 1883 at St Kilda.

We tested Hespi on thousands of specimen images from the University of Melbourne Herbarium and other collections worldwide. We created test datasets for different stages in the pipeline and assessed the various components.

It achieved a high degree of accuracy. So it has the potential to save a lot of time, compared to manual data extraction.

We are developing a graphical user interface for the software so herbarium curators will be able to manually check and correct the results.

Just the beginning

Herbaria already contribute to society in many ways: from species identification and taxonomy to ecological monitoring, conservation, education, and even forensic investigations.

By mobilising large volumes of specimen-associated data, AI systems such as Hespi are enabling new and innovative applications at a scale never before possible.

AI has been used to automatically extract detailed leaf measurements and other traits from digitised specimens, unlocking centuries of historical collections for rapid research into plant evolution and ecology.

And this is just the beginning — computer vision and AI could soon be applied in many other ways, further accelerating and expanding botanical research in the years ahead.

Beyond herbaria

AI pipelines such as Hespi have the potential to extract text from labels in any museum or archival collection where high-quality digital images exist.

Our next step is a collaboration with Museums Victoria to adapt Hespi to create an AI digitisation pipeline suitable for museum collections. The AI pipeline will mobilise biodiversity data for about 12,500 specimens in the museum’s globally-significant fossil graptolite collection.

We are also starting a new project with the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) to make the software more flexible. This will allow curators in museums and other institutions to customise Hespi to extract data from all kinds of collections — not just plant specimens.

Tranformational technology

Just as AI is reshaping many aspects of daily life, these technologies can transform access to biodiversity data. Human-AI collaborations could help overcome one of the biggest bottlenecks in collection digitisation — the slow, manual transcription of label data.

Mobilising the information already locked in herbaria, museums, and archives worldwide is essential to make it available for the cross-disciplinary research needed to understand and address the biodiversity crisis.

We wish to acknowledge our colleagues at the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform, including Karen Thompson and Emily Fitzgerald, who contributed to this research.

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

– ref. Botanical time machines: AI is unlocking a treasure trove of data held in herbarium collections – https://theconversation.com/botanical-time-machines-ai-is-unlocking-a-treasure-trove-of-data-held-in-herbarium-collections-253236

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia

You may have heard high-impact activity – exercise such as running, jumping, football and basketball – is good at building bone density and strength. But what about when you’re standing still, lifting weights at the gym?

The good news is weight training is great for bone health. But some exercises are more effective than others. Here’s what the science says.

What is bone density?

Bone density, also known as bone mineral density, is essentially a measure of how many minerals (such as calcium and phosphorus) are packed into your bones.

It gives you an indication of how solid your bones are, which is important because denser bones are generally less likely to break.

However, bone density is not quite the same as bone strength.

Bones also rely on a range of other compounds (such as collagen) to provide support and structure. So, even dense bones can become brittle if they are lacking these key structural components.

However, bone mineral density (measured with a bone scan) is still considered one of the best indicators of bone health because it is strongly linked to fracture risk.

While there is likely a genetic component to bone health, your daily choices can have a big impact.

What affects your bone health?

Research shows a few factors can influence how strong and dense your bones are:

Getting older: As we age, our bone mineral density tends to decrease. This decline is generally greater in women after menopause, but it occurs in everyone.

Nutrition: Eating calcium-rich foods – dairy in particular, but also many vegetables, nuts, legumes, eggs and meat – has been shown to have a small impact on bone density (although the extent to which this reduces fracture risk is unclear).

Exposure to sun: Sunlight helps your body make vitamin D, which helps you absorb calcium, and has been linked to better bone density.

Exercise: It is well established that people who do high-impact and high-load exercise (such as sprinting and weight training) tend to have denser and stronger bones than those who don’t.

Smoking: Older people who smoke tend to have lower bone density than those who don’t smoke.

Why does movement improve bone density?

In the same way that your muscles get stronger when you expose them to stress, your bones get stronger when they’re asked to handle more load. This is why exercise is so important for bone health – because it tells your bones to adapt and become stronger.

Many of us know that people at risk for bone loss – post-menopausal women and older adults – should be focused on exercising for bone health.

However, everyone can benefit from targeted exercise, and it’s arguably just as important to prevent declines in bone health.

In fact, whether you are male or female, the younger you start, the more likely you are to have denser bones into your older life. This is crucial for long-term bone health.

Do weights improve bone density?

Yes. One of the most effective exercises for bone health is lifting weights.

When you lift weights, your muscles pull on your bones, sending signals that encourage new bone formation. There is a large body of evidence showing weight training can improve bone density in adults, including in post-menopausal women.

But not all exercises are created equal. For example, some evidence suggests large compound exercises that place more load on the skeleton – such as squats and deadlifts – are particularly effective at increasing density in the spine and hips, two areas prone to fractures.

What type of weight training is best?

Lifting heavier weights is thought to produce better results than lifting lighter ones. This means doing sets of three to eight repetitions using heavy weights is likely to have a greater impact on your bones than doing many repetitions with lighter ones.

Similarly, it takes a long time for your bones to adapt and become denser – usually six months or more. This means for healthy bones, it’s better to integrate weight training into your weekly routine rather than do it in bursts for a few weeks at a time.

Exercises that use body weight, such as yoga and pilates, have many health benefits. However they are unlikely to have a significant impact on bone density, as they tend to put only light stress on your bones.

If you are new to weight training, you might need to start a bit lighter and get used to the movements before adding weight. And if you need help, finding an exercise professional in your local area might be a great first step.

Exercising for bone health is not complex. Just a couple of (heavy) weight training sessions per week can make a big difference.

If you’re concerned you have low bone density, speak to your doctor. They can assess whether you need to go for a scan.

Hunter Bennett 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. Does weightlifting improve bone density? – https://theconversation.com/does-weightlifting-improve-bone-density-263045

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cornell, PhD Candidate in Public Health & Community Medicine, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney

If you’ve spent time on social media recently you have probably been exposed to questionable “wellness” content. You may have been instructed to dip your toes in icy water or let the sun shine where it usually doesn’t.

Wellness trends such as drinking “loaded” water or taking ice baths may be benign for most people, while others such as drinking raw milk, eating raw organ meats, or taping your mouth while you sleep carry real risks.

The online spaces where they circulate can also be harmful, serving as breeding grounds for conspiracy theories, anti-vaccination sentiment, and misuse of appearance- and performance-enhancing drugs.

It’s easy to dismiss followers of extreme wellness trends as gullible or misinformed. But research suggests personality traits may help explain why some educated, well-intentioned people sometimes reject conventional medicine in favour of fringe practices.

The big five personality traits

Psychologists have shown that many aspects of human personality can be described via five fundamental dimensions, of which we all have varying levels.

Two of these “big five” traits – openness and agreeableness – are particularly relevant to people’s interest in alternative health practices. (The remaining three traits are conscientiousness, extraversion and neuroticism.)

People high in openness are curious, imaginative and adventurous. They question tradition and are attracted to novelty and unconventional ideas. As a result, they are more likely to try new and unorthodox diets or treatments.

Highly agreeable people are trusting, cooperative and empathetic. They are very receptive to emotional messages, especially when they appeal to ideas of caring for others and benefiting the community.

Read more:
Personality traits may drive our ideas about fairness and sharing

These personality traits also influence how people search for and evaluate online information. People higher in openness tend to adopt an exploratory search strategy, preferring to seek novel or unconventional sources rather than relying on established information channels.

Because they value harmony, trust and maintaining relationships, highly agreeable people tend to give greater weight to information that comes from familiar or socially endorsed sources. They do so even when this information has not been critically evaluated.

Personality and persuasive influence

In the online wellness ecosystem, high levels of openness and agreeableness can make people susceptible to persuasion.

Influencers have a powerful advantage. They can position themselves as both novel and trustworthy. Open people can be seduced by original, eye-catching content, and agreeable people by community-focused narratives.

Influencers cultivate one-sided “parasocial” relationships in which followers feel an intimate connection with someone they have never met. These close bonds, coupled with the open personality’s attraction to unconventional ideas, can draw people into extreme, untested and unsafe health practices.

Openness to new experiences and being interpersonally agreeable are usually seen as strengths. However, in the buzzing, emotionally charged environment of online wellness culture they can become vulnerabilities.

From ice baths to anti-vax

Not all wellness practices peddled by online influencers are harmful. But some relatively innocuous trends can be a gateway to more extreme practices.

Someone might start taking ice baths for a mood boost, move on to restrictive raw diets for “clean eating”, and eventually arrive at anti-vaccine beliefs grounded in deep mistrust of health authorities.

Gateway effects can occur if a trusted influencer makes increasingly extreme recommendations. If the influencer pivots to more dangerous ideas, many followers will follow.

Over time, exposure to fringe wellness narratives can erode trust in mainstream institutions. What began as curiosity and warmth may, through repeated exposure to extreme content, shift towards cynicism and institutional mistrust.

How can public health messages adapt?

Public health campaigns sometimes assume people reject mainstream health advice because they lack knowledge or have low “health literacy”.

But if personality traits influence receptiveness to alternative wellness claims, simply giving people more information may not produce positive change.

Public health campaigns should consider personality traits for more effective preventive interventions. They can target people high in openness, for example, by presenting health science as dynamic and evolving, not just a set of rules and prescriptions. They can reach highly agreeable people with health messages that emphasise empathy and community.

To be effective for all of us, public health communication needs to be as engaging as the messages emanating from influencers. It must use eye-catching visuals, personal stories, and moral hooks while remaining truthful.

People who engage in extreme or unusual wellness practices aren’t merely misinformed. Often, they’re driven by the same urge to explore, connect, and live well as everyone else. The challenge we face is to steer that drive toward health, not harm.

Samuel Cornell receives funding from an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.

Nick Haslam receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. Why do smart people get hooked on wellness trends? Personality traits may play a role – https://theconversation.com/why-do-smart-people-get-hooked-on-wellness-trends-personality-traits-may-play-a-role-263041

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mojtaba Rajabi, Senior Lecturer in Geoscience, The University of Queensland

Last Saturday at 9:49am local time, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake occurred about 50km west of Gympie in Queensland. The earthquake was experienced as strong shaking locally, but did not produce any significant damage, likely because of the remote location of the epicentre.

However, the quake was felt far and wide and small aftershocks continue. More than 24,000 people across eastern Australia reported it, not only in the nearest big city (Brisbane) but as far away as Cairns and Sydney. This was the largest earthquake in onshore southeast Queensland since 1935, when an earthquake of magnitude 5.5 occurred near Gayndah.

Most of the world’s earthquake hotspots are near the boundaries between tectonic plates – places such as New Zealand, Japan and Indonesia. Here, earthquakes are frequent because of the immense forces where two plates collide or slide past one another.

But Australia sits in the middle of the Australian tectonic plate, far from any plate edges. So why do earthquakes still happen here?

Tectonically ‘quiet’ – but not silent

Australia is often seen as tectonically “quiet” and stable.

But this picture is only partly true. As Saturday’s seismic event shows, earthquakes do happen here, and Australia has a rich record of recent faults and seismic activity.

On average, Australia has an earthquake larger than magnitude 6.0 about once every seven years, and one greater than magnitude 5.0 roughly once a year. Geological studies of recent faults tell us that Australia could host an earthquake up to around magnitude 7.5.

What drives earthquakes in Australia?

Even though Australia is far from the edges of tectonic plates, the continent is still being squeezed and stressed by the large forces at those distant plate boundaries. These stresses travel deep into the plate and build up.

When the stress becomes too great, it is suddenly released along zones of weakness in the crust (known as fault zones). That release is what we feel as an earthquake.

The map below shows just how widespread earthquakes and active faults are across the continent.

The Australian stress field

Over the past four decades, scientists have built up a detailed picture of the stresses acting in the Australian crust. This comes from many sources including earthquake information, borehole data, mining sites, and large-scale engineering projects.

The results have been compiled in two projects: the Australian Stress Map and the World Stress Map. These show Australia’s stress patterns are highly variable and different from those of other continents.

Unlike some continents, where the direction of maximum horizontal stress tends to line up neatly with the movement of plates, Australia’s stresses twist and turn, changing direction across the country. Large-scale computer modeling shows this can be explained by the combined effect of tectonic forces at the edges of the Indo-Australian Plate.

Stress and earthquakes in Queensland

The recent earthquake occurred near Kilkivan, west of Gympie, in an area where many faults are aligned in a northwest–southeast direction. One of the most important of these is the North Pine Fault System, a wide zone made of many separate fault segments.

This network of fractures tells a long geological story of movement, stretching back millions of years, that has shaped the landscape of eastern Australia. Geoscientists believe the fault system is quite ancient – between around 50 million and 250 million years old.

However, there have been numerous modern earthquakes in the surrounding region, which suggests the fault system may still be active. The area has experienced several significant earthquakes in the past, including events in 1883, 1918, 1935 and more recently, 2015.

The maximum stress in this region is directed from northeast to southwest. The driving forces come from far beyond Australia.

The Australian tectonic plate is compressed from the north and east by the Pacific plate, particularly along boundaries near the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, and the Tonga–Kermadec zone which stretches from New Zealand to Tonga. This compression reaches deep into Queensland.

It is these forces from distant plate boundaries that are behind Australian earthquakes like the recent one in Kilkivan, even though we are far from the world’s active plate edges.

Since Saturday morning’s earthquake, more than 15 aftershocks have been recorded. Most have been quite small, with magnitudes less than 2.0. A main shock of the moderate magnitude experienced near Gympie will typically produce an aftershock as large as magnitude 4.5, in addition to the many more smaller events.

So, as the crust adjusts to the changes in local stress produced by this earthquake, seismic activity is expected to continue for days or weeks, but with overall smaller and less frequent earthquakes as time goes on.

Mojtaba Rajabi leads the Australian Stress Map project and serves as deputy head of the World Stress Map project. His research on Australia’s stress field is supported by the Australian Research Council through a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE200101361).

Dee Ninis works at the Seismology Research Centre, is Vice-President of the Australian Earthquake Engineering Society, and a Committee Member for the Geological Society of Australia – Victoria Division.

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

– ref. Why does Australia have earthquakes? The whole continent is under stress from distant forces – https://theconversation.com/why-does-australia-have-earthquakes-the-whole-continent-is-under-stress-from-distant-forces-263334

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Fujak, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management, Deakin University

On Sunday, one of rugby league’s best forwards, Payne Haas, confirmed his switch in national allegiance from Australia to Samoa.

Haas, who played four Tests for Australia, was born in New South Wales. His mother is Samoan and his father is Filipino-Swiss.

With several other top NRL players considering similar moves, the sport looks set for a period of international rejuvenation just as Australia prepares to host the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.

What’s behind the moves?

Haas’ switch to Samoa continues a trend that began in 2017 when Jason Taumalolo stunned the rugby league world by switching his allegiance from New Zealand to Tonga.

At the time, he was arguably the game’s best forward and explained his move as a way to inspire Tonga’s young athletes:

I just feel it’s time to give back and hopefully I can assist and inspire young Tongan players to chase their NRL goals.

In the words of Haas:

There was a moment playing for Australia against Samoa where the anthems were playing and my mind started racing back to lots of memories with my mum making us sing the Samoan national anthem in the car. And from that moment onwards I wanted to play for Samoa.

As research into Pasifika identity in rugby league shows, this is more than just a sporting decision. For many players, it’s a cultural and spiritual responsibility.

Faith, family and service to community are central to Pasifika life. Wearing the jersey of a heritage nation becomes a public act of honouring ancestors, strengthening village ties and giving back to the people who shaped them.

Haas’ self-described journey of identity can be contrasted to widespread and somewhat simplistic media framing of such players as “defectors”.

But for many Pasifika athletes, irrespective of their birthplace, rugby league is merely what they do to better serve their Pasifika community, which is a key reason some choose to pledge allegiance to their island nations.

How can these athletes switch allegiances?

Haas’ switch to Samoa is possible because of changes to rugby league’s eligibility rules in 2016, which facilitate fluid athlete mobility between Tier 1 (Australia, New Zealand, England) and Tier 2 (everyone else) nations.

This structure is highly flexible compared to most international sports.

In soccer, for example, athletes are generally tied for life to the country for whom they played their first competitive senior international match (with limited exceptions).

In rugby union, rules were relaxed in 2022 but remain highly restrictive: World Rugby allows a one-time switch but only after a three-year stand-down period from international rugby.

What about State of Origin?

The most critical and contentious aspect of all this is whether players can simultaneously play State of Origin (if eligible) and represent a Tier 2 nation.

In a conventional sport development pyramid, State of Origin would be a pathway for Australian team selection. Yet, of the 34 participants in State of Origin 3 this year, upwards of 12 players are likely to represent Samoa or Tonga in the end-of-season Pacific Championships.

State of Origin is estimated to be responsible for 20% of rugby league’s total commercial revenue, so its administrators are highly sensitive to ensuring it remains one of the most-watched sport events on television.

Notably, the NRL has committed to reviewing Origin eligibility.

An opportunity or threat?

Pacific Island nations are reinvigorating an international game marked by limited competitive balance: Australia has won nine of the ten World Cups held since 1975. This has begun to change, first with Tonga’s emergence in 2017, followed by Samoa’s historic 2021 World Cup final appearance.

This is translating to commercial outcomes. The 2024 Pacific Championships featuring Australia, New Zealand and Tonga generated a total audience of 6.2 million viewers in Australia, marking a significant 40% increase on the 2023 edition.

This growth has also been driven by an emerging international women’s rugby league scene, with the NRLW comprised of 48% Pasifika/Māori athletes.

Rugby league’s cultural movement is not just a commercial opportunity in Australia, but a way to win hearts and minds across the broader Pacific.

In rugby union, Pasifika players are often lured via economic incentives to play for developed nations, such as Australia, New Zealand and even France. However, in rugby league, the rules have instead encouraged them to proudly play for their island nations.

This has not gone unnoticed by Pacific Island nations and expatriate communities, as best seen in the viral street parades celebrating Tonga and Samoa’s recent successes.

NRL’s chance to embrace its multiculturalism

In 2024, 31.5% of Australia’s population and 28.8% of New Zealand’s population was born overseas, among the highest rates in the world.

In rugby league, this diversity is even more pronounced. In 2025, 52% of NRL players were Pasifika, 11% Māori and 14% Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

These figures explain why flexible eligibility rules resonate – they reflect lived identity rather than forcing a single passport choice.

Eligibility rules, originally designed to preserve competitive integrity and the prestige of competitions like State of Origin, assumed a single, fixed national or state identity. But in a multicultural, highly mobile player pool, that assumption no longer holds.

This selective flexibility creates contradictions: a player can represent both Samoa and NSW but a New South Welshman of New Zealand or English ancestry cannot do the same. A child who relocated to Queensland at age 12 is a “Queenslander”, while one who did so at 14 is not, according to State of Origin rules.

For players whose identities span multiple cultures and places, the choice often forces them to sideline part of who they are in order to fit a competition’s administrative framework.

Rugby league clearly has far more to gain than lose from embracing eligibility rules that reflect lived multicultural realities.

At a time when the number of Indigenous players reaching the AFL has plummeted and private schools increasingly dominate their national draft, rugby league’s cultural diversity may just be its greatest strength.

Dr David Lakisa, founder of Talanoa consultancy, contributed to this article.

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

– ref. Payne Haas’s allegiance switch to Samoa: a threat or an opportunity for rugby league? – https://theconversation.com/payne-haass-allegiance-switch-to-samoa-a-threat-or-an-opportunity-for-rugby-league-262025

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

Business, union, community representatives and experts have gathered in Canberra to grapple with some of Australia’s most intractable problems: how to make us a more productive, sustainable and resilient country.

A vast amount of work has been done before the roundtable, with most groups coming in with ideas on what should be done – some, of course driven by self-interest.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has also invited his opposition counterpart, Shadow Treasurer Ted O’Brien.

On this podcast we are joined by O’Brien, followed by one of the business representatives, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar.

This follows our interviews with Australian Council of Trade Union secretary Sally McManus and Chalmers last week.

Asked about which of the Productivity Commission’s pre-roundtable ideas he supports, O’Brien says he:

loved the Productivity Commission’s message about having a growth mindset. I think that is spot on and it is exactly what Australia needs. We need to be ambitious for our country and that requires a growth mindset. I also think they have defined what productivity is very well, which is, it’s all about living standards.

[…] I think their AI report has triggered some healthy debate, I think that’s been very helpful. I don’t like a lot of their tax comments, again because we have some markers when we look at this roundtable. One of those markers is that you don’t raise living standards by raising taxes.

On what he and Chalmers might agree on during this summit, the answer is not much.

[…] I think we can agree on his initial definition of the problem to solve – and that’s a good start – which is the government’s budget is not sustainable. I agree with Jim Chalmers on that, 100%. It is not a sustainable, his own budget.

The second thing I think we can agree on is the importance of productivity. And the numbers do the talking, the biggest drop in living standards that we’ve seen. And the biggest drop in the developed world. So I am with Jim Chalmers on that.

When asked if they at least agreed on the same destination, if not the same roads, O’Brien stresses the difference he sees between himself and the government:

I would say very much different roads [… and] I would say completely different destinations. I believe that if we continue under the path of the Labor government, Australia will be a poor, weak and dependent nation. Under a Coalition, I believe Australia’s future is one where we will be prosperous, not poor. We’ll be strong, not weak. And we’ll be fiercely independent, not dependent on others.

Meanwhile, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s CEO Andrew McKellar says he’s optimistic going into the roundtable and highlights where we might see consensus emerge this week.

I think there are some areas of common ground emerging. People are pointing to housing. So there’s been a lot of talk about how we address the challenges of housing affordability fundamentally. That can only be done if we get supply moving in the housing and construction sector regulation. The National Construction Code is a big part of what’s holding that back.

[… There are] currently, 2,000 pages of regulation. You attach to that, about 165 different Australian standards. It stacks up to a huge pile of paper and regulation that’s got to be complied with […] You add on top of that all the processes at a state level, in terms of land release and planning approvals, environmental approvals, then the building approvals process – it can take many years to [… get] to the point where you can get keys in doors.

McKellar says looking beyond this week’s talks, he hopes the government will have the courage to take on comprehensive, long-term tax reform. But he says the challenge for the government is:

to determine how it’s going to spend some of that enormous political capital that it’s accrued, if it’s going to make fundamental changes which do benefit the Australian economy. And I mean, obviously, selling that is a difficult proposition. Convincing the electorate that it is in their best interests to contemplate how we have a fit-for-purpose tax system for the future.

[…] They have a very significant majority now, but I think they can make the case. If they want to be ambitious, we urge the government to be in this regard […] There’s always, I think a challenge to get consensus around reform. But as we look down the track, then they really have the opportunity to create a legacy.

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

– ref. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Shadow Treasurer Ted O’Brien and industry chief Andrew McKellar’s tax and red tape wishlists – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-shadow-treasurer-ted-obrien-and-industry-chief-andrew-mckellars-tax-and-red-tape-wishlists-263331

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Declan Humphreys, Lecturer Cybersecurity and Ethics, University of the Sunshine Coast

In July, the United States government made it clear that artificial intelligence (AI) companies wanting to do business with the White House will need to ensure their AI systems are “objective and free from top-down ideological bias”.

In an executive order on “preventing woke AI in the federal government”, President Donald Trump refers to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives as an example of a biased ideology.

The apparent contradiction of calling for unbiased AI while also dictating how AI models should discuss DEI shows the notion of ideologically free AI is a fantasy.

Multiple studies have shown most language models skew their responses to left-of-centre viewpoints, such as imposing taxes on flights, restricting rent increases, and legalising abortion.

Chinese chatbots such as DeepSeek, Qwen and others censor information on the events of Tiananmen Square, the political status of Taiwan, and the persecution of Uyghurs, aligning with the official position of the Chinese government.

AI models are not politically neutral nor free from bias. More importantly, it may not even be possible for them to be unbiased. Throughout history, attempts to organise information have shown that one person’s objective truth is another’s ideological bias.

Lying with maps

Humans struggle to organise information about the world without distorting reality.

Take cartography, for example. We might expect maps to be objective – after all, they reflect the natural world. But flattening a globe onto a two-dimensional map means having to distort it somehow. American geographer Mark Monmonier has famously argued maps necessarily lie, distort reality, and can be tools for political propaganda.

Think of the classic world map that uses the Mercator projection, hung in every primary school classroom. It converts the globe into a cylinder and then lays it flat. I grew up thinking Greenland must be massive compared to the rest of the world.

In fact, Africa is 14 times larger than Greenland, despite appearing to be roughly the same size on this type of map.

In the 1970s, German historian Arno Peters argued Mercator’s distortions contributed to a skewed perception of the inferiority of the global south.

Such distortions could be an analogy for the current state of AI. As Monmonier wrote in his book How To Lie With Maps:

a single map is but one of an indefinitely large number of maps that might be produced for the same situation or from the same data.

Similarly, a single large language model’s response is one of an indefinitely large number of responses which might be produced for the same situation or from the same data.

Think of the many ways a chatbot could formulate a response when prompted about something like diversity, equity and inclusion.

A built-in classification bias

Other historic attempts at organising information have shown the bias of their designers and users too.

The widely used Dewey decimal classification (DDC) system for libraries, published in 1876, has been known to be racist and homophobic.

Over the course of the 20th century, LGBTQIA+ books have been categorised under Mental Derangements, Neurological Disorders, or Social Problems in the DDC, with more recent efforts being made to eliminate outdated and derogatory terms from the classification.

Under Religion, roughly 65 sections out of 100 are dedicated to Christianity because the library where the classification was originally developed had a strong focus on Christianity. While Islam has an estimated 2 billion followers to Christianity’s 2.3 billion today, in the DDC Islam only has a single section dedicated to it.

AI learns from humans, after all

The large language models that power AI chatbots are trained on countless pieces of text, from historical works of literature to online discussion forums. Biases from these texts can unknowingly creep into the model, such as negative stereotypes of African Americans from the 1930s.

Just having raw information is not enough. Language models must be trained how to retrieve and present this information in their answers.

One way to do this is to have them learn to copy how humans respond to questions. This process does make them more useful, but studies have found it also makes them align with the beliefs of those who are training them.

AI chatbots also use system prompts: instructions that tell them how to act. These system prompts are, of course, defined by human developers.

For example, the system prompts for Grok, the AI chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s company xAI, reportedly instruct it to “assume subjective viewpoints sourced from the media are biased” and to not “shy away from making claims that are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated”.

Musk launched Grok to counter his perceived “liberal bias” of other products such as ChatGPT. However, the recent fallout when Grok started spouting anti-semitic rhetoric clearly illustrates that attempts to correct for bias necessarily replace it with a different kind of bias.

All this goes to show that for all their innovation and wizardry, AI language models suffer from a centuries-old problem. Organising and presenting information is not only an attempt to reflect reality, it is a projection of a worldview.

For users, understanding whose worldview these models represent is just as important as knowing who draws the lines on a map.

Declan Humphreys serves on the Executive Committee of the Australian Chapter of the IEEE’s Society for the Social Implications of Technology.

– ref. AI free from bias and ideology is a fantasy – humans can’t organise data without distorting reality – https://theconversation.com/ai-free-from-bias-and-ideology-is-a-fantasy-humans-cant-organise-data-without-distorting-reality-262523

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Tieman, Matthew Flinders Professor and Director of the Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying, Flinders University

As our population ages, we’re living longer and dying older. End-of-life care is therefore an increasingly important part of aged care. In Australia, around 50% of people aged over 85 die in an aged care home.

But what does this mean for those who work in aged care? Research suggests aged-care staff experience a unique type of grief when residents die. However, their grief often goes unrecognised, and they may be left with insufficient support.

Forming relationships over time

Aged-care staff don’t just do tasks such as helping with showering or delivering meals, but engage actively and connect with residents.

In our own research we’ve spoken with aged-care staff who care for older people both in aged-care facilities and in their own homes.

Aged-care staff are aware many of those they look after will die, and that they have a role in supporting older people as they come to the end of their life. In their caring role, they will often form meaningful and rewarding relationships with the older people in their care.

As a result, when the older person dies, this can be a source of profound loss for aged-care workers. As one told us:

I know I cry over some of them that die […] You spend time with them and you love them.

Some aged-care workers we interviewed talked about being present with the older person, talking to them or holding their hands as they died. Others spoke of how they shed tears for the person who had died, but that the tears were also for their loss, because they have known the older person and been involved in their life.

I think what made it worse was when her breathing got very shallow, and I knew she was coming to the end. I did go out. I told her I was going out for a minute. I went out and I had a cry because I wish that I could have saved her, but I
knew that I couldn’t.

Sometimes aged-care staff indicated there wasn’t an opportunity for them to say goodbye or be acknowledged as someone who had suffered a loss, even if they had been providing care to the person for a number of months or years. One aged-care worker noted:

If people die in hospital, that’s another grief. Because they don’t get to say
goodbye. Often the hospital won’t tell you.

Aged-care staff often must also support families and loved ones as they come to terms with the death of a parent, relative or friend. This can add to the to the emotional toll for staff who may be experiencing their own feelings of grief.

Cumulative grief

Repeated experiences of death can lead to cumulative grief and emotional strain. While staff saw meaning and value in their work, they also found regular exposure to death challenging.

One staff member told us that with time and seeing multiple deaths, you can “feel a little robotic. Because you’ve had to become that way to manage”.

Organisational issues such as staff shortages or high workloads can also exacerbate these feelings of burnout and dissatisfaction. Staff highlighted the need for support in coping.

Sometimes all you want to do is talk. You don’t need someone to solve anything for you. You just want to be heard.

Supporting aged-care staff to manage their grief

Aged-care organisations must take steps to support the wellbeing of their workforce, including acknowledging the grief many feel when older people die.

Following the death of an older person, offering support to staff who have worked closely with that person and acknowledging the emotional bonds that existed are powerful ways of recognising and validating staff grief. Simply asking the staff member how they are going or giving them the chance to take some time to process that the person has died is a good place to start.

Workplaces should also encourage self-care more broadly, promoting activities such as taking scheduled breaks, connecting with colleagues, and prioritising time for relaxation and physical activities. Staff value workplaces that encourage, normalise, and support their self-care practices.

We also need to look at how we can normalise the ability to talk about death and dying within our families and communities. A reluctance to recognise death as part of life can add to the emotional load staff carry, especially if families see dying as a failure of care.

Conversely, aged-care staff have consistently told us how meaningful it is to receive positive feedback and acknowledgement from families. As one worker recalled:

We had a death over the weekend. A really long-term resident here. And the daughter drove in especially this morning to tell me what fantastic care she had. That makes me feel better, that what we’re doing is right.

As members of families and communities, we need to recognise aged-care workers are uniquely vulnerable to feelings of grief and loss, often having built relationships with those in their care over months or years. Supporting the wellbeing of this important workforce supports them to continue to care for us and our loved ones as we age and come to the end of our lives.

Jennifer Tieman receives funding from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing; Department for Health and Wellbeing (SA); and Medical Research Future Fund. Specific research grants as well as national project grants such as ELDAC, CareSearch and palliAGED have enabled the research and project findings and resources reported in this article.
Jennifer is a member of various committees and project advisory groups including Advance Care Planning Australia Steering Committee, IHACPA Aged Care Network, and Palliative Care Australia’s National Expert Advisory Panel.

Dr Priyanka Vandersman receives funding from Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. She is affiliated with Flinders University, End of Life Directions for Aged Care project. She is a Digital Health adviser for the Australian Digital Health Agency, and serves as committee member for the Nursing and Midwifery in Digital Health group within the Australian Institute of Digital Health, as well as Standards Australia’s MB-027 Ageing Societies committee.

– ref. ‘I went out and I had a cry’: what aged-care staff say about their grief when residents die – https://theconversation.com/i-went-out-and-i-had-a-cry-what-aged-care-staff-say-about-their-grief-when-residents-die-262937

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic McAfee, Postdoctoral researcher, marine ecology, University of Adelaide

South Australia’s catastrophic harmful algal bloom now affects almost 30% of the state’s coastline, stretching from the Coorong in the state’s southeast to the seafood-rich Spencer Gulf to the west.

With no end in sight, many South Australians are searching for solutions.

Trials of physical, chemical and biological solutions have been run around the world at much smaller scale, usually in aquaculture fish pens and leases.

Unfortunately, the enormous Karenia mikimotoi bloom in SA is far too big for any of these technologies. But they could provide temporary relief at high-risk sites, such as vital breeding grounds for vulnerable species such as the giant Australian cuttlefish.

How can algae be managed at smaller scales?

This disaster arose from a triple threat: marine heatwaves linked to climate change, floodwaters and cold upwellings carrying nutrients algae need, and marine habitat loss leaving coasts extra vulnerable. Prevention is the best cure – so we need to tackle each of these threats.

In the meantime, the bloom’s persistence presents an opportunity to experiment with potential solutions.

Chemical

Anyone who has managed a pool knows how effective chemicals are in removing unwanted algae. But in the sea, chemicals can have unintended impacts. There’s more than one type of algae out there and we don’t want to kill the good guys.

In response to algal blooms at sea, researchers have even tried chemical crop-dusting by planes.

Clay has been used against marine algal blooms for more than 50 years in China and Japan. The clay particles bind to algal cells in surface waters, causing them to settle to the bottom where they stop growing or die. But to date, it has required a huge amount of clay to be effective.

Modified clay technology is a promising environmentally friendly solution. Released as a slurry, the clay binds and removes phosphorus, essentially removing the bloom’s fuel source.

Physical

Physical solutions often involve mixing the water column to break up the warm surface layers suitable for algal growth.

Other solutions physically block and disturb algae. Pumping air through tubes to create “bubble curtains” can stop algae from passing through.

This technology is useful in aquaculture pens. But bubble curtains can do little against intense algal blooms, forcing fish farmers to simply drag their pens out of harms’ way. So they’re never going to work at scale.

Biological

Natural systems have their own checks and balances. The oceans are full of microorganisms that naturally prey on algae – such as single-celled organisms (ciliates and flagellates) – or suppress it, including bacteria and viruses.

Such natural microbial warfare may help solve the SA bloom, with promising signs of bioluminescent “sea sparkle” algae dining on Karenia.

Scientists in the United States are working to extract natural algicides produced by algae-killing marine bacteria to combat Red Tide blooms in Florida.

Some bacterial algicides only kill specific harmful algae species, offering promise for low-risk application. To date, these solutions have largely been used at small, experimental scale.

By contrast, algicidal bacteria are found in abundance on common seagrasses around the world, providing healthy seagrass meadows with natural immunity. Conserving and restoring seagrass offers one way to tackle the problem longer term.

Helping nature to help itself

SA was once home to 1,500km of shellfish reefs, formed by billions of native oysters. These ecosystems served as the natural kidneys of our coastline. A single oyster is capable of filtering a bathtub of water a day, removing excess nutrients and algae.

Within a century of European settlement, these natural reefs were all but destroyed by overharvesting. The good news: they can be restored. For example, restoring two hectares of shellfish reef at Adelaide’s Glenelg Beach saw oysters filtering over 12 million litres of water a day within 1.5 years of reef construction.

These figures suggest SA’s lost shellfish reefs would have been filtering over half a trillion litres of seawater daily. This natural wastewater treatment system could have removed nutrients washed into our coastal seas before they could feed a bloom.

Diving on the restored shellfish reef during the algal bloom has given us some hope. Despite the soupy green water, the native oysters appear to be doing well. Similarly, oysters on leases in the affected areas are thriving as they feed on the highly nutritious Karenia algae.

By contrast, many filter-feeding bivalves have been devastated by the bloom, notably the habitat-forming razorfish (pen shells) and cockles.

Earlier this month, Premier Peter Malinauskas announced plans to restore a total of 15 hectares of shellfish reef alongside community groups across 15 locations. This provides an opportunity to learn whether larger-scale oyster restoration can help future-proof SA seas against harmful algae.

Rebuildling resilient ecosystems

This devastating algal bloom will eventually dissipate. Once the harmful algae have fallen back to normal levels, nature can rebuild.

But future blooms are likely as the climate warms and strengthens heavy downpours that flush nutrients out to sea. To prepare, we should explore ways of restoring ecosystems able to hasten recovery and rebuild natural resilience.

Investing in scaling up conservation and restoration of filter-feeding shellfish reefs and bacteria-harbouring seagrass meadows – the sea’s kidneys and immune system – will be necessary alongside long-term underwater monitoring.

If we continue with a reactive, fragmented approach to climate, nutrient pollution, and biodiversity loss, we’re guaranteed to face more costly catastrophes. We need to act to build long-term ecological and socio-economic resilience.

Dominic McAfee receives funding from the South Australian Government. He is affiliated with conservation non-profit EyreLab (Educating Youth in Restoration Ecology Lab).

Sean Connell 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. How could we clean up the algal bloom? – https://theconversation.com/how-could-we-clean-up-the-algal-bloom-262749

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maryanne Macdonald, Lecturer, Indigenous Education, Edith Cowan University

Statistics showing Indigenous school students in a negative light are regularly reported in the Australian media and policy debates. We often hear how Indigenous students “trail” their non-Indigenous peers in NAPLAN results and how there are persistent “gaps” when it comes to finishing high school.

These messages unfortunately reflect a common bias against Indigenous Australians in the community. These stereotypes – such as “Indigenous people aren’t interested in education” – often seep into schools, creating obstacles for Indigenous students.

Until now we have not had a lot of quantitative evidence on Indigenous students’ actual attitudes towards education.

Our new research, based on a survey of more than 500 WA secondary students, shows Indigenous students care about their school education and want to complete Year 12.

But they continue to face obstacles to completing education, including equal access to computers, varied support for their Indigenous culture, and needing to complete high school away from home.

Why teachers’ expectations matter

We know there are many systemic barriers which can affect Indigenous students’ school completion. Indigenous students are more likely to go to a rural school, where education is less accessible and schools are less well resourced.

Racism also remains widespread in Australian schools.

Research shows it is common for Australian teachers to believe Indigenous students are not interested in education or are unlikely to achieve academically. When students face these attitudes from their teachers, it can lower their motivation.

This harms students’ wellbeing, engagement with school and academic outcomes.

Read more:
‘Once students knew their identity, they excelled’: how to talk about excellence in Indigenous education

Our research

Our study surveyed 536 students from 14 secondary schools in Western Australia. Most participants came from remote or regional WA, although many attended boarding schools in Perth or regional towns.

Students were in years 8 to 12 and went to Catholic or independent schools. We weren’t granted access to the public school system for these interviews. This means the results were skewed towards families who had opted out of the public school system. Some families had done this for religious reasons or to access boarding opportunities.

Although the schools were private, they were not all “leafy-green” or privileged. Some were in remote communities, and others served working-class families.

Indigenous students and non-Indigenous students in our study attended schools of equal socioeconomic status. Indigenous students across Australia typically attend schools that are less well resourced, which means that the problems faced by Indigenous students may be larger than what our study found.

The study compared students’ experiences at school with their beliefs about education. It aimed to understand how Indigenous and non-Indigenous students’ experiences shape their education aspirations. We used statistics software to analyse the data.

Indigenous students think school is important

Indigenous students and non-Indigenous students reported similar, positive responses when asked whether it was important to complete Year 12.

They also reported similar, positive responses to questions about their family’s support for school, future aspirations to study and belief about their ability to make something of their life.

Our results showed Indigenous students have strong self-belief and motivation.

Indigenous students were more likely to value school attendance and completion than non-Indigenous students. This is an important finding, as it shows “disinterest” is not the cause of differences in school completion.

Less access to resources

Despite attending equivalent types of schools, Indigenous students in our study still faced more barriers than non-Indigenous students when it came to their education.

They reported less frequent access to computers and internet to do their homework. On average, Indigenous students said they could access these tools only “some of the time”, while non-Indigenous students said they could access them “most of the time”.

Indigenous students were also less likely to have family members who had completed secondary or tertiary education. Our school system often assumes students can access academic support at home, but this is not equally the case for all students.

Indigenous students were more likely to have had to leave home to complete high school, including going to boarding school. This means Indigenous students were more likely to be away from family support networks when they were studying. This can affect students’ ability to focus at school, especially during challenging times such as Sorry Business.

What was students’ experience of school?

We asked students about the support schools provided around homework and career planning, their sense of belonging at school, and whether their school had a positive culture in general and promoted Indigenous culture specifically. We also asked about staff-student relationships.

On these measures, we found there were actually greater differences between schools than between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. This suggests school quality is an important factor in outcomes for Indigenous students.

When students feel respected and supported by their teachers, they’re more likely to stay engaged – and that’s especially true for Indigenous students.

Indigenous students in our study were three times more likely than other students to say the quality of relationships with teachers influenced their school attendance.

Indigenous students also reported that when teachers were culturally responsive (connecting students’ culture with what and how they were learning), it had a positive impact on their motivation and school resilience.

Beyond our study, Indigenous students are more likely to attend public schools and rural schools, which typically have less funds. Rural schools often have high turnover of staff, which makes it harder to build good staff-student relationships.

Yet we found some schools in our study, despite funding issues or remote location, had strong school cultures. They had developed culturally responsive approaches which improved Indigenous students’ sense of belonging.

The gap is access, not aspiration

Our research supports other studies that argue Indigenous students do not need assistance to develop aspirations around their education.

Instead, they need adequate schooling resources such as internet and computers, and responsive educators who enable their current aspirations to be achieved successfully. The education “gap” is in access, not aspiration.

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

– ref. Indigenous students want to finish Year 12. They need equal support and resources from schools to do this – https://theconversation.com/indigenous-students-want-to-finish-year-12-they-need-equal-support-and-resources-from-schools-to-do-this-257895

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wenjia Tang, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Digital Communication, University of Sydney

What can you do in 60 seconds? In short dramas, or “micro dramas”, that’s enough time for a billionaire CEO to fall in love with his contracted wife, or for a werewolf mafia boss to break a curse.

These vertically framed, minute-long serials are reshaping the way we consume screen entertainment.

ReelShort, NetShort and DramaBox are currently the leading short drama platforms. DramaBox has been downloaded more than 100 million times on Google Play, while ReelShort was ranked second on Apple’s top free entertainment apps at the time of writing, ahead of Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video and Disney+.

Short dramas originated in China in the early 2020s through short video platforms such as Douyin (TikTok’s sister app) and Kuaishou (also known as Kwai).

The format has since expanded globally through both Chinese platforms and social media apps such as TikTok and Instagram. It reflects a growing trend in smartphone entertainment towards shorter, scrollable content.

Our new research, which involved interviewing 12 people in the short drama industry, shows it is creating much-needed job opportunities. At the same time, this industry is expanding faster than regulation can catch up – and that spells trouble.

Cliffhangers and outrageous storytelling

Short dramas are optimised for fragmented viewing via smartphones. The format blends TikTok’s fast-paced plotting style with recognisable screen genres. Think: a cheesy lifetime flick delivered in one-minute bursts. Most series have between 50 and 100 episodes.

Their appeal lies in dramatic storylines and cliffhangers. Each episode ends with a twist, designed to keep you hooked. This might be the revelation of a mysterious identity, or a tangled misunderstanding that is bound to lead to conflict. As ReelShort puts it: “every second is a drama”.

Let’s look at the hit series Playing by the Billionaire’s Rules as an example. Over 89 episodes, the series features a contract lover, million-dollar debts, an accidental pregnancy and a secret love triangle.

While it falls short of Hollywood standards of plot, dialogue and acting, it captures viewers’ attention through a conflict-ridden plot and provocative (sometimes amateurish) performances.

Playing by the Billionaire’s Rules is one of thousands of such series available online. In most cases, the first five to ten episodes are free, after which viewers must pay (usually right when the story is at its most thrilling).

A low-cost format, ripe for expansion

Despite illogical storytelling, crude production and exaggerated, stereotypical characters, short dramas are proving to be highly lucrative. In one 2023 article, The Economist described this “latest Chinese export to conquer America” as a hybrid of TikTok and Netflix.

Their popularity can also be linked to the COVID pandemic and the Hollywood writers’ strike, both of which slowed down the global screen industry.

Our research shows short drama production teams, which are mostly led by Chinese producers, have now expanded globally to the United States, Australia, eastern Europe and other parts of Asia, in search of new collaborative opportunities.

Los Angeles is emerging as the fastest-growing production hub. According to one LA Times article, short drama apps outside of China made US$1.2 billion (about A$1.8 billion) last year. Some 60% of this revenue came from the US.

Companies the world over are cashing in on the opportunity. Spanish-language media company TelevisaUnivision has started investing in the format, as has Ukrainian startup Holywater, which is using AI to generate almost fully synthetic short dramas.

Even the Hollywood giant Lionsgate has taken notice of short dramas, and is exploring their commercial potential.

It’s also possible short dramas will open the door for new players in the streaming wars. Although Netflix isn’t currently producing short dramas, it has started experimenting with the vertical short format (in the form of series and movie clips) on its mobile app.

Short dramas are also easily replicated across countries and various market conditions, and allow for localised content strategies. For example, the short drama Breaking the Ice reboots the Chinese campus romance template into a story centred on hockey players, making it more relatable for North American audiences.

Fantasy templates, such as those featuring werewolves, vampires, and witches, have also proven universally successful – and are often used by Chinese producers as low-risk, easily localised genres to test new markets.

Concerns behind the scenes

Our research finds the short drama industry is seen as a promising avenue for creating job opportunities, and for allowing actors and creators to get significant exposure on a modest budget.

But we’ve also found the industry to be far less regulated than more established screen industries.

There are growing concerns in the industry around labour exploitation and copyright infringement, as well as uncertainty over how sustainable the model will be in the long run.

One of our interviewees, a producer based in Los Angeles, revealed several concerning practices including problems with overtime work, stealing and recycling of drama scripts, underpayment of film school graduates, and a prevalence of unfair contracts for screenwriters.

The screenwriters we interviewed told us they hadn’t received proper credit for their work, and were bound by “buyout contracts” that excluded them from receiving additional compensation – even if their scripts garnered millions of views.

Earlier this year, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance and Casting Guild of Australia issued a joint statement urging local actors to verify the credentials of any “vertical series” production teams before signing contracts with them.

Still, the short drama format continues to draw significant attention from across the screen industry. More than just a passing content trend, this may be the beginning of a structural shift in what “television” means: low-cost, easily replicated and recklessly fast-paced.

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

– ref. Werewolf exes and billionaire CEOs: why cheesy short dramas are taking over our social media feeds – https://theconversation.com/werewolf-exes-and-billionaire-ceos-why-cheesy-short-dramas-are-taking-over-our-social-media-feeds-259385

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shae McCrystal, Professor of Labour Law, University of Sydney

On Monday, the Federal Court of Australia handed Qantas a record fine of A$90 million for breaching the Fair Work Act by unlawfully terminating the employment of 1,820 ground workers during the pandemic.

The decision to impose this penalty – the largest ever issued under the Fair Work Act – marks the final instalment in a five-year litigation saga initiated by the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU).

Delivering the ruling, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee ordered $50 million of the fine be paid to the union, partly to act as a deterrent that “should encourage others to pursue compliance with industrial relations laws”.

The fate of the remaining $40 million will depend on a later hearing to determine if some or all of it should be paid to the sacked workers. That would be on top of $120 million in compensation already agreed.

A quick recap

This saga began in 2020, after the TWU launched an action alleging that Qantas had unlawfully terminated the employment of 1,820 ground handling workers when it made the decision to outsource the staff at the height of the pandemic.

The union argued Qantas made this decision because of the workers’ future right to engage in collective bargaining and take protected industrial action when their enterprise agreement expired.

At trial, Qantas failed to show that this reason had not been a substantial and operative factor in making the outsourcing decision.

This meant that in making the workers redundant, Qantas had breached the Fair Work Act 1,820 times – once for each affected worker. Qantas appealed this outcome all the way to the High Court, but ultimately failed.

Once Qantas had exhausted all rights of appeal, the matter was returned to Justice Lee to determine compensation for the affected workers. After much toing and froing between the parties, in December 2024, a compensation package totalling $120 million was agreed between Qantas and the TWU.

A meaningful deterrent

That left a final outstanding matter for the court – the “appropriate” penalty to be imposed against Qantas for breaching the law. The maximum penalty available for this breach under the Fair Work Act was just over $120 million.

To determine an appropriate penalty under the Fair Work Act, a judge must exercise a level of discretion and weigh up various factors. These include the nature, circumstances and consequences of the breach, the size of the business and the extent to which the contravenor has shown remorse.

So why the record fine? The size of this penalty is partly because there were so many workers affected by Qantas’ breach of the Fair Work Act.

But it also reflects Justice Lee’s view that there was a need for “real deterrence” to ensure big employers are not tempted to “get away” with unlawful conduct because the potential rewards outweigh the risks of getting caught.

‘The wrong kind of sorry’

On whether Qantas had shown genuine remorse, Justice Lee acknowledged Qantas had belatedly apologised for its conduct.

But the company’s formal expression of regret was described as “the wrong kind of sorry”. That is, the company seemed to be sorry they got caught and suffered financial and reputational loss, but not truly sorry for the effect of the unlawful conduct and its impact on the workers.

Justice Lee expressed scepticism that Qantas’ corporate culture had genuinely changed. In deciding to outsource its ground handling operations, Qantas was found to have been “lawyered from the start and up to the hilt”.

The judge noted that, throughout the litigation, Qantas pursued a vigorous defence, alongside an aggressive public relations strategy, continuing to deny any wrongdoing.

Justice Lee also observed that, at the 11th hour, even after the High Court decision had found in favour of the union, Qantas tried to deploy a strategy to ensure the affected workers received nothing.

It was only when facing the prospect of a massive fine, that Qantas expressed regret, putting forward evidence their corporate culture had changed. However, it continued to use the same legal team that came up with the outsourcing strategy.

In Justice Lee’s view, it was telling that no senior leaders who had been involved in the decision and remained with Qantas took the stand to explain what they had learned and why it would not happen again.

Ultimately, this outsourcing decision cost Qantas a combined amount of around $210 million in compensation and penalties. This figure does not include the millions of dollars of legal fees Qantas incurred in fighting the litigation.

But it was estimated outsourcing the ground handling operations saved Qantas about $100 million per year. In essence, despite being handed the biggest fine on record, Qantas still appears to be financially better off as a result of the unlawful outsourcing decision.

Portion paid to the union

Under the Fair Work Act, it is difficult to recover legal costs. This makes it challenging for unions, and others, to pursue litigation through the courts and hold companies to account.

The decision to pay $50 million – more than half of the penalty – to the TWU was made partly because the union took on the perils of protracted litigation. And, as Justice Lee pointed out, adverse action cases can be dicey. The outcomes are by no means certain.

Here, the union bore the risk and has reaped the reward. This means more money in the TWU coffers to pursue other employers who may breach the Fair Work Act. It is also an important signal to other unions, and worker representatives, that the benefits of enforcing the law may now outweigh the risks of doing so.

Shae McCrystal has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council.

Tess Hardy has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council and the Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman.

– ref. The ‘wrong kind of sorry’: will a record fine for Qantas deter other companies from breaking the law? – https://theconversation.com/the-wrong-kind-of-sorry-will-a-record-fine-for-qantas-deter-other-companies-from-breaking-the-law-263324

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Celeste Rodriguez Louro, Associate Professor, Chair of Linguistics and Director of Language Lab, The University of Western Australia

Last year I attended a panel on generative AI in education. In a memorable moment, one presenter asked: “What’s the big deal? Generative AI is like a calculator. It’s just a tool.”

The analogy is an increasingly common one. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman himself has referred to ChatGPT as “a calculator for words” and compared comments on the new technology to reactions to the arrival of the calculator.

People said, ‘We’ve got to ban these because people will just cheat on their homework. If people don’t need to calculate a sine function by hand again […] then mathematical education is over.’

However, generative AI systems are not calculators. Treating them like calculators obscures what they are, what they do, and whom they serve. This easy analogy simplifies a controversial technology and ignores five crucial differences from technologies of the past.

1. Calculators do not hallucinate or persuade

Calculators compute functions from clearly defined inputs. You punch in 888 ÷ 8 and get one correct answer: 111.

This output is bounded and unchangeable. Calculators do not infer, guess, hallucinate or persuade.

They do not add add fake or unwanted elements to the answer. They do not fabricate legal cases or tell people to “please die”.

2. Calculators do not pose fundamental ethical dilemmas

Calculators don’t raise fundamental ethical dilemmas.

Making ChatGPT involved workers in Kenya sifting through irreversibly traumatising content for a dollar or two an hour, for example. Calculators didn’t need that.

After the financial crisis in Venezuela, an AI data-labelling company saw an opportunity to snap up cheap labour with exploitative employment models. Calculators didn’t need that, either.

Calculators didn’t require vast new power plants to be built, or compete with humans for water as AI data centres are doing in some of the driest parts of the world.

Calculators didn’t need new infrastructure to be built. The calculator industry didn’t see a huge mining push such as the one currently driving rapacious copper and lithium extraction as in the lands of the Atacameños in Chile.

3. Calculators do not undermine autonomy

Calculators did not have the potential to become an “autocomplete for life”. They never offered to make every decision for you, from what to eat and where to travel to when to kiss your date.

Calculators did not challenge our ability to think critically. Generative AI, however, has been shown to erode independent reasoning and increase “cognitive offloading”. Over time, reliance on these systems risks placing the power to make everyday decisions in the hands of opaque corporate systems.

4. Calculators do not have social and linguistic bias

Calculators do not reproduce the hierarchies of human language and culture. Generative AI, however, is trained on data that reflects centuries of unequal power relations, and its outputs mirror those inequities.

Language models inherit and reinforce the prestige of dominant linguistic forms, while sidelining or erasing less privileged ones.

Tools such as ChatGPT handle mainstream English, but routinely reword, mislabel, or erase other world Englishes.

While projects exist that attempt to tackle the exclusion of minoritised voices from technological development, generative AI’s bias for mainstream English is worryingly pronounced.

5. Calculators are not ‘everything machines’

Unlike calculators, language models don’t operate within a narrow domain such as mathematics. Instead they have the potential to entangle themselves in everything: perception, cognition, affect and interaction.

Language models can be “agents”, “companions”, “influencers”, “therapists”, and “boyfriends”. This is a key difference between generative AI and calculators.

While calculators help with arithmetic, generative AI may engage in both transactional and interactional functions. In one sitting, a chatbot can help you edit your novel, write up code for a new app, and provide a detailed psychological profile of someone you think you like.

Staying critical

The calculator analogy makes language models and so-called “copilots”, “tutors”, and “agents” sound harmless. It gives permission for uncritical adoption and suggests technology can fix all the challenges we face as a society.

It also perfectly suits the platforms that make and distribute generative AI systems. A neutral tool needs no accountability, no audits, no shared governance.

But as we have seen, generative AI is not like a calculator. It does not simply crunch numbers or produce bounded outputs.

Understanding what generative AI is really like requires rigorous critical thinking. The kind that equips us to confront the consequences of “moving fast and breaking things”. The kind that can help us decide whether the breakage is worth the cost.

Celeste Rodriguez Louro receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Google.

– ref. Generative AI is not a ‘calculator for words’. 5 reasons why this idea is misleading – https://theconversation.com/generative-ai-is-not-a-calculator-for-words-5-reasons-why-this-idea-is-misleading-263323

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard J. Buning, Research Lead, Micromobility Research Cluster, The University of Queensland

Since the invention of gears, nothing has encouraged more people to get on a bicycle than the introduction of electric motors and batteries.

When people have an e-bike, they drive less and cycle more. A study of frequent car drivers in Sweden found the distance people drove fell close to 40% once they were provided with an e-bike.

Conventional bikes don’t have anywhere near the same ability to get people out of their cars, due to their reliance on muscle power.

E-bikes aren’t bikes as we’ve known them – they perform more like a car, motorbike or e-scooter. We need to start thinking of e-bikes as a distinct form of transport.

But as authorities grapple with a tide of overpowered e-bikes used illegally on roads, making the best use of these vehicles will also have to include clearer, tighter regulations.

What do e-bikes have over regular bikes?

E-bikes overcome five challenges limiting use of conventional bikes:

Distance

E-bikes allow riders to go further than conventional bikes. E-bikes designed for city use offer a range of about 30 to 80 km per charge. They’re particularly attractive in regional Australian towns characterised by sprawl and little to no public transport. High-end e-bikes can offer 100 km in range or more, but come with big price tags. Riding 100 km every week for a year would cost about A$20 in electricity to charge.

Hills

Hilliness is a major challenge for many cyclists, especially those who aren’t fit or who ride bikes to get from place to place rather than for exercise. By contrast, the electric motors of e-bikes make uphill climbs much more manageable. In hilly Australian cities such as Brisbane and Sydney, e-bikes open up new routes.

Weather

People don’t like to ride conventional bikes as much if it’s very hot or cold. E-bikes require less physical effort, meaning riders sweat less in hot weather. In the cold, e-bikes can increase wind chill compared to a conventional bike, but they also help riders reach their destinations faster and reduce overall exposure to cold. Owners do have to take weather into account, because cold can reduce battery life, while heat can reduce how long a battery lasts. Long exposure to heavy rain may damage e-bikes too. Good undercover storage is necessary.

Cargo

Riding a pushbike with two kids or groceries on board is challenging. Extra weight requires extra effort. Cargo e-bikes make it much easier to transport loads between 100 and 200 kg. These models are heavier and bulkier than regular e-bikes, making storage and manoeuvring in tight spaces more difficult.

Physical limitations

E-bikes can be a useful option for groups who can’t easily use conventional bikes. These include older adults, pregnant people and individuals with medical conditions limiting their movement. Caution does have to be taken, though. The sudden acceleration of an e-bike can startle riders and increase risk of falls, while travelling at higher speeds can be challenging for those with slower reflexes. Proper training is essential.

Risks stem from regulatory failure

Like any form of transport, e-bikes come with risks. Reports of e-bikes catching fire and hitting pedestrians have triggered public anxiety and even proposals to restrict or ban them.

Many residential and commercial buildings have banned e-bike charging or parking indoors to avoid any battery fires, while public transport bans have been floated.

The reality is, battery fires and lethal crashes are overwhelmingly due to non-compliant e-bikes with low quality batteries or with power levels well beyond the limit legally allowed on Australian roads.

Many of these vehicles shouldn’t be thought of as e-bikes. They’re more like unregistered illegal electric motorcycles.

What defines a true e-bike?

Most countries have adopted the European EN15194 e-bike standard, which defines an e-bike as a vehicle with:

• continuous rated power of no more than 250 watts
• maximum pedal-assisted speed of 25 kmh
• maximum speed of 6 kmh when using only a throttle.

It must also meet the safe battery standards (known as EN50604).

Unfortunately, in 2021 the Australian government removed e-bikes from its definition of a “road vehicle”. Bar Western Australia, all Australian states followed suit.

At a stroke, non-compliant vehicles became exempt from import standards. Overpowered vehicles with questionable batteries could be freely imported – as long as they were only used on private land.

This loophole has been widely used to import thousands of dangerous vehicles. Once in Australia, many end up on the roads. Some souped-up or illegally modified bikes can reach speeds as high as 90 kmh – and have caused deaths. These models have also become popular among younger Australians.

If nothing is done, the flood of illegal and unsafe models could undermine the real benefits of e-bikes.

In recent months, cycling researchers and advocacy groups have called for authorities to step in and close loopholes permitting the import of illegal devices, ban their sale and encourage uptake of European-standard e-bikes.

A new form of transport

E-bikes are quietly revolutionary. Once the e-bike sector is properly regulated, authorities should focus on making the most of their potential.

Separated lanes are vital and are especially important for e-bike riders, who can travel faster and may be more at risk of injury if they crash compared to traditional bikes.

Temporary subsidies are another option to drive uptake. Researchers overseas have shown the benefits from e-bike subsidies outweigh the cost.

If we do this right, millions of Australians could eventually rely on an e-bike rather than a car.

Richard J. Buning has received funding from the the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN), the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), and iMOVE Australia Cooperative Research Centre. He is the deputy chair of Bicycle Queensland.

Dorina Pojani has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN), the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), and iMOVE Australia Cooperative Research Centre.

– ref. E-bikes could slash our reliance on cars – but overpowered illegal models on the roads make us all less safe – https://theconversation.com/e-bikes-could-slash-our-reliance-on-cars-but-overpowered-illegal-models-on-the-roads-make-us-all-less-safe-262871

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Taylor, Adjunct academic, mycology, Flinders University

How long has it been since you last cleaned your bathroom? If it’s been longer than you planned, you might see a build up of scum, slime or mould around your taps, between the tiles and on the edges of the bath or shower floor.

But why is this sometimes pink or orange? And can this pink slime make us sick?

Sometimes it’s mould

In some instances, the pink slime may be a microfungi (also called a mould) named Rhodotorula.

Rhodotorula is a yeasty little fungus that makes sticky red stains appear on plastics and other wet items left in storage too long, including your toothbrush.

The first part of it’s name, “Rhodo”, refers to its red appearance in nature and comes from the Greek work for rose. It can be found pretty well everywhere, including on and in the wet bits of your skin, as it thrives in humid nooks and crannies.

Most microbes need large amounts of nitrogen to survive. But Rhodotorula is excellent at scavenging nitrogen from its environment. It can survive with a fraction of the typical amount of nitrogen in its cells compared with other microbes.

This nitrogen scavenging allows it to persist in hostile and nutrient-poor environments, such as between your tiles where other microbes would starve. It also means it can pack itself full of lipids and nutrients when times are good, like gloopy little protein pills to survive the lean times.

Rhodotorula doesn’t pose a big risk for healthy people, but it can cause infection for those with weakened immune systems, such as patients hospitalised with catheters.

More commonly, it’s bacteria

The second and more likely candidate for pink scum in your bathroom is a bacteria called Serratia marcescens, another microbe that prefers to multiply in the damp and humid conditions found in bathrooms and laundries.

It’s also a scavenger of nutrients but in this case it scavenges phosphorous, a key component of DNA.

We’ve tried to reduce the amount of phosphates in detergents and soaps as they degrade waterways, but Serratia is excellent at wringing what little remains out of soap scum, or just happily living directly in liquid soap itself, while turning everything pink in the process.

Serratia was once a laboratory research tool. Scientists would puff clouds of the bacteria into the air or splatter it around to predict how a more dangerous bacteria might disperse. Serratia’s scarlet colouring made it easy to spot in lab tests.

But since then, Serratia has been recognised as an emerging pathogen. This means it’s an infectious agent we’ve only recently realised can cause illness, or we’ve only just worked out is actually the cause of a disease.

Serratia now ranks in the top ten most common causes of becteremia: bacteria in the blood. This starts with an infection, leading to sepsis, hospitalisation and sometimes death.

Serratia infections can start in a range of different ways: as a pneumonia, in the urinary tract, or from cuts and wounds. It can cause fever, chills and fatigue, and can be tough to treat due to antibiotic resistance.

Most people exposed to Serratia either won’t get sick or will develop only a mild infection. This may look like a cut that takes a long time to heal, or a phleghmy cough that hangs around but eventually goes away.

The US Army conducted studies where soldiers were exposed to concentrated clouds containing millions of Serratia and after a mild fever and chills, all subjects had recovered after four days.

A study over ten years in Canberra estimated the incidence of Serratia infections as 1.03 per 100,000 people, with similar rates of about 0.9 per 100,000 in Canada. So, in a given year about one person per 100,000 will get an infection from Serratia, which is roughly 2,800 people per year in Australia.

Most serious infections from Serratia occur in hospitals among people at a higher risk of infection because they’re immunocompromised, elderly or have other health conditions.

In a particularly chilling illustration of this, there have been hundreds of case reports of babies contracting Serratia infections in hospitals. In a 2005 outbreak of 159 babies in Gaza, almost half died.

What can you do about pink slime in your bathroom?

Although it’s impossible to live in a sterile environment, there are some simple things you can do to reduce the presence of these microorganisms in your home.

Drying wet areas can go a long way to slowing these critters down, as bacteria and mould need moisture to grow well.

Cleaning with detergents or disinfectants is very effective and is most successful after first removing soil and other debris. Don’t just spray bleach onto the muck and hope for the best; you’re better to scrub, wipe and then disinfect.

Or better yet, clean every two to three weeks (depending on how many kids, pets and roommates you have) to stop gunk building up and to starve these microbes of food.

Wearing dish-washing or disposable gloves during cleaning is a good way to reduce exposure, followed by washing your hands thoroughly with soap and water, and drying them.

Michael Taylor consults for WSP in the area of Occupational Hygiene.

– ref. Why is the soap scum in my bathroom pink? Is it mould? And can it make me sick? – https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-soap-scum-in-my-bathroom-pink-is-it-mould-and-can-it-make-me-sick-258292

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Kingham, Professor of Human Geography, University of Canterbury

The government heralded its plan to move New Zealand’s entire vehicle fleet to road-user charges as a fairer method of funding road maintenance.

For owners of electric and diesel vehicles, this is nothing new. They already pay road-user charges based on the distance travelled.

But for petrol vehicles, it is a shift away from fuel excise duty, or petrol tax, which is currently about 77 cents per litre of fuel. As it is linked to the price of petrol, more fuel-efficient petrol vehicles pay relatively less than gas guzzlers for every kilometre travelled.

Much of the policy detail is yet to be worked out, but if all of the country’s vehicles paid road-user charges, this would provide opportunities to do more than raise revenue for road building and maintenance.

New Zealand would become the first country to charge all vehicles a distance-based fee and, used in creative ways, this could save money and deliver better societal outcomes, such as safer roads and lower pollution.

How fuel revenue is collected

Fuel excise duty is currently collected at source, when refined fuel either leaves the refinery or is imported. Some other costs are included, such as a fee for New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme, currently around 13 cents per litre. These are simple to collect, have low compliance costs and are essentially unavoidable.

Road-user charges are a distance-based payment. Licenses are pre-purchased in increments of 1,000 kilometres and various rates apply depending on vehicle weight and axle configuration. Heavier electric vehicles (more than 3.5 tonnes) are currently exempt until June 2027.

This system has higher compliance and administration costs than fuel excise duty. It also has a greater risk of evasion, because to some extent, it relies on vehicle owners’ honesty.

With all vehicles moving to road-user charges, everyone will pay for every kilometre they travel on the roads, with increased rates for heavier vehicles (currently anything above 3.5 tonnes). The plan is that this will be administered electronically through some device in or on the vehicle. This already happens with many freight vehicles.

In most freight vehicles, the technology includes GPS and allows freight companies to monitor the performance of their vehicles and drivers. But rolling out electronic road-user charges across the whole vehicle fleet creates interesting opportunities beyond just raising revenue.

Opportunities and challenges

The move to a distance-based scheme could discourage some people from selecting more fuel-efficient vehicles because a road-use system does not encourage that. This could lead to increased greenhouse gas and other emissions.

However, rather than using a uniform road-user charge based solely on vehicle weight and distance travelled, rates could vary based on a range of criteria, including emissions, and pay for other traffic-related costs to society and the environment.

For instance, around 300 people die each year in road crashes, and thousands more are injured. This costs NZ$9-10 billion annually. To help pay, New Zealand could collect higher road-user charge rates for vehicles more likely to cause crashes, based on safety ratings.

Traffic-related air pollution causes more than 2,000 deaths per year, costing New Zealand around $10 billion. Road-user charges could be used to pay for this by charging a higher rate for vehicles that emit more pollution.

The same could be done for noise pollution. And if the electronic road-user charge device is GPS-enabled, vehicles travelling near the most vulnerable citizens – such as near schools during pick-up and drop-off – could be charged more.

This may deter some people from dropping children off right outside the school gate, which in turn could have the added benefit of making walking and cycling feel safer due to less traffic, attracting more people to use active transport and helping create neighbourhood greenways.

But why stop there? New Zealand could use electronic road-user charges to encourage all sorts of other behaviours. For example, lower rates might encourage vehicles to use highways and main roads instead of cutting through quiet residential streets.

Road-user charges could be used to set a congestion price, manage on- and off-street parking and monitor speed limits without the need for any additional technology, saving on setting up separate congestion and parking pricing schemes and speed cameras.

Some will argue this is an invasion of privacy. But as Minister of Transport Chris Bishop indicated, the privacy commissioner will oversee it.

If New Zealand becomes the first country to charge all vehicles for the use of roads, this an opportunity to lead in innovation.

Simon Kingham received funding from MBIE for a study on shared transport.
Simon Kingham was seconded as Chief Science Advisor to the NZ Ministry of Transport from 2018 to 2024.

– ref. Road-user charges can pay for more than just road maintenance – NZ could lead the way – https://theconversation.com/road-user-charges-can-pay-for-more-than-just-road-maintenance-nz-could-lead-the-way-262946

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Howard Manns, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Monash University

In Australia, we can often tell what state someone is from based on the words they use: whether they go to the beach in “togs”, “bathers” or “swimmers” or if they prefer to eat a “potato cake”, “potato scallop” or “potato fritter”.

But compared to places such as the United States and United Kingdom, it can be harder to hear regional accent differences.

The relative uniformity of the Australian accent can be traced to our early European history, our youth as a nation and the slow pace of language change.

But Australian regional accents are there if you listen closely enough – and they are getting stronger.

Birth of the ‘uniform’ Aussie accent

In the UK, George Bernard Shaw once wrote:

It’s impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making another Englishman hate or despise him.

Some 1500 years of history will do that.

In the US, “American English” dates to 16th/early 17th centuries, so settlement, history and depth of time have led to American regional variation.

For example, in the US South, a word like “time” might be said like “tom” or “tam”, a word like “bait” might sound like “bite” and a word like “sit” might be heard as “see it”.

In Australia, English only permanently arrived with the First Fleet in 1788, and observers began to comment on the uniformity of English from its early days. A visiting ship’s captain, James Dixon, wrote in 1822:

The children born in those colonies, now grown up, speak a better language, purer, more harmonious than is generally the case in most parts of England.

This didn’t mean Australian English was good. It just wasn’t “tainted” with regional accents.

The formation of new accents and languages often comes down to kids accommodating to one another (trying to sound like one another). But in the early days, these colonial kids had no Australian accent to accommodate to.

A linguistic melting pot

Early English-speaking Australians used a melting pot of features from London, Ireland, Scotland, the West Country and East Anglia (among other places).

We see this in Sydney court records such as this one, featuring an Irish woman, Margaret O’Brien:

On Monday night quoth, Mrs O’Brien, my blessed husband went to Saint Pathrick’ a’cos ‘tis a taytotaler he is […] I axked her in purlistest terms the raison of her wiolence… Hevings forgive you, Mary Han, for telling sich a whopper; yer an hinnercent girl Mary Han.

O’Brien uses some Irish features like “raison” for “reason” and “sich” for “such”. But she also uses “Cockney” features like “wiolence” for “violence” and “hinnercent” for “innocent”.

Linguists describe this as a “feature pool”. Over time, some features rise to the top of the pool whereas others sink into obscurity.

The survivors became “Australian English”.

Survival in the tumultuous feature pool is often a mix of “majority rules” and “prestige”.

Cockneys were neither a majority nor prestigious in Australia, so it is little wonder pronunciations like “wiolence” and “hinnercent” faded away.

Australia had many Irish settlers but their English wasn’t prestigious either. That said, there is some evidence of Irish influence – as in the way some Aussies say words like “haitch” and “filum” (for “film”).

Majority didn’t always rule when it came to deciding which features survived.

Once formed, the Australian accent stayed uniform for longer than you might expect.

This is because early European Australia had a highly mobile population: they often stuck close to the coast and travelled from port to port. When they travelled inland, they often did it together and in mixed company.

Australian English also stayed uniform longer because more than a few Aussies continued to look to Britain for their accent cues – some until the 1980s.

Early differences in Australian English were largely associated with social groups or whether one favoured British-like pronunciations or Australian-like pronunciations.

Before regional variation can flourish, English speakers must settle into stable and self-confident use of the local variety. To these ends, Australians have finally arrived.

Australian regional accents

The seeds for regional variation in Australia were planted early on. Yet, as in any garden, it can take a while for them to bloom: a language needs time, patience and the right social conditions.

South Australia was settled later than other colonies and by free settlers, who used newer pronunciations from the British homeland.

South Australians are apt to pronounce words like “castle”, “dance” and “chance” with a longer “ah” sound (as most English speakers pronounce “palm”).

In contrast, in Tasmania, these words are more apt to be pronounced with a shorter, flatter “a” sound (as most English speakers pronounce “trap”) – the older pronunciation.

In other parts of Australia, it is more complicated.

People in Brisbane and Sydney tend to follow the Tasmanian pattern. In Melbourne, a majority seem to follow the shorter, flatter “trap” pronunciation. However, Melburnians may also use, or shift into the “palm” pronunciation in more formal situations.

Beyond these early seeds, Australians are starting to cultivate homegrown innovations. Linguists working with sophisticated technologies have started to note subtle regional differences.

For instance, you may notice Victorians have begun to say the words “salary” and “celery” the same way. This vowel “merger” means many an “Ali” has received a coffee cup with “Eli” written on it in “Malbourne”.

Regional accents start as a wispy whisper. Put your ear to the wind and you just may hear them. But for a regional accent to truly flourish, you need a firm national identity, regional rivalries and a heavy dollop of time.

Keep your ears peeled.

Felicity Cox receives funding from The Australian Research Council.

Howard Manns 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. Quiz: can you pick a Victorian from a Queenslander? How our accents change from state to state – https://theconversation.com/quiz-can-you-pick-a-victorian-from-a-queenslander-how-our-accents-change-from-state-to-state-250908

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rhys Thomas White, Scientist in Genomics and Bioinformatics, New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science

After a routine C-section at an Auckland hospital, a mother developed severe pain and what seemed like postnatal fatigue. It turned out to be an infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a “superbug” spreading across New Zealand and beyond.

Her story isn’t unique. In Dunedin, another mother was diagnosed with MRSA and internal bleeding postpartum.

These are personal stories, but they are also early warning signals of a broader health security challenge.

Methicillin is an antibiotic from the penicillin family, and MRSA is resistant to it (and often to other types of antibiotics). This makes infections harder to treat.

Once considered mainly a hospital problem, methicillin-resistant infections are now common in the community.

An MRSA strain that emerged in New Zealand (named AK3) is now the dominant strain in our communities. The country’s antibiotic-dispensing habits may have helped it emerge and spread.

A New Zealand-born strain with global reach

AK3 was first detected in 2005. Today, it is the leading cause of MRSA infections in New Zealand and, as our new study shows, has also been detected in the South Pacific and Europe.

Using whole-genome sequencing, we traced the journey of AK3 from a drug-susceptible ancestor to a highly resistant clone. Along the way, AK3 acquired key resistance genes, including those conferring resistance to methicillin and fusidic acid, a topical antibiotic once prescribed at historically high rates in New Zealand.

Dispensing of topical fusidic acid has declined since 2016. But once resistance becomes common, it can be difficult to reduce or revert to a susceptible form. This is why it is so important to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics by using them carefully and only when needed (a practice known as antimicrobial stewardship), and to monitor resistance trends using genomic surveillance.

How a common prescription helped a superbug thrive

In New Zealand, fusidic acid was once widely prescribed in the community to treat skin infections, often without a confirmed diagnosis. This widespread use created ideal conditions for fusidic acid resistance to develop.

The emergence of AK3 demonstrates how antibiotics, when overused at a national scale, can drive the evolution of globally significant resistance. Our genomic study has improved our understanding of how AK3 evolved and became dominant in New Zealand.

Our analyses and public health data show that AK3 does not affect all groups equally. Compared with people of European ethnicity, Māori are three times more likely, and Pacific peoples nearly five times more likely, to suffer from skin infections caused by S. aureus.

Socio-economic factors amplify the risk: those in the most deprived areas are nearly four times more likely to be hospitalised with skin infections.

The burden of skin infections and overuse of fusidic acid created the conditions for AK3 to emerge, adapt and spread. For people with AK3 and other resistant superbugs, it is critical to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics. Fusidic acid still has a role in treatment, but the goal is to strike the right balance between under- and over-prescribing.

Addressing this requires improved access to timely, appropriate care and treatment in the communities most affected. This is a reminder that even the most advanced technologies cannot, on their own, overcome structural barriers. If we are serious about the threat antimicrobial resistance poses, we must confront these inequities head-on.

What next?

Recently, we detected AK3 in a sample of raw milk collected directly from a cow with mastitis during veterinary testing – well before any processing, and not from milk intended for people to drink. Resistance genes can cross human, animal and environmental boundaries and this demands a “One Health” approach, integrating surveillance with coordinated policy and action across all domains.

Surveillance is the continuous and systematic collection of data to inform public health action, typically drawing from multiple sources, including laboratory results, epidemiological information and genomic analysis.

The rise of AK3 underscores the need for a proactive, integrated antimicrobial resistance strategy across science, policy, veterinary and public health. Genomics is a key strategic priority, supporting an evidence-based approach to current and emerging diseases.

The case of AK3 brings these priorities into sharp focus and shows why coordinated action is essential to stay ahead of emerging threats.

To protect New Zealand’s health security and economy, we must support appropriate antimicrobial use. The right antibiotic should be used at the right time and in the right dose, guided by local data on microbial resistance and supported by accessible diagnostics.

We must also expand antimicrobial resistance surveillance and strengthen monitoring across human, animal and environmental health, with genomic analysis as a core component so that threats can be detected and transmission disrupted earlier.

The stories of two mothers whose MRSA infections complicated childbirth are more than case studies. They are calls to action and AK3 is our test. It challenges us to move from reactive treatment to proactive prevention.

New Zealand has the tools, talent, technology and networks to lead in antimicrobial surveillance and response. But we must act decisively. Not just to contain AK3, but to prevent the next superbug from emerging.

Let’s treat antibiotics like the critical infrastructure they are, recognising that the pipeline for new antibiotics is very narrow. We must make sure antibiotics will still work when we need them most.

We acknowledge the contributions by Max Bloomfield and the teams at Awanui Labs, Emma Voss and team at Livestock Improvement Corporation and all collaborators, including from New Zealand’s diagnostic labs, Health New Zealand, Ministry of Health, Anexa Veterinary Services, University of Auckland, and University of Otago.

Rhys White received a travel bursary from Oxford Nanopore Technologies and a travel grant from the UK Microbiology Society. This study was supported by internal departmental funds at Awanui Laboratories Wellington, the New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science (PHF Science), and Genomics Aotearoa.

Kristin Dyet receives funding from the New Zealand Public Health Agency.

Maria Hepi receives funding from Te Niwha Infectious Disease Platform

Nigel French receives funding from the NZ Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, the Health Research Council and Te Niwha.

Juliet Elvy and Sarah Bakker 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. Antibiotic use likely fuelled the rise of a ‘superbug’ in NZ – genomics offers a defence against the next threat – https://theconversation.com/antibiotic-use-likely-fuelled-the-rise-of-a-superbug-in-nz-genomics-offers-a-defence-against-the-next-threat-262316

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie M. Topp, Professor, Global Health and Development, James Cook University

Australia’s health workforce is under pressure. Wait times are growing. Burnout is rising. Yet the country is awash in policy – just not the kind that solves these problems at the root.

This can explain why you’re struggling to see a GP, can’t find a dentist, or struggling to coordinate care between a mental health professional and aged-care nurse.

These issues aren’t isolated problems. As we outline in research published in the Medical Journal of Australia, they reflect a deeper issue in how Australia plans and governs its health workforce.

Despite long-standing concern about shortages of health workers in both rural and urban areas, there’s no overarching national strategy for health workforce planning in Australia.

That’s the type of long-term strategy that helps a country make sure it has enough trained health workers in the right places to meet people’s health needs, now and in the future. Instead, there is fragmentation.

When we reviewed all 121 current federal health workforce policy documents, we found a patchwork of policies for specific professions (for example, doctors, nurses and midwives) that were often short term. These rely heavily on grants and programs rather than long-term strategies and operate in parallel rather than in concert.

They also don’t seem to pay attention to key professions – especially pharmacy, public health and emergency care.

So with more than 850,000 registered health professionals, there are still not enough to meet demand, particularly in regional and remote areas. This is also the case in sectors with rising demand, such as aged care, mental health and rehabilitation.

What should we do?

More than a decade of reports have recommended improvements to national health workforce governance or strategy. Our study shows why those recommendations still matter.

In 2025, the challenge isn’t just to add more staff – it is to coordinate the system and the policy better, and plan for a future where health care is sustainable, equitable, and fit for purpose.

Australia once had a national body to guide health workforce planning – Health Workforce Australia. It was established in 2009 but disbanded in 2014 (ironically) as part of a government efficiency drive.

Since then, the responsibility for workforce planning has been split across multiple government departments, statutory authorities, and state and territories.

For instance, five states have their own individual ten-year health workforce strategic plans.

Some professions have their own national strategies. There’s a national medical workforce strategy, a nurse practitioner workforce plan and a mental health workforce strategy. Others are still being developed, such as the allied health workforce strategy, which would cover health workers such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and podiatrists.

But there’s no effective mechanism to ensure these strategies work together coherently – or to ensure important professions or service areas aren’t left behind.

More programs, fewer solutions

Of the 121 federal policies we analysed, 81% were time-limited grants, programs or sub-programs. These types of policies are typically designed to respond quickly to a specific gap – such as with scholarships, rural relocation bonuses, or individual professional development. But they’re not necessarily designed to create sustained change.

We found 23 policies that could set longer-term direction. But it was not clear how these relate to each other. Few documents cross-referenced one another or reflected on the way solutions in one would impact on the solutions in another.

Most federal documents focus on workforce supply – such as training or recruitment. Fewer tackle the arguably harder, but equally important, issues.

These include how to improve workforce performance, such as by addressing skills mismatch or under-use (where individuals are not able to use their qualifications or skills as part of their job), or how to better distribute staff across regions.

So what needs to change?

In Australia, the federal government funds most of primary care, aged care and Indigenous health. But states and territories employ most health workers. So governance is decentralised.

Private providers, Primary Health Networks (federal government-funded organisations that support services to meet local health needs) and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled services (which provide primary health care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) add further complexity to the health workforce landscape.

So without national coordination, workforce policy and planning risks being reactive, inconsistent, and susceptible to political cycles. This risks focusing on what’s most visible, and apparently urgent, rather than what’s systemic and enduring.

Here’s what needs to change:

• Australia needs to re-establish a national body for health workforce planning, similar to the former Health Workforce Australia. A recent independent review agrees the current meeting of health ministers is not an effective way to govern health workers. Without a national hub, the current patchwork approach will continue

• policymakers must shift from profession-specific and short-term responses to a system-wide approach. This means recognising how different parts of the health workforce interact as part of a broader labour market, and how policies for doctors, nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals need to work together, especially in rural and remote care

• we need fewer ad hoc grants that turn over with each new federal government. Instead, we need greater emphasis on durable strategies and agreements that can guide action over time, while allowing states and territories to adapt them if needed. These should be backed by clear data, and be evaluated and accountable.

Stephanie M. Topp receives funding from the NHMRC via an Investigator Grant GNT23034261.

Lana Elliott and Thu Nguyen 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. Australia has 120 health workforce policies. But with no national plan, we’re missing the big picture – https://theconversation.com/australia-has-120-health-workforce-policies-but-with-no-national-plan-were-missing-the-big-picture-256874

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Spies-Butcher, Associate professor, Macquarie University

It’s the defining technology of an era. But just how artificial intelligence (AI) will end up shaping our future remains a controversial question.

For techno-optimists, who see the technology improving our lives, it heralds a future of material abundance.

That outcome is far from guaranteed. But even if AI’s technical promise is realised – and with it, once intractable problems are solved – how will that abundance be used?

We can already see this tension on a smaller scale in Australia’s food economy. According to the Australian government, we collectively waste around 7.6 million tonnes of food a year. That’s about 312 kilograms per person.

At the same time, as many as one in eight Australians are food-insecure, mostly because they do not have enough money to pay for the food they need.

What does that say about our ability to fairly distribute the promised abundance from the AI revolution?

AI could break our economic model

As economist Lionel Robbins articulated when he was establishing the foundations of modern market economics, economics is the study of a relationship between ends (what we want) and scarce means (what we have) which have alternative uses.

Markets are understood to work by rationing scarce resources towards endless wants. Scarcity affects prices – what people are willing to pay for goods and services. And the need to pay for life’s necessities requires (most of) us to work to earn money and produce more goods and services.

This article is part of The Conversation’s series on jobs in the age of AI. Leading experts examine what AI means for workers at different career stages, how AI is reshaping our economy – and what you can do to prepare.

The promise of AI bringing abundance and solving complex medical, engineering and social problems sits uncomfortably against this market logic.

It is also directly connected to concerns that technology will make millions of workers redundant. And without paid work, how do people earn money or markets function?

Meeting our wants and needs

It is not only technology, though, that causes unemployment. A relatively unique feature of market economies is their ability to produce mass want, through unemployment or low wages, amid apparent plenty.

As economist John Maynard Keynes revealed, recessions and depressions can be the result of the market system itself, leaving many in poverty even as raw materials, factories and workers lay idle.

In Australia, our most recent experience of economic downturn wasn’t caused by a market failure. It stemmed from the public health crisis of the pandemic. Yet it still revealed a potential solution to the economic challenge of technology-fuelled abundance.

Changes to government benefits – to increase payments, remove activity tests and ease means-testing – radically reduced poverty and food insecurity, even as the productive capacity of the economy declined.

Similar policies were enacted globally, with cash payments introduced in more than 200 countries. This experience of the pandemic reinforced growing calls to combine technological advances with a “universal basic income”.

This is a research focus of the Australian Basic Income Lab, a collaboration between Macquarie University, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University.

If everyone had a guaranteed income high enough to cover necessities, then market economies might be able to manage the transition, and the promises of technology might be broadly shared.

Welfare, or rightful share?

When we talk about universal basic income, we have to be clear about what we mean. Some versions of the idea would still leave huge wealth inequalities.

My Australian Basic Income Lab colleague, Elise Klein, along with Stanford Professor James Ferguson, have called instead for a universal basic income designed not as welfare, but as a “rightful share”.

They argue the wealth created through technological advances and social cooperation is the collective work of humanity and should be enjoyed equally by all, as a basic human right. Just as we think of a country’s natural resources as the collective property of its people.

These debates over universal basic income are much older than the current questions raised by AI. A similar upsurge of interest in the concept occurred in early 20th-century Britain, when industrialisation and automation boosted growth without abolishing poverty, instead threatening jobs.

Even earlier, Luddites sought to smash new machines used to drive down wages. Market competition might produce incentives to innovate, but it also spreads the risks and rewards of technological change very unevenly.

Universal basic services

Rather than resisting AI, another solution is to change the social and economic system that distributes its gains. UK author Aaron Bastani offers a radical vision of “fully automated luxury communism”.

He welcomes technological advances, believing this should allow more leisure alongside rising living standards. It is a radical version of the more modest ambitions outlined by the Labor government’s new favourite book – Abundance.

Bastani’s preferred solution is not a universal basic income. Rather, he favours universal basic services.

Instead of giving people money to buy what they need, why not provide necessities directly – as free health, care, transport, education, energy and so on?

Of course, this would mean changing how AI and other technologies are applied – effectively socialising their use to ensure they meet collective needs.

No guarantee of utopia

Proposals for universal basic income or services highlight that, even on optimistic readings, by itself AI is unlikely to bring about utopia.

Instead, as Peter Frase outlines, the combination of technological advance and ecological collapse can create very different futures, not only in how much we collectively can produce, but in how we politically determine who gets what and on what terms.

The enormous power of tech companies run by billionaires may suggest something closer to what former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis calls “technofeudalism”, where control of technology and online platforms replaces markets and democracy with a new authoritarianism.

Waiting for a technological “nirvana” misses the real possibilities of today. We already have enough food for everyone. We already know how to end poverty. We don’t need AI to tell us.

Ben Spies-Butcher is co-director of the Australian Basic Income Lab, a research collaboration between Macquarie University, University of Sydney and Australian National University.

– ref. If AI takes most of our jobs, money as we know it will be over. What then? – https://theconversation.com/if-ai-takes-most-of-our-jobs-money-as-we-know-it-will-be-over-what-then-262338

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Oscar, Senior Lecturer, Visual Communication, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney

The power of the war photograph is that it won’t let you look away. And nowhere is this proving truer than in Gaza.

One recent example portrayed a skeletal boy, Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, held in his mother’s arms. Palestinian photographer Ahmed al-Arini captured the boy and his mother in the iconic pose of the Madonna and child.

Photographs coming out of Gaza since October 2023 have communicated the severity of the destruction: collapsed buildings, bodies in shrouds, dead and maimed children, and bombed-out hospitals and shelters. There have also been viral AI-generated images, such as All Eyes on Rafah.

But none of these galvanised the public as much as the photographic evidence of Israel’s systemic starvation of Gazans. These photos were ubiquitous among the tens of thousands who marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on August 3.

Between April and July, more than 20,000 people in Gaza were hospitalised for malnutrition, including 3,000 children in life-threatening condition.

The photo of Muhammad is a visual condensation of collective suffering that is impossible to ignore or deny. This is what makes it so powerful.

Drawing from religious imagery

War photography is often impactful because it communicates the brutalities of war with visual mastery.

Photographic elements such as composition, timing, tone, colour and light combine to create a visual story that is full of intent.

This is what American photographer and curator John Szarkowski called “the photographer’s eye”, and what French photographer Henri Cartier Bresson coined as “the decisive moment”. It is to know where to point the camera, when to release the shutter and how to select the “right” image to release into the world.

An iconic war photograph often reproduces a pose or gesture that is familiar to the popular imagination – particularly through iconic religious imagery. Think of the horrifying photos that came out of Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraq War, where one tortured prisoner was photographed in the pose of Christ on the cross.

This was equally true of the 1972 image of Phan Thi Kim Phúc, the naked girl fleeing napalm in Vietnam with her arms outstretched.

Such photographs can change the course of war. They often shape how wars are remembered, even when there is controversy around their truthfulness and authorship, as we have seen with the contested image of Kim Phúc.

Truthfulness and authorship

Historically, there have been many controversies over the staging of war photographs. Robert Capa’s Falling Soldier (Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936) is one of the most famous and yet disputed images in the history of war photography.

It purports to show a soldier shot dead mid-fall during the Spanish Civil War. But historians suggest the man might have been posing, not dying.

Whether it is real or staged remains unresolved. Still, it circulates as though it is true – reminding us that the myths of war are just as important as the facts when it comes to how war is remembered.

Photos are limited by their inability to convey sound, smell, or any broader context. A staged photo might, at times, be even more effective than an unstaged one in conveying the lived experience of a war – even if the ethics of the staging are dubious.

The weaponisation of war imagery

Photos and video from Gaza continue to circulate on social media, despite Israel barring foreign journalists from entering Gaza.

Israeli authorities have killed Palestinian journalists in record numbers. Yet this visual censorship has not stopped citizen journalists and organisations such as Activestills
from sharing the atrocities in Gaza.

In Gaza, control over imagery has become part of the conflict. Al Jazeera was banned from operating inside Israel. Social media platform Meta has been found silencing posts from Palestinian accounts, with graphic images increasingly being labelled with warnings such as “sensitive content”.

What does it mean to be advised to look away from something someone else is living?

Read more:
Social media platforms are complicit in censoring Palestinian voices

As we know from the second world war, images are powerful evidence. The photographs of starved concentration camp survivors during the Holocaust were used to prosecute Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials.

But the meaning of war photographs also depends on timing, context, who controls what is shown, and where the photos are distributed.

While these photos can communicate the horrors of a conflict, they are also entangled in acts of violence. In Abu Ghraib, American soldiers used photography to turn their war crimes into visual souvenirs. Similarly, Al Jazeera is collecting such “trophies” shared by Israeli soldiers as evidence of their war crimes.

Eliciting grief

American gender studies scholar Judith Butler argues Western media weaponise images to construct a hierarchy of grief that determines whose life is publicly mourned.

Publishing a war photograph is not just an act of documentation – it’s an act of interpretation. It shapes what others think is happening. In their book Picturing Atrocity (2012), Nancy Miller and colleagues ask us how we can witness suffering without turning it into spectacle.

The book raises important ethical questions. Who owns an image of someone suffering? What if the person photographed has died? What if the image perpetuates violence that hurts those closest to it?

A war photograph does not stop a missile. It does not feed a starving child. But it can interrupt denial and silence.

It can insist that something happened – and reinforce, as many of the placards on the Harbour Bridge said, “you cannot say you didn’t know”.

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

– ref. Images from Gaza have shocked the world – but the ‘spectacle of suffering’ is a double-edged sword – https://theconversation.com/images-from-gaza-have-shocked-the-world-but-the-spectacle-of-suffering-is-a-double-edged-sword-262693

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Smith, Senior Lecturer of Wellbeing Science, The University of Melbourne

One student was routinely punished for her “ADHD behaviours” at school, another was locked in a classroom, while another was sent home 85 times in a single year.

These are just some of the responses we had in a new survey of parents and caregivers about their disabled children’s experiences in Australian schools.

We also heard from students who described “being picked last for everything”, teasing and physical pushing as well as students and staff saying they were “faking” their disability.

In two reports released today for advocacy group, Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA), we reveal alarming rates of bullying and exclusion in Australian schools.

Tracking the lived experiences of students with disability

Since 2010, CYDA has done formal surveys of students with disability and their parents. National data on bullying is not comprehensively collected, making these results both rare and significant.

We conducted the two latest national reports on behalf of CYDA. This new round of surveys repeats the last survey done in 2022, so we can track trends.

The parent survey was conducted from December 2024 to February 2025, with 253 respondents, tracking issues such as bullying, inclusion, restrictive practices and complaints.

The student survey was collected in parallel, hearing directly from 118 primary and high school students with disability about safety, belonging, friendships, and participation in their time at school. Students attended a mix of mainstream, distance schools and special schools.

Both surveys combined quantitative data with free-text responses to show not just how many students are affected, but how deeply bullying and exclusion impact their lives.

A bullying crisis

The results from parents and caregivers paint a troubling picture: 60% reported their child had been bullied at school, representing a 10% increase from 2022.

Estimates of bullying in the general school population vary but are not as high as we found for students with disability. For example, according to federal governments estimates, one in four students say they have been bullied in person.

Bullying in our survey included verbal, physical, social and cyberbullying, with many reports of staff as perpetrators. Some students were “bullied to the point that [they] also now bully,” showing the cyclical harm caused by unaddressed victimisation.

One parent described how

several teachers were clearly antagonistic to my son and didn’t believe in ADHD […] Essentially gave the impression they thought we were just pandering to him and he was ‘playing’ us.

The accounts from young people are equally concerning. Of those surveyed, 39% said they do not feel welcome or included at school. Many described being singled out, left out of group activities, and targeted by peers with little or no intervention by staff.

As one young person told us:

Most of my peers they don’t have basic and correct knowledge about hidden disabilities. They see me as weird, so they refuse me to join for the group work.

Being excluded from camps, excursions and class

The bullying documented in these reports cannot be separated from broader patterns of exclusion, restrictive practices, and low expectations.

More than half (57%) of parents reported their child was excluded from school activities such as excursions or camps. As one child explained in the youth survey:

The school was too scared to let me go on a trip because they
did not believe that I was capable enough to participate, even with my own and doctor’s reassurances.

Almost 30% of parents reported the use of restrictive practices by staff, up from 25% in 2022. Restrictive practices use force to limit a student’s ability to move, such as strapping someone to a chair, holding someone down or locking someone’s wheelchair.

Meanwhile, 25% reported seclusion, such as being locked in a room on their own or put in offices on their own. This figure is up from 19% in 2022. Some students reported dedicated wellbeing and low sensory spaces were repurposed as spaces for such punishment.

This signals ongoing problems that were highlighted by the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability in 2023.

Respondents also linked bullying to students experiencing mental health crises, disengagement from learning and school refusal. The link between bullying and later mental health disorders is well established in research.

As one young person told us:

Some teachers would make me feel really stupid and I left as I
didn’t need an HSC [Year 12 certificate] for the career I’m pursuing.

How the bullying rapid review can help

Our findings come as the federal government conducts a rapid review into school bullying, making this research a crucial evidence base for reform.

The reports show how bullying of students with disability is not an isolated problem but is entrenched in a wider pattern of systemic discrimination.

This has several lessons for the rapid review:

• schools need targeted anti-bullying strategies that specifically include students with disability, not just generic approaches that may overlook their abilities and capabilities

• staff training must focus on recognising and responding to bullying of students with disability, including addressing situations where staff themselves are the perpetrators

• schools need to respect and value difference, rather than stigmatise it. This is fundamental to lasting change

• schools need accountability measures to ensure bullying complaints are addressed transparently and safely.

Every student should be able to learn

Beyond bullying, both reports show how for many students with disability, educational experiences are stagnant or worsening. High rates of exclusion, inadequate teacher training, and unsafe complaints processes point to a system in urgent need of reform.

Every student with disability deserves to be safe, welcome, and able to learn alongside their peers. The data is clear, the stories are heartbreaking, and the need for action has never been more urgent.

Catherine Smith has previously received research funding from Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA).

Helen Dickinson receives funding from Australian Research Council, National Health and Medical Research Council, Medical Futures Fund and Australian governments.

– ref. ‘Several teachers didn’t believe in ADHD’: families speak about how students with disability are bullied and excluded – https://theconversation.com/several-teachers-didnt-believe-in-adhd-families-speak-about-how-students-with-disability-are-bullied-and-excluded-263052