Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Twomey, Professor emerita, University of Sydney

Can the job of being a federal member of parliament be shared by two or more persons? Two prospective candidates for the inner-Melbourne federal seat of Higgins, Lucy Bradlow and Bronwen Bock, have announced that they will run as job-sharing independent candidates. They say they will “work week-on, week off, with a handover at the end of each week”. Is this legally and constitutionally valid?

Bradlow and Bock claim “there are no legal barriers to the inclusion of two candidates in either the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act or the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918”. They argue the Constitution permits parliament to change the number of members of parliament, and does not specify a particular number of members per seat.

They conclude that “the only possible barrier to two people running to represent the same electorate is that previous candidate nomination forms for the House of Representatives […] only allowed space for the entry of the name of one candidate” and the form should be “updated” to allow two or more names to be entered as “the candidate”.

What are the legal barriers?

It will take a lot more than “updating” an old form for Bradlow and Bock to be able to nominate validly as job-sharing candidates for Higgins.

Section 57 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act says:

One member of the House of Representatives shall be chosen for each Electoral Division.

Section 163 provides that “a person” is qualified to be elected as “a member” of the House of Representatives if certain criteria, such as age, citizenship and qualification as an elector, are met. There is no provision for more than one person to be elected as the “one member” for an electorate in the House of Representatives.

Nominations are required, by section 166, to be in the form set out in the schedule. This only provides for individual candidates to nominate for election as a member (not job-sharing candidates to be elected as a single member). A political party cannot nominate more than one candidate for an electoral division. Section 172 provides for the Electoral Commissioner to reject nominations that do not comply with section 166.

Section 284 deals with the outcome of elections. It says that once it has been ascertained that “a candidate” has been elected to a seat, the divisional returning officer shall publicly declare “the name of the candidate”. The electoral commissioner then certifies that name on the election writ, which is returned to the governor-general.

There would have to be major reforms to the Commonwealth Electoral Act (including to the form of the ballot paper) if it were proposed either that two candidates could run together to be “one member” for an electorate, or if two members could represent it on a job-sharing basis.

What are the constitutional barriers?

The Constitution does not determine whether electorates are single-member or multi-member. It left that up to parliament to decide under its electoral legislation. But there are restrictions on the number of members of parliament.

Section 24 of the Constitution ties the number of members of the House of Representatives to twice the size of the Senate. It also allocates the number of members in each state according to that state’s population as a proportion of the national population.

So if you had a system where you could have two job-sharing members in Higgins, that would mean you’d have to get rid of another member elsewhere in Victoria to stay within Victoria’s allocated number.

If every electorate could have two or more job-sharing members, it would be absolutely chaotic, as one wouldn’t know until each election how many members were elected and whether the number breached the Constitution.

For this reason, the only way to make it work would be to say there was only one “office” of member of parliament for an electorate, but that its duties could be shared by two or more people.

But that wouldn’t work either. This is because the Constitution treats members as persons, not offices. Before a person can sit or vote in the House of Representatives, section 42 of the Constitution requires the “member” to be sworn in. It doesn’t permit two people to be sworn in as a single member.

Section 37 of the Constitution refers to the resignation of “a member” (not one or more job-sharers) and section 33 refers to the election of “a new member” to fill a vacancy in the House of Representatives.

The provisions in the Constitution concerning the qualification and disqualification of members of parliament are also directed at individuals. The Constitution simply does not contemplate a “member” being comprised of two or more people who are subject to different qualifying or disqualifying circumstances.

While Bradlow and Bock have stated that if one of them resigns or becomes disqualified, that would mean that both of them would be – that’s just their view of what should happen. There is nothing in the Constitution or the legislation that addresses the issue, because both are predicated on there being a single member who is an individual person.

If each of the job-sharers, having been sworn in as members, turned up to vote in the house at the same time, each would be fully entitled to vote, giving their electorate double representation. It is not enough to say they have an arrangement between themselves to attend on separate weeks. This would not remove their legal entitlement as a member to attend or vote. Further, any contract that constrained a member from exercising his or her right to vote would be invalid, because it would be treated, under the law, as a contract for an “improper purpose”.

Read more:
Changing the Australian Constitution was always meant to be difficult – here’s why

Has this been tried elsewhere?

In 2015 in the United Kingdom, two Green party candidates sought to job-share. They took legal proceedings against the electoral officer who rejected their nomination. They argued references in statutes to a “candidate” and “member” in the singular should be interpreted as including the plural, and the law had to be interpreted in a manner consistent with the European Convention of Human Rights.

The High Court of England and Wales rejected their argument. Justice Wilkie pointed out that job-sharing by members of parliament would give rise to many difficult practical and conceptual problems, and these were not something a court was equipped to deal with or should determine through statutory interpretation. It was a matter for parliament to resolve, not the courts.

The same point should be made here in Australia. If job-sharing for members of parliament is desired, then at the very least this should be the subject of proper consideration and legislation by parliament to make the system workable.

But even then, it would be very difficult to make it consistent with the current constitutional provisions, so a referendum would be needed. This would also be the most democratic course, as the people could have their say about how they wanted to be represented.

Anne Twomey has received funding from the Australian Research Council and occasionally does consultancy work for governments, parliaments and inter-governmental bodies.

– ref. Two people want to share the job of MP for Higgins. Is it constitutional? – https://theconversation.com/two-people-want-to-share-the-job-of-mp-for-higgins-is-it-constitutional-228379

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zoe Rathus, Senior Lecturer in Law, Griffith University

In October 2023, the federal parliament passed major changes to how children’s cases are decided under the Family Law Act, which kick in next month.

Among other things, they repeal a controversial legal presumption introduced in 2006. It was presumed that “equal shared parental responsibility” is in the best interests of children.

In many cases, this is true. But in cases of family violence, assuming both parents should have equal responsibility for a child can be dangerous.

The journey to having this presumption removed has been long and littered with countless reviews, inquiries and evaluations. How did it come to be in the first place, and what effect will these legal changes have on children?

Read more:
Government’s family law bill is a big step forward. But it doesn’t do enough to address family violence

Laws with baked-in problems

The 2006 reforms originated in a parliamentary inquiry established by the Howard government in 2003. Fathers’ rights groups led the charge for the inquiry and for equal time custody laws.

Equal shared parental responsibility is about the decion-making duties of parents regarding the big decisions in a child’s life such as education, religion and health. This is different to equal time, which is about where children actually live. It often involves the child swapping homes every week. Some children enjoy it, others feel like they are navigating two very different emotional spaces.

Because of the origins of the inquiry with fathers’ rights groups, the focus was on equal time as a starting point. It was not on finding out what actually works best for children after family breakdown.

The 2006 reforms did not contain a presumption of equal time, but they did include a presumption that equal shared parental responsibility is best for children.

A presumption is intended as strong message to judges and the legal system. It tells a judge the law says shared parenting is generally a good thing.

While that is true in some families, that can be a dangerous message to a decision-maker for families where there is violence or abuse. Although there were exceptions for family violence or child abuse, research showed orders for equal shared parental responsibility were made in many cases where there were serious allegations of family violence.

An order for equal shared parental responsibility meant parents had to consult each other about important decisions regarding their children. In some families this works well and ensures both parents have ongoing roles in their children’s lives after separation. Where there has been domestic violence, including coercive control, such an order provides the perpetrator of abuse with a legal channel to continue it.

Read more:
Book extract: ‘Broken’ — requiem for the family court

Orders for shared parental responsibility also affected the daily lives of children and their parents. Once a judge made that order, they had to “consider” making an order for equal time, or what was called “substantial and significant” time order. This meant where orders for equal shared responsibility were made, orders for equal time or substantial and significant time were often made as well.

There was also a new list of factors a court had to take into account when deciding what was in a child’s best interests. It included the “benefit” of “meaningful” post-separation relationships with parents and the need for protection from harm. These two things could be difficult to reconcile.

Review after review

Since 2006, there have been at least six formal inquiries into the family law system as well as commissioned evaluations and independent research.

Problems with the presumption and the dominance of the ideal of ongoing “meaningful” relationships are consistently reported, including by a 2017 parliamentary inquiry on family law. That report found the existing laws were “leading to unjust outcomes and compromising the safety of children”.

Much of the research has shown victims of family violence are told not to raise it – or feel unable to do so. Wanting to restrict or limit the perpetrators contact with the children, may be seen as being obstructive, rather than protective.

While the government baulked at touching the presumption in 2011 when it introduced changes to the act to improve its response to family violence, it’s now gone.

Needs of the child at the centre

The 2023 changes have also repealed the section about equal and substantial and significant time and simplified list of the best interests’ factors. The new factors include:

• the safety of the child and others who have their care

• the views of the child

• their developmental, psychological, emotional and cultural needs

• the capacity of each of the parents to provide these needs

• the benefit to the child having a relationship each of their parents.

In terms of safety, the court must consider any history of family violence, abuse or neglect and any family violence order.

Implementation of the amended legislation will have its challenges.

Despite their flaws, the old laws did have useful guidance about what a court should think about if considering making order for equal (or lots of) time. And a judge can still make those orders despite the repeal of the presumption.

Read more:
The government still wants a Family Court merger — new research shows why this is not the answer

The old guidance included considering the parents’ capacity to implement a shared care arrangement and communicate with each other, and the impact of that kind of arrangement on the child. These considerations, which also influenced out-of-court negotiations, have been removed.

It will interesting to see whether this will provide an opportunity for judges to develop thoughtful and creative orders tailored for the families they see, or whether it will just lead to uncertainty and inconsistency in outcomes.

Future reform processes (because there will be more) should consider restoring a list of factors relevant to shared parenting orders or arrangements.

Alternatively, or additionally, there could be a list of factors that prevent or caution against such arrangements – such as a history of family violence or abuse or an inability of the parents to communicate effectively.

Late last year, Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash said the changes “send a message to the courts that parliament no longer considers it beneficial for both parents to be involved in decisions about their children’s lives” and would be repealed under a Coalition government.

Her concerns aren’t borne out in the legislation. Nothing in these new laws takes away from the importance of both parents.

The government has listened to and acted on concerns about safety which have been expressed over many years. Now we should wait to see how they actually operate.

Zoe Rathus 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. Family law has been overhauled. With the new changes about to kick in, how will they affect children? – https://theconversation.com/family-law-has-been-overhauled-with-the-new-changes-about-to-kick-in-how-will-they-affect-children-227154

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wes Hill, Associate Professor, art history and visual culture, Southern Cross University

This article mentions ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The names of the dead resound in Archie Moore’s sublime, Golden Lion winning installation at this year’s Venice Biennale. Moore is the first Australian to win the prestigious award, given to the best national pavilion at the world’s oldest and most renowned art biennale, which began in 1895.

Singled out from 85 other national presentations, Moore’s kith and kin is exceptional in many ways. Intelligently supported by curator Ellie Buttrose, Moore has given the black cubical modernist Australian pavilion an internal form that perfectly complements its outer appearance.

Having long been attracted to the gothic, an enormous, hand-drawn family tree by Moore greets viewers with its powerful, eulogistic presence.

Rendered with white chalk on black chalkboard-painted walls, Moore’s ancestral connections – real and imagined – branch out onto the ceiling. The dimly lit gallery becomes a church, a cave and a classroom. When entering on a spring Venetian day, the walls shimmer. At a distance, they evoke the late great Nyapanyapa Yunupingu, an Australian Yolngu painter renowned for her ghostly white paintings.

On a large plinth in the centre of the space, a memorial-like display of precisely amassed papers of varying heights is enclosed by a shallow pool of water.

Rows of redacted material from coronial inquests into the 557 Aboriginal people who have died in police and prison custody since 1991 provide a solemn, micropolitical base to Moore’s work.

It conjures all the bureaucratic processes dealing with Aboriginal injustice that have been announced, shelved or failed, and the chains of lives affected. It’s a centrepiece that wouldn’t be amiss in the oeuvre of Hans Haacke. From the late 1960s, the work of the German-American conceptualist has prefigured much of today’s issue-driven art.

Read more:
Why we should honour the humanity of every person who dies in custody

Triumphant and cinematic

Given the soberness of its central object, it is all the more remarkable that kith and kin manages to still be triumphant and, in its atmospheric slowing down of time, vaguely cinematic. The work is essentially a hybrid of two series Moore has shown before – Family Tree (2018) and Inert State (2023) – dramatically upping their scale.

Together, both pieces transmute macro and micro histories into a stirring, labour-of-love installation. In following his parental lineages, two ways of representing ancestry – Aboriginal and European – converge, just as the two series of works – one based in drawing, the other in sculpture – are made to share the space with one another.

Like all family trees, kith and kin begins with the self-consciousness of the person doing all the research. Moore is a descendant of Bigambul and Kamilaroi people on his mother’s side and Scottish and British people on his father’s. “Me” appears in the middle of the back wall. It connects to the names “Stanley Moore” and “Jennifer Cleven”: the artist’s parents.

Moore racked up hundreds of hours (and identified more than 3,000 relatives) on the popular website Ancestry.com. In his archival research, he also discovered a genealogical chart made by anthropologist Norman Tindale, who interviewed Moore’s maternal great-grandmother in 1938.

Moore extrapolates the genealogical underpinnings of identity-based art literally, into a chart that, as he says, spans 2,400 generations and 65,000 years. Arriving in Venice early, he spent over two months drawing this inventory of thousands of names on the wall, in what must have been a melancholic yet spiritual endeavour.

Each name is surrounded by an imperfectly drawn box interconnected with lines to other boxes. Some boxes are left empty, signifying, in a reversal of logic, relatives who are still alive.

Higher up on the wall, the dead on his mother’s side are overwhelmingly represented by singular and diminutive names such as “Tommy”, “half-caste”, “old gin” and “abo”. Moore does not discount their presence due to their neglect by history’s gatekeepers. Instead, he gives them the dignity of at least occupying a space in his part-arboreal, part-rhizomatic system.

Generations marked by anonymous and racist epithets are turned by Moore into beatific survivalist motifs. Sensitive to the ghosts of the past, the work addresses the failures of colonialist and continuing regimes in Australia, the racist appellations and redacted names reminders of a desire to have some people lost to history.

Presenting for, not representing, Australia

In following an archival impulse, Moore often undertakes extensive historical research only to concentrate on the absences and inconsistencies he finds there. It’s an approach that corresponds with Hal Foster’s observation of a tendency amongst cognisant artists in the digital age who “make historical information, often lost or displaced, physically present”.

This dichotomous treatment of archives – turning their specificity into speculative projections – may be what sets Moore, who has long been regarded as an “artist’s artist”, apart from many of his Indigenous peers. He is a particularly brilliant but often underappreciated interpreter of historical material.

Conscious of how forms are engaged with and read in specific contexts, he always seems to make more of his messaging than what is actually there.

Capturing the zeitgeist of the Venice Biennale’s pronounced First Nations-led approach this year, kith and kin mixes politics and history with the poetry of internalised anxieties around belonging. Adamant that he was “presenting for” rather than “representing” Australia, Moore’s paean to a “larger network of relatedness” has nonetheless done us all proud.

Read more:
We’re analysing DNA from ancient and modern humans to create a ‘family tree of everyone’

Wes Hill 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. Archie Moore’s Venice triumph: the sublime kith and kin is simultaneously somber and stirring – https://theconversation.com/archie-moores-venice-triumph-the-sublime-kith-and-kin-is-simultaneously-somber-and-stirring-228275

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Rickerby, Lecturer, School of Product Design, University of Canterbury

The incident of a woman misidentified by facial recognition technology at a Rotorua supermarket should have come as no surprise.

When Foodstuffs North Island announced its intention to trial this technology in February, as part of a strategy to combat retail crime, technology and privacy experts immediately raised concerns.

In particular, the risk of Māori women and women of colour being discriminated against was raised, and has now been borne out by what happened in early April to Te Ani Solomon.

Speaking to media this week, Solomon said she thought ethnicity was a “huge factor” in her wrongful identification. “Unfortunately, it will be the experience of many Kiwis if we don’t have some rules and regulations around this.”

The supermarket company’s response that this was a “genuine case of human error” fails to address the deeper questions about such use of AI and automated systems.

Automated decisions and human actions

Automated facial recognition is often discussed in the abstract – as pure algorithmic pattern matching, with emphasis on assessing correctness and accuracy.

These are rightfully important priorities for systems that deal with biometric data and security. But with such crucial focus on the results of automated decisions, it’s easy to overlook concerns about how these decisions are applied.

Designers use the term “context of use” to describe the everyday working conditions, tasks and goals of a product. With facial recognition technology in supermarkets, the context of use goes far beyond traditional design concerns such as ergonomics or usability.

Read more:
The use of technology in policing should be regulated to protect people from wrongful convictions

It requires consideration of how automated trespass notifications trigger in-store responses, protocols for managing those responses, and what happens when things go wrong. These are more than just pure technology or data problems.

This perspective helps us understand and balance the impact of engineering and design interventions at different levels of a system.

Investing in improving prediction accuracy seems an obvious priority for facial recognition systems. But this has to be seen in a broader context of use where the harm done by a small number of wrong predictions outweighs marginal performance improvements elsewhere.

Responding to retail crime

New Zealand is not alone in reported increases in shoplifting and violent behaviour in stores. In the UK, it has been described as a “crisis”, with assaulting a retail worker now a standalone criminal offence.

Canadian police are funnelling extra resources into “shoplifting crackdowns”. And in California, retail giants Walmart and Target are pushing for increased penalties for retail crime.

While these problems have been linked to the rising cost of living, industry group Retail NZ has pointed to profit-seeking organised crime as the major factor.

Read more:
Facial recognition technology could soon be everywhere – here’s how to make it safer

Sensationalised coverage using security footage of brazen thefts and assaults in stores is undoubtedly influencing public perception. But a trend is difficult to measure due to a lack of consistent, impartial data on shoplifting and offenders.

It is estimated that 15-20% of people in New Zealand are affected by food insecurity, a problem found to be strongly associated with ethnicity and socioeconomic position. The links between cost of living, food insecurity and black market distribution of stolen groceries are likely to be complex and nuanced.

Caution is therefore needed when assessing cause and effect, given the risks of harm and implications for civil society of a shift towards constant surveillance in retail spaces.

AI and human bias

Commendably, Foodstuffs has engaged with the Privacy Commissioner, and has been transparent about safeguards in biometric data collection and deletion protocols. What’s missing is more clarity around protocols for the security response in stores.

This is more than about customers consenting to facial recognition cameras. Customers also need to know what happens when a trespass notification is issued, and the dispute resolution process should a misidentification occur.

Read more:
Avoiding a surveillance society: how better rules can rein in facial recognition tech

Research suggests human decision makers can inherit biases from AI decisions. In situations of heightened stress and risk of violence, combining automated facial recognition with ad-hoc human judgement is potentially dangerous.

Rather than isolating and blaming individual workers or technology components as single points of failure, there needs to be more emphasis on resilience and tolerance for error across the whole system.

AI errors and human errors cannot be avoided entirely. AI security protocols with “humans in the loop” need more careful safeguards that respect customer rights and protect against stereotyping.

Read more:
The secret sauce of Coles’ and Woolworths’ profits: high-tech surveillance and control

Shopping and surveillance

Australian supermarkets have responded to retail crime with overt technological surveillance: body cameras issued to staff (also now adopted by Woolworths in New Zealand), digitally tracking customer movement through stores, automated trolley locks and exit gates to prevent people leaving without paying.

Supermarkets may now be at the forefront of a technological shift in the shopping experience. Moving towards a surveillance culture where every customer is monitored as a potential thief is reminiscent of the ways global airport security changed after 9/11.

New Zealand product designers, software engineers and data scientists will be paying close attention to the outcome of the Privacy Commissioner’s review of the Foodstuffs facial recognition trial.

Theft and violence is an urgent problem for supermarkets to address. But they now need to show that digital surveillance systems are a more responsible, ethical and effective solution than possible alternative approaches.

This means acknowledging technology requires human-centered design to avoid misuse, bias and harm. In turn, this can help guide regulatory frameworks and standards, inform public debate on the acceptable use of AI, and support development of safer automated systems.

Mark Rickerby 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. Supermarket facial recognition failure: why automated systems must put the human factor first – https://theconversation.com/supermarket-facial-recognition-failure-why-automated-systems-must-put-the-human-factor-first-228284

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

A national Newspoll, conducted April 15–18 from a sample of 1,236, gave Labor a 51–49 lead, unchanged from the previous Newspoll in late March. Primary votes were 38% Coalition (up one), 33% Labor (up one), 12% Greens (down one), 7% One Nation (steady) and 10% for all Others (down one).

Anthony Albanese’s net approval was up one point to -6, while Peter Dutton’s net approval was steady at -15. Albanese led Dutton as better PM by 48–35 (48–34 in March).

The graph below of Albanese’s net approval in Newspoll suggests his ratings are slowly improving. His low was -13 in late November, and he’s now at -6. In this graph, the Newspoll data are marked with plus signs, and a smoothed line has been fitted.

Other recent polls from Resolve, Freshwater and Morgan have Labor deteriorating, and it’s now close to even on two-party votes. Furthermore, respondent allocated preferences from Resolve and Morgan are poor for Labor compared with using the 2022 election preference flows that Newspoll uses.

The implication of a weaker respondent preference flow to Labor than at the 2022 election is that Labor’s position in Newspoll may be overstated.

Labor is probably struggling owing to inflation and the cost of living. While Morgan’s measure of consumer confidence increased last week to 83.5, it has been below 85 for a record 63 straight weeks.

Resolve poll tied at 50–50

A national Resolve poll for Nine newspapers, conducted April 17–21 from a sample of 1,610, had Labor and the Coalition tied at 50–50 by respondent preferences. This is the first time since the 2022 election that Resolve has given a two party estimate.

Primary votes were 36% Coalition (up one since March), 30% Labor (down two), 13% Greens (steady), 5% One Nation (steady), 2% UAP (steady), 11% independents (steady) and 3% others (up one). An estimate based on 2022 election preference flows would give Labor about a 52–48 lead, a 1.5-point gain for the Coalition.

Despite the poor voting intention numbers, Albanese’s net approval jumped nine points to -2, with 45% giving him a poor rating and 43% a good rating. Dutton’s net approval also jumped seven points to -2. Albanese led Dutton by 41–32 as preferred PM (40–30 in March).

The Liberals maintained a large lead over Labor on economic management (38–27, from 37–25 in March). On keeping the cost of living low, the Liberals led by 33–27 (28–22 in March).

By 55–34, voters agreed they would struggle to afford a major expense of a few thousand dollars (49–37 in December). This is the highest agree margin in this question since it was first asked in February 2023. By 48–26, voters thought interest rate decisions were mainly about domestic factors, not global factors beyond the government’s control.

Freshwater poll: Coalition gains for a 50–50 tie

A national Freshwater poll for The Financial Review, conducted April 12–14 from a sample of 1,053, had a 50–50 tie, a one-point gain for the Coalition since the March Freshwater poll. Primary votes were 40% Coalition (up one), 31% Labor (steady), 13% Greens (down one) and 16% for all Others (steady).

Albanese’s net approval was steady at -7, with 45% unfavourable and 38% favourable. Dutton’s net approval was up four points to -9. Albanese led Dutton by 45–39 as preferred PM (47–38 in March).

The top five issues were cost of living (74% rated it a top issue), housing (41%), health (27%), managing the economy (26%) and crime (24%). The Coalition had a six-point lead over Labor on cost of living, a three-point gain for the Coalition since March. Labor’s standing on most issues dropped since March.

By 44–38, voters were opposed to extending the term of the federal House of Representatives from three years to four years.

Essential poll: Labor regains lead after Coalition blowout

In last fortnight’s national Essential poll, conducted April 3–7, Labor led by 48–46 including undecided, a reversal of a 50–44 Coalition lead in late March that was the worst for Labor of any poll this term.

Primary votes were 34% Coalition (down two), 29% Labor (steady), 14% Greens (up three), 6% One Nation (down one), 2% UAP (down one), 8% for all Others (up one) and 6% undecided (steady).

On housing, 73% said it should be a basic human right that everyone has access to, but only 45% said it was currently fulfilling this role. On house prices, 40% said they wanted them to reduce, 45% stabilise and 15% continue to rise.

On economic conditions in the next 12 months, 48% thought they would get worse (down eight since February), 27% stay the same (up eight) and 21% get better (up two). On current financial circumstances, 53% said they were struggling and 47% comfortable. Struggling has been ahead on this question since October 2023.

By 51–17, voters supported non-citizens who refuse to cooperate with deportation being punished with a minimum of one year in prison. By 50–14, they supported countries that refuse to accept deportees being blacklisted from further visa applications.

However, a national YouGov poll, conducted March 29 to April 6 from a sample of 1,517, had only 31% who thought the government should have the power to ban all visa applications from a particular country, while 60% thought visa applications should be treated on an individual merit basis regardless of country of origin.

Morgan poll: Coalition takes lead

A national Morgan poll, conducted April 1–7 from a sample of 1,731, gave the Coalition a 50.5–49.5 lead, a 1.5-point gain for the Coalition since late March.

In the Morgan poll conducted April 8–14 from a sample of 1,706, the Coalition’s lead increased to 51–49. Primary votes were 38.5% Coalition (up 0.5 since April 1–7), 30% Labor (up 0.5), 13.5% Greens (steady), 5.5% One Nation (down 0.5), 7.5% independents (down 1.5) and 5% others (up one). By 2022 election preferences, this poll would have Labor ahead by about 50.5–49.5.

Liberals easily retain Cook at byelection

The federal byelection in Cook to replace former Liberal PM Scott Morrison was held on April 13. Labor did not contest. The Liberals won by 71.3–28.7 against the Greens (62.4–37.6 against Labor in 2022).

Primary votes were 62.7% Liberals (up 7.1% since 2022), 16.4% Greens (up 6.5%), 6.8% Animal Justice (new), 6.0% Libertarian (new) and 5.7% for an independent (new). Labor had won 25.0% in 2022.

A uComms poll for The Australia Institute that was conducted March 28 had given the Liberals a 65–35 lead over the Greens.

UK local elections on May 2

I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger on April 10. The Conservatives are set to suffer large losses. I also covered upcoming elections in the United States, India and for the European parliament, and recent elections in Portugal, Indonesia and Ireland.

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. Labor maintains narrow Newspoll lead but drops in other polls – https://theconversation.com/labor-maintains-narrow-newspoll-lead-but-drops-in-other-polls-227444

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Shortis, Adjunct Senior Fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University

When big questions about American foreign policy collide with an election, it’s rarely good news for a sitting president.

Like many leaders before him, US President Joe Biden has had some of these questions thrust on him, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some have their origins in past administrations, such as the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Most are a mixture of both, such as Israel’s retaliation against Gaza and the role of Iran.

Given the magnitude of these intersecting crises and the fact they are happening during a fraught election campaign, it’s not surprising Biden’s foreign policy is subject to intense scrutiny.

So how might this administration’s foreign policy influence voters’ decision-making in November?

Back to Afghanistan

Many analysts trace the start of Biden’s foreign policy troubles to what is often described as the “botched” American withdrawal from Afghanistan. In isolation, and despite the entirely avoidable tragedy that has unfolded there, Afghanistan alone is unlikely to have made an electoral impact beyond the hand-wringing of some political pundits.

That is not necessarily the case with the other global crises that now grip the Biden administration – especially its response to Gaza.

It is notoriously difficult to predict voter intention, especially this far out from election day. But a look at the history of the impact of international problems on voter intention in elections can help us understand how Americans think about their role in the world, and the influence that might have on their choice of leader this time around.

Read more:
Biden’s burden: four percentage points, a struggling economy and a fragile democracy

1968 redux?

This year, the Democratic National Convention returns to Chicago, Illinois. Given the startling parallels between this year and 1968 – when the convention was also held in Chicago – the decision to return to the Windy City seems ominous.

In 1968, foreign policy was at the forefront of several serious and intersecting crises in American democracy.

Reeling from the assassinations of Martin Luther King junior and the leading candidate for the nomination, Robert F. Kennedy, the violent backlash to the civil rights movement, and an escalating war in Vietnam, the Democratic Party went to Chicago in crisis.

Anti-war protesters, horrified by American involvement in Vietnam, convened in Chicago hoping to influence the outcome of the nomination process. The convention descended into chaos and violence, much of it committed by police, who arrested 650 protesters.

The Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey, went on to lose the election to Richard Nixon.

Though the history and context of the United States’ role in the Middle East is vastly different from that of Vietnam, there are important domestic parallels.

As with Vietnam, today’s Democratic Party is riven by division over the Biden administration’s response to Gaza. In the Michigan state primary in February, more than 100,000 Democrats voted “uncommitted” as part of a co-ordinated campaign to send a message to Biden, demanding he do more to stop the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. In the 2020 election, Biden won Michigan by just over 150,000 votes.

The ongoing, peaceful disruption of Democratic campaign events by protesters is likely to continue and extend to the convention in August. Dissent is critical to the health of democracies, but media coverage will surely not frame protests in that way. Intra-party division is likely to be presented negatively. That coverage will continue to shape broader perceptions of the strength and endurance of Biden’s leadership.

Iran

Iran, too, has played an outsized role in past American elections. Given the events of the past week, it may well do so again.

Conventional wisdom suggests the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the botched handling of the subsequent Iranian hostage crisis inflicted one of the most humiliating defeats of modern American history on incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter.

A year before the 1980 election and in the midst of the Iranian Revolution, militant students seized the American embassy in Tehran and held more than 50 Americans hostage. The crisis dragged on for over a year, watched on by seemingly helpless American officials. An abortive military rescue operation was a disaster.

Combined with the revolution itself and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, Carter’s authority was weakened beyond repair.

His Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan, successfully exploited Carter’s weaknesses, promising to “make America great again”.

Like Humphrey in 1968, Carter lost in a landslide. The hostages were released on the day of Reagan’s inauguration.

That timing was not a coincidence. Conventional commentary about Carter’s apparent weakness often fails to note that, after the failed rescue attempt, the Carter administration engaged in protracted, contentious negotiations with Iran right up to the dying day of his presidency. It was those negotiations that ultimately resulted in a deal to release the hostages. Significant questions remain about the Reagan campaign’s role in the resolution of the crisis.

Perceptions matter

The historical details of these foreign policy crises are important. But in terms of election outcomes, how they are perceived and mythologised matters more.

Carter’s legacy, and particularly perceptions of his weakness, are now being significantly revised. But as events were playing out, perceptions of Carter’s ineptitude, his central role in a developing sense of American “malaise” and Reagan’s ability to cultivate a contrasting image of strength and vitality lost Carter the election. Just as in 1968, that loss dramatically reshaped the United States’ role in the world and the course of global history.

Like Reagan after Carter, Biden promised to restore America’s role as a force for good in the world after four chaotic years under Donald Trump. He reassured Americans the “beacon” of American global leadership could be relit.

The risk for Biden is that he has not anticipated just how much his own foreign policy might undermine that message and the strength of his personal appeal.

Polling suggests around two-thirds of Americans support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Biden’s political inability and personal unwillingness to distance the United States from Israel, and his administration’s ongoing refusal to put conditions on military aid, is breaking apart the loose voting coalition that brought him to power. He will need this coalition to hold, and to turn out to vote, if he is to win re-election.

More broadly, perceptions of Biden’s lack of empathy for the suffering of the Palestinian people, particularly children, risks catastrophically undermining the deeply personal image of a compassionate, generous man that he has so carefully cultivated. That image was central to his appeal to voters in 2020.

Taken together, this means the incumbent president faces a kind of pincer movement.

On the one side, Biden appears to be presiding over a crisis in American moral leadership. The “international rules-based order” he promised to uphold is, in the eyes of many Americans, being unevenly applied to America’s allies.

On the other, Trump, Biden’s opponent again, seeks to exploit perceptions of his weakness and vulnerability to project a contrasting image of uncompromising strength. It is an image that appeals to a Reagan-like framing of an America that must be restored to its rightful position of unrivalled global dominance.

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The sense that the Biden administration has lurched from one foreign policy crisis to another only reinforces this narrative. There are also concerns its foreign policy team appears to be focused on “wins” and “losses” rather than understanding and addressing the underlying, structural factors that caused those crises in the first place.

Fairly or not, the cumulative result, combined with other issues such as shifting perceptions of the domestic economy, is a very low personal approval rating for the president.

Bad perceptions are mutually reinforcing. And when current polling – inadequate as it may be – suggests a gap between candidates that is within the margin of error, perceptions matter a great deal.

Emma Shortis is Senior Researcher in International and Security Affairs at The Australia Institute, an independent think tank.

– ref. How will US foreign policy affect Joe Biden’s chances of re-election in November? – https://theconversation.com/how-will-us-foreign-policy-affect-joe-bidens-chances-of-re-election-in-november-227890

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Irma Mooi-Reci, Professor in Labour Sociology, The University of Melbourne

As they kick off their careers, young people often have to navigate a maze of short-term and casual jobs.

In Australia, many of them also wish to work more hours than their current jobs allow, leading to a situation called “underemployment”.

Casual employment and underemployment often go hand in hand. But just how common are these experiences during Australians’ early careers, and what effect do they have on their future wage prospects?

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Setting the trajectory of young people’s careers

Early underemployment, casual employment and joblessness can greatly impact an individual’s career prospects later in life. Our 2023 study, assessing data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, explored this issue in depth.

A large number of young men (22.5%) and women (19.4%) were found to have experienced underemployment when they first started their careers.

But Australian women, more so than men, endured extended and repeated periods of underemployment.

This year, we explored these trends in a further study, analysing 20 years of data from the HILDA Survey to find out the common career paths young Australians take as they start working.

We started by looking into how often young people encounter a combination of casual work, underemployment, periods of not working and unemployment in the early stages of their careers.

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Our research revealed a stark reality:

• Only 44% of young workers in our study had secured permanent jobs matching their working hours preferences within five years of graduating. The more than half that remained were dealing with employment situations that fell short of their ideal.

• Of this underemployed group – the majority of whom were women or had lower levels of education – 21% were stuck in a cycle of short-term and casual jobs, and 18% experienced careers marked by periods out of work and unemployment.

Finding a stable and satisfying job early on is a steep challenge for young Australians.

Underemployment creates a pay gap

Is moving between jobs while young good or bad for future earnings?

One argument is that switching between different short-term jobs during early careers can actually help young people gain work experience in different roles, give them time to explore their preferences and skills, and learn about better job opportunities. Ultimately, this can improve job matching and lead to higher wages later in life.

However, another argument is that when young people move randomly between jobs, companies or industries, it can slow down the rate at which they learn and grow. This is because they might not stick around at any one place long enough to really build up their experience.

We explored this issue in Australia and made three central findings.

1. Young Australians facing underemployment and casual employment at the start of their careers earn lower hourly wages on average. Even those who end up in permanent positions but are underemployed earn about 85 cents for every dollar earned by their peers in full-time permanent jobs.

2. This wage gap – between those with stable jobs early on and those who face early career challenges – does diminish over a 10-year period.

3. For young people who are primarily unemployed or inactive at the very start of their careers, wage penalties not only continue, but get worse over time. Importantly, among this group, men experienced the most significant wage penalties.

These findings tell us that jobless, underemployed youth face the heaviest career and wage penalties in later life.

What’s next?

A positive sign is the fact that the wage gap between young people in stable jobs and those facing instability closes over a 10-year period. However, this result does not fully address concerns about the uncertain career paths young people face.

Our study ultimately revealed that young people who cycle through short-term jobs and underemployment suffer wage penalties for a significant portion of their careers. These penalties have implications for their lifetime earnings and cumulative wages.

Addressing such lifelong setbacks requires us to create a more inclusive labour market that accommodates underemployed workers and those with non-standard employment experiences. This could mean introducing policies that promote job security, fair wages and benefits for workers in non-traditional jobs.

Think tank Per Capita suggests that better integrating underemployed workers into the workforce could significantly improve economic growth and national productivity.

So how do we help underemployed and jobless people find better jobs?

In many ways, underemployed jobless youth face the biggest career and wage penalties later in life. They often fall into precarious employment situations because their skills do not match what employers need, or because they don’t have the contacts, networks and connections to find appropriate job opportunities.

To deal with youth unemployment, we need better tools that enable us to show young people where the best jobs are, and also guide them on the best pathways to stable and secure jobs.

Many advanced tools that match skills to jobs are either not currently accessible without a paid subscription, or not effective enough at matching young people with the right job. Governments, industries and employment services should prioritise building new free tools that can facilitate better job searches and transitions between occupations to enhance workforce readiness for all Australians.

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Irma Mooi-Reci 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. Unstable employment while you’re young can set you up for a wage gap later in life – even if you eventually land full-time work – https://theconversation.com/unstable-employment-while-youre-young-can-set-you-up-for-a-wage-gap-later-in-life-even-if-you-eventually-land-full-time-work-227042

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francis L Collins, Professor of Sociology, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

The New Zealand government claims its recently announced changes to visa rules will address exploitation and unsustainable migration. In reality, the new rules are likely to have the opposite effect.

The exploitation of migrant workers has become a growing problem in New Zealand. Reports of fraud, wage theft, job and visa premiums (where people are charged money for a job or visa) and other forms of workplace exploitation have become common.

These accounts suggest exploitation has become a systemic feature of some parts of the New Zealand labour market – including agriculture and hospitality.

But rather than addressing exploitation, the key effect of the proposed changes is to disempower people on work visas who are assessed as “low skilled”.

Additional burdens on low-skilled visa holders

Under the new rules, visa holders classified as level 4 or 5 by the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) – such as building labourers, retail supervisors and dairy farm workers – have to meet a new set of standards.

These workers will need to prove a minimum standard of English and demonstrate relevant work experience or qualifications. They will also have shorter time limits on their visas and be subject to a stand-down period of 12 months outside New Zealand once their visa has expired.

Under the new rules, low-skilled work visas will be for two years, with the possibility of extending the visa for a third year.

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These additional burdens on low-skilled work visa holders increase the prospect of workplace exploitation by adding extra hurdles to the application and renewal of visas, and by reducing the ability work visa holders have to negotiate with employers.

While English language standards seem like a sensible option – it allows migrants to access information about their rights and understand an employment contract – access to information alone does not address the circumstances leading to exploitation.

This new requirement will create financial burdens likely to encourage profit-making by migration intermediaries and English language testing agencies. Shorter work visas and stand-down periods directly reduce the rights of migrants in the workplace, and offer fewer opportunities for skill development.

Because they need work to repay the costs of migration faster, migrants who have debt related to their jobs have even fewer reasons to question exploitative employment practices.

Recycling old ideas

Also striking is the way the new rules recycle regulations that have already been shown to generate workplace exploitation.

Prior to the introduction of the accredited employer work visa by Labour in 2021, the ANZSCO skills assessment was a key tool for classifying work visa types and differentiating migrant rights. The accredited employer visa scheme was meant to streamline the visa process and was based on the wages migrants earn.

It was the previous National immigration minister, Michael Woodhouse, who in 2017 introduced the three-year limits on the time low-skilled work visa holders could stay in New Zealand. The impact of COVID border closures meant these limits never came into effect.

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The cumulative effect of these approaches, along with the long-standing practice of tying work visas to employers, means it’s difficult for low-skilled migrant workers to change employers even when they are faced with exploitation.

Even if they can change jobs, they only have limited time to earn income to recoup the cost of migration to New Zealand.

Some employers hire people on work visas because they know they are unable to negotiate conditions or challenge instances of workplace exploitation.

Restrictive rules and regulations on work visas thus support migrant exploitation because they take away freedom and choice. Work visa holders have less freedom than other workers in terms of which jobs they can take, their ability to change jobs, and the time limits on working in New Zealand.

Recent reports have also shown the accredited employer work visa scheme has created something of a marketplace for exploitation. With demand for migrant workers growing, some recruiters have accumulated hundreds of job “tokens”, which represent each position the employer can fill with a suitable migrant worker. These tokens are being sold to workers at a premium.

A better approach is possible

But it is possible to develop migration policies that encourage reduced exploitation. Other labour migrants in New Zealand enjoy rights broadly in line with those experienced by citizens and permanent residents.

This includes people in high-skilled occupations, who either are eligible for direct-to-residence pathways, or visas of up to five years. Australian citizens and permanent residents have virtually no restrictions on their migration and work.

We should ask why it is considered acceptable that people in jobs deemed low-skilled, and disproportionately from Asia, the Pacific and South America, are given fewer rights and made vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

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To reduce exploitation, visa rules need to empower migrants in the workplace and in their lives. This means:

• visas should not be tied to employers
• work visa time limits should exceed employment contracts to allow labour market mobility
• all migrants should be able to live with their families
• there should be viable pathways to settlement and adequate support for social inclusion.

Such approaches have the added benefit of reducing the high turnover of people on work visas, presenting a more viable pathway to sustainable and just migration settings.

Francis L Collins currently receives funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. He has previously received other funding from Te Apārangi Royal Society of New Zealand. In 2019, he was also commissioned by MBIE to research the causes of migrant exploitation in New Zealand.

– ref. In demand but disempowered: why low-skilled migrant workers face even worse exploitation under NZ’s new rules – https://theconversation.com/in-demand-but-disempowered-why-low-skilled-migrant-workers-face-even-worse-exploitation-under-nzs-new-rules-227993

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

Anthony Albanese will trek the Kokoda track on Tuesday and Wednesday before attending the Anzac Day dawn service at the Isurava Memorial site that commemorates one of the toughest battles the Australians fought in the second world war.

The trek is a favourite with politicians, more often made as they scramble up the political ladder. Kevin Rudd, then-opposition foreign affairs spokesman, and Human Services Minister Joe Hockey famously walked together in 2006, with Hockey ever after boasting of how he fished the future PM out when he’d slipped crossing a stream.

Apart from the deep historic symbolism, Albanese’s trek involves some jungle diplomacy, part of the prime minister’s continuing efforts to reinforce Australia’s ties with its close northern neighbour.

PNG Prime Minister James Marape plans to join Albanese on the trek, and will be at Thursday’s dawn service. The two leaders will already have had a meeting before the gruelling walk starts.

Apart from the long historical, geographic and political ties between the two countries, PNG, a nation beset with economic, tribal and social problems, has become increasingly important in the battle between China and Australia for influence in the Pacific. Australia signed a security and policing agreement with PNG last year.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in PNG at the weekend. In a remark seen as a crack at Australia, he told the media that Pacific Island countries “are not the backyard of any major country”.

Wang also took a swipe at AUKUS, saying that the partnership threatened regional peace and security. “Instigating division is not in line with the urgent needs of Pacific Island countries,” he said.

Albanese has met Marape frequently and the two leaders have addressed each other’s parliament. In his address in February, Marape said the bilateral security agreement reflected the focus on PNG becoming a strong, economically resilient nation.

“A strong, economically empowered Papua New Guinea means a stronger and more secure Australia and Pacific,” he said.

Ian Kemish, high commissioner in PNG from 2010-13, who is distinguished adviser at the Australian National University’s National Security College, says “it’s significant Albanese is visiting for several days and is spending so much time with Marape”.

Kemish says Australia is in a stronger position in PNG than in some other parts of the Pacific, because of the very broadly-based bilateral relationship.

“It’s not all government-to-government,” he says. There are extensive economic and trading links, links through development aid, and cultural links. (On the sports front, the federal government strongly backs PNG’s bid become a National Rugby League team 2027, on which talks continue.)

Kemish says China has had “a few runs at Papua New Guinea”, but these have amounted to very little at the political or strategic level.

But China has moved in significantly at the commercial level, including building roads and bridges.

“While there is not a lot of vulnerability [to China] at the national political level, there are opportunities for China at the provincial level, where it can do economic and resource deals and convert them into strategic opportunity over time – for example if China engaged with a frustrated Bougainville. The regions are frustrated with the centre,” Kemish says.

The Kokoda campaign ran from July to November 1942. It involved some 56,000 Australians, of whom about 625 were killed and more than 1,600 wounded along the track.

Albanese said at the weekend: “The Kokoda campaign and the Kokoda track form part of our national identity, a defining chapter in the story of those who risked and lost their lives in defence of Australia and in our shared history with Papua New Guinea.

“Kokoda is a name that lives in Australian legend. It captures the spirit of courage, endurance, mateship and sacrifice forged between Australia and Papua New Guinea during World War Two.

“Participating in this walk is a solemn way to honour, to reflect on the sacrifices made by those who walked this same ground, people from Papua New Guinea and Australia, serving and sacrificing together in defence of their home.”

The trip will yield plenty of pictures but probably none so striking as when in 1992, PM Paul Keating fell to his knees and kissed the ground at the Kokoda Monument. As Don Watson, historian and Keating’s speechwriter, later wrote, “Even by Keating’s standards it was a remarkable act”.

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

– ref. View from The Hill: Albanese to walk Kokoda track and engage in some jungle diplomacy – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-albanese-to-walk-kokoda-track-and-engage-in-some-jungle-diplomacy-228370

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne

For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay for out-of-pocket. But another form of bulk billing is in the news ahead of May’s federal budget – bulk billing of pathology testing, such as blood tests.

This relates to the fees pathology companies receive from Medicare to perform out-of-hospital laboratory tests, the type your GP might order to help diagnose or monitor disease.

These pathology fees have been frozen for almost a quarter of a century. Is that fair? Obviously not, argues Australian Pathology, which represents private pathology laboratories.

It has recently launched its “Keep Pathology Bulk Billed” campaign. At the core is a request for about an extra A$160 million a year for pathology companies. It argues this is needed to keep most out-of-hospital pathology tests free for the public.

But simple solutions put forward by vested interests involving more public funds are rarely in the public interest. Here’s how we might design a fairer pathology system, fit for the 21st century, that keeps tests free for the public.

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Pathology is big business

Collecting specimens and analysing them is big business. Pathology providers received almost $3.25 billion for out-of-hospital tests in 2022-23 from Medicare rebates. Pathology testing is also conducted in public and private hospitals, but these are funded under a combination of different arrangements.

Almost all (more than 99%) of out-of-hospital pathology services are bulk billed. That’s a rate much higher than that for GP visits, which stood at about 80% in the same period.

Pathology use is increasing faster than the population is growing. That’s partly because of more chronic disease in the population, and partly because new tests are becoming available.

Pathology provision is concentrated in a few hands, with a number of providers listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Increases in pathology rebates, as Australian Pathology is calling for, would go straight to companies’ bottom lines, increasing shareholder value.

So why are pathology companies calling for more funding now? Pathology companies’ profits burgeoned during the first years of the COVID pandemic, with the introduction of widespread PCR testing and the government funding that went with it.

But the industry was accused of profiting from “COVID-19 misery”, and the gravy train eventually ended. So pathology companies are now looking to replace that revenue, using the latest campaign to try to increase rebates.

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Does the pathology industry have a point?

On the face of it, a 24-year freeze on pathology government rebates might seem unfair. But a look into the pathology world reveals an industry where there has been significant productivity growth.

An increased volume of standard tests, as we’ve seen in recent years, can lead to improved productivity. For instance, companies can work their testing equipment harder – running them for longer, loading them with more samples – lowering the cost per test. Improvements in equipment also allow tests to be done quicker, allowing increased economies of scale.

But a fee freeze is a lazy policy, an example of “set and forget”. While it does achieve some benefits for the taxpayer, it’s not optimal. That’s because it assumes all the productivity savings (from automation, digitisation and increased economies of scale) exactly offset any increased costs from inflation. This is never likely to be true. Given the current extent of automation and consolidation, this is probably leaving excess profits in the pockets of providers, and costing governments more than they need to pay.

More changes in pathology provision are yet to come. Advances in artificial intelligence are accelerating and automated reading of some pathology tests may reduce pathology costs further, yielding more profits for providers.

Future policies need to reflect changes in how much it costs to provide pathology services, details of which are thin on the ground.

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What needs to happen?

Government should step back and ask whether a fees-for-pathology-service payment system, designed a century ago when pathology provision was literally a cottage industry, is still right in an era of extensive automation and ownership concentration. The answer is clearly no.

Reform should first dump the existing uncapped, fee-for-service payment system. Pathology is a big business and should be paid as such using tenders and contracts.

Pathology companies should be invited to tender to provide out-of-hospital pathology services in designated geographic areas. Two or more tenders could be approved to maintain competition between providers and keep options open for the end of the tender period. Pathology contracts should involve no out-of-pocket payments by consumers.

In-hospital pathology should not be covered by the same arrangements. Instead, private hospitals should make their own contractual arrangements for pathology provision, as they do now.

Public pathology services – run by state governments or their agencies such as Pathology Queensland – are also changing.

Consolidation of public pathology services in New South Wales yielded significant improvements in productivity. Victoria has started a less ambitious reform process, consolidating into three public providers rather than the single public provider model seen in NSW, Queensland and South Australia. This will also probably yield savings.

Public providers should be invited with private providers into the tender process to enhance competition.

What’s the take-home message?

The world of pathology provision is in flux, with more changes on the horizon, whether that’s related to technology or consolidation. In this environment, paying more to private providers under a payment system that has passed its use-by date is not good policy. That’s despite its simplistic attraction and advocacy from vested interests.

So the next time you go to a pathology collection centre and see posters encouraging you to email your MP to “keep pathology bulk billed”, beware. The campaign is more about company profits than saving you money.

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

– ref. Why the pathology bulk-billing campaign is more about driving industry profits than saving you money – https://theconversation.com/why-the-pathology-bulk-billing-campaign-is-more-about-driving-industry-profits-than-saving-you-money-228091

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University

Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, most of it has gone.

Pollution, coastal development, climate change and many other human impacts have degraded or destroyed swathes of mangrove forests, saltmarshes, seagrass meadows, macroalgae (seaweed) forests and coral and shellfish reefs. We’ve lost a staggering 85% of shellfish reefs around the world and coral is bleaching globally.

When healthy, these coastal habitats help feed the world by supporting fisheries. They are home to more than 100 species of charismatic marine megafauna, ranging from sharks to dugongs. They sequester carbon, thus helping to slow climate change. The list goes on.

Healthy coastal habitats are the gift that keeps on giving. We need them back, so there’s a lot of enthusiasm for restoring these habitats. For example, we can plant mangroves, build new shellfish reefs and reduce pollution to help seagrass grow back.

But we want to recover more than just the habitats. We want the animals they support too. We need to know if restoration is helping animals.

We analysed restoration projects around the world to assess how animals are benefitting. Compared to degraded sites, restored habitats have much larger and more diverse animal populations. Overall, animal numbers and the types of animals in restored habitats are similar to those in natural habitats.

So restoration works. But outcomes for animals vary from project to project. Not all projects deliver the goods. As a result, resources are wasted and humanity misses out on the huge benefits of healthy coastal habitats.

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Animals can respond well to restoration

We collated over 5,000 data points from 160 studies of coastal restoration projects around the world.

Excitingly, animal populations and communities were remarkably similar to those in comparable undisturbed natural sites. For example, restoring seagrass off Adelaide’s coast brought back invertebrates, which are food for many fish species Australians love to catch, such as Australasian snapper. Invertebrate numbers here were comparable to nearby natural seagrass meadows.

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Overall, our review found animal populations in restored coastal habitats were 61% larger and 35% more diverse than in unrestored, degraded sites. So restoration produces serious benefits.

Some projects recorded dramatic increases. For instance, after oyster reefs were restored in Pumicestone Passage, Queensland, fish numbers increased by more than ten times. The number of fish species increased almost fourfold.

And animals can occupy newly restored sites surprisingly quickly. Fish and invertebrate numbers in restored seagrass and mangroves can match those in natural sites within a year or two. This happens even though the vegetation is far sparser in restored areas.

Our study shows that efforts to restore coastal habitat certainly can help animals thrive.

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Results are not guaranteed

Although restoration generally helped animals, good outcomes are not guaranteed. We found many projects where animal numbers or diversity barely increased. It was not clear why some projects were great for animals and others had lacklustre results.

Some restoration sites could be in places where animals cannot easily find them.

In other cases, actions to restore the habitat may simply not work. Despite our best efforts, we failed to create suitable environments.

It could be that animals are returning to restored habitats, but we’re not capturing them with our monitoring.

We sorely need more consistent restoration outcomes. We may lose community support for restoration if, for example, it doesn’t deliver on promises of improved fisheries.

We are still working out how to restore coastlines effectively. Clearly, more work is needed to improve techniques and the monitoring of animal numbers.

Global alliances and groups are developing standardised frameworks to guide restoration practice and to report on project designs and outcomes. Such strategies and co-ordination promise to deliver more consistent benefits.

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New technologies can improve monitoring

Monitoring animals and restoration outcomes in coastal habitats is challenging. These aquatic habitats are structurally complex, often impenetrable and hard to navigate, and can be dangerous.

New technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and environmental DNA (eDNA), allow us to collect more and better data on which animals are present and how they use these habitats. We’re rapidly becoming less reliant on hauling in nets or diving down to count animals.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used, for example, to extract information from underwater cameras. We can monitor animals more often, in more places, for less cost.

AI algorithms were recently used to automatically identify, size and count fish in videos taken on restored oyster reefs in Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne. These data were then used to calculate increased fish productivity due to restoration efforts. And what an increase it was – over 6,000 kilograms of fish per hectare per year!

Combining underwater videos with automated data extraction provides a new, reliable and cost-effective method for surveying animals ethically and efficiently.

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We still face major barriers to scaling up restoration to even get close to reversing our environmental impact on the coasts. Key concerns include ongoing climate change and policies and laws that hamper restoration efforts. It can be difficult, for example, to get permits to restore habitat, with complex systems involving multiple organisations and arms of government.

Still, our synthesis shows some light at the end of the tunnel. Coastal restoration efforts are having substantial benefits for animals around the world. The evidence supports ambitious restoration targets and action.

Michael Sievers receives funding from the Australian Research Council, project DE220100079, the National Environmental Science Program, and philanthropic foundations.

Christopher Brown receives funding from the Australian Research Council (grant FT210100792) and the World Wildlife Fund. He is affiliated with the Global Mangrove Alliance, an organisation that promotes mangrove restoration and conservation.

Rod Connolly receives funding from the Australian Research Council, National Environmental Science Program, philanthropic foundations, Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.

– ref. Restoring coastal habitat boosts wildlife numbers by 61% – but puzzling failures mean we can still do better – https://theconversation.com/restoring-coastal-habitat-boosts-wildlife-numbers-by-61-but-puzzling-failures-mean-we-can-still-do-better-227231

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney

Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range.

But that’s changing. Now we get flash floods much further inland, such as Broken Hill in 2012 and 2022 and Cobar, Bourke and Nyngan in 2022. Flash floods are those beginning between one and six hours after rainfall, while riverine floods take longer to build.

Why? Global warming is amplifying the climate drivers affecting where flash floods occur and how often. All around the world, we’re seeing intense dumps of rain in a short period, triggering flooding – just as we saw in Dubai this week.

Our research shows east coast lows – intense low pressure systems carrying huge volumes of water – are developing further out to sea, both southward and eastward.

This means these systems, which usually bring most of the east coast’s rain during cooler months, are now dumping more rain out at sea. Instead, we’re seeing warm, moist air pushed down from the Coral Sea, leading to thunderstorms and floods much further inland.

This month, a coastal trough along the Queensland and New South Wales coasts and an inland trough resulted in unusually widespread flooding, triggering flooding in Sydney as well as inland.

Read more:
Why is Australia’s east coast copping all this rain right now? An atmospheric scientist explains

What’s changing?

On the coasts, extreme flash floods come from short, intense rains on saturated catchments. Think of the devastating floods hitting Lismore in 2022 and Grantham in 2011.

Inland, flash floods occur when intense rain hits small urban catchments, runs off roads and concrete, and flows into low-lying areas.

The April flooding in NSW and Queensland had elements of both. Early this month, the subtropical jet stream changed its course, triggering a cyclonic circulation higher in the atmosphere over inland eastern Australia.

At the same time, a low-pressure trough developed low down in the atmosphere off the coast and another inland, through southern Queensland and NSW, where they encountered warm moist air dragged by northeast winds from as far away as the Coral Sea.

The result was localised extremely heavy rain, which led to the Warragamba Dam spilling and flood plain inundation in western Sydney.

This unusual event has been referred to as a “black nor’easter”, a term coined in 1911. These are characterised by a deepening coastal trough and upper-level low pressure systems further west, over inland eastern Australia. This term, mostly known in the marine fraternity, became less common during the 20th century. But it has returned.

Why? Global warming is changing how the atmosphere circulates. As ocean temperatures keep rising, the pool of warm water in the Coral and Tasman Seas grows. This gives rise to northeasterly airstreams, which funnel thick fronts of warm, moist air down towards inland Queensland and NSW.

These low pressure systems occur higher in the atmosphere, causing unstable conditions suiting the formation of thunderstorms. And because these systems move slowly, heavy rain can fall continuously over the same area for several hours. All up, it’s a perfect recipe for flash flooding.

We saw similar systems producing flash flooding in Sydney’s Nepean and Hawkesbury rivers during November and December last year, as well as in other regions of inland eastern Australia.

Is this new? Yes. Between 1957 and 1990, flash floods struck Sydney 94 times. But during this period, fast cyclonic airflow in the upper atmosphere was not connected to the jet stream. Instead, flash floods occurred when slow-moving upper-level low pressure circulations encountered air masses laden with moisture evaporating off the oceans. However, there wasn’t enough water in the air over the inland to trigger flash flooding.

In every case between 1957 to 1990, flash floods in Sydney were not linked to slower-forming riverine floods on the Nepean-Hawkesbury River system. When these rivers did flood during that period, they came from longer duration, less intense rain falling in the catchments, and largely from east coast lows. Now we’re seeing something new.

Haven’t there always been flash floods?

Flash floods are not new. What is new is where they are occurring. These sudden floods can now form well west of the Great Dividing Range.

Previously, inland floods tended to come after long periods of widespread rain saturated large river catchments. Inland flash floods were not so common and powerful as in recent decades.

In earlier decades, inland riverine floods during extreme rainfall years occurred when the fast-moving jet stream high in the atmosphere was further north. This occurred frequently in the cooler months, with long, broad cloud bands blown by or associated with the jet stream producing widespread rain inland. Known as the “autumn break”, it often primed agricultural land for winter crops.

In recent years, these crucial air currents have begun moving polewards.

Now that it’s moving south, we have increasingly warm air over inland eastern Australia which can hold more moisture and result in heavy falls, even in the cooler months.

What about the famous inland floods which move through Queensland’s Channel Country and fill Kati Thanda/Lake Eyre?

These are slow moving riverine floods, not flash floods. Flash floods are often limited to local regions. By contrast, Channel Country floods stem from heavy monsoonal rains from November to April.

Read more:
Changes in the jet stream are steering autumn rain away from southeast Australia

Short, intense rain bursts are going global

The pattern we’re seeing – more flash floods in unusual places – is not just happening in Australia. Inland areas – including deserts – are now more likely to see flash floods.

Dubai this week had a year’s rain (152 mm) in a single day, which triggered flash floods and caused widespread disruption of air travel. Other parts of the United Arab Emirates got even more rain, with up to 250 mm. In Western Australia’s remote southern reaches, the isolated community of Rawlinna recently had 155 mm of rain in a day.

This is precisely what we would expect as the world heats up. Hotter air can hold about 7% more water for every degree of warming, supercharging normal storms. And these floods can be followed by extended periods of almost no rain. The future is shaping up as one of flash floods and flash droughts.

Read more:
Flash droughts are becoming more common in Australia. What’s causing them?

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. It never rains but it pours: intense rain and flash floods have increased inland in eastern Australia – https://theconversation.com/it-never-rains-but-it-pours-intense-rain-and-flash-floods-have-increased-inland-in-eastern-australia-227777

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University

In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared the museum is “not a university”, and will gut its research capabilities, starting this July.

In Australia and abroad, hundreds of scientists and friends of the museum have expressed their horror at the proposal, to the media, in letters to the state government, and in interviews with the author.

“It could be the death of the museum,” says renowned mammalogist Tim Flannery, a former director of the museum.

Palaeontologist Mary Droser of the University of California, Riverside, spent two decades working on the museum’s collection of half-billion-year-old Ediacaran fossils. “To say research isn’t important to what a museum does – it’s sending shock waves across the world,” she says.

Critics say the changes will make the museum “more of a theme park”, and make South Australia “the laughing stock of the scientific world”.

What’s the plan?

Gaimster plans to replace ten “science research” positions with five junior “science curators”, and reduce the number of specialist “science collection managers” from 12 to five.

According to the museum’s website, this skeleton crew will focus on “converting new discoveries and research into the visitor experience”.

That’s quite different to what the museum has been doing for the past 168 years. Its researchers have described more than 500 new species, such as tiny crustaceans that live only in desert pools and are at risk from mining.

Read more:
Friday essay: the silence of Ediacara, the shadow of uranium

Museum researchers have also helped discover some 60 new minerals for the mining industry, some of which may help to clean up pollutants or deliver critical minerals for renewable energy technologies. Others have tackled global questions such as the evolution of birds from dinosaurs, how eyes evolved in Cambrian fossils, and Antarctic biodiversity.

What’s so special about a museum?

The museum’s record may be impressive, but couldn’t all this research be done by universities?

Their remits are different, says University of Adelaide botanist Andy Lowe, who was the museum’s acting director in 2013 and 2014. Unlike universities, he says, the museum was “established by government, to carry out science for the development of the state”.

Museum research is also unique because of its unique resources – the collections.

Visitors to the museum see the state’s treasures: the skeleton of marsupial lion Thylacoleo, the largest mammalian carnivore Australia ever had; weird fossils of our planet’s earliest multi-cellular life from the Ediacara Hills of the Flinders Ranges; glowing rocks and crystals that display the foundation of the state’s past and future wealth; and stone tools, boomerangs and bark paintings that record tens of millennia of Indigenous culture on this continent.

But these displays contain only a fraction of the full collections. The rest of the specimens reside beneath the public areas, with the researchers who continuously enrich them with new specimens and new knowledge.

“They’re crucial for what goes on above; you need experts not second-hand translators,” says University of Adelaide geologist Alan Collins. He wonders what will happen the next time a youngster comes into the museum asking to identify a rock. “There won’t be an expert on hand anymore.”

Collins also worries about a bigger looming public failure: a bid to obtain World Heritage listing for the Flinders Ranges. Collins has contributed to the bid by collaborating with museum researcher Diego Garcia Bellido to show how rocks at Brachina Gorge tell the story of how complex life first emerged.

Read more:
How algae conquered the world – and other epic stories hidden in the rocks of the Flinders Ranges

Garcia Bellido and his now-retired colleague Jim Gehling used the museum’s collections to identify dozens of Ediacaran species. Their work led to the formation of Nilpena Ediacara National Park to preserve the sites containing unique fossil beds.

The collection of Indigenous objects dates back to anthropological expeditions carried out by the museum’s Norman Tindale and Harvard’s Joseph Birdsell in the 1930s. These expeditions helped Tindale produce the first map of the territories of “the Aboriginal tribes of Australia”.

The museum’s Phillip Jones now uses this collection in his research, delivering more than 30 exhibitions, books and academic papers.

Continuity and community

Maintaining the museum’s collections takes a lot of work. Without attentive curation and the life blood of research, the collections are doomed to “wither and die”, says Flannery. “There are no collections without research; and no research without collections.”

Many of the above-mentioned researchers, vastly overqualified for the newly described positions, will likely find no home in the reimagined museum.

That raises the issue of continuity. In Flannery’s words, the job of a museum curator:

is like being a high priest in a temple. You have been passed on the sacred objects by your predecessor who has looked after them through their career. That chain of care goes back to the foundation of the state of South Australia – the foundation of the museum […] but break the chain of care and you destroy the museum.

A case in point is Jones, who knew Tindale and interviewed him when he was based at Harvard. Over Jones’ four decades at the museum, his relationships with Indigenous elders have also been critical to returning sacred objects to their traditional owners.

Besides the priestly “chain of care”, there’s something else at risk in the museum netherworld: a uniquely productive ecosystem feeding on the collections.

Here you’ll find PhD students mingling with retired academics; curators mingling with scientists; museum folk with university folk. This rich ecosystem delivers the out-sized knowledge output of the museum and brings in millions of dollars of federal research grants each year. In the year ending 2023 for instance, joint museum and university grants amounted to A$3.7 million.

Read more:
Museums are returning indigenous human remains but progress on repatriating objects is slow

But no more.

The new administration sees these joint grants as a burden. The problem, according to a museum spokesperson, is that “they did not include any remuneration for staff time or operational or administrative overheads”.

No one doubts the financial stresses the museum faces or that revamping exhibits is a desirable thing. But, as many have pointed out, the role of CEO is to knock on the doors of government and philanthropists and find the necessary funds. “It’s possible,” Flannery says. “I’ve done it.”

DNA and biodiversity

The museum has also declared it will no longer support a DNA sequencing lab it funds jointly with the University of Adelaide. The lab has worked with the museum’s collection of Australian biological tissue to help identify more than 500 new species, including 46 now listed as threatened.

“No other institute in South Australia does this type of biodiversity research,” says Andrew Austin, chair of Taxonomy Australia and emeritus professor at the University of Adelaide. “It’s the job of the museum.”

The cuts come while the SA government plans new laws to protect biodiversity.

According to Kris Helgen – chief scientist at the Australian Museum in Sydney – the South Australian Museum has been “the primary natural science museum for the interior of the continent” for 150 years.

The museum’s re-imagining puts this history at risk – and also places the future in jeopardy.

An open letter published on April 10, signed by more than 400 of Australia’s leading researchers, former state chief scientists, Aboriginal elders, politicians including a former state premier, and many others, summed up the case:

the collections housed at the South Australian Museum … are amongst the most significant in the world. They reveal to us the very beginnings of life on earth… and they help us to prevent extinction of critical species that underpin all human life …

Elizabeth Finkel 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. ‘It could be the death of the museum’: why research cuts at a South Australian institution have scientists up in arms – https://theconversation.com/it-could-be-the-death-of-the-museum-why-research-cuts-at-a-south-australian-institution-have-scientists-up-in-arms-228193

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University

This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues.

The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, following Angus Brayshaw’s in February and a number of other high-profile footballers in recent years, signals a shift in how athletes view brain trauma risks in sport.

Rather than downplaying or ignoring the potential damage being done to their health by a career filled with brain trauma, some athletes are now choosing to end their careers early. In doing so, they hope to avoid the neurodegenerative diseases which afflicted former players like Danny Frawley, Paul Green, Heather Anderson, and Shane Tuck.

Read more:
Will introducing independent doctors at games help the AFL tackle its concussion problem?

Why do athletes risk their brains?

Murphy’s retirement is a sign that concussion culture in the AFL is beginning to shift.

Although the long-term implications of multiple concussions and repetitive neurotrauma have been recognised internationally for nearly a century, scientific and health knowledge has historically battled against a warrior culture in contact sport communities.

For decades, sports have fostered a win-at-all-costs culture, with a pseudo-military flavour of sacrifice and duty to one’s teammates.

This has given rise to athletes ignoring or downplaying injuries whenever possible to continue the game.

This behaviour is particularly easy to enact when it comes to concussion, because it is often an invisible injury with health effects that may not manifest until after the initial contact.

Compounding this are expectations from spectators and fans, many of whom expect their heroes to “run through walls” and not show any weakness or vulnerabilities.

Media commentators also celebrate athletes who return to the field after sickening collisions as “courageous”, having “no fear”, or “gaining respect from teammates and opposition”.

There have been public calls since at least 2016 for commentators to change to the language around concussion.

A shift in attitude?

To prioritise athlete welfare, outdated attitudes need to change across Australia’s multiple contact sporting codes.

Murphy’s retirement and acknowledgement of his long-term brain health is one sign the culture of valorising injury and risk may be changing. But there is other evidence of a shift.

Australian research shows risky attitudes and behaviours toward concussion have begun to dissipate over recent years.

In 2017, the first study of concussion attitudes and behaviours in Australian athletes at all levels showed that despite participants knowing the dangers of concussion, many would still choose to play through or hide concussions.

Others revealed that even if diagnosed with a concussion, they would not complete full rehabilitation in the hopes of returning to the field sooner.

However, a 2021 follow-up study, using the same survey in a separate group, showed significant improvements towards concussion. Respondents were much less likely to hide or play through a concussion, and were more likely to complete full rehabilitation before returning to competition.

This data indicates that athletes are not only more aware of the potential long-term health effects of brain injuries, but are more likely to heed medical advice if they are concussed.

Murphy’s retirement is an example of footballers’ increased willingness to listen to medical advice. His decision was informed by the findings of the AFL’s independent panel of medical experts, which was introduced in 2019 to provide players with advice about whether to continue their careers following brain trauma.

In his announcement, Murphy said he accepted the panel’s advice, something we hope to see more of in future.

It should also be noted that in October 2023, this advisory panel permitted Murphy to return to training after the athlete was knocked out during September’s AFL Grand Final.

This short turnaround indicates the line between safety and danger for athletes’ brains is razor thin, and that athletes, their families, and medical experts like those who advised Murphy have a complex job ahead of them, as more and more athletes contemplate their futures post-concussion.

Are more retirements to come?

With continued discussion, debate and independent research, it is plausible more players with multiple concussions will prioritise their long-term brain health.

Similarly, new draftees entering professional levels of these sports will need to consider the benefits of competing where multiple brain injuries are likely to occur, versus the risk for cognitive impairments later in life or even brain disease.

In the meantime, the current group of athletes – professionals and amateurs alike – must weigh up the costs of participation in high contact games.

Read more:
Concussion in sport: why making players sit out for 21 days afterwards is a good idea

The recent and tragic deaths of former professionals and many unknown people who played club football, have shown our expectations of athletes need to be tempered. We need to understand these athletes are not machines, but individuals with families who are doing a job as best they can, for the short period of opportunity they have.

We must continue to educate and change the culture around concussion at all levels of sport, and to support players who decide to give the game away when concerned about too many injuries.

It’s in the best interests for the longevity of these sports – and the athletes we love to cheer on.

Alan Pearce is currently unfunded. Alan is a non-executive unpaid director for the Concussion Legacy Foundation. He has previously received funding from Erasmus+ strategic partnerships program (2019-1-IE01-KA202-051555), Sports Health Check Charity (Australia), Australian Football League, Impact Technologies Inc., and Samsung Corporation, and is remunerated for expert advice to medico-legal practices.

Stephen Townsend 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. Are 2 mid-career AFL retirements a sign Australian athletes are taking brain health more seriously? – https://theconversation.com/are-2-mid-career-afl-retirements-a-sign-australian-athletes-are-taking-brain-health-more-seriously-228197

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney

Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President.

The Austrian is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, best known in the English-speaking world as a novelist.

As literary scholar Rita Felski puts it, Bernhard’s oeuvre is generally thought of as “an oceanic heave of venom, disgust, bitterness, and loathing”.

By the same token – and this is something Felski neglects to mention – his writing can be extremely funny.

One of the great strengths of the Sydney Theatre Company’s captivating revival of the 1975 play, co-produced with Dublin’s Gate Theatre, is how it manages to balance both these aspects of Bernhard’s writing.

Directed by Ireland’s Tom Creed, the production also features two exceptional lead performances.

Hugo Weaving plays the leader of a middling, unnamed country somewhere in Europe. Grandiose and boastful, Weaving’s titular president spends half of the play hiding away in Portugal and refuses to concede his days are numbered. He insists, against all odds, he can somehow “win it all back”.

Meanwhile, Olwen Fouéré’s furious first lady spends her time physically and emotionally tormenting her maid, Mrs Frolick (Julie Forsyth), while monologuing endlessly and ominously on the topics of hate, torture and the liquidation of shadowy political factions.

A complex writer

Bernhard was born in 1931 and died in 1989. Through childhood and adolescence he was unhappy and suffered from a host of life-threatening lung ailments. Eventually, his tuberculous-damaged lungs put paid to his youthful musical aspirations of being an opera singer, so he turned to writing.

After stints as a courtroom reporter and journalist, he started publishing poetry. His debut novel, Frost (1963), made him famous. His theatrical breakthrough came in 1970, with his first full-length play, A Feast for Boris.

Throughout his career, Bernhard’s feelings about his homeland were complex and fraught. Biographer Gitta Honegger, who also translated The President, notes he

came of age while Austria was digging its way out of the devastation of World War II and burying itself in silence about the Holocaust.

He was deeply suspicious about Austria’s refusal to come to terms with its Nazi past and used his standing as a prominent public figure to expose this national hypocrisy.

But these critiques didn’t sit well with everyone in Austria. He was repeatedly attacked for being a Nestbeschmutzer, which roughly translates as “one who fouls their own nest”.

The last play he wrote, Heldenplatz (1988), was an explosive account of the dangers of nationalism and anti-Semitism.

It controversially suggested things hadn’t really changed in Austria since the days of the Third Reich, with one character saying:

conditions today really are the same
as they were in thirty-eight
there are more Nazis in Vienna now
than in thirty-eight
it’ll come to a bad end
you’ll see
it doesn’t even take an extra-sharp mind
now they’re coming out again
of every hole
that’s been sealed for over forty years

The political landscape of 1975

The President was Bernhard’s response to the volatile political climate in Europe of the time.

The president of Bernhard’s demanding play – a fascist dictator in all but name – has just survived an attempt on his life. Anarchists are responsible. There is a possibility the president’s son, who has disappeared, pulled the trigger.

The play opens with the president and his wife preparing for the funeral of a close confidant who was killed in the same assassination attempt (as was the first lady’s beloved dog). The characters are paranoid and panicked:

Aren’t you afraid of the terrorists
of some anarchist trying to get you
You open a book because you want to read
and you are blown into pieces
aren’t you are afraid
everybody
everybody
The whole country is ruled by fear

While Bernhard doesn’t specify, it would have been clear to contemporary audiences he had a particular band of West German terrorists in mind: the Red Army Faction.

It was no coincidence the original production opened at the Stuttgart State Theatre on May 21 1975: the same date and city where the key members of the Red Army Faction went on trial.

Also known as the Baader-Meinhof Group, the Red Army Faction was responsible for a series of assassinations of German business leaders and politicians during the 1970s.

The Red Army Faction was also vocal and scathing about Germany’s unwillingness to properly confront its Nazi past.

In the words of the group’s de facto leader and theorist, Ulrike Meinhof, they had no time for acts of historical erasure, or for those who sought to “turn 12 years of German history into a taboo subject”.

Read more:
Baader–Meinhof group member arrested after 30 years on the run – but Germany still can’t close the chapter on far-left terrorism

‘Uncomfortable truths’

The creative team behind this version of The President clearly know their history.

In his directorial program notes, Creed acknowledges the violent actions of the Red Army Faction would have loomed large in the imagination of audiences in 1975.

Similarly, Weaving has spoken approvingly of Bernhard’s willingness to speak “a lot of uncomfortable truths to his own country”.

In equal measure, however, both Creed and Weaving believe Bernhard’s historically timestamped play can tell us something about the here and now. As Weaving says, The President, which takes a dim view of the performative quality of what passes for politics, is a “fascinatingly timely piece”.

I agree, and wholeheartedly recommend it.

The President is at the Sydney Theatre Company until May 19.

Alexander Howard 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. I wholeheartedly recommend The President: a brilliant revival of a play of decay, terror and revulsion – https://theconversation.com/i-wholeheartedly-recommend-the-president-a-brilliant-revival-of-a-play-of-decay-terror-and-revulsion-227685

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney

You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten years to realise how quickly things have changed.

In 2013, we were still predominantly buying paper bus tickets and using Facebook on a desktop computer. Now, we order food by scanning codes and tap our cards to make payments.

Digital inclusion (someone’s ability to keep up with technology) is an important health and social equity issue, amplified by the rapid digital developments that arose during the COVID pandemic.

Among those who are prone to digital exclusion, there is one group who, due to a collision of several trends, may be hit the hardest: people leaving prison and re-entering society at an older age, or after lengthy periods of imprisonment. In a new study, we interviewed former prisoners about their experiences with trying to adapt to ubiquitous technology after years of going without.

Read more:
Teaching prisoners to start businesses can help them return to society

Unfamiliar tech damaging confidence

Prison populations are getting older worldwide for a few reasons, including general population ageing, trends towards people entering prison at an older age, or staying in for longer. At the same time, Australian prisons remain highly technologically restricted environments, mostly for security reasons.

We interviewed 15 Australians (aged 47–69 years) about their experiences of reintegration following release from prison.

The (primarily male) interviewees recalled a tense and troublesome time. They described feeling like a stranger thrown into a world where survival depended on their ability to use technology.

Regardless of their experiences before imprisonment, the rapid digitisation of daily functions that were once familiar to them rendered their skills and confidence irrelevant. One former inmate said:

There’s a significant gap […] for anybody who’s done, I’m gonna say, probably more than five to seven years [in prison]. Because things change so quickly […] they do not know what the world looks like.

Read more:
New report reveals shocking state of prisoner health. Here’s what needs to be done

This deeply affected their sense of self and self-efficacy, and heightened the stigma they experienced, adding a weighty psychological and emotional burden to an already stressful time. They told us:

You want to fit in, you want to be invisible, to either fit in and be part of the crowd or just invisible. Because for a lot of people leaving prison, they’re still wearing their crime or their offending on their shoulders. And anything that sort of has their head pop up outside of the norm really triggers people’s anxiety.

There will be people where those trip-ups of technology are a really big deal and really impact your anxiety, really impacts your need and want to socialise and interact with other people.

Exacerbating recidivism

Post-prison reintegration is already a challenge. There’s concerning evidence around recidivism, risk of post-release mortality, social isolation, unemployment and homelessness.

Digital exclusion creates an additional barrier for those who are older, who already face a high risk of medical and social marginalisation. A former prisoner said:

Think about it, after being in ten years, well you think, okay, where do I start? And everything is hard. And sometimes this is why people fall back into their same situations because it’s just too hard.

Read more:
‘They weren’t there when I needed them’: we asked former prisoners what happens when support services fail

Technology isn’t completely absent from Australian prisons, but interviewees described the programs and technology as outdated, basic or limited in relevance to their immediate daily, post-release lives.

Recent attempts to bring in touchscreen devices to NSW prisons suggests positive change. However, our interviewees claimed there was a lack of education around these, adding to the risk of digital division even within the prison.

What can be done?

There must be investment in specific digital literacy or technology readiness programs tailored to the unique needs of this population both prior to, and following release.

The interviewees provided suggestions for how such programs could be delivered and a keenness to engage with them. They tended to focus on learning in environments free from stigma and judgement of their literacy level or histories, with hands-on experience and face to face support. Interviewees favoured learning while in prison, with additional support available on the outside. Three interviewees said:

If they could somehow incorporate it into the prisons where you know, they actually showed them how to use them and how to download an app and how to use the basic apps such as, you know, Centrelink, MyGov, it’d be a lot better life for them when they get out.

I think a lot of ex-prisoners shy away from doing these community type education stuff. Because they’re paranoid, basically.

As you’d be aware, it’s no good someone’s sitting there telling you how it works, you need to experience it yourself.

At a broader level, improving the digital inclusion of people in prison requires attitudinal change by government stakeholders and the community. Ultimately, it calls for a commitment to practices that put rehabilitation at the centre, whilst managing competing needs for security and segregation.

Based on the evidence, we can be certain this will encourage positive change for the 95% of Australian prisoners who will eventually be released.

Ye In (Jane) Hwang has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, the Australian Association of Gerontology, and the University of New South Wales Ageing Futures Institute for this work.

– ref. Many prisoners go years without touching a smartphone. It means they struggle to navigate life on the outside – https://theconversation.com/many-prisoners-go-years-without-touching-a-smartphone-it-means-they-struggle-to-navigate-life-on-the-outside-224138

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University

You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. They might also check your weight. Looking concerned, they recommend some lifestyle changes.

GPs and health professionals commonly measure waist circumference as a vital sign for health. This is a better indicator than body mass index (BMI) of the amount of intra-abdominal fat. This is the really risky fat around and within the organs that can drive heart disease and metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes.

Men are at greatly increased risk of health issues if their waist circumference is greater than 102 centimetres. Women are considered to be at greater risk with a waist circumference of 88 centimetres or more. More than two-thirds of Australian adults have waist measurements that put them at an increased risk of disease. An even better indicator is waist circumference divided by height or waist-to-height ratio.

But we know people (especially women) have a propensity to gain weight around their middle during midlife, which can be very hard to control. Are they doomed to ill health? It turns out that, although such measurements are important, they are not the whole story when it comes to your risk of disease and death.

Read more:
The body mass index can’t tell us if we’re healthy. Here’s what we should use instead

How much is too much?

Having a waist circumference to height ratio larger than 0.5 is associated with greater risk of chronic disease as well as premature death and this applies in adults of any age. A healthy waist-to-height ratio is between 0.4 to 0.49. A ratio of 0.6 or more places a person at the highest risk of disease.

Some experts recommend waist circumference be routinely measured in patients during health appointments. This can kick off a discussion about their risk of chronic diseases and how they might address this.

Excessive body fat and the associated health problems manifest more strongly during midlife. A range of social, personal and physiological factors come together to make it more difficult to control waist circumference as we age. Metabolism tends to slow down mainly due to decreasing muscle mass because people do less vigorous physical activity, in particular resistance exercise.

For women, hormone levels begin changing in mid-life and this also stimulates increased fat levels particularly around the abdomen. At the same time, this life phase (often involving job responsibilities, parenting and caring for ageing parents) is when elevated stress can lead to increased cortisol which causes fat gain in the abdominal region.

Midlife can also bring poorer sleep patterns. These contribute to fat gain with disruption to the hormones that control appetite.

Finally, your family history and genetics can make you predisposed to gaining more abdominal fat.

Why the waist?

This intra-abdominal or visceral fat is much more metabolically active (it has a greater impact on body organs and systems) than the fat under the skin (subcutaneous fat).

Visceral fat surrounds and infiltrates major organs such as the liver, pancreas and intestines, releasing a variety of chemicals (hormones, inflammatory signals, and fatty acids). These affect inflammation, lipid metabolism, cholesterol levels and insulin resistance, contributing to the development of chronic illnesses.

The issue is particularly evident during menopause. In addition to the direct effects of hormone changes, declining levels of oestrogen change brain function, mood and motivation. These psychological alterations can result in reduced physical activity and increased eating – often of comfort foods high in sugar and fat.

But these outcomes are not inevitable. Diet, exercise and managing mental health can limit visceral fat gains in mid-life. And importantly, the waist circumference (and ratio to height) is just one measure of human health. There are so many other aspects of body composition, exercise and diet. These can have much larger influence on a person’s health.

Read more:
Is menopause making me put on weight? No, but it’s complicated

Muscle matters

The quantity and quality of skeletal muscle (attached to bones to produce movement) a person has makes a big difference to their heart, lung, metabolic, immune, neurological and mental health as well as their physical function.

On current evidence, it is equally or more important for health and longevity to have higher muscle mass and better cardiorespiratory (aerobic) fitness than waist circumference within the healthy range.

So, if a person does have an excessive waist circumference, but they are also sedentary and have less muscle mass and aerobic fitness, then the recommendation would be to focus on an appropriate exercise program. The fitness deficits should be addressed as priority rather than worry about fat loss.

Conversely, a person with low visceral fat levels is not necessarily fit and healthy and may have quite poor aerobic fitness, muscle mass, and strength. The research evidence is that these vital signs of health – how strong a person is, the quality of their diet and how well their heart, circulation and lungs are working – are more predictive of risk of disease and death than how thin or fat a person is.

For example, a 2017 Dutch study followed overweight and obese people for 15 years and found people who were very physically active had no increased heart disease risk than “normal weight” participants.

Read more:
Climb the stairs, lug the shopping, chase the kids. Incidental vigorous activity linked to lower cancer risks

Getting moving is important advice

Physical activity has many benefits. Exercise can counter a lot of the negative behavioural and physiological changes that are occurring during midlife including for people going through menopause.

And regular exercise reduces the tendency to use food and drink to help manage what can be a quite difficult time in life.

Measuring your waist circumference and monitoring your weight remains important. If the measures exceed the values listed above, then it is certainly a good idea to make some changes. Exercise is effective for fat loss and in particular decreasing visceral fat with greater effectiveness when combined with dietary restriction of energy intake. Importantly, any fat loss program – whether through drugs, diet or surgery – is also a muscle loss program unless resistance exercise is part of the program. Talking about your overall health with a doctor is a great place to start.

Accredited exercise physiologists and accredited practising dietitians are the most appropriate allied health professionals to assess your physical structure, fitness and diet and work with you to get a plan in place to improve your health, fitness and reduce your current and future health risks.

Rob Newton receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council, the Medical Research Future Fund, Cancer Council Western Australia, Spinal Cord Injuries Australia and the World Cancer Research Fund. Rob Newton is a board member of The Healthy Male.

– ref. Good news: midlife health is about more than a waist measurement. Here’s why – https://theconversation.com/good-news-midlife-health-is-about-more-than-a-waist-measurement-heres-why-226019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney

Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without their consent. They said it had caused her loved ones extreme distress.

Their appeal is immediately understandable – many people would be upset by seeing photos of a loved one everywhere after such a traumatic event.

The media had evidently not received permission to use these photos in their news stories. Nor had they afforded the family any ethical sense of privacy when they circulated and displayed the photos across multiple platforms.

There has been valuable commentary about the issues surrounding the common journalistic practice of mining social media after a “newsworthy” death.

My PhD research offers further insight into a perspective that is rarely shared: the view of families bereaved through homicide.

While I cannot and do not presume to speak for Good’s family, I have interviewed families bereaved through homicide and they have shared their experience of photos of their loved one being in the media.

Read more:
Why is the Sydney church stabbing an act of terrorism, but the Bondi tragedy isn’t?

Private photos in the public domain

To the bereaved, photos of loved ones are deeply meaningful. They are more than mere objects, more than random captured moments.

They are wrapped up in specific memories and treated as keepsakes. They are representations of and tangible connections to the person who was taken from them.

When these photos enter the public domain following homicide, they become photos of a victim.

In this new domain, private photos serve altogether different purposes. They furnish media stories now and into the future. Their original context and personal meaning are typically overridden or removed, often along with families’ consent.

My research indicates this is an issue that persists long into the aftermath of homicide, well after media and public interest has dissipated.

In other words, it has the capacity to traumatise families for years.

Read more:
Digital ‘death knocks’: is it fair game for journalists to mine social media profiles of victims and their families?

Judging victims

While the mining of photos is one matter, how they are then used by the media and interpreted by the public is another.

My research uncovers how details in a photo can be highlighted and twisted at the expense of others. For example, bereaved families told me how hurtful it was when the media republished unflattering and inappropriate photos of their loved one that were just meant for friends and family.

One mother recalled how her son would do a silly pose and ruin their family photos. He was being a typical teenager, but that was not how he was perceived when the media reproduced those photos alongside their chosen narrative. Instead, the mother read comments made by the public underneath the article that said her son deserved to be murdered. The public judged her son based on those photos.

Similarly, a sister was distraught when the media pulled a photo from her social media of her and her brother where he did not look his best. They were at a party and there is a heart-warming story of the moment before the photo was taken. She explained she loves the photo; it is a happy memory for her, but she said it is for his family to love, not for the public to make assumptions about her brother.

These examples highlight how significant it is for families when the media take a photo out of context, without permission, and curate it to suit specific narratives.

Certainly, it is a practice that exacerbates trauma.

The right to control

I also spoke to families about how they decided which photographs they wanted in the public domain.

One family, whose daughter was murdered before social media was used as a journalistic tool, told me that when they were asked for photos, they were reflective and careful about the ones they shared, choosing to keep their favourite photos to themselves.

Another mother explained her reasoning behind the two photos that she handed over – one because it depicted her daughter as she was at the time of her murder, and the other where she was dressed up, because it showed what she would have been like if she had had the chance to get married.

Bereaved families want photos to be an accurate, presentable, and appropriate portrayal of their loved one.

The photos might be tied to a specific memory or feeling, they might maintain their privacy, they might be chosen because they do not require context, or they might be the one they believe their loved one would have wanted.

The bereaved deserve to be in control of that decision. Allowing them to make that choice themselves gives the bereaved agency at a time when they feel most powerless.

Laura Wajnryb McDonald 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. Some families push back against journalists who mine social media for photos – they have every right to – https://theconversation.com/some-families-push-back-against-journalists-who-mine-social-media-for-photos-they-have-every-right-to-228011

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

If you’re a fan of all things space, you’ve doubtless heard about the “devil comet”, which has been captivating keen-eyed observers in the northern hemisphere for the past few weeks. Now it’s our turn, as comet 12P/Pons–Brooks is creeping into view for the southern hemisphere.

Before you get too excited, let me quash your hopes. Comet Pons–Brooks is visible to the naked eye, but only if you know where to look. It will look like a fuzzy glowing patch, but nonetheless promises some amazing photo opportunities for the coming weeks.

Even better, it may serve as a celestial warm-up act for an even more special comet later in the year.

Here’s everything you need to know about Pons–Brooks, and how to get the best view.

Why do people call it the ‘devil comet’?

Named after two astronomers who independently discovered it in the 19th century, Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks (its full, official name) was last visible in 1954.

It takes around 71 years to orbit the Sun, making the comet’s visits to the inner Solar System a rare treat for us here on Earth.

At its heart (its nucleus), Pons–Brooks is a dirty snowball around 34 kilometres in diameter. As the comet came swinging back towards us in its orbit, astronomers spotted it back in 2020. At that time, the comet was almost 1.8 billion kilometres from the Sun, and lay dormant.

As the comet kept falling inwards toward the Sun, its surface temperature began to rise, making it “active”. Exposed ices started to sublime, turning directly from solid to gas. This activity is how a comet gets its tail: the nucleus becomes shrouded in a diaphanous “coma” of dust and debris from its sublimated surface, which is then blown away from the Sun by the solar wind.

But comet 12P/Pons–Brooks didn’t activate gently and smoothly. Instead, it produces several large outbursts of activity, each time, emitting vast amounts of gas and dust in a very short period of time before settling down again.

In the first of those significant outbursts, on July 20, 2023, the comet brightened by a factor of a hundred times, shedding an estimated ten million metric tons of dust and ice.

The solar wind pushed the resulting dust, gas and debris away from the Sun, giving the comet an unusual appearance. To some, the comet looked like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. To others, it looked vaguely demonic – sporting the cometary equivalent of horns.

The moniker of “devil comet” took hold in media articles and appears to have stuck – even though the comet’s horned appearance is now a thing of the past.

Where (and when) should I look?

Over the last few days, the first confirmed sightings of 12P/Pons–Brooks have come in from around Australia. It is currently visible low in the western sky after sunset, albeit almost lost in the glow of twilight.

In the next few weeks, the comet will slowly climb higher in the evening sky. The two videos below show the location of the comet’s head at 6:30pm from mid-April through to mid-June, as seen from Toowoomba and Melbourne.

Remember, the comet is a diffuse object, rather than a single point of light. The head is where the comet is brightest (centred on its nucleus). The comet’s tails point away from the Sun – so will rise upwards from the western horizon in the evening sky.

While the comet is visible with the naked eye, you really need to know where to look. The best bet is to search with binoculars. Make sure to wait until the Sun is well below the horizon. Once you find the telltale blur of the comet, you will know where to look, and can switch to see if you can spot it with the naked eye.

For me, the most exciting time with Pons–Brooks will come during the first two weeks of May. At that point, the comet will be passing underneath the constellation Orion, which will serve as a signpost.

That period will be prime astrophotography season, so I expect to see many spectacular images of the comet’s tails cutting through the celestial hunter, shining next to the spectacular nebulae dotted throughout Orion’s body.

Read more:
Want to get into stargazing? A professional astronomer explains where to start

But wait… there’s more!

While comet 12P/Pons–Brooks currently basks in the limelight, a potentially great comet is currently moving sunward, promising a spectacular show later this year.

That comet, C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), was discovered in January 2023, and astronomers soon realised it has the potential to become truly dazzling.

Comet behaviour is hard to predict, so take the following with a pinch of salt, but things still look really promising.

Current predictions suggest Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will be at least as bright as the brightest stars in late September and early October this year. During that time, it will pass almost directly between Earth and the Sun. It might even briefly become visible in broad daylight at that time.

In the days following that chance alignment, the comet will gradually become visible in the evening sky and could be an incredible sight, up to a hundred times brighter than Pons–Brooks at its best.

So, with any luck, the current apparition of 12P/Pons–Brooks is merely the warm-up act, with an even greater spectacle to come later this year. Fingers crossed!

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

– ref. The ‘devil comet’ 12P/Pons-Brooks has finally become visible from Australia. What can we expect? – https://theconversation.com/the-devil-comet-12p-pons-brooks-has-finally-become-visible-from-australia-what-can-we-expect-226625

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hamlin, Senior Lecturer in Marketing , University of Otago

A multi-billion dollar stadium precinct has been proposed for Auckland, one of three proposals in front of Auckland Council for a new stadium in the city. The council is also considering revamping Eden Park. But is a new stadium really value for money for Auckland ratepayers?

Large stadiums are sold as an economic boon for cities. But the reality is these multimillion-dollar investments tend to require significant investment from local and regional councils.

These stadiums are often opposed by sections of the communities asked to pay for them. And once built, they stand empty most of the time.

Why then do local governments keep proposing them? The answer lies in the lofty promises from those supporting the projects – and the questionable calculations used to get them over the line.

For the love of the game

Rugby Union is the principal user of large stadiums in New Zealand. When the game was still amateur, it was expected to build and maintain its own stadiums. For example, Carisbrook in Dunedin was initially built by the Otago Rugby Football Union, while Eden Park was built by various Auckland sports associations.

But with the professionalisation of rugby in 1995 the expectation changed. Taxpayers and ratepayers started paying significant amounts for construction of rugby and “multi-use” stadiums.

Two large (over 30,000 capacity) new stadiums have been built in New Zealand since 1999 (Wellington’s Sky Stadium and Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium), with one more currently under construction (Te Kaha in Christchurch). And there is the proposed Auckland stadium, currently in front of a council working group.

Read more:
Note to governments: sports stadiums should benefit everyone, not just fans

Out of the four, only Wellington’s Sky Stadium has been designed to be used for both rugby and cricket. The others have a fixed “natural grass” rugby pitch as their main arena.

According to information released under a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request, there have been just 30 major events at the Forsyth Barr rugby stadium in Dunedin since 2014 – three a year. And there are no major live music acts set to perform there in the next 18 months.

The last major concert was Pink, who performed at the stadium last month. Ed Sheeran cited the shape of the stadium – rectangular rather than oval – as a reason for skipping the city on his 2023 world tour.

Costs and benefits

While Christchurch’s Te Kaha has been ratepayer funded from the outset, the consortium behind one of the proposed stadiums in Auckland claims there will be zero cost to ratepayers.

But a feasibility report commissioned by former Auckland mayor Phil Goff on the possibility of a new stadium raised questions about the cost for Auckland ratepayers, how much they would be expected to pay, and what sort of profit would be gained from a new stadium.

Whether it is there from the outset or creeps in later, the case for funding from the community is usually based on “economic impact analysis”. This argument is based on taking a large event and claiming everything the attendees do and spend in the town that day is as a direct outcome of the stadium being there.

This figure is then increased via what is known as an “economic impact multiplier” to create a topline figure in support of the stadiums. The exact calculations behind this figure are not always made clear.

However, this headline figure is flawed. Any local attendee would normally have spent the money in the community anyway, for example. And events may have been held in the community at existing venues before the new stadium was built.

Borrowing and interest costs

The cost of the debt that is incurred to build these stadiums is also high.

Te Kaha, which cost NZ$683 million to build, was promoted as having an annual $50 million positive economic for the region once it opened. But at the same time, Christchurch ratepayers are expected to pay the majority of the construction costs ($453m), while the crown invested $220m.

A significant part of the council investment was borrowed, meaning ratepayers will also be paying for the interest on this debt.

Read more:
Offside: The secret deals involving public money for sports stadiums

Rates increases have become a key source of funding for Te Kaha. The stadium was solely responsible for a 2% increase in Christchurch rates this year – about $94 for an average ratepayer, increasing to $209 during the 2027-28 financial year.

As Auckland councillors consider the proposed waterfront stadium, the city’s leaders need to consider both the cost and the benefit of the development – not just the headline economic impact.

For ratepayers expected to foot some or all of the bill, rates increases and other infrastructure needs could outweigh the benefits of a place to watch sport.

Robert Hamlin 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. Rugby stadiums are sold as an economic asset – but NZ needs to ask if they’re really worth it – https://theconversation.com/rugby-stadiums-are-sold-as-an-economic-asset-but-nz-needs-to-ask-if-theyre-really-worth-it-224951

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University

Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a likely third consecutive victory in the Indian general election, starting today.

While much ink has been spilled on Modi’s populist leadership and personality cult, the same does not hold for the party organisation that he and his close ally, Amit Shah, have developed over the past decade. Yet, this has been crucial to the party’s electoral success. How?

As part of my research on members of right-wing populist parties, I’ve conducted interviews with dozens of BJP party members and officials. (They spoke to me on condition of anonymity, so are only represented by their first initial here).

What I’ve found is the BJP’s grassroots organisation fuels its dominance at the ballot box in four key ways: 1) campaigning; 2) diffusion of Hindu nationalist ideology; 3) implementation of welfare programs; and 4) party survival.

A well-oiled campaign machine

Maintaining a large membership-based organisation provides the BJP with a campaign machine that has no equal in India.

Since 2014, Shah, the former president of the party and current Home Affairs minister, has conducted regular mass recruitment campaigns to help the party become what is believed to be the largest in the world. It claims to have some 180 million members.

The focus of this organisation is on the polling booth. During election campaigns, BJP grassroots members are assigned a booth where they collect as much information as possible on voters and then try to persuade them to vote for the BJP.

S., a Marathi soap business owner active in the BJP’s women wing, described their campaigning to me like this:

Each booth has ten women, and each woman is allotted 15 houses where they roam around for about three days [before election day]. They check who is there, if anyone has passed away. They check how voting will happen. They compile data on that and, on election day, since they have already known each other for a few days, they check in with these people – see if they have voted, if they are getting out to vote.

No other political party, including the Congress Party which dominated Indian politics for decades, can rely on this type of large membership and tight organisation. The BJP is effectively engaging in micro-campaigning on a nationwide scale, and so gaining a significant advantage in mobilising voters.

Training members in Hindu nationalism

In addition, the BJP is the Indian party with the most well-defined ideological platform, which combines fervent Hindu nationalism with right-wing populism based on religious polarisation. Its grassroots organisation enables the BJP to socialise and train its members in this ideology.

My research on both BJP party voters and members shows how these people hold right-wing populist attitudes and worldviews that closely match the party’s platform.

In the case of grassroots members, these ideologies are ingrained through an extensive training network.

J., a doctor and BJP member from Surat (Gujarat), explained to me:

Once a year, for two to three days, there are experts on various subjects who come and train us. There are trainings for different things. The history of the BJP, the ideology of the BJP, the performance of the BJP.

S., a retired school principal, from the same city, said members are also taught “how to communicate with people – we should reach people’s hearts”.

This means that when they campaign in elections, BJP party members are adept at mobilising new followers based on the party’s ideological platform, which has been central to its success over the last decade.

Read more:
With democracy under threat in Narendra Modi’s India, how free and fair will this year’s election be?

Bringing welfare to the poor

Alongside Hindu nationalism, the expansion of welfare to hundreds of millions of low-income earners is another reason why Modi is so popular. He always makes sure to put the words “prime minister” before the names of welfare programs and print his face on handouts.

When it comes to welfare program implementation, however, it is BJP party members who do the heavy lifting. According to my interviews, this was the main activity of party members, whether in the form of cleaning the streets, distributing food or setting up bank accounts for the poor.

As P., a young consultant from Vadodara (Gujarat), told me:

Whenever there is any government scheme for the needy people, we go to them and make them aware. We try to be a bridge between the government and people.

This was the case, for example, of M., a Gujarati woman who helped set up self-help groups for women so that they could “stand on their own two feet”.

We teach them how to make wicks, to make sanitary pads, to make incense sticks.

These schemes are very popular among the Indian public. And evidence shows the beneficiaries were more likely to vote for the BJP in the 2019 general election.

Read more:
India elections: ‘Our rule of law is under attack from our own government, but the world does not see this’

Party survival is a priority

Finally, the extensive grassroots party organisation enables the BJP to thrive by providing a steady source of candidates, officials and leaders.

Members affirmed that the BJP, contrary to other parties, is meritocratic when it comes to the distribution of offices. As N., a Marathi car shop owner, explained:

The BJP is not dominated by one family. All workers are considered equal, and ordinary workers can get promoted to higher posts.

Indeed, my research on dynasticism among Indian parties found that in the 2019 election, just 17% of the candidates fielded by the BJP were from a political family (as opposed to 27% in the Congress Party).

Even though some BJP members did complain to me about candidates being “parachuted” in from other parties without having served their time, the BJP remains a party in which long-standing grassroots members can pursue a political career.

Maintaining a large membership also facilitates the BJP’s survival in the long run. In the words of P., the Gujarati consultant mentioned above:

Today the BJP is ruling because we have full-time workers. It’s one of the biggest strengths of the party. We have seen one Modi, but we have thousands of Modis.

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

– ref. ‘We have thousands of Modis’: the secret behind the BJP’s enduring success in India – https://theconversation.com/we-have-thousands-of-modis-the-secret-behind-the-bjps-enduring-success-in-india-227373

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University

During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone away.

What are online schools doing now? What does the research say? And how do you know if they might be a good fit for your child?

Online learning in Australia

Online learning for school students has been around in basic form since the 1990s with the School of the Air and other government-run distance education schools for students who are geographically isolated or can’t attend regular school.

But until the pandemic, online schooling was largely considered a special-case scenario. For example, for students who are in hospital or training as an elite athlete.

While learning in COVID lockdowns was extremely tough, it also showed schools, students and parents the potential benefits of online learning for a wider range of students. This can include greater accessibility (learning from any location) and flexibility (personalised, self-paced learning).

Students who have mental health challenges or who are neurodiverse particularly found learning from home suited them better. There is also less hassle with transport and uniforms.

This has prompted an expansion of online learning options in Australia.

Primary and high school options

Some schools have been developing online subjects and options to sit alongside in-person classes. For example, in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory, some Catholic schools are using online classes to widen subject choices.

Some private schools have also begun fully online or blended online/in-person programs in the recognition some students prefer to learn largely from home.

There are also specialist courses. For example, Monash University has a free virtual school with revision sessions for Year 12 students.

Read more:
Australia has a new online-only private school: what are the options if the mainstream system doesn’t suit your child?

What about academic outcomes?

Research on the academic outcomes of distance education students is inconclusive.

For example, a 2019 US study of around 200,000 full-time online primary and secondary students showed they had less learning growth in maths and reading compared to their face-to-face peers.

A 2017 study of primary and high school students in Ohio found reduced academic progress in reading, maths, history and science. Another 2017 US study also found online students had lower graduation rates than their in-person peers.

Research has also found it is difficult to authentically teach practical subjects online such as visual arts, design and technology and physical education.

But a lot of research has been limited to a specific contexts or has not captured whether online learning principles have been followed. Online teaching approaches need to be different from traditional face-to-face methods.

These include ensuring there is an adequate number of teachers allocated and personalised attention for students, and ways to ensure collaboration between students and parental engagement with the school.

What about wellbeing?

Online schooling approaches are still catching up with the support services provided by in-person schools. This includes access to specialists such as psychologists, nurses and social workers.

Some research has noted concerns about online student engagement, social isolation, sense of belonging and social and emotional development.

But COVID showed schools could address these by starting the school day with wellbeing check-ins or supporting mental health through meditation, deep listening journals and taking nature photos.

Online approaches now also include having mentor teachers or summer programs to meet in-person as well as online clubs for students to socialise with each other.

Read more:
As homeschooling numbers keep rising in Australia, is more regulation a good idea?

Is online learning a good fit for your child?

Traditional schooling might still be the best option for families who do not have good internet access, or the flexibility or financial freedom to work from home and support your child.

However, if certain subjects are unavailable, or health, elite sport and distance to school make in-person learning difficult, learning online could be a viable option to consider.

Because online learning tends to be a mix of live lessons and self-paced learning, online students need to be independent, motivated and organised to succeed.

The best online learning programs to look out for are those that provide a lot of opportunities for students to learn from each other.

Online learning should also include an active teacher presence, wellbeing support, and quality, interactive digital resources. There should also be flexible approaches to learning and assessment.

Brendon Hyndman is Senior Manager – Research, Innovation and Impact with Brisbane Catholic Education.

Vaughan Cruickshank 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. Online schooling is not just for lockdowns. Could it work for your child? – https://theconversation.com/online-schooling-is-not-just-for-lockdowns-could-it-work-for-your-child-227770

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy.

However, in the health sector this need for speed entails policy risks that could come back to bite the government before the next election.

The biggest such risk comes from the disestablishment of the Māori Health Authority-Te Aka Whai Ora. This required an amendment to the Pae Ora Act, pushed through under urgency, to remove all references to the Māori Health Authority and its relationships with other entities from the law.

Unlike other law changes (such as the repeal of New Zealand’s smokefree law), the dismantling of the Māori Health Authority had been clearly signalled during the election campaign and in the coalition agreements.

Few people doubted the government would follow through. But it has exposed itself to unnecessary risks and the speed of change could become a liability.

More health sector confusion

There was no practical need for the amendment to be passed under urgency, without the scrutiny of the select committee process.

This approach may provide an electoral sugar hit for the coalition parties, but it could also sow the seeds for practical and political difficulties in health policy later in the parliamentary term and beyond.

While the parts of the act referring to the Māori Health Authority have been excised, the act retains its primary focus on reducing health inequities. The planning, reporting and accountability requirements still reflect this policy direction.

To date, health minister Shane Reti has avoided using the words “equity” or “inequities”, instead preferring a generic focus on improving health outcomes, including for Māori. But the planning and decision making mandated under the legislation still require government health agencies to address health inequities.

The amendment has also delayed the establishment of “localities” – 60 to 80 local networks of government and community health organisations that co-design and deliver community-based services. Under Pae Ora, all regions were to have localities established by July this year and plans produced by July 2025. This timeline has now been pushed out by five years.

The government may well decide to make further amendments to Pae Ora, but in the meantime, the gap between its rhetoric and the policy priorities embedded in the legislation creates an existential bind for the Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora.

Read more:
Ending the ‘postcode lottery’ in health is more than a technical fix – it means fundamentally reorganising our systems

Many structural changes introduced by the former Labour government in 2022 remain. Despite having misgivings about the re-centralisation of the health system, the government has not reversed the merging of 20 District Health Boards into Health New Zealand.

Minister Reti has also indicated that iwi Māori partnership boards will have a significant role in the health system. But with the removal of the Māori Health Authority and hitting the pause button on localities, it is not yet clear what this role will be.

Health targets rebooted

Other changes resemble initiatives introduced during the last National-led government in 2009, including specific health targets.

The health targets involve specified performance levels, such as ensuring that 95% of patients visiting emergency departments are seen within six hours.

When these targets were last tried during the 2010s, some reported improvements such as fewer deaths in emergency departments were real. Others were achieved by gaming the system.

Examples included falsifying data (stopping the clock) of when patients left the emergency department and placing untreated patients in short-stay units which were not subject to the target. We don’t yet know how the government plans to avoid such unintended consequences.

In another policy change, the government allocated NZ$5.7 million of temporary funding late last year for hospitals to contract more security guards in emergency departments. This was to address the growing problem of violence and aggression towards doctors, nurses and other emergency department staff.

But this is another example of a PR-driven approach. This earmarked funding has now ceased. Health New Zealand bears either the cost of continuing to fund security guards or the reputational risk of their reduced presence.

Other policy items include the expansion of the maximum age of eligibility for breast cancer screening from 69 to 74 and the commitment to develop a plan toward establishing a third medical school at the University of Waikato.

Read more:
New Zealand’s health restructure is doomed to fall short unless its funding model is tackled first

Both these policies will have reasonable support within the organisations responsible for them. But the extension of breast cancer screening will face challenges of workforce capacity and the rollout will be gradual.

Progress to date on the third medical school is the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the government and the university. If it goes ahead, it won’t have any impact before the mid-2030s.

The government may have already dented minister Reti’s chances of building positive relationships with health sector leaders and interest groups. The Māori Health Authority had widespread support from health sector groups. Alongside everyone else who had a view or an interest, these groups had no opportunity to have input on its disestablishment.

Along with the health sector groups’ vocal opposition to the u-turn on the smokefree legislation and the looming prospect of budgetary austerity, the coalition government has arguably already created a rocky relationship with the sector.

While governments often draw criticism from the health sector, few have done so quite this rapidly.

Tim Tenbensel receives funding from the Health Research Council. He is affiliated with Health Coalition Aotearoa.

– ref. Why the government’s haste in changing the health system could come back to haunt it – https://theconversation.com/why-the-governments-haste-in-changing-the-health-system-could-come-back-to-haunt-it-227552

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney

Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, it has become normalised as a part of Australian culture.

While for some, gambling might be a source of entertainment, for others, it can lead to significant harms.

Gambling and mental illness

Research consistently shows gambling problems often occur alongside other common mental illnesses and substance use disorders. We see particularly strong links between gambling disorder and nicotine dependence, alcohol use disorders, mood disorders such as depression, and anxiety.

In many cases, harms associated with gambling lead to poor mental health. But people experiencing mental illness are also at greater risk of experiencing gambling problems.

Gambling harms exist on a spectrum. For some time, there’s been a focus on those people who develop a gambling disorder, where they have recurring problems with gambling, leading to clinically significant distress and impairment in their daily life.

But we must also look at those who are on a different part of the spectrum, yet still experiencing gambling-related harms.

A person might not have a diagnosable gambling disorder, however they still may face problems in their life as a result of gambling. These can include problems in their relationships, financial debts, and negative effects on work or study. All these things can contribute to poor mental health.

Read more:
We’re told to ‘gamble responsibly’. But what does that actually mean?

Gambling and suicide

Feelings such as stress and isolation, possibly compounded by mental illness, may cause some people with gambling problems to feel like there’s no way out.

Research from different countries has shown that among people receiving treatment for problem gambling, between 22% and 81% have thought about suicide, and 7% to 30% have made an attempt.

Some 44% of Australian veterans experiencing gambling problems have thought about suicide, while almost 20% have made a suicide plan or attempt.

A recent Victorian investigation into gambling-related suicides assessed records from the Coroners Court of Victoria between 2009 and 2016. The researchers found gambling-related suicides comprised at least 4% of all suicides in Victoria over this period, or around 200 suicides.

Gambling-related suicides were more likely to affect males (83%) compared to total suicide deaths in Victoria over the same period (75%). They were significantly more likely to occur among those who were most disadvantaged.

The researchers note these statistics underestimate the true number of gambling-related suicides. This is because, unlike for drugs and alcohol, at present there’s no systematic way gambling is captured as a contributing factor in suicide deaths.

When we also take into account the number of people who may have considered suicide, or survived a gambling-related suicide attempt, we can see the problem is likely to be significantly bigger than these statistics indicate.

Gambling is inherently risky

Electronic gaming machines, more commonly known in Australia as “pokies”, are the product most strongly associated with harmful gambling. Evidence shows pokies alone are responsible for more than half of all gambling problems in Australia.

Casino table games are equally risky, but in the general population they contribute much less to problem gambling because fewer people play them.

While gambling itself comes with a degree of risk, individual vulnerabilities can place certain people at even greater risk of harm. As well as people with mental illness, men are at higher risk of gambling problems than women. People who are single or divorced are at higher risk compared to people who are married. People with higher levels of income and education are at lower risk.

What can we do?

Angela Rintoul, the lead author of the Victorian research mentioned above, this week published an article in the Medical Journal of Australia in which she argued gambling-related suicides are preventable.

She suggested health professionals could make it part of their routine practice to ask simple questions like “in the past 12 months, have you ever felt that you had a problem with gambling?”. Or, “has anyone commented that you might have a problem with gambling?”.

Rintoul also discussed strategies governments could adopt, such as a complete ban on gambling advertising, and a universal account registration system to allow people to set limits on their gambling losses.

To reduce gambling-related suicides, we need to see policy change. In June 2023, a cross-party committee presented a report with 31 recommendations to reduce harms from online gambling in Australia.

One of these recommendations was a comprehensive ban on online gambling advertising. But the government is yet to respond to the report.

Read more:
Celebrities, influencers, loopholes: online gambling advertising faces an uncertain future in Australia

Advice for people who gamble

For people who do choose to gamble, it’s important to be aware of the risks. Understand how gambling and poker machines really work, and that they’re there to make money for venue owners, not to provide wins for players.

If you choose to gamble, set limits on the amount of money you’re willing to loose, or the amount of time you will spend gambling. The Lower Risk Gambling Guidelines for Australians suggest following these three recommendations:

• gamble no more than 2% of your take-home pay

• gamble no more than once a week

• take part in no more than two different types of gambling.

If you notice you’re thinking about gambling more and more, or that it’s causing problems in any part of your life, seeking help early is key. Speak to your GP about how you can get some extra support, or visit Gambling Help Online.

If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Anastasia Hronis 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. Many suicides are related to gambling. How can we tackle this problem? – https://theconversation.com/many-suicides-are-related-to-gambling-how-can-we-tackle-this-problem-228017

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia

Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day?

We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific literature. We searched for meaningful comparisons of insect activity by day and by night. It turns out only about 100 studies have ever attempted the daunting and rigorous fieldwork required – so we compiled them together to work out the answer.

Our global analysis confirms there are indeed more insects out at night than during the day, on average. Almost a third more (31.4%), to be precise. But this also varies extensively, depending on where you are in the world.

High nocturnal activity may come as no surprise to entomologists and nature photographers. Many of us prowl through jungles wearing head torches, or camp next to light traps hoping to encounter these jewels of the night.

But this is the first time anyone has been able to give a definitive answer to this universal childlike question. And now we know for sure, we can make more strident efforts to conserve insects and preserve their vital place in the natural world.

Building a global dataset of sleepless nights

We searched the literature for studies that sampled insect communities systematically across day and night.

We narrowed these down to studies using methods that would not influence the results. For instance, we excluded studies that collected insects by using sweep nets or beating branches, as these methods can capture resting insects along with active ones.

Studies using light traps or coloured pan traps had to be excluded too. That’s because insects are only attracted to these well-lit traps when there’s low light in the surrounding environment, so they don’t work so well during the day.

Read more:
The surprising reason why insects circle lights at night: They lose track of the sky

Instead, we targeted studies that sampled insects during the day and night with traps that specifically caught moving insects. These include pitfall traps (for crawling insects), flight interception traps (for flying insects) and aquatic drift nets (for swimming insects).

We also accepted studies using food baits such as dung, for some beetles or honey (for ants).

One of the most memorable studies we encountered sampled mosquitoes using (unfortunate) human subjects as bait. Another had devised innovative automatic time-sorted pitfall traps to minimise the labour required, as the specimens collected would automatically be delivered into different compartments at different times of the day.

But in most of the studies that we ended up including in our analysis, the data had been collected by entomologists who set up many traps before dawn, returned before sunset to collect the day’s samples and prepare more traps for the night, and finally, returned once more before dawn to retrieve the night’s samples.

To improve their estimates of insect activity, many studies reported data that spanned multiple days and field sites. The sacrifice of sleep in the name of science is a true testament to their dedication.

Eventually, we honed in on 99 studies published between 1959 and 2022. These studies spanned all continents except Antarctica and encompassed a wide range of habitats on both land and water.

What did we find?

We found more mayflies, caddisflies, moths and earwigs at night. On the other hand, there were more thrips, bees, wasps and ants during the day.

Nocturnal activity was more common in wetlands and waterways. In these aquatic areas, there could be twice as many insects active during the night.

In contrast, land-based insects were generally more active during the day, especially in grasslands and savannas. We found the number of insects out and about could triple during the day in these habitats.

This may have something to do with avoiding predators. Fish tend to hunt aquatic insects during the day, whereas nocturnal animals such as bats make life on land more hazardous at night.

We also found insects were more active at night in warmer parts of the globe, where there are higher maximum temperatures. Insects are “ectotherms”, which means they are unable to regulate their body temperature. They are particularly susceptible to extremes in temperature, both hot and cold. This finding underscores the role of climate in regulating insect activity.

Given temperatures peak during the day, higher maximum temperatures may foster increased nocturnal activity as more individuals seek to avoid heat stress by working in the dark.

Findings underscore the threats to nocturnal insects

Insects perform many vital “ecosystem services” such as pollination, nutrient cycling and pest control. Many of these services may be provided at night, when more insects are active.

This means we need to curtail some of our own activities to support theirs. For instance, artificial lighting is detrimental to nocturnal insects.

Our research also points to the threat of global warming. In the hottest regions of the globe such as the tropics, the warming trend may further reduce the activity of nocturnal insects that struggle to cope with heat. To this end, we hope our study motivates day-loving ecologists to embrace night-time ecology.

Insects are among the most diverse and important organisms on our planet. Studying their intricate rhythms represents not just a scientific endeavour, but an imperative for preserving wildlife.

Read more:
Insects will struggle to keep pace with global temperature rise – which could be bad news for humans

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. Things that go buzz in the night – our global study found there really are more insects out after dark – https://theconversation.com/things-that-go-buzz-in-the-night-our-global-study-found-there-really-are-more-insects-out-after-dark-226014

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia

In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay systems fairer and more effective.

With more information on how much certain tasks and roles are valued, employees can better understand and interpret pay differences, and advocate for themselves. When pay is weakly aligned with employee contributions, pay transparency can be embarrassing for firms.

As the government continues to legislate for pay transparency, wise employers should move to identify – and correct – both real and perceived inequities.

The salary taboo

At one extreme, imagine that you work for California-based tech company Buffer, which develops social media tools.

Buffer lists the salary of every company employee, in descending order, on its website. Salaries are non-negotiable and all Buffer employees receive a standard pay raise each year. Prospective job applicants can use Buffer’s online salary calculator to estimate their pay.

Does Buffer’s pay system make you cheer – “yay, no uncomfortable salary negotiations!”, or squirm – “what, my salary is on the website?”

Most probably, both. There is a persistent social norm researchers call the salary taboo. We want to know, but we don’t like to ask, and we definitely don’t want anyone to know that we’re asking.

In Norway, an app that enabled users to access neighbors’ tax-reported income was enormously popular – but only while the user could remain anonymous.

Read more:
QANTAS pays women 37% less, Telstra and BHP 20%. Fifty years after equal pay laws, we still have a long way to go

The problem with not knowing

Historically, companies have given employees only minimal information about their pay systems, and some have even prohibited them from sharing their own pay information.

Such non-transparency creates two big problems.

First, managers place too much trust in organisational systems. The more managers become convinced that pay decisions accurately reflect employee contributions, the less diligent they become about monitoring their own personal biases. Without accountability, it’s easy for an organisation’s pay system to drift into inequity.

Second, in the absence of comparative information, employees often suspect they are being underpaid – even if they aren’t.

In a survey of over 380,000 employees by data firm Payscale, 57% of employees paid at the market rate and 42% of people paid above the market rate all believed they were being underpaid.

However, unfounded it might be, a nagging sense of inequity can drive people out the door. Payscale estimates that people who think they are underpaid are 50% more likely than other employees to seek a new job in the next six months.

Pay transparency is trending

Broadly speaking, pay transparency policies see companies report their pay levels or ranges, explain their pay-setting processes, or encourage their employees to share pay information.

Some companies voluntarily share pay information in response to workforce demand, but there’s also a trend toward mandating pay transparency.

In Australia, pay secrecy terms are banned from employment contracts and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency is publishing employers’ gender pay gaps.

Read more:
Pay secrecy clauses are now banned in Australia; here’s how that could benefit you

The European Union’s Pay Transparency Directive already publishes gender pay gaps and requires employers to provide comparative pay data to employees upon request. Several US states and cities now require employers to include salary ranges in their recruitment materials.

Pay transparency usually has positive effects

In equitable pay systems, pay differences align with the differential values employees bring to the business. When pay systems are transparent, it’s easy for employees to recognise when they – and their coworkers – are being appropriately rewarded for their contributions.

Evidence is building that such transparency is often a good thing.

For one, it can increase employee performance and job satisfaction. People also generally underestimate their bosses’ salaries, so pay transparency can inspire employees to aspire to higher-paid senior positions. And pay transparency identifies staff with unique expertise, so employees seek help from the right coworkers.

Pay transparency has also been shown to help narrow gender pay gaps. As pay transparency rules spread across public academic institutions in the US, the pay gap between male and female academics dramatically narrowed (in some states, it was even eliminated).

In Denmark, where firms are now required to provide pay statistics that compare men and women, the national gender pay gap has declined by 13% relative to the pre-legislation average.

But it can still be risky

Every pay system has pockets of unfairness, where managers have made special arrangements to attract or retain talent. Pay transparency exposes these exceptions, so they can be immediately explained or corrected.

But if there are too many such pockets, managers need to brace for a productivity downturn. When pay transparency reveals systematic inequities – for example, disparities based on gender – overall organisational productivity declines.

Over the long run, pay transparency leads to flatter and narrower pay distributions, but distributions can also be too flat and too narrow. Managers making pay decisions are aware that their decisions will be directly scrutinised and may become reluctant to assign high wages even for high performance.

If pay loses its motivating potential, employees can become disheartened, especially star performers.

Proceed with caution

As stakeholders on this issue demand more transparency, employers would be wise to stay ahead of legislative moves.

Independently making the first move is a show of good faith and can unfold in stages. A good first step is to reveal the pay ranges associated with groups of related roles, giving employers time to conduct internal audits, communicate with employees and systematically correct inequities as they surface.

In contrast, having to reveal pay data because of a government mandate can publicly expose patterns of inequity and cause permanent damage to a company’s reputation.

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

– ref. Why don’t Australians talk about their salaries? Pay transparency and fairness go hand-in-hand – https://theconversation.com/why-dont-australians-talk-about-their-salaries-pay-transparency-and-fairness-go-hand-in-hand-224067

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

When ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, he stressed the rising danger posed by espionage and foreign interference.

“In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed terrorism as Australia’s principal security concern,” he said.

But ASIO also remained concerned about “lone actors” – individuals or small groups under the radar of authorities with the potential to “use readily available weapons to carry out an act of terrorism”.

It was a concern “across the spectrum of motivations – religious and ideological”.

With minor variations, Burgess might have been describing what allegedly happened at Sydney’s Wakeley Assyrian Orthodox Church on Monday night, where Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was attacked with a very “readily available weapon” – a knife.

Monday’s incident would have set off shock waves in ordinary times, especially given it was followed by an ugly riot as angry locals converged on the scene, trying to get at the alleged perpetrator, a 16-year-old boy.

In this case, the fear the attack triggered was dramatically heightened by context.

Tensions, especially in western Sydney, are much elevated because of the Middle East conflict. And the Wakeley attack came just two days after the Bondi shopping centre stabbings, which killed six people. While that atrocity did not fall under the definition of “terrorism”, inevitably the two incidents were conflated by an alarmed public.

The mix, further stirred by incendiary social media, increases the difficulty of keeping a sense of proportion about the church incident, which isn’t the first instance of a terrorist act in Australia and presumably won’t be the last.

We don’t know the background of the attack on the bishop. We do know that the wider pressures on our social cohesion – including dramatic rises in antisemitism and Islamophobia – are deeply troubling. Australia’s multiculturalism is enduring unprecedented strains, with all the difficulties that brings for political and community leaders.

When there are security crises, terror-related or not, the default call is, not surprisingly, for authorities to DO SOMETHING. More police (or security guards). Greater law enforcement powers. Tougher penalties. New controls on social media. (After the church incident, the eSafety commissioner ordered tech companies to take down images of the attack. These were widely available, because the church service had been live-streamed.)

Sometimes calls for action may be warranted, but often they’re little more than a knee-jerk response – and can open other debates (for example, over the justification for censoring certain images but not others).

The challenge for political leaders is not just dealing with the immediate increasing threats to cohesion, but with longer term policy.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently flagged, when he met a Jewish youth group, that the government planned to appoint an envoy against antisemitism (a post existing in other countries) and a matching envoy against Islamophobia. There’s no timetable for these appointments.

Looking to the future, what’s unclear, given the present tensions, is the likely trajectory of Australia’s multiculturalism.

Will the strains worsen, seriously fracturing the society? Or will they ameliorate in the years to come? Multiculturalism is likely in transition, but what will be its pathway? And what are the political implications?

Labor is particularly worried about the erosion of its support among Muslim voters in western Sydney seats.

The cat was belled on the suburban multicultural vote in 2022, ironically not by a Muslim candidate but a Christian of Vietnamese heritage. Dai Le, whose family fled the Vietnam war, seized the previously safe Labor seat of Fowler in Sydney’s outer south-west.

It remains to be seen whether this is a one-off, or if more strong independent candidates will start to emerge as people from multicultural communities fight for a bigger direct presence in politics, or to exert more influence through strategic voting.

A recently-registered group called Muslim Votes Matter styles itself as “shaping our future through informed voting and collective influence”. It says on its website, “There are over 20 seats where the Muslim community collectively has the potential deciding vote”.

Kos Samaras, from the Redbridge Group, a political consultancy, says “the fire” has been raging for some years in multicultural communities in areas such as north-western Melbourne and western Sydney. The Israel-Hamas war has obviously fuelled it.

Samaras says the Muslim political alienation from the major parties has been strongest among members of the those communities who were born in Australia – people in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

This week, after the church attack, NSW premier Chris Minns called in faith leaders. But it is a moot point whether this consultation with predominantly older people reaches the younger, more alienated generation.

Young Australian Muslims grew up in a post-September 11 world, Samaras says, with a sense of being outsiders in the country. We saw this feeling during the pandemic, in the complaints about the different treatment of people in Sydney’s eastern and western suburbs.

Notably, Muslim community leader Jamal Rifi, speaking this week to Sky on behalf of the 16-year-old’s family, referenced the fact the Bondi killings were not labelled “terrorism” by the authorities while the church incident was. “I understand there is a difference between the two but unfortunately the overwhelming feeling in the community [is] that it is, you know, Tale of Two Cities,” he said.

Andrew Jakubowicz, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Technology Sydney, highlights the three separate elements of multiculturalism. These are

• “Settlement policy, which deals with arrival, survival and orientation, and the emergence of bonding within the group and finding employment, housing and education

• “Multicultural policy, which ensures that institutions in society identify and respond to needs over the life course and in changing life circumstances, and

• “Community Relations policy, which includes building skills in intercultural relations, engagement with the power hierarchies of society and the inclusion of diversity into the fabric of decision-making in society – from politics to education to health to the arts.”

Australia has been fairly good at the first, not so good on the second and “very poor” on the third, he says.

The Albanese government last year commissioned an independent review of the present multicultural framework. The report has recommendations for the short, medium and long terms. It envisages changes to institutions as well as policies and at federal and state levels.

Although the review is not due for release until mid-year, the May budget is likely to see some initiatives.

But there are differences between ministers about how far and how fast reform should go. A febrile combination of local and international factors is making crafting a multicultural policy for the next decade a much more sensitive operation than might have been envisaged when the review was launched.

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

– ref. Grattan on Friday: Ethnic tensions will complicate the Albanese government’s multicultural policy reform – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-ethnic-tensions-will-complicate-the-albanese-governments-multicultural-policy-reform-228188

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University

As more than half of Australian office workers report using generative artificial intelligence (AI) for work, we’re starting to see this technology affect every part of society, from banking and finance through to weather forecasting, health and medicine.

Many people are now using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to get advice, find information or summarise longer passages of text. But our recent research demonstrates how generative AI can be used for much more than this, returning results in different formats.

On the one hand, AI tools are neutral – they can be used for good or ill depending on one’s intent.

However, the models powering such tools can also suffer from biases based on how they were developed. AI tools, especially image generators, are also power hungry, ratcheting up the world’s energy usage.

And there are unresolved copyright claims surrounding AI-generated outputs, given the content used to train some of the models isn’t owned by the organisations developing the AI.

But ultimately, there’s no escaping generative AI. Learning more about what these tools can do will improve your digital literacy and help you understand their full impact, from benign to problematic.

Read more:
AI to Z: all the terms you need to know to keep up in the AI hype age

1. Imagining what lies beyond the frame

Adobe’s recently developed “generative expand” tool allows users to expand the canvas of their photos and have Photoshop “imagine” what is happening beyond the frame. Nine News infamously experimented with this tool for a broadcast featuring Victorian politician Georgie Purcell.

Here’s a video that shows how that tool works:

But it can also be used more innocently to extend the borders of a landscape or still-life image, for example. You might do this when trying to edit a square Instagram photo to fit a 4×6 inch photo frame.

2. Visualising the past or the future

Photography was only invented within the past 200 years, and camera-equipped smartphones within the last 25.

That leaves us with plenty of things that existed before cameras were common, yet we might want to visualise them. This could be for educational purposes, entertainment or self-reflection.

One example is the writings of historical figures, like architect Robert Russell, who conducted the first survey of what is now Melbourne in 1836. He wrote at the time:

The soil is in this country superior to any in the colony, we have a good grazing land, and a fine supply of water: a fine harbour, a Town on which much capital (I am afraid to say how much) has been expended, enterprising settlers and flocks and herds increasing in all directions, a climate well fitted for Englishmen, and events hastening forward the necessity for some scheme of extended emigration from which we shall soon feel the benefit.

We can feed this text from Russell’s letters into a text-to-image generator and see what the area may have looked like.

Conversely, we might want to look ahead and see if AI can help us visualise what is to come.

For example, a probe is currently heading to a never-before-seen metal asteroid, 16 Psyche. It’s projected to reach the asteroid in 2029. We can feed an AI tool a description from NASA to get a rough sense of what the asteroid might look like.

NASA currently works with artists to illustrate concepts we can’t see, but artists could also draw on AI to help create these renderings.

3. Brainstorming how to visualise difficult concepts

Where we might have once turned to Google Images or Pinterest boards for visual inspiration, AI can also help with suggestions on how to show difficult-to-visualise subject matter.

Take the Mariana Trench, for example. As one of the deepest places on Earth, few people have ever seen it firsthand. It’s also pitch black and artificial light wouldn’t allow you to see very far.

But ask AI for suggestions on how to visualise this spot and it provides a number of ideas, including taking a more familiar landmark, such as the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest structure, and placing a scaled model next to the trench to better allow audiences to appreciate its depth.

Or creating a layered illustration that shows the flora and fauna that live at each of the ocean’s five zones above the trench.

4. Visualising data

Depending on the tool, you can prompt AI with numbers, not just text.

For example, you might upload a spreadsheet to ChatGPT 4 and ask it to visualise the results. Or, if the data is already publicly available (such as Earth’s population over time), you might ask a chatbot to visualise it without even having to supply a spreadsheet.

It’s a great way to speed up such tasks, as long as you keep in mind AI can “hallucinate”, or make things up, so you need to double check the accuracy of the results.

Read more:
Misinformation: how fact-checking journalism is evolving – and having a real impact on the world

5. Creating simple moving images

You can create a simple yet effective animation by uploading a photo to an AI tool like Runway and giving it an animation command, such as zooming in, zooming out or tracking from left to right. That’s what I’ve done with this historical photo preserved by the State Library of Western Australia.

Another way you can experiment with video is using Runway’s text-to-video feature to describe the scene you want to see and let it make a video for you. I used this description to create the following video:

Tracking shot from left to right of the snowy mountains of Nagano, Japan. Clouds hang low around the mountains and they are about 50m away.

6. Generating a colour palette or simple graphics

Maybe you’re creating a logo for your small business or helping a friend with the design of an event invitation. In these cases, having a consistent colour palette can help unify your design.

You can ask generative AI services like Midjourney or Gemini to create a colour palette for you based on the event or its vibe.

If you’re designing a website or poster and need some icons to represent certain parts of the message, you can turn to AI to generate them for you. This is true for both browser-based generators like Adobe Firefly, as well as desktop apps with built-in AI, like Adobe Illustrator.

Next time you’re interacting with a generative AI chatbot, ask it what it’s capable of. In addition to these six use cases, you might be surprised to know that generative AI can also write code, translate content, make music and describe images. This can be handy for writing alt-text descriptions and making the web more accessible for those with vision impairments.

T.J. Thomson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is an affiliate with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making & Society.

– ref. Visualising the 1800s or designing wedding invitations: 6 ways you can use AI beyond generating text – https://theconversation.com/visualising-the-1800s-or-designing-wedding-invitations-6-ways-you-can-use-ai-beyond-generating-text-228089

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Nicole Sharwood, Injury epidemiologist | Expert Witness, UNSW Sydney

Injuries are the leading cause of disability and death among Australian children and adolescents. At least a quarter of all emergency department presentations during childhood are injury-related.

Injuries can be unintentional (falls, road crashes, drowning, burns) or intentional (self harm, violence, assault). The type, place and cause of injury differs by age, developmental stage and sex. Injury also differs by socioeconomic status and place of residence. Injuries are predictable, preventable events, and understanding where and how they occur is essential to inform prevention efforts.

A new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, released today, tells us more about the injuries Australian children and adolescents sustained in the year from July 2021 to June 2022. It finds:

• children aged 1–4 years are the age group most likely to present to an emergency department with injuries

• adolescents aged 16–18 years are the age group most likely to be admitted to hospital for injuries

• boys are more likely to be hospitalised for injuries than girls. This continues into adulthood

• girls are five times more likely to be hospitalised for intentional self-harm injuries than boys

• falls are the leading cause of childhood injury, accounting for one in three child injury hospitalisations. Falls from playground equipment are the most common

• fractures are the most common type of childhood injury, especially arm and wrist fractures in children aged 10–12 years.

So injury patterns differ between boys and girls. And causes of injury in children change as they progress through different stages of development.

For children under age one, drowning, burns, choking and suffocation had the highest injury hospital admission rates compared to adults.

In early childhood (ages 1-4 years), the highest causes of injury hospitalisation were drowning, burns, choking and suffocation and accidental poisoning.

Road and other transport injuries are the most common cause of injury requiring hospital admission among adolescents aged 16–18 years.

What about sports?

Sports and physical activities come with risk of injury. But the health benefits far outweigh the risks.

Cycling causes the highest number of sporting injuries with almost 3,000 injury hospital presentations. Again, active transport has many benefits for our health and connecting communities. But there is still more to be done to make cycling safer.

For the top 20 sports that are most likely to cause injury hospital admissions, fractures are the most common type of injury. Soft-tissue injuries, open wounds and head injuries are also common.

However, the data should be interpreted with caution, as only around half of all injury hospitalisations among children and adolescents had an “activity while injured” specified.

What we do know is that injuries are most likely to occur at home.

Read more:
Is it broken? A strain or sprain? How to spot a serious injury now school and sport are back

Balancing risk and safety

Injuries can be serious or fatal. Even non-fatal injuries can keep children in hospital for long periods of time and delay their growth and development.

To prevent injuries, we need to balance risk and safety. For children, play is an important part of learning and expressing various skills, knowledge, and attitudes. Play teaches children to problem-solve, nurtures social and emotional development, improves self-awareness and helps them master their physical abilities.

Embracing risk is a fundamental part of play in all environments where children play and explore their world. As children transition into adolescence, the nature of these risks changes. But with proper guidance and supervision from parents and caregivers, we can strike a balance between offering opportunities for risk-taking and ensuring children’s safety from serious harm.

What can governments do to prevent injuries?

The Australian government has drafted a new National Injury Prevention Strategy, which is expected to be released later in 2024. This will provide clear guidance for all levels of government and others on prevention strategies and investment needed.

In the meantime, better injury surveillance data is sorely needed to better identify the cause of injuries (such as family violence, alcohol and other drug misuse, intentional self-harm or consumer product-related injuries), and to identify where injuries took place (home, school, shopping centre, and so on). There is also insufficient attention paid to priority populations, including people of low socioeconomic status, those in rural and remote areas and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Better reporting on childhood and adolescent injury trends will better inform parents, caregivers, teachers and health professionals about the risks.

Read more:
Giant tube slides and broken legs: why the latest playground craze is a serious hazard

Lisa Nicole Sharwood is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the School of Population Health, UNSW. She is currently undertaking a project specific short term contract at the AIHW, in the Family and Domestic Violence Unit. She has received funding from the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI) to conduct research into childhood playground injury, the ACI to research adolescent driver attitudes to risky driving, iCare to research costs of traumatic spinal injuries and a range of other funding sources in injury research. She sits as Injury Epidemiologist (nominated by the Australasian Injury Prevention Network) on two national Standards Australia Technical Committees; namely Playground Equipment and Surfacing, and Indoor Trampoline Facilities. She also sits on the International Mirror Committee for Playground and Sports Equipment. Dr Sharwood is recognised as a Professional Fellow in the Faculty of Engineering and IT, UTS, for her industry expertise in product related injuries.

Rebecca Ivers receives funding from The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. She is chair of the National Injury Surveillance Advisory Committee of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and a member of the Australasian Injury Prevention Association Executive Committee.

Warwick Teague is Director of Trauma and Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne (RCH). He receives funding from The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation. A/Prof Teague is chair of the Victorian State Trauma Registry Steering Committee and is an active member of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare National Injury Surveillance Advisory Committee, Kidsafe Victoria Advisory Committee, and Victorian Government Trauma System Advisory Committee.

– ref. Falls, fractures and self-harm: 4 charts on how kids’ injury risk changes over time and differs for boys and girls – https://theconversation.com/falls-fractures-and-self-harm-4-charts-on-how-kids-injury-risk-changes-over-time-and-differs-for-boys-and-girls-228096

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Di Winkler, Adjunct Associate Professor, Living with Disability Research Centre, La Trobe University

Many Australians with disability feel on the edge of a precipice right now. Recommendations from the disability royal commission and the NDIS review were released late last year. Now a draft NDIS reform bill has been tabled. In this series, experts examine what new proposals could mean for people with disability.

Australia is failing some of our most vulnerable citizens. This week, a news report showed the vile and cruel behaviour of three workers in a group home for people with disability.

Lee-Anne Mackey’s family, desperate for answers to her distress, used hidden camera footage to show she was being bullied and physically abused by those meant to care for her. One worker had been employed to support Mackey for 17 years.

Disability housing in Australia is poor quality, expensive, and becoming more costly each year. Sadly, findings from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability show Mackey’s experience is not isolated.

Some in the disability sector are worried that, despite some constructive recommendations, reform plans could deny people with disability the option to choose where they live and with whom.

Read more:
Choice and control: are whitegoods disability supports? Here’s what proposed NDIS reforms say

Too old and too costly

Suitable and safe housing is a basic human right. Most of the 40,867 National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants who need access to 24/7 support are living in old housing stock that is not fit for purpose. This housing does not foster independence or enable the efficient delivery of support.

Redesigning services and building contemporary models of disability housing and innovation will not only improve the lives of people like Mackey, but also the sustainability of the scheme.

The cost of support – A$9.9 billion each year provided to the 5% of NDIS participants living in disability housing – represents a quarter of total scheme payments. This cost is increasing each year by 9% per person.

Inconsistent funding decisions are also creating an unusual form of trauma for NDIS participants and families and unnecessary work for NDIS staff, therapists and lawyers.

What could the future look like?

Many people living in group homes before the introduction of the NDIS are still “captive” to the same providers.

Proposed NDIS legislation references the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for the first time. Hopefully this will translate to policy implementation that increases participant choice and control over housing and support.

Proposed legislation also aims to deliver fair, consistent and flexible funding so participants can make better use of NDIS resources. More flexible budgets and longer plan durations of up to five years will give participants more certainty, and the ability to adjust their support, save and rollover funds.

As seen in Western Australia before the NDIS and overseas, more flexible personalised budgets can unlock more value and tailored housing and living arrangements.

The NDIS review also includes some practical ways people with disability might realise the housing rights most people take for granted – such as choosing a home and housemates. Potential reforms include:

• specialist housing and living navigators so participants can explore different options, trial alternatives and exercise more choice and control
• shared support facilitators to help people living in disability housing have a say in how their support and household is organised. Co-designed cooperative structures can also do this
• ensuring separation between housing and support providers to dismantle “closed systems” where a single provider is both the landlord and the provider of intimate supports such as personal care.

New co-designed resources will help people living in disability housing to provide feedback and make complaints.

Read more:
Taken together, the NDIS review and the royal commission recommendations could transform disability housing

What about the risks?

The NDIS review states “living alone is not necessarily in line with community norms”. The review adds a 1:1 ratio of support worker to participants with 24/7 living supports can:

[…] foster dependency, increase risks of exploitation, reduce focus on capacity building and opportunities to increase social and economic participation.

Policymakers have wrongly assumed people with disability need to live together for there to be efficiencies in the system and their supports.

Some NDIS participants are not well suited to living with other people with disability. Forcing NDIS participants to share with others instead of allowing single-occupancy dwellings located together has the potential to drive up support costs and perpetuate violence and abuse.

Research indicates moving to co-located single occupant housing has a positive impact on wellbeing, community integration and independence. NDIS participants report more independence and autonomy.

To be in line with our human rights obligations, the next iteration of the NDIS should foster a range of living arrangements including living with a partner, children, friends with or without a disability, or alone.

One support worker to three participants

There are 40,867 NDIS participants who need access to 24/7 living supports. The NDIS review recommends they be funded on a 1:3 ratio – meaning on average, one support worker to three people needing support.

Some NDIS participants and their families are anxious this ratio will be used as a blunt instrument to reduce the cost of NDIS plans.

Some housing providers could interpret the 1:3 ratio as a signal to stop building single-occupancy dwellings. If they build only three-bedroom share houses, it will reduce choice.

It is clear the current regulatory system for disability housing is not working. However, regulation that is not carefully designed and proportionate has the potential to add another layer of cost and further restrict the lives of NDIS participants. Increased regulation tends to favour established business models and stifle innovation. This could extinguish the hope of achieving the radical change in quality and efficiency needed.

Better data on the housing and support needs and preferences of people who need access 24/7 support is needed to foster a user-driven market. And given the Australian government spends $1.29 billion each year providing 24/7 support to NDIS participants who need it, data about outcomes is warranted too.

Read more:
Choice and control: the NDIS was designed to give participants choice, but mandatory registration could threaten this

Crisis and opportunity

The current business model in disability housing sees providers delivering as much in-person support as possible with no reward for supporting people to become more independent. Future NDIS policy needs to incentivise new user-led services that leverage technology and the built environment to improve the quality, efficiency and outcomes for NDIS participants.

Di Winkler AM is an occupational therapist and is the CEO and founder of the Summer Foundation.

Jacinta Douglas 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. Choice and control: will NDIS reforms mean people with disability don’t get to decide who they live with? – https://theconversation.com/choice-and-control-will-ndis-reforms-mean-people-with-disability-dont-get-to-decide-who-they-live-with-227580

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Salman Shooshtarian, Senior Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University

Asbestos has been found in mulch used for playgrounds, schools, parks and gardens across Sydney and Melbourne. Local communities naturally fear for the health of their loved ones. Exposure to asbestos is a serious health risk – depending on its intensity, frequency and duration – as it may lead to chronic lung diseases.

The source of contamination is believed to be timber waste from construction and demolition sites that was turned into mulch. So far, 60 locations in Sydney and 12 in Melbourne have been identified as contaminated with asbestos to various degrees. The numbers could increase as investigations continue.

Following the initial detection in New South Wales and Victoria, an investigation in Queensland detected asbestos in one compost and one mulch product.

The severity, spread and impact of the issue convince us to call it the largest scandal in the history of Australia’s circular economy. A circular economy recycles and reuses materials or products with the goal of being more sustainable.

Our research highlights the importance of making it mandatory to certify recycled products such as mulch to ensure their safety. We found none of the local, state or national policies on sustainable procurement practices recommend recycled product certification as a preventive strategy. We also found significant levels of ignorance and resistance to certification schemes in the recycling sector.

These obstacles must be overcome so we have certification of recycled products that ensures their quality, performance, environmental friendliness and safety.

Read more:
Building activity produces 18% of emissions and a shocking 40% of our landfill waste. We must move to a circular economy – here’s how

Scandal is damaging for the circular economy

The discovery in January of asbestos in mulch in NSW triggered a series of actions. These have involved the NSW and Victorian Environment Protection Authorities, local councils, Fire and Rescue NSW and a NSW taskforce, drawing from agencies such as SafeWork, Public Works and the Natural Resources Access Regulator. The actions include testing in identified areas, cordoning off and signposting affected garden beds, engaging licensed asbestos removalists, and sampling to determine disposal options.

Unfortunately, this contaminated mulch raises concerns about the reckless implementation of circular economy principles in Australia. This scandal could make users of recycled materials, particularly local councils, hesitate about procuring these resources, if not dissuade them altogether.

Understandably, the waste management and resource recovery sector is in a state of shock. More broadly, this scandal could undermine efforts to advance the circular economy in Australia.

It’s a reminder that the circular economy concept is based on a system-thinking approach, where all elements must work in harmony. A failure in one can result in the entire system collapsing.

Regulations don’t go far enough

Under NSW legislation, mulch must not contain asbestos, engineered wood products, preservative-treated or coated wood residues, or physical contaminants such as glass or plastics.

However, it isn’t mandatory for suppliers to test for contaminants in mulch. There are no specified procedures they must follow to ensure mulch doesn’t contain asbestos.

The fact is existing policies and regulations, such as the NSW Environment Protection Authority’s Mulch Order 2016, failed to prevent mulch contamination. It’s a reminder of the need for effective strategies to ensure a circular economy will not go wrong.

These strategies must integrate encouragement, education and enforcement. Otherwise, we risk facing unintended economic, environmental and social consequences.

Read more:
Buildings used iron from sunken ships centuries ago. The use of recycled materials should be business as usual by now

Why isn’t certification standard practice?

At RMIT University’s Construction Waste Lab (CWL), we have been researching and sharing key strategies with policymakers and industry. In 2022 and 2023, working with researchers from Griffith and Curtin universities and our industry partners, we explored the use of recycled product certification schemes.

In our research, supported by the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre, we gathered insights from 16 industry professionals engaged in projects involving large quantities of recycled materials. We specifically asked for their views on certification schemes for these materials.

We found only nine of them were aware of such schemes in Australia. A similar number supported their use for construction projects. The main reasons for not supporting them are shown below.

David Baggs is chief executive and cofounder of Global GreenTag International, a recycled product certifier that operates nationally and internationally. He told us a major barrier to the uptake of these schemes is that they’re simply not a priority for many organisations. He added:

The cost of certification is a fraction of whatever their marketing budget might be in any single month, let alone a year. So, particularly for the bigger companies, it’s not about cost, it’s about priorities. If they can see that their certification becomes part of their marketing budget, then the cost of certification is a single-digit percentage of most marketing budgets.

Read more:
Turning the housing crisis around: how a circular economy can give us affordable, sustainable homes

What more can be done?

To encourage builders to use these schemes, the Green Building Council of Australia provides a list of endorsed certifiers. Our research identified seven major drivers for adopting certification schemes when procuring recycled materials, as shown below.

Read more:
Trash TV: streaming giants are failing to educate the young about waste recycling. Here’s why it matters

The CEO of the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia, Gayle Sloan, has highlighted the need for effective reforms of waste regulations.

In addition, we stress the importance of directories of approved recyclers to ensure end users have access to quality, uncontaminated recycled materials. An example is Sustainability Victoria’s Buy Recycled Directory.

These directories should require listed suppliers to provide certification for their recycled products. It will help distinguish reputable suppliers from rogue suppliers.

Salman Shooshtarian receives funding from the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre Australia

Peter S.P. Wong, Professor – construction, RMIT University. He receives funding from Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre. He is affiliated with RMIT University, Australia.

Tayyab Maqsood receives funding from the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre.

– ref. Asbestos in playground mulch: how to avoid a repeat of this circular economy scandal – https://theconversation.com/asbestos-in-playground-mulch-how-to-avoid-a-repeat-of-this-circular-economy-scandal-227766

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madeline Taylor, Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University

Right now, there’s a global race underway. The goal: bring back manufacturing and energy jobs as the energy transition speeds up.

In 2022, America launched its mammoth Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act. Japan followed suit the same year, while the EU launched its own effort in 2023, as did Canada. China, of course, moved first, and dominates the market for most clean energy products, from solar panels to wind turbines and batteries.

Now it’s Australia’s turn. Last week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced plans to introduce a Future Made in Australia Act, talking of the need to “break with old orthodoxies and pull new levers to advance the national interest”. The goal here is to reshore manufacturing, make use of our strengths in solar and wind resources and critical minerals, and create new industries.

Direct government funding of industries was previously often considered a thing of the past. But it’s precisely what China has done, with great success. Now the world’s other major economies are looking to follow suit.

For Australia, efforts to reshore manufacturing and stimulate new industries should focus on supporting and stimulating regions. Critical minerals and often the best renewable resources have the great benefit of being located outside the cities. If they becomes reality, these plans present a rare chance to make our regions into sustainable economic powerhouses.

Boosting the regions

Imagine a regional community with strong renewable resources. If a renewable developer builds a windfarm on a farmer’s land, bringing in workers from the cities and material from the port, it might benefit the developer and the farm but do little for the wider community. But it could be done differently. The developer could employ locals, and – if efforts to bring back manufacturing pay off – locally made components could be used wherever possible. Many renewable energy developers are already doing this.

This is why the proposed Future Made In Australia Act is a very real opportunity to deliver energy justice for our regions and rural communities.

Energy justice? It means making sure the energy transition works for communities and individuals rather than just manufacturers and businesses.

If the green transition is imposed on communities, rather than done with them, it could easily founder on local opposition, as the recent Dyer Review of community engagement makes clear.

Most of our green energy transition will take place in regional and rural communities inside the Renewable Energy Zones chosen for their good renewable resources and access to transmission.

To make sure these communities actually benefit, Australia needs to co-design clean energy projects with rural communities, just as projects often do in the European Union. Co-designing projects helps communities feel a sense of, and sometimes literal, ownership of projects, and makes it more likely they will benefit. It’s a key way to ensure a project has a sustained social license within communities.

Queensland might be a first mover here by legally defining social license and requiring renewable energy developers to engage with communities.

Read more:
Made in America: how Biden’s climate package is fuelling the global drive to net zero

Could Australian-made really work?

Some have described the government’s plans as a “new protectionism”, picturing a return to high tariffs and products of dubious quality propped up by subsidies.

There’s a low chance we will go directly head-to-head with green energy giants such as China. But Australia has existing advantages we can make more of.

For instance, we’re already one of the world’s top per capita users of solar, and our food exports are highly regarded. So why not combine them?

Agrivoltaics – combining solar panels with farming –  is forecast to become a A$14.4 billion market by 2031. America, the EU, Germany, France, and Italy all have policies aimed at boosting their agrivoltaics sectors supported by research, subsidies, and tariffs.

Australia has world-leading solar photovoltaic expertise, which we could tap into to create custom-designed agrivoltaics solutions, co-designed with farmers. These future farming systems could create a new export industry, with investment opportunities and potentially tax credits brought by the new legislation.

Similarly, our bioscience experts are highly regarded. We could find ways of creating industries spun off from organisations such as the Centre for Synthetic Biology, who have found novel ways to safely store carbon, or turn biological waste into biofuels.

The timing is good – the World Economic Forum earlier this year called for better financing and development of these types of technologies. Like agrivoltaics, these kinds of inventions offer double benefits – cut carbon emissions, boost farm productivity.

If the Made in Australia plans become law, we would likely see finance flow to other future-focussed industries, such as CSIRO’s goal of ultra-low cost solar, the potential for green hydrogen to substitute for fossil gas exports through to the recently announced Solar Sunshot program, aimed at localising more solar production.

We should use our comparative advantages

Much of the detail in the Future Made in Australia Act remains to be seen. But what is clear is it represents a real chance for our regional and rural communities to lead the energy transition.

We could combine our renewable energy and critical minerals riches with our top energy, biotech and agricultural researchers. And we can do it while uplifting the regional and rural communities which will play home to this transition.

Read more:
Could spending a billion dollars actually bring solar manufacturing back to Australia? It’s worth a shot

Madeline Taylor is a Clean Energy Council Chloe Munro Scholar, is a Fellow at the Climate Council, and is on the Board of REAlliance,

– ref. Could Albanese’s bet on homegrown green industries be the boost our regions deserve? – https://theconversation.com/could-albaneses-bet-on-homegrown-green-industries-be-the-boost-our-regions-deserve-227903