Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Hoeksema, Professor of Ecology, University of Mississippi

When wood thrushes arrive in northern Mississippi on their spring migration and begin to serenade my neighborhood with their ethereal, harmonized song, it’s one of the great joys of the season. It’s also a minor miracle. These small creatures have just flown more than 1,850 miles (3,000 kilometers), all the way from Central America.

Other birds undertake even longer journeys — the Swainson’s thrush, for example, nests as far north as the boreal forests of Alaska and spends the nonbreeding season in northern South America, traveling up to 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) each way.

These stunning feats of travel are awe-inspiring, making it that much more tragic when they are cut short by a deadly collision with a glass window.

This happens with alarming regularity. Two recent scientific studies estimate that more than 1 billion birds – and as many as 5.19 billion – die from collisions with sheet glass each year in the United States alone, sometimes immediately but often from their injuries.

In fact, window collisions are now considered the top human cause of bird deaths. Due to window collisions and other causes, bird populations across North America have declined more than 29% from their 1970 levels, likely with major consequences for the world’s ecosystems.

These collisions occur on every type of building, from homes to skyscrapers. At the University of Mississippi campus, where I teach and conduct research as an ecologist, my colleagues and I have been testing some creative solutions.

Why glass is so often deadly for birds

Most frequently, glass acts as a mirror, reflecting clear sky or habitat. There is no reason for a bird to slow down when there appears to be a welcoming tree or shrub ahead.

These head-on collisions frequently result in brain injuries, to which birds often succumb immediately.

In other cases, birds are stunned by the collision and eventually fly off, but many of those individuals also eventually perish from brain swelling.

Other injuries, to wings or legs, for example, can leave birds unable to fly and vulnerable to cats or other predators. If you find an injured bird, contact a local wildlife rehabilitator.

Which windows are riskiest

Some windows are much worse than others, depending on their proximity to bushes and other bird habitats, what is reflected in them, and how interior lighting exacerbates or diminishes the mirror effect.

On our campus, some buildings with a great deal of glass surface area kill surprisingly few birds, while other small sets of windows are disproportionately deadly.

One particular elevated walkway with glass on both sides between the chemistry and pharmacy buildings is a notoriously dangerous spot. The glass kills migratory birds each spring and fall as they try to pass between the two buildings on their way to The Grove, the university’s central-campus park area with large old oak trees.

During the pandemic in 2020, student Emma Counce did the heart-heavy work of performing a survey of 11 campus buildings almost daily during spring migration. She found 72 bird fatalities in seven weeks. Five years later, my ornithology students completed a new survey and found 62 mortalities over the course of five weeks in 2025, demonstrating that we still have a lot of work to do to make our campus safe for migratory birds.

Thrushes, perhaps due to their propensity for whizzing through tight spaces in the shady forest understory, have been disproportionately represented among the victims. Others include colorful songbirds – northern parulas, black-and-white warblers, prothonotary warblers, Kentucky warblers, buntings, vireos and tanagers.

How to make windows less dangerous

The good thing is that everyone can do something to lower the risk.

Films, stickers or strings can be added on the exterior of windows, creating dots or lines, 2 to 4 inches apart, that break up reflections to give the appearance of a barrier.

Exterior screens and blinds work great too. Just adding a few predator silhouette stickers is not effective, by the way – the treatment needs to span the whole window.

When applied properly, window treatments can make a huge difference. An inspiring example is McCormick Place in Chicago, the country’s largest convention center, which notoriously killed nearly 1,000 birds in a single night in 2023. After workers applied dot film to an area of the building’s windows equivalent to two football fields, bird mortality at the lakeside building has been reduced by 95%.

The Bird Collision Prevention Alliance provides information on options for retrofitting home or office windows to make them more bird friendly.

Options for new windows are also becoming more common. For example, the new Center for Science & Technology Innovation on my campus, which features many windows, mostly used bird-friendly glass with subtle polka dots built into it. This spring, we found that it killed only four birds, despite a very high surface area of glass.

How you can help

When trying to make a difference on your home turf, I suggest starting small. Make note of which specific windows have killed birds in the past, and treat them first.

Use it as an opportunity to learn what approach might work best for you and your building. Either order a product or make something yourself and get it installed.

Then do another, and tell a friend. At the office, talk to people, find others who care and build a team to make gradual change.

With some creative solutions, anyone can help reduce at least this major risk.

Jason Hoeksema is affiliated with the University of Mississippi, Delta Wind Birds, and the Mississippi Ornithological Society.

– ref. Windows are the No. 1 human threat to birds – an ecologist shares some simple steps to reduce collisions – https://theconversation.com/windows-are-the-no-1-human-threat-to-birds-an-ecologist-shares-some-simple-steps-to-reduce-collisions-255838

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

This week, the Reserve Bank delivered welcome news for mortgage holders, with another 25 basis points rate cut.

With this cut, some are hoping that the cost-of-living pain will start to finally ease. Economists, however, are still wary of celebrating too early, with Trump’s tariffs still creating uncertainty on where the global economy will end up.

Back at home, a re-elected Anthony Albanese and his treasurer, Jim Chalmers, are pushing on with Labor’s second term agenda, with Chalmers flagging the need to fix Australia’s lagging productivity. When the new parliament meets, Labor’s controversial tax changes on superannuation, which failed to pass last term, will be an early test for the government.

Speaking with The Conversation’s Politics podcast, Treasurer Jim Chalmers outlines some of his priorities when Parliament resumes in July.

One of the things we’re really excited about legislating is the cut to student debt. That will take some of the burden off graduates, but it will also provide some cost-of-living help to students or graduates repaying a student debt. So that’s going to be a big priority.

In my own portfolio, obviously we’ve got the changes to the super arrangements, we’ve got the standard deduction we announced during the campaign, we’ve got some payments reforms that we need to legislate. So it will be a really busy agenda.

On increasing the superannuation tax on those with $3 million from 15% to 30%, with unrealised capital gains taxed, Chalmers defends the move, despite widespread criticism, including from former prime minister Paul Keating.

This is a modest change that we announced almost two and a half years ago now. We announced it at the beginning of 2023. We’re now in the middle of 2025. And what this change is about [is] making concessional treatment for people with very large superannuation balances, still concessional, but a little bit less so. And that will help us fund our priorities, whether it’s Medicare, the tax cuts, and other priorities in budget repair.

[…] I know that people have views about it. I know there’s a campaign in a couple of our newspapers about it. But this is all about making sure that it’s still concessional treatment. It only impacts about half a percent of people in the super system, with very large superannuation balances. It makes the system a bit fairer and it’s important in terms of the sustainability of the budget.

Despite Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock saying on Tuesday that due to global uncertainty there’s a small possibility of Australia falling into recession, Chalmers outlines the case for optimism.

I think first of all the Reserve Bank is doing diligent work looking at a range of scenarios from best case to worst case and central case. Just like the Treasury does […] And I think it’s helpful to remember, if you look at the Reserve Bank’s forecasts and the Treasury’s forecasts, neither the bank nor the Treasury is expecting our economy to shrink. In fact, in both instances the forecasts say that the economy will grow more strongly next year compared to the financial year that we’re about to finish.

[…] The international environment is casting a dark shadow over the global economy and our own economy. And that why it’s so important that the Australian economy has got the characteristics that you would want going into this volatility and unpredictability. You know, the lower inflation, the higher wages, the low unemployment, the budget’s in better nick than most countries around the world. We’re starting to see interest rates come down. The market’s expecting further interest rate cuts. And so we’re well placed and well prepared.

On a lighter note, Chalmers tells us what’s on his reading list over the winter break:

I just finished that Ezra Klein book called Abundance, which goes right to the core of some of these things you’re talking about, you know, how do we think in a progressive way about making our economy more efficient and more productive.

[…] I confess I’ve started the book about Joe Biden, the Jake Tapper book [Original Sin] […] And like everyone, I send my best wishes to the Bidens after that news that we got earlier in the week about his health.

[…] But I’m really excited about a new term, a new opportunity, working closely with [Finance Minister] Katy [Gallagher] to make sure we finish the fight on inflation, we make our economy more productive, we think more expansively about the big opportunities from AI and energy and some of these things that we’ve been talking about today. And I have been finding inspiration in trying to do a bit more reading this term so far than what I managed last term.

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

– ref. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Jim Chalmers on keeping Australia out of recession amid the ‘dark shadow’ of global instability – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-jim-chalmers-on-keeping-australia-out-of-recession-amid-the-dark-shadow-of-global-instability-257228

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

The Victorian and NSW Nationals senators due to face the voters at the 2028 election will struggle to hold their seats if the former partners do not re-form the Coalition before then.

Under usual Coalition arrangements, Bridget McKenzie, from Victoria, who is Nationals Senate leader, and Ross Cadell, from NSW, would have been set to be number two on the joint Senate ticket in their respective states. This would have assured them of re-election.

But if they have to run on separate Nationals Senate tickets, it will be hard for them to garner enough votes to be re-elected. One reason is the Nationals would not have candidates in urban lower house seats, and so their Senate how-to-vote tickets wouldn’t be handed out in those areas.

As Liberals reeled after the Nationals’ sudden desertion of the Coalition on Tuesday, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is working on her all-Liberal opposition frontbench, to be announced Thursday or Friday.

Senior Victorian Liberal Dan Tehan said: “We’re all still in a state of shock of the outcome. I don’t think people have really come to terms with it.”

Nationals MP Darren Chester, from Victoria, urged negotiations between the parties to continue. He warned “if we go to the next sitting of parliament being two divided party rooms we are giving a free pass to the prime minister”.

Nationals leader David Littleproud continued to defend his party’s shock decision to split the Coalition.

He told the ABC “plenty of political commentators” were taking potshots.

“Well, good luck, they don’t understand what it is to be a Nat. What it is to live and to know and to hear the stories of people who are in danger because of mobile phone towers. Young families that can’t afford their mortgage because they can’t go back to work, because they can’t find a childcare place, because there are none.”

Asked if the Nationals were prepared to stay on the backbench indefinitely if the Liberals didn’t meet their demands, Littleproud said, “Well, if we get to a juncture after the next election where we can form a government with the Liberal Party, then obviously we’re going to support the Liberal Party. But there will be conditions, and the conditions are about those things that are core to making the lives of those people that we represent better”.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott joined John Howard in urging an early rapprochement. Abbott said, “I deeply regret the Coalition split and hope that it can be re-formed as soon as possible. History shows that the Liberals and the Nationals win together and fail separately.” On Tuesday  Howard warned of the negative consequences of the split.

Liberal deputy leader Ted O’Brien said the Nationals’ decision was “more than disappointing”.

He said the parties were “stronger together” and he hoped over time the Nationals will “draw the same conclusion that we are better together than we are apart”.

With three-cornered contests one issue now the parties are not in coalition, McKenzie was asked whether she would be relaxed about the Liberals running in all Nationals seats.

“This is one of the serious risks of the decision we took yesterday,” she said, adding it had been “part of our thinking as went forward”.

“We also see it as an opportunity to put a very strong proposition for rural and regional Australia to those communities.

“At the end of the day, though, Coalition arrangements are matters for our state parties – so the LNP in Queensland, the NSW state Nationals and also the Victorian Nationals.”

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: Coalition split puts Victorian and NSW Nationals Senate seats at high risk – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-coalition-split-puts-victorian-and-nsw-nationals-senate-seats-at-high-risk-256456

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew King, Associate Professor in Climate Science, ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, The University of Melbourne

Emergency crews were scrambling to rescue residents trapped by floodwaters on Wednesday as heavy rain pummelled the Mid North Coast of New South Wales.

In some areas, more than 200 mm of rain has fallen in 24 hours. At the town of Taree, low-lying areas are flooded as the Manning River reached record levels, passing the 1929 record of six metres.

At the same time, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia are in drought amid some of the lowest rainfall on record.

So what is going on, and when will the wet weather end?

Why is NSW so wet?

The wet weather in NSW is due to a combination of factors.

A trough is sitting over the Mid North Coast and stretching offshore. Troughs are areas of low pressure and can bring rain and unstable conditions. This trough is bringing extensive cloud and rain to the affected region.

In addition, winds from the east are also bringing moisture to the coast.

Since Sunday, all this has been compounded by a “cut-off low” in the upper atmosphere. These low-pressure systems are separated from the main westerly flow of winds, and often move slowly.

The combination of the trough near the ground, and low pressure at higher levels in the atmosphere, can cause air to converge and rise. As air rises it cools, moisture condenses and rain occurs.

In the next few days, the cut-off low will move away but is likely to be replaced in the same region by another upper-level low-pressure system moving in from the southwest. This will likely mean heavy rain over the east coast region in the coming days and into Friday.

On top of all this, a persistent high pressure system in the Tasman Sea is also pushing cloud onto the NSW coastline.

An upper-level low with a high in the Tasman is a typical set of conditions for flooding on the NSW Mid North Coast. Those conditions are also forecast to persist for the coming days.

So why are parts of Australia in drought?

The NSW north coast was quite wet in March and April – partly due to a hangover from Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

That meant the ground was already wet and full when rain began falling this week. So instead of soaking in, the water more easily turned to runoff and became floodwater.

This is in contrast to much of Australia, which was unseasonably dry and warm in March and April.

But the differences are not unusual. Australia is a big place, and rainfall dynamics are quite localised. It’s fairly common to see very wet conditions in one area and very dry conditions in another.

Unfortunately the current heavy rain in NSW probably won’t make a huge difference to drought-stricken areas. The moist air flows are likely to dry out as they cross the Great Dividing Range. But a change in weather patterns means from Sunday, rain may fall in some areas of Victoria and South Australia suffering from drought.

Is climate change causing this?

As the planet warms, scientists are very confident that Earth’s average surface temperature will warm, and heatwaves will get worse. However, rainfall projections are much less certain.

Projecting all types of precipitation is difficult. The water cycle is complex. Climate models – while powerful – can struggle to accurately simulate local rainfall patterns. And these patterns vary considerably over time – a natural phenomena that can make the climate trend hard to identify.

So what does this mean for autumn rainfall projections for Australia in future? None of the rainfall projections show a strong signal, and so scientists do not have high confidence in the results.

Having said this, there’s a hint of a drying trend across southwest Western Australia and parts of western Victoria and southeast South Australia, where conditions are dry now.

And for the Mid North Coast of NSW, currently experiencing heavy rain and flooding, autumn rainfall projections hint at slightly at heavier extreme rainfall.

Andrew King receives funding from the ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather and the National Environmental Science Program.

Andrew Dowdy receives funding from University of Melbourne and is supported by the Australian Research Council.

– ref. NSW is copping rain and flooding while parts of Australia are in drought. What’s going on? – https://theconversation.com/nsw-is-copping-rain-and-flooding-while-parts-of-australia-are-in-drought-whats-going-on-257235

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

Counting in several extremely close seats continues, but some results have become clearer. In Liberal-held Bradfield, Teal candidate Nicolette Boele has taken the lead, while the Calwell distribution of preferences indicates an independent is on track to pass the Liberals and benefit from their preferences against Labor. Meanwhile, Jacqui Lambie may have a problem in the Tasmanian Senate contest.

Labor has won 93 of the 150 House of Representatives seats, the Coalition 43, all Others 12 and two remain undecided (Bradfield and Calwell). After Tuesday’s split between the Liberals and Nationals, the ABC has the Liberals on 28 seats and the Nationals on 15, with the Liberals to form the official opposition.

The Australian Electoral Commission has 18 Liberals, nine Nationals and 16 seats won by Queensland’s Liberal National Party. LNP members can caucus with either the Liberals or Nationals, so they are splitting 10–6 to the Liberals.

I will continue to use Coalition in my coverage of this election, as the Liberal and National parties contested the election as the Coalition. It would be difficult to split the LNP vote into its Liberal and National components.

In the close seats, Boele leads the Liberals by 43 votes in Bradfield. She had trailed by 43 votes before the final votes were counted on Monday. The Poll Bludger said the last 181 formal postals counted favoured Boele by 125–56, giving her 69% of that batch.

Of the just over 14,000 total formal postal votes counted in Bradfield, the Liberals have won by 56.4–43.6. But late postals are often much better for the left than early ones.

What’s happening now in Bradfield is a full distribution of preferences, in which candidates are excluded from the bottom up on primary votes. If the margin after this distribution is complete is under 100 votes, there will be an automatic recount.

In Goldstein, Teal incumbent Zoe Daniel’s late surge has fallen short, as she trails Liberal Tim Wilson by 135 votes with everything counted, in from a 292-vote deficit last Thursday.

As with Bradfield, there will now be a full distribution of preferences in Goldstein. If the margin after this distribution is under 100 votes, there will be a recount. Daniel could also request a recount, but even if there is a recount, Wilson is very likely to win.

In Labor-held Calwell, which has 13 candidates, final primary votes were 30.5% Labor, 15.7% Liberals, 11.9% for independent Carly Moore, 10.7% for independent Joseph Youhana, 8.3% for the Greens and 6.9% for independent Samim Moslih.

The danger for Labor is that either Moore or Youhana overtake the Liberals on the distribution of preferences, then beat Labor at the final count on Liberal preferences. The AEC has a page that is updated with each exclusion in the preference distribution.

After six exclusions, the totals are 32.8% Labor, 17.1% Liberals, 14.7% Moore, 12.1% Youhana, 9.9% Greens, 7.9% Moslih and 5.6% One Nation (to be excluded next). Analyst Kevin Bonham says Moore needs 7.5% more than the Liberals to make the final two, and 67% of overall preferences to beat Labor. For Youhana, these figures are 13.4% and 69%.

Lambie may have a problem in the Tasmanian Senate contest

I have previously covered the Senate count. There have only been minor changes to the primary votes since that May 9 article. The Poll Bludger has modelled the state Senate contests using 2022 election preference flows.

According to this model, Labor will win the last seat in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, but only narrowly in WA. In Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie and the Liberals would edge out Labor. As I wrote previously, this result would give Labor 30 of the 76 total senators, the Coalition 27, the Greens 11, One Nation two and others six.

For a state a quota is one-seventh of the vote or 14.3%. In Tasmania Labor has 2.48 quotas, the Liberals 1.65, the Greens 1.13, Jacqui Lambie 0.51, One Nation 0.35 and Legalise Cannabis 0.24. One Nation will be the last exclusion, and whichever of Labor, the Liberals or Lambie is last after One Nation’s preferences are distributed loses.

There’s evidence that One Nation’s preferences have become better for the Coalition at this election than in 2022. In Capricornia, which had a One Nation primary vote of 15.5%, the LNP share of overall preferences increased nine points since 2022 to 62%.

Lambie wants the salmon farming industry to stop farming in Macquarie Harbour and says they should move offshore. This stance could cost her preferences from One Nation and other right-aligned parties.

I expect One Nation and other right-wing preferences in Tasmania to go strongly enough to the Liberals to give the Liberals one of the last two undecided seats, with the final seat between Labor and Lambie.

Labor is pro-salmon farming, so perhaps Lambie could benefit from Greens and Animal Justice preferences (the Greens have a small surplus over one quota and Animal Justice has 0.09 quotas).

Tasmanian poll and upper house elections

A Tasmanian state EMRS poll, conducted May 13–17 from a sample of 1,000, gave Labor 31% of the vote (up one since February), the Liberals 29% (down five), the Greens 14% (up one), the Jacqui Lambie Network 6% (down two), independents 17% (up five) and others 4% (up one).

Tasmania uses a proportional system for its lower house elections, so a two-party estimate is not applicable. Incumbent Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff’s net favourability was down four points to +6, while Labor leader Dean Winter’s was down one to +5. Rockliff led Winter by 44–32 as preferred premier (44–34 previously).

Every May two or three of Tasmania’s 15 upper house seats are up for election for six-year terms. The Poll Bludger said Tuesday that current upper house standings are four Liberals, three Labor, one Green and seven independents. On Saturday there will be elections in Liberal-held Montgomery, Labor-held Pembroke and independent-held Nelson.

European elections wrap

I covered Sunday’s European elections in Romania, Portugal and Poland for The Poll Bludger. In Romania the centrist defeated the far-right candidate by 53.6–46.4, but the left had a dismal result in Portugal. I also covered recounts in the April 28 Canadian election and polls ahead of the June 3 South Korean presidential election.

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. Counts in Bradfield and Calwell become clearer, while Jacqui Lambie faces a possible problem in the Tasmanian Senate – https://theconversation.com/counts-in-bradfield-and-calwell-become-clearer-while-jacqui-lambie-faces-a-possible-problem-in-the-tasmanian-senate-257122

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Houlihan, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of the Sunshine Coast

Can you only start a boring admin task once your house is clean? Do you leave the trickiest emails to the end of the day?

Delaying a goal or task – usually to do something less important instead – is known as procrastination and it affects many of us. Most people report procrastinating some of the time, but for others it can be chronic.

While procrastination is common, it can be frustrating and lead to feelings of shame, guilt and anxiety.

Here’s why you might be avoiding that task – and five steps to get on top of it.

Am I procrastinating?

You might find yourself putting off starting something, abandoning it before it’s finished or leaving it to the very last minute.

Thoughts such as “I can catch up later” or “I’ll turn it in late” can be telltale signs of procrastination. Maybe you’ve Googled “Why do I procrastinate?” while procrastinating and have come across this article.

Other times, you might not even be aware you’re doing it. Perhaps you look up and realise you’ve been scrolling online shopping and kitten videos for the past hour, instead of doing your assignment.

Procrastination is not a character flaw, and it doesn’t mean you’re lazy or even bad at managing time. Framing it this way can make you feel even worse about the behaviour, and stops you learning the real reasons behind it.

If you want to stop procrastinating, it’s important to understand why you do it in the first place.

Why do I procrastinate?

Procrastination can be a way of dealing with tricky emotions. Research shows we put off tasks we find boring or frustrating, as well as those we resent or that lack personal meaning.

We may avoid tasks that create stress or painful emotions, such as completing a tax return where you owe a lot of money, or packing up a parent’s house after their death.

There a few deeper reasons, too.

Procrastination can be a sign of perfectionism. This is when an intense fear of failure – of getting something wrong – creates so much pressure to be perfect that it stops us from even getting started.

People with low self-esteem also tend to procrastinate, whether or not they experience perfectionism. Here, it’s a negative self-view (“I’m not good at most things”) coupled with low confidence (“I probably won’t get it right”) that gets in the way of beginning a task.

Distraction can be a factor, too. Most of us battle constant interruptions, with pings and alerts designed to redirect our attention. But being very easily distracted can also be a sign you’re avoiding the task.

For some people, difficulty completing tasks could be a sign of an underlying issue such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. If you’re worried procrastination is affecting your day-to-day life, you can speak to your doctor to seek help.

Is procrastination ever helpful?

It depends.

Some people enjoy the pressure of a deadline. Leaving a task to the last minute can be a strategy to improve motivation or get it done in a limited time.

Procrastination can also be a coping mechanism.

Delaying unpleasant tasks may make us feel better in the moment. Avoiding the task may mean we don’t have to face the possibility of getting it wrong, or the negative emotions or consequences it involves.

But this usually only works in the short term, and in the long term it’s more likely to cause problems.

Procrastination can trigger self-criticism as well as negative emotions such as guilt and shame.

In the long term it can also lead to mental health problems including anxiety and depression. Procrastinating has even been linked to poor outcomes in education – such as being caught copying in exams – and at work, including lower salaries and higher likelihood of unemployment.

So what can we do about it?

5 steps to tackling procrastination

1. Face it – you’re procrastinating. Being able to identify and name these patterns is the first step to overcoming procrastination.

2. Explore why. Understanding the underlying causes is key. Are you afraid of getting it wrong? Is your to-do list unrealistic? Or do you just love a tight deadline? If your procrastination results from perfectionism or low self-esteem you may wish to explore evidence-based treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy, with a therapist or through self-guided activities.

3. Start prioritising. Take a good look at your to-do list. Are the most urgent or important things at the top? Have you given yourself enough time to complete the tasks? Breaking a task into smaller chunks and taking regular breaks will help prevent you from becoming overwhelmed. If you’re not sure what’s the most important, try talking it through with someone. If you tend to leave the most boring things to the last minute and then never get around to them, set some time aside at the start of each day to get these tasks done.

4. Avoid distractions. Set your phone to “do not disturb”, hang a sign on the door, tell those around you you’ll be “offline” for a little while. Setting a clear start and end time can help you stick to this rule.

5. Build in rewards. Life is hard work – be kind to yourself. Whenever you complete a difficult task or cross something off your to-do list, balance this by doing something more enjoyable. Building in rewards can make facing the to-do list a little bit easier.

Catherine Houlihan 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 do I procrastinate? And can I do anything about it? – https://theconversation.com/why-do-i-procrastinate-and-can-i-do-anything-about-it-255770

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Cover, Professor of Digital Communication and Director of the RMIT Digital Ethnography Research Centre, RMIT University

In its most recent battle with authorities in Australia, X (formerly Twitter) has launched legal action in the Federal Court, seeking an exemption from a new safety standard aimed at preventing the spread of harmful material online.

The standard in question is known as the Relevant Electronic Services Standard. It came into effect in December 2024, but won’t start being enforced by Australia’s online regulator, eSafety, until June this year.

Compared with the social media ban for under-16s, this standard has been a side issue in the broader topic of online safety. So what exactly is it? And will it be effective at preventing the spread of harmful material online?

What is the standard?

The Relevant Electronic Services Standard contains criteria to help address the pervasiveness of harmful and illegal material distributed online. It is particularly focused on child sexual exploitation content, depictions of extreme violence, illegal drug material, and pro-terror content.

Relevant electronic services (RES) are digital services that enable user-to-user content. This includes instant messaging, email and chat platforms. The legal definition also includes some online gaming services.

Under Australia’s Online Safety Act 2021, the communications minister may exempt some services or platforms from being defined as an RES. The minister can also set conditions on the service for exemption, such as having a robust moderation service, or being a messaging service for internal employees of a company.

Some social media platforms, such as Facebook and X, may be defined as RES. That’s because they also offer user-to-user messaging services. It is sensible, then, for the Federal Court to determine whether they fall under social media codes or RES standards, or both.

The standards require RES to implement systems, processes and technologies to detect and remove child sexual abuse and pro-terror material from their services, and to actively deter end-users from distributing this material.

There are consequences for services that fail to comply. The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, can issue a formal warning or infringement notice, or have the courts apply a civil penalty.

What does the standard do?

The Online Safety Act 2021 imposes obligations on RES providers, particularly regarding the handling of harmful material. This material is categorised into several classes, including Class 1A and Class 1B content.

Class 1A material typically means child exploitation and pro-terror content. Class 1B material refers to extreme violence, promotion of crime, and illegal drug-related content.

The class of content is determined by referring to the National Classification Scheme. This scheme sets standards for the ratings of films.

Class 1A and 1B material is content, texts and images that would be “refused classification” under the scheme. That is, it would be material that is usually not allowed to be distributed at all. Class 2 material is what we usually consider X-rated or 18+ material.

At the moment, the eSafety commissioner can ask a RES to remove Class 1 or Class 2 content, or the service can be penalised. However, the next step has been to work with industry to develop codes that require service providers to be more proactive in preventing Class 1 content being shared between their users.

Will the standard be effective?

X wants its platform to be treated as exempt, and governed by the similar but less stringent Social Media Code instead. Whatever the Federal Court decides, however, there are other issues to consider.

Part of the difficulty with the scheme is that it relies on harmful content coming to the attention of the eSafety commissioner. This usually happens when an end-user makes a complaint.

But our recent research, which surveyed 2,520 representative Australians and will be published later this year, found that only about 10% of users who were the target of digital harms reported them to the eSafety commissioner. Among those who had witnessed harmful content or behaviour, only 6% reported. About 40% of Australians don’t believe reporting will make any difference.

Another issue with the industry standards raised by digital rights activists is that it may require services to investigate user messages even when end-to-end encryption of messages is used. That may have serious privacy implications.

A global treaty could help

This ties into broader problems with the online safety framework.

Much of the focus has been on managing platforms and getting platforms to police users and content – a necessary approach to avoid penalising individuals and overwhelming courts.

However, service provider policing often fails to meet the norms of due process, such as transparency and the right to appeal decisions.

It also makes platforms and messaging providers the “arbiters” of free speech and censorship, instead of governments, courts and communities.

While setting standards on platforms is one part of the solution, we need to continue developing remedies to protect users. This may include global agreements and multilateral treaties, similar to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, so all countries can share the burden locally for digital harms that occur across jurisdictions, and ensure due process and the protection of privacy.

Rob Cover receives funding from the Australian Research Council

– ref. What’s the obscure Australian online safety standard Elon Musk’s X is trying to dodge in court? An expert explains – https://theconversation.com/whats-the-obscure-australian-online-safety-standard-elon-musks-x-is-trying-to-dodge-in-court-an-expert-explains-257222

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ama Samarasinghe, Lecturer, Financial Planning and Tax, RMIT University

On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia cut the target cash rate by 0.25 percentage points. It now sits at 3.85% – the lowest since May 2023.

Australia’s big four banks were all quick to announce they would be passing the cuts on to borrowers. If you’ve got a mortgage, you might be wondering if this is your cue to act.

Refinancing your home loan – whether by negotiating a better deal with your current lender or switching to a new one – could save you thousands over the life of your loan.

However, it won’t be the right decision for everyone. And there are some important things to know about how the process works – including hidden costs and risks.

What is refinancing?

Refinancing simply means replacing your existing home loan with a new one – either from your current lender or a different one. The goal? To take advantage of better loan terms.

If you’re on a “variable rate” loan, your lender may already be passing on some or all of the recent rate cut (though you may have had to opt in).

Read more:
RBA cuts interest rates, ready to respond again if the economy weakens further

But if you’re on a “fixed rate” loan, your repayments will stay the same until your fixed term ends – meaning you might not benefit from the cut unless you refinance (though break costs could apply).

Switching to a loan with a lower rate can mean smaller monthly repayments. Or, by keeping repayments the same size but with a lower interest rate, you could potentially pay off a loan faster and save in the long term.

Refinancing activity has been trending up since 2021, with external refinancing (switching banks) rising significantly among both owner-occupiers and investors. That’s a clear sign many borrowers are chasing better deals.

Can refinancing save you money?

Yes – if it’s right for you and you do it right. Switching to a lower interest rate could slash thousands off your yearly repayments.

If you’ve built up equity, you might be able to release funds to reinvest or improve your property. Some lenders also offer refinancing cashback deals – one-off payments to attract new customers.

There are some important things to consider – including some traps to avoid – if you’re thinking about refinancing your home loan.

1. Be mindful of your loan-to-value ratio

Loan-to-value ratio (LVR) is the amount you borrowed as a percentage of the property’s value or purchase price.

If your LVR is above 80%, you probably paid lenders mortgage insurance (LMI) on your original loan, designed to protect the lender in case you default.

If your current loan still exceeds 80% of your home’s value (based on the new lender’s valuation), you might need to pay LMI again. That cost could wipe out any benefit from a lower rate.

2. Careful how you compare

When comparing rates and repayments, make sure you’re comparing apples with apples.

If you’ve already paid five years on a 30-year loan, you have 25 years left. But when you ask a new lender for a quote, they may show repayments based on a full 30-year term – which could make the monthly repayment look much lower.

To make a fair comparison, ask for quotes based on your remaining loan term. If you decide to switch, aiming for a loan with the same term can help you avoid paying more interest in the long run.

3. Factor in all associated costs

Refinancing comes with costs. These may include:

• break fees if you’re leaving a fixed-term loan early
• settlement fees for your current lender to close out the loan
• application and valuation fees with the new lender
• ongoing monthly fees that might not seem large but can add up over time.

Also, if you’re applying to multiple lenders to compare offers, be aware requesting multiple credit checks in a short space of time can negatively impact your credit score.

4. Consider renegotiating with your existing lender first

Lenders rarely offer their best deals to existing customers – unless you ask. In fact, they often reserve the most attractive deals for new customers.

Consider picking up the phone and asking for a rate review. If you have a better offer from another bank, you may be able to use that as leverage.

Staying with your current lender can have advantages. It may be quicker and easier than refinancing with another lender. But don’t let loyalty cost you – especially if better rates are on the table elsewhere.

5. Don’t assume your repayments will drop automatically

For borrowers on variable loans, some banks don’t automatically reduce your repayments after a rate cut. You may need to manually adjust them through your bank’s app or website, or “opt in”.

Alternatively, keeping your repayment amount the same could help you pay off your loan faster and reduce interest costs.

6. Check your credit score before applying

Your credit score can play a key role in refinancing. Lenders use it to assess how risky it is to lend to you – and it can affect the interest rate you’re offered.

If your score has dropped since you first took out your loan, you may not qualify for the best deals.

Check your score through your bank or a free online service before you apply. If it’s low, take time to improve it before refinancing to boost your chances of approval and better rates.

For an estimate of your potential savings from refinancing, try the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)’s MoneySmart mortgage switching calculator.

Disclaimer: This article provides general information only and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is not intended as financial advice. Before acting on any information, consider whether it is appropriate for your circumstances.

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. Interest rates are coming down. Here’s what homeowners should know about refinancing – https://theconversation.com/interest-rates-are-coming-down-heres-what-homeowners-should-know-about-refinancing-257116

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katherine Raw, Lecturer, Sport Management, Swinburne University of Technology

Australia’s underwhelming performance at the 2024 Paris Paralympics has raised serious questions about how well our adaptive sport system is working. The Paris games returned our lowest medal tally since 1988, from our smallest team since 2004.

This result hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Ahead of the 2032 Brisbane games, now is the time to rebuild and strengthen grassroots disability sport across the country.

To do this, we must focus on inclusive, sustainable and community-driven approaches that truly support people with disabilities from the very start.

Issues at grassroots level

Grassroots disability clubs are vital to the health of para sports in Australia.

These local clubs give people with disabilities the chance to be active, which supports both physical and mental wellbeing.

Just as importantly, they provide places where people can build friendships, feel included and develop a sense of belonging.

Many paralympians start their journey in these environments; they’re not just places to play sport, they’re key to developing future talent.

Current and former athletes have called for more and better participation opportunities in adaptive sport.

Paralympian Leanne Del Toso called for more support for women’s wheelchair basketball after Australia missed qualification for the Rio and Paris Olympics.

It shouldn’t be about funding, it shouldn’t be about access, it should be about equality.

The message is clear: we need to rebuild from the ground up, starting with a stronger and more supportive grassroots system.

Read more:
If we truly want our Paralympic athletes to shine, their coaches need more support

What are the main problems?

Australia’s para sports system is often fragmented and inconsistent, especially compared to mainstream sports such as swimming or athletics, which usually have national pathways, structured support and a clear line from beginner to elite.

But adaptive sports are often run in disconnected ways across different states, clubs or organisations.

This system is often difficult to navigate for aspiring athletes.

Another big part of the problem is the “mainstreaming” of adaptive sport: instead of creating separate systems designed specifically for people with disabilities, many sports fold disability sport into their existing structures.

While this can sound inclusive, it often creates problems.

Research shows this approach can actually narrow who gets to participate.

Many organisations and leagues tend to follow a standard competitive model that doesn’t work for everyone, especially those with more complex needs.

Even well-meaning attempts at inclusion can backfire if they don’t involve people with disability.

That’s why researchers now believe adaptive sport only works when paired with real disability-specific knowledge, community consultation and strong systems of accountability.

Without that, we risk reinforcing the very inequalities we’re trying to fix.

Another problem is the lack of participation data.

One of the main sources of sports participation data in Australia is the AusPlay survey.

This gives some insight into who is playing sport and being active, but it doesn’t give enough detail when it comes to disability sport.

For instance, while the AusPlay survey indicates 51% of adults with a disability engage in physical activity once per week, it lacks specificity regarding the activities these people participate in.

This makes it hard for policymakers, funders and sport organisations to make smart decisions, as they don’t have enough information about who is participating, where the gaps are or how things are changing over time.

With better data, we could target resources where they’re needed most, especially in communities that currently miss out.

Some possible solutions

If we want to fix these problems, we need a different approach.

That starts with co-design: involving people with disabilities in designing the systems, programs and policies that affect them.

It’s not just about asking for feedback, it’s about giving real decision-making power.

A great example of this is Wheelchair Sports NSW/ACT, which has embraced co-design and made it a core part of its programs.

This has led to a 380% increase in membership over five years, and a record number of affiliated clubs across their network.

This success shows what’s possible when sport organisations stop designing systems for people with disabilities and start designing with them.

When people feel valued and heard, they are more likely to get involved and stay involved.

Recent initiatives, such as the new para unit launched by the Western Australian Institute of Sport (the original home of Australia’s Paralympic movement), demonstrate promising steps towards a more cohesive para sport system.

But grassroots sport isn’t about medals. While we all love to celebrate paralympic success, local sport has a much bigger role to play.

It helps people with disabilities stay healthy, feel included and connect with their communities. It can change lives on and off the field.

As we look to Brisbane 2032, it’s clear paralympic success doesn’t start at the top. It starts in the community and on local fields.

If we invest now in grassroots sport and centre people with disabilities in the design and delivery of programs, we can create a stronger and more inclusive future for para sport in Australia.

The author would like to acknowledge the contributions of Mick Garnett to discussions on the future of adaptive sport in Australia.

Katherine Raw 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. Australian para sport has issues everywhere – here’s what must be fixed ahead of the Brisbane Paralympics – https://theconversation.com/australian-para-sport-has-issues-everywhere-heres-what-must-be-fixed-ahead-of-the-brisbane-paralympics-256450

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margaret Murray, Senior Lecturer, Nutrition, Swinburne University of Technology

If you’re browsing the supermarket fridge for reduced-fat milk, it’s easy to be confused by the many different types.

You can find options labelled skim, skimmed, skinny, no fat, extra light, lite, light, low fat, reduced fat, semi skim and HiLo (high calcium, low fat).

So what’s the difference between two of these common milks – skim milk and light milk? How are they made? And which one’s healthier?

What do they contain?

Skim milk

In Australia and New Zealand, skim milk is defined as milk that contains no more than 1.5% milk fat and has at least 3% protein. On the nutrition information panel this looks like less than 1.5 grams of fat and at least 3g protein per 100 millilitres of milk.

But the fat content of skim milk can be as low as 0.1% or 0.1g per 100mL.

Light milk

Light milk is sometimes spelled “lite” but they’re essentially the same thing.

While light milk is not specifically defined in Australia and New Zealand, the term “light” is defined for food generally. If we apply the rules to milk, we can say light milk must contain no more than 2.4% fat (2.4g fat per 100mL).

In other words, light milk contains more fat than skim milk.

You can find the fat content by reading the “total fat per 100mL” on the label’s nutrition information panel.

How about other nutrients?

The main nutritional difference between skim milk and light milk, apart from the fat content, is the energy content.

Skim milk provides about 150 kilojoules of energy per 100mL whereas light milk provides about 220kJ per 100mL.

Any milk sold as cow’s milk must contain at least 3% protein (3g protein per 100mL of milk). That includes skim or light milk. So there’s typically not much difference there.

Likewise, the calcium content doesn’t differ much between skim milk and light milk. It is typically about 114 milligrams to 120mg per 100mL.

You can check these and other details on the label’s nutrition information panel.

How are they made?

Skim milk and light milk are not made by watering down full-cream milk.

Instead, full-cream milk is spun at high speeds in a device called a centrifuge. This causes the fat to separate and be removed, leaving behind milk containing less fat.

Who should be drinking what?

Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend we drink mostly reduced-fat milk – that is, milk containing no more than 2.4g fat per 100mL. Skim milk and light milk are both included in that category.

The exception is for children under two years old, who are recommended full-cream milk to meet their growing needs.

The reason our current guidelines recommend reduced-fat milk is that, since the 1970s, reduced-fat milk has been thought to help with reducing body weight and reducing the risk of heart disease. That’s because of its lower content of saturated fat and energy (kilojoules/calories) than full cream milk.

However, more recent evidence has shown drinking full-cream milk is not associated with weight gain or health risks. In fact, eating or drinking dairy products of any type may help reduce the risk of obesity and other metabolic disorders (such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes), especially in children and adolescents.

The science in this area continues to evolve. So the debate around whether there are health benefits to choosing reduced-fat milk over full cream milk is ongoing.

Whether or not there any individual health benefits from choosing skim milk or light milk over full cream will vary depending on your current health status and broader dietary habits.

For personalised health and dietary advice, speak to a health professional.

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

– ref. What’s the difference between skim milk and light milk? – https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-skim-milk-and-light-milk-255608

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Locke, Associate Researcher in Digital Disability, Centre for Culture and Technology, Curtin University

Since the recent explosion of widely available generative artificial intelligence (AI), it now seems that a new AI tool emerges every week.

With varying success, AI offers solutions for productivity, creativity, research, and also accessibility: making products, services and other content more usable for people with disability.

The award-winning 2024 Super Bowl ad for Google Pixel 8 is a poignant example of how the latest AI tech can intersect with disability.

Directed by blind director Adam Morse, it showcases an AI-powered feature that uses audio cues, haptic feedback (where vibrating sensations communicate information to the user) and animations to assist blind and low-vision users in capturing photos and videos.

The ad was applauded for being disability inclusive and representative. It also demonstrated a growing capacity for – and interest in – AI to generate more accessible technology.

AI is also poised to challenge how audio description is created and what it may sound like. This is the focus of our research team.

Audio description is a track of narration that describes important visual elements of visual media, including television shows, movies and live performances. Synthetic voices and quick, automated visual descriptions might result in more audio description on our screens. But will users lose out in other ways?

AI as people’s eyes

AI-powered accessibility tools are proliferating. Among them is Microsoft’s Seeing AI, an app that turns your smartphone into a talking camera by reading text and identifying objects. The app Be My AI uses virtual assistants to describe photos taken by blind users; it’s an AI version of the original app Be My Eyes, where the same task was done by human volunteers.

There are increasingly more AI software options for text-to-speech and document reading, as well as for producing audio description.

Audio description is an essential feature to make visual media accessible to blind or vision impaired audiences. But its benefits go beyond that.

Increasingly, research shows audio description benefits other disability groups and mainstream audiences without disability. Audio description can also be a creative way to further develop or enhance a visual text.

Traditionally, audio description has been created using human voices, script writers and production teams. However, in the last year several international streaming services including Netflix and Amazon Prime have begun offering audio description that’s at least partially generated with AI.

Yet there are a number of issues with the current AI technologies, including their ability to generate false information. These tools need to be critically appraised and improved.

Is AI coming for audio description jobs?

There are multiple ways in which AI might impact the creation – and end result – of audio description.

With AI tools, streaming services can get synthetic voices to “read” an audio description script. There’s potential for various levels of automation, while giving users the chance to customise audio description to suit their specific needs and preferences. Want your cooking show to be narrated in a British accent? With AI, you could change that with the press of a button.

However, in the audio description industry many are worried AI could undermine the quality, creativity and professionalism humans bring to the equation.

The language-learning app Duolingo, for example, recently announced it was moving forward with “AI first” development. As a result, many contractors lost jobs that can now purportedly be done by algorithms.

On the one hand, AI could help broaden the range of audio descriptions available for a range of media and live experiences.

But AI audio description may also cost jobs rather than create them. The worst outcome would be a huge amount of lower-quality audio description, which would undermine the value of creating it at all.

Can we trust AI to describe things well?

Industry impact and the technical details of how AI can be used in audio description are one thing.

What’s currently lacking is research that centres the perspectives of users and takes into consideration their experiences and needs for future audio description.

Accuracy – and trust in this accuracy – is vitally important for blind and low-vision audiences.

Cheap and often free, AI tools are now widely used to summarise, transcribe and translate. But it’s a well-known problem that generative AI struggles to stay factual. Known as “hallucinations”, these plausible fabrications proliferate even when the AI tools are not asked to create anything new – like doing a simple audio transcription.

If AI tools simply fabricate content rather than make existing material accessible, it would even further distance and disadvantage blind and low-vision consumers.

We can use AI for accessibility – with care

AI is a relatively new technology, and for it to be a true benefit in terms of accessibility, its accuracy and reliability need to be absolute. Blind and low-vision users need to be able to turn on AI tools with confidence.

In the current “AI rush” to make audio description cheaper, quicker and more available, it’s vital that the people who need it the most are closely involved in how the tech is deployed.

Kathryn Locke is employed as a researcher on the Australian Research Council’s discovery grant, “Diversifying audio description in the Australian digital landscape”.

Tama Leaver receives funding from the Australian Research Council. This work is supported by the discovery grant, “Diversifying audio description in the Australian digital landscape”. He is a chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.

– ref. AI is now used for audio description. But it should be accurate and actually useful for people with low vision – https://theconversation.com/ai-is-now-used-for-audio-description-but-it-should-be-accurate-and-actually-useful-for-people-with-low-vision-256808

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Gaston, Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

A lack of strategy and research funding – by both the current and previous governments – has been well documented, most comprehensively in the first report by the Science System Advisory Group (SSAG), released late last year.

If there is one word that sums up the current state of New Zealan’s research sector, it is scarcity. As the report summarises:

We have an underfunded system by any international comparison. This parsimony has led to harmful inter-institutional competition in a manner that is both wastefully expensive in terms of process and scarce researcher time, and is known to inhibit the most intellectually innovative ideas coming forward, and of course it is these that can drive a productive innovation economy.

The government expects research to contribute to economic growth, but policy and action undermine the sector’s capacity to do so.

The latest example is last week’s cancellation of the 2026 grant application round of the NZ$55 million Endeavour Fund “as we transition to the science, innovation and technology system of the future”. Interrupting New Zealand’s largest contestable source of science funding limits opportunities for researchers looking for support for new and emerging ideas.

Changes to the Marsden Fund, set up 30 years ago to support fundamental research, removed all funding for social science and the humanities and shifted focus to applied research. This is despite fundamental research in all fields underpinning innovation and the international ranking of our universities.

New Zealand has an opportunity to change its economy based on the potential of emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence, cleantech and quantum technologies. Other countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom, already consider quantum technologies a priority and fund them accordingly.

But when it comes to strategy, the composition of the boards of new Public Research Organisations, set up as part of the government’s science sector reform, are skewed towards business experience. Where there is scientific expertise, it tends to be in established industries. The governance of the proposed new entity to focus on emerging and advanced technologies is yet to be announced.

Critical mass requires funding and strategy

Scientists have been calling for a science investment target of 2% of GDP for a long time. It was once – roughly a decade ago – the average expenditure within the OECD; this has since increased to 2.7% of GDP, while New Zealand’s investment remains at 1.5%.

The SSAG report repeatedly refers to the lack of funding, and it would be the obvious thing to see addressed in this year’s budget. But expectations have already been lowered by the government’s insistence there will be no new money.

The report’s second high-level theme is the engagement of government with scientific strategy. Government announcements to date seem focused on attracting international investment through changes to tax settings and regulation. I would argue this is a matter of focusing on the wrapping rather than the present: the system itself needs to be attractive to investors.

Creating a thriving research sector is also a matter of scale. International cooperation is one way for New Zealand to access efficiencies of scale. And work on building international partnerships is one area of positive intent. But we need to look at our connectivity nationally as well, and use investment to build this further.

Countries with greater GDPs than New Zealand’s invest much more in research as a proportion of GDP. It means the size of these other countries’ scientific ecosystems – if measured by total expenditure – is three to four times New Zealand’s on a per capita basis.

A matter of scale

Per-capita scale matters because it tells us how easy it is for researchers to find someone else with the right skillset or necessary equipment. It tells us how likely it is for a student to find an expert in New Zealand to teach them, rather than needing to go overseas.

And it tells us how quickly start-up companies in emerging technologies will be able to find the skilled employees they need. A thriving university system that attracts young people to develop the research skills needed by advanced technology companies is a key part of this challenge.

The government’s science sector reform aims to increase its contribution to economic growth. But research contributes to economic growth when scientists can really “lean in” with confidence to commercialising and translating their science.

That can’t happen if budgets don’t fund the critical mass, connectivity and resources to stimulate the transition to a thriving science system.

Nicola Gaston receives funding from the Tertiary Education Commission as the Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. She also receives funding from the Marsden Fund. All research funding goes to the University of Auckland to pay the costs of the research she is employed to do.

– ref. NZ Budget 2025: science investment must increase as a proportion of GDP for NZ to innovate and compete – https://theconversation.com/nz-budget-2025-science-investment-must-increase-as-a-proportion-of-gdp-for-nz-to-innovate-and-compete-255591

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leonora Risse, Associate Professor in Economics, University of Canberra

After two years of publishing the gender pay gaps of Australia’s private-sector companies, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency has released public-sector employer data for the first time.

The report shows a stark contrast between the private and public sectors. The Commonwealth public sector has a gender pay gap of 6.4%, far less than the equivalent gap of 21.1% in the private sector.

The agency attributes a big part of the “substantially better” outcome in the public sector to the achievement of gender balance at managerial and board levels.

Women’s representation in senior and governance roles doesn’t just narrow the pay gap at the top. It can also change workplace cultures and embed more gender-equitable practices that ripple through to all occupational levels.

The agency says public-sector employers have achieved this outcome by “long-term and deliberate actions that address gender equality”. These include conducting a gender pay gap analysis and formulating a gender-equality strategy.

The public sector’s results also illustrate the power of setting targets. The Australian government has set – and now achieved – targets for women to hold 50% of all Australian government board positions.

Who’s performing well?

Of the 120 public-sector employers in the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s dataset, 55 have a gender pay gap that falls into the target range of between –5% and +5%.

Several have a gender pay gap in total remuneration at or very close to zero. These include the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Department of Treasury, Department of Social Services and the Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman.

A handful have a slight positive gender pay gap in favour of women, including the Productivity Commission.

Where is there room for improvement?

To support greater transparency, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency has published a searchable database of Commonwealth public sector employers. This is broken down by each department and agency.

The largest gender gaps in median total remuneration are reported by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (50.4%) and Coal Mining Industry Corporation (31.7%).

Closer to the middle of the pack, the Australian Federal Police reports a gender pay gap of 12.2%. The Reserve Bank of Australia has a gap of 11.5%, and Australia Post 8.6%.

The data does not include elected officials such as members of parliament.

All up, half of Commonwealth public-sector employers have a gender pay gap larger than 5%, which the agency deems the acceptable maximum.

But this is still a better performance than in the private sector, where 60% of companies exceeded the 5% threshold.

Read more:
Women’s annual salaries are narrowing the gap. But men still out-earn women by an average $547 a week

How much less are women earning?

Women working in Australia’s public sector earn on average A$8,200 less per year than their male colleagues.

The data cover both the Australian Public Service (APS) (which is directly responsible for the delivery of government services) and non-APS organisations (which deliver services on behalf of the government).

Within the APS workforce, men’s average total remuneration of $128,503 compares to women’s $121,146. This equates to a 5.7% gap.

In public-sector agencies outside the APS, this gender pay gap widens to 8.8%. Men’s average salary of $127,354 compares to women’s $116,157.

Read more:
Women’s annual salaries are narrowing the gap. But men still out-earn women by an average $547 a week

In agencies outside the APS, more of this gender gap – 5.6 percentage points – is due to men being paid more in bonuses, overtime and superannuation. Within the APS, these above-base payments contribute only 1.1 percentage points to the overall gap.

The role of discretionary above-base payments in widening the gap in total remuneration is similar to the dynamics of the private sector, where there is also greater scope for individual negotiation.

Research shows negotiation practices are laced with gender biases.

More standardised recruitment, promotion and wage-setting practices in the public sector, compared with private companies, mean there’s less scope for personal subjectivity and implicit biases in hiring, promotion and salary decisions.

Turning data into action

This is the first year the Commonwealth public sector’s performance on gender equality has been published at employer level. It follows changes to legislation in 2022 requiring public sector employers to report their gender equality indicators to WGEA from 2023, similar to the obligations of large private companies.

The point of publishing gender pay gaps is to spark awareness and motivate employer action.

Three in four public sector employers report they have taken action after conducting a gender pay gap analysis. Of these actions, one in four employers have corrected instances of unequal pay.

With a heightened awareness of the benefits of flexible work, almost all public-sector employers (96%) reported “flexible working is promoted throughout the organisation”.

But there is scope to improve the practical implementation of flexible work policies.

Only 56% of public-sector employers offer an online option for all team meetings. Only 43% provide support to managers to ensure performance evaluations are not unfairly biased against staff who work remotely or hybrid. And only 5% report that management positions can be designed as part-time.

With this greater transparency, there will be opportunity to monitor changes in future to look for ongoing improvements in gender-equality practices and outcomes.

It’s in the interests of fostering a more equitable, productive and effective public sector for all.

Read more:
Working from home is producing economic benefits return-to-office rules would quash

Leonora Risse receives research funding from the Trawalla Foundation and the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia. She has previously undertaken commissioned research for the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. She is a member of the Economic Society of Australia and the Women in Economics Network. She serves as an Expert Panel Member on gender pay equity for the Fair Work Commission.

– ref. The public service has a much smaller gender pay gap than the private sector. It’s a big achievement – https://theconversation.com/the-public-service-has-a-much-smaller-gender-pay-gap-than-the-private-sector-its-a-big-achievement-256810

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Barbara Catinella, Professor and Senior Principal Research Fellow, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), The University of Western Australia

Galaxies are often described as vast star factories, churning out new suns from clouds of gas. For decades, astronomers have assumed that the more raw material a galaxy holds, the more stars it should be able to make.

But our latest study, published this month in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia (PASA), challenges that assumption. We found that when it comes to forming stars, it’s not just the amount of gas in a galaxy that matters – it’s where that gas is located.

Getting the ingredients in the right place

Our research is part of one of the largest efforts to map atomic hydrogen gas in nearby galaxies. This huge project is called the WALLABY survey (or the Widefield ASKAP L-band Legacy All-sky Blind Survey).

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and the basic building block of stars. But surprisingly, a large fraction of this gas in galaxies lies far from where stars actually form – out in the faint outer regions, well beyond the bright stellar disk.

Think of atomic hydrogen as the flour in a cake recipe. It’s the essential ingredient for making stars. But what really matters for the recipe is not how much flour there is in the bag, but how much ends up in the mixing bowl.

In the same way, to understand how stars form, we need to focus on the gas that’s in the right place. In a galaxy, that means within the stellar disk, where it can actually be used.

A closer look

Until now, most measurements of atomic hydrogen in galaxies have focused on their total gas content, without showing where that gas is located. That’s because earlier observations – especially those made with single-dish radio telescopes – couldn’t detect where in a galaxy hydrogen gas was located.

However, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope in Western Australia has a very wide field of view and moderate resolution. This means astronomers can use it to efficiently map the hydrogen gas across large areas of the sky and within individual galaxies.

Using the ASKAP telescope, the WALLABY survey should eventually detect more than 200,000 galaxies and provide detailed hydrogen maps for many thousands of them.

A puzzle resolved

Our study, led by PhD student Seona Lee, draws on hydrogen maps for around 1,000 galaxies. This is an unprecedented sample size for this kind of analysis.

The results reveal a clear trend. The amount of star formation is much more closely linked to the amount of hydrogen gas within the stellar disk than the gas farther out. That outer gas, even when it is plentiful, appears to play little immediate role in fuelling new stars.

This helps explain a long-standing puzzle – why some galaxies with large gas reservoirs form relatively few stars. It turns out much of their gas may be sitting idle in the galactic outskirts, too far from the regions where stars actually form.

In short, measuring the total gas content of a galaxy doesn’t give the full picture. To understand star formation, we need to zoom in – not just total up the ingredients, but see where they’re actually being used.

Parts of this research were supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), through project number CE170100013.

– ref. For making stars, it’s not just how much gas a galaxy has that matters – it’s where it’s hiding – https://theconversation.com/for-making-stars-its-not-just-how-much-gas-a-galaxy-has-that-matters-its-where-its-hiding-257011

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Jeffries, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, Western Sydney University

The outbreak of the deadly “mud bug” melioidosis in north Queensland has not yet abated since it began at the start of this year.

So far there have been 221 cases and 31 deaths from the disease in 2025. This encompasses a 400% increase in cases in Cairns and a 600% increase in Townsville compared to the average over previous years.

Fortunately, case numbers have begun to drop. Queensland Health reports new cases weekly, and in the most recent reporting period – up to May 6 – seven new cases were recorded, down from a peak of 29 cases in the week to February 16.

However, people are still contracting and dying from this disease. So what’s keeping it active in Queensland, and are there any promising vaccines on the horizon?

What is melioidosis?

Melioidosis is caused by the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei which lives in soil, mud and groundwater, usually not causing any harm. But B. pseudomallei can cause disease in humans and animals if it enters the skin via a cut. Or it can be inhaled in water droplets and enter the lungs.

The disease generally takes one to four weeks to establish itself, meaning people don’t develop symptoms immediately after they’ve been exposed.

Melioidosis most commonly presents as pneumonia. However chronic skin infections, called cutaneous infections, occur in 10–20% of cases. Melioidosis can also lead to blood infections.

Symptoms of the pneumonia form include fever, headache, difficulty breathing, muscle pain, chest pain and confusion.

We don’t understand cutaneous infections as well as we do lung infections with melioidosis. Cutaneous infections are also less responsive to standard antibiotic treatments due to the nature of the chronic wound. For example, the bacteria can form a slimy layer called a biofilm. This can help the bacteria produce proteins which can block the antibiotics from working.

Melioidosis occurs most commonly in tropical areas, such as Thailand. But it’s also regarded as endemic in northern Australia, occurring in Queensland and the Northern Territory. Nonetheless, the scale of the current outbreak in north Queensland is highly unusual.

Anyone can contract melioidosis, but certain medical conditions can increase a person’s risk. These include diabetes, liver, kidney or lung disease, cancer, or other conditions which might compromise the patient’s immune system.

During the current Queensland outbreak 95% of cases have been in people with risk factors such as diabetes or lung disease.

How is melioidosis spreading in Queensland?

Melioidosis increases during periods of high rainfall and flooding, and this has been the case in the current outbreak. However, patterns have begun to emerge suggesting the bacterium may now be spreading in other ways.

Experts have suggested that while the Townsville cases can be explained by flooding and correlate to high levels of rainfall, the Cairns cases do not match with this explanation.

One suggestion is that the construction of the Bruce Highway upgrade south of Cairns has caused an increase in cases due to clay soil particles becoming airborne during construction.

It’s not an entirely new idea. The movement of soil during highway construction and urban expansion has been investigated as a potential mode of transmission during previous spikes of melioidosis cases in far north Queensland.

The infrastructure body responsible for the upgrade has pledged to follow expert health advice as investigations continue.

Could B. pseudomallei be evolving and becoming more deadly?

This potential change in how the disease is spreading, and the increased number of cases and deaths, might indicate the organism is evolving to spread more easily and become more deadly. Genome analysis is ongoing to determine this.

Notably, bacteria found in the environment can acquire genes from other bacteria in soil and water. This may give them enhanced abilities to survive in unfavourable conditions and be more resilient to changes in their natural habitat, as well as potentially infect human hosts more effectively.

In a warming climate with increased rainfall, the bacterium behind melioidosis is likely to be a prime candidate for this kind of change.

How about treatments and protection?

There’s currently only one way to treat melioidosis, which involves receiving intravenous antibiotics in hospital for several weeks, followed by up to six months of oral antibiotics.

Against a backdrop of urgent calls for more research and increased public awareness around melioidosis, there may be hope on the horizon.

Researchers at the University of California have developed a vaccine which produces a protein that mimics the proteins in B. pseudomallei, leading to an immune response against this bacterium. The vaccine has been successful in mouse models and will continue to a further animal trial, which, if successful, will lead to human trials.

It seems melioidosis is a problem that’s not going away.

If you live in an affected region such as tropical Queensland or the NT, limit exposure to mud and water as much as possible. If you’re spending time in muddy areas, use appropriate personal protective equipment such as gloves and boots. You can also protect yourself by covering any open wounds and wearing a respirator if you’re working closely with water.

Monitor for symptoms and see a doctor if you feel unwell. More information is also available from Queensland Health.

Thomas Jeffries 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 Queensland melioidosis outbreak is still growing. What’s keeping this deadly mud bug active? – https://theconversation.com/the-queensland-melioidosis-outbreak-is-still-growing-whats-keeping-this-deadly-mud-bug-active-256794

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jun Eric Fu, Senior Research Fellow, Youth Research Collective, The University of Melbourne

Australia’s school system – and whether it is doing its job – is often under the microscope from politicians, experts and parents.

The most recent NAPLAN results in 2024 triggered a wave of heated discussions after about one in three students were not meeting literacy and numeracy benchmarks.

Education Minister Jason Clare is among those who also have serious concerns about rates of students who complete Year 12. In 2024, the retention rate of students between Year 7 and Year 12 was 79.9%. For government school students, it was 74%.

But what do students themselves think about their schooling? Our new study asked recent school leavers about their experiences.

Our research

Our study draws on a 2023 survey as part of the Life Patterns research program, which follows different generations of young Australians after school.

We surveyed more than 4,000 young people recruited from a diverse sample of 100 government, Catholic and independent schools in urban and regional areas of Victoria, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania.

These young people completed high school in 2023 and were asked to comment on their school experiences.

Students are mostly satisfied, but …

The participants rated their overall impression of school on a five-point scale, from very satisfied to very dissatisfied. About 60% of them were “quite satisfied” or “very satisfied”.

Despite this broadly positive picture, many of them also expressed concerns about their education, feeling its current content did not prepare them for life after school.

As one female student from a capital city told us:

I feel like school doesn’t prepare us for the real world at all and it freaks me out.

This sentiment was echoed by another female student from a regional city:

School seems extremely disconnected from either knowledge or experience that will help with jobs, or life skills that will assist in becoming a good, productive, happy person.

For many, this disconnect between the education on offer and the education they wanted contributed to a disengagement from school. A male student from a regional city said:

I am committed to my education and a dedicated student, but find it hard to connect with some of the information we are learning as it seems outdated and irrelevant. I want to learn things that are going to improve my life.

This follows researchers’ longstanding concerns the education system is not adequately setting students up for life outside school – and the complex social, political and economic changes they will confront.

Don’t focus on uniforms

Students also spoke about schools focusing on issues that do not matter to young people, such as students wearing the “correct” uniform or whether or not they have their phone at school.

As one female student commented:

Focus on more real issues. The debates about phones allowed at school or uniforms at school seem almost irrelevant when you compare them to the everyday common hardships and problems young people face.

Too much stress

A strong theme in young people’s responses was the amount of stress they faced with their studies. These feelings were often linked to heavy workloads (particularly in Year 11 and 12) and the pressure they felt to achieve certain grades.

A male student from a country town said:

[…] the pressure and the expectations to do well in school is so high and caused a lot of stress and anxiety.

Another male student from a capital city also felt:

There is so much pressure on high school and how one exam can change the course of your future which isn’t true.

This echoes other studies that query the focus on a single score (the ATAR) and supports alternative approaches to measuring education outcomes at the end of Year 12.

More mental health support

Amid ongoing reports of young people struggling with their mental health, mental health also emerged as a major concern in students’ responses.

A male student from a capital city told us young people were “battling every day” and they needed more free, accessible resources and support from school staff.

They also saw a connection between the pressures of schooling and mental health concerns. As one female student told us:

There is too much expected from students at school, leading to burn out and mental illnesses.

What next?

Our study shows many young people care deeply about their education. But they also feel it isn’t working for them or preparing them for life beyond school.

This suggests government institutions and schools need to be doing more to include young people’s perspectives as they design and implement curricula.

By recognising young people as active stakeholders in schools,
education shifts from something happening to them to something happening with them. This approach can foster a stronger sense of belonging, ownership and engagement with learning.

Jun Eric Fu works on the Life Patterns research program, which is funded by the Australian Research Council.

Julia Cook receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. ‘Outdated and irrelevant’: what do young Australians think of their schooling? – https://theconversation.com/outdated-and-irrelevant-what-do-young-australians-think-of-their-schooling-256889

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Visitor, School of History, Australian National University

I remember seeing footage, several years ago, of a jubilant Malcolm Turnbull, then prime minister and Liberal leader, speaking in Tamworth to loyal members of the National Party. These were the rank and file who had spent weeks stumping for their man in New England, Nationals leader and deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who had resubmitted himself to voters after discovering he was a dual citizen of Australia and New Zealand.

A lot was riding on the outcome. Turnbull’s government had the slimmest possible majority in the lower house, and the loss of the Nationals leader would have been bad for the government as well as morale. Consequently, Turnbull was overjoyed when he thanked voters in New England “for getting the band back together”. Joyce’s handsome victory was, he explained, a “great demonstration” of the “strength of our Coalition”.

While it may seem unfair to bands everywhere to lean too heavily on that metaphor, there is something to it. Like The Beatles, the Liberal and National parties have allowed their creative tension to become little more than just tension. Like Simon and Garfunkel, deep-seated resentments have been allowed to fester without resolution for too long. And now, like Fleetwood Mac, the two parties have chosen to go their own way, at least for a time.

An agreement and an idea

The Coalition is first and foremost an agreement – or rather, a series of agreements. It is predicated on the pragmatic reality that neither the Liberal Party (and beforehand, its predecessor parties) nor the agrarian National (formerly Country) Party was able to govern alone, or at least not for very long.

The first of these agreements was struck in February 1923, following an election the previous year that left the Nationalist Party, led by wartime prime minister Billy Hughes, well short of a lower house majority. The new Country Party won 14 seats in the lower house (roughly 18%) on its own, making it a force to be reckoned with.

Country MPs were willing to form a power-sharing agreement with the Nationalists, but not without cost. The larger party had to jettison its leader in favour of a new prime minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce. The rural party won a hefty share of the ministries (five out of 11) and Earle Page, Country Party leader, became treasurer and de facto deputy prime minister.

Though they were not aware of it, Bruce and Page were creating something that has since become a tradition, an idea that can all too easily seem like an immutable part of Australia’s political life.

For more than 100 years now, some form of that “Coalition” has stood against Labor, and in doing so has helped to constitute a two-party system whose predominance is well and truly waning.

Discordant notes

The termination of the Coalition in 2025 is neither shocking nor unprecedented. Indeed, if the band analogy has any meaning here, it is because there have been so many discordant notes over those 102 years.

When the United Australia Party (UAP) came on to the federal scene in response to the Great Depression, the party of farmers chose to go it alone. The UAP won a majority and governed in its own right from 1931 to 1934, only joining the Country Party in coalition when the 1934 elections robbed it of outright majority.

The death of UAP founder and prime minister Joe Lyons in April 1939 tore that marriage apart. His successor, Robert Menzies, declared his desire to choose all ministers (even those from the Country Party) himself, thereby alienating that party. Apart from a few dissidents, the Country Party quit the coalition, until the outbreak of war and declining electoral fortunes made a remarriage necessary.

The Liberals and Country Party/Nationals managed their affairs well enough during their long stints in office from 1949 to 1972, and again under Malcolm Fraser (1975–83) and John Howard (1996–2007). But even in good times, these were not always the happiest of bandmates.

Country Party leader John McEwen dominated the government in the late 1960s, to the point of brazenly vetoing the leadership candidacy of Harold Holt’s deputy (the unpopular Billy McMahon) when the former went swimming and failed to return.

Fraser was often criticised by Liberal colleagues for his instinctive closeness to the National Party. Paul Davey explains that in Howard’s day, the Nationals felt “overshadowed” and “undersold”. In fact, the very word “Coalition” bordered on synonymous with “Liberal”.

Different states of mind

To be fair, Howard had learned a lot about managing the Coalition relationship by the time he arrived at The Lodge. The agreement had been brutally severed during his first stint as leader, thanks to Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s quest to become prime minister.

A figure head of New Right populism, Bjelke-Petersen felt that neither the federal Liberal Party (then led by Howard) nor his National Party colleagues were made of tough enough stuff to beat modern Labor.

The Nationals’ federal leader, Ian Sinclair, later said the vision of Howard, Sinclair and Bjelke-Petersen presenting separate election programs was an “absolute farce”.

It mattered that the death of the Coalition was spearheaded by a state premier. Such agreements had always been less popular and more controversial within the state branches of both parties.

South of the Murray, it was quite unspectacular for Country Party MPs in the mid-20th century to change their allegiances and even stand alone in office with the tentative support of the Labor Party.

In Queensland, the Liberal and National Parties governed together, often with the latter as the senior partner. But Bjelke-Petersen scrapped the Coalition in that state in 1983 and consolidated its parliamentary majority at an election in 1986. By the time of his departure in 1987, both parties had badly fractured.

In time, the two parties merged in that state to prevent such outbreaks in future. Federal members of the Queensland LNP face some awkward conversations now.

Principled stances and survival

In announcing the latest split, Nationals leader David Littleproud said his party was taking a “principled stance”, though what exact principles were involved we have not learned. His deputy, Kevin Hogan, said he hoped the parties would “get back together” later on.

We know the sticking points were these: a guaranteed $20 billion Regional Australia Fund, divestiture powers to break up businesses with unhealthy market power, obligations for better regional mobile coverage, and an ongoing commitment to the nuclear energy project.

The latter commitment flies in the face of electoral reason, but the other three policies are clearly informed by the history of telecommunications deregulation and privatisation (which caused many sleepless nights in the National Party during the Howard years) and the ever-present threat of other, more populist parties chasing Nationals MPs’ heels in regional Australia.

The National Party made a big effort to resist that pressure in the 1990s, when One Nation looked like it might decimate its grip on the regions. A few days ago, Pauline Hanson said the Nationals and One Nation could in fact form their own coalition, so close were their policy offerings. That this was even uttered is a testament to how much the Nationals have changed over the past 30 years in their quest for survival.

Time apart could provide the parties with the political space they need for self-reflection and strategic reorientation. But they will not have one another to blame for their performance in coming months and years. Breaking up the band is easy to do. Touring alone is hard.

Joshua Black is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The Australia Institute.

– ref. The band is breaking up: has the Coalition stopped making sense? – https://theconversation.com/the-band-is-breaking-up-has-the-coalition-stopped-making-sense-257118

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University

There was not a lot of cheer in the media reporting ahead of the 2025/6 Victorian budget released on Wednesday. Debt and deficits dominated the coverage.

All eyes turned to new treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, to see if in her first budget the Labor government was finally delivering some financial discipline.

That theme flowed into the press conference during the budget lockup, when journalists got to grill the treasurer about the budget papers. Symes copped a pasting. Journalists were clearly unhappy with what they had read and more unhappy about what they heard.

Yes, the operating side of the budget is projected to be back to a wafer thin A$600 million surplus. But that is almost $1 billion less than was promised when Symes delivered a budget update last December.

And all that infrastructure is to paid for by more borrowings, taking net debt to $167 billion, $10 billion more than it was last year.

And that was despite the government benefiting from a whopping $3.5 billion in GST grants from the Commonwealth, over $1 billion more than the previous year.

And it was despite a new fire and emergency services levy that is set to deliver an extra $600 million.

And it was also despite a 22% increase in fees and fines, and a $1.3 billion rise in unspecified government charges. And it is also based on banking $500 million of savings from an efficiency review led by former head of Premier and Cabinet Helen Silver, which won’t be finished until July at the earliest.

So where did that extra money go? Well, it paid for more than $6 billion of new services ($3 billion net of savings), and an extra $1.6 billion for new infrastructure, across all portfolios. This includes free public transport for seniors on weekends and free public transport for kids.

The big ticket item was health, which got an extra $2.5 billion. That came as a surprise given health copped a $1.5 billion cut in last year’s budget, after the government claimed the hospitals were still spending at pandemic levels and needed to rediscover efficiency.

That cut did not last long. Health services workers staged a short but effective campaign that forced the then new premier, Jacinta Allan, to buckle. The money was returned in December’s budget update.

The budget papers show the Victorian economy has been performing strongly post pandemic, with Victoria leading the nation in employment growth. The budget papers tip that strong performance will continue, despite the continued warnings that all that government debt will eventually force the economy to buckle.

The government argues rather than be criticised it should be applauded for a job well done.

It spent up big on infrastructure during the pandemic, which has delivered to the state remarkably strong economic performance. It also spent up big to protect Victorians from COVID.

It has a budget recovery plan and everything is on schedule. First employment had to grow, then we needed a cash surplus and now we have an operating surplus to add to it. Net debt in real terms will start to fall next year as the last step in a long-term plan.

It also points to the state’s balance sheet to highlight it has something to show for all that debt in the form of $437 billion in assets.

Victoria is not alone in running budget operating deficits during the pandemic. NSW and Queensland make happy bedfellows, but they are not as eye-catching because their levels of debt are much lower.

Victoria is also not alone as a state or provincial government that has a lot of debt. The Canadian provinces are also in that situation, with Quebec and Ontario leading the pack.

Then there are the German state governments. Their problem is not too much debt, but far too little, leaving them to grapple with not enough as well as crumbling infrastructure caused by a constitutional debt brake that is responsible for the mess, and which has recently been lifted.

Treasurer Symes delivered a budget that has disappointed those who wanted to see debt fall and for the government to at long last show some fiscal discipline. With the economy still doing quite nicely, and so many new announcements to glow in, Treasurer Symes will be quite happy to disappoint.

The political calculation here is simple: Victorians want services and aren’t worried if it is paid for by debt.

Whether that remains the case at next year’s state election due in November is another question. For this will have been Syme’s last real chance to have been more prudent, and just at that moment when the economy could have afforded it.

David Hayward chairs the Strategic Advisory Committee for Fire Rescue Victoria.

– ref. Victorian budget has cash to splash on health, transport but new levies, job cuts, rising debt signal pain ahead – https://theconversation.com/victorian-budget-has-cash-to-splash-on-health-transport-but-new-levies-job-cuts-rising-debt-signal-pain-ahead-257013

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

The Reserve Bank of Australia cut the official interest rate for the second time this year, as it lowered forecasts for Australian economic growth and pointed to increasing uncertainty in the world economy.

The bank lowered the cash rate target by 0.25%, from 4.1% to 3.85%, saying inflation is expected to remain in the target band.

All the big four banks swiftly passed the cut on to households with mortgages. This will save a household with a $500,000 loan about $80 a month.

Announcing the cut, the Reserve Bank stressed in its accompanying statement it stands ready to reduce rates again if the economic outlook deteriorates sharply.

The Board considered a severe downside scenario and noted that monetary policy is well placed to respond decisively to international developments if they were to have material implications for activity and inflation in Australia.

Inflation is back under control

The latest Consumer Price Index showed that inflation remained around the middle of the Reserve Bank’s medium-term target band of 2-3% in the March quarter.

The Reserve Bank was also comforted by the underlying inflation measure called the “trimmed mean”. This measure excludes items with the largest price movements up or down.

The bank noted that it has returned to the 2–3% target band for the first time since 2021. This suggests inflation is not just temporarily low due to temporary factors such as the electricity price rebates.

Read more:
Inflation is easing, boosting the case for another interest rate cut in May

In February, Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock conceded the bank had arguably been “late raising interest rates on the way up”. It did not want to be late on the way down.

Perhaps Bullock is being unduly modest. The central bank looks to have judged well the extent of monetary tightening. It did not raise interest rates as much as its peers, but still got inflation back to the target.

Unemployment remains low

Last week, we got an update on the strength of the labour market. Unemployment stayed at 4.1%. It has now been around 4% since late 2023, a remarkable achievement.

This is below the 4.5% the Reserve Bank had regarded as the level consistent with steady inflation (in economic jargon, the NAIRU). But neither prices nor wages have accelerated.

Households and businesses may turn cautious

In its updated forecasts, the bank sees headline inflation dropping to 2.1% by mid-year but going back to 3.0% by the end of the year, as the electricity subsidies are removed. By mid-2027, it will be back near the middle of the 2-3% target.

Underlying inflation is forecast to stay around the middle of the target band throughout.

The Reserve Bank cut its forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) to 2.1% by December, down from its previous forecast of 2.4% made in February. It said:

Economic policy uncertainty has increased sharply alongside recent global developments, and this is expected to prompt some households to increase their precautionary savings and some businesses to postpone some investment decisions.

The unemployment rate is expected to increase to 4.3% by the end of the year and remain there through 2026.

Cost of living pressures look set to ease, as real household disposable income grows faster than population.

As the Reserve Bank governor told a media conference on Tuesday:

There’s now a new set of challenges facing the economy, but with inflation declining and the unemployment rate relatively low, we’re well positioned to deal with them. The board remains prepared to take further action if that is required.

Economic and policy ‘unpredictability’

The main uncertainty in the global economy is how the trade war instigated by US President Donald Trump will play out. According to one count, he has announced new or revised tariff policies about 50 times.

“The outlook for the global economy has deteriorated since the February statement. This is due to the adverse impact on global growth from higher tariffs and widespread economic and policy unpredictability,” the bank noted.

The US tariff pauses on the highest rates on China and most other nations are due to be in place for 90 days. But more measures may be announced before then.

This uncertainty is likely to be stifling trade, and even more so investment decisions by companies in the face of rapidly changing policies. And it will weaken the global economy.

In her press conference, Bullock said the board’s judgement was that “global trade developments will overall be disinflationary for Australia”. Not only is the global outlook weaker, but some goods no longer being sold to the US could be diverted to Australia.

Where will interest rates go from here?

The Reserve Bank’s updated forecasts assume interest rates will fall further, to 3.4% by the end of the year.

But this is just a reflection of what financial markets are implying. It is not necessarily what the bank itself expects to do. It is certainty not a promise of what they will do.

But the Reserve Bank still regards its stance as “restrictive”, or weighing on growth. So if it continues to believe inflation will stay within the target band, or the global outlook deteriorates, it will cut rates further.

John Hawkins was formerly a senior economist with the Reserve Bank.

– ref. RBA cuts interest rates, ready to respond again if the economy weakens further – https://theconversation.com/rba-cuts-interest-rates-ready-to-respond-again-if-the-economy-weakens-further-256798

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Dickinson, Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW Sydney

Ensuring the provision of high quality disability services will pose a significant challenge for the Albanese government’s second term.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) cost A$43.9 billion in 2023–24 and is one of the fastest growing pressures on the federal budget.

As the government seeks to moderate growth of the scheme budget, some NDIS participants are finding they are no longer eligible for the scheme.

The problem is, the supports they’re supposed to be able to access instead aren’t yet in place – or don’t exist.

Containing growth

Concerns have been mounting for some years about the NDIS’s growing budget. In 2024, National Cabinet set a target of moderating annual growth to 8%. If met, the scheme will still grow to $58 billion by 2028.

The previous government attempted to limit its annual growth through legislative changes and a focus on weeding out fraud.

Read more:
The NDIS reform bill has been passed – will it get things ‘back on track’ for people with disability?

But there have been a number of reports in recent months of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) reassessing eligibility of NDIS participants to determine whether their supports are most appropriately paid for by the scheme.

If individuals are unable to provide evidence within 28 days they may lose their funding. This can be a challenge to get if participants need to see a clinical professional to gather evidence.

One group particularly impacted by eligibility reassessments are children. Some participants report being told they are no longer eligible for NDIS funding and should instead seek supports from other mainstream services such as health or education.

But all too often, parents find these services don’t fund the necessary supports, leaving them to either fund this themselves or have their child go without.

If opportunities for early intervention are missed, they may require more intensive and expensive supports in future.

What are foundational supports?

The NDIS was never intended to provide services to all people with disability. About 86% of disabled Australians do not have NDIS plans.

But this doesn’t mean that people with disability who are not on the NDIS don’t also have support needs.

New research found people with disability who were not NDIS participants had high levels of need for assistance for tasks of daily living including transport, cognitive and emotional tasks, mobility and household chores.

These supports aren’t usually provided in the health system, but similar supports are provided through aged care.

The NDIS review argued a lack of accessible and inclusive mainstream services for people with disability meant people were being pushed into the NDIS as their only potential source of support.

A key recommendation of the NDIS review was states and territories should provide “foundational supports”.

Foundational supports are split into two categories. General foundational supports includes things such as peer support, improving self-advocacy skills, and information and advice.

Targeted supports include shopping and cleaning for those not eligible for the NDIS. Supports are aimed at particular groups such as those with psychosocial disability (from a mental disorder), families of children with developmental delay, and transition supports for young people preparing for employment and independent living.

Foundational supports are supposed to be available from July of this year so people with disability who aren’t eligible for the NDIS can access support without having to join the scheme.

But people who are reassessed as ineligible for the scheme are having their funding cut before these foundational supports have been established, leaving a worrying gap.

Read more:
States agreed to share foundational support costs. So why the backlash against NDIS reforms now?

There is currently significant confusion in the disability community about what foundational supports will look like and who will be able to access these.

What is clear is there is significant unmet need for people with disability outside of the scheme and this might lead to a deterioration of functioning among those in this group and potentially burnout of informal carers.

Getting foundational supports right will be a key point of negotiation between federal and state and territory governments if people with disability are to be supported appropriately and the NDIS is to be sustainable.

New ministers and ministries

The new government has moved responsibility for the NDIS from the Department of Social Services into the new Department of Health, Disability and Ageing led by Mark Butler.

While Butler will sit in Cabinet, Jenny McAllister has been appointed to the outer ministry as Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

The shift of the NDIS to this portfolio has raised concerns among the disability community that it might not be a priority in an government department that also deals with health and aged care.

There are further concerns this move might medicalise how disability is seen. This would go against the human rights basis of the NDIS, where issues of choice and control are crucial.

The ministerial and departmental restructures do present new opportunities to harmonise services for people with disability.

Currently health, disability and aged care are competing to attract similar workforces across allied health, aged care and disability support. A cross-sector approach to workforce planning could be streamlined if it is the responsibility of one department.

Without this, we risk putting more pressure on the NDIS and leaving people with disability not on the NDIS without the supports they need.

The government’s ministerial and departmental restructure will likely further delay the implementation of foundational supports. Given the breadth of responsibilities of the health, disability and aged care portfolio, other policies – and election promises – might take precedence over work on foundational supports.

Helen Dickinson receives funding from ARC, NHMRC and Department of Social Services

Anne Kavanagh receives funding from the ARC, NHMRC, MRFF, MS Australia and the Australian government.

– ref. The government wants to contain NDIS growth. But ineligible people with disability also need support – https://theconversation.com/the-government-wants-to-contain-ndis-growth-but-ineligible-people-with-disability-also-need-support-256236

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Riboldi, Lecturer in Social Impact and Social Change, UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney

Social media advertising is an increasingly important frontier in election campaigns.

Political parties, candidates and third-party groups – such as trade unions, industry bodies and interest groups – all spend big to push their message high into the algorithms of potential voters.

Read more:
What did the parties say on TikTok in the election, and how? Here’s the campaign broken down in 5 charts

In the 2025 Australian federal election, this spend has been estimated at around A$40 million across the Meta- and Google-owned digital media platforms.

Based on our analysis of data from the Meta Ad Library – part of a broader research project on third sector groups (not political parties or candidates) during the election – third party groups spent more than $7.5 million advertising on Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram from March 28 to May 3 – the date the election was called to polling day.

Understanding which of these groups spent what, and on what, offers insights into the election results and modern political campaigning generally.

Some surprises in the stats

During the election campaign, much media commentary focused on right wing organisation Advance Australia’s digital campaigning.

However, our analysis shows pro-Liberal/National Party groups were outspent on Meta (which owns Facebook) almost 3:1 by anti-Liberal groups.

Much of this was focused on workers’ rights, or in opposition to the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy.

The top 25 spending groups on Meta spent just more than $6 million between them, at a rate of around $6,500 a day. The rate of spending increased steadily during the campaign, with the bulk of the spend (more than $4 million) occurring in the final two weeks.

On May 2, the day before the election, these 25 big spenders paid on average $16,622 to push their message on Meta social media platforms.

Conservative campaign group Advance Australia spent just less than $50,000 on Meta on the final day of the campaign (social media advertising is exempt from the two-day ad-blackout laws affecting traditional media operators).

Advance was the biggest third-party campaigning group on Meta during the election, spending more than $1 million during the campaign’s 37 days.

Advance’s left-wing competitor during the campaign was the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), which spent around $475,000 on Meta advertising across the campaign, including more than $52,000 on May 2.

While the ACTU spent less than half of Advance’s spend across Meta during the campaign, it spent three times as much on YouTube/Google advertising. Data from the Google Ad Transparency Center reveals the ACTU spent $928,000 on the platform between March 28 and May 3, whereas Advance spent $296,000 during the same period.

Key battlegrounds: climate and energy

The other two big Meta spenders the day before polling day highlight the key policy contest among third party organisations – the Coalition’s proposal to introduce nuclear powered energy to Australia.

Nuclear for Australia was the biggest spender on Meta on May 2, spending more than $65,000 in one day. Its direct counterpoint, Liberals Against Nuclear, spent a touch more than $32,000 on the same day.

However, during the whole campaign, Liberals Against Nuclear spent more ($246,000 compared to Nuclear for Australia’s $236,000).

An anti-nuclear message was particularly prominent across the top 25 spending groups on Meta. Of the 15 organisations we identified as being explicitly anti-Liberal, nine were climate organisations with an anti-nuclear message.

These nine organisations spent a total of $2.5 million across Meta during the course of the campaign.

The most significant of these was Climate 200, which spent almost $900,000 on Meta during the election campaign.

Another key anti-nuclear nuclear campaigner on Meta was Climate Action Network Australia (CANA), which spent almost $400,000 between March 28 and May 3 across two different Facebook pages, and Hothouse Magazine, which spent almost $300,000 on pro-renewables advertising.

Together, the 15 explicitly anti-Liberal groups spent more than $3.6 million during the election, far eclipsing the two clear pro-Liberal groups, Advance Australia and Nuclear for Australia, which spent around $1.3 million between them.

So, what insights might these findings offer into the election results?

What may the future hold?

There certainly appears to be a correlation between the historic low Coalition vote and the outspending of pro-Liberal entities on Meta.

Read more:
Political parties can recover after a devastating election loss. But the Liberals will need to think differently

Outside of Advance and Nuclear for Australia’s Meta campaigning, big-spending right-wing groups such as Australians for Prosperity, Better Australia and Australian Taxpayer’s Alliance seemed more singularly focused on tearing down the Greens and Climate 200-backed independents than on helping the Coalition win government.

In contrast, the anti-Dutton and anti-nuclear focus of the anti-Liberal third party spending has a degree of collective discipline about it, which is probably indicative of the strength of the workers’ rights and climate movements in Australia.

Additionally, the climate movement’s strong anti-nuclear campaign may have presented a message which glossed over Labor’s climate failures during the previous term.

This may have sent some pro-climate voters to Labor rather than to the Greens or Climate 200 independents. For their part, these organisations appeared to campaign more around the opportunities of a possible minority government than on environmental issues.

Civil society actors such as trade unions and industry groups have a long history of involvement in Australian politics.

The increasing non-major party vote, now around a third of all voters, means there are now more voices in our democratic processes.

This in turn creates more opportunities for third party organisations to influence policy debate and election outcomes.

Mark Riboldi 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. Follow the money: the organisations that spent the most on social media during the election – https://theconversation.com/follow-the-money-the-organisations-that-spent-the-most-on-social-media-during-the-election-256784