The most important cryptocurrency event in years is about to begin – and the biggest windfall goes to the planet

September 5, 2022

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

Amid the continuous noise about cryptocurrencies, it’s often hard to pick out what really matters. However this month, if all goes to plan, the energy-hungry digital sector will undergo its biggest shake-up in years.

Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency, is tomorrow expected to start a technology changeover which, once complete, should cause its carbon emissions to plummet by 99%.

The rapid growth in cryptocurrencies in recent years has been staggering. Unfortunately, so too has been their contribution to climate change, due to the enormous amount of electricity used by computers that manage the buying and selling of crypto coins.

Take, for example, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. At a time when the world is desperately trying to reduce energy consumption, Bitcoin uses more energy each year than medium-sized nations such as Argentina. If the Ethereum switch succeeds, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be under immense pressure to deal with this problem.

woman in mask walks past Bitcoin display — The Ethereum move puts pressure on Bitcoin and others to follow suit.
Kin Cheung/AAP

Why are cryptocurrencies so polluting?

Cryptocurrencies are digital currency systems in which people make direct online payments to each other.

Unlike traditional currencies, cryptocurrencies are not managed from a single location such as a central bank. Instead, they’re managed by a “blockchain”: a decentralised global network of high-powered computers. These computers are known as “miners”.

The Reserve Bank of Australia provides this simple explanation of how it all works (edited for brevity):

Suppose Alice wants to transfer one unit of cryptocurrency to Bob. Alice starts the transaction by sending an electronic message with her instructions to the network, where all users can see the message.

The transaction sits with a group of other recent transactions waiting to be compiled into a block (or group) of the most recent transactions. The information from the block is turned into a cryptographic code and miners compete to solve the code to add the new block of transactions to the blockchain.

Once a miner successfully solves the code, other users of the network check the solution and reach an agreement that it’s valid. The new block of transactions is added to the end of the blockchain, and Alice’s transaction is confirmed.

This process, used by most cryptocurrencies, is termed “proof-of-work mining”. The central design feature is the use of calculations which require a lot of computer time – and huge amounts of electricity – to perform.

Bitcoin alone consumes around 150 terawatt-hours of electricity each year. Producing that energy emits some 65 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually — about the same emissions as Greece.

Research suggests Bitcoin last year produced emissions responsible for around 19,000 future deaths.

The proof-of-work approach intentionally wastes energy. The data in a blockchain has no inherent meaning. Its sole purpose is to record difficult, but pointless, calculations which provide a basis for allocating new crypto coins.

Cryptocurrency advocates have given a variety of excuses for the monstrous energy consumption, but none stand up to scrutiny.

Some, for example, seek to justify cryptocurrency’s carbon footprint by saying some miners use renewable energy. That may be true, but in doing so they can displace other potential energy users – some of whom will have to use coal- or gas-fired power.

But now, the most successful of Bitcoin’s rivals, Ethereum, is changing tack. This month it promises to switch its computing technology to something far less polluting.

sun sets behind power plant emitting steam — The Ethereum switch will lead to a radical drop in electricity use.
Michael Probst/AP

What the switch is about

Ethereum’s project involves ditching the “proof of work” model for a new one called “proof of stake”.

Under this model, crypto transactions are validated by users, who stake substantial quantities of blockchain tokens (in this case, Ethereum coins) as collateral. If the users act dishonestly, they lose their stake.

Importantly, it will mean the vast network of supercomputers currently used to check transactions will no longer be required, because users themselves are doing the checking – a relatively easy task. Doing away with the computer “miners” will lead to an estimated 99% drop in Ethereum’s electricity use.

Some smaller cryptocurrencies – such as the Ada coin traded on the Cardano platform – use “proof of stake” but it’s been confined to the margins to date.

For the past year, Ethereum has been running the new model on experimental blockchains. But this month, the model will be merged into the main platform.

green-lit computers in darkened room with person tinkering — The new Ethereum model would dispense with the need for a global network of energy-sucking computers.
Lui Xingzhe/EPA

Nowhere for cryptocurrency to hide

So what does all this mean? The Ethereum experiment could fail – if, say, some stakeholders find ways to manipulate the system. But if the switch does succeed, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be under pressure to abandon the proof-of-work model, or else shut down.

This pressure has already begun. Tesla founder Elon Musk’s last year announced his company would no longer accept Bitcoin payment for its electric cars, due to the currency’s carbon footprint.

The New York state legislature in June passed a bill to ban some Bitcoin operations that use carbon-based power. (However, the decision requires sign off from New York’s governor and may be vetoed).

And in March this year, the European parliament voted on a proposal to ban the proof-of-work model. The proposal was defeated. But as Europe heads into the cooler months, and grapples with an energy crisis triggered by sanctions on Russian gas supplies, energy-guzzling cryptocurrencies will remain in the firing line.

One thing is clear: as the need to slash global emissions becomes ever more pressing, cryptocurrencies will run out of excuses for their egregious energy use.

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

– ref. The most important cryptocurrency event in years is about to begin – and the biggest windfall goes to the planet – https://theconversation.com/the-most-important-cryptocurrency-event-in-years-is-about-to-begin-and-the-biggest-windfall-goes-to-the-planet-189630

Male artists dominate galleries. Our research explored if it’s because ‘women don’t paint very well’ – or just discrimination

By The Conversation -

September 5, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hoffmann, Professor of Economics, RMIT University

One of these vases was painted by a woman; the other by a man. Can you guess which is which? B van der Ast/M van Oosterwijck

In the art world, there is a gaping gender imbalance when it comes to male and female artists.

In the National Gallery of Australia, only 25% of the Australian art collection is work by women.

This is far better than the international standard where roughly 90% of all artworks exhibited in major collections are by men. The most expensive painting by a female artist – Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 – does not even rank among the 100 most expensive paintings ever sold.

Why is women’s art valued so much less than art by men?

Could you guess the gender of these artists?
C Peeters/O Beert

Some economists have suggested the greater burden of child rearing and other domestic duties means women have had fewer opportunities to succeed in the art world.

Others have blamed the “quality” of women’s art. In 2013, German painter Georg Baselitz said “Women don’t paint very well. It’s a fact. The market doesn’t lie.”

We wanted to know: is work by women generally valued differently to work by men because of it is a lower artistic quality, or is it just discrimination?

Which painting do you like better?

In our new research we showed average Americans pairs of paintings, painted between 1625 and 1979, side by side. Each of the pairs are similar in style, motif and period, but one work was by a male artist and the other by a female artist.

Participants were in two groups. One group saw the artists’ names and the other didn’t. We wanted to see whether more people among those who saw artist names preferred the male painting.

Two paintings of flowers in a vase. — Which one of these paintings do you think is worth the most?
E Gonzalès/G Caillebotte

If seeing the names – and thereby inferring artist gender – causes more people to prefer male paintings, then there is gender discrimination.

Before we tell you the results, think about what you would have expected. And take a look at our actual painting pairs and see if you can guess which is the male one (hint: you can’t).

We were pleasantly surprised to find our participants did not give a hoot about artist gender. In both groups, 54% preferred the painting from a woman.

We repeated this experiment, this time rewarding participants if they could accurately guess the preferences of others – the people in the first experiment.

Again, 54% of the people in each group picked the female paintings.

54% of participants favoured the work painted by a woman.
LC Breslau/RL Reid

Which painting do you think is worth more?

Next we wanted to find out if people picked male paintings for reasons other than personal taste. Art isn’t just bought and sold on aesthetic value: it is a speculative market, where art is treated as an investment.

We conducted two more experiments. In one, participants were rewarded if they picked the more expensive painting. In the other, they were rewarded to pick the one painted by the more famous artist.

Gender discrimination emerged in both these experiments. When asked to predict the value of and creator fame of paintings, people suddenly swung towards picking male artists. Preference for female paintings fell by 10% and 9% in these two new experiments.

Is art by women less attractive than art by men?
J Leyster/B Assteyn

Gender discrimination in art comes not from personal aesthetic preference – Baselitz’ argument that women “don’t paint very well” – but people thinking paintings are more valuable and famous when painted by male artists.

A question of fame

In our fifth experiment, we again rewarded participants who could correctly guess which painting would be preferred by others. This time everyone saw the names of the artists. But only one group was told which of the two artists was objectively more famous – the male artist in 90% of cases.

The group with that information was 14% more likely to pick male paintings. People used fame information to predict the painting others liked better.

Participants chose work by male artists when asked to select the more famous painting.
LC Perry/WM Chase

If women artists were discriminated against just because of their gender we would have seen a higher premium put on the male artists even in questions of aesthetics.

Here, discrimination only occured when our participants were asked to assign a monetary value to the art works, or when they were given information about the level of fame of the painter.

This means our art appreciators discriminated not on gender, but on something closely associated with gender: fame.

And because male artists have, historically, been given more opportunities to become artists – and therefore become famous – artwork by men is perceived as having a higher value.

Discrimination in the arts comes from people’s beliefs what others care to discriminate about.
M Cassatt/JS Sargent

Policy is slowly starting to recognise and target institutional factors that perpetuate male dominance because of historical notions of fame, like the National Gallery of Australia’s Know my Name initiative.

Discrimination in the arts exists, but it often comes from people’s beliefs about what others care to discriminate about. The task ahead is to change perceptions of people and institutions who do not discriminate – but merely conform to others’ discrimination.

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. Male artists dominate galleries. Our research explored if it’s because ‘women don’t paint very well’ – or just discrimination – https://theconversation.com/male-artists-dominate-galleries-our-research-explored-if-its-because-women-dont-paint-very-well-or-just-discrimination-189221

The Webb telescope has released its very first exoplanet image – here’s what we can learn from it

By The Conversation -

September 5, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland

NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI)

Did you ever want to see an alien world? A planet orbiting a distant star, light years from the Sun? Well, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has just returned its first-ever picture of just that – a planet orbiting a distant star.

The new images reveal JWST will be a fantastic tool for astronomers aiming to improve their knowledge of exoplanets (planets around other stars) – even better than we had hoped it would be!

But for those who’ve grown up on a diet of Star Trek, Star Wars, and myriad other works of science fiction, the images may be underwhelming. No wonderful swirling clouds, in glorious or muted colours. Instead, we just see a blob – a single point of light.

So why do these observations have astronomers buzzing with excitement? And what might we learn in the months and years to come?

Observing hidden worlds

Over the past three decades, we have lived through a great revolution – the dawn of the Exoplanet Era. Where we once knew of no planets orbiting distant stars, and wondered whether the Solar System was unique, we now know planets are everywhere.

The history of the first 5,000 alien worlds discovered – the dawn of the Exoplanet Era.

At the time of writing, the number of known exoplanets stands at 5,084, and the count grows larger with every week.

But the overwhelming majority of those exoplanets are detected indirectly. They orbit so close to their host stars that, with current technology, we simply cannot see them directly. Instead, we observe their host stars doing something unexpected, and infer from that the presence of their unseen planetary companions.

Of all those alien worlds, only a handful have been seen directly. The poster child for such systems is HR 8799, whose four giant planets have been imaged so frequently that astronomers have produced a movie showing them moving in their orbits around their host star.

The first video of exoplanets orbiting their star. HR 8799 host four super-Jupiters, and it took seven years of imaging data to produce this movie.

Enter HIP 65426b

To gather JWST’s first direct images of an exoplanet, astronomers turned the telescope towards the star HIP 65426, whose massive planetary companion HIP 65426b was discovered using direct imaging back in 2017.

HIP 65426b is unusual in several ways – all of which act to make it a particularly “easy” target for direct imaging. First, it is a long way from its host star, orbiting roughly 92 times farther from HIP 65426 than the distance between Earth and the Sun. That puts it around 14 billion kilometres from its star. From our point of view, this makes for a “reasonable” distance from the star in the sky, making it easier to observe.

Next, HIP 65426b is a behemoth of a world – thought to be several times the mass of the Solar System’s biggest planet, Jupiter. On top of that, it was also previously found to be remarkably hot, with temperature at its cloud tops measuring at least 1,200℃.

This combination of the planet’s size and temperature means it is intrinsically bright (for a planet).

Four images of HIP 65426b, at four different wavelengths of infrared light. — JWST’s first images of an alien world, HIP 65426b, are shown at the bottom of a wider image showing the planet’s host star. The images were taken at different wavelengths of infrared light.
NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI).

How were the images taken, and what do they show us?

Under normal circumstances, the light from HIP 65426 would utterly overwhelm that from HIP 65426b, despite the distance between them.

To get around this problem, JWST carries several “coronagraphs”, instruments that let the telescope block the light from a bright star to look for fainter objects beside it. This is a bit like blocking the headlights of a car with your hand to see whether your friend has climbed out to say hello.

Using these coronagraphs, JWST took a series of images of HIP 65426b, each taken at a different wavelength of infrared light. In each image, the planet can be clearly seen – a single bright pixel offset from the location of its obscured stellar host.

The images are far from your standard science fiction fare. But they show that the planet was easily detected, standing out like a sore thumb against the dark background of space.

The researchers who led the observations (detailed on the preprint server arXiv) found that JWST is performing around ten times better than expected – a result that has astronomers around the globe excited to see what comes next.

Using their observations, they determined the mass of HIP 65426b (roughly seven times that of Jupiter). Beyond that, the data reveal the planet is hotter than previously thought (with cloud tops close to 1,400℃), and somewhat smaller than expected (with a diameter about 92% that of Jupiter).

These images paint a picture of an utterly alien world, different to anything in the Solar System.

A signpost to the future

The observations of HIP 65426b are just the first sign of what JWST can do in imaging planets around other stars.

The incredible precision of the imaging data suggests JWST will be able to obtain direct observations of planets smaller than previously expected. Rather than being limited to planets more massive than Jupiter, it should be able to see planets comparable to, or even smaller than, Saturn.

This is a really exciting. You see, a basic rule of astronomy is that there are lots more small things than big things. The fact JWST should be able to see smaller and fainter planets than expected will greatly increase the number of possible targets available for astronomers to study.

Beyond that, the precision with which JWST carried out these measurements suggests we will be able to learn far more about their atmospheres than expected. Repeated observations with the telescope could even reveal details of how those atmospheres vary with time.

In the coming years, then, expect to see many more images of alien worlds, taken by JWST. While those pictures might not look like those in science fiction, they will still revolutionise our understanding of planets around other stars.

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

– ref. The Webb telescope has released its very first exoplanet image – here’s what we can learn from it – https://theconversation.com/the-webb-telescope-has-released-its-very-first-exoplanet-image-heres-what-we-can-learn-from-it-189876

Planning a renovation or new build? Here’s the outlook for skyrocketing steel and timber prices

By The Conversation -

September 5, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flavio Macau, Associate Dean – School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University

It’s a tough time to build or renovate a house in Australia. Prices are up, well above inflation. Finding materials and getting them on time is a challenge. Builders are grappling with too much work and stress (with some folding as costs rise too fast). Customers are being confronted with eye-watering price quotes.

And as any would-be home builder or renovator knows, the price of timber or steel is crucial.

So what exactly is happening here, and what’s the outlook?

Leer más:
HomeBuilder might be the most-complex least-equitable construction jobs program ever devised

Timber: huge demand, not enough supply

According a 2021 Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) report:

average annual hardwood log availability is forecast to be 1 million cubic metres (9%) lower over 2020-24 than 2015-19 […] softwood sawlog availability is projected to be 10% lower in the period of 2020-24 than was projected in 2015.

The same report shows minimal new plantations were established in recent years.

New plantation establishment–the majority of Australia’s new plantations since 1998-99 have been hardwood species, with minimal new establishment since 2012.
ABARES

In the 2019-20 bushfires, 130,000 hectares of plantation forest were burned. Recent floods didn’t help.

Native forest harvesting is also falling; it will be banned in Western Australia by 2024. Victoria will phase out the industry by 2030.

A timber shortage was expected as early as 2020 but the start of the COVID pandemic – when the housing market momentarily froze – brought some respite, with house construction and timber prices initially going down.

Then came HomeBuilder, which encouraged consumers to proceed with purchases or renovations to reignite the house construction market.

The number of dwelling units commenced shot up by more than 60%, from about 41,000 by September 2019 to 67,000 by June 2021.

The stock of dwellings under construction went from about 180,000 in 2020 to more than 240,000 today.

If you are building many more houses, you need more construction materials. A mild deficit projected for 2020 has now turned into a black hole.

With less timber available, industry sees a deficit of at least 250,000 wooden house frames in the next 15 years. Scarcity is the new normal.

The result is a growth in domestic prices as timber processors struggle to meet contract obligations.

Logs cannot be manufactured. They grow, and this takes about 20 years. The only way to go through current shortages is by importing or replacing timber.

Importing timber isn’t cheap. Australia has very low costs to grow and harvest, less than half of major global exporters. Adding to that, international shipping rates have surged in the past two years.

These act as barriers to imports, which fell considerably in the past decade.

Steel: supply chain woes and war on Ukraine

Steel is the typical replacement for timber. But builders and renovators will not find good news there either. Steel prices also skyrocketed by more than 42% in the year ending March 2022, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Troubled supply chains have reduced supply at a time of unexpectedly high demand, and investment has been scarce in recent years.

When a recovery was on the horizon, war hit shipments of key stock from Ukraine and Russia.

With few players left, home builders in Australia assert they’re at the mercy of a de facto monopoly by BlueScope Steel in the light gauge steel framing market.

Earlier this year, BlueScope customers had to contend with a 38% price increase on steel fabrication products.

A 2021 federal government decision to impose dumping duties of up to 20.9% on steel imports from Korea and Vietnam did not exactly help bring prices down.

In February 2022, BlueScope posted its largest half-year profit ever.

According to its chief executive, Mark Vassella, current trends are here to stay. The company intends to make the most of current market conditions and expand its capacity, with plans to reignite a blast furnace deactivated in 2011.

What happens next?

The price outlook is grim.

Master Builders Queensland chief executive Paul Bidwell reckons material price rises may not yet have peaked.

There is no indication timber prices will go down again, as they did in 2020. As for steel, 2013 was the last time there was a significant price reduction.

The Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS/HIA) recorded in June this year an increase of about 40% in prices for reinforced steel, structural timber and steel beams.

Thanks to the housing construction boom, building projects now face delays, which further drives up construction costs.

Several builders have gone broke. Those under a fixed-price contract who factored low material prices into their quotes are now facing the hard truth of working for little or no profit, or even at a loss.

Will construction prices come down? One can only hope – but it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Leer más:
What’s causing Australia’s egg shortage? A shift to free-range and short winter days

Flavio Macau is affiliated with the Australasian Supply Chain Institute (ASCI)

– ref. Planning a renovation or new build? Here’s the outlook for skyrocketing steel and timber prices – https://theconversation.com/planning-a-renovation-or-new-build-heres-the-outlook-for-skyrocketing-steel-and-timber-prices-189380

NZ’s most walkable towns and cities ranked: see how your neighbourhood stacks up

By The Conversation -

September 5, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tom Logan, Lecturer of Civil Systems Engineering, University of Canterbury

If you live in a city or town, you have a mental map of the places you travel to most. But how accessible are those places, and how long does it take you to get there? Most of all, could you do everything you need to do without a car?

These are the kinds of questions advocates for more liveable urban areas are asking now with greater urgency. Climate change, rising fuel costs and social connectedness are driving the move towards “15-minute cities” – although the actual number of minutes can vary depending on a city’s ambition.

Copenhagen, for instance, is aiming to be a five-minute city, while Melbourne is opting for ten. New Zealand cities are also getting on board, with Christchurch and Wellington wanting to be 15-minute cities, and Hamilton a 20-minute city.

The idea is not that you can get across an entire city in that time, rather that your own neighbourhood has everything you need within reach by foot, bike or public transport. For simplicity, we just call it the “x-minute neighbourhood”.

Our recently published research evaluates all of New Zealand’s urban areas and compares them with the largest 500 cities in the US for residents’ proximity to daily needs. So, how do they currently stack up and what are some of the key challenges?

Everything within easy reach: Copenhagen aims to be a five-minute city.
Getty Images

How we measured accessibility

New Zealand’s emission reduction plan requires a 20% decrease in urban vehicle travel by 2035. This shift towards sustainable transport modes will also require changes to the form of our urban areas.

New transport strategies are beginning to reflect this. But how do cities evaluate urban change, measure the impact of proposed development, or effectively retrofit existing neighbourhoods?

By evaluating New Zealand’s 42 urban areas and the largest 500 US cities, our goal was to propose a consistent and transparent approach for reporting. We also wanted to help cities make the transition to sustainable urban design effectively and efficiently.

We developed a dashboard to show the proximity of neighbourhood blocks (the smallest geographical unit in the New Zealand census) to their nearest amenities. If you live in one of these urban areas you can check out your neighbourhood’s accessibility using our interactive guide.

The dashboard enables councils to understand accessibility (and lack of it) in their towns and the neighbourhoods within them. Our ongoing research aims to identify the locations with the best accessibility, which should help with incentives and guidance for new development.

Mixed messages

So how do New Zealand cities rate? Wellington is the most accessible, with 61% of residents living within 15 minutes’ walk of the amenities we studied. But this pales next to New York (88%) and San Francisco (73%).

Auckland has only 43% of residents within 15 minutes of core amenities. Hamilton (with the goal of becoming a 20-minute city) scored 39%. And Christchurch (with an unofficial target of 15 minutes) also came in at 39%.

Notably, it is access to the supermarket that is most detrimental to a city’s score. Accessible grocery stores are a key part of walkable neighbourhoods, and without them we’ll never achieve transport emission goals.

It’s disappointing, then, that this important factor was overlooked in the Commerce Commission’s review of the supermarket sector. This failure to factor in climate change to industry and competition policy was underscored by the prime ministerial visit to US bulk retailer Costco on its arrival in New Zealand.

This type of car-dependent development is the antithesis of walkable, sustainable neighbourhoods, and of the government’s emissions reduction plan.

Wellington is NZ’s most accessible city: 61% of residents live within 15 minutes’ walk of the amenities we studied.
Getty Images

The benefits of accessible neighbourhoods

The primary motivation for better urban design is to encourage active transport modes and reduce reliance on cars. But the benefits far exceed transport emissions alone.

Increased social cohesion is one co-benefit. In Paris, they call this form of urbanism “neighbourhoods of proximities” because they’re increasing proximity between people and places, but also between people themselves. This improves social connection and has mental health benefits.

Public health is another benefit. Studies have shown Barcelona’s approach (which also prioritises active transportation through urban design) has avoided around 700 premature deaths a year due to reductions in air pollution, noise and heat, and increases in physical activity.

There are also huge benefits for young, older and lower income families who become less reliant on cars. There are flow-on benefits in the form of economic vibrancy and urban safety, too.

Getting out of our cars

Finally, we also need to ask whether 20-minute and 15-minute neighbourhoods can achieve the benefits they seek. In reality, how likely are people to walk 20 minutes carrying groceries? Studies from overseas suggest much shorter distances between homes and amenities might be needed.

This will vary depending on the person, their age and fitness. But it will also depend on the amenities themselves. We might be happy to bike or walk further to school, for example, than we would be to walk home from the grocery store.

So while the concept of the 15-minute or 20-minute city might be useful to communicate a broad vision and bring people together, it shouldn’t be taken too literally.

The greater aim should be to improve accessibility as much as possible to reduce our dependence on cars and reclaim our neighbourhoods for people. This will benefit our health, sustainability and communities.

Tom Logan is technical director of planning firm Urban Intelligence Ltd. He receives funding from MBIE and BRANZ.

– ref. NZ’s most walkable towns and cities ranked: see how your neighbourhood stacks up – https://theconversation.com/nzs-most-walkable-towns-and-cities-ranked-see-how-your-neighbourhood-stacks-up-189383

OP-ED: The right policies can protect the workers of Asia and the Pacific

By Evening Report -

September 5, 2022

ESCAP_Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana — Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

OP-ED by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana – United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Most of the 2.1 billion strong workforce in Asia and the Pacific are denied access to decent jobs, health care and social protection but there is an array polices and tools that governments can use to remedy these deficiencies and ensure that the rights and aspirations of these workers and their families are upheld and that they remain the engine of economic growth for the region.

A new report released today, the Social Outlook for Asia and the Pacific: The Workforce We Need, offers tangible solutions to immediately address alarming trends that both preceded the new coronavirus and were exacerbated by the pandemic.

While 243 million new people were pushed into poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic, half of all people in our region already had been surviving without cash, a third without necessary medicine or treatment and a quarter had gone without enough food to eat. This can lower productivity, which has fallen below the global average, but also tax revenues and future economic output.

With two-thirds of all workers in the region being employed informally, often with low wages, in hazardous working conditions and without a contract, half of our workforce are at the brink of poverty. People in our region are also at a higher risk of being pushed into poverty by health spending than anywhere else in the world, causing inequalities to further widen. With more than half of all people being excluded from social protection, pandemics, disasters economic downturns, or normal life events, such as falling ill, becoming pregnant or getting old often have detrimental impacts on households’ wellbeing and life prospects.

The reality is harsh: our workers are generally ill-equipped to unlock new opportunities, fulfill life aspirations for themselves and their families but also to face ongoing challenges emanating from megatrends of climate change, ageing societies and digitalization.

Climate-induced natural disasters cause businesses to relocate and jobs to disappear, disproportionately affecting rural communities. Digital technologies are bringing disruptive change to the world of work and the digital gap is intensifying inequalities in opportunities, income and wealth. Population ageing means that the number of older people will double by 2050, making policies to support active and healthy ageing ever more urgent.

None of these vulnerabilities are inevitable. With the right policies, our region’s workforce can become more productive, healthier and protected.

First, active labour market policies, through life-long learning and skill development, can support a green and just transition into decent employment and improve access to basic opportunities and adequate standards of living. Harnessing synergies between active labor market policies and social protection can help workers upgrade their skills and transition into decent employment while smoothing consumption and avoiding negative coping strategies during spells of unemployment or other shocks.

Second, extending social health protection to all can significantly improve workers’ health, income security and productivity. COVID-19 demonstrated the weakness of a status quo in which 60 per cent of our workers finance their own health care and receive no sickness benefits. A focus on primary health care as well as curative health protection is needed, also to support healthy and active ageing. People who are chronically ill or live with a disability must be included in health care strategies. Given the large informal economy across the region, extending social health protection is the key policy instrument for achieving universal health coverage in our region.

Third, building on the ESCAP Social Protection Simulator, a basic package of universal child, old age and disability social protection schemes, set at global average benefit levels, would slash poverty in our region by half. Our analysis also shows that social protection helps increase access to opportunities particularly for furthest behind groups. This income security would improve the workforce’s resilience. Extending social protection to all means increasing public spending by between 2 and 6 per cent of GDP, an investment well-worth its cost. The Action Plan to Strengthen Regional Cooperation on Social Protection in Asia and the Pacific can guide action towards broadening social protection coverage.

With this information at hand, there is a long overdue need for action. The policy recommendations set out in the Social Outlook are a priority for most countries in the region. These require bold but necessary reforms. For most countries these reforms are affordable but may require a reprioritization of existing expenditures and tax, supported by tax reform. Decent employment for all and an expansion of social protection and health care should form the foundations of a strong social contract between the State and its citizens. One where mutual roles and responsibilities are clear and where our workforce is given the security to fulfil their potential and be the force for achieving the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific.

*******

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Better COVID vaccines are on the way. What do they do? And what technology might we see in future?

By The Conversation -

September 5, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Griffin, Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, The University of Queensland

Regulators in Australia and the United States last week approved Omicron-specific boosters, following approval in the United Kingdom in mid-August.

In Australia, a Moderna Omicron booster has been provisionally approved for use in adults aged 18 and over. Supplies are expected to arrive in the coming weeks, however the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) is yet to advise the government on how the vaccine will be used.

So what’s new about the Omicron booster? And what sorts of advances in vaccine technology might we see next?

Why do we need new vaccines?

The current COVID vaccines will go down in history as one of the greatest achievements of medical science. Developed at record pace – without omitting any of the usual steps to ensure safety and efficacy – the vaccines significantly decreased the risk of severe disease and death.

But they’re less effective at reducing infection. Frequent boosters have been required to protect against new sub-variants. This is because the spike protein, which the vaccines target, has changed. And over time, our protection has reduced due to waning immunity.

What are the Omicron-specific vaccines?

Most manufacturers of approved COVID vaccines began making boosters targeting previous variants as far back as Alpha. But until Omicron, these variant-specific boosters offered no significant advantage over vaccines targeting the original, or Wuhan, strain.

The new Omicron boosters combine two different targets in the one vaccine, known as a bivalent vaccine. This provides broader cross-protection – against the currently circulating variants but possibly against future variants too.

The first of these boosters, manufactured by Moderna, targets the BA.1 Omicron sub-variant in addition to the original or Wuhan strain. It also provides some protection against BA.4 and BA.5. This is now approved in the UK, Australia and US.

The US has also approved the Pfizer bivalent booster, which targets the spike of BA.4/BA.5 as well as the original strain.

What vaccine technology might we see next?

Scientists are working to develop COVID vaccines that:

offer longer lasting protection
protect against new variants and sub-variants
provide similar levels of protection from a single dose
don’t require freezing or refrigeration, and that have an extended shelf life
deliver a strong response from lower doses of active ingredient.

More than 120 potential COVID vaccines are in clinical trials. Here are some of the improvements they’re working on.

More robust protection against new variants

Most vaccines approved so far target the entire spike protein. But many vaccines under development specifically target the part of the spike protein that binds to the corresponding receptor on our cells. This is less likely to change than other parts of the spike protein, delivering more robust protection against new variants.

Candidate vaccines using this approach include Icosavax and one from the Serum Institute of India.

Easier storage

DNA-based vaccines are similar to mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) but are more temperature-stable, making them easier to transport and store. One such vaccine, by manufacturer Zydus, has already received an emergency use authorisation in India and is injected into the skin. Another, by Inovio, is undergoing phase three trials.

Greater immune responses from lower doses

With current COVID vaccines, the body is given instructions to make the spike protein, or the spike protein itself is delivered. The vaccines cannot replicate or reproduce themselves. Vaccines that can replicate have the potential to generate stronger immune responses or strong enough responses from lower doses.

Variant-proof vaccines

Finally, many vaccines under development have the ambitious target of protecting against all coronviruses or vaccines that are essentially variant-proof. While this has not so far been achieved for any similar family of viruses, there are many promising candidates.

Many rely on combining antigens from many different parts of the virus or even multiple coronaviruses. Others combine multiple receptor-binding domains (potentially allowing the vaccine to give a broader immune response against a range of variants) with other innovative technologies.

Different routes of administration

Current vaccines rely on administration via a needle and syringe. This is an issue for people with needle phobias, and presents challenges for the disposal of sharps. So many vaccines being developed are given via alternate routes.

One way to deliver vaccines is through the nose, known as intranasal vaccination. Rather than injecting, you breathe it in.

Giving the vaccine via the same route the virus gains entry has the potential to generate a response that’s better able to stop the virus entering in the first place.

One of the main limitations of nasal vaccines is getting a strong enough immune response to be effective. However there are many promising candidates, including one I’m working on.

Vaccines given via the skin are also a promising area. In addition to the DNA vaccines injected into the skin, others are being developed using vaccine coated onto patches, essentially made of microscopic needles. This is easier to administer.

It may also have some advantages in terms of immune response and its ability to be stored at room temperature. One such vaccine that looks promising has been developed by a group originally from the University of Queensland.

Finally, oral vaccines you drink are also under development. While potentially the most convenient method of administration, it’s also one that poses great challenges in terms of getting a strong enough response for the required effect.

While up to five vaccines in development are exploring this avenue of administration, including one I’m involved in, they are in relatively early phases of clinical trials.

Paul Griffin is affiliated with The University of Queensland, Nucleus network and Mater research where he has been the principal investigator on 8 COVID-19 vaccine studies and also serves on the advisory boards of AstraZeneca, MSD, Pfizer (covid therapy) and GSK and has received speaker honoraria from AstraZeneca, Seqirus, Novartis and Gilead

– ref. Better COVID vaccines are on the way. What do they do? And what technology might we see in future? – https://theconversation.com/better-covid-vaccines-are-on-the-way-what-do-they-do-and-what-technology-might-we-see-in-future-189531

How the jobs summit shifted gender equality from the sidelines to the mainstream

By The Conversation -

September 4, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leonora Risse, Senior Lecturer in Economics, RMIT University

The last time an Australian government hosted a national jobs summit, only one woman was present. It was 1983, and that woman was Susan Ryan, a minister in the Hawke government and the trailblazing architect of the Sex Discrimination Act.

Fast forward 39 years to the 2022 Jobs and Skills Summit, and half of all participants and presenters were women.

After the opening keynote address from economist Danielle Wood, the first panel session was dedicated to equal opportunities and pay for women. The scheduling was intentional, signalling the seriousness with which the government views the issue, and setting the stage for a gender focus to be interwoven into all policy deliberations.

It had the desired effect: the need to dismantle barriers to women’s participation, better value the economic contribution of the care sector, and invest in safer and more equitable workplaces was threaded throughout all subsequent sessions of the summit.

The trigger for change?

The government had already made it clear gender equality was on its agenda, prioritising areas such as childcare affordability and addressing pay inequity in its election commitments.

At the summit, it was clear Australia’s extreme labour shortages had heightened many businesses’ motivation to see more women participating in the economy. Economic crises have a way of shifting equity issues from the sidelines to the mainstream.

There was widespread agreement that the barriers facing women in the workforce – indeed, the barriers facing all marginalised groups including older workers, people living with a disability and migrants – are not only unfair but also a massive handbrake on our economy.

Policy outcomes will need more work

While there was consensus that something needs to be done to break down the barriers to women’s workforce participation, including improving childcare access and affordability, the reality is that implementing these policy reforms will need more analysis, consultation and time.

On childcare, calls to bring forward childcare subsidies must firstly recognise the childcare sector is already under strain. Many providers are struggling with worker shortages and waiting lists that can’t be met, especially in regional areas. Reducing the out-of-pocket costs of childcare for families will activate higher demand on a sector whose supply is already stretched to capacity.

This brings a risk that providers will end up lifting fees to cope with capacity constraints, or won’t be able to deliver the quality of service they aspire to.

From a practical perspective, the government has good economic reason to hold off on its childcare subsidy reductions until these immediate pressures can be addressed. This takes us back to the need to invest more in the care sector from the start, including lifting wages of care workers to reflect their true worth to the economy.

Making childcare more accessible first relies on the government addressing chronic staffing shortages in the sector.
Mick Tsikas/AAP

There is also scope to recalibrate childcare subsidies to better target the working women whose workforce participation is being hamstrung the most by current settings.

It’s women working part-time, and want to increase to four or five days per week, who are most financially penalised for doing so.

Setting the subsidy to neutralise Effective Marginal Tax Rates (EMTRs) across all days of work – so that women’s workforce decisions are based on their productive capabilities and aspirations, not childcare costs – would be an innovative way to transform childcare from a welfare measure to an economic enabler. These will be considerations for the review of the childcare sector that the government is tasking the Productivity Commission to undertake.

On paid parental leave, the summit heard calls to expand current provisions to 26 weeks of paid leave, supported by mechanisms to encourage a more equal sharing of care between parents. Evidence shows it’s the sharing mechanism that really matters for making progress on gender equality and boosting women’s workforce involvement.

Preserving a use-it-or-lose-it allocation of paid parental leave for fathers is essential for encouraging men to be more involved in unpaid care and freeing up women to participate more fully in paid work. Rather than leaving it up to households to decide, this policy works because it cuts through the barrier of social stigma faced by men and legitimises men’s roles as carers.

As the government develops its paid parental leave policy, expanding the non-transferable allocation for fathers should be a focus.

Making paid parental leave for fathers a use-it-or-lose-it policy is essential for building gender equality in the workforce.
Juliane Liebermann/Unsplash

On the gender pay gap, the government is pursuing a range of measures that have the potential to make inroads. This includes instilling gender equity as an objective of the Fair Work Act, advocating for better pay in female-concentrated professions such as aged care, and initiatives to tackle bias in the workplace such as mandatory gender pay gap reporting.

In my contribution at the summit’s opening panel, I highlighted the importance of applying a gender lens across all policy decision-making, which is known as gender responsive budgeting. It involves evaluating all policy proposals – including the ones that seem gender-neutral – to consider the implications for gender equality outcomes.

The government has committed to gender responsive budgeting and we will see the impacts unfold in forthcoming budgets statements.

Remember, we’re talking about people

Although we’re making progress in acknowledging gender inequality as an economic problem, the summit discussions talked a lot in terms of “under-utilising women”, as though women were a piece of machinery or equipment.

In my panel discussion, I argued that gender gaps in our economy should be interpreted as a sign we are not fully recognising women’s strengths and capabilities. This also means we are not fully valuing their contributions to the economy and wider society.

Millions of Australian women are already being exhaustively “utilised” in the economy. However, this is in sectors that are low paid and low status. Or it’s in the form of unpaid care for their children and other family members. I would urge business leaders to think less in terms of “utilisation” and more in terms of “valuing”.

Women proved at the summit that they already bring immense capability. It’s time to properly recognise and value it.

Leonora Risse is the National Chair of the Women in Economics Network, a member of the Central Council of the Economic of Society of Australia, and a Board Member of Gender Equity Victoria. She has received funding from the Trawalla Foundation to support research initiatives on gender equality.

– ref. How the jobs summit shifted gender equality from the sidelines to the mainstream – https://theconversation.com/how-the-jobs-summit-shifted-gender-equality-from-the-sidelines-to-the-mainstream-189869

Rent crisis? Average rents are increasing less than you might think

By The Conversation -

September 4, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Phillips, Associate Professor, Centre for Social Research and Methods, Director, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Australian National University

You wouldn’t know it from the pages of our daily newspapers, but the rate of growth in rents has been pretty modest.

Not everywhere, not for everyone, but for most Australians who rent.

According to the most recent count used by the Bureau of Statistics to compile the consumer price index, rents increased by only 1.6% in the year to June.

By comparison, wages climbed 2.6%.

Higher increases in other prices pushed the overall consumer price index up
6.1%.

Rent decreases during COVID mean that over the past five years the total increase has been just 1.5%.

Average rents are barely any higher than they were at the start of COVID.

The Bureau gets its data direct from the computers of real estate agents, state housing authorities and the Department of Defence (for Darwin).

It covers rent actually paid, for a “matched sample” of dwellings, meaning it refers to the same dwellings each quarter so as to record genuine price changes.

Actual versus advertised rents

In contrast, the media (and some interest groups) prefer to focus on the data for “advertised” or asking rents. These have been growing more strongly than the overall mass of rents paid.

Nationwide, advertised rents climbed 8.2% in the year to June, and by almost 18% over the five years to June on CoreLogic’s data.

But advertised rents are only a tiny fraction of the rents actually paid. Not all properties get advertised. Advertised rents don’t always match up with the agreed rent. Most renters remain on existing contracts.

Although advertised rents might be expected to relate to overall rents over time, they are not necessarily representative of the entire market.

Our main concern ought to be what has happened to low-income renters.

Low increases for low-income renters

Australia’s lowest-income renters receive rent assistance, which is pretty frugal. Single renters get no more than $73 a week, and very large families up to $97.

But the typical rent paid by Australians on rent assistance hasn’t increased much. Over the year to June, the median rent for rent assistance recipients climbed by 1% – roughly $5 per week. Over the past five years it has increased 9% – somewhat less than the increase in the consumer price index of 10.7%.

Over the longer term, low-income rents have increased more sharply. Households in the bottom 40% of income distribution used to spend around 22% of their after-tax income on rent, and now spend about 30%, down from a peak of 32%.

If there is a crisis in rents, the figures suggest it is not widespread.

Rents in locations including Perth and Darwin are climbing much more strongly than others as they come off long periods of negative rent growth.

The growth in asking rents is most pronounced away from the cities, in particular in holiday and tree-change destinations such as Richmond-Tweed (including Byron Bay), Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Wide Bay.

Some were experiencing strong growth in asking rents before COVID, which accelerated through COVID.

Other regions, including parts of Sydney and Melbourne, have experienced subdued or negative growth.

Across all renting households we are yet to see any serious growth. To date, the “rent crisis” has been felt mainly in a few specific locations and among people looking for new rental properties.

Ben Phillips 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. Rent crisis? Average rents are increasing less than you might think – https://theconversation.com/rent-crisis-average-rents-are-increasing-less-than-you-might-think-189154

Cutting COVID isolation and mask mandates will mean more damage to business and health in the long run

By The Conversation -

September 3, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nancy Baxter, Professor and Head of Melbourne School of Population & Global Health, The University of Melbourne

From Friday September 9, the isolation requirements for people with COVID and no symptoms will be cut from seven days to five days. Masks will no longer be required on domestic flights.

While Australian Medical Association President Steve Robson called for the release of the science behind the National Cabinet decision, the change shows we are now rapidly pushing towards a “business-as-usual” pandemic. This political strategy requires the elimination of protections or restrictions, so that life and business can go “back to normal”.

But life is nowhere near normal. COVID is the third most common killer of Australians, with 11,746 deaths so far this year. And there is mounting evidence survivors of COVID face the risk of long-term health effects on the lungs, heart, brain and immune system.

In reality, there is no going back to normal now we are living with COVID.

Balancing risk

So what is driving these changes and what will the impact be?

First and foremost, there is no scientific basis for the change. We know that people vary in terms of how long they remain infectious with COVID after testing positive.

Setting a reasonable duration of isolation depends on balancing the risk to the community of ongoing transmission and the benefit of enabling individuals with COVID to go back to work, school and normal activities as quickly as possible. Seven days was already a compromise. And now New South Wales premier Dominic Perrottet has called for isolation to be scrapped altogether. Has the evidence changed with respect to this balance?

There are a number of recent studies in vaccinated people in the Omicron era evaluating how long people shed virus and are potentially infectious after testing positive for COVID. This fresh research shows a significant number of people (between one-third and one-half) remain infectious after a five-day isolation period. Another study shows two thirds are infectious after this time.

So, of the 11,734 people reported to be COVID positive on September 1, at least 3,900 would still be infectious on day five. If released from isolation, they could infect others.

With onward transmission, this could result in many additional COVID cases that would not have occurred if an isolation period of seven days had been retained.

While the reduction of the duration of isolation applies only to people who do not have symptoms, it is well accepted transmission without symptoms occurs. Unfortunately, our politicians have equated the absence of symptoms with the inability to transmit the virus to justify the changes. Decision-makers clearly need to be better informed.

But what about businesses?

Mandatory isolation places stress on people and businesses. But with numbers of COVID cases falling from the peaks of the BA.4/5 wave throughout Australia, fewer people are now testing positive for COVID than at any time this year. The pressure on individuals and businesses due to mandatory isolation is at a low point for 2022.

So why make the change now? Perhaps the hope is that while we are experiencing reduced transmission due to the large number of people recently infected with COVID, easing our protections will not lead to an immediate increase in cases.

In this confidence trick, politicians can make these changes with no apparent impact. They will continue to do so until all mitigations against transmission are gone. This is all part of a strategy which, in the words of the NSW premier, has “less reliance on public health orders and more reliance on respecting each other”. As if the two concepts are mutually exclusive instead of mutually reinforcing.

Unfortunately, reinfection is common, and we will face another epidemic wave in the future, likely before the end of the year. Then our systematic dismantling of all existing protections will make the next wave come on sooner and affect more people.

People sitting on plane not wearing masks — Passengers on domestic flights will no longer need to wear masks.
Gerrie van der Walt/Unsplash, CC BY-SA

Mitigate transmission instead

Allowing a substantial proportion of people to go back to work while still infectious is not a solution to solving the workforce disruptions COVID is still causing. This is because there will be an increase of infections in workplaces and schools due to the shortened isolation. When our next wave comes, this will result in even more people being furloughed because they are sick with COVID or caring for others, defeating the ultimate purpose of the change.

And, as we have learned with the BA.5 wave – the highest number of people hospitalised with COVID in Australia since the beginning of the pandemic – reintroducing mandates once they have been removed does not happen even when medically advised. Once a protection is relaxed there is no going back – it’s a one-way road.

The best way to protect business interests and keep the economy productive is to mitigate transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) as best we can using a vaccine-plus strategy.

In other countries that have shortened the isolation and then abandoned it altogether, such as in the United Kingdom, transmission has only been worsened and the economic impacts compounded.

Removing mask mandates on planes will mean a greater risk of having your travel disrupted by COVID and also of airport disruptions because of flight crew off sick from increased exposure.

By reducing isolation and thereby increasing workplace transmission, we make the workplace less safe. The rights of people to a safe workplace must be considered alongside business continuity.

Allowing increased transmission will impact the economy by resulting in higher numbers of people affected by long COVID. In the UK, the model we appear to be emulating, up to one in four employers are reporting their productivity is affected by long COVID.

The move to a business-as-usual pandemic leaves us unnecessarily vulnerable and will ultimately disrupt business even more.

The emergence of COVID variants that are more and more infectious and increasingly vaccine-resistant, along with the simultaneous removal of mitigations such as isolation and masks, dooms us to recurrent and disruptive waves of disease.

Our best chance of business continuity is not the one-way road to a disruptive business-as-usual pandemic but a layered strategy. This would include improved booster rates, safer indoor air, masks in public indoor settings and maintaining the current isolation period for those with COVID.

C Raina MacIntyre receives funding from NHMRC, MRFF, Sanofi

Nancy Baxter 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. Cutting COVID isolation and mask mandates will mean more damage to business and health in the long run – https://theconversation.com/cutting-covid-isolation-and-mask-mandates-will-mean-more-damage-to-business-and-health-in-the-long-run-189862

Brij Lal’s tribute to Jai Ram Reddy – ‘a true son of Fiji’

By Asia Pacific Report -

September 3, 2022

OBITUARY: By Dr Brij Lal

Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear Full many a floww’r is born to blush unseen And waste its sweetness on the desert air

— Thomas Gray , “Elegy”, 1751

Jai Ram Reddy, former Fiji statesman, judge and international jurist, has died in Auckland aged 85.

In his passing, Fiji has lost one of its most distinguished sons of the 20th century.

We mourn his passing but, in truth, we mourn for ourselves, for he has left the silken bonds of this earth to find rest and respite in the company of Fiji’s immortals. He is now one for the ages.

This gifted man will continue to shine as a beacon for those who fight for fairness and justice and a higher purpose in life, and for a decent country to live in.

The words of Urdu Laureate Allama Iqbal are apposite: Bade Mushkil se Hote Hain Chaman men Deedawar paya.

Men of great clarity of vision are born rarely on this earth. Jai Ram Reddy exemplified the finest traits and traditions of his people.

He was born on May 12, 1937, the eldest child in a humble, hardworking family in the heart of Fiji’s cane country.

Transcended the limits
But he transcended the limits and limitations of his time and place and circumstance to reach the highest pinnacles of his profession in law and in international jurisprudence, with a distinguished record of public service in his native country.

Reddy graduated in law from Victoria University of Wellington in 1961. After several years at the law firm of the legendary lawyer AD Patel, he joined the Crown Law Office.

Declining the offer of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution from Chief Justice Sir John Nimmo while still in his early 30s, he joined the law firm of Stuart and Company where he remained for the rest of his legal career.

Law was his passion, he used to say, and what made all the difference was that he was so good at it.

He was the finest criminal barrister of his generation. After a short, ill-fated stint as Fiji’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in 1987, he accepted appointment as President of Fiji’s Court of Appeal, to the great delight of Sir Timoci Tuivaga, the Chief Justice, and Qoriniasi Bale, the Attorney-General, who counted Reddy as one of his two heroes in the law, the other being the judicial titan Justice Ghana Mishra.

Reddy’s judicial career reached its pinnacle as a Permanent Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, ICTAR, in Arusha, Tanzania, where his judicial acumen and integrity won him accolades as a “consummate judge” respected for his “wisdom, fairness and sense of justice”.

‘A sheer privilege’
The president of ICTAR, Justice Eric Morse of Norway, wrote that it was “a sheer privilege to sit with judge Reddy on the bench”.

From law into politics which he entered in 1972 as a senator and the House of Representatives in April 1977. In Parliament he remained a commanding performer, never bested in debate, quick on his feet, withering in response, one of the best he had seen, said Dr Apenisa Kurusiqila, the Speaker.

“The Parliament will not be the same without you, Jai,” he said when Reddy left after his electoral defeat in 1999. His early years in politics were unproductive ones for him and for the people he represented, caught in the quagmire of communal wrangling, hobbled by division and disunity, and drifting.

But to his everlasting credit, he transcended that in the second phase of his career to become an honoured elder statesman, respected across the communities for his vision and essential, transparent fairness and “sincerity of purpose”.

The political reconciliation he achieved with his once arch political nemesis Sitiveni Rabuka in the teeth of rancorous opposition and deep skepticism on all sides, will remain one of the shining moments of 20th century Fijian history.

And Reddy’s evolution from a communal politician to a venerable statesman is a story for the pages of history books, too. Jai Ram Reddy was a “reluctant politician”, his critics charged. And they were right although for the wrong reason.

A vehicle for social service
Jai Ram was not in the thrall of politics, making small talk, trimming the truth, mixing easily with the crowds, glad handling. He readily acknowledged his essential shyness in public spaces. Politics for Jai Ram Reddy was a vehicle for social service, not a path to personal enrichment and accumulation.

Swami Rudananda’s influence on him was profound. Reserved and shy in public, Jai could be great fun in private. His laughter was infectious. He loved music and was a social singer in his early years.

We could talk endlessly about the Hindi movies of the 1950s, the songs and the actors he remembered. He was fond of horses and once owned one he impishly named Shabana Azmi, after the great Indian actress.

But all these private passions gave way as public duties increasingly came to consume his time. Jai Ram was an intellectual who believed in the power of ideas to change society and to enable sustainable social reform.

His enlarging vision saw a unity of purpose and common space for all the people of Fiji. “We are fellow human beings travelling in the same canoe,” he used to say.

“This country is big enough for all of us,” he said to a soldier who told him menacingly in Nadi in September 1987: “In this country, Mr Reddy, you take what we give you, no more.”

That Jai Ram refused to allow such taunts and provocations to derail or define him spoke volumes about the man. In one of the defining speeches of Fiji’s 20th century history, Jai Ram shared the deepest fears of his people with the Great Council of Chiefs in 1997: He spoke movingly of history and the making of history, of truth and destiny, words the chiefs collectively had heard for the first time from an Fijian of Indian descent leader.

“Indians of Fiji brought to these shores as labourers did not come to conquer or colonise.

“We, their descendants, do not seek to usurp your ancient rights and responsibilities. We never have. We have no wish, no desire, to separate ourselves from you.

“Fiji is our home. We have no other. We want no other.”

It was a majestic moment of truth and reconciliation, none better.

At his finest, eloquent
It was Jai Ram Reddy, the statesman, at his finest, eloquent and truthful in his thoughts. We all basked in the glory of his great achievement. But it was not to last long. He was gone soon afterwards. And we can only ponder what might have been had his vision succeeded.

“What might have been” must be among the saddest words in the English language. Jai Ram Reddy was a complex man. He had a very short fuse as some of us close to him knew well. He suffered fools badly. But no-one minded. We knew he was a person of complete, unimpeachable integrity.

He said in private what you heard from him in public. Often, he spoke from the heart.

“I have said what I felt,” he often said. Transparency of purpose defined him. He had a fine mind. He could cut through clutter in a canter. He readily won respect; he was a man who could be trusted to keep his word, as Sitiveni Rabuka has often said.

That, I think, lay at the heart of his life in politics and in public. Trust and integrity will be two words most closely associated with Reddy in the long years to come. In one of my last extended conversations with him in Auckland before his ailment claimed him.

He asked me how things looked in the country to which he had given the best years of life. I replied with the words of Firaq Gorakhpuri: Suraj ke nikalne men zara der lagegi. (The sun will take a little while longer to come out.) Is raat ko dhalne men zara der lagegi. (The night will take a little longer to fade away.)

Jai looked at me wordless for a while as if to say he understood.

We are grateful
And now he is gone. We are grateful and give thanks for the gift of his life which enriched us all. Jai Ram Reddy will not be forgotten.

His words and deeds will not die, nor allowed to perish on the silent shores of Fiji’s public memory.

We bow our heads in silence and respect as Mr Reddy embarks on his final journey.

May the angels light his way to Amar Lok, that sacred place of eternal rest for humanity’s immortals. Goodbye Jai, Goodbye Mr Reddy, goodbye sir.

The late Professor Brij Lal is the author of In the Eye of the Storm. Jai Ram Reddy and the politics of postcolonial Fiji (ANU Press, 2009) and most recently of Girmitiyas: Making of their Memory Keepers (New Delhi, 2021). He and his wife Padma were banned from Fiji for life. Professor Lal wrote this tribute before he died in exile on Christmas Day in 2021. Republished with permission from The Fiji Times.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

‘Impressive rafting skills’: the 8-million-year old origin story of how rodents colonised Australia

By The Conversation -

September 3, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emily Roycroft, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian National University

A hopping mouse from the arid desert of Australia (Notomys). Hopping mice have evolved highly efficient kidneys to deal with the low water environments of Australia’s deserts. David Paul/Museums Victoria

A single, pregnant rodent floating on driftwood across the treacherous waters between Asia and New Guinea 8.5 million years ago may be behind the eventual colonisation of native rodents in Australia, our new research suggests.

Today, Australia has more than 60 species of native rodents found nowhere else in the world. When you count their close relatives across New Guinea and island neighbours, there are over 150 species. These include the rakali, an otter-like rodent with webbed feet, and desert hopping mice that get around like tiny kangaroos.

Until now, we’ve had an incomplete picture of how there came to be so many species. Our new research unites genomic sequencing and museum collections to reconstruct the evolutionary tale of native rodents, including many extinct and elusive species – and they have a fascinating origin story.

Native rodents have also suffered the highest rate of recent extinction of any mammal group in Australia, with 11 mainland species declared extinct since European colonisation in 1788. Many surviving native rodents remain at serious risk of extinction, with urgent conservation action needed to secure their future.

The semi-aquatic rakali (*Hydromys chrysogaster*) is a native rodent distributed across New Guinea and Australia. Rakali are part of the Hydromys Division, a group that has colonised Australia from New Guinea at least twice in the last million years.
David Paul/Museums Victoria

New methods, old specimens

We extracted and sequenced DNA from museum specimens collected up to 180 years ago to unlock the secrets of the most elusive species.

In one case, we sequenced DNA from a specimen of Guadalcanal rat from the Solomon Islands collected over 130 years ago. The Guadalcanal rat was last seen alive when these specimens were collected in the 1880s, and hasn’t been recorded since.

It’s listed as critically endangered, and is very possibly already extinct.

Like the Guadalcanal rat, every single specimen we studied has its own fascinating history. Together, they tell an 8-million-year long evolutionary story.

This is a specimen of Gould’s mouse from the Natural History Museum in London.
Trustees of the Natural History Museum London/C. Ching

The genetic relatedness of distant rodent relatives tells us the ancestor of Australia’s native rodents originated in southeast Asia. There’s never been a land connection between Asia and New Guinea, and so we know this must happened via over-water colonisation – possibly on a piece of driftwood.

Our research dates this event to around 8.5 million years ago. Both New Guinea and Australia looked very different back then.

In contrast to the large and high-elevation island of modern New Guinea, 8.5 million years ago it was likely made up of a series of smaller, disconnected islands.

Our results show the earliest arriving rodent ancestors, probably tropical forest specialists, initially spread across this earlier New Guinea. But they then stayed put for 3.5 million years.

A shared evolutionary story

Around 5 million years ago, New Guinea experienced a big geological change. Tectonic activity triggered the uplift of an impressive mountain range through the centre of New Guinea, and led to the formation of expansive lowlands.

This expansion opened new environments for rodents to adapt to, and increased connectivity between New Guinea, Australia, and neighbouring islands.

From there, things really took off.

Rodent ancestors first arrived from New Guinea into Australia around 5 million years ago, probably via a land bridge exposed during a period of low sea level.

In Australia, they have adapted to many new environments including the harsh arid desert. In the last few million years, rodents have been especially mobile – repeatedly moving between New Guinea, Australia and neighbouring island archipelagos, generating many new species in the process.

Native rodents first arrived to New Guinea from Asia 8.5 million years ago, and then arrived to Australia 5 million years ago. Over the past few million years, they also have spread across the Solomon and Maluku Island archipelagos.

In our region alone rodents have transitioned between different geographic areas or islands at least 24 independent times in the past 5 million years.

Quite often, this has happened via over-water colonisation. Just like their ancestor, who crossed the waters from southeast Asia 8.5 million years ago, native rodents have continued to leverage their impressive rafting skills.

And yet, despite this remarkable flexibility across evolutionary time, native rodents have not been able to tolerate the dramatic changes to their environment that have occurred in the past 200 years.

Protecting native rodents

Since 1788, we’ve lost 11 native rodent species to extinction. These include the white-footed rabbit-rat and the lesser stick-nest rat, once common on the Australian landscape.

Native rodents are particularly susceptible to predation by feral cats and foxes, land clearing, competition with pest rodents, and introduced disease. These ongoing threats place surviving species at serious risk of extinction.

One of Australia’s most critically endangered mammals, the central rock-rat, is on the brink of extinction after extensive habitat loss and predation by cats and foxes. Captive breeding programs are underway to boost population numbers.

A smoky mouse (*Pseudomys fumeus*) in the Grampians-Gariwerd National Park, Victoria, Australia. The smoky mouse is part of an evolutionary group that originated after colonisation of Australia from New Guinea around 5 million years ago, and is currently endangered after suffering population declines.
David Paul/Museums Victoria

We know even less about the conservation status of many species in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Maluku Islands.

By combining genetic data from both modern and historical specimens, our new research takes stock of the diversity of native rodents, and will help to define and prioritise species for conservation efforts.

By understanding how our native rodents evolved, we can make more informed decisions about how best to protect them into the future.

Emily Roycroft receives funding from the Australian Government Research Training Program, the Dame Margaret Blackwood Soroptimist Scholarship, the Alfred Nicholas Fellowship (University of Melbourne), and the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment. This project received funding from Bioplatforms Australia through the Australian Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, via the Oz Mammals Genomics Initiative.

– ref. ‘Impressive rafting skills’: the 8-million-year old origin story of how rodents colonised Australia – https://theconversation.com/impressive-rafting-skills-the-8-million-year-old-origin-story-of-how-rodents-colonised-australia-189793

NZ anti-vaxxer appears in court again on nation’s first sabotage charges

By Asia Pacific Report -

September 2, 2022

By Ethan Griffiths, Open Justice reporter of The New Zealand Herald

An anti-vaccination campaigner who this year became the first person ever accused of breaching New Zealand’s sabotage laws has again appeared in court.

Taupō man Graham Philip was charged with seven counts of sabotage in May, relating to an alleged attack on New Zealand infrastructure late last year. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The exact details of what the Crown alleges remain suppressed until trial, due to what Open Justice understands is a fear of copycat offending.

Philip appeared via audio-visual link in the High Court at Rotorua yesterday, sitting calmly in the booth as his lawyer addressed Justice Graham Lang.

Philip’s previous lawyer Matthew Hague has withdrawn from the case, with Philip now represented by Tauranga lawyer Bill Nabney.

Philip is currently held at Waikeria Prison in Waikato after his bail application was denied earlier this year.

A planned Court of Appeal challenge to the bail decision has been abandoned and Philip will remain in prison until his trial, set down for late next year.

Sabotage defined
Under the Crimes Act, sabotage is legally defined as any activity which impairs or impedes the operation of “any ship, vehicle, aircraft, arms, munitions, equipment, machinery, apparatus, or atomic or nuclear plant” on New Zealand shores.

A person can also be charged with sabotage if the person “damages or destroys any property which is necessary to keep intact for the safety or health of the public”.

A conviction also requires a proven intent to prejudice the health or safety of the public.

Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald under the Public Interest Journalism Initiative funded by NZ on Air.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Seven West Papuans jailed for raising banned Morning Star flag

By Asia Pacific Report -

September 2, 2022

RNZ Pacific

Seven people have been found guilty of “treason” after raising the banned Morning Star flag in West Papua, a Melanesian region of Indonesia.

In the Jayapura District Court this week, the seven were each jailed for 10 months and fined.

The flag is considered a symbol of the West Papua struggle for independence and has been strictly barred by the Indonesian authorities.

The group, one aged 19 and the others in their 20s, had raised the flag at the Cenderawasih Sports Centre, and although they were not carrying weapons they were convicted of treason.

The Jubi website reported the judge said raising the Morning Star flag and marching while shouting “Free Papua” and “We are not Red and White, we are the Morning Star“, amounted to treason.

And the act of unfurling banners with the words “Self Determination For West Papua, Stop West Papua Militarism” and “Indonesia Immediately Open Access for the UN Human Rights Commission Investigation Team to West Papua” was also considered treason.

‘Intention of separating’
The verdict read “the defendants already have the intention of separating Papua and West Papua from the territory of Indonesia. The defendants have committed the beginning of treason as stipulated in Article 87 of the Criminal Code”.

After the trial, the defendant’s lawyer Emanuel Gobay told Jubi “we firmly reject” the court’s verdict of treason.

During the trial Gobay said no expert witnesses had been presented to explain their perspectives on the charges.

According to Gobay, the conclusions drawn by the panel of judges seemed subjective because there was no information from expert witnesses.

“We question the basis on which the panel of judges concluded the treason. It is as if the panel of judges acted as experts, interpreting and concluding themselves without relying on expert testimony,” Gobay said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papuan journalist Victor Mambor wins Udin Award for ‘dedicated journalism’

By Asia Pacific Report -

September 2, 2022

Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

The co-founder of Tabloid Jubi, Victor Mambor has been presented with the 2022 Udin Award from Indonesia’s Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) during the organisation’s 28th-anniversary celebration.

Mambor is an indigenous Papuan journalist who has dedicated his life for decades to the field of journalism.

The Udin Award — presented last month — is AJI’s annual prize to promote press freedom and freedom of expression in Indonesia.

Through it, AJI seeks to recognise journalists (individuals and groups), who are dedicated to the field of journalism, and become victims of physical or psychological violence because of their journalistic activities.

Mambor, who is also a former chair of AJI Jayapura, is often reported as the leader and planner of public demonstrations against the government, although there is no evidence for the accusations.

In addition, Mambor has also often experienced digital violence and the destruction of personal property.

Last year, for example, Mambor’s vehicle was deliberately damaged by an unknown person. Prior to that, his social media was also doxed, and his personal data was exposed.

Laying the foundations
Even so, Victor Mambor and Jubi continue to lay the foundations and principles of journalism in their journalistic works.

“This award certainly reminds us again that intimidation, criminalisation, physical, verbal and digital violence against journalists like what was experienced by Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin (Udin), the owner of this award, still exists today and we are still fighting for a free press,” Mambor said after receiving the award last month.

The UN Human Rights Council in September 2021 called him a humanitarian and a rights activist who faced threats, harassment and intimidation for his reporting on West Papua, including reporting to UN human rights mechanisms, and for attending UN meetings for which they were questioned by security forces.

His name was raised among other human rights defenders in the Indonesia section of the report published by the UN. The report contains references to five cases of criminalisation and intimidation against human rights defenders working in or about West Papua

The Udin Award was taken from the pen name of the journalist for the Bernas Daily, Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin, who died on 16 August 1996 in Yogyakarta after being attacked by two unknown assailants.

Udin was persecuted and intimidated because of the news he wrote on 13 August 1996. To date, the case has not been thoroughly investigated and his killer was not identified.

Indonesian police question Victor Mambor during an investigation. Image: AJI

Seven nominations
In 2022, AJI received seven nominations for the Udin Award. The proposals were assessed by a jury of three members.

One jury member, Bambang Muryanto, said that it was not easy for a journalist to maintain his professionalism and independence in an area of armed conflict.

Especially when the situation in the area was similar to martial law without official government recognition.

“The safety of himself and his family is at stake. The very difficult location conditions are also a challenge to present comprehensive news that does not violate journalistic ethics,” said Bambang.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Rotuman social justice advocate puts key bid for Roskill Community Voice

By Asia Pacific Report -

September 2, 2022

By Laurens Ikinia

“Noa’ia ‘e” is a greeting people hear when you meet anyone from the island of Rotuma in Fiji or when they visit the Whānau Community Hub in Auckland’s Mount Roskill.

This doubles as the Rotuman-Fijian Community Centre.

It is run by Rachel Mario and her team for a whole host of purposes — a range of different programmes and activities.

On any day they could be delivering grocery parcels, health and wellbeing classes, or training community elders (Wednesdays), language and financial literacy classes for children (Saturdays), and leadership training,

You name it and they’re probably doing it.

Mario says the centre hasn’t only been hosting the Rotuman whānau, but it’s also a “home” for other stakeholders such as Asia Pacific Media Network, government agencies, and faith communities.

As chair of the Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Group Inc., Mario now wants to throw in her leadership hat for the local board.

Standing for Puketāpapa
So she is standing for the Roskill Community Voice team for Puketāpapa Local Board (Mount Roskill).

She loves doing social work and hopes that she and her team will be elected in the October election — and she vows to keep working hard to be the voice of the wider, diverse community in Mount Roskill.

Apart from running the busy programmes at the centre for her Rotuman community and other whānau, Mario has been advocating about issues of social injustice that her community has been facing for years.

Some of these issues include the housing crisis and alleged discrimination on distribution over resources for the Rotuman Language Week celebrations.

“The biggest challenge, which isn’t fair, is the discrimination against us, the Rotuman community. In the Ministry of Pacific Peoples, they want to run a rival language week up against ours,” she says.

“We started in 2018. In 2019, because they didn’t want to list our language week, they didn’t want to list anything we do regarding our endangered indigenous language.

In response to a question from Tagata Pasifika about the allegations of discrimination faced by Mario’s group, the Minister of the Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio denied this, saying he was disappointed to hear about it.

Successful programme
However, in spite of the challenges, the Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Group successfully ran the language programme in May.

Other issues include the cultural identity of children born from intercultural marriages. However, the Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Group has embraced all children who have Rotuman blood.

TeRito Peyroux, a member of Rotuman Congregation at Kingsland Methodist Church, says that for those who could not speak Rotuman, “we are who we are, it’s much bigger than our language fluency.”

“It is about our sense of belonging and the people that are nurturing and supporting and being with us. For me, that means that having the privilege of celebrating language and culture in this foreign land makes me very humble,” she says.

Tupou Tee Kamoe, who is also one of the executive members of the Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Group, cites a quote from Green MP Teanau Tuiono that he had made in his maiden speech in Parliament which she has adapted for bicultural Rotumans:

“People often ask me, ‘am I half Rotuman, half Pacific’, and I say ‘na bro, I am not half anything, I am whole, if anything I am double — if I was a beer I would be double brown, if I was a flavour at the dairy, I would be twice as nice at only half the price.”

Laurens Ikinia is a postgraduate communication studies student at Auckland University of Technology and is a frequent contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

View from The Hill: Summit triggers immediate action and elevates gender equality

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

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

The jobs and skills summit, which concluded on Friday, has been a highly-managed exercise by the Albanese government in maximising policy and political productivity.

The government went into the meeting knowing, broadly, the key initiatives it intended to announce out of it. Most importantly, this included plans for changes to the industrial relations system to try to get wages moving, and for a higher migrant intake to ease the acute labour shortages.

At the end of a day and a half, the government announced 36 measures on which action will be taken this year and around the same number for further work.

One significant announcement, allowing pensioners to earn more, had been recently advocated by the most notable absentee from the summit, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

Pensioners will get a temporary upfront “$4000 bank credit” so they can do extra work before they lose some of their pension. At present someone on the aged pension can earn $7800 a year without affecting their pension.

But, despite the drive to get more women working, the government hasn’t given in to pressure to accelerate the start of its child care scheme, arguing to do so would be too expensive and raise operational issues.

To fulfil the prime minister’s commitment to governing by “consensus”, the summit was designed to blunt – though it obviously wasn’t going to eliminate – divisions in the traditionally contested areas of industrial relations and migration.

And that it did – partly through bringing stakeholders together so they could air their views in a forum that constrained aggression, and partly by the government making it clear it wasn’t seeking “unanimity”.

The most significant negotiations, obviously before the event, were between the government and the union movement.

The government delivered on the ACTU demand for the wage-fixing system to open up multi-employer bargaining (at present extremely restricted). The unions, in return, went along with an increase in the cap on permanent migrants from 160,000 to 195,000.

The employers are pleased with the prospect of more migrants, but industrial relations is an uncertain path for most of them.

The government plans to move quickly on IR legislation – to be introduced this year. Its precise content, however, on which consultations start next week, is unclear.

Employers welcome the increased flexibility that is to be put into the Better Off Overall Test for enterprise agreements. The BOOT is there to stop workers going backwards under agreements but has become a tight corset on enterprise bargaining.

Under Scott Morrison, the Albanese opposition opposed planned changed to the BOOT – but that was then.

Multi-employer bargaining is what worries business: it’s as yet unknown how far that will extend, and what provisions for, or limits on, industrial action it will contain.

The series of announcements – including more funding for free TAFE places next year – and the “consensus” reached won’t of themselves fix the critical problems in Australia’s labour market.

Achieving that, even partially, will depend on how decisions are followed through, firstly by putting flesh on their bones and then with effective implementation.

The government prepared extensively for the summit, with more than 100 roundtables, and gave a lot of thought to representation and the occasion’s atmospherics.

It knew the danger of a “talk fest”, and was determined to minimise the risk. It also strove to tap strongly into the themes of inclusion and diversity. (Most speakers, however brief their contribution, started with an acknowledgement of traditional owners.)

One area for immediate action is “improving access to jobs and training pathways for women, First Nations people, regional Australians and culturally and linguistically diverse people”.

To a considerable extent, the summit was all about women, reflected in both the participants and the problems addressed.

Increasing and facilitating Australian women’s participation in the workforce, rewarding them better and advancing their career opportunities were at the heart of much discussion. The plight of low paid, overworked care workers – predominately female – was front of mind.

(At a political level, the emphasis on women brought to mind the Morrison’s government’s failures in women’s areas.)

Many of the major players at the summit were women, including leaders from the union movement (whose membership has become increasingly feminised with the rise of the “care” economy) and business groups, as well as senior female ministers.

One of the biggest “winners” from the meeting was ACTU secretary Sally McManus, whose lobbying for multi-employer bargaining had fallen on open government ears.

At the summit’s close Albanese highlighted its 50-50 gender split. In 1983, 96 of 97 participants were male (the woman was minister Susan Ryan).

Minister for Women Katy Gallagher said: “Women nailed it at this summit”.

“It was no mistake that the panel on gender equality and pay for women was the first thing that we did at this summit. It then fed into every other session.”

For all the hype, as with Bob Hawke’s 1983 summit and Kevin Rudd’s 2008 one, the time to audit the level of success (or otherwise) of this summit will be in several years, or even in four decades.

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

– ref. View from The Hill: Summit triggers immediate action and elevates gender equality – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-summit-triggers-immediate-action-and-elevates-gender-equality-189883

Sydney Theatre Company’s A Raisin in the Sun is an enormous achievement with superb cast, direction and staging

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Gleeson-White, Associate Professor in American Literature, University of Sydney

Review: A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Wesley Enoch for the Sydney Theatre Company.

It is hard to believe the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Lorraine Hansberry’s award-winning A Raisin in the Sun (1959) is its Australian mainstage premiere – nearly 65 years after it appeared on Broadway with the magnificent Sidney Poitier in one of the lead roles.

The first play on Broadway written by an African American woman, A Raisin in the Sun was nominated for four Tony Awards, including for best play, and went on to win the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play of the Year.

Arguably one of the most compelling narratives of 20th century Black American life, Hansberry’s play remains a stalwart in the American literary canon.

A young Black couple on a couch — A Raisin in the Sun is a stalwart in the American literary canon.
Joseph Mayers/Sydney Theatre Company

Across a compressed several weeks, A Raisin in the Sun traces the hopes and dashed dreams of three generations of the African American Younger family, headed by matriarch, Lena (Gayle Samuels).

Written five years after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which put an end to legal school segregation, and four years after the Montgomery bus boycott, this just might be, as Black poet Amiri Baraka declared it, the “quintessential civil rights drama”.

A sense of entrapment

Hansberry’s scathing narrative of postwar American race relations stands up well to the test of time, and this production, directed by Wesley Enoch, is superb.

The rapport among the actors, including those in more minor roles, is palpable. This is a true ensemble piece.

Samuels and Zahra Newman (as Ruth Younger) both give particularly compelling performances, and Nancy Denis is hilarious as their nosy neighbour Mrs Johnson.

Together, the cast really succeeds in drawing out Hansberry’s humour, and thus the play’s often jarring shifts between comedy, satire and tragedy.

Two women at a kitchen table. — Designer Mel Page has created an honest rendering of the family’s shabby, rat-infested apartment.
Joseph Mayers/Sydney Theatre Company

The play unfolds in the single setting of the family’s shabby, rat-infested apartment on Chicago’s Southside. Mel Page’s smart set design means we can see into its two small bedrooms at all times, giving a real sense of the family’s entrapment, and heightening the escalating conflicts.

As the play opens, the family anxiously awaits the delivery of the recently deceased Mr Younger’s life-insurance cheque, a prospect that provokes each of the family members to disclose their hopes and wishes, embodied in the raggedy pot plant Lena carefully tends throughout.

Lena yearns to provide her family with a home. Her son Walter Lee (Bert Labonté) yearns to join the ranks of the Black middle class. Her daughter, Beneatha (Angela Mahlatjie) yearns to become a medical doctor to “make [people] whole again”.

Yet the aspirations Black Americans like Walter Lee and Beneatha nurtured are impossible in this era of segregation.

A woman puts on lipstick — Beneatha yearns to become a doctor.
Joseph Mayers/Sydney Theatre Company

Lena does succeed in achieving her dream: she purchases a house for her family, but it is in the white neighbourhood of (fictional) Clybourne Park.

This twist generates an encounter between the family and the only white character in the play, Karl Lindner (Jacob Warner), spokesman for the Clybourne Park community, which wants to buy the house from the Youngers to keep the neighbourhood “respectable”.

As Beneatha observes, when Lena asks whether Lindner threatened the family:

they don’t do like that anymore. He talked Brotherhood. He said everybody ought learn how to sit down and hate each other with good Christian fellowship.

A heavy load

Hansberry took the title of her play from Langston Hughes’ 1951 poem, Harlem. Pondering “a dream deferred,” Hughes writes:

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore

Reviewers and critics of A Raisin in the Sun frequently rush to claim the universality of this narrative of postwar Black American life. In such an approach, we risk losing what is specific to the festering sore of Jim Crow America. We also miss the play’s significance in light of our own moment of global racial foment, of Black Lives Matter, and much else.

In a 1959 interview, Hansberry told radio host Studs Terkel:

In order to create the universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific.

This production of A Raisin in the Sun is an enormous achievement – thanks not only to its superb cast, direction and staging, but too, the Sydney Theatre Company’s commitment to attending to the specific, to telling stories we still need to hear.

A Raisin in the Sun is at Wharf 1 Theatre until October 15.

Sarah Gleeson-White 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. Sydney Theatre Company’s A Raisin in the Sun is an enormous achievement with superb cast, direction and staging – https://theconversation.com/sydney-theatre-companys-a-raisin-in-the-sun-is-an-enormous-achievement-with-superb-cast-direction-and-staging-187430

It’s not just rocket science – hidden chemistry powers Moon launches and sustains life in space

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Curtis Ho, Lecturer in Chemistry, University of Tasmania

Many around the world will watch eagerly this Saturday as NASA launches Artemis I, the agency’s first Moon exploration mission since the 1970s.

The spectacle involves the most powerful rocket in the world: the Space Launch System (SLS). Standing at nearly 100 metres tall and weighing more than 2,600 tonnes, the SLS produces a massive 8.8 million pounds of thrust – (more than 31 times the thrust of a Boeing 747 jet).

But it’s not just amazing engineering that’s behind rocket science and space exploration. Hidden within, there’s clever chemistry that powers these fantastic feats and sustains our fragile life in space.

The fuel and the spark

To launch a rocket into space, we need a chemical reaction known as combustion. This is where fuels are combined with oxygen, producing energy as a result. In turn, that energy provides the push (or thrust) needed to propel mammoth machines like the SLS into Earth’s upper atmosphere and beyond.

Much like cars on the road and jets in the sky, rockets have engines where combustion takes place. SLS has two engine systems: four core stage RS-25 engines (upgraded space shuttle engines) and two solid rocket boosters. And chemistry is what provides a unique fuel mixture for each engine.

The core stage engines use a mixture of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, whereas the solid rocket boosters, as the name suggests, contain a solid propellant – a hard, rubber-like material called polybutadiene acrylonitrile. In addition to being fuel itself, this material contains fine particles of aluminium metal as fuel, with ammonium perchlorate as the oxygen source.

While fuel for the solid rocket boosters is easily stored at room temperature, the core stage engine fuels need to be stored at -253℃ for liquid hydrogen and -183℃ for liquid oxygen. That’s why you see sheets of ice shearing off rockets upon liftoff – the fuel vessels are so cold, they freeze moisture from the surrounding air.

But there’s another bit of interesting chemistry that happens when we need to light the fuel. Depending on the fuel source, rockets can be ignited electrically through a glorified spark plug… or chemically.

If you’ve ever watched a space launch and heard talk about “TEA-TEB ignition”, that’s referring to triethylaluminium and triethylborane. These two chemicals are pyrophoric – meaning they can catch fire spontaneously when exposed to air.

Sustaining life amongst the stars

It’s not just rockets that are fuelled by chemistry. Life support systems in space rely on chemical processes keeping our astronauts alive and breathing – something we on Earth often take for granted.

We all know the importance of oxygen, but we also exhale carbon dioxide as a toxic waste product when we breathe. So, what happens to carbon dioxide in the sealed environment of a space capsule like the ones in the Apollo Moon missions or on the International Space Station (ISS)?

Remember Tom Hanks trying to fit a square peg into a round hole in the movie Apollo 13? Those were carbon dioxide scrubbers that NASA used for removing this toxic gas from the interior of space capsules.

These scrubbers are expendable filters packed with lithium hydroxide (similar to a chemical you can find in drain-cleaning fluid) that capture carbon dioxide gas through simple acid-base chemistry. While these scrubbers are highly efficient in removing carbon dioxide and allowing astronauts to breathe easy, the filters have a finite capacity. Once saturated, they are no longer effective.

So, for extended space missions, using lithium hydroxide filters is not feasible. Scientists later developed a system that uses a reusable carbon dioxide scrubber made with minerals called zeolites. With zeolite, the captured carbon dioxide can be released into space, and the filters are then free to capture more gas.

But in 2010, scientists found an even better way to manage carbon dioxide, by turning this waste product into another essential component to life: water.

From waste to resource

The Environmental Control and Life Support System on the ISS replaces carbon dioxide scrubbers with the Carbon Dioxide Reduction System, also known as the Sabatier system. It’s named after the chemical reaction central to its function, which in turn is named after its discoverer, 1912 Chemistry Nobel Prize winner Paul Sabatier.

This system combines carbon dioxide with hydrogen gas to form water and methane. The methane gas is vented into space, and through a process called hydrolysis, the water is split into breathable oxygen and hydrogen gas. The latter is then recycled to transform more carbon dioxide into water.

This process is not just useful for space exploration. Closer to home, chemists are researching similar systems to potentially address greenhouse gas emissions – while it’s no panacea, the Sabatier reaction could help us recycle some carbon dioxide here on Earth.

Meanwhile, NASA’s Artemis Moon mission aims to land the first woman and person of colour on the Moon and establish a long-term human presence in a lunar base. The Sabatier reaction and other little-celebrated chemical processes will be key to humankind’s continued space endeavours.

Curtis Ho receives funding from the University of Tasmania.

– ref. It’s not just rocket science – hidden chemistry powers Moon launches and sustains life in space – https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-rocket-science-hidden-chemistry-powers-moon-launches-and-sustains-life-in-space-189773

Why Gorbachev’s legacy still threatens Putin

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Horvath, Senior lecturer, La Trobe University

Little remains of the legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader and one of the greatest reformers in Russian history.

In the name of “glasnost” (openness) and “perestroika” (restructuring), Gorbachev dismantled totalitarianism, abolished censorship, freed hundreds of political prisoners, and held competitive elections that inaugurated a decade of democratisation.

By jettisoning the USSR’s ideologically driven foreign policy, he also ended the Cold War and brought humanity back from the brink of nuclear annihilation.

During his presidency, Vladimir Putin has systematically destroyed these historic achievements. On their ruins, his regime is mobilising militants behind a new totalitarian project.

Once again, education and culture are being policed by the state. Once again, hundreds of prisoners of conscience are languishing in prisons and labour camps. And once again, Russia is locked in a potentially apocalyptic confrontation with the West.

Gorbachev’s dialogue with a dissident

Nothing better illustrates the differences between Gorbachev and Putin than how they treated their adversaries.

In December 1986, Gorbachev phoned Andrei Sakharov, the most vilified dissident in the USSR. Sakharov had been languishing for seven years in internal exile in the closed city of Gorky for his condemnation of the invasion of Afghanistan. In a radical rupture with the etiquette of his predecessors, Gorbachev politely invited Sakharov to return to Moscow to “resume your patriotic work”.

This act of civility was only the beginning of what one liberal intellectual called “the sharp and profound Gorbachev-Sakharov dialogue, a dialogue which became one of the engines of our progress”.

When Gorbachev introduced multi-candidate elections to a new Soviet legislature, the Congress of People’s Deputies, Sakharov became one of 2,250 new parliamentarians.

His voice might have been lost in the tumult of this unwieldy assembly. However, Gorbachev repeatedly intervened to allow Sakharov to take the podium and deliver speeches that set the agenda of Russia’s democratic reforms.

After Sakharov died of a heart attack in December 1989, Gorbachev lamented this “great loss” of “a person with his own ideas and convictions, which he expressed openly and directly”.

Contrast this openness to dialogue with Putin’s strange inability to utter even the name of his principal adversary, Aleksei Navalny, who was subject to a decade of vilification, trumped up criminal prosecutions, and violent attacks by Kremlin proxies before state security agents poisoned him with the nerve agent novichok.

Gorbachev’s restraint

There’s no doubt Gorbachev’s greatest achievement was the relatively peaceful dismantlement of a highly militarised totalitarian regime with the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons.

As his power ebbed during the terminal crisis of the USSR, Gorbachev was unable to prevent excesses by military hardliners in the Baltic states. However, at the decisive moment, he resisted the temptation to wage war to preserve the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe or suppress the nationalist movements that were tearing the Soviet federation apart at its seams.

His reticence earned him the vilification of the neo-Stalinists and radical nationalists who dominated Russian opposition politics in the 1990s.

But it almost certainly saved millions of people from the ethnic cleansing and genocidal massacres that devastated the former Yugoslavia, eastern Europe’s other Leninist federation.

Gorbachev’s restraint also unshackled Russia’s civil society after seven decades of totalitarian regimentation. The early years of perestroika witnessed a proliferation of “informal groups”, small clubs of citizens engaged in the kind of associational life that’s the lifeblood of democratic politics.

The most important of these informals was the Memorial Society, which emerged as a group of activists petitioning for the construction of a monument to the victims of Stalinism. As Memorial grew into a grassroots human rights movement, it was denied legal status by obstructionist bureaucrats. Gorbachev, at the prompting of Sakharov’s widow, ordered its registration.

For the next three decades, Memorial shone a spotlight on atrocities in the flashpoints of the former Soviet space and on repression within Russia. Unsurprisingly, it became a principal target of Putin’s anti-NGO laws and the Kremlin’s small army of anti-Western proxies. Last December, when Memorial was banned, Gorbachev spoke out in its defence.

During his six years in power, Gorbachev evolved from a Leninist true believer into a kind of social democrat. In the end, his political credo revolved around the notion of “universal values”, which repudiated Marxism-Leninism’s division of the world into capitalism and socialism.

In the name of universal values, Gorbachev became the only Soviet leader to embrace the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Putin’s ‘traditional values’

For Putin’s propagandists, universal values are an object of derision, a pitiful delusion that blinded naive reformers like Gorbachev to an unfolding national catastrophe.

In its place, they offer “traditional values”, which justify attacks on international human rights norms, domestic repression, and genocidal war in Ukraine. At the same time, these propagandists slander Gorbachev as a criminal who should be tried for treason.

Despite the torrent of hatred directed at him, Gorbachev remained true to universal values. In 1993, while Putin was already mired in the corruption schemes that would make him one of the world’s richest kleptocrats, Gorbachev donated part of the money from his Nobel Prize to the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, a bastion of courageous reportage and liberal values in post-Soviet Russia.

When neo-nazis murdered one of Novaya Gazeta’s journalists alongside Russia’s most prominent human rights lawyer in 2009, Gorbachev accompanied the newspaper’s editor to a meeting in the Kremlin with then President Dmitrii Medvedev to demand action. Like other independent media, Novaya Gazeta became a victim of the domestic crackdown that followed the invasion of Ukraine.

Putin may have levelled Russia’s democratic institutions and pulverised its civic landscape, but he has been unable to extirpate one thing: the memory of the democratic experiment that Gorbachev set in motion.

For decades since the unveiling of glasnost and perestroika, millions of Russians have acted as free citizens, protesting, debating and associating, despite the dangers of an increasingly authoritarian environment. Those experiences cannot be unlived. They are already part of Russia’s democratic tradition. They are Gorbachev’s most enduring legacy.

Robert Horvath receives funding from Australian Research Council.

– ref. Why Gorbachev’s legacy still threatens Putin – https://theconversation.com/why-gorbachevs-legacy-still-threatens-putin-189778

Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Ardern is right to insist on ethical standards, even on chocolate endorsements

By Bryce Edwards -

September 2, 2022

Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards.

Political Roundup: Ardern is right to insist on ethical standards, even on chocolate endorsements

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was right to question Marama Davidson’s endorsement of Whittaker’s chocolate. The rule forbidding ministers from endorsing products or services is a basic protection against corruption. It helps maintain the impartiality of ministers who have enormous individual power when it comes to regulations that directly impact businesses.

Davidson, who is Associate Minister of Housing, purchased a bunch of the Whittaker’s “Creamy Milk” chocolate bars – rebranded for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori as “Miraka Kirīmi” – and posed with them on the steps of Parliament, stating that she loved the company.

Ardern asked the Cabinet Office to remind her Minister of the Cabinet Manual rules, which clearly stipulate “no Minister should endorse in any media any product or service”. Davidson was initially defiant, standing her ground, but eventually relented and edited her social media post to remove the company’s name from her endorsement.

Trivial or serious?

Unsurprisingly in a country in which there is often complacency about corruption or the influence of business in politics, there was much scoffing about the pettiness of the PM’s insistence on ethical standards. To many, an endorsement of a chocolate company was too trivial to get the Green Minister in trouble. One political journalist labelled it “Whittakergate” and evaluated it as “the dumbest political scandal of our time”.

Broadcaster Lloyd Burr protested Ardern’s clampdown on endorsements, saying “It’s an outrageous beat-up that makes me so damned cynical of politics.” Burr argued Ardern had completely overreacted and “like she was the Year 6 classroom monitor, and reported to the head teacher that Greens co-leader Marama Davidson had breached the school rules.”

Even National MP Chris Bishop came to Davidson’s defence saying it was only a “very, very technical breach” of the rules, arguing that something of a blind eye should be turned in this case.

But Ardern did actually need to reassert the rules. It may have been a relatively minor breach of the Cabinet Manual, but it is still a breach. The rule that Ministers shouldn’t get too close to business interests is a good one. The power of capital already plays an outsized influence on political decision-makers, and so for the integrity of the political system there need to be clear guidelines and ethical standards to help prevent corruption, bribery, and nepotism in politics.

In this case, a constitutional rule preventing Ministers from endorsing businesses and their products is a small but significant barrier to politicians cosying up to vested interests.

It might have been “only chocolate” – a product that for some reason gets a free pass in the eyes of many – but Davidson’s actions were a deliberate promotion of a business product and she went out of her way to stage the endorsement in front of the Beehive. The episode has no doubt been a useful advertisement for Whittaker’s.

The importance of preventing a slippery slope of unethical behaviour

The problem is one of slippery slopes and grey areas. Once politicians allow small breaches of ethical rules, it can easily evolve into a culture where greater breaches are made.

Some made the same argument of a “trivial” breach back in 2014 when then Justice Minister Judith Collins was photographed with milk from the Oravida dairy exporting company, for which her husband was a director. At the time, Grant Robertson rightly pursued Collins for breaching the Cabinet Manual rules. And Collins gave her defence: “Shock, horror, I drink milk. I promote New Zealand milk anywhere I go. It’s the finest milk in the world”. But the dairy endorsement eventually played a part in her being sacked as a minister by Prime Minister John Key.

Since then, we have continued to have ministers endorsing companies, so Ardern sending a reminder to her colleagues about the rules is not before time. One of the prime offenders is Stuart Nash, who is often seen endorsing businesses in his electorate. For example, he posted this year: “For good health I always start the day with a glass of warm lemon juice from the Limery.” There are plenty of other examples of ministers in recent governments blatantly promoting businesses, and it appears to be on the increase.

It should also be noted that the Prime Minister herself could be seen as sailing close to the wind in her promotion of designer clothing companies, often accepting free clothes to wear on the international stage. And of course, much of the PM’s overseas travel is about promoting particular New Zealand businesses and their products. She even went on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert in the US to endorse the beef products of Silver Fern Farms.

In the end, it’s the role of the Prime Minister to decide what is a breach of the Cabinet Manual rules, and what consequences a minister should face. So don’t expect the PM’s endorsements to stop anytime soon.

Davidson under fire for virtue signalling while failing on homelessness

Some have suggested Davidson’s chocolate antics are a form of virtue signalling – designed to show how progressive she is while doing very little in terms of homelessness, her area of responsibility as minister.

After Davidson’s promotion of Whittaker’s, Newshub looked at her performance in her portfolio, with journalist Imogen Wells reporting, “since getting the role in 2020, Davidson’s issued just eight press releases and presented only three papers to Cabinet – which were joint with others – and introduced zero Bills to parliament to address homelessness.”

When the journalist challenged Davidson on whether she is actually working hard on the homelessness crisis, the politician replied: “Yes. Absolutely. Without a doubt. Every single hour, every single day.”

Commentators have drawn attention to her former co-leader James Shaw being rolled from his position after party activists felt he hadn’t done enough in his portfolio. Davidson is regarded by many to have done much less, but to be safer because new Green Party constitutional rules require a co-leader who is Māori and one that is female, and she ticks both boxes.

As to suggestions that Davidson spends more time on social media than she does working on homelessness, the minister replied that social media such as Instagram “is where many of our people are, our communities and people who want to engage with us, that’s where we do a lot of it.” She also pointed out that she had been working on a prevention of violence strategy, which she argued could be seen as equivalent to “100 press releases”.

Given the crisis in housing, especially the rise in homelessness under Davidson’s watch, some on the political left found her focus on promoting chocolate branded with te reo Māori to be symbolic of the Greens’ direction.

Leftwing political commentator Steven Cowan questioned the priorities of the Minister for Homelessness: “It is incongruous, to say the least, that Davidson who has a ministerial brief to assist some of the poorest people in the country, should be promoting a brand of chocolate. There are tens of thousands of people either living in emergency accommodation, sleeping rough, or living in cars, garages and on couches across New Zealand. A brand of chocolate labelled in te reo is the least of their concerns.”

It’s certainly true that homelessness is getting worse. For example, last month 1News reported that when the Government came to power there were 51 children living in cars, and by June this year it had skyrocketed to 228. It’s hard to imagine that many of those families are excited about a luxury-brand of chocolate.

Other items of interest and importance today

PARLIAMENT AND GOVERNMENT
Matthew Hooton (Herald): Time’s up for most inept Government ever (paywalled)
Lloyd Burr (Today FM): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is out-of-touch and plagued by missteps
Jo Moir (Newsroom): Bishop set to run National’s 2023 campaign
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): Luxon in danger of becoming the Ian Foster of NZ politics
Bridie Witton (Stuff): National rules out working with Freedoms NZ, a new political party formed of fringe groups
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Labour’s plain language bill passes second reading
Johnny Blades (RNZ): Parliament journos back on the tiles

KIWISAVER FEE TAX U-TURN
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): What next for axed KiwiSaver policy?
ODT: KiwiSaver: Politics trumps policy
Amelia Wade (Newshub): Government accused of undermining confidence in KiwiSaver following tax U-turn
Bernard Hickey: A one-day epic tax fail – and the far bigger tax tragedy behind it
Eric Crampton: An odd approach to tax policy
Kate Hawkesby (Newstalk): This Govt has done it’s chips and panic mode isn’t going to save them
Hamish McNicol (NBR): The KiwiSaver GST ‘disaster’ and chocolate freebies (paywalled)
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Labour’s Michael Wood won’t say if any Cabinet members stood up against KiwiSaver GST plan

LOCAL GOVERNMENT, THREE WATERS, AND ELECTIONS
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Lower voting age and longer terms for local councils – Govt review
Toby Morris (Spinoff): Big tick energy: The 2022 local election hoardings review
Kea Kids News: Auckland mayoral candidates reveal their best dance moves and funny faces
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk): I can’t understand why some people are getting quite this worked up about conspiracy theorists running for council
Tim Brown (RNZ): Local body elections: Why some fringe candidates seek office and what they want to achieve
RNZ: LGNZ launches voter education campaign as conspiracists, extremists stand for election
Jennifer Eder (Stuff): When you ask a candidate if she is part of Voices for Freedom
Tina Law (Stuff): Council bosses organise private meetings with Christchurch mayoral candidates
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Is running on a ticket the antidote to minority mayors? (paywalled)
Georgina Campbell (Herald): The case for councillors, mayors, and their kingdoms (paywalled)
Andreas Heuser (Herald): Five big problems with Three Waters (paywalled)
Richard Harman: Nelson floods raise new questions about three waters (paywalled)

HOMELESSNESS AND HOUSING
Wilhelmina Shrimpton (Today FM): There just aren’t enough state houses and rents are rising
Brad Lewis (Today FM): Rotorua becoming a dumping ground for undesirables thanks to emergency housing motels
Grady Connell (Today FM): ‘It feels like it is growing’ – Lifewise manager on service demands
Richard Norman and Andrew Washington (Stuff): How Wellington’s rating system discourages housing development
Miriam Bell (Stuff): What could NZ learn from Singapore’s high homeownership rate?
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Build taller is the housing lesson from Dublin’s unfair city
Grady Connell (Today FM): New Zealand seeing house prices drop by NZ$710 a day
Anne Gibson (Herald): Home values fall below $1m as downturn accelerates in August
Eva Corlett (Guardian): New Zealand house prices continue to plunge, as national average falls below $1m
Stephen Minto (Daily Blog): Proof market capitalism fails

ECONOMY, EMPLOYMENT, INEQUALITY
Daniel Smith (Stuff): ‘Everything costs so much more’: Young people confront inflation
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Living Wage increases by 90c an hour
Herald: Imports jump by billions, high energy costs blamed as NZ moves into deficit
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Fewer people receive second ‘cost of living’ payment after extra checks kick in
Jason Mika (Herald): The billion dollar Māori economy must look towards the Asia-Pacific region for shared prosperity

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT
Rosie Gordon (RNZ): Climate change experts warn people must rethink trans-Tasman travel habits
Shane Jones (Herald): Less Climate Change Commission puffery, more economic realism (paywalled)
Andrea Vance (Stuff): Greens urge Government to immediately halt bottom trawling on sea mounts

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Geoffrey Miller (World Politics Review): Ardern’s Hot-and-Cold Approach to China Is Getting Harder to Follow
RNZ: NZSIS, GCSB Minister to visit all Five Eyes partners
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Mixed messages on Xinjiang report from NZ politicians
RNZ: UN report on claims of abuse against Uyghurs: Nanaia Mahuta calls on China to respond
John Minto (Daily Blog): Here’s the wrong way to fight racism and anti-semitism

COVID
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Government considers axing Covid traffic lights
Otago Daily Times: Government looks at scrapping mask mandates in some health settings
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern refuses to be drawn on shift to green
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Covid-19 isolation win-win gets no traction

MEDIA AND DEBATE
Simon Louisson (The Standard): Govt public media reform performance makes AB’s look good
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): The Woman with the red umbrella – A short story
Waimanea Nuri (Herald): Newshub’s Oriini Kaipara is breaking glass ceilings in the broadcasting landscape

OTHER
Alexia Russell (RNZ): School trustees: What happens when a board fractures?
Aaron Smale (Newsroom): Crown Law blocks the police in rare, costly legal standoff
RNZ: Paula Tesoriero named to head Whaikaha Disability Ministry

The merger of TVNZ and RNZ needs to build trust in public media – 3 things the law change must get right

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato

With only six days left for submissions to the select committee examining the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media Bill, it is becoming clear this crucial piece of legislation has some significant shortcomings. These will need attention before it passes into law.

The eventual act of parliament will officially merge Radio New Zealand (RNZ) and Television New Zealand (TVNZ) into a new non-profit, autonomous Crown entity. Supporters, including Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson, argue the new organisation will help strengthen public media. Others have expressed concerns about the new entity’s likely independence, given its reliance on government funding.

TVNZ chief executive Simon Power echoed those concerns earlier this week. He strongly criticised the bill’s current provisions for statutory and editorial independence:

I am not worried about that kind of influence from this government or the next government. I just think if the legislation is to endure it has to be robust enough to withstand different types of governments over time.

Power is right to warn against complacency about media freedom. While New Zealand still ranks highly in the World Press Freedom Index (11th out of 180 countries), there have been times in the past when governments have manipulated or directly censored local news media to suit their own political agendas.

In the current age of “fake news” and disinformation, we need to be especially vigilant. While there are good aspects to the proposed law, it fails to adequately deal with several pressing contemporary issues.

Willie Jackson speaking into a microphone — Broadcasting and Media Minister Willie Jackson says the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media Bill will strengthen public media.
Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Trust in government and media

As last year’s Sustaining Aotearoa as a Cohesive Society report highlighted, trust in government and media, and the social cohesion it creates, is a fragile thing. What can take decades to build can fragment if it isn’t nurtured.

According to some global measures, this trust is declining. New Zealand still ranks higher than the OECD average, but distrust is growing here. The Auckland University of Technology’s Journalism, Media and Democracy (JMAD) research centre reports that people’s trust in the news they consume dropped by 10% between 2020 and 2022.

At the same time, the speed and reach of propaganda, misinformation and disinformation have increased dramatically, as witnessed during the COVID pandemic. New Zealand was not immune, as the Disinformation Project has shown. Unreliable and untrustworthy information spread almost as quickly as the virus itself, with an unprecedented spike during the protest at parliament earlier this year.

Finally, journalism continues to be a dangerous profession. Over 1,200 media professionals worldwide were killed for doing their jobs between 2006 and 2020. Online violence against women journalists in particular is on the rise. New Zealand journalists have also found themselves the target of increased levels of animosity.

What the new law needs

Rebuilding trust in the public media starts with firmly enshrining their independence in law. The proposed charter promises the new entity will demonstrate editorial independence, impartiality and balance. This is a good start, but it is only one of ten principles.

This key principle (and ways to measure it) should stand alone in the new law to create a bulwark against any rising fear that governments, either directly or by manipulating budgets and appointments, have undue influence.

The commitment to independence should also be reinforced by ensuring some seats on the proposed entity’s board are reserved for representatives of parliamentary opposition parties. Independent annual review of the entity’s independence and integrity should also be required.

Second, there needs to be a clearer commitment to integrity of information, beyond the existing standards of the news being reliable, accurate, comprehensive, balanced and impartial. Recognising the threat of misinformation and disinformation, and developing ways to counter it, should be a core part of the new entity’s remit. As the bill stands, it is only part of four considerations related to one of several “objectives”.

And thirdly, the law must recognise the independence of journalists and the need to protect them. It’s something of an anomaly that a bill to protect journalists’ sources was put before parliament (although subsequently withdrawn), while journalists themselves don’t enjoy similar protections.

The new public media entity could lead the way in lobbying on behalf of all journalists to ensure those protections, and the tools journalists require to be an effective fourth estate, are consistent with best international practice.

If the law in its final form reflects these fundamental principles, it will go a long way to allaying legitimate concerns about the future independence and integrity of public media in Aotearoa New Zealand.

– ref. The merger of TVNZ and RNZ needs to build trust in public media – 3 things the law change must get right – https://theconversation.com/the-merger-of-tvnz-and-rnz-needs-to-build-trust-in-public-media-3-things-the-law-change-must-get-right-189769

UN report on Xinjiang abuses leaves no room for plausible deniability

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justine Nolan, Professor of Law and Justice and Director of the Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW Sydney

The Chinese regime’s treatment of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim groups in the province of Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity, says a long-awaited report from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

It describes as “credible” allegations of torture, including rape and sexual violence, discrimination, mass detention, forced labour and widespread surveillance.

Multiple reports over the past five years have documented human rights abuses in the far-western province. These include the arbitrary detention of at least 800,000 people, and possibly millions.

Former detainees have testifed about being forced to work in textile factories, producing goods possibly supplied to foreign companies.

In January 2021 the then US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said he believed the Chinese government was committing genocide in a “systematic attempt to destroy Uyghurs”.

But this latest report, published just minutes before midnight on High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s last day in office, comes with the imprimatur of the United Nations.

It is no longer possible for anyone – including the many companies that continue to source products from Xinjiang – to claim plausible deniability.

Companies implicated in slave labour

Xinjiang is China’s largest region. Along with mining resources such as coal, gas, lithium, zinc and lead, it produces about 45% of the world’s polysilicon, a key component in photovoltaic solar panels.

It also produces the vast majority of cotton (84% is a commonly cited number) for China’s textiles and garment manufacturing industry.

A September 2018 report from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, published estimates of the numbers detained in Xinjiang – between tens of thousands and a million.

A 2018 satellite image shows detention camps built near the Kunshan Industrial Park in China's Xinjiang region. — A 2018 satellite image shows detention camps built near the Kunshan Industrial Park in China’s Xinjiang region.
Planet Labs/AP,

The following month the Chinese government finally acknowledged the existence of what it called “vocational training centres”.

But it justified these as necessary to counter “terrorism” and “extremism”.

The latest UN report leaves no doubt large-scale arbitrary detention has occurred. Attempts to pass off camps as vocational or training centres are simply not credible.

As well the possibility of goods sourced directly from Xinjing being made with slave labour, this new UN report also notes the “labour transfer schemes” that force people from Xinjiang to work elsewhere in China.

These transfers mean goods produced in factories throughout China may be tainted with modern slavery.

A 2020 report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute identified 83 Chinese and foreign companies that allegedly benefit from the use of Uyghur workers outside Xinjiang.

The list featured Adidas, Amazon, Apple, BMW, Calvin Klein, Dell, Google, H&M, Hisense, Hitachi, Huawei, Lacoste, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Nike, Nintendo, Sony, Victoria’s Secret, Volkswagen and Zara.

So where to next?

The UN report calls on the Chinese government to release those who have been arbitrarily detained, and to investigate the allegations of human rights violations. This is like asking a fox to guard the hen house.

What is needed is international action and pressure to force change.

The UN Human Rights Council, composed of representatives from 47 member states, should be spurred by this report to start a comprehensive investigation, in line with the obligations of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

This should also be a catalyst for individual nations to do more to stamp out modern slavery from supply chains, ensuring goods produced with forced labour – in China or elsewhere – cannot be imported.

This is also provides a clear signal for anyone doing business with China (not just Xinjiang) on the need to conduct adequate due diligence to ensure they are not benefiting indirectly from human rights abuses.

This includes technology companies that sell surveillance and security products to China.

Until there is broader access and independent verification of working conditions in Xinjiang, business should now assume that goods connected with this region are tainted with modern slavery.

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

– ref. UN report on Xinjiang abuses leaves no room for plausible deniability – https://theconversation.com/un-report-on-xinjiang-abuses-leaves-no-room-for-plausible-deniability-189795

More than a murder mystery, Savage River is a gripping new take on the Australian Gothic

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Maguire, Lecturer in English and Creative Writing, James Cook University

Review: Savage River, directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse.

Newly released from prison for a murder she committed in her teens, Miki Anderson (Katherine Langford) has returned to her home town Savage River. She is determined to leave the past behind her, but when another murder occurs just days after Miki returns, the town’s mistrust deepens.

Determined to find out the truth and clear her name, Miki decides to uncover the real killer, unearthing long-hidden secrets along the way.

It might be tempting to assume you know how this story goes, but this new six-part drama from the ABC is not your typical murder mystery.

Savage River explores complex social territory as the town’s class and race tensions emerge as key to the narrative.

Miki is a riveting portrayal of complex, conflicted femininity. Langford is brilliant, bringing a moving combination of toughness and vulnerability to the role, serving up scathing glares and a back-off attitude that belies both Miki’s experience of prison and the way this character remains partially stuck in her teenage identity.

Shiny pink nail polish and sun-drenched memories of bike rides clash against the drab fluorescent dejection of a local pub, and blood pooling on an abattoir floor.

The Australian Gothic

The score (composition by Bryony Marks) creates a haunting, atmospheric quality, and the series works in classic Gothic tropes: a ghostly landscape, an isolated rural setting marked by decay, themes of entrapment and claustrophobia, and an unresolved past intruding on the present.

It represents a contemporary take on the Australian Gothic.

Australian Gothic has been associated with a colonial gaze that sees horror in the “uncivilised” Australian bush or outback, evocatively rendered in Wake in Fright (1971) and Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975).

Three men in an abattoir — This is a contemporary take on Australian Gothic.
ABC TV

In the colonial imagination, the Australian landscape has been figured as a source of terror hiding any number of unknown threats to colonisers. In Australian Gothic works, they grapple with alienation, melancholy and isolation, mirroring fears inspired by the colonial experience.

This white, colonial gaze is interrogated rather than replicated in Savage River. While the regional Victorian bush provides an atmospheric setting, the sense of threat and violence centres instead on the town’s abattoir.

Facing secret financial difficulties, long past its zenith as the economic saviour of the town, the meat works is a site of white patriarchy. It was founded by the ageing mayor’s father, and is owned by the mayor’s son Kevin (Daniel Hensall), keeping the place afloat by exploiting refugees with precarious visa conditions.

When Miki gets a job at the abattoir we see a brutal reality: Savage River is a town built on blood and slaughter, a truth that references the colonial violence at the foundation of modern Australia.

Who is acknowledged as missing?

Australian Gothic is not the only genre Savage River plays with. The plot is driven by a murder mystery when, just days after Miki returns home, a white man goes missing and is then found dead.

Parallel to this man’s disappearance, a refugee woman named Laila (Haya Abbas) has been missing for days. As Laila’s sister Jamila (Maia Abbas) tries in vain to get the men around her to take Laila’s disappearance seriously, the show draws attention to the town’s uneven attitudes to the two missing people.

A white male cop and a muslim woman. — Savage River considers how different lives are valued.
ABC TV

In one scene the town’s resident copper and typical “mediocre white man” – Bill Kirby (Robert Grubb), is setting up for the town’s annual celebration.

As Bill sets traffic cones on the grass he is on the phone, reporting the white man missing with a tone of concern in his voice. Jamila approaches him and appeals to him to help her find Laila, who she says is gone, like the man who is missing. Bill is wilfully confused, asking, “Gone where?”.

When Jamila implores him to please look for Laila, Bill gestures around at the preparations with exasperation, and fobs her off saying, “Well I can’t do anything today,” as if his hands are tied.

The town festivities take precedence over Laila’s disappearance.

Attributed to journalist Gwen Ifill, the term “missing white woman syndrome” is used to describe this deeply unequal media coverage and public attention, along racial lines.

Murder mysteries often replicate this syndrome, in blonde screen icons like Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks (1990), as well as more recent adaptations Gone Girl (2014) and The Girl on the Train (2016).

Savage River refuses racist, misogynist and classist tropes. Here, the sense of menace emanates from the town’s patriarchal, capitalist leaders who have made their fortune by slaughtering animals. The apathy and racism of police is problematised, and white, male power is explored as a corrupting influence.

The show has a whole lot of heart, too, with some truly endearing characters. With a ripping plot, the story will sweep you away.

Savage River is on ABC TV and ABC iView from September 4.

Emma Maguire 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. More than a murder mystery, Savage River is a gripping new take on the Australian Gothic – https://theconversation.com/more-than-a-murder-mystery-savage-river-is-a-gripping-new-take-on-the-australian-gothic-188739

Who would win in a fight between a great white shark and a blue whale?

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chandra Salgado Kent, Associate Professor, School of Science, Edith Cowan University

This article is part of the “Who would win?” series, where wildlife experts dream up hypothetical battles between predators (all in the name of science).

One is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The other is a revered predator at the top of its food chain. But would a blue whale and a great white shark ever find themselves at odds with each other in the wild?

While such observations of sharks attacking whales are few, we know it does occur.
The scars many whales bear throughout their lives resulting from shark attacks are more than sufficient evidence sharks will have a go if an opportunity arises.

Their fight is about survival – a potentially much longed-for next meal for a shark, and the whale’s desperate defence to ensure the next generation’s survival. So, which of these impressive marine giants would win?

White sharks have teeth designed to rip flesh.
Marcelo Cidrack/Unsplash, CC BY

A grand banquet

At up to 30 metres long and weighing over 100 tonnes, a blue whale easily outsizes a white shark, which can measure perhaps over 6m and weigh less than a tonne.

But the blue whale didn’t get so big from killing and eating other large animals such as sharks. Rather, they evolved an efficient way of consuming very large amounts of tiny prey: krill.

They lunge through dense patches of thousands, if not millions, of krill, with large, gaping jaws that can open up to around 80 degrees.

The lunge builds enormous water pressure against their mouth, inflating the pleat-like grooved blubber around their mouth cavity to balloon like an accordion’s bellows. With this remarkable device, blue whales can engulf thousands of litres of water in one go.

Instead of teeth, blue whales (along with humpbacks, and many other whale species) have bristle-like baleen, which strain the small organisms from the water when their mouth cavity is compressed. This is how blue whales maximise their energy intake while minimising effort.

A blue whale lunging for krill | National Geographic.

Sharks, on the other hand, are highly specialised apex predators that hunt and capture large animals, such as large fish, seals and sea lions, and sometimes even dolphins.

They are well designed for this, with streamlined bodies designed for ambush-and-chase style hunting. They also have flexible and extensible jaws and sharp teeth designed to grab and rip flesh.

If a shark could successfully capture a large whale, the winnings would be one of a grand banquet. After all, what better meal than the massive source of high energy of the meat and thick, fatty blubber a whale brings!

Indeed, media reports often capture images of sharks lurking around large whale carcasses.

So, have these carcasses resulted from shark predation? Or have these whales died from an otherwise unknown ailment, or human impacts such as fishing gear entanglement?

A white shark taking a bite out of a dead whale.
Shutterstock

A formidable defender

Large sharks are not only hunters, but also scavengers. Growing evidence suggests whale carcasses are an important part of the diets of large sharks. In fact, the fat in whale blubber can significantly increase a shark’s metabolism.

With whale meat and blubber an important food for sharks, why might they not also hunt whales while they’re alive? It turns out whales can indeed become a large and highspeed target.

Blue whales’ highly streamlined bodies, however, have evolved to travel as fast as 40 kilometres per hour, for as much as an hour or more. Their speed and endurance make them difficult prey to catch for sharks.

Sharks employ more of a sit and wait strategy to conserve energy, and pursue prey over short, fast bursts of speed of up to at least 11 metres per second.

But the difficulties for a shark in capturing a blue whale don’t end with their limited endurance at high speed. Unless you’re a large shark, say, over several meters long, you simply may not have sufficient power in your jaws to effectively tear off the meat, even if you could keep up with a blue whale.

Some other baleen whales, such as southern right whales that can reach over 16m-long, are less streamlined than blue whales due to their chunkier, but more flexible, bodies. For them, a fight rather than flight defence strategy against predators may be taken.

To defend against killer whales, for example, such whales have been reported to group together and defend themselves with powerful tail, pectoral fin or head blows at their attackers.

Right whales have also been observed taking these strong stances to protect their vulnerable calves. A well-calculated and well-timed tail slap or body slam may be life threatening to a predator.

Orcas attack a blue whale, and the blue whale flees | National Geographic.

But when do the advantages of the predator defence mechanisms that whales have evolved start to wane? The answer is: when the odds are stacked against them.

When a whale is vulnerable – perhaps it’s no older than a few weeks or months, or perhaps it’s unwell or otherwise compromised – it doesn’t have the same speed and defences of a healthy adult whale.

So which species would win?

As true for all things, it is situational. A whale threatened by a white shark could cause damage to its attacker. A blue whale also has the added advantage of high-speed endurance to flee if it prefers.

But if the whale is already vulnerable – such as a worn-out and debilitated whale entangled in fishing nets – then persistent and well-calculated attacks that cause the whale to bleed out can result in the shark winning and whale losing.

There was an interesting case off Massachusetts Bay in the United States in July 2015, when this almost certain destiny was reversed. The brave Marine Animal Entanglement Response team managed to free a severely entangled humpback whale that had sustained injuries from a 5m white shark.

The fact the entanglement made the whale vulnerable leaves food for thought on our own role in putting many whales at greater, unnatural risk of death – including many in endangered populations already struggling under human pressures.

I take this story as testament to the compassionate nature of humanity. But it’s also a sobering reminder of the urgent need for us to transition our current harmful practices to ones that are sustainable.

Chandra Salgado Kent receives funding fromt the National Environmental Science Program and the Australian Research Council for whale research.

– ref. Who would win in a fight between a great white shark and a blue whale? – https://theconversation.com/who-would-win-in-a-fight-between-a-great-white-shark-and-a-blue-whale-164864

Seahorse fathers give birth in a unique way, new research shows

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Suzanne Dudley, Postdoctoral Fellow in Evolutionary Biology, Macquarie University

In seahorses and pipefish, it is the male that gets pregnant and gives birth. Seahorse fathers incubate their developing embryos in a pouch located on their tail.

The pouch is the equivalent of the uterus of female mammals. It contains a placenta, supporting the growth and development of baby seahorses.

Seahorse dads provide nutrients and oxygen to their babies during pregnancy, using some of the same genetic instructions as mammalian pregnancy.

However, when it comes to giving birth, our research shows male seahorses seem to rely on elaborate behaviours and their unique body structure to facilitate labour.

How animals give birth

Labour is a complex biological process that in female pregnant animals is controlled by hormones including oxytocin. In mammals and reptiles, oxytocin induces contractions in the smooth muscles of the uterus.

There are three main types of muscle: smooth muscle, skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle.

Smooth muscle is found in the walls of most internal organs and blood vessels. This muscle type is not under conscious control. For example, your intestines are lined with smooth muscle, which rhythmically contracts to move food through your gut without you having to consciously control it.

A male seahorse with his pouch filled with water in a mating display.
Kymberlie R McGuire, CC BY

Skeletal muscle is found throughout your body and attaches to bones via tendons, allowing body movement. This type of muscle is under conscious control. For example, your bicep muscles when contracted allow you to consciously bend your arm.

Cardiac muscle is specific to the heart and is also under involuntary control.

In female mammals the uterine wall contains abundant smooth muscle. Oxytocin stimulates this smooth muscle to contract, helping bring about labour.

These uterine contractions are spontaneous and involuntary. We can measure these uterine contractions in response to oxytocin, and the results are consistent in both mammals and reptiles.

How do male seahorses give birth?

Our team of researchers from the University of Sydney and the University of Newcastle set out to determine how labour works in male seahorses.

Our genetic data suggested seahorse labour might involve a similar process to labour in female mammals. A study in 1970 also showed that when non-pregnant male seahorses were exposed to the fish version of oxytocin (called isotocin), they expressed labour-like behaviours.

Male seahorses give birth, but they don’t do it the way female animals do.
Shutterstock

Therefore, we predicted seahorse males would use oxytocin-family hormones to control the process of giving birth via contracting smooth muscles inside the brood pouch.

What we found

First, we exposed pieces of seahorse pouch to isotocin. While isotocin caused our control tissues (intestine) to contract, surprisingly this hormone produced no contractions in the brood pouch.

The result led us to wonder about the anatomy of the pouch. When we examined the pouch under a microscope, we found it contains only scattered small bundles of smooth muscle, far less than the uterus of female mammals. This explained why the pouch did not contract in our experiments.

In the human uterus (left), the entire outer layer is comprised of smooth muscle. The seahorse pouch (right) only has small smooth muscle bundles scattered throughout the outer layers of the pouch.
Jessica Suzanne Dudley / VWR, Author provided

Using 3D imaging techniques combined with microscopy, we then compared the body structure of male and female pot-bellied seahorses.

In males, we found three bones positioned near the pouch opening, associated with large skeletal muscles. These types of bones and muscles control the anal fin in other fish species. In seahorses, the anal fin is miniscule and has little or no function in swimming.

So, the large muscles associated with the tiny seahorse fin are surprising. The anal fin muscles and bones are much larger in male seahorses than in female seahorses, and their orientation suggests they could control the opening of the pouch.

The skeleton of the male seahorse appears to be adapted for giving birth.
Jessica Suzanne Dudley, Author provided

Seahorse courtship behaviour provides a clue

Seahorse courtship is an elaborate process. Males open and fill their pouch with water by bending forward and contracting their bodies to force water into the pouch, before “dancing” with the female.

Similarly, during labour, male seahorses bend their body towards the tail, pressing and then relaxing. This “pressing” behaviour is accompanied by brief gaping of the pouch opening, with a series of whole-body jerks. This movement combined with pouch opening allows seawater to flush through the pouch.

Jerking and pressing continues, the pouch opening gets gradually bigger, and groups of seahorse babies are ejected with each movement. Many hundreds of babies are ejected in a short time.

A seahorse father undergoing labour.

Our findings suggest the opening of the pouch for courtship and birth is facilitated by contractions of the large skeletal muscles located near the pouch opening. We propose that these muscles control the opening of the seahorse pouch, allowing seahorse fathers to consciously control the expulsion of their young at the end of pregnancy.

Future biomechanical and electrophysiological studies are needed to examine the force required to contract these muscles and test whether they do control the opening of the pouch.

Different ways to solve a problem

A male seahorse with his pouch tightly closed.
Anthony Pearson, CC BY

Our unexpected results suggest male seahorses use different mechanisms to give birth compared to female pregnant animals.

We speculate that oxytocin-family hormones, instead of primarily producing smooth muscle contractions, trigger the cascade of seahorse behaviours that lead to birth.

Despite the similarities that male seahorses share with female mammals and reptiles during pregnancy, it seems seahorse fathers have a unique way of giving birth to their young.

– ref. Seahorse fathers give birth in a unique way, new research shows – https://theconversation.com/seahorse-fathers-give-birth-in-a-unique-way-new-research-shows-188644

Why is newborn baby skin-to-skin contact with dads and non-birthing parents important? Here’s what the science says

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Steen, Adjunct professor of Maternal and Family Health, University of South Australia

Soon after a baby is born, it’s getting more common these days for the father or non-birthing parent to be encouraged to put the newborn directly on their chest. This skin-to-skin contact is often termed “kangaroo care”, as it mimics the way kangaroos provide warmth and security to babies.

Mothers have been encouraged to give kangaroo care for decades now and many do so instinctively after giving birth; it has been shown to help mum and baby connect and with breastfeeding.

So what does the evidence say about kangaroo care for other parents?

A growing body of research

A growing body of research shows kangaroo care brings benefits for both baby and parent.

One study that measured cortisol (a stress hormone) levels and blood pressure in new fathers found:

Fathers who held their baby in skin-to-skin contact for the first time showed a significant reduction in physiological stress responses.

Another study in Taiwan involving fathers and neonates (newborn babies) found benefits to bonding and attachment:

These study results confirm the positive effects of skin-to-skin contact interventions on the infant care behaviour of fathers in terms of exploring, talking, touching, and caring and on the enhancing of the father-neonate attachment.

A paper I co-authored with the University of South Australia’s Qiuxia Dong found:

Studies reported several positive kangaroo care benefits for fathers such as reduced stress, promotion of paternal role and enhanced father–infant bond.

Qiuxia Dong also led a study (on which I was a co-author) exploring the experiences of fathers who had a baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide.

This study found kangaroo care helps fathers connect and bond with their baby in an intensive care environment. This had a positive impact on fathers’ confidence and self-esteem. As one father told us:

I think after all the stress, when I have skin-to-skin I can actually calm down a little bit. I sit down and relax, I can cuddle my child and it’s just a little bit of a happy place for me as well as him to calm down, not to do any work all the time, not to be stressed out. There’s other things on my mind all the time but it’s time to relax and turn off a little bit.

Another told us:

She nuzzled around a bit, kind of got my smell I guess and then literally fell asleep. It was great. It was very comforting for both I guess for her and myself.

As one father put it:

Of course, they can hear your heartbeat and all that kind of stuff, of course warmth […] it’s being close with your baby, I think that would be the best way of building a relationship early.

However, this study also reported that some dads found giving kangaroo care challenging as it can be time-consuming. It is not always easy to juggle with commitments such as caring for other children and work.

Involving both parents

One study noted dads can sometimes feel like a bystander on the periphery when a newborn arrives.

Encouraging and educating all non-birthing parents, including fathers, to give kangaroo care is a valuable way to get them involved. And if a caesarean birth makes it difficult for the mother to give kangaroo care while still in theatre, the father or non-birthing parent is the next best person to do it while the mother or birthing parent is not able.

A caesarean birth sometimes makes it difficult for the mother to give kangaroo care while still in the theatre.
Isaac Hermar/Pexels, CC BY

More research needed

There is a need for broader research on these issues, especially around the experiences of fathers from culturally diverse backgrounds and other non-birthing parents.

But the research literature on kangaroo care shows there is good reason for dads and non-birthing parents to do some kangaroo care when a baby is born. As we concluded in our study, in the challenging neonatal intensive care unit environment, kangaroo care can serve:

as a silent language of love.

Mary Steen 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 is newborn baby skin-to-skin contact with dads and non-birthing parents important? Here’s what the science says – https://theconversation.com/why-is-newborn-baby-skin-to-skin-contact-with-dads-and-non-birthing-parents-important-heres-what-the-science-says-188927

Good news – there’s a clean energy gold rush under way. We’ll need it to tackle energy price turbulence and coal’s exodus

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bjorn Sturmberg, Research Leader, Battery Storage & Grid Integration Program, Australian National University

This week, the Australian Energy Market Operator warned gaps in electricity supply are likely within three years.

The reason? Coal plants are quitting the market earlier than expected, as well as becoming less reliable. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove coal, gas, petrol and diesel prices to painful highs. Domestic energy bills are soaring too, due in large part to ballooning gas prices. At one stage, outages and fuel shortages at coal and gas plants, coupled with low solar and wind output, very nearly cut power to a third of all east coast customers.

But the good news is there’s a clean energy gold rush under way, now we have a legislated emissions target and strong engagement between state and federal energy ministers. Investors are moving with increased confidence, accelerating their investments in clean energy generation and storage.

Even so, there’s a big task ahead to reach the goal of 82% renewables by 2030. We’ll need rapid deployment – not only to meet grid demand, but also new demand from the move to “electrify everything” in our homes and on our roads.

So what changes can you expect to see?

Solar panels and wind farms will pop up in many more places

The first thing you’re likely to notice is the rapid construction of new clean energy projects.

Over the past year, many of our coal power stations have become less reliable due to old age, heat stress and lack of fuel. There’s going to be a rush to the exit for coal. What’s the point of operators spending money propping up power stations at the end of their service life?

As a result, five coal plants are now expected to shut by the end of the decade – significantly more than anticipated.

What will replace them? Solar and wind farms, as these are the cheapest forms of new generation, supported by energy storage in batteries and pumped hydro.

The market operator conservatively expects 7.3 gigawatts of new generation to be built by the end of 2026-27, with half this again (3.4GW) “anticipated” to be built, meaning AEMO has a good degree of confidence these renewables will be built.

Even so, this is only a tiny fraction of the estimated 45GW of renewable opportunities in Australia readily available to investors and clean energy developers. We’ll need to build all 45GW – and then at least 5GW more – to hit our renewable target of 82%.

Unlike thermal power stations, solar and wind farms are made of simple building blocks that are quicker to scale in manufacturing and deployment.

In particular, you can expect to see solar and wind farms popping up in renewable energy zones like New England and the central west of New South Wales. These zones are designed to share the costs of new grid construction amongst a concentration of clean energy generation in areas with good sun and wind resources.

Batteries to store and transmission lines to move electricity

Further major infrastructure investments will be made into energy storage and transmission lines.

The increasing value to the grid of storage is driving major investments like the plans for A$1 billion of new grid-scale batteries recently announced by US investment giant Blackrock, as well as AGL’s A$763 million plan to build batteries next to the decommissioned Liddell coal power plant.

Much of this investment is occurring in coal country, like Victoria’s Gippsland and the Hunter Valley in NSW. Here, companies are vying to place grid-scale batteries at old coal stations. Why? To take advantage of the existing strong connections to the grid.

While our existing transmission infrastructure will host many new renewable power stations and batteries, new transmission lines will need to be built. Especially between states, like EnergyConnect between NSW and South Australia, as well as new grid extensions to connect renewable energy zones to major cities.

A focus on flexible use of power

In addition to the infrastructure placed in the grid, there will be a new focus on unlocking the value of flexibility in energy demand to better match the variability of when solar and wind plants generate electricity.

Storage is one source of flexibility. Timing our own electricity use is another.

Flexible energy use is far less resource intensive than new infrastructure and offers the greatest benefit to system reliability. But it relies on human behaviour and our willingness to change established habits.

Expect to see strong price incentives for you to use electricity when it’s abundant. The sunniest hours are already the cheapest time to use power in most of Australia – and this will only get cheaper.

Not only that, but you will likely see grid incentives at times of peak demand. Picture notifications offering you a financial incentive to turn off energy-hungry appliances such as electric vehicle chargers, home batteries and heaters use at particular times – and for these functions to be offered through automation.

This focus on the demand-side of electricity use is already well understood by energy-hungry industries. Last year, for the first time, this demand response was enabled for home users as well.

What can you to do prepare?

The long-overdue energy transformation will affect everyone, in how we use energy at home as well as the infrastructure in our communities.

This transition depends on us all for support and direction. Projects will need social licence – support by local communities – political backing, and, in some cases, personal investment in technology and services.

Investments of time will be particularly important if we want to save billions of dollars and millions of tonnes of critical materials through making demand-side flexibility a reality.

So be ready to see change, and to take part in it. While change can be daunting, the energy transition is really about embracing flexible new paths to the same goal, as my children’s book on the energy transition shows. And the benefits are huge: abundant, cheap power, generated locally and in flourishing regions.

Bjorn Sturmberg has received funding from the State and Federal governments, including from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, for work related to solar, batteries, microgrids, and electric vehicles. He is the author of the illustrated children’s book, Amy’s Balancing Act.

– ref. Good news – there’s a clean energy gold rush under way. We’ll need it to tackle energy price turbulence and coal’s exodus – https://theconversation.com/good-news-theres-a-clean-energy-gold-rush-under-way-well-need-it-to-tackle-energy-price-turbulence-and-coals-exodus-188804

The Artemis I mission marks the start of a new space race to mine the Moon

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Steer, Deputy Director, Institute for Space (InSpace), Australian National University

NASA plans to launch the Artemis I lunar mission this Saturday, September 3, after a first attempt earlier in the week was cancelled at the last minute due to engine trouble.

The mission is an exciting step towards returning humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972. But this time it’s not just about putting our footprints on lunar dust: it marks the beginning of a new space race for lunar resources. This time around, everybody wants to mine the Moon.

Return to the Moon

Much about the Artemis program is noble and inspiring.

Artemis I is the program’s first mission, and it will carry out a 42-day uncrewed test flight to orbit the Moon and return to Earth. The trip will use a new launch vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS), which is the most powerful rocket currently operational in the world.

On board will be three mannequins made of materials replicating male and female biology. NASA will use the mannequins to test the comfort and safety of the launch vehicle and spaceflight capsule for humans.

There are also many other experiments on board, and a series of small satellites will be launched to provide data when the capsule nears the Moon.

The lessons from this mission will be applied to Artemis II, the mission planned for 2024 that will see the first woman and the first person of colour reach the Moon.

A new space race?

However, humanity’s return to the Moon is not all about exploration and the pursuit of knowledge. Just as the 1960s space race was driven by Cold War geopolitics, today’s space programs are underpinned by today’s geopolitics.

Artemis is led by the US, with participation by the European Space Agency and many other friendly nations including Australia.

China and Russia are collaborating on their own Moon program. They plan to land humans in 2026 and construct a Moon base by 2035.

India too is working on robotic Moon landers and a lunar spaceflight program. The UAE plans to launch a lunar lander in November this year as well.

All of these programs are aiming to do more than simply land astronauts for brief visits to the Moon. The longer-term goal of the race is to acquire lunar resources.

Resources on the Moon

Water ice has been found in the southern regions of the Moon, and it is hoped certain gases that can be used for fuels can also be mined.

These resources could be used to support long-term human habitation on and near the Moon in lunar bases, as well as permanent space stations orbiting the Moon, such as NASA’s planned Gateway.

The Australian Space Agency is supporting Australian industry to be part of the Artemis program and America’s planned later voyages to Mars. Australian scientists are also developing lunar rovers to assist lunar mining efforts.

Eventually, what we learn on the Moon will be used to advance to Mars. But, in the near term, the countries and associated commercial entities that get to the best mining sites first will dominate an emerging lunar economy and lunar politics.

What are the rules?

In the next five years or so we can expect to see enormous political tensions rising around this new race to the Moon.

One question that is yet to be answered: what laws will govern activities on the Moon?

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits appropriation in space “by claims of sovereignty, occupation or by any other means”. It is so far unclear whether mining or other forms of resource extraction fall under this prohibition.

The United Nations has a working group that aims to develop a multilateral consensus on legal aspects of space resource activities.

However, in 2020 the US got out in front of the UN process by establishing the Artemis Accords, which state that resource extraction will occur and is lawful. Twenty-one countries, including Australia, have signed these accords with the US, but they are far from universally accepted.

Another relevant treaty is the 1979 Moon Agreement, signed by 18 countries including Australia. This agreement states that no entity can own any part of the Moon, and obliges us to establish a regulatory regime for lunar mining “at such a time as the technology is about to become feasible”.

Australia is therefore between a lunar rock and a hard place as to what role we will play in developing these new laws. But international law-making and consensus-building are slow: most likely actual practice will be established in the next few years, and decisions on how to govern it will come after the fact.

Technical and political challenges

There is some poetic perfection in NASA having chosen the name “Artemis” for this new lunar endeavour. Artemis is the Greek goddess of the Moon, and the twin sister of Apollo (the namesake of NASA’s 1960s Moon spaceflight program).

Artemis declared she never wanted to be married because she didn’t want to become the property of any man.

Even if ownership of the Moon cannot be claimed, we will see competition over whether parts of it can be mined. No doubt scientists and engineers will resolve the technical challenges of the return to the Moon. Resolving the legal and political challenges may prove more difficult.

Cassandra Steer receives funding from Geoscience Australia and the Department of Defence. In the past she has received funding from DFAT, and from the Canadian and US Departments of Defence. She is affiliated with the Space Industry Association of Australia, and is the co-founder of the Australian Centre for Space Governance.

– ref. The Artemis I mission marks the start of a new space race to mine the Moon – https://theconversation.com/the-artemis-i-mission-marks-the-start-of-a-new-space-race-to-mine-the-moon-189536

Yes, you can reheat food more than once. Here’s why

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Enzo Palombo, Professor of Microbiology, Swinburne University of Technology

Preparing meals in bulk and reheating is a great way to save time in the kitchen and can also help to reduce food waste. You might have heard the myth that you can only reheat food once before it becomes unsafe to eat.

The origins of food myths are often obscure but some become embedded in our culture and scientists feel compelled to study them, like the “five second rule” or “double-dipping”.

The good news is that by following some simple steps when preparing and storing foods, it is possible to safely reheat foods more than once.

Why can food make us sick?

There are many ways bacteria and viruses can end up in foods. They may occur naturally in environments where food is harvested or contaminate foods during processing or by food handlers.

Viruses won’t grow in foods and will be destroyed by cooking (or proper reheating). On the other hand, bacteria can grow in food. Not all bacteria make us sick. Some are even beneficial, such as probiotics in yoghurt or starter cultures used to make fermented foods.

However, some bacteria are not desirable in foods. These include bacteria which reproduce and cause physical changes making food unpalatable (or spoiled), and pathogens, which cause illness.

Some pathogens grow in our gut and cause symptoms of gastroenteritis, while others produce toxins (poisons) which cause us to become sick. Some bacteria even produce special structures, called endospores, which survive for a long time – even years – until they encounter favourable conditions which allow them to grow and produce toxins.

While cooking and reheating will generally kill pathogenic bacteria in foods, they may not destroy toxins or endospores. When it comes to reheating foods, toxins pose the greatest risk of illness.

The risk increases in foods which have been poorly handled or cooled too slowly after initial cooking or reheating, since these conditions may allow toxin-producing bacteria to grow and proliferate.

Food in containers — The food ‘danger zone’ is between five and 60 degrees.
ella olsson/unsplash, CC BY

Bacteria that cause foodborne illness typically grow at temperatures between 5°C and 60°C (the “temperature danger zone”), with fastest growth occurring at around 37°C.

Foods that are best able to support the growth of these bacteria are deemed “potentially hazardous” and include foods or dishes containing meat, dairy, seafood, cooked rice or pasta, eggs or other protein-rich ingredients.

A common culprit of food poisoning linked to reheated foods is Staphylococcus aureus which many people carry in their nose or throat. It produces a heat-stable toxin which causes vomiting and diarrhoea when ingested.

Food handlers can transfer these bacteria from their hands to foods after cooking or reheating. If the contaminated food is kept within the temperature danger zone for an extended period, Staphylococcus aureus will grow and produce toxins. Subsequent reheating will destroy the bacteria but not the toxins.

How to keep food safe to eat, even when reheating

To limit the growth of bacteria, potentially hazardous foods should be kept outside of the temperature danger zone as much as possible. This means keeping cold foods cold (less than 5°C) and hot foods hot (above 60°C). It also means after cooking, potentially hazardous foods should be cooled to less than 5°C as quickly as possible. This also applies to reheated foods you want to save for later.

When cooling foods, Food Standards Australia New Zealand recommends the temperature should fall from 60°C to 21°C in less than two hours and be reduced to 5°C or colder in the next four hours.

In practice, this means transferring hot foods to shallow containers to cool to room temperature, and then transferring the covered containers to the fridge to continue cooling. It’s not a good idea to put hot foods straight into the fridge. This can cause the fridge temperature to increase above 5°C which may affect the safety of other foods inside.

If food has been hygienically prepared, cooled quickly after cooking (or reheating) and stored cold, reheating more than once should not increase the risk of illness. However, prolonged storage and repeated reheating will affect the taste, texture, and sometimes the nutritional quality of foods.

Person squeezing lemon on fish — If food has been hygienically prepared, cooled quickly, and stored cold, reheating more than once should not increase the risk of illness.
ello/unsplash, CC BY

When it comes to safely reheating (and re-reheating) foods, there are a few things to consider:

always practice good hygiene when preparing foods
after cooking, cool foods on the bench either in small portions or in shallow containers (increased surface area reduces cooling time) and put in the fridge within two hours. Food should be cold (less than 5°C) within the next four hours
try to reheat only the portion you intend to immediately consume and make sure it is piping hot throughout (or invest in a thermometer to ensure the internal temperature reaches 75°C)
if you don’t consume reheated food immediately, avoid handling it and return it to the fridge within two hours
err on the side of caution if reheating food for vulnerable people including children, elderly, pregnant or immunocompromised people. If in doubt, throw it out.

With the ever-increasing cost of food, buying in bulk, preparing meals in large quantities and storing unused portions is convenient and practical. Following a few simple common sense rules will keep stored food safe and minimise food waste.

Enzo Palombo receives funding from the Fight Food Waste CRC.

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

– ref. Yes, you can reheat food more than once. Here’s why – https://theconversation.com/yes-you-can-reheat-food-more-than-once-heres-why-184158

Governments are making nursing degrees cheaper or ‘free’ – these plans are not going to help attract more students

By The Conversation -

September 2, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University

Australian politicians like the idea that cheap nursing courses can increase the number of nurses, one of Australia’s most in-demand occupations over the next five years.

As of 2021, the previous federal government cut nursing student contributions by 40% to just under A$4,000 a year. The Victorian government is going a step further, temporarily covering tuition costs for nursing and midwifery undergraduate degrees. As Premier Daniel Andrews describes the move, it is part of “building an army of homegrown health workers to care for Victorians”.

Neither policy is likely to have much impact on the numbers of students who start nursing courses. But if redesigned as a cash payment, the Victorian policy would make it easier for nursing students to complete their courses.

The Victorian government policy on nursing and midwifery courses

The Victorian government policy will apply to students beginning undergraduate nursing and midwifery courses in 2023 and 2024.

These students will still have to pay, or defer under the HELP loan scheme, some student contributions while they study. The Victorian government will pay $9,000 while the student is enrolled, $3,000 less than the $12,000 total course cost for a three year nursing degree.

Nursing and midwifery graduates who work in the Victorian public health sector for two years after finishing their course will receive an additional $7,500. This could clear their remaining HELP debt.

Nursing degree fees are not an obstacle

Thanks to the HELP loan scheme, tuition fees are not a major obstacle to domestic students signing up to higher education.

HELP repayments should be considered in educational decision-making, but in the context of the financial benefits of a degree. It is important to note HELP loans are only repaid on annual earnings above $48,361.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews (centre) greets a healthcare worker on Tuesday, during a visit with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet. — Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews (centre) announced the’free’ nursing studies policy ahead of a state election in November.
David Crosling/AAP

Using Census 2016 data, the Grattan Institute calculated a female nursing graduate with mid-range income earned about $650,000 more over her career, after tax, than a woman who finished her education at Year 12.

While other careers are more lucrative than nursing, reducing nursing student contributions to zero cannot make a significant financial difference to the choice between nursing and other courses. It will save nursing graduates about $12,000 – equivalent to two or three months difference in the length of a working life – not the difference in lifetime earnings between occupations.

Living expenses

Although student contributions can be deferred with a HELP loan, most students fund their own living expenses. Student income support payments are low and, apart from a COVID-related spike, the number of students receiving them has trended down.

To finance themselves while studying, most full-time tertiary students – about 70% in recent months – have paid jobs. According to the higher education Student Experience Survey released last week, 37% of students say paid work interferes with their studies.

For nursing students, clinical training requirements create additional living expense issues. They must undertake at least 800 hours of supervised activity in a hospital or another clinical setting.

Clinical training may take place at a location far from the student’s home. Nursing students have often reported this as an issue, as they may not be able to do their normal paid work and they incur additional travel costs.

Scholarships paid in cash would help most

The Victorian government announcement refers directly to tuition costs. But some of it will be paid in cash, as the total value is $16,500 for students who complete their nursing degrees and then spend two years working in the Victorian public sector.

This exceeds the cost of a three-year nursing degree by several thousand dollars.

Either way, a nursing graduate who meets all the program conditions will be $16,500 better off. The timing of this financial benefit is the only difference between paying student contributions and giving the student cash.

If the student has all or most of their student contributions paid while studying the cash benefit comes after graduation in early career, through reduced HELP repayments. This benefits them when their annual income already exceeds $48,361.

If the student is paid while studying, it delivers cash when their income is much lower. Nursing and midwifery students could use their cash scholarship to help manage the cost of clinical training. It could also reduce the number of students who drop out because they cannot afford to keep studying, or who study part-time to fit in with paid work, delaying course completion and the start of their nursing career.

Can the Victorian scheme increase nursing commencements?

If paid in cash, the Victorian nursing and midwifery financial assistance could improve course completion times and rates. But it won’t increase the number of people commencing nursing and midwifery courses.

Demand for nursing courses already exceeds the supply of student places. Universities face two constraints on increasing the number of nursing students – limited capacity for clinical training and the total funding per student they receive, including both Commonwealth and student contributions.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers speaks to a nursing teacher and student at Griffith University. — Treasurer Jim Chalmers speaks to a nursing teacher Hazel Rands and student Bethany Gordon at Griffith University in July.
Jono Searle/AAP

Ensuring all students can complete the clinical training component of their course is a major practical issue for nursing faculties. In response to the Victorian government announcement, the head of nursing at the Australian Catholic University said they could take another 100 students at their Ballarat campus if professional experience placements were available.

Nursing schools are looking for ways to expand, but for a stretched health system, taking on more students creates additional work before it leads to additional workers.

Another problem for universities is that as part of its Job-ready Graduates policy, the Morrison government cut total funding per nursing student place by 8%.

The new funding rate was based on estimated average teaching and scholarship costs of nursing, but created problems for universities with above-average costs and reduced financial incentives for all universities to enrol more nursing students. The current government is reviewing Job-ready Graduates, but no quick financial fix is likely.

Solving the right problems

For high-profile occupations like nursing, student demand usually mirrors the labour market. COVID-19 increased the need for nurses and demand for nursing courses spiked.

For the higher education system to meet workforce needs, the issues are more often the supply of student places than the demand for them, and course completions rather than commencements.

More clinical placement capacity and scholarships aimed at living expenses should be favoured over cutting student course costs.

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

– ref. Governments are making nursing degrees cheaper or ‘free’ – these plans are not going to help attract more students – https://theconversation.com/governments-are-making-nursing-degrees-cheaper-or-free-these-plans-are-not-going-to-help-attract-more-students-189547

Grattan on Friday: Should Anthony Albanese keep his word on the Stage 3 tax cuts?

By The Conversation -

September 1, 2022

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

The final, mega stage of the Coalition’s tax cuts, worth more than $240 billion over a decade, are now in the gun sights of many critics, who are calling for Anthony Albanese to dump his promise to deliver them.

This week Greens leader Adam Bandt, releasing an analysis of the distributional impacts prepared by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office, said the tax cuts “cost a fortune, and the wealthiest 20% get close to 80% of the money”.

Bandt said they would “turbocharge inequality” and widen the gender pay gap. The benefit for women is half that for men, because women earn less. Over the decade men would get $160.6 billion, while women would get $82.9 billion.

Independent senator David Pocock, from the ACT, on whose vote Labor is expected often to rely when there is contested legislation, said “things have changed a lot since these [tax cuts] were legislated”, and suggested better ways some or all the money could be used.

But Albanese, answering questions on Labor’s 100 days anniversary on Monday, reaffirmed he had no plans to try to un-legislate the tax cuts – although some commentators felt he was leaving a smidgeon of wriggle room.

The cuts were announced in Scott Morrison’s final budget as treasurer in 2018, and tweaked in 2019, with Stage 3 commencing in mid-2024. The part of Stage 3 that benefits most taxpayers cuts the rate that applies to incomes over $45,000 from 32.5 cents in the dollar to 30 cents. The bigger part extends that 30 cent rate all the way up to $200,000, abolishing an entire rung of the tax ladder.

For high earners, the part of their income that was taxed at 37 cents will be taxed at 30, as will income above $180,000 that was taxed at 45 cents. The 45 cent threshold will cut in above $200,000.

The argument about the cuts is a mishmash of economics and politics. It’s been so since the start, although circumstances have deepened the dilemmas surrounding them.

Labor voted for Stage 3, using as justification that it was part of a package containing relief in earlier years for those on lower incomes, but also for political reasons. The decision was in line with Labor small target strategy. This was underlined by the fact the then-opposition didn’t propose to repeal the cuts or make changes if it won the election. Indeed, quite the opposite.

Although these cuts, legislated before COVID, had many critics at the time, the case against them increased with the budgetary hit imposed by the pandemic. That transformed the landscape.

Independent economist Saul Eslake says: “From the standpoint of economic management, the main argument for abandoning or deferring [them] is that the medium-term budget outlook is now very different from when those tax cuts were proposed and legislated.

“At that time, the budget was projected to be in surplus throughout the 2020s, and net debt reduced to zero by the end of the decade. Now, deficits are projected to continue as far as the eye can see, and net debt to continue growing in dollar terms into the early 2030s.

“It’s understandable that the government feels bound to honour the pledges it made But that would seem to make inevitable that, sooner or later, the government will need to look for other means of raising additional revenues in order both to meet the electorate’s expectations for higher spending in disability, aged and health care, and to put the budget on a more sustainable medium-term path,” Eslake says.

Ditching the tax cuts on the grounds of changed circumstances would have two clear Labor precedents.

Bob Hawke promised tax cuts before the 1983 election. Then, on the basis of discovering an unannounced $9.6 billion deficit when he reached office, the promise was quickly buried.

Years later the Labor government, then under PM Keating. legislated tax relief before the 1993 election. It boasted the cuts were L.A.W. Post election, the second round of these was scrapped.

Hawke, riding a tide of honeymoon popularity and making a convincing case, wasn’t damaged by his broken promise – which was just that, a promise, not something set in law. Keating, who had just enjoyed one of those miracle election wins but was at the fag end of Labor’s term, suffered serious harm.

Since the Hawke and Keating days, voters have become more distrustful of politicians and the political danger in breaking undertakings has increased.

If Albanese wanted to repeal or change the tax cuts, he would have the Senate numbers to do so, with the Greens and Pocock. But trashing an election pledge would have major implications for his credibility.

At the 2025 election, opponents would have the argument that Albanese’s word could not be trusted. With his eye already on a second term, he has to think of the long game.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers made two defences of the tax cuts this week. He challenged the argument they were just for the rich. And he maintained that scrapping them would not address current budgetary problems.

“It’s important to remember that these tax cuts kick in at $45,000. For a lot of Australians with quite modest incomes, they will be getting an additional tax cuts in stage three – we shouldn’t lightly dismiss that,” Chalmers said.

(The benefit accruing to a taxpayer earning between $45,000 and $60,000 is small, no more than $375 a year, which is much less than the recently-abolished tax offset of up to $1,500 – meaning that, taken together, the changes will leave some low to middle earners worse off.)

Chalmers also made the point that “even if a government were to tweak those Stage 3 tax cuts, they don’t come in for another couple of years.

“So they have absolutely no bearing on some of these challenges that we’re dealing with right now.”

Of course the fact the tax cuts don’t start until mid-2024 of itself gives the government latitude to change its position, and allows for sustained lobbying.

In today’s uncertain conditions, that’s an eternity in policy terms.

But the passage of time also imposes constraint. The closer a government gets to an election, the harder it becomes to take risky decisions. Especially decisions that go to the question of trust.

– ref. Grattan on Friday: Should Anthony Albanese keep his word on the Stage 3 tax cuts? – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-should-anthony-albanese-keep-his-word-on-the-stage-3-tax-cuts-189790

How to get to full employment: Ross Garnaut’s address to the jobs summit

By The Conversation -

September 1, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ross Garnaut, Professorial Research Fellow in Economics, The University of Melbourne

This is an edited extract from Ross Garnaut’s address to the jobs summit on Thursday night. Read other articles in The Conversation’s series about the summit here.

I grew up in the 1940s, in a world of full employment. Workers could leave jobs that didn’t suit them and quickly find others – often moving from lower to higher productivity activities.

Employers put large efforts into training and retaining workers. Labour income was secure and could support a loan to buy a house. Labour was scarce and valuable and not to be wasted on unproductive tasks.

Businesses that could not afford rising wages closed and released their workers into more productive employment. Steadily rising real wages encouraged economisation on labour, which lifted productivity.

The 1945 full-employment white paper discussed risks of inflation, yet the average unemployment rate went lower – to below 2% for two decades – without the high or accelerating inflation the authors had in mind.

Employment keeps people employable

As observed recently in The Conversation, low unemployment creates opportunities for people who long unemployment has made unattractive. Employment makes them employable.

Full employment encourages women who had spent long periods out of the labour force, the infirm and old, the poorly educated, and those with little established engagement with the wage economy.

It is hard work for employers. Many employers prefer unemployment, with easy recruitment at lower wages. Yet full employment has advantages for employers.

Full employment brings larger and more stable demand for the products of businesses selling into Australia. And for employers who identify as Australians, it brings enjoyment of a more cohesive and successful society.

We can take unemployment lower

How low can unemployment go without accelerating inflation? During the decade leading up to COVID, our authorities acted as if the lower limit was 5% or more.

In my book Reset: Restoring Australia After the Pandemic Recession, I said it was possible Australian unemployment could fall to 3.5% without generating accelerating inflation – the pre-pandemic rate in the United States.

The absolute lowest unemployment can fall without accelerating inflation might be lower, or higher. There is no need to guess. We will know when it has fallen to the point that labour market pressures cause inflation to accelerate.

Why aren’t real wages rising? There is no conundrum. It is because we do not yet have full employment. The Reserve Bank abandoned its pursuit of full employment before we knew how low the unemployment rate could go without becoming the source of accelerating inflation.

A wage-price spiral is unlikely

Will we see larger nominal wage increases if global energy and other prices continue to rise strongly? Probably. Would that tell us we have achieved full employment? Probably not. If wages rise more rapidly, but more slowly than average prices, they are not a source of accelerating inflation.

The spectre of a virulent wage-price spiral comes from our memories, and not current conditions.

If immigration increases whenever labour becomes scarce, real wages will not rise however much productivity increases.

Yet immigration can help. It is much more likely to raise, rather than lower, average real wages the more if it is focused on people with genuinely scarce and valuable skills that are bottlenecks to valuable Australian production, and which cannot be provided by training Australians.

Immigration can hurt, and help

Which immigrants are scarce and valuable? In Reset, I suggested a test: admitting skilled migrants only when they earn wages higher than the Australian average.

Ignoring the links between migration and wages can have unwelcome consequences.

Around the time our prime minister was in Fiji talking about recruiting nurses, Western Australia’s premier was trying to recruit nurses in Ireland.

The premier sought a meeting with the Irish minister for health – unsuccessfully, because the minister was in Perth recruiting nurses.

Low wages made Australia a promising recruiting ground. Australian nurses would be great for Ireland. But replacing Australians with Fijian nurses may not be best for Australia or Fiji.

The mix of employment matters

It matters how we get the jobs that take us to full employment. Increased employment comes from both domestic and trade-exposed industries.

Employment in domestic industries is expanded by higher government expenditure, lower taxes and lower interest rates. Employment in exporting or import-competing industries is driven by competitiveness — by currency exchange rates, and Australian productivity and wages relative to overseas.

Too much domestic demand and too little export growth can lead to full employment with unsustainable levels of debt. Strong growth in export industries depends on access to international markets for goods and services, as well as on competitiveness.

Australia’s advantages in a zero-carbon world

Here we face barriers from the breakdown of the global trading system and our relationship with our biggest trading partner, China, and the coming climate change-induced decline of coal and gas.

Fortunately, we have advantages:

the best combinations of solar and wind resources in the developed world, which with good policy and management can give us the lowest energy costs in the post-carbon world
an abundance of the critical minerals required globally to build the machines and infrastructure of the zero-carbon world
the largest endowments per person of land suitable and available for sustainable production of biomass as a zero-carbon industrial input and for sequestering carbon in plants and soils
human skills and infrastructure from the established mining, minerals processing, forestry and agricultural industries, which have a high value in zero emissions industries and processes.

Australian industry gets little competitive advantage from Australia being richly endowed with gas and coal. With the exception of Western Australian gas, these resources are made available to domestic industry at close to international prices.

Our low-cost renewable energy is different. Transport costs mean Australia’s renewable electricity and green hydrogen will be at least twice as expensive in the countries that import them as in Australia. It will make sense to use Australian electricity and hydrogen to process resources here.

Productivity growth needn’t always come from improvements in individual industries and firms. It can come from stronger specialisation in activities in which Australia has a natural advantage: putting a higher proportion of our labour and capital into activities where we have exceptional strengths.

A long period of steady expansion of the zero-carbon industries will see costs falling and Australia’s comparative advantage strengthening. The restructuring of the economy to focus more strongly on these can be the source of sustained productivity, wages and employment growth.

Ross Garnaut is aDirector of ZEN Energy which is a retailer of zero emissions electricity and hydrogen. He is Emeritus Professor in Business and Economics at The University of Melbourne and Emeritus Professor of Economics at The Australian National University.

– ref. How to get to full employment: Ross Garnaut’s address to the jobs summit – https://theconversation.com/how-to-get-to-full-employment-ross-garnauts-address-to-the-jobs-summit-189783

Mental wealth and jobs: without it, we’re just pouring water into a leaking bucket

By The Conversation -

September 1, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Buchanan, Professor, Discipline of Business Information Systems, University of Sydney Business School, University of Sydney

This article is part of The Conversation’s series looking at Labor’s jobs summit. Read the other articles in the series here.

Australia has more qualified teachers and nurses than at any point in its history. There is no “shortage” of these skills.

The problem is that within five years of gaining their qualification, as many as one in four nurses and a similar proportion of teachers have decided to do something else.

The dropout rate is intensifying. Between 2016 and 2021 the proportion of nurses registered but not working in the profession rose by 63% nationally. In Victoria it was 85%.

Employers desperate for skilled staff in particular want immediate fixes. Many see the problem as lack of supply, because they cannot find the workers they want at the prices they want to pay.

But what if the problem is the nature of what employers are demanding? What if their preoccupations with maximising short-term commercial gains is the root cause of the problem?

Developing “mental wealth” is just as important as material and commercial growth. Without this, solutions such as importing more workers or increasing course numbers are like pouring water into a leaking bucket.

What is mental wealth?

Mental wealth is a relatively new term to express the social and economic value of mental health. It has two dimensions: mental capital and mental wellbeing.

Mental capital is the stock of cognitive and emotional capabilities – things like the ability to reason clearly and successful social functioning. Unlike physical capital (buildings and machinery) that depletes with use, mental capital grows if treated well.

Mental wellbeing derives from life satisfaction, having sufficient physical resources, connection with others and a sense of purpose. High wellbeing deepens mental capital. Low wellbeing depletes it.

From a mental wealth perspective, action is required on three fronts.

1. Skills transferability (creating quality occupations)

Just as mental health affects our ability to cope with life’s ups and down, mental wealth affects a workforce’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances – something crucial for economic development. Such capability is nurtured by empowering workers to master quality, transferable vocational skills.

Apart from the professions and a few skilled trades, Australia offers little in terms of strong, ongoing development of quality transferable skills.

Consider our approach to intermediate-level service work.

Our labour market and vocational education arrangements treat customer service, carers and administrative support roles as entirely separate domains of work.

In reality, however, many people flow between jobs of this nature. It is not uncommon for child-care workers, for example, to move into retail and administrative roles.

We need to build on the reality of these flows to create occupational structures that deepen transferable skills and enable people to move more easily between related areas, as opportunities rise and fall in different parts of the labour market.

Deepening this transferability will require greater cooperation between employers and unions across different sectors – as well as educators.

Renewed interest in multi-employer or sectoral bargaining is a welcome development in this context. Such arrangements could help develop greater communication and trust between all stakeholders.

2. Vocational education

Occupational reform also requires supportive changes in education. We especially need to make non-university education options more attractive.

Since the late 1980s, Australia’s TAFE sector has been run down by failed experiments in outsourcing. Public funds have been wasted on promoting “competition”. It has increasingly become a realm where businesses, manipulating government funding models, can make profits by delivering poor-quality courses.

It is time to rebuild the sector.

3. Employer investment in learning

But arguably the weakest element of our workforce development system is the lack of investment in workplace learning.

Skills development is what economists call a “public good” – the benefits do not accrue just to those who pay for it. In business this contributes to employers’ reticence to invest in skilling up workers lest they be “poached” by rivals who haven’t made the same investment.

To avoid freeloaders, many countries have schemes that pool employer funds for skills development. France, for example, imposes a Contribution to Professional Training on all employers based on their payroll costs (0.55% for small businesses, 1% for large ones and 2% for labour hire firms).

This money goes into sector-based funds, which businesses can then claim back for workplace training. This arrangement ensures all businesses contribute to paying for skills development, and have an incentive to provide it.

No resources to waste

These proposals would not only help Australia address skills shortages but move us onto a trajectory that deepens and does not deplete our mental wealth.

We can’t afford to pour resources into a leaking job bucket.

We need initiatives that address the causes and not just react to the symptoms of our current labour market challenges. The proposal outlined above provide evidence based solutions that must not be ignored.

John Buchanan, Jo Occhipinti and Ian Hickie lead the Mental Wealth Initiative, a joint venture of the Business School and Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney.

Ian Hickie has a 3.2% shareholding in Innowell Pty Ltd. a joint venture of the University of Sydney and PwC Australia, that supports digital technology for enhanced delivery of mental health care. He also leads a research and implementation initiative funded by the BHP Foundation that focuses on delivering better mental health outcomes, including in education and employment, for young Australians.

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

– ref. Mental wealth and jobs: without it, we’re just pouring water into a leaking bucket – https://theconversation.com/mental-wealth-and-jobs-without-it-were-just-pouring-water-into-a-leaking-bucket-189539

Who’s the best doctor for a tummy tuck or eyelid surgery? The latest review doesn’t actually say

By The Conversation -

September 1, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney

If you’re thinking about a tummy tuck, breast implants or eyelid surgery, you might be looking for reassurance your chosen doctor is qualified and has the right skills for the job.

Today’s release of the much anticipated review of how cosmetic surgery is regulated in Australia goes partway to achieving that.

The review makes several sensible suggestions about how to protect consumers, following allegations around cosmetic surgery practices aired in the media (which prompted the review in the first place).

There’s much to commend. The review is comprehensive, sober, realistic and the product of considerable consultation.

It recommends tightening up how cosmetic surgery is advertised, streamlining how to complain when things go wrong, and improving how complaints are managed.

However, these recommendations and others, which the health professionals’ regulator accepts, are unlikely to be implemented right away. Such reforms take time.

Recommendations to identify who has the appropriate education and skills to perform cosmetic surgery – a GP with or without extra surgical qualifications, a specialist plastic surgeon, or doctors with other titles – may take time to finalise and determine.

That’s because plans to identify certain doctors as “endorsed” practitioners – effectively validating their ability to competently perform cosmetic surgery – hinge on the medical board identifying and approving what skills and education will be needed.

Any relevant course or training program would also need to be accepted by the Australian Medical Council (which looks after doctors’ education, training and assessment).

Here’s what needs to happen next to protect health consumers.

Remind me, what’s the review about?

Over the past few years, the media has reported on allegations people had undergone inappropriate or unsafe cosmetic surgeries and were turning up to hospitals for remedial surgery.

Critics said people had been enticed by deceptive social media advertising and had trusted “inadequately trained” cosmetic surgeons to care for them. But they were never adequately warned of the risks.

Facing what threatened to become a crisis of regulatory confidence, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency or AHPRA (and its medical board) was bound to act. It commissioned an independent review of doctors who perform cosmetic surgery in Australia.

What did the review recommend?

The review examined “cosmetic surgeries” in which the skin is cut, such as breast implants and abdominoplasties (tummy tucks). It didn’t cover injections (such as Botox or dermal fillers) or laser skin treatments.

It makes several significant recommendations.

1. Cosmetic surgeons need to be “endorsed”

A new system would see doctors “endorsed” as a cosmetic surgeon with AHPRA. This “blue tick” style of endorsement would only be given to those who had met a yet-to-be determined minimum educational standard.

Once rolled out, however, consumers would be educated to look for this endorsement on the publicly available register of health professionals.

2. Making complaints will be simpler

There are currently several avenues for making complaints about cosmetic surgeons, including to AHPRA itself, to the medical board (within AHPRA), as well as to state-based health-care complaints agencies.

The review recommends new educational materials be produced to show consumers exactly how and when to complain about cosmetic surgeons. It also recommends a special consumer hotline be created to provide further information.

2. Stricter rules on advertising

The review recommends tightening up existing advertising guidelines to strictly control those who promote cosmetic surgery health services, particularly advertising that might:

glamourise or trivialise risky procedures
use models who have not had cosmetic surgery to sell a cosmetic procedure
use social media influencers
suggest cosmetic surgery be used to obtain an “acceptable” or “ideal body type”.

4. More scrutiny, more policing

Finally, the review recommends sharpening policies about how health professionals obtain informed consent for procedures, the importance of postoperative care, and the expected training and education of cosmetic surgeons.

The review also recommends AHPRA create a specific cosmetic surgery enforcement unit to regulate doctors providing these services.

Such an enforcement unit might refer problematic doctors to the medical board, which could then determine whether immediate disciplinary action was necessary. This might mean the immediate suspension of their registration (“medical licence”).

Will these reforms work?

The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Australasian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons have said the suggested reforms are inadequate and may even lead to some doctors being endorsed when they lack appropriate training.

Another possible reform rejected by the review was to make the title “surgeon” a protected title. This could then only be used by those who have done years of specialist training.

Indeed, Australian health ministers are currently examining this very issue.

Female surgeon operating — A cosmetic surgeon doesn’t need specialist qualifications. But a plastic surgeon does.
Artur Tumasjan/Unsplash, CC BY-SA

Currently, any doctor can call themselves a “cosmetic surgeon”. But since “plastic surgeon” is a protected title, only those with specialist training can use it.

Others doubt whether the enhanced regulation of titles will in fact improve safety. After all, a title is no guarantee of safety, and there may be unintended consequences too, such as the inadvertent creation of a market monopoly.

This has been a long time coming

Today’s review is the latest in a long line of reviews of medical practice involving cosmetic procedures over the past 20 years. Until now, no reforms have been able to sustain long-lasting improvements in outcomes or reduce numbers of complaints.

These recurrent scandals and the regulatory stagnation reflects the fractured nature of Australia’s cosmetic surgery industry – with its longstanding turf wars between plastic surgeons and cosmetic surgeons.

But this is also a multimillion-dollar industry that has historically been unable to agree on a set of standards for education and training.

In the end, for this review to catalyse meaningful reform, the next task will be for AHPRA to reach professional consensus about the standards to be set for cosmetic surgery. With some luck, the endorsement model may have the required impact.

It’s a huge challenge, but an important one. After all, regulators who try to impose standards from above without the support of professional consensus face an incredibly difficult task.

Christopher Rudge was formerly a legal research associate at the Medical Council of New South Wales.

Cameron Stewart is a member of the Medical Council of New South Wales but the views expressed here are his own.

– ref. Who’s the best doctor for a tummy tuck or eyelid surgery? The latest review doesn’t actually say – https://theconversation.com/whos-the-best-doctor-for-a-tummy-tuck-or-eyelid-surgery-the-latest-review-doesnt-actually-say-189700

PNG orders investigation into Conflict islands ‘sale’ – no deal, says Rosso

By Asia Pacific Report -

September 1, 2022

By Gorethy Kenneth of the PNG Post-Courier

The Conflict group of islands in Papua New Guinea’s Milne Bay province cannot be sold to foreign interests, Parliament has been told.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Lands John Rosso said yesterday the privately-owned controversial islands would instead be turned into an environmental marine conservation area.

Irked by the potential sale of the islands for a substantial amount of money, Rosso has issued a ministerial directive for an immediate investigation into the acquisition of titles and the alleged sale.

The 21 islands have been owned by retired Australian businessman Ian Gowrie-Smith who placed the atolls on the open market.

They include among the named islands Panasesa Island, Madiboiboi, Gabugabutau, Tubinagurm Island, Lutmatavi Island, Panaboal, Ginara Island, Panarakuum Island, Panarakiim Motina, Muniara Island, Auriria Island, Panamaiia, Parapaniian, Panaiiaii, Kisa, Itamarina and Ilai Islands.

The Conflict islands are in PNG which put them closer to the Australian mainland and the potential sale has raised alarm bells in that country, which has been wary of the controversial security pact between Solomon Islands and China — and also China’s rise in the Pacific.

In Parliament yesterday, Kiriwina-Goodenough MP Douglas Tomuriesa took Rosso to task, demanding action from the government to stop the sale of these atolls because of the cultural significance and traditional values they had on the local people.

Traditional hunting grounds
“This group of islands is the traditional hunting grounds for our people and our people cannot be allowed into these islands due to the owner being strict,” Tomuriesa said.

“These are traditionally resting and hunting grounds. Today, our people cannot do that.”

It is understood the islands were being sold for substantial amounts, a sale that has not only angered the locals but caused heartbeat to Australia as it poses a national and regional security risk to its sovereignty, given the Chinese conglomerates that have allegedly put up their hands to buy the islands.

Rosso told Parliament that these islands would never be sold under his watch and that the government would make sure they would be kept as conservative and protected areas.

He warned that the investigations could also lead to the revocation of the lease but was subject to the completion once initiated.

“The Conflict islands cannot be sold to non-citizens and that is my stand, and the PNG government stand, there will be an investigation to establish the status and the way the title was awarded in the first instance,” Rosso said.

“The islands will be declared as a conservative and protected area to be administered by special purpose vehicle to protect it for our children to benefit from in the future.

Status of titles probe
“I have already asked the Department of Lands to institute an investigation to establish the status of these titles which are freehold and ascertain the way these titles were created and granted to, we believe, a non-citizen.

“I would like to encourage the current titleholder to come forward voluntarily and discuss these issues with me.

“The position of the government of PNG through the Minister for Lands and Physical Planning is that these islands and the sea belong to the broader community because it is part of their marine and sea life to sustain the marine and pristine ecosystem.

“Therefore, PNG as a custodian of these parts of marine eco-system intends to declare the Conflict Islands as a conservation protected area to be administered by a special purpose vehicle that has the same status as Australia Great Barrier Reef, that is my view and I will be pursuing.

“I will be working closely with the Milne Bay provincial government to ensure that this is carried out.

“For the temporary timing, I will not allow the Conflict islands to be sold under my watch.

“I will be pursuing properly talks with the current owner to see a way forward for this but with a very firm view that we will not allow these islands to be sold, likewise other protected areas in PNG.

“The Conflict islands, the sales and transfer can be made only to a PNG citizen.

“How did the titleholder, believed to be [not] a PNG citizen come to own these freehold titles for 20 years.”

Gorethy Kenneth is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Jason Clare has just put the Australian Research Council on notice. This brings (some) good news for academics

By The Conversation -

September 1, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sue Bennett, Senior Professor, University of Wollongong

This week Education Minister Jason Clare has kicked off what could be a major reset of university research funding in Australia.

He first announced a review of the Australian Research Council (ARC) in July but released the details of how it would work on Tuesday. He also released a strongly worded “letter of expectations” about the ARC’s work for the rest of 2022.

This follows serious concerns about ministerial interference in funding decisions under the Morrison government. It also follows ongoing frustrations and heartache within the academic community over the huge amount of work involved in applying for grants, the low rates of success and long waits for outcomes.

There are both encouraging moves and some worrying signs in the new government’s approach to the ARC.

What is the ARC?

The ARC is the independent body that funds non-medical university research in Australia. It issues about A$800 million in funding each year.

A successful grant is one of the key ways an academic progresses their career. So there is a lot that rides on ARC decisions.

What did Clare announce?

On Tuesday, Clare made public a letter he sent to ARC Chief Executive Officer Judi Zielke last Friday. The letter contains Clare’s “expectations” for the research council in 2022. This includes:

minimising the administrative burden on researchers applying for funding
delivering all future grants rounds on time and to a pre-determined timeframe
keeping the controversial “national interest test”, but making it “clearer”
stopping work on the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2023 round.

Clare also gave us the details about an independent review of the ARC’s role, purpose, functions and structures. The review will look at whether the 2001 legislation governing the ARC has kept pace with its current responsibilities and compare it to similar bodies internationally.

The review starts next month and will report back by the end of March 2023. It will be lead by Queensland University of Technology Vice Chancellor Professor Margaret Sheil.

The review is on top of an internal ARC review about its processes that is already under way.

What is the good news?

The big surprise is that work stops on the ERA’s 2023 round. ERA assesses the quality of the research universities have published and been funded for, against international benchmarks.

Clare has asked this work to be stopped to reduce the workload on universities – and to prepare for a more “modern data-driven” approach. The news takes some immediate pressure off researchers, which will be welcome in universities still under pressure from COVID disruptions.

Streamlining administrative processes when applying for funding is also a welcome move. Set timeframes for research round outcomes will reduce uncertainty and make planning easier.

Researchers and support teams spend hundreds of hours preparing applications. These are then assessed by expert reviewers, leading to a set of grants recommended to the minister for funding. The process takes many months and involves a huge volume of applications, most of which will be unsuccessful.

It is a bruising, competitive system in which many excellent projects never get funded. Reducing the burden of applying while maintaining quality will be critical.

It is also encouraging that this government is making signals it values a wider scope of research than the previous government. The terms of the ARC review refer to adequate funding for areas of “national significance” that “reap dividends for society” as well as the economy.

What is the bad news?

Academics will be disappointed the much criticised “national interest test”, introduced by former Coalition Education Minister Dan Tehan in 2018 will stay. Here, researchers must write a statement explaining their research in non-academic language, to be judged by small panel that advises whether the research should be funded. This is separate to the assessment by academic experts.

There is no doubt researchers should be accountable for the public funds allocated to their research. But the test has been widely criticised by researchers and university leaders as counter-productive to funding good quality research.

The ministerial veto also remains – at least for now. This has been one of the most controversial aspects of the grants process, with Coalition ministers, including most recently Stuart Robert, rejecting proposals after they have been approved by the ARC.

As the ministerial veto power is part of the legislation it can be considered under the independent review. It has already come under scrutiny from a Senate inquiry in the last parliament.

What is missing?

What isn’t mentioned so far is what this reset could mean for Australia’s national research priorities, which date back to 2015.

Under the Coalition, research priorities were narrowed at the expense of the humanities and social sciences.

We can’t address the complex problems we face as a nation without understanding social factors and experiences – every scientific challenge has a human dimension. This is a chance for the new government to modernise our research priorities as well.

Also not mentioned explicitly is how the system of grant funding is performing on a range of key measures. We need to address gender equality around successful recipients and expand Indigenous-led research. These are wider challenges to building Australia’s research capacity to be more inclusive and the ARC has a key role here.

What does this mean for researchers?

Right now for researchers involved in preparing for ERA 2023 there’s immediate relief, which means more time for other research activities.

More significantly is some restoration of hope that a better, more respectful and fairer system may be on the horizon.

We need a government that appreciates research cannot be expected to deliver quick fixes. It takes many years for research findings to result in tangible benefits for society.

All eyes will be on the review’s report in March 2023.

Sue Bennett receives funding from The Australian Research Council, is a current assessor and past member of the College of Experts.

– ref. Jason Clare has just put the Australian Research Council on notice. This brings (some) good news for academics – https://theconversation.com/jason-clare-has-just-put-the-australian-research-council-on-notice-this-brings-some-good-news-for-academics-189691

Government to legislate for multi-employer bargaining, strengthening push for wage increases

By The Conversation -

September 1, 2022

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

The government will bring in early legislation for multi-employer bargaining and a range of other changes to the industrial relations system.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke announced the reforms the government will make immediately, at the end of the jobs summit’s Thursday sessions on industrial relations

They include making the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) simple, flexible and fair.

Burke said consultations on the various reforms would begin next week. He plans to introduce the legislation this year.

The government is taking advantage of the summit’s momentum to launch some major changes to the wage-fixing system, arguing that it looks for “consensus” and co-operation rather than unanimity.

Multi-employer bargaining, which is permitted in only very limited circumstances currently, has been a key ACTU demand in the run-up to the summit. Burke last week indicated the government was sympathetic.

The government has not yet indicated whether it will go to allowing full sectoral bargaining.

Multi-employer bargaining is opposed by large parts of the business community, though it has won conditional support from a section of small business.

The employers are especially concerned it could open the way to industrial action across a sector, such as child care, although it is unclear whether the detail the government is contemplating will allow this.

Innes Willox, chief executive of the Ai Group, told the summit: “There is real concern that such a proposal will risk exposing our community to crippling industrial action across crucial sectors of our economy”.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the union movement wanted to see “sustainable pay increases so that working people’s pay keeps up with the cost of living and productivity increases”.

This meant “we have to modernise the collective bargaining system. We need a system that is simple, fair, accessible, does the job of getting wages moving.”

The government has given ground on being willing to make changes to BOOT, which Labor resisted in opposition. The BOOT provides no worker is made worse off when an enterprise agreement is negotiated.

Burke, however, did not spell out how he envisaged the test being altered.

Among other measures Burke said the government would change the Fair Work Act to

Provide better access to flexible working arrangements and unpaid parental leave so families can share work and care responsibilities
Increase protection for workers against all forms of discrimination and harassment
Give the Fair Work Commission the capacity to actively help workers and businesses to reach mutually-beneficial agreements, especially new entrants and small and medium businesses.

– ref. Government to legislate for multi-employer bargaining, strengthening push for wage increases – https://theconversation.com/government-to-legislate-for-multi-employer-bargaining-strengthening-push-for-wage-increases-189786

Why we should not rush to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Australia

By The Conversation -

September 1, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Terry Goldsworthy, Associate Professor in Criminal Justice and Criminology, Bond University

The “raise the age” campaign seeks to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Australia so that a person under the age of 14 years isn’t criminally responsible for any act or omission they commit.

Such a move has been mirrored by proposed legislative bills in various states.

But is raising the age of criminal responsibility justified, and what are the implications if we do?

The current state of legislation in Australia

Currently in Australia, the Commonwealth and all states and territories set the minimum age of criminal responsibility at ten.

Separate to this, the “doli incapax” presumption is available in all states and territories. This means a child aged 10-13 isn’t criminally responsible for any offence, unless it can be shown the child had the capacity to know they ought not to commit the offence. This places the onus of proof with the prosecution. So if they charge a 12-year-old, they need to show the child knew their actions were seriously wrong, rather than just naughty or mischievous.

There has been some criticism of this presumption – that it’s complex and places a high demand on resources. Despite this, case law is clear on how it should be interpreted. In terms of resource demand, that does not indicate the presumption does not work, it merely points to a separate issue in the operation of the courts.

At a November 2021 meeting, state attorneys-general from around Australia supported the development of a proposal to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility from ten to 12. But this hasn’t yet been enacted anywhere.

Bills have been introduced in the New South Wales and Queensland parliaments to raise the age of responsibility to 14, but these were not supported.

Generally the arguments to support raising the age are grounded in not having young children in custody. But incarceration of youth offenders is a sentencing outcome – it’s a separate issue from whether the child is aware that what they did is wrong and as such, is criminally responsible.

The raise the age campaign states:

It’s time for the federal, state and territory governments to do what’s right and change the laws to raise the age, so children aged ten to 13 years are not sent to prison.

But what is the reality of children in detention in Australia?

Since 2010, the number of custodial sentences issued by Children’s Courts have declined markedly.

2021 Census data indicates there are 1,588,051 children aged 10-14 in Australia. In 2020-21, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported there were 444 children aged 10-13 in detention (this includes unsentenced and sentenced detention) for the year. This was down from 499 in 2019-20.

Data from the Queensland Police Service indicated the average daily number of children aged 10-13 in police watch-houses was nine in 2019, and five both in 2020 and 2021.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that children aged 10-14 accounted for 16% of Children Court matters finalised with a guilty outcome in 2020-21. Of those defendants, 95% received a non-custodial sentence, meaning they weren’t imprisoned. Only 73 defendants, or 2%, received a custodial sentence, whereby they were sent to a correctional institution such as a prison or youth detention centre.

Victorian Sentencing Council data indicates that custodial sentences for youth offenders were at their lowest level since 2004-05, with just 124 orders in 2020-21.

Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council data showed that between 2005-06 and 2018-19, detention orders accounted for just 2.9% of penalties for youth offenders in Magistrates Court and 17.6% in the higher courts (which hear the more serious matters).

The reality is that the number of children held in custody is exceedingly small.

The impact on victims of crime

Where do victims of crime fit into such a proposal to raise the age?

Instances such as the murder of James Bulger in 1993, for example, would go unpunished. Bulger, who was two years old, was abducted by two ten-year-olds from a shopping centre in the United Kingdom. They then tortured him over several hours before they crushed his skull, inflicting 42 injuries in total. Both were convicted of murder and served eight years in prison.

The James Bulger murder. 60 Minutes Australia.

From a victim’s perspective, it’s difficult to argue there should be no consequences for the perpetrators’ actions. Indeed, the impact on the victim is one of the principles to be considered when sentencing children in Queensland.

If the age of responsibility is raised, what capacity will there be to properly and effectively deal with young people who otherwise would be committing offences? How would victims be empowered under such a regime and community safety be ensured?

Raising the age won’t address the causal effects of crime

As Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman stated during debate for the proposed bill to raise the age of criminal responsibility in that state:

Simply changing the criminal law does not reflect the complexity underlying youth offending and why children as young as ten years old commit these offences.

These complex issues include substance abuse, being affected by domestic violence, mental health, being disengaged from education, a lack of suitable accommodation and poor parenting.

Addressing risk and protective factors at the individual, family, social and community levels is crucial in addressing offending behaviour.

Many of these issues were present in the case of an 11-year-old boy found guilty of the manslaughter of Perth man Patrick Slater, who was stabbed to death with a screwdriver in 2016.

He was jailed for four years. The boy was kept in custody prior to his sentencing for almost two years because of an inability to find a responsible person to care for him.

Raising the age will not stop such a crime being committed, nor the causes of it – it just means no one will be held accountable.

We should not be raising the age of criminal responsibility

Raising the age is a response that removes responsibility for poor behaviour, but doesn’t necessarily address any underlying causes of youth crime. Addressing these is what may actually assist young people in not offending.

How we punish young people who transgress is a separate issue. Understanding the consequences of your actions is also a separate issue to knowing if what you did was right or wrong.

We must ensure we don’t weaken our criminal justice system in a way that will ultimately fail our young people by creating a generation with no sense of personal responsibility.

The author formerly served as a Detective Inspector in the Queensland Police Service with 28 years service.

– ref. Why we should not rush to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Australia – https://theconversation.com/why-we-should-not-rush-to-raise-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility-in-australia-189463

US byelections suggest improved prospects for Democrats at midterms, while Liz Cheney suffers huge loss

By The Conversation -

September 1, 2022

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist), The Conversation

The US midterm elections occur in just over two months, on November 8. All 435 House of Representatives seats and 35 of the 100 senators are up for election. At the 2020 elections, Democrats won the house by a 222-213 margin, and held the Senate on a 50-50 tie with Vice President Kamala Harris’ casting vote.

On June 24, the US Supreme Court reversed its 1973 Roe v Wade ruling, denying a constitutional right to an abortion. This FiveThirtyEight
article says that, relative to a district’s partisan lean, the average federal byelection had given Republicans a two-point gain before this decision. Republicans performed very strongly in two early June byelections.

In four byelections since June 24, Democrats have performed an average of nine points better than the district’s partisan lean. This analysis was published on August 24, and did not include the byelection for Alaska’s at-large district, where preferential voting was used.

Relative to expectations, the best result for Democrats was their August 23 hold in New York’s 19th. Two polls in August had given the Republican leads by three and eight points, but the Democrat won by 51.1-48.7.

In Alaska’s at-large district, the top four candidates from a large field qualified in June for an August 16 preferential vote, but a left-leaning independent withdrew. After preferences were distributed Wednesday, Democrat Mary Peltola defeated Republican Sarah Palin by 51.5-48.5, a gain for the Democrats. Final primary votes were 40.2% Peltola, 31.3% Palin and 28.5% for Nick Begich, another Republican.

Palin’s weakness with other Republican voters explains why she lost. Begich voters split 50% Palin, 29% Peltola and 21% exhaust. At the 2020 presidential election, Alaska voted for Donald Trump by a 52.8-42.8 margin over Joe Biden, so Peltola’s three-point win is a 13-point shift towards Democrats.

Current forecasts and polling for the midterms

In my last US politics article three weeks ago, I wrote that Democrats were benefiting from the Supreme Court’s decision that nullified Roe v Wade.

The FiveThirtyEight forecasts now give Democrats a 67% chance to hold the Senate, up from 60% three weeks ago. Republicans are still considered a 76% chance to gain control of the House, but that’s down from 80% three weeks ago. The national polling of the House now gives Democrats a 0.8% lead, up from 0.1% three weeks ago.

The 35 Senate seats up for election at this year’s midterms are 21 Republicans and 14 Democrats. As Republicans are defending more Senate seats, the FiveThirtyEight forecasts give Democrats a far greater chance to hold the Senate than the House.

The biggest improvement for Democrats is in President Joe Biden’s ratings. In late July, Biden’s net approval in the FiveThirtyEight tracker was close to -20. His ratings are now 53.1% disapprove, 42.4% approve (net -10.7). These ratings are still poor, but the improvement should make it easier for Democrats in close contests.

On August 16, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law after it had passed the Senate on August 7 and the House of Representatives on August 12. This act prioritised health and climate change spending. I discussed Senate passage in my previous US politics article.

On August 24, Biden announced that the government would forgive up to $US 10,000 per person in student debt, and up to $US 20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.

I believe the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade, a sense that Democrats are “getting things done” by legislation or executive action and better economic data on inflation, as discussed previously, are all assisting Democrats and Biden.

But there are still over two months before the midterms, and the non-presidential party has convincingly won every House midterm election since 2006.

Liz Cheney’s huge loss in Wyoming Republican primary

Since the January 6 2021 riots at the certification of Biden’s November 2020 election victory, Liz Cheney has been the Republican who has most condemned Trump, over both the riots and the Big Lie that the election was stolen.

On August 16, Cheney was crushed by a 66-29 margin in a Republican primary for Wyoming’s at-large district by the Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman. US primaries are party preselection contests that are open to a far larger number of voters than in Australia; they are administered by state election authorities.

Cheney’s loss means she will leave Congress when her term expires in January 2023. Trump won Wyoming by 43 points in 2020, so Hageman is certain to win the November general election and replace Cheney.

CNN analyst Harry Enten said Cheney’s loss was the second worst in a primary by a House incumbent in the past 60 years. Her 37.4 point loss is just worse than the 37.2 point loss for a Democratic incumbent in 2000, but better than a Republican incumbent’s loss by 41 points in 2010.

Four of six House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the January 6 riots and stood for re-election have been defeated in primaries; this includes Cheney. Only 2% of other House Republican incumbents running for re-election have been defeated.

None of the six who impeached Trump won a majority of the Republican vote in their primaries. Since 1956, House incumbents have averaged over 90% of their party’s primary vote. Trump’s grip on the Republican party remains powerful.

Adrian Beaumont 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. US byelections suggest improved prospects for Democrats at midterms, while Liz Cheney suffers huge loss – https://theconversation.com/us-byelections-suggest-improved-prospects-for-democrats-at-midterms-while-liz-cheney-suffers-huge-loss-189136