Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Derya Iner, Senior Lecturer, Charles Sturt University

Today we release the third Islamophobia in Australia report. We are doing this on the third anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks to once again highlight the ongoing threat to Muslim people in their everyday lives.

This report is based on incidents reported to the Islamophobia Register Australia by victims, proxies and witnesses during 2018 and 2019.

This includes 247 verified incidents (138 physical and 109 online). It follows 349 incidents in the second report (published in 2019) and 243 incidents in the first report (published in 2017).

Although the analysis of reported cases may not represent all incidents occurring across Australia, they remain a critical and valuable source for understanding manifestations of Islamophobia in the Australian context.

Men attacking women

The third report found perpetrators were predominantly men (74%), while victims were predominantly women (82%). Of the 103 victims, 85% were women wearing hijab, 15% were children and 15% were women with children.

A Queensland woman reported she was yelled at when walking past three young boys.

I was with my two small children and they started saying ‘let’s rip it [her hijab] off her head!’ I quickly got nervous and started pacing to get away with my children before the incident escalated. Alhamdullilah [thank God] we made it to safety before anything serious happened.

Another woman reported this comment after the Christchurch massacre:

I have had the father of my eldest daughter friend say to me directly […] ‘the Muslims had it coming’. I was shocked and could only stare back in disbelief. The daughter of that gentleman would call me ‘ghost’ in front of myself and my daughter, referring to my hijab/scarf.

Perpetrators were overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon (91%) and they were mostly aged in middle and late adulthood (57%). In contrast, victims tended to be in early and middle adulthood (61%).

In most cases, the victim was alone with the perpetrator (54%), and in one in five cases, there was an existing relationship between the perpetrator and victim such as a work (10%), school (5%) or social (3%) relationship.

According to the reported incidents, the perpetrator profile was diverse, ranging from homeless people to university staff and art gallery visitors. Some perpetrators carried out hate while in the presence of their own families, showing how socially acceptable this form of racism can be.

Where is safe?

The location of incidents showed anti-Muslim harassment often happens in crowds and busy public places (63%).

Since incidents were first logged in 2014, reports of anti-Muslim abuse have risen in areas with security guards and surveillance cameras – from 37% in the first report to 75% in the present report.

Read more:
Islamophobic attacks mostly happen in public. Here’s what you can do if you see it or experience it

Incidents occurred in places including shopping centres, public transport, pools and playgrounds and education settings. This suggests there is no public space that is safe from Islamophobia.

Christchurch’s impact

The abuse Muslims suffer is centred on the unfounded and highly offensive idea that Muslims are “terrorists” and “killers” – this is despite Muslims suffering from white supremacist terrorism in the Christchurch attacks.

Unfortunately, in the wake of the Christchurch massacre, the Islamophobia Register Australia saw a spike in reporting of offline and online incidents. Reports of offline cases increased four fold – this included ten mosque vandalism cases.

Reports of online cases increased 18 fold within the two weeks of the attacks.

Especially in online platforms, sympathisers with the Christchurch terrorist justified or glorified his attack, called for more deadly and bloody attacks on Muslims or declared their willingness to follow the Christchurch terrorist by killing Australian Muslims once a “civil war” starts in Australia.

Along with this hyper-violent rhetoric, we saw an escalation in xenophobic language, from telling people to “go home” to expressing supremacist conspiracies such about a “demographic invasion by Muslims”. These xenophobic attacks was the most popular form of online hate rhetoric (43%) after associating Muslims with terrorism (58%).

Not a ‘Muslim’ problem, a social cohesion risk

The Islamophobia report is yet more evidence of the abuse Muslims face in Australia – just for going about their lives.

Positive action from our political leaders is required to safeguard the dignity, equality and safety of every citizen and minority group, including Muslim Australians.

Read more:
Two years on from the Christchurch terror attack, how much has really changed?

The increase in Islamophobia in the aftermath of the Christchurch attacks is not a coincidence. The incitement to violence on social media suggests the need for intense monitoring and strategic moves by counter-terrorism organisations.

Islamophobia is not a “Muslim” problem, it is a risk to our social cohesion. It requires national engagement if Australia is to live up to its multicultural legacy.

Derya Iner works at Charles Sturt University and provides consulting for the Islamophobia Register Australia.

– ref. ‘Let’s rip it off her head’: new research shows Islamophobia continues at disturbing levels in Australia – https://theconversation.com/lets-rip-it-off-her-head-new-research-shows-islamophobia-continues-at-disturbing-levels-in-australia-179106

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University

It is premature to be discussing the legacy of the Morrison government. While it is well behind in the polls, there is still an election to be fought. Most commentators are understandably wary of prediction, not only because many got it wrong last time round, but because we are living in uncertain times.

But there is another reason to be wary of pronouncing on legacies. What is seen to matter changes with the passage of time. The failures can shrink in collective memory over the years, while achievements that seemed modest during government loom larger as circumstances change.

When Robert Menzies retired in January 1966, everyone seemed to be able to agree it was an end of an era, but they struggled to discern a likely legacy. The Australian, then in its infancy, asked: “Has anything happened to Australia in the last 16 years of which we can say: ‘This was Menzies’?”. It offered education as one possibility, but was not otherwise able to find much:

There was his Midas touch, his fantastic run of success since 1949, his unerring political touch, his judgement of the right moment, his talent for survival, his overpowering domination of politics.

Menzies’ greatest achievement seemed to lie in his political nous rather than his policy achievement.

The reputations of other governments have moved this way and that. The Whitlam government’s reputation was mediocre in the late 1970s and 1980s; its failures in economic management seemed a permanent black mark against it. By the time Whitlam died in 2014, the legacy seemed exceptional – from health and education through Aboriginal and women’s rights, environment and heritage, family law, consumer affairs and much else – partly because the achievements of recent times were so meagre.

Read more:
Gough Whitlam’s life and legacy: experts respond

The Hawke and Keating legacy looked better by the early 2000s, as Australia enjoyed some of the dividends of their reforms, than it had in the era of corporate collapse and recession of the early 1990s.

Gun laws loom much larger today as a Howard legacy than they did in 2007, in the wake of continuing carnage in the United States.

Much of Malcolm Turnbull’s memoir was given over to setting out a prime ministerial legacy. He even invited readers to include marriage equality: an issue on which others had worked for a generation to reshape public opinion in the face of political class obstruction.

What of Morrison? He went to the 2019 election promising little. Unsurprisingly, when returned to office, the parliament was not flooded with initiatives. There were tax breaks. This is a legacy of sorts: a more regressive income tax and budget deficits further into the future than anyone can see.

On the handful of other matters the government did promise to attend to, we are still waiting. It has failed to establish an anti-corruption commission, with its draft legislation being treated with justified contempt by anyone interested in improving government integrity.

It has also failed to deliver on religious freedom. This failure was Turnbull’s legacy, too, for he granted the defeated side in the same-sex marriage postal survey of 2017 a sop in the form of an inquiry which led, after years of toing and froing, to the recent humiliation of the Morrison government by members of his own backbench.

Something like this should have been predictable from the outset. The existing exemptions in the Sex Discrimination Act, which are in large part the result of church lobbying in 1983 and 1984, are wide. If Christian conservatives were more pragmatic and less inclined to culture wars, they would have left them alone.

Of course, the Morrison government was quickly overtaken by what British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan called “events, dear boy, events”. There were the Black Summer bushfires. They have formed a difficult legacy for Morrison.

If we work backwards from Scott and Jenny Morrison’s recent appearance on 60 Minutes, it seems likely the Liberal Party’s research is revealing Morrison’s leadership failure and trip to Hawaii remain imprinted on the public imagination.

Then there is COVID-19. Morrison will claim a legacy in which fewer Australians died than in most other places and the government’s support managed to prevent economic catastrophe. The government’s opponents will point to failures in the vaccine procurement and rollout, in aged-care policy and in supplying testing kits.

Labor will also point to the precarious state of an economy in which inflation and debt are rising, and to the need for stronger action on climate change and renewable energy than Morrison has so far been willing to take.

Read more:
Why good leaders need to hold the hose: how history might read Morrison’s coronavirus leadership

The government will place foreign relations and defence in the foreground. The Australian’s Paul Kelly recently produced a Lowy Institute Paper, Morrison’s Mission, in which he manages to discern so much coherence in the government’s foreign policy, with its growing belligerence toward China and cloying relationship to the United States, that it deserves to be called “The Morrison Doctrine”.

His colleague Greg Sheridan is more insistent on the government’s failure to attend to Australia’s defence capabilities in a world unlikely to wait around for Australia to acquire a nuclear submarine fleet several decades into the future.

National security is predictably alluring for Morrison. It plays to a traditional Coalition strength. It has formed the basis for some outrageous attacks on Labor and its leader, Anthony Albanese, as Chinese Communist Party favourites.

It appeals to the grandiosity from which almost no prime minister is immune and which Morrison has in spades. And it is consistent with his reduction of politics to a form of public relations, one less preoccupied with implementation and achievement than the theatre of the announcement. Even Kelly, broadly favourable to Morrison’s foreign policy direction, says that he “constantly oversells his initiatives”.

But Morrison will be long out of politics before anyone is called to serious account for the decisions being made today.

There is danger in this for Morrison’s government. Few today recall Australia’s security agreement with Indonesia as a Keating legacy. Abrogated by Indonesia during the later Timor crisis, at the time of its signing a few months before the 1996 election it fed into an image of Keating as too concerned with “the big picture” at the expense of the everyday concerns of mainstream Australians. This became an idea that John Howard deployed with devastating effect.

Morrison may well find that voters who – to take just another example of failure – are unimpressed with their leaders’ response when their homes are inundated by flood waters have a strictly limited interest in any boats other than those being sent to help them.

Frank Bongiorno 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. Tax cuts? COVID management? On the search for the Morrison government’s legacy (so far) – https://theconversation.com/tax-cuts-covid-management-on-the-search-for-the-morrison-governments-legacy-so-far-176678

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Battersby, Teaching Fellow, Massey University

As the Russian invasion unfolds, a deep vein of Ukrainian nationalism – already irritated by the annexation of Crimea and a Russian-backed insurgency in the Donbas region – has been unleashed.

Ordinary civilians have called themselves to arms, vowed to kill Russians in vengeance for their aggression, and promised to fight to the death.

Improvised explosive devices – as desperately simple as Molotov cocktails – have been produced. A foreign legion has been raised, and foreign fighters invited to join the cause.

Not so long ago, actions like this met with international scorn. United Nations resolutions and legislation in many countries were passed against those improvising explosives and travelling into war zones to fight – because those doing it were supporting ISIS.

For nearly two decades, the notion of “radicalisation” has prevailed as a careless label – describing an apparently irrational and inexplicable determination to incite, perpetrate and endure physical violence.

Yet here it is materialising on our television screens. Not only is the Ukrainian determination to fight to the end understandable, the desire of outsiders to help them makes sense.

The lesson of ISIS

The Ukrainian situation demonstrates the normality of rational human beings advocating and perpetuating violence in circumstances they perceive as unacceptable.

No judgement is made here on the relative merits of ISIS and the terrible circumstances in Ukraine. We obviously see the two causes as a world apart – though ISIS would see them as absolutely aligned.

Read more:
How will NZ’s law targeting sanctions against Russia work – and what are the risks?

Regardless, it is not necessarily a character flaw that causes people to advocate and perpetuate dreadful violence, to kill and maim, and go to their own deaths to achieve an outcome they will not survive to see.

The Ukrainian defence is inspiring, courageous and, however it ends, it will be an exhibition of the human will against impossible odds.

But ISIS saw themselves the same way.

Terrorism and social cohesion

New Zealand’s royal commission of inquiry into the Christchurch attacks of March 15 2019 trapped itself – and has since trapped policymakers – into thinking terrorism’s sole cause is irrational extremism.

This position presumes terrorism largely emerges from ideological or religious extremism, and that it is a social problem – so pursing policies to encourage “social cohesion” will help avoid future terrorism.

Read more:
The extremism visible at the parliament protest has been growing in NZ for years – is enough being done?

As similar and cohesive as the peoples of Russia and Ukraine were, it has taken no time at all to turn them into bitter enemies as the result of Putin’s decision to invade. Peaceful, law-abiding Russian people living cohesively in New Zealand have suddenly found themselves the targets of abuse and threats.

The Race Relations Conciliator’s response urging New Zealanders to “be kind” suggests a failure to understand the deep emotional attachment many are starting to feel for the people of Ukraine as we witness the injustice unfolding there.

State-sponsored terrorism

Putin has never lost a war. He has never won one without causing untold devastation and suffering. In the past, his victims have resorted to insurgencies and ultimately terrorism.

If Russia presses on to victory, Ukrainians will have little option but to fight back in any way they can. They have already breached the Geneva Conventions by filming their captives.

Read more:
Humanitarian corridors could help civilians safely leave Ukraine – but Russia has a history of not respecting these pathways

Terrorism may become a tactic they will ultimately see themselves having little choice but to adopt.

Given the reluctance of NATO to engage directly, Western powers will almost certainly covertly fund, supply and assist an insurgent or terrorist movement resisting Russia. This happened in Afghanistan with Western support of the Mujahadeen following the Soviet invasion in 1979.

All those UN resolutions of the past two decades – aimed at discouraging, punishing and preventing terrorism – will now become an inconvenience, to be circumvented using “plausibly deniable” actions by the governments that voted for them.

Our governments may become the new sponsors of terrorism. And we will support them doing so.

A return of ‘old school’ terrorism?

Historians have warned of the risk of sponsoring terrorism as a short-term expedient with uncontrollable long-term consequences.

But the recent change in Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s tone was unmistakable: the West is not doing enough and is sitting by while Ukrainians are sacrificed in the interests of greater European security and world peace.

Ultimately, who are Ukraine’s enemies? The Russian state? Or those who sit on the sidelines doing just enough to stay out of the war?

Not only are conditions ripe for the future emergence of a nationalist terrorist movement in the region, it may not feel restrained about where its targets lie.

Old school terrorism could be set to revive (not that it ever really died). New Zealand’s Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism Strategy may sit at odds with what our friends and allies are doing, and where our sympathies actually lie.

John Battersby 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. On the 3rd anniversary of the Christchurch attack, the Ukraine crisis asks the West to rethink its definitions of terrorism – https://theconversation.com/on-the-3rd-anniversary-of-the-christchurch-attack-the-ukraine-crisis-asks-the-west-to-rethink-its-definitions-of-terrorism-179096

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joseph Ibrahim, Professor, Health Law and Ageing Research Unit, Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University

“It’s my life and I’ll do what I want,” sang Eric Burdon of The Animals to the baby boomer generation. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. As we get older, sometimes we are no longer capable of making our own decisions. Diseases that affect the brain such as dementia, stroke and head injury can impair cognition and thinking.

Some people may choose to appoint a medical treatment decision-maker or an enduring power of attorney to make certain decisions on their behalf. Alternatively, a legal tribunal or court may appoint a guardian or trustee to help guide decisions about health care, finances, accommodation and lifestyle.

Who is the right person to take on this important role? Is it the family member or partner who knows you best? Or someone with time and energy? Perhaps someone who understands the services you need – like a nurse, accountant or real estate agent?

The role of a decision-making representative has changed significantly in recent years, shifting from a paternalistic approach to a more person-centred focus. Our research looks at the differences between these approaches and how subconscious bias can influence decision-making.

Read more:
Safe at home? We need a new strategy to protect older adults from violent crime

Taking care

These days, guardianship has moved from deciding what’s deemed to be in the individual’s “best interests” to what best reflects their “will and preferences”.

While previously, decisions were made for the person by their guardian or representative, new laws require representatives to enact the person’s “will and preferences”. That is, to make decisions with them.

This is an important difference. The newer model gives the represented person more autonomy over personal, financial and other decisions. It recognises that even though a person may struggle with aspects of decision-making, they should not be excluded from decisions about how they live their life. This fundamental shift was earlier adopted by the United Nations in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, to which Australia is a signatory.

Read more:
There’s no need to lock older people into nursing homes ‘for their own safety’

Challenging in real world situations

The will and preferences framework may sound simple, but it can be challenging in practice, when concepts of empowerment are tricky to define and the will of someone with cognitive difficulties is hard to discern.

Representatives bring their own biases, perceptions and lived experience to the role of supporting another person to make decisions. This subjectivity is a natural and an inherent part of decision-making. The representative faces the challenge of setting aside their own opinion and, instead, stepping into the shoes of the represented person to give effect to what they want.

A mismatch between the age, gender, ethnicity, religion or socioeconomic status of the representative and the represented person can exacerbate this challenge.

An older able-bodied female, who is deeply religious and from a middle-to-high income background might find it difficult to represent a young man with a disability who is an atheist and from a working-class background. Now, imagine a scenario where the young man expresses a desire to go bungee-jumping or parachuting, despite previously showing a fear of heights. What’s his representative to do?

Older people and women generally have a lower appetite for risk, as do those who have a faith and with a high socioeconomic status.

A heightened perception of danger or a feeling the activity as frivolous, may lead to the representative reframing the situation with their subconscious bias. They may fail to respect the younger person’s will and preferences.

Understanding what might shape a representative’s approach to decision-making is essential. Especially when decisions involve health or living arrangements.

3 things to look for when selecting a legal decision-making representative

1. Deep understanding

An intimate understanding of your situation is crucial. An ideal representative is someone who actively listens and has a holistic view of your circumstances. This may come from discussions with you and your loved ones. The representative must be careful your views are not outweighed by those of family or friends who are often more vocal. They should have a deep sense of who you are as an individual.

2. Self-awareness

The person you choose should be able to describe their personal views and values and understand how their perspective may influence their decisions. This is vital to mitigate the effects of pre-existing bias. They should be able to reflect on their own lived experiences, to understand how their history shapes their approach to decision-making. They should be able to assess whether what you would do is the same as what they think you should do, and why.

3. Effective documentation

A record of conversations between the representative and represented person often helps to illuminate a person’s will and preferences. Writing or recording compels us to commit to an idea and explain what we mean. It helps to clarify what is intended far better than a one-time conversation that may be remembered differently by participants.

Further research is needed to better match representatives with represented persons. Improved tools are needed to identify the role of bias in decision-making and evaluate whether the represented person’s wills and preferences are being respected.

Joseph Ibrahim received funding from Commonwealth Social Service (2015–17) and State Health Department (ongoing) for research, education and consultancies into residential aged care services and health care services. He also is an independent advocate for age care reform.

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

– ref. How to choose a legal decision-maker as you get older – 3 things to consider – https://theconversation.com/how-to-choose-a-legal-decision-maker-as-you-get-older-3-things-to-consider-177631

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Doctor of Botany, The University of Melbourne

As the floodwaters recede, mountains of debris are left behind – sheets of plaster, loose clothes, mattresses and, of course, trees. Some debris I’ve seen in floods includes massive tree trunks weighing 5 tonnes of more, bobbing along like corks in the rapidly flowing waters.

The trees that line our creeks, rivers and floodplains are on the front line when major flooding occurs, and bear the brunt of the flood’s mighty forces. But while they are often victims of floods, trees are also our greatest allies.

From stabilising river banks with the strong grip of their roots to changing the course of floodwater, here’s how trees influence floods – and how floods can kill them.

How trees influence floods

The large and fine roots of trees, such as river red gums, bind and consolidate soil, stabilising river banks and reducing erosion. This reduces the amount of sediment entering waterways, and prevents waters down-stream becoming muddied and clogged with silt.

Large trees can also protect smaller plants such as shrubs by acting as a physical barrier, shielding other vegetation from the forceful momentum of floodwater.
This is because the presence of trees slows the floodwaters’ speed, as their trunks, roots and branches block and deflect water, and change the direction of flow.

However, slowing floodwaters can also cause the flood front to widen, inundating areas further away from the usual river course. This is a major consideration when creek and river banks are being revegetated – we want to capture the benefits trees provide, but also ensure that if floodwaters slow down there’s no greater risk to property or life.

Another different but related role is that trees can prevent landslides or landslips. Indeed, landslides have occurred across flood-affected regions such as Illawarra and Kangaroo Valley in NSW, and continue to threaten people and homes.

On slopes, tree root systems consolidate soils and help prevent the movement of super saturated soil, which can flow like a liquid down hill. So it can be a problem when people remove trees from around their homes or along roads as a part of bushfire prevention programs, without thinking that cleared sites and roadside verges might be prone to landslides.

Sometimes a compromise might be a better management option. Rather than removing all trees on a slope or verge, leave some of those with large roots systems and plant trees that might slow fires or resist them. Also consider planting species that resprout after fires such as tree ferns, so their roots systems aren’t lost and the soil doesn’t erode.

Trees are also flood victims

Some trees won’t survive major floods as the water’s brute force undermines their root systems, bringing them down.

In other cases, the debris, including whole trees and large branches, acts as a battering ram on large trunks. Most big trees will survive this, but some will be repeatedly battered until the trunk, major branches or root systems fail.

These then become part of the debris that damages infrastructure, such as bridges and other trees downstream.

For most trees, floods are a fleeting event that lasts a few days or perhaps a couple of weeks. Many tree species cope well with this situation, but what happens to those that might be inundated for weeks or even months in the wake of floods?

Soils can remain very wet for a long time after flooding. Some trees, such as river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and swamp gum (Eucalyptus ovata), can tolerate inundation for many weeks. We’ve seen populations of river red gum, for example, cope with up to nine months of inundation.

Others may not do so well if they remain under water for long periods of time. This includes older and stressed trees, some fruit trees like citrus and stone fruit species, or some conifers.

Read more:
‘The sad reality is many don’t survive’: how floods affect wildlife, and how you can help them

Water-logged soils have low levels of oxygen, which means roots struggle to maintain their normal metabolism, health and function. This also affects the fungi associated with healthy roots. The longer low oxygen levels persist, the less suitable conditions are.

Low oxygen in soils lead to anaerobic respiration – when cells break down sugars to generate energy without oxygen, producing alcohol and lactic acid. Both alcohol and lactic acid are only mild poisons, but as their level rises, root and fungal cells can be killed.

Water-logged soils also mean roots are deprived of their usual sources of energy and die of starvation. And once the roots start to go, there’s a rapid downward spiral in the tree’s condition.

Trees can die very quickly, over a matter of days, and such rapid deaths are much more likely in older, stressed trees. Little can be done to help trees survive under these conditions.

Take care around trees after floods

When trees that survived the flood die in its aftermath, they can cause riverbanks to collapse. This creates a danger for those who approach at the wrong time.

And as roots die, the trees are less stable. This means if winds pick up speed, the compromised root system in soggy soil can lead to windthrow, which is where whole trees are blown over.

This can happen weeks or even months after a flood, so take care on these sites on windy days.

Read more:
Scott Morrison’s tone-deaf leadership is the last thing traumatised flood victims need. Here are two ways he can do better

The major floods inundating NSW and Queensland are not the first – and will certainly not be the last – many of us will experience in our lifetimes.

For those of us who have been acutely aware of the prediction of major flooding events as part of climate change, these events haven’t come as a surprise. They were inevitable, just as fiercer bushfires and ferocious storms are inevitable.

In this land of extremes, trees have always been part of floods and flood prone ecosystems. Yet trees are disappearing at an alarming rate along many waterways.

While climate change poses new threats to trees, it also creates new opportunities for us to work with trees as allies in dealing with climate change and its consequences. We must not work against them.

Read more:
Here are 5 practical ways trees can help us survive climate change

Gregory Moore 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. Trees: why they’re our greatest allies against floods – but also tragic victims – https://theconversation.com/trees-why-theyre-our-greatest-allies-against-floods-but-also-tragic-victims-178981

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Reilly, Researcher, School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University

When asked to estimate their own intelligence, most people will say they are above average, even though this is a statistical improbability. This is a normal, healthy cognitive bias and extends to any socially desirable trait such as honesty, driving ability and so on. This pattern is so common that it’s known as “the above-average effect”.

In a recent study, my colleagues and I explored how consistently men and women estimated their own intelligence or IQ (intelligence quotient). We also assessed measures of general self-esteem and masculine and feminine personality traits.

We found the strongest predictors of overestimating IQ were biological sex and then psychological gender. Being born male and having strong masculine traits (both men and women) were associated with an inflated intellectual self-image.

Read more:
You can do it! A ‘growth mindset’ helps us learn

Male hubris, female humility

Despite people’s overall tendency to overestimate their own intelligence, individuals vary. Some doubt their intellectual ability while others greatly overestimate their talents. In general, though, when asked to estimate their IQ, men think they’re significantly brighter than they are, while women’s estimates are far more modest.

Our findings are consistent with those of other studies. Psychologist Adrian Furnham has termed this effect the male hubris, female humility problem. It’s true of many cultures.

Why do men see themselves as so much brighter, while women consistently underestimate their intelligence?

Read more:
Understanding emotions is nearly as important as IQ for students’ academic success

There are no gender differences in actual IQ

Psychology and intelligence researchers are unequivocal: men and women do not differ in actual IQ. There is no “smarter sex”. However, it was only with the development of objective measures of assessing intelligence that this notion was invalidated.

Historically, women were believed to be intellectually inferior as they had slightly smaller skulls. By the same logic, an elephant’s intelligence dwarfs ours! Bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to brain size.

In the past century, gender stereotypes have changed greatly. Today, when asked explicitly, most people will agree men and women are equally intelligent. Overt endorsements of gender stereotypes about intelligence are rare in most countries.

But there is quite a difference in implicit beliefs about gender and intellect. Covert and indirect endorsement can still be widely seen.

In a classic social psychology study, researchers asked parents to estimate the intelligence of their children. Sons were rated significantly more intelligent than daughters. This finding has been replicated across the world.

Parental expectations may be particularly important in influencing their children’s intellectual self-image, and are also predictive of later academic achievement.

Read more:
‘You’re the best!’ Your belief in your kids’ academic ability can actually improve their grades

Gender differences in self-esteem might also be an important factor, as people with higher self-esteem tend to see all aspects of their life (including intellectual ability) more positively. Girls and women rate their general self-esteem significantly lower than boys and men. This difference emerges early in adolescence.

What did our study find?

In our study, we asked participants to estimate their IQ after briefing them on how intelligence is scored. The average score is 100 points. We showed participants that two-thirds (66%) of people score in the range between 85 and 115 points to give them a frame of reference for estimates.

Where our study differed is that we told participants they would complete an IQ test after estimating their own IQ. This would help counter false bragging and inflated estimates, and allow us to test the accuracy of the male and female self-estimates.

Participants also completed a measure of general self-esteem, and the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, which measures masculine and feminine personality traits. We had a hypothesis that psychological gender (specifically masculinity) would be a better predictor of self-estimates than biological sex (male or female at birth).

Our sample reported a mean IQ score of 107.55 points. This was slightly above average, as expected.

First, we examined the accuracy of their judgments, as one possibility might simply be that one gender (males or females) had completely unrealistic estimates of ability. Looking at the lines plotting self-estimated IQ against actual IQ, we can see men and women in our sample were fairly consistent in their accuracy. The difference was that male scores (in blue) were more more often overestimates (above the line) and females scores (in green) were more often underestimates (below the line).

After statistically controlling for the effects of actual measured IQ, we next examined the strongest predictors of self-estimated intelligence. The results showed biological sex remained the strongest factor: males rated their intelligence as higher than females. However, psychological gender was also a very strong predictor, with highly masculine subjects rating their intelligence higher (importantly, there was no association with femininity).

There was also a strong contribution of general self-esteem to participants’ intellectual self-image. As noted above, males report higher self-esteem than females.

Why does all this matter?

Educational psychologists pay attention to intellectual self-image because it’s often a self-fulfilling prophecy: if you think you can’t, you won’t.

When girls undervalue their intelligence in school, they tend to choose less challenging course content – especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (the STEM subjects). These decisions limit their education and career choices after school.

Read more:
Calling all parents – Australia’s future female scientists need your support now

These gender differences may in part explain the gender gap in wages and bargaining power with employers.

We need to lift girls’ aspirations if they are to go on to solve the complex problems our society faces, while achieving equal pay. It starts early with gendered parental expectations of intelligence, and differences in self-esteem between boys and girls.

Wouldn’t it be nice if, as parents, educators and a society, we could build the confidence of girls and young women to a level where they believe in themselves and are free of those doubts?

David Reilly is a member of the American Psychological Association, and an Associate Member of the Australian Psychological Society. There was no external funding of this study, and no financial interests to declare.

– ref. Men think they’re brighter than they are and women underestimate their IQ. Why? – https://theconversation.com/men-think-theyre-brighter-than-they-are-and-women-underestimate-their-iq-why-178645

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Ubilava, Senior Lecturer of Economics, University of Sydney

Russia and Ukraine between them account for almost a quarter of the world’s wheat exports.

Russia and Ukraine are also big exporters of maize (corn), barley, and other grains that much of the world relies on to make food.

Wheat alone accounts for an estimated 20% of human calorie consumption.

Since the start of February, as war became more likely, the grains and oilseed price index compiled by the International Grains Council has jumped 17%.

The big drivers have been jumps of 28% in the price of wheat, 23% in the price of maize and 22% in the price of barley.

Russia and Ukraine account for one fifth of the world’s barley exports. Maize is a common substitute for wheat and barley.

Russia and Ukraine are also enormous producers of sunflower oil, between them accounting for around 70% of global exports.

Among the world’s biggest wheat importers are Egypt, along with its North African neighbours Algeria and Nigeria, one of the world’s poorest nations.

Indonesia, Turkey and the Philippines are also big importers.

Supplies from Russia might come through – and Russia is in desperate need of foreign exchange. But Ukraine’s ports are closed, transport infrastructure is disrupted and might not be working when harvest season begins in July, and barley planting would normally begin about now.

Rationing and riots have happened before

Sudden shortages and price hikes will hit poor countries and their poorest citizens hard. Low income households spend far more of their income on staples such as bread than high income households.

The effects will flow through to meat and egg prices, as cereal grains are used as feed of livestock and poultry production.

Read more:
How Russia-Ukraine conflict could influence Africa’s food supplies

Throughout history, violence and unrest have flowed from hikes in commodity prices. Egypt was racked with bread riots and rationing in 2017. Kazakhstan suffered massive protests in January after a spike in liquefied gas prices.

Humanitarian organisations are set to face greater calls for food aid, which will be more expensive to provide.

Fortunately, the big southern hemisphere wheat producers, Australia and Argentina, have produced bumper crops.

Read more:
Russia’s war with Ukraine risks fresh pressure on fertiliser prices

The value of Australian wheat production is set to hit an all-time high.

But food supply chains and global stability are certain to be tested.

It will take a village to stop this war and mitigate its repercussions. The rich and powerful of the village should do all they can to hold it together.

David Ubilava 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. Russia’s war on Ukraine is driving up wheat prices and threatens global supplies of bread, meat and eggs – https://theconversation.com/russias-war-on-ukraine-is-driving-up-wheat-prices-and-threatens-global-supplies-of-bread-meat-and-eggs-178879

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By ​Erin Griffey, Associate Professor, Art History, University of Auckland

In this new series, Remaking History, academics explain the ways they are recreating historical practices, and how this impacts their research today.

The desire to appear youthful and beautiful has provided impetus for extraordinary chemical experimentation with cosmetics for millennia. Historical cosmetic recipes list an array of plant, animal and mineral ingredients from roses and rosemary to donkey milk and calves’ hooves, gold and sulphur.

The beauty industry developed dramatically in Renaissance Europe from around 1500. Recipes were widely published and recorded in manuscripts. And there was ready availability of a range of ingredients and pre-made formulas, some of them marketed as “secret”.

Recipes claimed to treat a whole arsenal of beauty concerns, including dying hair, removing hair, whitening teeth, clearing blemishes and removing wrinkles. While women were the primary audience for such beautifying recipes, there were also recipes for men to cure baldness and facilitate beard growth.

Renaissance artworks provided templates of ideal beauty – above all associated with women and the classical figure of Venus. Recipes offered the possibility the female user might also appear as beautiful as her.

(It is not a coincidence Gillette makes a Venus razor and shaving products – Venus was typically depicted with soft, smooth skin with no bodily hair.)

It is remarkable just how closely Renaissance beauty ideals – and aggressive marketing strategies promising cures – parallel those of today. The principles for treating such concerns and ingredients used in historical beauty recipes are the same as they were many hundreds of years ago. And yet other ingredients seem to have been forgotten or abandoned over time.

One would expect, then, a flurry of scientific research into historical cosmetics. And yet despite some scholarly interest in historical cosmetics, there has been a dearth of scientific, academically-rigorous, lab-based analysis.

Make it beautiful

In the Beautiful Chemistry Project, we recreate and analyse popular beautifying recipes recorded in Renaissance Europe: the ingredients, the working processes and the final products.

The project grew out of a study of cosmetic recipes recorded between 1500-1700 across Europe in a range of sources: medical and surgical texts, herbals, popular “books of secrets”, cosmetic recipe collections and domestic manuscripts of family recipes.

There is a colossal amount of material so our study does not aim to be comprehensive. Instead, we have focused on recipes for the skin that promised to “make it beautiful” (a common promise in recipes of the time) as well as those claiming to remove wrinkles and rejuvenate the skin.

While the recipes we study were recorded in European sources in Latin, Italian, French and English, many of the recipes were based on earlier sources. And so ancient Egyptian papyri, Roman, Byzantine and medieval sources have also been consulted to establish patterns and trace changes in the recipes through the ages.

We take an integrated approach that joins history and science, the library and the lab, recipe texts and recipe formulas, and teams up senior researchers and students. First year chemistry students and graduate students work together with postdoctoral researchers with expertise in the analytical, synthetic and physical fields of chemistry.

The approach involves identifying commonly recorded Renaissance beauty recipes and having the enthusiastic students – alongside and guided by the research scientists – recreate them in the lab and/or at home, carefully documenting every step of their thinking, working process and results.

The recreated formulas are then chemically analysed using laboratory analytical techniques in the School of Chemical Sciences, and the effect of these products on skin quality is tested in the Photon Factory at the university.

Making a recipe

Renaissance cosmetic recipes are often frustratingly short and vague. The nature of the ingredients, the measurements and even the processes are rarely self-evident.

Take, for example, a very popular recipe we have worked on, which sounds straightforward: rosemary flowers boiled in white wine. This version of the recipe is recorded in the runaway bestselling book of secrets by the pseudonymous “Alessio Piemontese”, published around the same time Titian painted his dazzling Venus at Her Mirror.

The recipe is entitled, A far bella faccia, or, to make a beautiful face.

Take rosemary flowers and boil them with white wine and with this wash the face very well, and also drink it, it will make your face very beautiful, and the breath good.

For a cultural historian, the recipe leads to questions about the textual tradition of the recipe, the perceived properties of the ingredients, the role of smell, the power of beauty.

For a scientist, there are so many variables: quantities, boiling procedure and length of time, type of white wine and equipment used. Note, too, its beautifying powers are not solely accomplished through application on the skin but through drinking it and making your breath sweet.

Variations of the Renaissance formula included steeping and boiling rosemary flowers and/or leaves in white wine. When we recreated these steps and analysed the resulting mixtures, we found both methods extracted a wide variety of essential oils, amino acids and sugars.

These included many chemicals, such as camphor, eucalyptol and linalool you could find in modern skincare products.

Today, we know these substances can have antibacterial, moisture-binding, collagen-growth stimulating, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, brightening and soothing effects.

Renaissance experimenters mixed concoctions of potent, often seemingly unusual ingredients together in their pursuit of beauty. By recreating their experiments, we can see how much modern beauty standards and practices can be traced back many hundreds of years.

Read more:
Remaking history: in hand-making 400-year-old corset designs, I was able to really understand how they impacted women

Michel Nieuwoudt received funding from the Ministry of Business, Industry and Enterprise (MBIE) and the Health Research Council (HRC) NZ.

Cather Simpson, Ruth Cink, and ​Erin Griffey 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. Remaking history: how we are recreating Renaissance beauty recipes in the modern chemistry lab – https://theconversation.com/remaking-history-how-we-are-recreating-renaissance-beauty-recipes-in-the-modern-chemistry-lab-176461

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

Australia and the Netherlands have started legal action against Russia in the International Civil Aviation Organisation for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17, 2014.

The two countries are seeking to have Russia’s action declared a breach of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Russia ordered into “good faith” negotiations on reparations and its ICAO voting power suspended until the negotiations reached “a satisfactory outcome”.

The missile attack, over eastern Ukraine, killed 298 people, 38 of them Australian citizens and permanent residents. The plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Australia and the Netherlands hold Russia responsible under international law.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne told a news conference on Monday evening this latest action was an “important step in the fight for truth, justice and accountability” for the victims.

The ICAO is a United Nations agency funded by more than 190 governments to support co-operation in air transport.

Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, speaking at the news conference, said the Russian action had been a clear breach of the convention, which required states to refrain from using weapons againt civil aircraft in flight.

In October 2020 Russia withdrew from negotiations with Australia and the Netherlands about the plane’s downing, and refused to return.

In a statement Scott Morrison, Payne and Cash laid out the evidence on which the two countries will rely. This includes that

• the plane was shot down by a Russian Buk-TELAR surface-to-air missile system

• that system was transported from Russia to an agricultural field in eastern Ukraine, an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists, on the morning of July 17, 2014

• the missile system belonged to Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Military Brigade, and was accompanied by a Russian crew

• the missile fired from the launch site brought down the plane

• the missile could only have been fired by the trained Russian crew of the Buk-TELAR, or at least by someone acting under their instruction, direction or control

• the missile system was returned to Russia soon after the plane was downed.

The government said in its statement: “The Russian Federation’s refusal to take responsibility for its role in the downing of Flight MH17 is unacceptable and the Australian Government has always said that it will not exclude any legal options in our pursuit of justice”.

It said the joint action under Article 84 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation was in addition to the Dutch national prosecution of four suspects for their individual criminal responsibility

“Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine and the escalation of its aggression underscores the need to continue our enduring efforts to hold Russia to account for its blatant violation of international law and the UN Charter, including threats to Ukraine’s sovereignty and airspace,” the statement said.

It reaffirmed that Australia would “pursue every available avenue to ensure Russia is held to account” over MH17.

Also on Monday the government announced fresh sanctions on 33 Russian oligarchs, prominent businesspeople and their immediate families.

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. Australia launches action against Russia over MH17, in bid for reparations – https://theconversation.com/australia-launches-action-against-russia-over-mh17-in-bid-for-reparations-179209

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Hall, Senior Researcher, Environmental Law Initiative and Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Law, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

The government’s plans to fast-track a long overdue review of large tracts of ecologically important land, known as “stewardship land”, could result in the loss of legal protections for some conservation land.

A third of all land in Aotearoa New Zealand is managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). When DOC was formed in 1987, it was allocated land that had been carefully assessed for conservation values and then classified into national parks, scenic reserves or similar. But this classification job was only two-thirds completed at the time.

The remaining third of the land was called “stewardship land”, which takes in pristine areas such as the Southern Alps between Mount Aspiring and Aoraki/Mount Cook national parks.

About 2.7 million hectares (9%) of New Zealand’s land area is stewardship land. Officials put stewardship land in a holding pen with the same level of protection as other conservation land to make it relatively easy to add protections and hard to sell or swap.

Only 100,000ha of this has been reclassified since the 1980s, including recent additions to the Kahurangi National Park, but successive governments have not had the appetite to finish the job.

Last year, the government announced plans to reclassify all remaining stewardship land, but we argue the process is flawed. It opens the door to vested interests, including sale or disposal of public conservation land, in particular for mining.

Speed versus care

The government appointed national panels to assess the land and make recommendations to the minister. Cabinet papers show the assessments were supposed to be a “genuine technical assessment” of conservation values.

But the panels are due to report their recommendations on all of Westland by next month, before moving on to other regions at similar speed. The need for speed has never been explained in light of the care required for this once-in-a-generation task.

Read more:
New Zealand is reviewing its outdated conservation laws. Here’s why we must find better ways of getting people on board

The panels replace the statutory reclassification and advisory functions of conservation boards and the New Zealand Conservation Authority (NZCA) – without changing the Conservation Act. The process was never put out for consultation.

The panels’ terms of reference are loose, with expertise that does not fully overlap with conservation boards or the NZCA. The information the panels used and the stakeholder consultations they have been undertaking have yet to be made public.

The conservation values the panels should be assessing have not been clarified, despite long established guidelines.

Most importantly, buried in the cabinet paper, the minister has given interim direction that panels must prioritise “the assessment for reclassification of any stewardship land where applications are sought for mining access arrangements”.

Any disposals for mining will automatically compromise later assessments of conservation values for surrounding land, resulting in weaker classifications. This could pave the way for fragmentation of ecosystems at the margins of conservation land like Kahurangi, Paparoa and Westland/Tai Poutini national parks.

In South Westland, any weak classifications, or disposals for mining within the world heritage area Te Wāhipounamu/South-West New Zealand would endanger its very status.

The Environmental Law Initiative (ELI), of which we are members, raised these and other concerns directly with DOC.

Our view is that, when combined, these flaws undermine the assessment process and could open the door to vested interests. This may lead to weak classifications, sale or disposal of public conservation land to mining interests. Although stewardship land can only be disposed of if it has low or no conservation values, if there is no genuine assessment, this seems more likely.

More mining on conservation land

Our concerns are reinforced by key issues in a current DOC consultation on improving the reclassification process and disposing of stewardship land through legislative reform.

This consultation places disposal on the table by proposing to remove a key Conservation Act barrier. This would make it easier to dispose of land before any value assessments have actually been made.

In other proposals, the hand of vested interests is clear. DOC proposes to leave commercial activities, including mining proposals, on reclassified land unaffected. This means if stewardship land were to be designated as a national park, this reclassification would have no effect on existing concessions or mining permits.

In our view, this could undermine the very conservation values the reclassification process is supposed to protect. It would also allow for even more mining on conservation land, decisively ending the 2017 Labour/New Zealand First government’s policy of “no new mines on conservation land”.

Read more:
Mining companies are required to return quarried sites to their ‘natural character’. But is that enough?

The current proposals would also cement the ouster of conservation boards and the NZCA, and shorten public consultation time frames. The combined effect of these proposals is that the public will have less say on the fate of large swathes of public land.

We call on the government to slow down the reclassification and increase the transparency of the process, particularly with regard to vested interests. Failure to confront these issues is likely to attract years of delay, serious legal challenges and possibly even new mines in pristine areas.

Matthew Hall is a Senior Researcher at the Environmental Law Initiative.

Allan Brent is on the executive of Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC) and has been a member of the New Zealand Labour Party.

– ref. How New Zealand’s review of ecologically important land could open the door to more mining on conservation land – https://theconversation.com/how-new-zealands-review-of-ecologically-important-land-could-open-the-door-to-more-mining-on-conservation-land-178759

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne

This week’s Newspoll, conducted March 9-12 from a sample of 1,520, gave Labor a 55-45 lead, unchanged since last fortnight. Primary votes were 41% Labor (steady), 35% Coalition (steady), 8% Greens (down one), 3% One Nation (steady), 3% Clive Palmer’s UAP (down one) and 10% for all Others (up two).

55% were dissatisfied with Scott Morrison’s performance (steady), and 41% were satisfied (down two), for a net approval of -14, down two points. Anthony Albanese’s net approval improved one point to +2.

The biggest news was the shift on the incumbent-skewed better PM measure, from a 42-40 Morrison lead last fortnight to a 42-42 tie now. This is the first time Morrison has not led as better PM since the 2019-20 summer bushfires. Newspoll figures are from The Poll Bludger.

There is a large difference between the three most recent polls in the vote for all Others. Newspoll has all Others at 10%, but Essential last week gave them only 4%, while Morgan had them at 12.5%.

The recent flood crisis has not damaged the Coalition’s vote in the way the bushfires did, but they were already in a dreadful polling position. If Newspoll is right, the Coalition’s final chance to make up ground before the election campaign for an expected May election will be the March 29 federal budget.

Read more:
Anthony Albanese now level with Scott Morrison as ‘better PM’: Newspoll

Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion has had little impact on Australian polls. The conflict is a long way from Australia, and we can’t do much to affect it. Last week’s Essential poll had a 24-24 tie between the major parties on who voters thought best to handle this conflict.

I wrote about Putin’s invasion twice for The Poll Bludger, on March 3 and last Friday. The earlier article said invading other countries has not been uncommon historically, while the later one said Ukraine could face a terrible fate with massive atrocities if conquered.

The articles also covered polling reaction in the US and France, where there are April elections. In a US poll at the beginning of the invasion, 62% thought Putin would not have invaded had Donald Trump still been president.

Essential: Labor leads by 49-44, but primary vote down

In Essential’s “2PP+” measure, which includes undecided voters, Labor last week led the Coalition by 49-44 (49-45 three weeks ago). Primary votes were 36% Coalition (up one), 35% Labor (down three), 10% Greens (up one), 3% One Nation (down two), 3% UAP (steady), 4% all Others (steady) and 7% undecided (up one).

Labor did better on preference flows than previously. This poll was conducted March 2-6 from a sample of 1,020.

39% gave the federal government a good rating for its response to COVID, and 35% a poor rating (40-34 in early February). After dropping from a 78% good rating in mid-December to 64% in February, WA recovered to a 71% good rating.

32% (down two since November) thought the federal government deserved to be re-elected, while 48% (up three) thought it was time to give someone else a go. The Coalition and Labor were tied at 24% each on preferred party to handle the Russia/Ukraine conflict.

Two Morgan polls both gave Labor a 56.5-43.5 lead

Morgan conducted two polls to ascertain the effect of the Ukraine invasion. The first poll was done before the invasion began, and gave Labor a 56.5-43.5 lead, a 0.5-point gain for the Coalition since the early February Morgan poll.

The second poll was conducted February 24 to March 6 from a sample of over 1,900. Labor led by 56.5-43.5, unchanged on the pre-invasion poll. Primary votes were 37.5% Labor (steady), 34% Coalition (up 1.5), 11.5% Greens (down one), 3.5% One Nation (steady), 1% UAP (down 0.5), 9% independents (up 0.5) and 3.5% others (down 0.5).

Queensland federal YouGov poll

Last fortnight, I reported a Queensland state YouGov poll had Labor leading 52-48. In the federal poll, both Morrison and Albanese were at net -6 approval in Queensland. A Morrison Coalition government was thought better for Queensland by 43-39 over an Albanese Labor government.

This poll was conducted February 18-23 from a sample of 1,021 for The Courier Mail. Figures from The Poll Bludger.

Additional questions from last Newspoll, and GDP report

In additional questions from last fortnight’s Newspoll, voters favoured Morrison and the Coalition by 33-26 over Albanese and Labor on handling the threat of China (31-26 in late January). The Coalition was favoured by 30-24 on Russia. By 74-18, voters thought China posed a national security threat, while for Russia it was 64-27. Figures from The Poll Bludger.

The ABS reported on March 2 that Australia’s GDP increased 3.4% in the December quarter, rebounding from a 1.9% contraction in the September quarter that was caused by COVID lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne. For the full year 2021, GDP increased 4.2%.

SA election on Saturday

The South Australian state election will occur Saturday. I have not seen any statewide polls since last fortnight’s SA state Newspoll that gave Labor a 53-47 lead.

Read more:
Labor maintains big federal Newspoll lead and is likely to win in South Australia

The only additional publicly released polling I am aware of are two small-sample seat polls for the Shoppies union by Labor pollster Utting Research (400 per seat surveyed).

The Poll Bludger reported last Tuesday that one showed Liberal Premier Steven Marshall trailing 51-49 in Dunstan, a swing of 9% to Labor. The other in Colton had the Liberals ahead by 55-45, a swing of 1% to Labor.

Only votes cast on election day can be counted on the night in SA. These votes will likely be a low proportion of the overall turnout. It won’t be possible to call the result on election night unless it is very decisive.

Tasmanian EMRS poll: Liberals slump

A Tasmanian state EMRS poll, conducted February 28 to March 1 from a sample of 1,000, gave the Liberals 41% (down eight since December), Labor 31% (up five), the Greens 12% (down one) and all Others 16% (up four). Liberal incumbent Peter Gutwein led Labor’s Rebecca White as preferred premier by 52-33 (59-28 in December).

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. Albanese level with Morrison as better PM in Newspoll as Labor maintains big lead – https://theconversation.com/albanese-level-with-morrison-as-better-pm-in-newspoll-as-labor-maintains-big-lead-178997

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Dwyer, Associate Lecturer and PhD Candidate, School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania

Two weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it has become apparent Russia’s military is experiencing failures – both technical and strategic – that are perhaps unexpected from one of the world’s largest military forces.

There are multiple issues one could look at in relation to Russia’s poor military performance in Ukraine to date, such as being unable to effectively counter Ukrainian drones, or failing to deliver on the kind of cyber warfare expected.

But failings in three specific categories warrant a closer look.

Organisational failures

The first issue that became quickly apparent was the poor performance of Russia’s armed forces. There has been, at times, a complete lack of logistical support for Russia’s forces on the front lines – bogging down the Russian advance and at times completely stalling it.

There have been numerous reports of Russian tanks and armoured personnel carriers running out of fuel, leading Russian soldiers to request, commandeer and steal diesel to continue progress.

Russian soldiers, many of them conscripts, have been forced to forage for food, with reports of soldiers being forced to steal chickens, and special forces soldiers breaking into shops to loot food.

Rations provided to Russia’s troops have reportedly only been sufficient for a few days, and video has emerged claiming some rations seven years out of date.

Russia had a significant amount of time to prepare its invasion and move logistical support into place, with months of open buildup. But scenes of enormous, stalled convoys being unable to progress speak volumes to Russia’s astonishing mismanagement.

This series of logistical failures are as embarrassing for Russia as they are beneficial for Ukraine.

There have also been extraordinary communication failures, both between military units, and to soldiers prior to the conflict. Reports emerged following the initial stages of the invasion, revealing many Russian soldiers were completely unaware they were invading.

Rather, captured Russian soldiers claim they were under the impression it was a military exercise, up until the moment they came under fire from Ukrainian units.

Many Russian communications have also been transmitted over unencrypted mediums. Russian bombers transmitting over open high-frequency radio have had their conversations listened in on by amateur radio enthusiasts.

Even communication between Russian units on the ground are being transmitted in the open, leading to easy interception by Ukraine. Overall, this paints a clear picture of Russian incompetence.

To top it all off, the lack of morale (with many Russian soldiers surrendering or abandoning vehicles and equipment) has only exacerbated the effects of Russia’s poor military performance.

Read more:
Ukraine: the world’s defence giants are quietly making billions from the war

Lack of air superiority

One of Russia’s most significant failures, and potentially the most damaging to its campaign, has been its inability to achieve air superiority.

In military terms, this refers to a state having a sufficient degree of dominance to conduct aerial operations (such as close air support or air strikes) without significant interference from opposing forces and air defence systems.

Before the invasion began, it was widely anticipated Russia would quickly achieve air superiority. This is because on paper Russia’s air force is vastly superior to Ukraine’s.

Prior to the invasion, Ukraine possessed Europe’s seventh-largest air force. While this sounds potent – and in relative terms, it is – it amounts to some 200 aircraft of all types (fighters, close air support, helicopters, transport aircraft and others). In comparison, Russia possesses about 1,500 combat aircraft alone.

The backbone of Ukraine’s air force are older Soviet era fighters, namely 50 MiG-29s and 32 Su-27s. Meanwhile, Russia employs modern versions of Soviet aircraft, such as the Su-30, Su-33 and Su-35 (updated variants of the Su-27 Ukraine operates).

Russia also has modern strike aircraft such as the Su-34 (another update on the Su-27, optimised for strike operations) as well as long-range strategic bombers like the Tu-22, Tu-95 and Tu-160.

However, images have emerged suggesting Russia’s strike aircraft are reliant on generic, consumer-grade GPS units. If this is true, it only reinforces Russia’s lack of capability.

Just prior to the war, US Intelligence anticipated an invasion would commence with a blistering assault by Russia on Ukraine’s air power.

Yet two weeks into the conflict, Ukraine still reportedly possesses the bulk of its air and missile defences. This has raised questions about why Russia did not make full use of its air power. Is it holding back in case the conflict broadens?

Regardless of the reason, Russia’s lack of air superiority early in the conflict may be one of its most significant strategic errors, to the benefit of Ukrainian defenders.

Russian aircraft are struggling to provide the support needed by Russian ground forces, giving Ukrainian forces an opening to counter Russia’s advance.

Weapons performance and failures

Russia’s high-tech offensive capabilities have also demonstrated lacklustre performance.

The initial stages of the invasion included a strategic bombardment of Ukrainian targets using cruise missiles and Iskander short-range ballistic missiles.

Reports indicate that as of March 1, Russia had fired as many as 320 missiles, the majority being Iskander short-range ballistic missiles – making this the largest and most intense short-range ballistic missile bombardment between two states.

The Iskander is estimated to have a range of 500km and an accuracy of 2-5 metres. Prior to the invasion, it was expected to be an effective and devastating weapon system. Intriguingly, its performance has been lacking.

For example, Iskanders were used to attack Ukrainian air bases, to destroy runways and prevent Ukraine’s air force from operating effectively. But as can be seen below, the previously vaunted accuracy of the Iskander appears far less impressive than what was anticipated.

As the conflict has progressed, Russia has made more frequent use of lower-tech weapons systems, such as unguided “dumb” bombs and cluster munitions. This might indicate Russia has either expended its limited number of high-tech weaponry, or is holding back reserves in case the conflict escalates.

The Ukrainian air force remains in the fight, despite all odds. Russia will no doubt learn from its issues and attempt to correct. Unfortunately, it does still have the advantage with numbers, in terms of both troops and equipment.

However, it’s likely the conflict can’t be sustained for long on Russia’s part, particularly with the impact sanctions are having on the Russian economy. For Ukraine, the delays caused by Russia’s errors may well lead to better outcomes.

Read more:
How do anti-tank missiles work – and how helpful might they be for Ukraine’s soldiers?

James Dwyer 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. 3 ways Russia has shown military ‘incompetence’ during its invasion of Ukraine – https://theconversation.com/3-ways-russia-has-shown-military-incompetence-during-its-invasion-of-ukraine-178895

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

It’s now two years since the World Health Organization began calling the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.

Two years ago, it was unclear whether it would even be possible to develop an effective vaccine or treatment for the novel coronavirus. In the interim, we’ve seen enormous scientific advances made in record time, bringing not one but several vaccines, and a range of treatments, to the market.

But access to vaccines is still extremely uneven across the world. And now similar problems are emerging with inequitable access to COVID-19 treatments.

Meanwhile, negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for a waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 health products and technologies, underway for almost 18 months, are still in a state of paralysis. And there is a risk that any agreement reached at the WTO might only apply to vaccines, leaving treatments unavailable or unaffordable for around half the global population.

Access to vaccines is still vastly unequal

Almost 11 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, but more than a third of the world’s population remains unvaccinated and only 13.7% of people in low-income countries have yet received one or more doses.

By the end of 2021, more boosters had been administered in high-income countries than the total doses given in low-income countries.

While the supply flowing through COVAX has been increasing over the last few months, there is still a long way to go to reach the WHO target to vaccinate 70% of the population of every country by the end of June 2022.

And with effective treatments now entering the market, we are likely to see similar patterns of inequity unless we address the dynamics that prevent equitable access.

Antiviral treatments have become increasingly important

Treatments such as the oral antivirals Paxlovid, made by Pfizer, and Lagevrio, made by Merck Sharpe & Dohme with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, are an increasingly important part of the toolkit for fighting the pandemic.

Pfizer’s Paxlovid is a combination of a new chemical entity called nirmatrelvir, and ritonavir, an older drug used to treat HIV. Paxlovid works by binding to an enzyme that is needed for viral replication. Pfizer reported that clinical trial participants who received the drug within three days of symptom onset had an 89% lower risk of hospital admission or death.

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Merck v Pfizer: here’s how the two new COVID antiviral drugs work and will be used

Merck’s molnupiravir (brand name Lagevrio) also prevents viral replication, but in this case by incorporating itself into the viral RNA, disabling its ability to reproduce. Molnupiravir reduces the risk of hospitalisation by around 30%.

While both drugs have limitations, they have been shown to reduce the risk of severe illness among adults who are at higher risk, and have the advantage over other types of treatment in that they can be taken at home. This is particularly important for countries without strong health systems, and where vaccination coverage is less than ideal.

Patents on treatments enable high prices and profits

Pfizer has signalled it has filed, or intends to file, patent applications covering Paxlovid in at least 61 countries as well as a number of regional patent offices.

Multiple patent applications have also been filed for molnupiravir in many high income countries and some middle income countries such as India and Brazil.

It may take years for some of these patent applications to be either rejected or granted, but the uncertainty makes it difficult for generic companies to enter the market.

Merck is selling a course of molunpiriavir to high income countries such as the United States for US$712 (A$970), around 40 times the cost of production. Pfizer is charging US$530 ($A722) for a course of Paxlovid.

While both Pfizer and Merck have offered tiered pricing based on a country’s income level, it remains unclear what prices will be set and whether they will be affordable. Tiered pricing has been criticised for failing to lower prices sufficiently for middle-income countries in the past.

Paxlovid is another huge money-spinner for Pfizer, which expects to generate US$22 billion (A$30 billion) in revenue from sales of the drug in 2022. And Merck’s 2022 revenue forecast for Lagevrio is $5-6 billion (A$6-8 billion).

Generic antivirals for low-income countries, but middle-income countries miss out

Both Pfizer and Merck have entered into voluntary licensing agreements with the Medicine Patents Pool which will enable generic companies anywhere in the world to make cheaper copies of the drugs for certain low-income countries.

But these license agreements are tightly restricted. Merk’s agreement with the Medicines Patent Pool permits supply of the generic copies to only 105 countries. Pfizer’s license agreement for Paxlovid restricts its supply even more tightly, to 95 low and middle-income countries covering only 53% of the global population.

These licensing agreements both exclude middle-income countries such as Thailand, China, and Mexico – countries where the prices for the patented products risks putting them out of reach.

High income countries have pre-purchased large quantities

Making the situation even worse, rich countries are buying up the limited supplies of the patented products, as they did for vaccines.

Pfizer expects to manufacture 120 million courses of Paxlovid this year. At least 30 million of the treatment courses have already been pre-purchased by rich countries, including 20 million contracted to the United States. In contrast, Pfizer has promised to provide only 10 million doses for low-income countries, a very inadequate amount in comparison with the burden of disease.

Merck plans to make 20 million courses of Lagevrio in 2022, 3.1 million of which have been promised to the US government, and Merck has also entered into deals with “over 30 markets globally including Canada, Korea, Australia, Japan, Thailand and Ukraine”.

Australia’s Health Minister announced advance purchase agreements for 500,00 doses of Paxlovid and 300,000 courses of molnupiravir in October 2021.

Stalemate at the WTO

Unfortunately, the effort invested in creating new products has not been matched by efforts to share them equitably.

A proposal to waive WTO rules that require countries to provide patents and other intellectual property rights for COVID-19 health products and technologies, first made by India and South Africa in October 2020, is now co-sponsored by 63 of the WTO’s 164 countries and supported by more than 100.

Adoption of this proposal, known as the TRIPS waiver, would enable manufacturers to enter the market without fear of litigation over infringing intellectual property rights. It would clear the way for far more widespread production of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, diagnostic tests and other technologies to fight the pandemic.

But the TRIPS waiver proposal is still languishing due to opposition by the EU, UK and Switzerland – headquarters to powerful pharmaceutical corporations – and the pharmaceutical industry has been lobbying against it.

The EU is pushing a separate proposal, which relies on existing WTO rules that allow for compulsory licensing. However, this is an onerous and protracted process that is unworkable for providing speedy access on a global scale.

And the US is only supporting a waiver for vaccines. This is a limited approach that would leave many middle-income countries unable to either afford patented drugs or to buy the generic versions.

Two years into the pandemic, it’s well past time for a global solution that provides access to all the products and technologies the world needs to manage COVID-19.

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How the intellectual property monopoly has impeded an effective response to Covid-19

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

Brigitte Tenni receives PhD scholarship funded by the Australian government. She is affiliated with the People’s Health Movement and the Public Health Association of Australia.

– ref. Two years into the pandemic, unequal access to COVID-19 treatments threatens the global recovery – https://theconversation.com/two-years-into-the-pandemic-unequal-access-to-covid-19-treatments-threatens-the-global-recovery-178990

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Melville-Rea, Research Fellow, Environmental Arts & Humanities, New York University

Within two months, Australians will vote in a federal election. It comes after a political term marked by major societal challenges, including catastrophic drought, bushfires and floods.

Such natural hazards are expected to become worse under climate change. So how does a person’s experience of disasters affect the way they vote?

This is the question I set out to answer in my new research into the last federal election. I found when people experienced drought, they tended to place more importance on economic security, not environmental policies, in deciding how to vote.

Crucially, on election day this translated to more votes for micro-parties and fewer votes for the incumbent Coalition. The findings may provide insight into how the current floods in southeastern Australia will influence the next election.

Cast your mind back

Heading into the May 2019 election, much of Australia was gripped by heatwaves and drought.

The four months to April had been the hottest period on record.
Dams were low and farmers were barely getting by.

The parched Murray–Darling Basin had experienced mass fish kills and nationally, rainfall in Australia that year would be 40% below average, the lowest on record.

In light of these conditions, political parties and candidates took drastically different drought strategies to the election.

Labor and the Greens promised significant cuts to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, to varying degrees. Labor also pledged to promote renewable energy and offered farmers climate adaption programs, and the Greens promised to help farmers implement sustainable agricultural systems.

In contrast, the Liberal-National government largely offered economic relief for rural communities, rather than pledging to mitigate climate change and future drought.

Read more:
Just because both sides support drought relief, doesn’t mean it’s right

Various micro-parties largely favoured the Coalition’s compensation approach. But importantly, they also tended to advocate strongly for local measures.

For example, Katter’s Australian Party agitated for more money to local councils. One Nation said Australia should withdraw from international climate agreements and advocated for greater local ownership of water resources.

Research shows a local experience of abnormal weather tends to increase public belief in climate change, as does low rainfall.

In some cases, extreme weather events lead to support for “green” policies and politicians. And incumbent governments that fail to prepare for or remedy harm from disasters can do worse in elections.

But belief in climate change does not always translate into political support for climate action. For example, previous research has shown how after a natural disaster, voters in the United States favour politicians who offer disaster relief spending over those who invest in disaster preparedness.

I wanted to discover whether the same dynamic played out in Australia. Specifically, how did voters affected by drought in 2019 change their voting patterns compared with the drought-free 2016 election?

What I found

My research drew on the Australian Election Study’s first ever panel survey of Australian voters. The study surveyed the same 968 participants after both the 2016 and 2019 elections.

By matching the participants’ postcodes with rainfall maps from the Bureau of Meteorology, I separated voters into those who were impacted by drought in 2019, and those who were not.

I found that if voters experienced drought, they placed more importance on the management of the economy and government debt when deciding how to vote. In addition, counter to my expectations, they placed less importance on the environment.

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Scott Morrison’s tone-deaf leadership is the last thing traumatised flood victims need. Here are two ways he can do better

The Coalition is traditionally seen as better at economic management than other parties. And as the incumbents, the Coalition could credibly promise drought compensation and relief to Australians.

But this apparent advantage did not translate into voting patterns in 2019.

Compared with the 2016 election, the Coalition lost votes in drought-affected areas. I calculated that drought decreased first-preference vote share by 3% in the House of Representatives and 1.6% in the Senate, across 7,443 national polling places.

Support for local micro-parties in drought-exposed areas increased by almost 5%. Drought did not significantly impact the vote share of Labor or the Greens.

I looked for reasons, other than the drought, which might explain the trend.
These included a region’s employment profile and population density, climate scepticism, and rates of political disaffection such as the number of blank ballots cast.

But the voting patterns remained consistent across these variables.

Balancing short and long horizons

So while drought-hit voters at the 2019 election were worried about economic security, they did not reward the Coalition for its promises of economic relief. Instead, they favoured smaller parties that emphasised both economic security and strong local leadership.

Minor party support may indeed bring local economic benefits. For example, analysis has found since 2013, electorates represented by independents or minor parties received the most per-capita funding from national grant programs with ministerial discretion.

My research suggests in the aftermath of a natural disaster, voters place higher importance on economic security than climate solutions.

Yet, prioritising relief and recovery, without disaster prevention and preparation, is highly detrimental in the long run.

Climate change threatens to supercharge both droughts and heavy rain which leads to floods. And as the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows, Australia is on the frontline of these worsening disasters.

So what does all this mean for politicians and parties wanting to tackle climate change?

My research suggests they should pursue policies that not only reduce emissions and protect Australians from the effects of an unstable climate, but bring immediate and tangible economic benefits.

Read more:
Weather forecasts won’t save us – we must pre-empt monster floods years before they hit

Hannah Melville-Rea is affiliated with independent think tank the Australia Institute.

– ref. Research shows voters favour financial relief after disasters, but we need climate action too – https://theconversation.com/research-shows-voters-favour-financial-relief-after-disasters-but-we-need-climate-action-too-179028

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ren Perkins, PhD Candidate, School of Education, The University of Queensland

A major federal government review into how we train our teachers has just been released.

This is part of the government’s push to improve Australia’s standing in the international education rankings.

The first two recommendations focus on the important role of Indigenous teachers. Namely, specifically targeting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in a national recruitment campaign.

The government has a history of trying to increase the numbers of Indigenous teachers. We must build on these earlier attempts and centre the voices of Indigenous peoples in implementing programs to support these recommendations if these are to lead to successful outcomes.

Read more:
Invisible language learners: what educators need to know about many First Nations children

The role of Indigenous teachers

There is no shortage of media coverage about Closing the Gap in education. Yet we hear little about the role Indigenous teachers have been playing in Indigenous education over decades.

Australia’s professional standards for teachers highlight the importance of having a teacher workforce capable of teaching Indigenous students, and teaching about Australia’s full histories and the importance of reconciliation.

Research also shows Indigenous teachers and support workers in schools bring a wealth of additional knowledges and skills to Australian schools. These knowledges can include local knowledge of Country, kinship groups, Indigenous languages, community dynamics and politics and embodied knowledges acquired through lived experiences of being an Indigenous person.

Indigenous students and indeed all Australian students benefit from seeing strong Indigenous role models in schools.

However, we also know some Indigenous teachers are encountering racism, have all Indigenous-related issues diverted to them and feel isolated.

What are the ‘gaps’?

In the last Australian Census in 2016, Indigenous students accounted for 6.2% of all students.
At the same time, 2% of Australian teachers identified as Indigenous. The data clearly show there is a gap in equality between Indigenous student numbers and Indigenous teacher numbers.

Currently, there is no national database on teacher retention. The recent Australian Teacher Workforce Data report provides an insight into the difference in retention rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous teachers. Indigenous teachers were considerably more likely to intend to leave the profession before they retired (36%), in comparison to the overall teacher workforce (25%).

These are gaps we should be focusing on in Indigenous education policy.

Past programs

The severe shortage of Indigenous teachers has been on government radars for some time. In 2011-2015 the federal government spent A$7.5 million to increase Indigenous teachers in Australian schools.

This was a large investment and the only program of its kind. It was led by three of Australia’s leading Indigenous education scholars. The number of Indigenous teachers increased by 16.5% during this initiative. This improvement demonstrates what can be achieved under Indigenous leadership.

An evaluation of the funding later found we need program reform and more policy on how to increase and retain Indigenous teachers. This includes a focus on improving graduation rates and leadership and workplace opportunities for current Indigenous teachers.

It also needs to include Indigenous teachers’ voices in understanding how to increase and retain Indigenous teachers.

But there has been limited action since this program ended in 2016 until now.

Read more:
For the first time, Closing the Gap has a higher education target – here’s how to achieve it

Indigenous-led research

Much of the existing research has been on Indigenous teachers leaving the profession. But a critical resource is those who have remained despite the challenges. Ren Perkins’ PhD research is looking at this group and what we can learn from them.

Through listening to Indigenous teachers, this research explores why this cohort is staying in the profession beyond the average of six years.

While the study is not yet complete, one of the key themes emerging from this research has been the strength of identity and culture.

Read more:
Preschool benefits Indigenous children more than other types of early care

Jemimah* shared her perspective on how identity is connected to her role as a teacher:

I think it’s important for me to enter the field of education, to become part of the community that is Indigenous educators, in the hopes that one day, too, I can help a student find their own place in the schooling system […]

Another Indigenous teacher, Sarah, shared how her identity informs how she teaches the curriculum, enriching learning experiences for all students:

Quality teachers should know who all of your students are, but, in particular, why this subject is so important is because of where we are, whose land we’re on and what Country we’re teaching on. It’s a really important part of knowing our history and why we’ve come to this position.

What next?

The recommendations from this latest report are timely. However, more support through specific programs and funding is needed to transform these recommendations into action.

There is expertise among Indigenous peoples about how to grow the Indigenous teacher workforce – we need to listen and use it.

*Names have been changed

Marnee Shay receives funding from the Australian Government and Edmund Rice Education Australia. She is a member of QATSIETAC Department of Education Queensland and a board member of the Xavier Flexi School Network.

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

– ref. How can Australia support more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers? – https://theconversation.com/how-can-australia-support-more-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-teachers-178522

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antonia Settle, Academic (McKenzie Postdoctoral Research Fellow), The University of Melbourne

From Brisbane to Sydney, many thousands of Australians have been reliving a devastating experience they hoped – in 2021, 2020, 2017, 2015, 2013, 2012 or 2010/11 – would never happen to them again.

For some suburbs built on the flood plains of the Nepean River in western Sydney, for example, these floods are their third in two years.

Flooding is a part of life in parts of Australia. But as climate change intensifies the frequency and severity of floods, fires and other disasters, and recovery costs soar, two big questions arise.

As a society, should we be setting up individuals and families for ruin by allowing them to build back in areas where they can’t afford insurance? And is it fair for taxpayers to carry the huge burden of paying for future rescue and relief costs?

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After the floods comes underinsurance: we need a better plan

Considering ‘managed retreat’

Doing something about escalating disaster risks require multiple responses. One is making insurance as cheap as possible. Another is investing in mitigation infrastructure, such as flood levees. Yet another is about making buildings more disaster-resistant.

The most controversial response is the policy of “managed retreat” – abandoning buildings in high-risk areas.

In Australia this policy has been mostly discussed as something to consider some time in the future, and mostly for coastal communities, for homes that can’t be saved from rising sea levels and storm surges.

It’s a sensitive subject because it uproots families, potentially hollows outs communities and also affects house prices – an unsettling prospect when economic security is tied to home ownership.

But managed retreat may also be better than the chaotic consequences of letting the market alone try to work out the risks to individuals and communities.

Grand Forks: a case study

The strategy is already being implemented in parts of western Europe and North America. An example from Canada is the town of Grand Forks, a community of about 4,000 people 300 kilometres east of Vancouver.

The town is located where two rivers meet. In May 2018 it experienced its worst flooding in seven decades, after days of extreme rain attributed to higher than normal winter snowfall melting quickly in hotter spring temperatures. Deforestation has been blamed for exacerbating the flood.

The flood damaged about 500 buildings in Grand Forks, with lowest-income neighbourhoods in low-lying areas the worst-affected.

In the aftermath the local council received C$53 million from the federal and provincial governments for flood mitigation. This included work to reinforce river banks and build dikes. About a quarter of the money was allocated to acquire about 80 homes in the most flood-prone areas.

The decision to demolish these homes – about 5% of the town’s housing – and return the area to flood plain has been contentious.

Some residents simply didn’t want to sell. Adding to the pain was owners being paid the post-flood market value of their homes (saving the council about C$6 million). There were also long delays, with residents stuck in limbo for more than year while authorities finalised transactions.

A sensitive subject

Grand Forks shares similarities to Lismore, the epicentre of the disaster affecting northern NSW and southern Queensland.

Lismore is also built on a flood plain where two rivers meet. Floods are a regular occurrence, with the last major disaster being in 2017. Insuring properties in town’s most flood-prone areas was already unaffordable for some. In the future it may be impossible.

Last week NSW premier Dominic Perrottet said about 2,000 of the town’s 19,000 homes would need to be demolished and rebuilt, a statement the local council general manager downplayed, saying in the majority of cases “people will not have to worry”.

For a community traumatised by loss, overwhelmed by the recovery effort and angry at the perceived tardiness of government relief efforts, discussing any form of managed retreat is naturally emotionally charged.

But there’s never an ideal time to talk about bulldozing homes and relocating households.

Uprooting communities

Managed retreat has far-reaching financial ramifications. As in Grand Forks, the first questions are what homes are targeted, who pays, and how much.

Some residents may be grateful to sell up and move to safe ground. Others may not, disputing the valuation offered or being reluctant to leave at any price.

Managed retreat policies also affect many more than just those whose homes are being acquired. Demolishing a block or suburb can push down values in neighbouring areas, due to fears these homes may be next. Those households are also customers for local businesses. Their loss can potentially send a town economy into decline.

No wonder many people want no mention of managed retreat in their communities.

Pricing in climate change

Markets, however, are already starting to “price in” rising climate risks.

Insurance premiums are going up. The value of homes in high-risk areas will drop as buyers look elsewhere, particularly in the wake of increasingly frequent disasters.

The economic fallout, both for individual households and local communities, could be disastrous.

The Reserve Bank of Australia warned in September 2021 that climate-related disasters could rapidly drive house prices down, particularly in areas that have previously experienced rapid house price growth.

These disasters are also amplifying inequality, with poorer households more likely to live in high-risk locations and also to be uninsured.

In Lismore, for example, more than 80% of households flooded in 2017 were in the lowest 20% of incomes. These trends will intensify as growing climate risks translate into higher insurance premiums and lower house prices.

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You can’t talk about disaster risk reduction without talking about inequality

A deliberate strategy of managed retreat, though distressing and difficult, can help to minimise the upheaval in housing markets as climate risks become increasingly apparent.

We can do better than leaving the most socially and economically vulnerable households to live in high-risk areas, while those with enough money can move away to better, safer futures. Managed retreat can play a key role.

Antonia Settle ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. After the floods, the distressing but necessary case for managed retreat – https://theconversation.com/after-the-floods-the-distressing-but-necessary-case-for-managed-retreat-178641

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Naja Later, Academic Tutor in Media and Communications, Swinburne University of Technology

Any horror scholar will tell you: the movies that scare us most are the ones that speak to our real anxieties. These anxieties find their way into horror movies, expressed through sub-genres like vampires, slasher flicks and body horror. Others concerns, like the War on Terror (explored in Hostel, 2005) and the AIDS crisis (as manifested in The Thing, 1982), are associated with a particular cultural moment.

These days, it’s hard to tell a story about a rapidly-spreading pandemic without acknowledging the one we’re living in. It’s hard to tell a zombie story with any kind of novelty, but Netflix’s new Korean series All Of Us Are Dead makes an ambitious attempt.

Horror subgenres rise and fall in cycles that align with these fears: the guise of fiction allows them to make certain ideas explicit that we might only have felt beneath the surface.

The zombie is the little black dress of social allegories in horror.

Zombies can stand in for the amassed proletariat, trapped in exhausted cycles of poverty. They can represent the mindless bourgeoisie, endlessly greedy as they stumble through cities without a care in the world. They can be embodied by performers of any age or race, and their typical lack of speech allows an audience to project any metaphor into the blank space of their brains.

They have been analysed as terrorists (28 Days Later, 2002) and communists (Day of the Dead, 1985), as marginalised races (Land of the Dead, 2005) and voracious colonisers (Cargo, 2017).

The most popular horror stories are malleable: they invite the audience to conjure whatever frightens them onto the monsters, exaggerating, affirming and sometimes challenging their real-world anxieties.

Specific zombie anxieties

The zombie genre was first codified by George A. Romero with Night of the Living Dead in 1968. Most zombie movies predating Romero drew from Haitian folklore origins, speaking to very specific anxieties around Black mysticism and enslaved bodies. Romero reimagined zombies as a latent contagion of shambling masses.

His films still engaged thoughtfully with issues of racism: the Black hero in Night of the Living Dead survives the zombie hordes only to be shot dead by white vigilantes. This codified another important theme in zombie stories: the living are just as dangerous as the dead.

On a grander scale, apocalypse narratives represent a dissolution of the social order. Some stories blame this on a lack of hard authority: wishy-washy leadership collapses, and only the strongest survive. The Walking Dead banked on this for a decade: the gun-slinging sheriff was exaggerated into a fascist fantasy, where the weak fell in line behind the strong.

Anti-authoritarianism

All Of Us Are Dead leans toward the anti-authoritarian: malice and pride keep the police and military from intervening when a zombie outbreak strikes a small-town school. Still, there’s one good cop, one good teacher, and one good firefighter – though not all of them make it out unscathed.

The school administration are the first villains: a biology teacher’s son is mercilessly bullied, and is almost killed when the principal refuses to interfere. To empower his son, the teacher develops a virus that amplifies testosterone – a bizarre choice of pseudoscience – to turn fear into super-strength. This clearly codifies zombies as the rising masses failed by authority. If you’ll forgive the pun, nobody can control their faculties.

The problem is that the shambling pace and vacant minds of zombies make them inevitable, but often boring: the relentless monotony makes it difficult to sustain tension across 12 hour-long episodes. Like many 21st-century zombie stories, All Of Us Are Dead literally ups the pace by having sprinting zombies.

A new twist is introduced halfway through: some characters who get bitten can still speak and feel, gaining super-strength and heightened senses. They make a complex metaphor for asymptomatic carriers.

A zombie catalyst

The deepest conflict in All Of Us Are Dead is between students and authorities. Before the outbreak, the show frankly depicts of bullying, sexual assault, suicide and teen pregnancy.

The school system is already broken: zombies are just a catalyst for this to turn into conflict. Choi Nam-Ra, one of the students, muses:

In some countries, they are sadder when adults die than when children die. And in others, they are sadder when children die. Which do you think ours is?

In a later episode, Choi Nam-Ra and her friends are fired upon by the military when a rescue mission is suddenly aborted by command.

Critics and fans have identified the overt parallels between the show and the 2014 Sewol Ferry tragedy, where the crew abandoned the capsizing ship and left the passengers, mostly high school students, to drown.

While horror uses colourful allegories to entertain, it can speak truthfully to our emotions. All Of Us Are Dead follows a formulaic zombie plot, but this allows the show to challenge us with complex emotional struggles.

As we know from the real pandemic, a crisis doesn’t happen when an idyllic world is shattered by a few bad actors: it happens when the collective pressure of ignored pain and complacency is pushed to breaking point. Like all good zombie stories, All Of Us Are Dead was never about the zombies.

Read more:
Parasite’s win is the perfect excuse to get stuck into genre-bending and exciting Korean cinema

Naja Later 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. Zombies continue to be the ‘little black dress’ of social allegory in Netflix’s All Of Us Are Dead – https://theconversation.com/zombies-continue-to-be-the-little-black-dress-of-social-allegory-in-netflixs-all-of-us-are-dead-177625

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

Anthony Albanese is now level with Scott Morrison as “better prime minister” for the first time in more than two years in Newspoll, as Labor retains its 55-45% two-party lead.

The poll, published in The Australian, comes as Morrison has struggled to ward off criticism over the federal government’s response to the devastating floods in parts of NSW and Queensland.

Asked on Sunday whether he’d been too slow to act on the floods, Morrison told Nine, “We moved as quickly as the Defence Forces and the agencies can”.

Neither side’s primary vote changed in the past fortnight – the government remains on 35% and Labor on 41%. The Greens have lost a point, and are now 8%.

In their satisfaction ratings, Morrison trails Albanese by 16 points in net terms.

Morrison’s satisfaction rating is down 2 points to 41%; dissatisfaction with him remains on 55%. He has a net satisfaction rating of minus 14. Albanese’s satisfaction rating is still 44%; dissatisfaction with him is down a point to 42%. His net satisfaction is plus 2.

A fortnight ago, Morrison led Albanese 42-40 as better prime minister. A 2 point improvement for Albanese sees them now level.

The poll of 1520 was done between Wednesday and Saturday. During the week both leaders gave major economic and national security speeches, and Morrison made two major defence announcements.

On Nine’s Sixty Minutes on Sunday, Albanese said: “I’m hungry to win. […] I won’t leave anything on the field.”

As the government fails to close the polling gap, it is under increasing pressure over the cost of living, which is shaping up as a major issue for the May election.

With the escalation of petrol prices, Morrison on Sunday was quizzed on whether the budget might see a cut in fuel excise, which is 44 cents on every litre.

He said on Nine that any change in excise would not change price fluctuations, which were driven by “things well beyond the shores of Australia”.

Asked whether Labor was urging a cut in fuel excise to ease cost of living pressures, shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said: “The conflict in Ukraine will have an economic impact, but it’s dishonest of Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg to pretend the costs of essentials like petrol weren’t already skyrocketing.

“The Morrison Government shouldn’t be using Ukraine as an excuse for prices which were already rising and real wages which were already falling well before the war.

“We’ll continue to work constructively with the government and crossbench on practical and responsible ways to reduce the costs of living pressures working families face.”

Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar told Sky “the cost of living is a significant issue”.

Sukkar said the budget would “take into account the fact that households are feeling the pressures of cost of living” – that would be “certainly a focus of the budget.”

He also said there was a consensus in the market there would be an interest rate rise in the second half of the year.

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. Anthony Albanese now level with Scott Morrison as ‘better PM’: Newspoll – https://theconversation.com/anthony-albanese-now-level-with-scott-morrison-as-better-pm-newspoll-179180

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madeline Sprajcer, Lecturer in Psychology, CQUniversity Australia

This weekend, you might hit “place order” for a meal delivery. Or jump in a ride share to meet friends. In both cases, you’ll be engaging a gig worker.

“Gig worker” is a term that generally refers to people who get work through smartphone apps – think Uber, Ola, AirTasker, Snappr, and others.

Approximately 250,000 Australians are part of the gig economy – including many who consider it a “side hustle” on top of a regular job.

While gig work might be a good way to make some extra cash, our new research based on a survey of Australian gig workers, found they tend to be more stressed than other types of workers.

We also looked at coping strategies to try and find out how these workers could look after themselves better.

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Gig work is uncertain work

There are some key things that define gig work and can make it more stressful.

Gig work is generally unpredictable – you usually don’t know when the next gig is going to come. That means you’ll likely experience uncertainty – both around your time and your money – which can cause stress.

Our online survey of 49 gig workers found they reported higher levels of stress than the general population – regardless of the number of platforms or employers they worked for.

Participants were also more likely to be stressed if they worked fewer hours each week or earned under $20,000 each year. A recent Canadian study also found gig workers felt powerless and that financial strain contributed to increased stress.

We found having a higher level of education (such a university degree or postgraduate qualification) was associated with increased stress in gig workers. This might be the case for people doing gig work to pay the bills while searching for a job in their chosen field, such as university students or people who’ve come to live in Australia from overseas.

Making things better

We looked at how gig workers might better manage stress and what coping strategies might be the most helpful.

The most effective methods were emotional support (from family, friends, or other gig workers), planning, and active coping strategies that consider challenges then draw on available resources to seek help and find solutions to overcome them.

Avoidant strategies (disengagement, denial, venting) increased stress for the people in our study. These findings echo those reported by people who have highly stressful jobs, including intensive care nurses and student teachers.

Interestingly, some coping strategies that seem to be helpful for other groups of people aren’t as helpful for gig workers. For example, trying to understand a stressful situation better, positive reframing, and acceptance are effective for police officers, but don’t have the same benefits for gig workers.

This might be because the stressors faced by gig workers are intrinsic to their work characteristics (uncertainty, low incomes, unpredictable work hours) rather than the content of the work they need to do during a shift.

Read more:
A new deal for Uber drivers in UK, but Australia’s ‘gig workers’ must wait

So, what does this mean for Australian gig workers?

While we might not be able to change the nature of these working arrangements (yet), we can recommend certain strategies to help manage stress.

Getting support from family and friends is likely to be helpful, as is making a plan for finances and work time as much as possible. For some people, this might be deciding in advance when to “log on” and make themselves available for gigs, while also marking out some dedicated time off each week.

On the other hand, gig workers should try not to use avoidant strategies, such as trying to ignore the stressful issue, withdrawing from social activities, or seeking distracting risk-taking behaviours. Rather, they should try to take an active role in managing problems as they come up.

Despite the increase in Australians doing various kinds of gig work, there is still a lot we don’t know. This is a new area of research and data is difficult to collect with such a wide range of people involved who don’t congregate in any one workplace.

Despite the challenges, it is critical policies (as well as psychological support services) consider the potential impact of precarious, unstable working arrangements on the stress and mental well-being of workers.

Read more:
How to stop workers being exploited in the gig economy

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. Uncertainty, money worries and stress – gig workers need support and effective ways to cope – https://theconversation.com/uncertainty-money-worries-and-stress-gig-workers-need-support-and-effective-ways-to-cope-177910

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

University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Paddy Nixon talk about this week in politics.

They canvass the flood disaster that has gripped parts of eastern Australia and Scott Morrison’s visit to affected areas. In Lismore an over-cautious PM, with memories of bad footage from the bushfires, avoided too much media exposure (apart from a news conference), and got some blowback for that.

They also discuss the role defence and national security are playing as the parties ramp up their campaigning efforts, and Anthony Albanese works to avoid the “wedge”.

Finally, they remember Kimberley Kitching, the Labor senator who died suddenly this week, aged 52.

Michelle Grattan 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. VIDEO: Floods bring Morrison more trouble; Labor’s Kimberley Kitching remembered – https://theconversation.com/video-floods-bring-morrison-more-trouble-labors-kimberley-kitching-remembered-179083

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hanne E.F. Nielsen, Lecturer, University of Tasmania

Superbly clear images of the shipwreck Endurance, 3,000 metres below the ocean’s surface in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, were this week broadcast around the world. Found by the Endurance 22 Expedition using a state-of-the-art autonomous underwater vehicle, we now have images almost as iconic as those taken of the stricken ship by Australian photographer and expedition member Frank Hurley in 1915.

Endurance was the ship of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Led by British-Irish explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition aimed to cross Antarctica on foot for the first time, from the Weddell Sea (south of the Atlantic Ocean) to the Ross Sea (south of New Zealand), via the South Pole.

Endurance departed England in August 1914, just as the first world war was breaking out. The ship entered Antarctica’s pack ice in December 1914 and by February 1915 was firmly ice-bound in the Weddell Sea. By October, the shifting pack ice began to crush the ship, which sank the following month.

Hurley famously dived into the flooded interior of the sinking Endurance to retrieve about 120 photographic plates, leaving some 400 behind. The crew then trekked to the edge of the sea ice, and got to Elephant Island in April 1916. From there, Shackleton led a smaller team, using the lifeboat James Caird to cross the stormy Southern Ocean and reach the island of South Georgia to raise the alarm.

The expedition crew – and Hurley’s plates – were finally rescued in August 1916. His evocative images of the sinking ship helped the expedition gain widespread attention and cemented Endurance’s place in Antarctic history. But what became of the sunken ship?

The search for Endurance

The last known coordinates of the vessel were recorded by skipper Frank Worsley as 68°39’30 “S, 52°26’30 “W, but this was not verified until this week. The successful discovery came during the second major attempt in recent years to find the wreck.

Read more:
Endurance captain Frank Worsley, Shackleton’s gifted navigator, knew how to stay the course

In early 2019, the Weddell Sea Expedition, also privately financed and conducting a broader, multidisciplinary scientific survey of the area, was unsuccessful, having lost its autonomous submarine.

The current Endurance 22 Expedition has been similarly multidisciplinary, and benefited from an anonymous US$10 million private donation. This private sponsorship echoes Shackleton’s situation; his expeditions were funded through donations of both cash and supplies (which later appeared in advertisements).

Endurance is now an international heritage site

Even before its rediscovery, Endurance was a protected heritage site. In 2019, countries within the Antarctic Treaty System designated the unknown site of the wreck a “Historic Site and Monument”.

Other uncertain sites have also been preemptively recognised in this way, such as the tent left behind by Norwegian pioneer Roald Amundsen at the South Pole in 1911, now buried under snow, and the wreck of the San Telmo, a Spanish warship that sank south of Cape Horn in 1819.

These designations point to the importance of imagination whenever we deal with the very far south. Most people will never visit Antarctica, but the stories we carry with us about the place have broad cultural circulation.

The “historic site” designation protects “all artefacts contained within or formerly contained within the ship, which may be lying on the seabed in or near the wreck within a 150-metre radius”.

Accordingly, the Endurance 22 Expedition did not take anything physical from the wreck. But the new photographs of the ship’s final resting place tell a powerful story.

Changing views on Antarctica

The photographs not only bring Endurance vividly back to life; they invite new ways of picturing Antarctica in general. Deep sea fauna, including sea anemones, sea squirts and even a crab, crawl over the wreck, showing the vitality of the Antarctic seafloor and providing a window into an underwater world about which little is known. In much the same way, the recent remarkable discovery of 60 million ice fish nests in the Weddell Sea also demonstrates this vitality.

The images also raise questions about why we look to Antarctica, and what we see when we do. Is it a place for daring travellers to test their mettle – the view that prevailed during the “heroic age” of Antarctic exploration that ended with Shackleton’s voyage? Or is it a place for collaboration and collective endeavour between nations, as typified by the Antarctic Treaty and the continent’s latter-day status as primarily a place for scientific research?

These days, Antarctica is viewed through an environmental lens; rather than a place for humans to conquer, it is closely linked in the cultural imagination to climate change and images of melting ice. That makes the discovery of the ship even more interesting, given the recent discovery of the wreck benefited from a record low sea ice extent this summer.

Technology such as satellites and autonomous underwater vehicles mean Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are more surveilled than ever before. Yet much remains unknown about the frozen continent, and particularly about the deep seas that encircle it.

Read more:
We can all learn from Antarctica (when not stuck in the ice)

The discovery of Endurance shows how modern technology can help us find past artefacts and also look to the future. The ship provides a conceptual bridge between Antarctica’s history as a frontier of exploration, to our modern ideas of heritage preservation, international cooperation, scientific research and climate action.

Put more simply, finding the wreck of the Endurance presents us with a key moment to think about Antarctica’s storied past and its uncertain future.

Hanne E.F. Nielsen receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Alessandro Antonello receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. The wreck of Endurance is a bridge to a bygone age, and a reminder of Antarctica’s uncertain future – https://theconversation.com/the-wreck-of-endurance-is-a-bridge-to-a-bygone-age-and-a-reminder-of-antarcticas-uncertain-future-179021

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sasha Grishin, Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University

Review: Queer, National Gallery of Victoria

Many exhibitions claim to be a landmark show, but few live up to the hype. This one exceeds the hype.

Queer is a beautiful, strange, hard-hitting and challenging exhibition where the central concept is like liquid mercury that, on hitting a hard surface, instantly scatters into innumerable droplets – each perfect in itself.

It is a show about art made by people who consider themselves as queer. In some cases, it is an exploration of gender and sexuality. In others, it is a journey into a sensibility or an interpretation of existing art made by non-queer artists that can be interpreted through a queer perspective.

More specifically, it is an examination of art history through a “queer lens”, art that spans millennia and that is drawn from the fabulously rich collections of the National Gallery of Victoria. The exhibition is not anchored in any specific medium but ranges over many art forms through more than 400 artworks occupying five gallery spaces.

Queerness across millenia

This broad-brush approach to the concept of “queer” has meant that it is possible to include a Greek Chalkidian black-figure vase, 540 BCE, depicting Achilles, the Greek hero of the Trojan War, who, according to some readings of Aeschylus and Plato, took his warrior friend Patroclus as his lover.

In the context of this exhibition, it is an illustration of homosexual love in the ancient world.

Some 2,500 years later, in a remarkable photograph by Ponch Hawkes, two women embrace in a public display of their affection as part of the 1970s Gay Liberation Movement in Melbourne. Again it is an expression of a gay relationship celebrated through art.

In Christian iconography, some characters, including the youthful King David who as a shepherd and harpist slew the giant Goliath, were imbued by some artists with homoerotic qualities, such as in the wondrous painting by Johan Zoffany of 1756.

The making of a queer icon

Another example was Saint Sebastian, who was martyred by the Roman emperor Diocletian for his Christian faith and who was frequently shown as a beautiful almost naked youth tied to a tree or pillar and pierced with numerous arrows. Such depictions opened a path to erotic and phallic readings of the imagery.

Contrary to popular belief, Sebastian survived his experiences as a pincushion and was ultimately clubbed to death after he confronted the emperor over his evil ways. However, it was the saint transfixed by arrows that became his most enduring image and the excuse for artists to explore the beauty of the male nude.

Albrecht Dürer’s magnificent engraving of St Sebastian of 1501 may not have had a queer interpretation at the time of its creation, but by the 19th century, Sebastian had morphed into a gay icon. Oscar Wilde in his French exile took the alias Sebastian Melmoth.

Once the saintly image was freed of its canonical content, Sebastian marched through time attracting rich traditions of interpretation.

The fabulous Louise Bourgeois in her bold and monumental Ste Sébastienne, 1992, recreated the saint as a headless mutilated female who is surrounded by arrows that become a pointed reference to the contemporary persecution of women and a parallel to the historic persecution of Christianity by pagan rulers.

A new reading

One of the highlights of the exhibition is the fabulous costume designs by Leigh Bowery, the Melbourne-born artist, designer and performer, who revolutionised the English art scene in the 1980s making a great impact on Lucian Freud and Boy George.

Costumes including The Metropolitan (c. 1988) and Pregnant tutu head (1992) scandalised in a subversive manner the conventions of dress and performance art at the time.

Although many of the exhibits document the centuries of struggle for the recognition of queer rights, a queer identity or simply the right to exist as a queer person, the overwhelming prevailing theme of the exhibition is the celebration of love between two people of the same gender.

Quite a number of the assembled artworks are familiar to us, including Ethel Walker’s Lilith (c. 1920s) – the image of the first wife of the first man Adam but also possessing the properties of a primordial she-demon.

Also Glyn Philpot’s symbolic images, Agnes Goodsir’s celebration of her love for her beloved Cherry, the sensuous images of Janet Cumbrae Stewart and the homoerotic works of David Hockney, James Gleeson and Gilbert & George.

By assembling, for the first time, such a huge cross-section of art with its phenomenal cultural diversity, richness of imagery and exceptional artistic calibre, this exhibition suggests an alternative and viable reading for art history through a queer lens.

The curatorial team responsible for this extravagant exhibition – include the NGV curators Dr Ted Gott, Dr Angela Hesson, Myles Russell-Cook, Meg Slater, and Pip Wallis – all identify with the LGBTQ+ community and present an insider’s view of queer art.

It could be argued that the 20th century was the age of writing women back into a history of art. The opening decades of the 21st century represent an age when the “queer gaze” is presenting a new and alternative reading for art of the past and of the present.

Queer is at NGV International until August 21.

Sasha Grishin 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. ‘This show exceeds the hype’: NGV’s Queer advances a beautiful and challenging reading of the queer gaze in art – https://theconversation.com/this-show-exceeds-the-hype-ngvs-queer-advances-a-beautiful-and-challenging-reading-of-the-queer-gaze-in-art-176005

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Barry Gallagher, Associate Researcher, University of Tasmania

Over the last few years, there’s been a lot of hope placed in seaweed as a way to tackle climate change.

The excitement stemmed from studies suggesting seaweed could be scaled up to capture and store huge quantities of carbon dioxide, taking advantage of rapid growth rates, large areas, and long-term storage in the deep ocean.

At present it’s thought seaweed stores around 175 million tonnes annually of carbon, or 10% of the emissions from all the cars in the world. To many scientists, this suggested the possibility seaweed could join other blue carbon storage in mangroves and wetlands as a vital tool in the fight to stop climate change.

While we’re all ready for some good news on climate, there is nearly always a “but” in science. Our new research has identified a major overlooked issue. Is it significant? Unfortunately, yes. When we accounted for this, our calculations suggest on average seaweed ecosystems may not be a carbon sink after all, but a natural source of carbon.

How can this be?

There were good reasons to look to coastal seaweed as an important global carbon sink. Some species can grow as much as 60 centimetres per day. Seaweed covers around 3.4 million square kilometres of our oceans. And when wind and waves break off fronds and pieces of seaweed, some will escape being eaten and instead be whisked out to the deep ocean and deposited.

Read more:
How farming giant seaweed can feed fish and fix the climate

Once the seaweed is in deep waters or buried in sediments, the carbon it contains is safely locked away for several hundred years. That is to say, the time it takes ocean circulation to drive bottom waters towards the surface.

So what’s the issue?

As the surrounding coastal waters wash through the seaweed canopy, they bring in vast quantities of plankton and other organic material from further out at sea. This provides extra food for filter feeders like sea squirts, shellfish living amongst seaweed, and the bryozoan animals which end up coating many seaweed fronds.

As these creatures consume this extra food supply, they breathe out carbon dioxide additional to that produced by eating seaweed. Individually, the amount is tiny. But on an ecosystem scale, their numbers and ability to filter large amounts of water are enough to skew what researchers call the net ecosystem production – the balance between carbon dioxide inflows and outflows. And not just by a little, but potentially by a lot.

How did we figure this out? We collated global studies which directly measured or reported the key parts of net ecosystem production, ranging from polar regions to tropical.

Seaweed ecosystems, we found, were natural carbon sources, releasing on average around 20 tonnes per square kilometre every year.

But it could be much higher still. When we included estimates of how much carbon returned to the atmosphere from seaweed washed out towards the deep sea only to decompose or be eaten first, we found seaweed could be a much larger natural source.

We estimate it could be potentially as high as 150 tonnes emitted to the atmosphere per km² every year, in contrast to previous estimates that seaweed absorbs 50 tonnes per km². We must stress this figure has some uncertainty around it, given the difficulty of estimating the quantities involved.

Do we give up on seaweed carbon storage?

In short, no. If we lose seaweed, what would replace it? It could be urchin barrens – large rocky outcrops dominated by sea urchins – or smaller seaweed species, or mussel beds. Climate change is already showing us in some places, with giant kelp dying en masse due to marine heatwaves and background warming in Tasmania and being replaced by urchin barrens.

Read more:
Move over, corn and soybeans: The next biofuel source could be giant sea kelp

To make a true accounting of what seaweed offers in carbon storage, we need to factor in what any replacement ecosystem would offer.

If a replacement ecosystem is an even greater carbon source or smaller carbon sink than the original seaweed ecosystem, it follows we should maintain or restore existing seaweed ecosystems to reduce further greenhouse gas emissions. However, to date, we have not found sufficient data to test whether all replacement ecosystems are in fact greater or lesser carbon sources.

What does this mean for efforts to tackle climate change? It means we should not look to seaweed as a silver bullet.

Any efforts to quantify seaweed carbon storage and mitigation for the protection, restoration or farming of seaweed must make a full accounting of carbon inputs and output to ensure we are not unwittingly making the problem worse rather than better.

As some carbon trading schemes look to include seaweed, we must not overestimate how good seaweed is at storing carbon.

If we get this wrong, we could see perverse outcomes where industries offset their emissions by funding the preservation or restoration of seaweeds – but in doing so, actually increase their emissions rather than zero them out.

John Barry Gallagher 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. Kelp won’t help: why seaweed may not be a silver bullet for carbon storage after all – https://theconversation.com/kelp-wont-help-why-seaweed-may-not-be-a-silver-bullet-for-carbon-storage-after-all-178018

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lara Herrero, Research Leader in Virology and Infectious Disease, Griffith University

This week we heard two Australians have died from the mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis virus. The virus has now been detected in four states.

Authorities are concerned we’ll see more cases around the country and have earmarked extra funding to roll out vaccines to those at risk.

Who is recommended to have the vaccine depends on factors including their age, occupation and location. Here’s what you need to know about accessing the vaccine in Australia, ahead of further announcements expected in coming days.

Read more:
Japanese encephalitis virus has been detected in Australian pigs. Can mozzies now spread it to humans?

What is Japanese encephalitis?

Japanese encephalitis is caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus. It spreads through mosquito bites. It cannot be transmitted from human to human.

Most people will show no symptoms. However, 1% will develop swelling of the brain (encephalitis). Of those who have symptoms, up to 30% will die and a further 50% will have life-long neurological disability. The infection is particularly severe in the elderly or the young.

The virus had previously been found in Southeast Asia, Western Pacific regions, and in the Torres Strait.

However, because of its spread into new regions further south, last week Japanese encephalitis was designated a communicable disease of national significance.

Tell me more about the vaccines

Currently, seven Japanese encephalitis virus vaccines are licensed for use in humans globally. Two of these – Imojev and JEspect – are approved for use in Australia by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Imojev is approved for those from nine months of age and is given as a single dose. JEspect is approved for use from two months of age and is given as two doses, 28 days apart. JEspect can be given to pregnant women, if necessary.

The level of immunity from these vaccines varies. A single dose of Imojev can provide immunity for up to five years. Whereas JEspect requires two doses to provide immunity for two years, with some studies suggesting a third booster after 12 months provides longer protection.

Read more:
Zika, dengue, yellow fever: what are flaviviruses?

These vaccinations come with some side effects. These include redness, pain and mild swelling at the vaccination site. Other side effects include headache, fatigue and muscle pains.

These vaccines vary in the way they are prepared. Also, different strains of the virus are used to make the different vaccines. This can ultimately affect how well they work to prevent disease if there is a change in the current circulating virus strain.

Who can get the vaccine?

Vaccination is currently recommended for high-risk groups, which currently includes:

• laboratory workers who work with the virus

• travellers who will spend one month or more in an endemic region

• people living or working in the outer islands of the Torres Strait.

Before the current spread of Japanese encephalitis you could get the vaccine at GP clinics specialising in travel medicine. It costs A$300-350, which includes a GP visit and the vaccine itself.

But with the spread of the virus in mainland Australia, the definition of high risk will likely change and the vaccine may be available to those high-risk groups via their GP or at work. At this stage we don’t know if the vaccines would be free, but that will be confirmed in coming days.

For instance, piggery workers are among workers expected to be considered high risk and be offered the vaccine.

That’s because Japanese encephalitis virus infects pigs (it has been detected in piggeries in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia). The virus then enters the mosquito population when they bite pigs, which then later bite humans and spread it to us.

A national group of communicable disease, vaccine and virus experts is considering whether a wide vaccine rollout is needed and if so, how this might work.

National cabinet is also expected to discuss the issue and make further announcements shortly.

How can I protect myself, even without the vaccine?

There are currently no specific treatments for people with Japanese encephalitis. Symptoms are managed with supportive care, including fluids and pain relief.

Vaccination is one form of protection. However, the most useful protection comes from not being bitten by a mosquito in the first place.

Read more:
How to mozzie-proof your property after a flood and cut your risk of mosquito-borne disease

Lara Herrero receives funding from NHMRC for mosquito-transmitted viruses.

Penny Rudd has received funding from the Qld government to repurpose drugs for mosquito borne viruses and currently receives funding from NHMRC for vaccine development towards viral diseases.

– ref. Do I or my child need a Japanese encephalitis vaccine? – https://theconversation.com/do-i-or-my-child-need-a-japanese-encephalitis-vaccine-178888

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Talis Putnins, Professor of Finance, University of Technology Sydney

The decision by the Australian National University (ANU) and other universities in Australia and overseas to suspend all ties and activities with Russian research institutions, while significant in its moral stance, could have unintended consequences.

We need to be careful we are not shutting off networks and ceasing dialogue with Russians, as this is counterproductive and empowers Russia’s propaganda machine.

Keeping open the lines of academic communication, among other channels, is necessary to support the groundswell of opposition within Russia to the war in Ukraine. Informal networks can bypass Russian government censorship and are doing so.

Read more:
Is Russia really about to cut itself off from the internet? And what can we expect if it does?

In an open letter ANU academics recently wrote:

“[T]his policy primarily affects the research and educational institutions in Russia, and ultimately Russian scholars who may be the last remaining voice of reason in the country.

”[…] The policy of alienating Russian researchers at large will only help the Russian state’s propaganda of aggression and isolation. This policy will likely be interpreted as yet another case of western russophobia.“

The choice confronting ordinary Russians

There is a dissonance confronting the Russian people right now. While local TV is running stories about Russia “liberating” Ukraine via a “special military action”, the messaging does not match the reality on the streets.

Shelves in Russia are becoming empty. Prices are spiking. Credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay no longer work for Russians. The dollar value of their savings has been cut in half, and there are long queues for ATMs.

These impacts will only increase in coming weeks with the flow-on effects of recent Western corporate and government actions.

Critically, there are two ways that Russian people could respond to this dissonance.

One is to recognise these impacts are a direct consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and turn on their government in a civil uprising that topples the Putin regime, or at a minimum weakens his ability to sustain the invasion.

Another is to turn against the West, as the perceived “enemy” attacking Russia.

Therein lies the challenge.

Read more:
Ukraine: what anti-war protesters in Russia risk by speaking out

What can we do?

The first step is to recognise that ordinary Russian people are victims in this war as well. They, for the large part, had no say in the invasion of Ukraine, yet are paying a substantial price for it.

In the US, a congressman proposed “kicking every Russian student out of the United States”. That conflates the Russian people with the Russian government, but does nothing to undermine Vladimir Putin or support Ukraine.

Does this mean we should ease up on the sanctions? No. Despite the collateral damage they impose, sanctions are a critical weapon that the West can use to undermine Putin’s military aggression, given the reluctance to go into combat.

What we also need to do, though, is fight the information barriers being put up by the Russian government. We can help Russians see what the rest of the world sees.

That includes the horrors and suffering Ukrainians are going through, the mounting casualties on both sides including civilians, the lack of any reasonable justification for the invasion, and the misinformation being spread by the Russian government.

It is virtually impossible to censor all external communications, email, online platforms and internet-based information services. There are ways to get through to Russian citizens. As the list of censored or blocked sites changes, so too must the channels we use.

We may need to move between platforms or use creative ways to connect. For example, the use of virtual private networks (VPN) from Russia to bypass internet censorship spiked 633% in the past week.

Rather than buckling to Putin’s efforts to suppress them, social media networks can consider creative ways to allow Russians to continue accessing their services.

For example, Twitter recently launched a privacy-protected site on the dark web to bypass Russia’s blocking of its service. Other platforms and media services should consider similar actions to maintain the flow of information to the Russian people.

Read more:
Economic sanctions may deal fatal blow to Russia’s already-weak domestic opposition

Individuals can take it upon themselves to speak directly with Russian citizens. For example, my colleague, Marta Khomyn, has made such an offer.

We can also draw on our networks. For example, Russian academics living abroad have used their university networks to connect with academics in Russia. Others can use business networks or social networks.

This is a war about Russia’s future too

We should ensure the attitude we display towards ordinary Russians is not one of resentment but rather one of willingness to work together to bring an end to the war. Russians are also suffering, so there is a natural alignment of incentives to end the war – an alignment that gives us common ground and a reason to work together.

What’s more, this is a war about Russia’s future as well as Ukraine’s. There arguably has never been a better time for the Russian people to break free of the oppressive regime and choose a liberal and democratic future.

We can recognise and applaud the brave Russians, including many academics and students, who are actively speaking out against the war, and work with the Russian people rather than against them.

Talis Putnins receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC).

– ref. Why universities need to open the lines of communication with Russians, not close them – https://theconversation.com/why-universities-need-to-open-the-lines-of-communication-with-russians-not-close-them-179080

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabrielle Appleby, Professor, UNSW Law School, UNSW Sydney

The Senate’s education and employment legislation committee is discussing a Greens bill designed to shore up the independence of the Australian Research Council (ARC).

The inquiry has revealed important questions about research independence, ministerial responsibility for grant programs, and the failures of parliamentary oversight of the spending of public money.

A stoush has emerged over apparently competing principles on the role of ministerial involvement – but there is a better way to do this.

Read more:
‘Disappointment and disbelief’ after Morrison government vetoes research into student climate activism’

Ministers have vetoed ARC grants before

It was revealed on Christmas Eve 2021 the acting education minister, Stuart Robert, had vetoed six ARC discovery grants.

The ARC’s rigorous peer-review selection process had recommended each grant against established criteria.

The minister vetoed the grants on the basis they “did not demonstrate value for taxpayers’ money nor contribute to the national interest”.

All six were in the humanities, and included grants relating to literary studies, China and climate action.

These vetos were not the first: in 2018 11 grants worth A$4.2 million were vetoed by the minister, with a total of 32 vetoed since 2005.

Ministerial veto power over projects recommended through the ARC process has attracted wide condemnation as the politicisation of academic research in the country.

Academics, writers and public intellectuals have called for the federal government to change the Australian Research Council Act 2001 to remove the minister’s discretionary veto powers and shore up the ARC’s independence.

The bill now before the Senate committee, first introduced in 2018, aims to achieve this.

What does the law currently say?

The Australian Research Council Act 2001 states the minister is responsible for approving research grants. In deciding which proposals to approve

the minister may (but is not required to) rely solely on recommendations made by the CEO [of the ARC].

The minister cannot direct the CEO to recommend particular proposals should be funded, but does retain the power to refuse to fund a recommended proposal.

What about the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)? Grants from its Medical Research Endowment Account are provided “in such cases and subject to such conditions as the minister, acting on the advice of the CEO, determines”.

The NHMRC says this means the minister retains the ability to “approve some or all or none of the grants recommended by the CEO”. But the wording of the act seems less than clear on this issue.

In any event, there is no record of a minister acting against the advice of the CEO of the NCMRC.

Research independence, accountability and ministerial involvement

Before the Senate committee, competing views have been expressed about ministerial involvement.

On the one hand, Universities Australia and the Group of Eight Universities are arguing the legislation should enshrine the UK’s Haldane Principle of Research Independence.

This requires that decisions about how governments allocate research funding should be determined by researchers, not politicians.

Parliaments and ministers can retain oversight of the process by setting the selection process and criteria, appointing officers to the ARC and reviewing the final reports.

On the other hand, the Department of Education, Skills and Employment and the Australian Research Council argue the ARC’s decisions are appropriately subject to final approval (or veto) by the minister.

This, they argue, is on the basis it would be improper to bind a minister to exercise a decision-making power in accordance with the views or recommendations of a third party (the ARC).

Such provisions are supposed to ensure there is a direct line of accountability between parliament and the expenditure of public funds. The minister supposedly provides that line of accountability, as the person who sits in parliament and must answer to it.

Read more:
The High Court school chaplains case and what it means for Commonwealth funding

But we know, of course, that ministerial involvement in decisions about public money is often where a failure of accountability occurs.

The Australian National Audit Office has repeatedly found systemic problems with the way ministerial funding discretion is exercised (including in relation to high-profile scandals around car park grants and sporting grants).

The Audit Office has found ministers are making decisions not necessarily informed by expert opinion, and the reasons for decisions are not recorded and unclear to the parliament.

This could be said to be the case in relation to the recent research funding decisions; the minister’s statement simply repeated the criteria of value for money and contribution to the national interest. It provided no transparency for the reasons behind the decisions.

These recent experiences seriously undermine the claim that retaining a ministerial discretion is the best or only way to achieve “responsibility” for these decisions.

What could an independent and accountable research grant scheme look like?

Unfortunately, the current framework for research funding under the ARC Act (and the NHMRC Act for that matter), guarantees neither research independence nor accountability for public money.

But these principles are not in irreconcilable tension. A balance between independence and accountability is possible.

Parliament and ministers could be involved in setting the criteria and process against which funding is assessed and allocated by the ARC. The act already provides for this.

This should be supplemented by statutory reporting requirements to the minister and parliament. The minister should then allocate funding in accordance with the recommendations of the ARC, following a process and criteria over which he or she – and the parliament – has exercised oversight.

But what role, if any, might exist for a ministerial veto or “backstop”? There is certainly no accountability imperative for it.

Indeed, in its current opaque form it risks adding less accountability, not more.

Read more:
Why we resigned from the ARC College of Experts after minister vetoed research grants

Gabrielle Appleby is the Director of the Centre for Public Integrity. She receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. As the Senate discusses research and ministerial vetoes, here’s one idea for an independent, accountable grant scheme – https://theconversation.com/as-the-senate-discusses-research-and-ministerial-vetoes-heres-one-idea-for-an-independent-accountable-grant-scheme-179078

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Thompson, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

The announcement of the government’s decision to merge RNZ and TVNZ into a non-profit “public media entity” was long anticipated but, coming in the second year of Labour’s second term, underwhelming in its lack of detail.

Cabinet had discussed the proposal back in 2019, and yesterday’s announcement was expected to be the culmination of extensive planning, consulting, expert committees and corporate accounting reports.

The protracted process was intended to give shape to the broadcasting minister’s vision of a multi-platform public service provider capable of fulfilling its cultural and civil remit into the 21st century.

And while it’s significant that the government recognises the importance of strong public media across all platforms in New Zealand, and is committed to its strategic vision, in many respects the announcement raises more questions than it answers.

Commercial tension

Firstly, how will the organisational and governance structures across radio, television and online services function? Minister Kris Faafoi has indicated that these details will now be delegated to a new “establishment committee”, although the Strong Public Media governance group had delivered a business case to cabinet last year.

Complications arise because TVNZ is a commercial entity, which competes directly with other commercial media for (slowly declining) audiences and advertising revenues, while RNZ is a fully funded public service provider with a charter.

Read more:
BBC funding: licence fee debate risks overlooking value of UK’s public broadcasters

The minister has affirmed that the current non-commercial radio services will be retained. But aligning the commercial television arm and future online services – for example, the integration of the RNZ and TVNZ news operations – entails potentially contradictory priorities, even under the broad directives of a public charter.

Secondly, what funding arrangements will support the new public media entity? The ratio of public to commercial revenues and the mechanisms for ensuring its adequacy across future changes of government are critical, but have not been specified – although some redacted figures in related cabinet papers suggest these have been estimated.

The minister suggests these will be determined through forthcoming budget deliberations. If this implies that the level of funding depends on annual budget wrangling with other cabinet portfolios, then there is little hope of gaining substantial and sustainable commitment over the demands of health, education, housing and other policy priorities.

Budget uncertainty

Faafoi’s predecessor, Clare Curran, ran into this problem in 2018. Having announced an anticipated investment of NZ$38 million to develop RNZ’s services, the budget delivered only $15 million.

Prior to that, Labour’s attempt to restructure TVNZ with a dual-remit charter was compromised by cabinet disagreements. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage allocated $95 million of public funding only for Treasury to extract $142 million in dividends.

Read more:
Closures, cuts, revival and rebirth: how COVID-19 reshaped the NZ media landscape in 2020

Crucially, balancing public service and commercial expectations requires the organisational structure and funding arrangements to be in sync. But this is unlikely to happen if one is determined by a committee and the other is left to the uncertainties of the budget.

There are successful public service operators, such as RTE in Ireland or CBC in Canada, which have mixed commercial and public funding. In both cases, though, the public ratio is over 50%. It would be wishful thinking to suppose cabinet would provide 50% public funding to align TVNZ’s services with a public charter remit.

That would cost at least $150 million per year – triple the current allocation to RNZ and TVNZ. When reliance on commercial revenue predominates, commissioning and scheduling decisions inevitably reflect the imperative to optimise eyeballs and advertising dollars.

Read more:
Crisis, disintegration and hope: only urgent intervention can save New Zealand’s media

Time is tight

Even with base-line funding assured for the non-commercial RNZ services, without any mechanism to ensure adequate ratios are maintained, there is a risk that future revenue increases will come to depend increasingly on developing commercial spin-offs online.

This would inevitably affect the new entity’s capacity to use the expansion of its online services to deliver more diverse content to a full range of audiences.

The minister has suggested the new entity will be established by 2023. Given the legislation has yet to be drafted, that time-line is already tight. Any further delays or announcements of bold intentions without concrete substance will risk pushing Labour’s public media plans further toward the 2023 election.

If the new entity has not been established before then, and with Labour slipping in the polls, all bets on the future of public media in Aotearoa New Zealand are off.

Peter Thompson is a board member of the Better Public Media Trust.

– ref. Merging commercial TVNZ and non-commercial RNZ won’t be easy – and time is running out – https://theconversation.com/merging-commercial-tvnz-and-non-commercial-rnz-wont-be-easy-and-time-is-running-out-179077