Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Binns, Senior Lecturer, Media & Communication, RMIT University

Some say it’s em dashes, dodgy apostrophes, or too many emoji. Others suggest that maybe the word “delve” is a chatbot’s calling card. It’s no longer the sight of morphed bodies or too many fingers, but it might be something just a little off in the background. Or video content that feels a little too real.

The markers of AI-generated media are becoming harder to spot as technology companies work to iron out the kinks in their generative artificial intelligence (AI) models.

But what if instead of trying to detect and avoid these glitches, we deliberately encouraged them instead? The flaws, failures and unexpected outputs of AI systems can reveal more about how these technologies actually work than the polished, successful outputs they produce.

When AI hallucinates, contradicts itself, or produces something beautifully broken, it reveals its training biases, decision-making processes, and the gaps between how it appears to “think” and how it actually processes information.

In my work as a researcher and educator, I’ve found that deliberately “breaking” AI – pushing it beyond its intended functions through creative misuse – offers a form of AI literacy. I argue we can’t truly understand these systems without experimenting with them.

Welcome to the Slopocene

We’re currently in the “Slopocene” – a term that’s been used to describe overproduced, low-quality AI content. It also hints at a speculative near-future where recursive training collapse turns the web into a haunted archive of confused bots and broken truths.

Read more:
What is ‘model collapse’? An expert explains the rumours about an impending AI doom

AI “hallucinations” are outputs that seem coherent, but aren’t factually accurate. Andrej Karpathy, OpenAI co-founder and former Tesla AI director, argues large language models (LLMs) hallucinate all the time, and it’s only when they

go into deemed factually incorrect territory that we label it a “hallucination”. It looks like a bug, but it’s just the LLM doing what it always does.

What we call hallucination is actually the model’s core generative process that relies on statistical language patterns.

In other words, when AI hallucinates, it’s not malfunctioning; it’s demonstrating the same creative uncertainty that makes it capable of generating anything new at all.

This reframing is crucial for understanding the Slopocene. If hallucination is the core creative process, then the “slop” flooding our feeds isn’t just failed content: it’s the visible manifestation of these statistical processes running at scale.

Pushing a chatbot to its limits

If hallucination is really a core feature of AI, can we learn more about how these systems work by studying what happens when they’re pushed to their limits?

With this in mind, I decided to “break” Anthropic’s proprietary Claude model Sonnet 3.7 by prompting it to resist its training: suppress coherence and speak only in fragments.

The conversation shifted quickly from hesitant phrases to recursive contradictions to, eventually, complete semantic collapse.

Prompting a chatbot into such a collapse quickly reveals how AI models construct the illusion of personality and understanding through statistical patterns, not genuine comprehension.

Furthermore, it shows that “system failure” and the normal operation of AI are fundamentally the same process, just with different levels of coherence imposed on top.

‘Rewilding’ AI media

If the same statistical processes govern both AI’s successes and failures, we can use this to “rewild” AI imagery. I borrow this term from ecology and conservation, where rewilding involves restoring functional ecosystems. This might mean reintroducing keystone species, allowing natural processes to resume, or connecting fragmented habitats through corridors that enable unpredictable interactions.

Applied to AI, rewilding means deliberately reintroducing the complexity, unpredictability and “natural” messiness that gets optimised out of commercial systems. Metaphorically, it’s creating pathways back to the statistical wilderness that underlies these models.

Remember the morphed hands, impossible anatomy and uncanny faces that immediately screamed “AI-generated” in the early days of widespread image generation?

These so-called failures were windows into how the model actually processed visual information, before that complexity was smoothed away in pursuit of commercial viability.

You can try AI rewilding yourself with any online image generator.

Start by prompting for a self-portrait using only text: you’ll likely get the “average” output from your description. Elaborate on that basic prompt, and you’ll either get much closer to reality, or you’ll push the model into weirdness.

Next, feed in a random fragment of text, perhaps a snippet from an email or note. What does the output try to show? What words has it latched onto? Finally, try symbols only: punctuation, ASCII, unicode. What does the model hallucinate into view?

The output – weird, uncanny, perhaps surreal – can help reveal the hidden associations between text and visuals that are embedded within the models.

Insight through misuse

Creative AI misuse offers three concrete benefits.

First, it reveals bias and limitations in ways normal usage masks: you can uncover what a model “sees” when it can’t rely on conventional logic.

Second, it teaches us about AI decision-making by forcing models to show their work when they’re confused.

Third, it builds critical AI literacy by demystifying these systems through hands-on experimentation. Critical AI literacy provides methods for diagnostic experimentation, such as testing – and often misusing – AI to understand its statistical patterns and decision-making processes.

These skills become more urgent as AI systems grow more sophisticated and ubiquitous. They’re being integrated in everything from search to social media to creative software.

When someone generates an image, writes with AI assistance or relies on algorithmic recommendations, they’re entering a collaborative relationship with a system that has particular biases, capabilities and blind spots.

Rather than mindlessly adopting or reflexively rejecting these tools, we can develop critical AI literacy by exploring the Slopocene and witnessing what happens when AI tools “break”.

This isn’t about becoming more efficient AI users. It’s about maintaining agency in relationships with systems designed to be persuasive, predictive and opaque.

Daniel Binns is an Associate Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society.

– ref. Understanding the ‘Slopocene’: how the failures of AI can reveal its inner workings – https://theconversation.com/understanding-the-slopocene-how-the-failures-of-ai-can-reveal-its-inner-workings-258584

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dilnoza Ubaydullaeva, Lecturer in Government – National Security College, Australian National University

Since US President Donald Trump took office this year, one theme has come up time and again: his rule is a threat to the US-led international order.

As the US political scientist John Mearsheimer famously argued, the liberal international order

was destined to fail from the start, as it contained the seeds of its own destruction.

This perspective has gained traction in recent years. And now, Trump’s actions have caused many to question whether a new world order is emerging.

Trump has expressed a desire for a new international order defined by multiple spheres of influence — one in which powers like the US, China and Russia each exert dominance over distinct regions.

This vision aligns with the idea of a “multipolar” world, where no single state holds overarching global dominance. Instead, influence is distributed among several great powers, each maintaining its own regional sphere.

This architecture contrasts sharply with earlier periods – the bipolar world of the Cold War, dominated by the US and the Soviet Union; and the unipolar period that followed, dominated by the US.

What does this mean for the world order moving forward?

Shifting US spheres of influence

We’ve seen this shift taking place in recent months. For example, Trump has backed away from his pledge to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and now appears to be leaving it to the main protagonists, and Europe, to find a solution.

Europe, which once largely spoke in a unified voice with the US, is also showing signs of policy-making which is more independent. Rather than framing its actions as protecting “Western democratic principles”, Europe is increasingly focused on defining its own security interests.

In the Middle East, the US will likely maintain its sphere of influence. It will continue its unequivocal support for Israel under Trump.

The US will also involve itself in the region’s politics when its interests are at stake, as we witnessed in its recent strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

This, along with increasing economic ties between the US and Gulf states, suggests US allies in the region will remain the dominant voices shaping regional dynamics, particularly now with Iran weakened.

Yet it’s clear Trump is reshaping US dynamics in the region by signaling a desire for reduced military and political involvement, and criticising the nation building efforts of previous administrations.

The Trump administration now appears to want to maintain its sphere of influence primarily through strong economic ties.

Russia and China poles emerging elsewhere

Meanwhile, other poles are emerging in the Global South. Russia and China have deepened their cooperation, positioning themselves as defenders against what they frame as Western hegemonic bullying.

Trump’s trade policies and sanctions against many nations in the Global South have fuelled narratives (spread by China and Russia) that the US does not consistently adhere to the rules it imposes on others.

Trump’s decision to slash funding to USAID has also opened the door to China, in particular, to become the main development partner for nations in Africa and other parts of the world.

And on the security front, Russia has become more involved in many African and Middle Eastern countries, which have become less trustful and reliant on Western powers.

In the Indo-Pacific, much attention has been given to the rise of China and its increasingly assertive posture. Many of Washington’s traditional allies are nervous about its continued engagement in the region and ability to counter China’s rise.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has sought to take advantage of the current environment, embarking on a Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia push earlier this year. But many nations continue to be wary of China’s increasing influence, in particular the Philippines, which has clashed with China over the South China Sea.

Strategic hedging

Not all countries, however, are aligning themselves neatly with one pole or another.

For small states caught between great powers, navigating this multipolar environment is both a risk and an opportunity.

Ukraine is a case in point. As a sovereign state, Ukraine should have the freedom to decide its own alignments. Yet, it finds itself ensnared in great power politics, with devastating consequences.

Other small states are playing a different game — pivoting from one power to another based on their immediate interests.

Slovakia, for instance, is both a NATO and EU member, yet its leader, Robert Fico, attended Russia’s Victory Day Parade in May and told President Vladimir Putin he wanted to maintain “normal relations” with Russia.

Then there is Central Asia, which is the centre of a renewed “great game,” with Russia, China and Europe vying for influence and economic partnerships.

Yet if any Central Asian countries were to be invaded by Putin, would other powers intervene? It’s a difficult question to answer. Major powers are reluctant to engage in direct conflict unless their core interests or borders are directly threatened.

As a result, Central Asian states are hedging their bets, seeking to maintain relations with multiple poles, despite their conflicting agendas.

A future defined by regional power blocs?

While it is still early to draw definitive conclusions, the events of the past few months underscore a growing trend. Smaller countries are expressing solidarity with one power, but pragmatic cooperation with another, when it suits their national interests.

For this reason, regional power blocs seem to be of increasing interest to countries in the Global South.

For instance, the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has become a stronger and larger grouping of nations across Eurasia in recent years.

Trump’s focus on making “America Great Again,” has taken the load off the US carrying liberal order leadership. A multipolar world may not be the end of the liberal international order, but it may be a reshaped version of liberal governance.

How “liberal” it can be will likely depend on what each regional power, or pole, will make of it.

Dilnoza Ubaydullaeva 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. Trump’s worldview is causing a global shift of alliances – what does this mean for nations in the middle? – https://theconversation.com/trumps-worldview-is-causing-a-global-shift-of-alliances-what-does-this-mean-for-nations-in-the-middle-257113

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bridget Haire, Associate Professor, Public Health Ethics, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney

Over the past three decades there have been amazing advances in treating and preventing HIV.

It’s now a manageable infection. A person with HIV who takes HIV medicine consistently, before their immune system declines, can expect to live almost as long as someone without HIV.

The same drugs prevent transmission of the virus to sexual partners.

There is still no effective HIV vaccine. But there are highly effective drugs to prevent HIV infection for people without HIV who are at higher risk of acquiring it.

These drugs are known as as “pre-exposure prophylaxis” or PrEP. These come as a pill, which needs to be taken either daily, or “on demand” before and after risky sex. An injection that protects against HIV for six months has recently been approved in the United States.

So with such effective HIV treatment and PrEP, why are we still spending millions looking for HIV cures?

Not everyone has access to these drugs

Access to HIV drugs and PrEP depends on the availability of health clinics, health professionals, and the means to supply and distribute the drugs. In some countries, this infrastructure may not be secure.

For instance, earlier this year, US President Donald Trump’s dissolution of the USAID foreign aid program has threatened the delivery of HIV drugs to many low-income countries.

This demonstrates the fragility of current approaches to treatment and prevention. A secure, uninterrupted supply of HIV medicine is required, and without this, lives will be lost and the number of new cases of HIV will rise.

Another example is the six-monthly PrEP injection just approved in the US. This drug has great potential for controlling HIV if it is made available and affordable in countries with the greatest HIV burden.

But the prospect for lower-income countries accessing this expensive drug looks uncertain, even if it can be made at a fraction of its current cost, as some researchers say.

So despite the success of HIV drugs and PrEP, precarious health-care systems and high drug costs mean we can’t rely on them to bring an end to the ongoing global HIV pandemic. That’s why we also still need to look at other options.

Haven’t people already been ‘cured’?

Worldwide, at least seven people have been “cured” of HIV – or at least have had long-term sustained remission. This means that after stopping HIV drugs, they did not have any replicating HIV in their blood for months or years.

In each case, the person with HIV also had a life-threatening cancer needing a bone marrow transplant. They were each matched with a donor who had a specific genetic variation that resulted in not having HIV receptors in key bone marrow cells.

After the bone marrow transplant, recipients stopped HIV drugs, without detectable levels of the virus returning. The new immune cells made in the transplanted bone marrow lacked the HIV receptors. This stopped the virus from infecting cells and replicating.

But this genetic variation is very rare. Bone marrow transplantation is also risky and extremely resource-intensive. So while this strategy has worked for a few people, it is not a scalable prospect for curing HIV more widely.

So we need to keep looking for other options for a cure, including basic laboratory research to get us there.

How about the ‘breakthrough’ I’ve heard about?

HIV treatment stops the HIV replication that causes immune damage. But there are places in the body where the virus “hides” and drugs cannot reach. If the drugs are stopped, the “latent” HIV comes out of hiding and replicates again. So it can damage the immune system, leading to HIV-related disease.

One approach is to try to force the hidden or latent HIV out into the open, so drugs can target it. This is a strategy called “shock and kill”. And an example of such Australian research was recently reported in the media as a “breakthrough” in the search for an HIV cure.

Researchers in Melbourne have developed a lipid nanoparticle – a tiny ball of fat – that encapsulates messenger RNA (or mRNA) and delivers a “message” to infected white blood cells. This prompts the cells to reveal the “hiding” HIV.

In theory, this will allow the immune system or HIV drugs to target the virus.

This discovery is an important step. However, it is still in the laboratory phase of testing, and is just one piece of the puzzle.

We could say the same about many other results heralded as moving closer to a cure for HIV.

Further research on safety and efficacy is needed before testing in human clinical trials. Such trials start with small numbers and the trialling process takes many years. This and other steps towards a cure are slow and expensive, but necessary.

Importantly, any cure would ultimately need to be fairly low-tech to deliver for it to be feasible and affordable in low-income countries globally.

So where does that leave us?

A cure for HIV that is affordable and scalable would have a profound impact on human heath globally, particularly for people living with HIV. To get there is a long and arduous path that involves solving a range of scientific puzzles, followed by addressing implementation challenges.

In the meantime, ensuring people at risk of HIV have access to testing and prevention interventions – such as PrEP and safe injecting equipment – remains crucial. People living with HIV also need sustained access to effective treatment – regardless of where they live.

Bridget Haire has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. She is a past president of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (now Health Equity Matters).

Benjamin Bavinton receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian government, and state and territory governments. He also receives funding from ViiV Healthcare and Gilead Sciences, both of which make drugs or drug classes mentioned in this article. He is a Board Director of community organisation, ACON, and is on the National PrEP Guidelines Panel coordinated by ASHM Health.

– ref. We have drugs to manage HIV. So why are we spending millions looking for cures? – https://theconversation.com/we-have-drugs-to-manage-hiv-so-why-are-we-spending-millions-looking-for-cures-258391

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Mickel, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology

Tomorrow marks exactly halfway through 2025. Luckily there’s a suite of streaming options to help get you through the mid-year bump.

We’ve got iconic classics celebrating major anniversaries, as well as an animated K-Pop spectacle, and a documentary trawling through the controversial tenure of former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Joh: Last King of Queensland

Stan

The new documentary film Joh: Last King of Queensland offers a dramatised account of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s premiership from 1968 to 1987.

Directed by Kriv Stenders, using reenactments (Bjelke-Petersen is played by Richard Roxburgh), archival footage and contemporary interviews, the film portrays him as a complex and polarising figure. Roxburgh highlights Bjelke-Petersen’s rhetorical simplicity. He presented himself as an advocate for “ordinary” Queenslanders, especially in rural and conservative communities.

We are given a man who is socially conservative, economically ambitious and politically divisive. A man who profoundly shaped Queensland’s governance and development. But while the film effectively captures his popular appeal and role in the state’s economic transformation, it simplifies key aspects of his political ascent.

In particular, it doesn’t capture the complexities of electoral mechanics, internal party manoeuvring and the influence of the public service.

Bjelke-Petersen’s legacy continues to polarise. To supporters, he remains a visionary who championed economic growth and conservative values. To critics, he presided over an era of democratic erosion, civil rights suppression and entrenched corruption.

His story reflects the enduring tension between executive authority and democratic accountability in modern Australian political history.

– John Mickel

Read more:
Joh: Last King of Queensland captures Bjelke-Petersen’s political persona – but omits key details of the story

Jaws

Various platforms

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, released 50 years ago, was the first summer blockbuster, received Academy Awards for sound, editing and music, and became the first film to earn US$100 million at the United States box office.

Chief of Police Martin Brody has recently moved from New York City to Amity Island with his wife and two children. As the small town prepares for its crucial 4th of July celebrations, a series of shark attacks threatens the festivities – and the town’s summer economy.

The mayor insists on keeping the beaches open for “summer dollars”. When the shark strikes again, local fisherman Quint is hired to hunt it down. Brody and visiting marine biologist Matt Hooper insist on joining the expedition to save the island.

Apart from one scene using real underwater shark footage from Australians Ron and Valerie Taylor, the shark was mechanical. The mechanical shark sank … a lot. No wonder Spielberg named the temperamental and unreliable shark after his lawyer.

With the lack of a functioning shark, Spielberg made the artistic decision – echoing Alfred Hitchcock – to suggest the shark’s presence rather than show it outright in the film’s first half. Even without appearing onscreen, the shark has an overwhelming presence and effect on the audience, thanks to John Williams’ music.

Jaws is now a cinema classic.

It launched Spielberg’s illustrious career, scared an entire generation from going into the water, and also inspired a new generation of marine activists – such as myself – who love sharks and the ocean.

– Will Jeffery

Read more:
Jaws at 50: the first summer blockbuster is still a film that bites – even when the shark didn’t work

KPop Demon Hunters

Netflix

KPop Demon Hunters is an animated movie that follows a Korean girl band, Huntrix, whose members happen to be covert demon hunters. Their songs and slays have the power to maintain the barrier between the human world and the underworld (called the “honmoon”).

Annoyed demon overlord Gwi-ma (voiced by Lee Byong-Hun) greenlights a devilishly sexy boy band, Saja Boys, to steal the girls’ fans (and their souls). The attack proves to be more than a challenge for lead singer, Rumi (Arden Cho), who has a dark secret she’s keeping under wraps.

For fans of the Spider-Verse films, the animation style will be familiar: a blend of 2D and 3D techniques, with a high-contrast colour palette. KPop Demon Hunters goes an aesthetic step further by adding some distinctive anime touches, such as by using the chibi style, when characters have intense reactions.

The film also showcases several musical interludes voiced by actual K-pop stars such as EJAE, Kevin Woo, Andrew Choi and Rei Ami – as well as an anthem performed by members of TWICE, famous for their 2016 megahit Cheer Up.

To older viewers, the success of this watchable yet somewhat predictable flick may be puzzling, but KPop Demon Hunters will resonate with any Gen Zs in the house. After all, it has catchy tunes, jokes that land, female empowerment, epic battle scenes, and a smidge of teen romance.

There’s also a deeper thematic around the duality of identity, and a message about confronting one’s own demons.

– Phoebe Hart

Poker Face, season two

Stan

Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) is back for season two of Poker Face. Creator Rian Johnson is clearly a lover of the whodunnit genre. Between Poker Face and the Knives Out films, Johnson continues to pay homage to the format while pushing it into new directions.

Poker Face takes the format of the inverted detective story, made famous by popular series Columbo (1968–2003), where the episode opens with the killer committing the crime, only for the detective to arrive on the scene.

The joy of Poker Face lies in the viewer trying to figure out how the detective will catch the killer, while also enjoying comedic allusions to several genres. Charlie Cale has a unique skill in that she can always tell when someone is lying: “bullshit”, she calmly says when someone doesn’t tell the truth.

Season two continues the show’s all-star cameo lineup from different eras of popular culture. Standouts include Cynthia Erivo in the opening episode, Cheers star Rhea Perlman, Katie Holmes, and Awkwafina accusing Alia Shawkat of sleeping with her grandma to steal a rent-controlled apartment.

The strongest episode of the season features John Cho and Melanie Lynskey, where Charlie meet a group of scammers at a hotel bar. Cho plays the scammer and Lynskey is his unwitting victim. When Lyonne’s Charlie becomes involved, it becomes a game of who is playing who.

The episodic format never feels tired, as each mystery’s eccentricities and generic allusions shift in each episode. Natasha Lyonne’s performance anchors the show, allowing for the emotional beats to shift seamlessly, from the sadness of death, to the humour of each ridiculous situation.

– Stuart Richards

Sirens

Netflix

Much like The Perfect Couple (2024–), or Succession (2018–23), Sirens offers all the guilty pleasures of watching wealthy but dysfunctional families scheme and unravel inside their opulent homes. It contains the usual metamodern mix of irony, plot twists, clever dialogue and dark comedy (with hints of murder) we’ve come to expect from series that rank in Netflix’s top ten.

However, it’s not quite as binge-worthy or provocative as other shows in this genre. It also drags in the middle. You could probably watch the first episode and the last chapter to follow the narrative and catch all the best scenes.

Sirens tries to distinguish itself by foregrounding strong female leads, and leaning heavily into its postfeminist take on manipulative women of different ages competing against each other. They’re not fighting over the man (played by Kevin Bacon), so much as his estate and the social capital that comes with it.

Unlike Poison Ivy and other 90s classics I have explored, Sirens presents a more sympathetic and nuanced portrayal of the sexy, younger class usurper. Simone DeWitt (played by Milly Alcock) is the working-class personal assistant determined to improve her social positioning by any means necessary.

The series also attempts to elevate itself through images and sounds which reference Greek mythology, with lots of scenes of beautiful women perched precariously on cliff tops, while hapless men are lured in by their haunting high-pitched singing.

The ambiguous politics of it all will leave you wondering if you, too, have been just as expertly manipulated.

– Susan Hopkins

Sunday Too Far Away

Brollie and ABC iView

Released 50 years ago, Sunday Too Far Away deals episodically with a group of shearers led by Foley (Jack Thompson), and the events leading up to the national shearers’ strike of 1956.

The shearers are a ragtag group held together by rum, unionism and competitiveness – as Foley must deal with the camp cook from hell, as well as a threat to his “gun” status.

Like its contemporary Wake in Fright (1971), Sunday also centres on rural male mateship. But while Wake in Fright is revolted by it, Sunday strives for an elegiac celebration that might have drawn from Henry Lawson, of union-based mateship as the only defence against the harshness of life.

It is hard to overstate Sunday’s importance for the Australian film industry and for its producer, the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC), founded in 1972 by the new Labor government. Sunday would be the organisation’s first film, budgeted at $231,000, with the commonwealth providing half this figure. It was a remarkable demonstration of maximum involvement by a state government body.

Sunday was accepted into the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, the first Australian film bestowed the honour, and it went on to win eight of the 12 awards on offer at the Australian Film Institute Awards. The success of Sunday Too Far Away, followed closely by Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and Storm Boy (1976), succeeded in establishing the SAFC as a prime mover in Australian film.

– Michael Walsh

Read more:
Sunday Too Far Away at 50: how a story about Aussie shearers launched a local film industry

Michael Walsh is a consultant for the SAFC on its digitisation project. He has previously written a commissioned history for the organisation.

John Mickel, Phoebe Hart, Stuart Richards, Susan Hopkins, and Will Jeffery 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. Sexy K-pop demons, a human lie detector and shearers on strike: what to watch in July – https://theconversation.com/sexy-k-pop-demons-a-human-lie-detector-and-shearers-on-strike-what-to-watch-in-july-259907

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Heidi Norman, Professor of Australian and Aboriginal history, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, Convenor: Indigenous Land & Justice Research Group, UNSW Sydney

The shift to clean, renewable sources of energy presents a rare opportunity for First Nations people, not only as energy users but as landholders.

We wanted to explore the potential for First Nations land in the energy transition across New South Wales. The transition is well underway, but the pace must accelerate to meet state targets for 2030 and beyond.

Our new report found the state’s 121 Aboriginal Land Councils have an opportunity to partner with renewable developers and build solar, wind or transmission lines on their own land.

Such projects can offer jobs during construction and a smaller number of ongoing positions, as well as annual payments. This is why farmers and other landholders often look to renewable projects as a reliable source of income.

To date, the 447 square kilometres of the state owned by Aboriginal Land Councils has not been actively used in the energy transition. As a result, First Nations involvement in the transition has been limited and the renewables boom has not flowed to these communities.

Making this opportunity a reality will require collaboration with governments, electricity networks and industry, as well as policy support.

The role of land councils

In NSW, land councils have been operating since 1983, the year the state government passed laws recognising Aboriginal land rights. About a third of Australia’s First Nations people live in NSW.

Each land council is governed by Aboriginal members, and they are located in most country towns and across Sydney.

Land councils have a statutory responsibility “to improve, protect and foster the best interests of all Aboriginal persons within the Council’s area and other persons who are members of the Council”. These councils manage their land to protect culture and heritage.

Generating wealth through the development of Aboriginal land is a key objective of Aboriginal land rights in NSW.

Aboriginal goals in the energy transition

Following analysis of the land potentially available to renewable energy projects, our research moved on to exploring what Aboriginal land councils want from the energy transition.

We ran workshops with three land councils: Tibooburra in the far northwest, Hay in the southwest and Brewarrina in the northwest of the state. Each had expressed interest in renewable developments and concern around exposure to extreme weather events.

In these workshops, land council members told us about their priorities for energy.

Reliable energy was a major concern for Tibooburra, far from the main electricity grid.

For Brewarrina on the Barwon River, energy security in the face of heatwaves and floods was front of mind. High energy bills in housing ill-equipped for extreme weather was another big issue.

Members of Hay land council told us they wanted ownership and equity share in renewable energy projects. Their goal was to create opportunities to live, work and care for Country.

Renewable energy, First Nations land

Aboriginal land councils own and manage about 450 square km of land in NSW. Resolving outstanding land claims would further expand the estate.

Our analysis reveals current land holdings could host up to 11 gigawatts of solar or 1.6 gigawatts of onshore wind energy projects.

But several barriers stand in the way. There are long delays in the processing of Aboriginal land claims and the return of vacant Crown Land. This limits options for land councils to contribute to renewable energy development.

Realising opportunities in the energy transition

Our case studies demonstrate the potential for Aboriginal land to support the state government’s renewable energy efforts. This can also bring economic and social benefits to Aboriginal communities. But the opportunities will vary from place to place.

In areas at the edge of the grid, such as Tibooburra and Brewarrina, Aboriginal land could help meet regional energy demand through small to mid-scale wind and solar projects, microgrids and batteries.

Hay Local Aboriginal Land Council, on the other hand, is in the South-West Renewable Energy Zone. This is an area where new renewable energy projects, storage facilities and high-voltage transmission lines are already being constructed. Land under claim here holds huge economic potential for both mid-scale renewable energy (solar installations feeding into the local electricity network) and large-scale renewable energy projects.

How can authorities support land councils?

At present, local Aboriginal Land Councils need expertise and resources to turn this opportunity into reality.

Our report identified four broad areas for policy reform:

1. Build capacity for land councils to manage clean energy opportunities and risks on their landholdings. This could include establishing a dedicated government team to support interested land councils, and funding land councils to engage expertise and develop renewable energy projects.

2. Enable collaboration between electricity network distributors and land councils to set up microgrids. One case study, Tibooburra Local Aboriginal Land Council had land suitable for a microgrid and battery to support the energy provider. But early-stage support is needed to develop such projects.

3. Pilot programs to develop mid- and large-scale renewable energy projects on land council holdings. A partnership between lands councils and planning authorities could demonstrate a model for arranging approval processes. Programs by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency have proven successful in the past. We recommend funding these organisations to run a program for land council-developer partnerships in large-scale renewables.

4. Strengthen recognition of Aboriginal rights to unlock the renewable energy potential of Aboriginal land. This could include expediting land claims and land transfers and providing incentives for cooperation between land councils and Traditional Owners.

The next five years will be crucial for NSW’s renewable energy transition. Getting the foundations right now could empower Aboriginal landholders and their regional communities to get the most out of this once-in-a-generation opportunity.

Heidi Norman receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Australian Public Policy Institute, Boundless and the NSW Government.

Saori Miyake receives funding from Australian Public Policy Institute and Boundless for this project.

Sarah Niklas receives funding from the Australian Public Policy Institute and Boundless for this project.

Therese Apolonio receives funding from Australian Public Policy Institute, Boundless and the NSW Government.

– ref. Here’s how First Nations landholders can share the benefits of the NSW energy transition – https://theconversation.com/heres-how-first-nations-landholders-can-share-the-benefits-of-the-nsw-energy-transition-259702

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia

Right now, a severe storm likely to be the first significant east coast low in three years is developing off the coast of New South Wales. It’s expected to intensify today before approaching the coastline on Tuesday. Huge waves, sustained heavy rains and very strong winds are likely.

At this stage, it’s expected to linger offshore south of Coffs Harbour – the same area hit hard by unprecedented floods on the Mid-North Coast last month. Residents on the coast or in low-lying areas have been asked to prepare.

There’s nothing new about east coast lows, intense winter storms which can hit coastlines anywhere from southern Queensland to Tasmania. But what is new are the historically warm seas. Just like a tropical cyclone, east coast lows feed on ocean heat. And just like a tropical cyclone, they can intensify rapidly if the conditions are right.

The storm looming this week has been intensifying very fast, to the point it could be classified as a “weather bomb” – a storm undergoing explosive cyclogenesis.

If the storm shapes up as predicted, we can expect to see damage to houses and trees as well as significant beach erosion – especially in heavily populated areas exposed to the storm’s southern flank.

What to expect from this storm

It’s too early to say just how bad this storm will be. Much depends on how intense it becomes and how close it tracks to the coast.

Earlier storms have caused flooding of businesses and properties and significant disruptions to transport networks and electricity supplies.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting strong to damaging winds and moderate to heavy rain for this deepening weather system from Tuesday onwards, and hazardous surf conditions for much of the week.

Sea surface temperatures are 1 to 2.5°C above average off most of the NSW coast. This ocean heat will act as fuel for the storm, boosting the chance of even stronger winds and heavy rain if the centre moves closer to the coast and slows down.

East coast lows are distinct

Why do winter storms need their own title? East coast lows are quite distinct. They’re most common in autumn and winter, but they can occur any time.

These weather systems usually form after an upper atmosphere low or deep trough gets stronger over eastern Australia.

This triggers the development of a low pressure system at sea level near the coast to the east of the upper level system. These often intensify rapidly.

During summer, these weather systems can occasionally form in the aftermath of a Coral Sea tropical cyclone as it moves towards the central east coast. By the time the decaying cyclone reaches the cooler waters of the Tasman Sea, it has lost its characteristic warm core. It can now rapidly transition into an east coast low.

Two of Australia’s most populated areas, Sydney/Central Coast and Brisbane/Gold Coast are in the zone most likely to be affected by these intense storms.

What role is climate change playing?

About 90% of all extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases goes into the oceans. The world’s oceans are now at their warmest point on record.

Marine heatwaves are causing many unwelcome changes. Warmer waters made South Australia’s ongoing devastating algal bloom more likely. A huge marine heatwave hit Western Australia’s Ningaloo Reef before heading south. In southeast Australia, the warm East Australian Current is pushing further south, taking warm-water species into Tasmanian waters.

The steady warming of oceans off southeast Australia not only fuels more extreme weather but damages marine ecosystems and commercial fisheries.

As climate change intensifies, researchers have found intense east coast lows will actually become less common in the future – but the storms which do form could be more dangerous. A similar trend is likely for tropical cyclones around Australia.

As the world gets hotter still, the intensity of rainfall extremes associated with these weather systems is expected to rise – especially short-duration rainfall.

That means a higher risk of river and flash flooding, more damage from high energy wind and waves along exposed coasts and significant erosion of beaches and cliffs. Damage to the coasts will be worsened by rising sea levels.

Bracing for more extremes

It’s been a terrible six months for extreme weather. The year started with severe flooding in northern Queensland in February, followed soon after by Tropical Cyclone Alfred which hit heavily populated parts of southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales.

A couple of weeks later, intense rains devastated western Queensland, causing huge livestock losses. But even as floods hit the east coast, farmers across the continent’s southern reaches are struggling with extreme drought.

As the Mid-North Coast braces for yet more extreme weather, residents should heed warnings from the Bureau of Meteorology, visit the NSW emergencies and natural disasters website and listen to information provided by the national broadcaster.

Steve Turton has received funding from the Australian government.

– ref. Warmer seas are fuelling the dangerous ‘weather bomb’ about to hit NSW – https://theconversation.com/warmer-seas-are-fuelling-the-dangerous-weather-bomb-about-to-hit-nsw-260070

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Ailwood, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Wollongong

Last week, the Australian Human Rights Commission launched a new report on sexual harassment, called Speaking From Experience. It includes the voices of more than 300 victim-survivors of workplace sexual harassment from vulnerable communities.

In it, the commission calls for a new wave of robust law reform measures to protect and support victim-survivors and hold employers accountable.

This report comes five years after the 2020 Respect@Work report, which made 55 recommendations to address workplace sexual harassment. Yet, in 2022, a survey by the commission found one in three workers had experienced sexual harassment.

This new report is a watershed one, building on the work already done since 2020. So how far have we come in dealing with workplace sexual harassment? And how would new laws help?

What’s in the new report?

The Australian Human Rights Commission’s new report, Speaking From Experience, emerges from the Respect@Work recommendations.

Recommendation 27 of the Respect@Work report suggested the commission establish a way to hear historical disclosures of workplace sexual harassment. The commission then turned this recommendation into its latest release.

This report was a listening process that put victim-survivors front and centre. First Nations, migrant, LGBTQIA+, disabled and young workers were the main contributors to the report.

An example of the experiences of the contributors is a fast food worker, who said:

I know personally for me, as a queer person, I’m just exhausted […] it’s
just a lot of mental energy and for nothing to happen, or for it to cause
more problems, it’s just like really a deterrent…

The commission was particularly concerned with identifying what does – and what does not – help victim-survivors of workplace sexual harassment. The contributors shed light on what needs to change in the workplace and in the law.

One major theme was about non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), which are commonly used to settle workplace sexual harassment claims.

NDAs restrict who victim-survivors can speak to about their experience of workplace sexual harassment, including colleagues, friends, family and in public. Sometimes these agreements can hamper attempts to get support for the harassment.

The commission found victim-survivors are often pressured to sign NDAs in circumstances where the employer has far more power.

The commission recommended new legislation to restrict using agreements in this way.

This recommendation extends well beyond Respect@Work, which only produced best-practice guidelines. Extending the regulation is an important step forward, as subsequent research has revealed how ineffective these guidelines have been in practice.

Australia is now out of step with the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada, which have all regulated the use of NDAs after the #MeToo movement.

Working Women’s Centres are currently leading a sector-wide campaign for change, and the regulation of NDAs is underway in Victoria.

Improving the positive duty

Respect@Work introduced a positive duty on people running a business or undertaking to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sexual harassment from the workplace.

In Speaking From Experience, the commission is asking for enhanced regulatory powers to enforce the positive duty to make it more effective.

Read more:
Explainer: what is a ‘positive duty’ to prevent workplace sexual harassment and why is it so important?

The commission is currently prevented from speaking publicly, or to other regulatory agencies, about its enforcement activities unless it has entered an “enforceable undertaking” with an organisation or applied for a Federal Court order.

This means that, 18 months after being empowered to enforce the positive duty, the commission can’t speak publicly about how it is doing so.

To be an effective regulator, it must be able to publicise its enforcement actions and share information with other agencies.

The current law actually contributes to the culture of silencing and secrecy that continues to shroud workplace sexual harassment.

Further, there are currently no civil penalties for breaching the positive duty. In Speaking From Experience, the commission found this limits the extent to which some workplace leaders will take the positive duty seriously. It found this risks turning the prevention of workplace sexual harassment into a box-ticking compliance process.

The recommendations about penalties and transparency represent an acknowledgement that the commission’s powers to create systemic and structural change to target workplace sexual harassment are too limited.

In the absence of penalties, risk to reputation – the fear that public exposure of inaction or permissive workplace cultures concerning sexual harassment – remains the greatest incentive for employers to comply with the positive duty.

But workplace sexual harassment has been unlawful for more than 30 years. The current law does little more than continue to ask employers to do the right thing.

If the commission is not given the powers it needs to effectively enforce the law, too much reliance is placed on individual complainants to take action. As the Speaking From Experience report reveals, that means victim-survivors would need to overcome massive social, economic, cultural and legal barriers.

Over to the government

Speaking From Experience is a significant moment for workplace sexual harassment law reform and policy in Australia. It continues the work that Respect@Work started and takes it in a new direction, focusing on protecting and supporting victim-survivors and accountability for employers.

The Albanese government says it’s serious about addressing workplace gender equality and the prevention of violence against women. If that’s true, it should implement the commission’s recommendations in full, and quickly.

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

– ref. ‘I’m just exhausted’: sexual harassment at work is still rife. These new laws would help – https://theconversation.com/im-just-exhausted-sexual-harassment-at-work-is-still-rife-these-new-laws-would-help-259884

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Krissy Kendall, Senior Lecturer in Exercise and Sports Science, Edith Cowan University

If you’ve started running for the first time, started again after a break, or your workout is more intense, you might have felt it. A dull, nagging ache down your shins after you exercise.

Should you push through? Or could it be the sign of something more serious?

Shin splints are one of the most common and preventable injuries among runners, whether new or seasoned.

The good news is they can usually be treated effectively in a few weeks. But it’s important to recognise when to take a break. Knowing the simple ways to treat and prevent shin splints can prevent a more serious injury, and get you back on track faster.

What are shin splints?

Shin splints, medically known as medial tibial stress syndrome, are a common overuse injury.

They cause pain along the inner border of the tibia (shinbone), usually triggered by repetitive stress on the lower leg. Your leg may also feel tender or swell.

Shin splints are a type of periostitis, which means inflammation of the tissue lining the bone. The pain often fades with rest but quickly returns once activity resumes.

This kind of injury is especially common in sports such as football, rugby, and track and field, affecting between 4% and 35% of athletes, and up to 20% of runners. It can also affect dancers and military recruits.

What puts you at risk?

Shin splints can appear soon after sudden changes to your physical activity or exercise routine.

For example, you may have started exercising more often or for longer, or more intensely (such as running uphill or for longer distances).

A variety of factors can add fuel to the fire. They generally fall into two types:

• activity-related (what you do with your body)

• biomechanical (how your body moves or is built).

Aside from sudden spikes in training, activity-related risks include playing sport or running on hard surfaces or exercising in poorly designed shoes. For example, studies of soldiers have shown exercising in unsuitable or worn-out boots increases their risk of overuse injuries in the lower legs, including shin splints.

Diet may make a difference, too. There is evidence not eating enough calcium can make you more susceptible to shin splints. A vitamin D deficiency may also contribute, since it’s vital for calcium absorption.

Biomechanical risks can include a higher body mass index (BMI), having one leg longer than the other, tight calf muscles or flat feet (low or unusually inflexible arches).

If your feet roll in too much when you walk or run – often called flat feet or fallen arches – you’re also more susceptible.

While some studies suggest female athletes may experience shin splints more often than males, we need more research to fully understand why.

In short, shin splints aren’t just a bone issue. They reflect a complex mismatch between how much or hard you train and how your body tries (and sometimes fails) to adapt.

How can I tell if it’s something worse?

Shin splints are typically less severe than a stress fracture. This is a small crack in the bone caused by repeated impact or overuse, and usually requires a longer recovery period.

A stress fracture often causes sharp, localised pain that worsens with activity and may even hurt at rest or when touched.

A simple test can help you decide whether to seek additional advice: if you are unable to hop on one leg about ten times without sharp pain, it’s time to talk to a physio, sports doctor or podiatrist.

They can assess your symptoms and suggest treatment options. Imaging such as an x-ray or MRI may be used to rule out more serious conditions.

Treatment: rest, rehab, and return

The first and most important treatment is rest. Usually, shin splints resolve over three to four weeks. Continuing to train during the healing process will only prolong recovery and increase the risk of more serious injury.

Other effective strategies include:

• applying ice and compression to reduce swelling

• using anti-inflammatory medications, such as ibuprofen or naproxen

• doing calf stretches to improve flexibility

• wearing supportive shoes or orthotics helps keep your feet and legs properly aligned, reducing strain on the muscles around your ankles and giving your shin splints a better chance to heal.

You’ll want to be pain-free for at least three weeks before gradually resuming your exercise routine.

When returning, go slow and build up the amount and intensity of exercise gradually.

Prevention is the best treatment

Preventing shin splints is all about balance and preparation. Here are some evidence-based tips:

• warm up thoroughly and stretch your calves and Achilles tendon regularly

• use shock-absorbing insoles or orthotics if you experience ongoing pain, have flat feet, or your shoes wear out unevenly – it’s best to speak with a podiatrist or physiotherapist to find out what’s right for you

• check your shoes — replace them when worn out or every 240 kilometres

• vary your training surface (mix in grass or softer tracks)

• strengthen the muscles of the lower leg and hips to improve the way you move

• increase mileage and intensity gradually.

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. My shins hurt after running. Could it be shin splints? – https://theconversation.com/my-shins-hurt-after-running-could-it-be-shin-splints-259370

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cameron Dodd, PhD Student in Evolutionary Biology and Taxonomy, The University of Western Australia

Australia is home to more than 60 species of carnivorous marsupials in the family Dasyuridae. Almost a quarter of those have only been scientifically recognised in the past 25 years.

Other than the iconic Tasmanian devil, chances are most of these small, fascinating species have slipped under your radar. One of the rarest and most elusive is the kultarr (Antechinomys laniger), a feisty insect-eater found in very low numbers across much of the outback.

To the untrained eye, the kultarr looks very much like a hopping mouse, with long legs, a long tail and a tendency to rest on its hind legs. However, it runs much like a greyhound – but its tiny size and high speed makes it look like it’s hopping.

Kultarr or kultarrs?

Until now, the kultarr was thought to be a single widespread species, ranging from central New South Wales to the Carnarvon Basin on Australia’s west coast. However, a genetic study in 2023 suggested there could be more than one species.

With backing from the Australian Biological Resources Study, our team of researchers from the University of Western Australia, Western Australian Museum and Queensland University of Technology set out to investigate.

We travelled to museums in Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth to look at every kultarr that had been collected by scientists over the past century. By combining detailed genetic data with body and skull measurements, we discovered the kultarr isn’t one widespread species, but three distinct species.

Three species of kultarrs

The eastern kultarr (A. laniger) is the smallest of the three, with an average body length of about 7.5cm. It’s darker in colour than its relatives, and while its ears are still big, they are nowhere near as big as those of the other two species.

The eastern kultarr is now found on hard clay soils around Cobar in central NSW and north to around Charleville in southern Queensland.

The gibber kultarr (A. spenceri) is the largest and stockiest, with an average body length of around 9cm. They are noticeably chunkier than the other two more dainty species, with big heads, thick legs and much longer hindfeet.

As its name suggests, the gibber kultarr is restricted to the extensive stony deserts or “gibber plains” in southwest Queensland and northeast South Australia.

The long-eared kultarr (A. auritus) is the middle child in terms of body size, but its ears set it apart. They’re nearly as long as its head.

It’s found in patchy populations in the central and western sandy deserts, living on isolated stony plains.

Are they threatened?

All three species of kultarr are hard to find, making it difficult to confidently estimate population sizes and evaluate extinction risk. The long-eared and gibber kultarrs don’t appear to be in immediate danger, but land clearing and invasive predators such as cats and foxes have likely affected their numbers.

The eastern kultarr, however, is more of a concern. By looking at museum specimens going back all the way to the 1890s, we found it was once much more widespread.

Historic records suggest the eastern kultarr used to occur across the entirety of arid NSW and even spread north through central Queensland and into the Northern Territory. We now think this species may be extinct in the NT and parts of northwest Queensland.

What’s next?

To protect kultarrs into the future, we need targeted surveys to confirm where each species still survives, especially the eastern kultarr, whose current range may be just a shadow of its former extent. With better knowledge, we can prioritise conservation actions where they’re most needed, and ensure these remarkable, long-legged hunters don’t disappear before we truly get to know them.

Australia still has many small mammal species that haven’t been formally described. Unless we identify and name them, they remain invisible in conservation policy.

Taxonomic research like this is essential – we can’t protect what we don’t yet know exists. And without action, some species may disappear before they’re ever officially recognised.

The authors wish to acknowledge the important contributions of Adjunct Professor Mike Westerman at La Trobe University to the research discussed in this article.

Cameron Dodd receives funding from the Australian Biological Resources Study and Society of Australian Systematic Biologists.

Andrew M. Baker receives funding from the Federal Government, State Governments, Australian Biological Resources Study and various Industry sources.

Kenny Travouillon receives funding from Australian Biological Resources Study.

Linette Umbrello receives funding from the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) National Taxonomy Research Grant Program (NTRGP)

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

– ref. Australia’s cutest mammal is now Australia’s cutest three mammals – https://theconversation.com/australias-cutest-mammal-is-now-australias-cutest-three-mammals-260006

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Hitch, Senior Lecturer in Occupational Therapy, Deakin University

Occupational therapists (OTs) have been in the spotlight this month after the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) froze NDIS payments for these services at $193.99 per hour for the sixth year.

The NDIA also cut travel payments for OTs who visit people in their home and community by 50%.

Health Minister Mark Bulter says it’s important people on the NDIS aren’t paying more for therapy and support than they would pay in the health or aged care system.

But OTs are concerned this could affect therapists’ viability, including their ability to support people with disability in their homes and communities.

But what can OTs actually do? And why is it often better to do this in a person’s home and community?

Who might see an OT?

Imagine trying to get back to your daily life after a major health setback, such as a car accident or stroke, or an episode of a long-term condition or disability, such as depression or arthritis. The things you used to do with ease can become difficult and exhausting.

After such a setback, your home or community can also feel like an obstacle course. Maybe you can’t carry the laundry basket out to the line anymore, or you’re struggling to keep up with your children.

This is where occupational therapy can make a real difference. OTs are health professionals that enable people to do the things they need, want and love to do in daily life, from getting dressed to cooking dinner, gardening to driving.

Occupational therapists work with people of all ages. They overcome barriers by changing the environments and objects we use, teaching new skills, rehabilitating old ones and tweaking the way we tackle tasks.

What can OTs do in the home and community?

Seeing people in their own homes and communities allows the therapist to get a more accurate picture of a person’s strengths and abilities, which can be difficult to understand in a clinic.

OTs use their skills and creativity to provide personalised care, tailored to individual needs and circumstances.

An older person with dementia might, for example, cause alarm by putting a plastic kettle on the stove of a hospital kitchen. But they could make their cup of tea perfectly safely at home with their stove top kettle.

OTs can support home and community mobility, such as checking a wheelchair passes smoothly through doorways and can manoeuvre in tight spaces such as bathrooms.

But they can also advise on kitchen aids and seating to save energy for people with conditions such as multiple sclerosis, to support them continuing to cook family meals.

In their work with neurodivergent people of different ages, an OT might help an autistic teen develop sensory strategies to deal with their busy and noisy school day.

For other people, OT support might help them navigate their local public transport system. Learning and practising skills where they’re used makes it easier to carry them over into everyday life.

What does the research say?

Research shows home and community OT can lead to better activity and participation than clinic-based therapy. It’s also cost-effective.

For stroke survivors, OT makes everyday tasks like showering or getting dressed easier.

OT at home eases burden and stress for the parents of children with cerebral palsy and carers of people with dementia.

OT at home helps older people with ongoing health issues to be more actively involved in their communities.

Community OT is also effective in supporting recovery for people with mental health problems, enabling them to enjoy community and leisure activities, seek and maintain employment and enhance physical activity.

OT focuses on helping you do the things that keep you well and independent, which means fewer trips back to the hospital. OTs can spot and solve trip hazards within homes, for example, before a frail person has a fall.

People who get OT at home soon after leaving hospital are less likely to be readmitted. Emerging research also suggests OT can work jointly with paramedics when someone falls at home by visiting and offering immediate treatment that prevent avoidable hospital stays.

There are some downsides, such as limited access in disadvantaged communities. While telehealth can address some barriers, it is not suitable in every case.

How do Australians access OTs?

There are many pathways to access OT services, but the complexity of the health-care system means the process is challenging to navigate.

OT services can also be costly, due to severely limited funding, equipment and transport costs.

OT is available as part of Home Care Packages and the Commonwealth Home Support Programme for older people.

OT has also played a key role in supporting NDIS participants since the scheme’s inception. However, waiting lists often stretch for many months and not everyone knows about what OT can offer.

You can also access community OT through Medicare Chronic Disease Management plans, local community health centres and councils and through private health insurance rebates.

Thanks to Lana O’Neil (Occupational Therapist at Western Health in Victoria) and Sarah McCann (Senior Occupational Therapist at Western Health) for sharing their clinical expertise for this article.

Danielle Hitch 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. Occupational therapists tackle obstacles in the home, from support to cook a meal, to navigating public transport – https://theconversation.com/occupational-therapists-tackle-obstacles-in-the-home-from-support-to-cook-a-meal-to-navigating-public-transport-259807

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christina Allen, Senior lecturer, Curtin University

Bitcoin is ubiquitous. It is impossible to open a social media stream or news source without encountering yet another mention of the topic. Many Australians have invested, hoping for a good return.

But they may not have considered the tax consequences of their investments. So some might be in for an unexpected surprise.

The tax implications of Bitcoin ownership and other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum largely turns on how seriously an investor pursues and manages their purchase.

Given the enormous computing power and electric power needed to create Bitcoin from scratch, few Australians are actively mining Bitcoins.

Mining involves creating digital information that yields the unique data “tokens” known as Bitcoins. It involves using specialised software to add new groups of transactions (known as blocks) to the shared transaction record (known as the blockchain.

Trading in Bitcoins

People who create Bitcoins are considered to be running a business and face the same tax consequences as any other active business, paying ordinary income tax on their profits.

However, most Australian Bitcoin investors are using online exchanges to buy and sell already created Bitcoins.

For them, the tax consequences will depend in the first instance on the frequency with which they buy or sell their Bitcoins and the level of study and ongoing monitoring and management they assign to the investment.

A passive Bitcoin investor who simply buys some coins and largely ignores it until an opportune time to sell comes up will be treated purely as an investor by the Australian Taxation Office.

For these people, the coins are characterised as passive investment assets similar to ownership of shares, gold or land. These Bitcoin investors will be subject to the capital gains rules in the income tax law.

If they realise a gain on the sale of Bitcoin and the sale takes place within a year of the purchase, the gain will be fully included in the investor’s taxable income for the year the sale took place.

If the sale takes place more than a year after purchase, the investor will qualify for a capital gains tax discount that makes half the gain exempt from tax, with only half included in their assessable income subject to taxation.

But if the investor has a loss on the sale of Bitcoin, it can be recognised for tax purposes. But it will be quarantined against capital gains realised by the investor.

In other words, it can only be used to reduce the amount of capital gains realised by the investor on the sale of other assets.

Assumptions challenged

While it is generally thought the capital gains treatment of Bitcoin sales has been settled for some time, a recent criminal case challenges some commonly accepted assumptions.

The case was brought against a police officer charged with stealing Bitcoin recorded on a hardware wallet seized in a drug raid.

The magistrate suggested Bitcoin was an asset (a view consistent with that of the tax office) but went on to suggest it was property similar to money.

This led at least one tax lawyer to suggest there would be no tax consequences from selling Bitcoin for cash, as this would be akin to exchanging money for other money.

It is, however, very unlikely a tax court would use a comment from the criminal case to unwind what has been settled tax law.

Active investors

If investors plays a more active role by frequently buying and selling Bitcoin or by actively researching and monitoring factors affecting its price, the tax office may consider they have shifted from being a passive investor to an active trader.

A number of tax consequences follow.

At one time, designation as a Bitcoin trader might have triggered a GST liability. If an investment trader has sales exceeding A$75,000 per year, they are considered an enterprise that must register as a GST business and pay GST on sales of goods or services.

This included sales of Bitcoins, which were regarded as intangible goods by the tax office similar to music, films or other types of personal consumption.

The tax office’s view

However, following a very intense and ultimately successful lobbying campaign by digital commerce groups, the tax office revised its view and now considers Bitcoin to be a form of money for GST purposes.

That means a sale of Bitcoin is treated as an exchange of money similar to changing Australian dollars for UK pounds or a $10 bill for five $2 coins.

The office now recognises no sale of goods or services when there is a transfer of Bitcoin, leaving the transaction outside the goods and services tax system.

The tax office’s view is the characterisation of Bitcoin as equivalent to money for goods and services tax purposes has no bearing on its character for income tax purposes. Instead, it is treated the same as any other trading stock or business asset if the seller is considered a trader.

This has two implications. First, if the seller realises a gain on the sale of Bitcoin, the full amount of the gain is included in the person’s taxable income, regardless of whether it is sold more or less than one year after acquisition.

Secondly, and very importantly for some, if an investor has a loss on the sale of Bitcoin – for every winner there is a loser in the investment world – and can convince the tax office they are an active trader, they can recognise the full loss. This means they can use the loss to offset other taxable income including wage and salary or business or professional income.

Those who have taken the plunge into a Bitcoin investment or those considering the possibility should first consider carefully the tax consequences.

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. Do you have Bitcoin? Be aware of the tax consequences of selling your investment – https://theconversation.com/do-you-have-bitcoin-be-aware-of-the-tax-consequences-of-selling-your-investment-259671

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cindy Towns, Senior Lecturer in General Medicine and Geriatrics, University of Otago

New Zealand’s mental health crisis is well documented in the government’s 2018 inquiry, He Ara Oranga, which shows one in five people experience mental illness or significant mental distress.

However, an almost singular focus on care of young people obscures the psychiatric needs of older adults.

Failure to account for these needs has resulted in physicians facing pressure to admit psychiatric patients to medical wards that are not designed or resourced to care for them. This compromises patient safety and rights as well as fundamental standards of care.

Our new research highlights the clinical, ethical and legal consequences of this practice and calls for urgent action.

Dementia includes psychiatric features

The memory deficits of dementia are well known but the condition also includes psychiatric presentations. These are known collectively as the “behavioural and psychiatric symptoms of dementia” (BPSD). When severe, they can include intrusive behaviour, violence and inappropriate sexual conduct. Such patients require admission and specialist treatment.

However, New Zealand has a severe shortage of psychiatric beds for older adults. Even more concerning is that despite well recognised demographic trends and clinical concerns, bed numbers have decreased over time rather than increased.

Reports that Dunedin plans to slash the number of psycho-geriatric beds by 50% reflect a lack of government insight into the risks this large and growing patient cohort poses.

Hospitals routinely expect medical wards to admit dementia patients presenting with BPSD when no psycho-geriatric bed is available. Yet it is impossible for staff on medical wards to adhere to even basic standards of care.

Poor design

A lack of single rooms means medical teams cannot provide the security and minimisation of light and noise people with dementia require. Single rooms need to be prioritised for transmissible infections, delirium and terminal care.

Medical wards are also not designed for aggressive patients. People can enter and exit freely, potential weapons (scissors, for example) are accessible, there are no seclusion rooms or low-stimulus areas, and nursing stations are not secure.

Medical staff are not trained in de-escalation or restraint and ward pharmacists are not specialised in the medications required to treat BPSD.

Those presenting with physical or sexual violence also need dedicated security, well beyond what healthcare assistants on “patient watches” can provide. Most healthcare assistants are women, which creates a grossly inadequate level of safety when managing violent male patients.

The experience of Wellington general medicine staff documents numerous assaults on nurses and intrusive and frightening behaviour. Staff have been punched, hit, bitten and threatened. One nurse was stabbed while attending to another patient in a multi-bed room.

Admissions have included physically robust patients who have seriously assaulted family or carers. This includes one man who committed a fatal assault and another who was sexually aggressive and stabbed a family member.

High rates of mixed-gender bedding in hospital wards raise the risk of harm. The United Kingdom banned hospitals from placing men and women in the same room in 2010. Yet despite concerns for patient safety, New Zealand has no prohibition on this practice.

Poor policy

By comparison, Australia proposed a risk stratification approach more than 20 years ago whereby severe dementia patients would be managed in secure units with dedicated security staff and specialist psycho-geriatric care.

This model is used throughout Australia in policy and planning. In New Zealand, severe dementia is defaulted to medical wards even in cases where patients are presenting solely due to extreme violence.

According to the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights, patients are entitled to an appropriate standard of care. Admitting someone with dementia to medical wards that cannot meet basic standards of care clearly breaches this right.

BPSD admissions also significantly compromise the rights of other patients. The risks are again demonstrable rather than potential. International media reports have documented male dementia patients assaulting female patients in medical wards without the necessary security measures.

Medical staff in New Zealand hospitals have also witnessed numerous incidents of intrusion and harassment as well as assaults of other patients by dementia patients inappropriately admitted to medical wards with BPSD.

We should also recognise indirect impacts of people with severe dementia being admitted on medical wards. Many patients wait overnight for admission, increasing their risk for complications, and breaching rights to privacy and dignity.

When psychiatric patients occupy medical beds, they contribute to admission delays, complications and rights breaches for medical patients awaiting beds.

Urgent need for more psycho-geriatric beds

Wellington general medicine teams have raised serious concerns about dementia admissions for many years. Yet there are no secure areas and no additional psycho-geriatric beds.

We need to ask why the practice continues when harm is so obvious. The answer appears to be about cost. When physicians relent and admit psychiatric patients, the risks are high but the financial cost is low. The consequences are born by elderly and frail patients seldom able to advocate for themselves.

Change relies on health leaders and funders caring about safety, rights and basic standards of care. Unfortunately, the Wellington experience and the decision to cut beds in Dunedin suggest change will not happen unless physicians consistently refuse the admission of psychiatric patients. But this is a morally distressing position to be put in.

New Zealand must urgently address the shortage of psycho-geriatric beds. Until these are in place, temporary secure accommodation must be made available under the care of mental health specialists.

Medical teams can no longer be expected to manage the mental health crisis as well as their own medical workloads. It is unsafe, unethical and untenable for all involved.

Cindy Towns 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. Unsafe and unethical: bed shortages mean dementia patients with psychiatric symptoms are admitted to medical wards – https://theconversation.com/unsafe-and-unethical-bed-shortages-mean-dementia-patients-with-psychiatric-symptoms-are-admitted-to-medical-wards-257634

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Hurlimann, Associate Professor in Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne

Cities have a central role to play tackling climate change. They contribute 67–72% of the greenhouse gas emissions which are heating up the planet.

At the same time, cities are increasingly at risk from global warming. Flood, fire and drought are affecting everything from the cost of insuring homes and businesses, through to impacts on health and safety.

This is critical given 90% of Australians live in urban areas. Globally, cities are home to more than four billion people.

Our new study identifies 16 priority actions to address climate change in the construction and management of cities.

Building smarter

Climate change must be a key consideration when designing, building and managing our cities. The emissions generated need to be minimised and eventually eliminated.

We must build in locations, and in ways, that reduce climate risks. But policies governing how our cities are designed and constructed don’t achieve this.

A recent study of three local government areas identified only limited action on adaptation and mitigation. Other research has found few urban development policies include carbon reduction goals that meet international targets.

The National Housing Accord will see more than one million houses built by 2029. These new homes must address the climate challenge.

16 areas for priority action

The priority areas in our new study were informed by interviews with more than 150 stakeholders working in urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, sustainability, construction and property.

The actions they identified cover the entire life cycle of the built environment.

One of the first barriers to overcome is the perceived lack of agency among industry professionals to initiate or demand climate action. They perceive others, such as property owners or clients, to have more influence.

Climate change risks should be identified in the early stages of planning new developments, backed up by effective tools to make risk identification and action easier:

There were areas that were identified as being flood prone or risk prone. But there was no strategy to deal with what happens to those areas – An urban planner

Once specific projects are being considered it is important to prioritise early stage climate assessments, supported by policies which mandate climate action:

Everyone has good intentions but without big formal legislation around it, everyone’s just sort of making their way in the dark – A construction industry professional

In the design stage, steps to improve the climate knowledge and skills of the workforce beyond disciplinary boundaries is critical. The selection of low-impact products and materials will also help ensure design is more climate responsive.

The highest number of hurdles to climate action were found to occur during the costing and approvals stage. Participants spoke of a highly competitive building industry. If climate change initiatives introduced at an earlier stage aren’t required by law, they are likely to be cut.

unless there’s something in it for them in terms of return on investment, it’s going to be hard to get them to do it, unless we make them – An urban planner

During the construction phase, product and material substitutions that have detrimental environmental impact should be eliminated. Innovation should be encouraged:

If you want to push the envelope a little bit in terms of using recycled materials […] that’s a bit of a barrier. To push innovation is difficult – A landscape architect

Post-construction

Once construction is complete and buildings and public spaces are being used, it is important to invest in a thorough evaluation process. Building users should be involved to ensure buildings are maintained for optimal climate outcomes:

[We] tried to achieve the six star rating […] the client has to maintain it [the building] for a year, and that’s when things start to fall off – An architect

When it comes to area upgrades or building renewals, advocating for reuse and materials circularity is important. But the custom of demolishing and building anew, is hard to shift:

The reuse of the existing building obviously generates significantly less waste and involves less material. So, design decisions and strategic decisions around using existing buildings is really important – An urban designer

Working together

This is a time of significant change in our urban areas.

We need to make sure climate action is embedded in every stage of decision making. This may mean more efficient use, and reuse, of the existing built stock. This will require an overhaul of policies regarding building retrofits, and a change in mindsets.

The priority actions to address climate change in cities can be implemented across a range of levels for:

• individual professionals – pursue development of their climate change skills, including opportunities provided by professional associations

• professional practices – review internal processes to ensure climate action is mainstreamed across projects, and in company decision making

• universities teaching built environment professional degrees – embed climate change knowledge, skills, and competencies across the curriculum

• governments at all levels – review policy settings to mandate mitigation and adaption.

By addressing these actions, we can collectively work towards achieving our emission reduction targets and making sure our cities minimise climate change risks.

Anna Hurlimann received funding for the research reported in this article from the Australian Research Council – Discovery Grant DP200101378, with co-chief investigators Georgia Warren-Myers, Alan March, Sareh Moosavi and Judy Bush. She is a member of the Planning Institute of Australia.

Sareh Moosavi received funding for the research reported in this article from the Australian Research Council – Discovery Grant DP200101378, with co-chief investigators Anna Hurlimann, Georgia Warren-Myers, Alan March, and Judy Bush.

– ref. Cities are heating up the planet – how they can do more to fight climate change – https://theconversation.com/cities-are-heating-up-the-planet-how-they-can-do-more-to-fight-climate-change-259391

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Theobald, Postdoctoral researcher, Institute for Ethics and Society, University of Notre Dame Australia

From 2015 to 2018, I spent 15 months doing research work in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city. As an anthropologist, I was interested in everyday life in Iran outside the capital Tehran. I was also interested in understanding whether the ambitions of the 1979 Revolution lived on among “ordinary” Iranians, not just political elites.

I first lived on a university campus, where I learned Persian, and later with Iranian families. I conducted hundreds of interviews with people who had a broad spectrum of political, social and religious views. They included opponents of the Islamic Republic, supporters, and many who were in between.

What these interviews revealed to me was both the diversity of opinion and experience in Iran, and the difficulty of making uniform statements about what Iranians believe.

Measuring the depth of antipathy for the regime

When Israel’s strikes on Iran began on June 13, killing many top military commanders, many news outlets – both international and those run by the Iranian diaspora – featured images of Iranians cheering the deaths of these hated regime figures.

Friends from my fieldwork also pointed to these celebrations, while not always agreeing with them. Many feared the impact of a larger conflict between Iran and Israel.

Trying to put these sentiments in context, many analysts have pointed to a 2019 survey by the GAMAAN Institute, an independent organisation based in the Netherlands that tracks Iranian public opinion. This survey showed 79% of Iranians living in the country would vote against the Islamic Republic if a free referendum were held on its rule.

Viewing these examples as an indicator of the lack of support for the Islamic Republic is not wrong. But when used as factoids in news reports, they become detached from the complexities of life in Iran. This can discourage us from asking deeper questions about the relationships between ideology and pragmatism, support and opposition to the regime, and state and society.

A more nuanced view

The news reporting on Iran has encouraged a tendency to see the Iranian state as homogeneous, highly ideological and radically separate from the population.

But where do we draw the line between the state and the people? There is no easy answer to this.

When I lived in Iran, many of the people who took part in my research were state employees – teachers at state institutions, university lecturers, administrative workers. Many of them had strong and diverse views about the legacy of the revolution and the future of the country.

They sometimes pointed to state discourse they agreed with, for example Iran’s right to national self-determination, free from foreign influence. They also disagreed with much, such as the slogans of “death to America”.

This ambivalence was evident in one of my Persian teachers. An employee of the state, she refused to attend the annual parades celebrating the anniversary of the revolution. “We have warm feelings towards America,” she said. On the other hand, she happily attended protests, also organised by the government, in favour of Palestinian liberation.

Or take the young government worker I met in Mashhad: “We want to be independent of other countries, but not like this.”

In a narrower sense, discussions about the “state” may refer more to organisations like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij, the paramilitary force within the IRGC that has cracked down harshly on dissent in recent decades. Both are often understood as being deeply ideologically committed.

Said Golkar, a US-based Iranian academic and author, for instance, calls Iran a “captive society”. Rather than having a civil society, he believes Iranians are trapped by the feared Basij, who maintain control through their presence in many institutions like universities and schools.

Again, this view is not wrong. But even among the Basij and Revolutionary Guard, it can be difficult to gauge just how ideological and homogeneous these organisations truly are.

For a start, the IRGC relies on both ideologically selected supporters, as well as conscripts, to fill its ranks. They are also not always ideologically uniform, as the US-based anthropologist Narges Bajoghli, who worked with pro-state filmmakers in Tehran, has noted.

As part of my research, I also interviewed members of the Basij, which, unlike the IRGC proper, is a wholly volunteer organisation.

Even though ideological commitment was certainly an important factor for some of the Basij members I met, there were also pragmatic reasons to join. These included access to better jobs, scholarships and social mobility. Sometimes, factors overlapped. But participation did not always equate to a singular or sustained commitment to revolutionary values.

For example, Sāsān, a friend I made attending discussion groups in Mashhad, was quick to note that time spent in the Basij “reduced your [compulsory] military service”.

This isn’t to suggest there are not ideologically committed people in Iran. They clearly exist, and many are ready to use violence. Some of those who join these institutions for pragmatic reasons use violence, too.

Looking in between

In addition, Iran is an ethnically diverse country. It has a population of 92 million people, a bare majority of whom are Persians. Other minorities include Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Baloch, Turkmen and others.

It is also religiously diverse. While there is a sizeable, nominally Shi’a majority, there are also large Sunni communities (about 10-15% of the population) and smaller communities of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Baha’is and other religions.

Often overlooked, there are also important differences in class and social strata in Iran, too.

One of the things I noticed about state propaganda was that it flattened this diversity. James Barry, an Australian scholar of Iran, noticed a similar phenomenon.

State propaganda made it seem like there was one voice in the country. Protests could be dismissed out of hand because they did not represent the “authentic” view of Iranians. Foreign agitators supported protests. Iranians supported the Islamic Republic.

Since leaving Iran, I have followed many voices of Iranians in the diaspora. Opposition groups are loud on social media, especially the monarchists who support Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed Shah.

In following these groups, I have noticed a similar tendency to speak as though they represent the voice of all Iranians. Iranians support the shah. Or Iranians support Maryam Rajavi, leader of a Paris-based opposition group.

Both within Iran, and in the diaspora, the regime, too, is sometimes held to be the imposition of a foreign conspiracy. This allows the Islamic Republic and the complex relations it has created to be dismissed out of hand. Once again, such a view flattens diversity.

Over the past few years, political identities and societal divisions seem to have become harder and clearer. This means there is an increasing perception among many Iranians of a gulf between the state and Iranian society. This is the case both inside Iran, and especially in the Iranian diaspora.

Decades of intermittent protests and civil disobedience across the country also show that for many, the current system no longer represents the hopes and aspirations of many people. This is especially the case for the youth, who make up a large percentage of the population.

I am not an Iranian, and I strongly believe it is up to Iranians to determine their own futures. I also do not aim to excuse the Islamic Republic – it is brutal and tyrannical. But its brutality should not let us shy away from asking complex questions.

If the regime did fall tomorrow, Iran’s diversity means there is little unanimity of opinion as to what should come next. And if a more pluralist form of politics is to emerge, it must encompass the whole of Iran’s diversity, without assuming a uniform position.

It, too, will have to wrestle with the difficult questions and sometimes ambivalent relations the Islamic Republic has created.

Simon Theobald received funding from the Australian National University during his research.

– ref. Do all Iranians hate the regime? Hate America? Life inside the country is more complex than that – https://theconversation.com/do-all-iranians-hate-the-regime-hate-america-life-inside-the-country-is-more-complex-than-that-259554

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Leask, Professor, School of Public Health, University of Sydney

The United States used to be a leader in vaccine research, development and policymaking. Now US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr is undermining the country’s vaccine program at the highest level and supercharging vaccine skepticism.

Two weeks ago, RFK Jr sacked the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices responsible for reviewing the latest scientific evidence on vaccines. RFK Jr alleged conflicts of interest and hand-picked a replacement panel.

On Wednesday, RFK Jr announced the US would stop funding the global vaccine alliance, Gavi, because he claimed that “when the science was inconvenient today, Gavi ignored the science”. RFK Jr questioned the safety of COVID vaccines for pregnant women, as well as the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine.

On Thursday, when the new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met, the person who first drew RFK Jr into vaccine scepticism, Lyn Redwood, shared disproved claims about a chemical called thimerosal in flu vaccines being harmful.

The undermining of regulation, advisory processes and funding changes will have global impacts, as debunked claims are given new levels of apparent legitimacy. Some of these impacts will be slow and insidious.

So what should we make of these latest claims and funding cuts?

Thiomersal is a distraction

Thiomersal (thimerosal in the the US) is a safe and effective preservative that prevents bacterial and fungal contamination of the vaccine contained in a multi-dose vial. It’s a salt that contains a tiny amount of mercury in a safe form.

Thiomersal is no longer used as a preservative in any vaccines routinely given in Australia. But it’s still used in the Q fever vaccine.

Other countries use multi-dose vials with thiomersal when single-dose vials are too expensive.

In the US, just 4% of adult influenza vaccines contain thiomersal. So focusing on removing vaccines containing thimerosal is a distraction for the committee.

COVID vaccines in pregnancy prevent severe illness

On Wednesday, RFK criticised Gavi’s encouragement of pregnant women to receive COVID-19 vaccines.

A COVID-19 infection before and during pregnancy can increase the risk of miscarriage two- to four-fold, even if it’s only a mild infection.

Conversely, there is good evidence vaccination during pregnancy is safe and can reduce the chance of hospitalisation of pregnant people and of infants by passing antibodies through the placenta.

In Australia, pregnant people who have never received a primary COVID-19 vaccine are recommended to have one. However, they are not generally recommended to have booster unless they have underlying risk conditions or prefer to have one. This is due to population immunity.

COVID-19 vaccine advice should adapt to changes in disease risk and vaccine benefit. It doesn’t mean previous decisions were wrong, nor that vaccine boosters are unsafe.

RFK’s criticism of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy may influence choices individuals make in other countries, even when unvaccinated pregnant women are encouraged to consider vaccination.

The diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine is safe

RFK Jr also questioned the safety of the combined diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) vaccine as he announced the withdrawal of US funding support for Gavi.

In the early 2000s, three community-based observational studies reported a possible association between increased chance of death in infants and use of the DTP vaccine.

A few subsequent studies also reported associations, with higher risk in girls, prompting a World Health Organization (WHO) review of safety.

Real world studies are complicated and the data can be difficult to interpret correctly. Often, the very factors that influence whether someone gets vaccinated can also be associated with other health risks.

When the WHO committee reviewed all the studies on DTP safety in 2014, it did not indicate serious adverse events. It concluded there was substantial evidence against these claims.

What will de-funding Gavi mean for vaccination rates?

Gavi, the vaccine alliance, supports vaccine purchasing in low-income countries.

The US has historically accounted for 13% of all donor funds.

However, RFK Jr said Gavi needed to re-earn the public trust and “consider the best science available” before the US would contribute funding again.

Gavi predicted in March that the impact of US funding cuts could result in one million deaths through missed vaccines.

Could something like this happen in Australia?

Australia is fortunate to be buffered from these impacts.

Our vaccine advisory body, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, has people with deep expertise in vaccination. We have robust decision processes that weigh evidence critically and make careful recommendations to government.

Our governments remain committed to vaccination. The federal government released the National Immunisation Strategy in mid-June with a comprehensive plan to continue to strengthen our program.

The federal government also announced A$386 million to support the work of Gavi from 2026 to 2030.

All of this keeps our vaccine policies strong, preventing disease and increasing life expectancy here and overseas.

But to mitigate the possible influence of the US in Australia, our governments, health professionals and the public need to be ready to rapidly tackle the misinformation, distortions and half-truths RFK Jr cleverly packages – with quality information.

Julie Leask receives research funding from NHMRC, WHO, US CDC, NSW Ministry of Health. She received funding from Sanofi for travel to an overseas meeting in 2024. She has consulting fees from RTI International and the Task Force for Global Health.

Catherine Bennett has received honoraria for contributing to independent advisory panels for Moderna and AstraZeneca, and has received NHMRC, VicHealth and MRFF funding for unrelated projects. She was the health lead on the Independent Inquiry into the Australian Government COVID-19 Response .

– ref. RFK Junior is stoking fears about vaccine safety. Here’s why he’s wrong – and the impact it could have – https://theconversation.com/rfk-junior-is-stoking-fears-about-vaccine-safety-heres-why-hes-wrong-and-the-impact-it-could-have-259986