Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Smith, Associate Professor in American Politics and Foreign Policy, US Studies Centre, University of Sydney

Last week, Donald Trump promised a Christian audience that if they voted for him in 2024, they wouldn’t have to vote again in four years.

Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. … You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.

Democrats pounced on this as evidence of Trump’s dictatorial ambitions. But not all conservative Christians were thrilled about it, either.

David Lane, who leads an organisation dedicated to getting Christian leaders elected, fretted that Trump’s comments could discourage Christians from voting in the future.

“Evangelicals in 2028, 2032, and 2036 must raise their civics game to a new level if America is to return to the Judeo-Christian heritage and Biblical-based culture laid out by the founders”, Lane told the Washington Post.

Was Trump really promising dictatorship? Or claiming there would be no need for Christians to vote in future elections? Or was he just repeating a joke he made a week earlier, based on his (wildly inaccurate) belief that conservative Christians are reluctant voters?

Even jokes can be revealing, especially when it comes to the relationship between Trump and his supporters. Trump was not saying he would end elections, but he was being coyly apocalyptic about what Christians could expect from this one.

Trump identifies as a Christian, but he is not a traditional Christian politician. Conservative Christian leaders typically fight policy battles to bring or keep their country in line with their moral beliefs. But as I’ve written before, many rank and file Christian conservatives in America have been left unsatisfied by the failures of this approach, and Trump has tapped into their frustrations.

Either explicitly or through hints, Trump has repeatedly promised Christians far bigger victories than incremental policy gains or temporary reversals of fortune in the culture wars. Trump instead talks about winning the “final battle”, which reminds many Christians of the prophesied victory of God over Satan.

If anything, this election Trump has been downplaying policies that conservative Christians might want. The Republican platform for 2024 has modified the party’s hardline opposition to abortion, because Trump has said Republicans must “win elections”.

Only Trump, who appointed the judges who overturned Roe v Wade, would have the credibility to do this without fearing the loss of conservative Christian support. And that credibility is as high now as it has ever been.

In the past, Trump has enjoyed the way some Christians have likened him to righteous biblical rulers such as King Cyrus, King David, and Queen Esther. Many of his supporters took his “miraculous” survival of an horrific assassination attempt as an unmistakable sign that God is protecting him. And ever since the shooting, Trump also seems to see himself in increasingly religious terms.

When he first joked about Christians only needing to vote once, he also said

I have the wounds all over my body. If I took this shirt off you’d see a beautiful, beautiful person but you’d see wounds all over me. I’ve taken a lot of wounds, I can tell you. More than I suspect any president ever.“

Trump’s use of “wounds” would not have been lost on his Christian audience. The idea of him taking wounds for them parallels Saint Peter’s proclamation about Jesus that “by his wounds you were healed”.

Most Christians would not go as far as conservative broadcaster Wayne Allyn Root in calling Trump “the second coming of God”, but many of them trust that God is using Trump to achieve His ends and protect them from their enemies.

There are two other serious revelations in Trump’s joke.

The first is that he is counting on his base to win the election. His selection of JD Vance as his running mate was not calculated to win over groups with whom Trump has struggled in recent years, particularly suburban women. Rather, it came at the height of the Trump team’s conviction that they were destined to win anyway.

Vance has become the intellectual muscle of the Trump movement, articulating a fiercely post-liberal vision of the future. A consistent implication of Vance’s rhetoric in recent years, from his support of abortion bans and his opposition to no-fault divorce to his disparagement of “childless cat ladies”, is that the main duty of American women is to have children.

This excites Trump’s base, but Democrats have effectively cast him as “weird”, and Vance has the lowest approval ratings since 1980 for a non-incumbent vice presidential candidate at this stage of the race. If Trump is going to win with Vance against Kamala Harris, he might need even more votes from conservative Christians than the record numbers he got from the last two elections.

The second is that for all the talk of Vance being a choice for the future, Trump has little interest in the future beyond his own second term. This comes across more clearly in the original version of the joke:

They go to church every Sunday, but they don’t vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote. Okay? In four years, don’t vote. I don’t care.

Trump has remade the Republican Party as his personal vehicle. When he finally exits, no one else may be able to drive it.

David Smith 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. Does Donald Trump really want to be a dictator? – https://theconversation.com/does-donald-trump-really-want-to-be-a-dictator-234669

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eva Ellmer, Researcher, The University of Queensland

Action sports used to be a niche interest but they are continuing to gain in popularity, especially among younger generations.

So, why are more people turning to sports such as BMX, skateboarding and surfing?

The popularity of the X-Games would have helped but there are likely other factors.

One is that participants can engage in these activities in a way that suits their lifestyle and they can express themselves freely – outside of rules, regulations and schedules seen in more traditional sports.

With action sports, people are often empowered to explore their potential and develop their skills and abilities without coaches or sporting organisations imposing rigid structures and expectations.

These athletes don’t have to worry about running laps to warm up or doing push-ups for punishment. Instead, they usually don’t have coaches telling them what to do, and when and how – they tread their own paths.

From rebellion to acceptance

When action sports first came onto the scene in the late 1990s, athletes started to challenge traditions and norms by embracing an anti-establishment and counter-cultural, do-it-yourself philosophy.

This was particularly evident at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, when snowboarders such as Norway’s Terje Haakonsen boycotted the games due to the demands the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was placing on athletes and their sponsors.

Some critics felt the IOC did not respect the unique history and values of snowboarding. Since then, several other action sports athletes have spoken out about their sports’ inclusion in the Olympics.

Over the past few decades, participation rates in these sporting activities have continued to rise both locally and globally.

In Australia, an estimated 196,000 individuals aged 15+ have taken up surfing and 119,000 have taken up skate sports since 2019.

As action sports are being accepted into the mainstream, the narrative is beginning to change.

Rather than perceiving action sports participants as being rebellious, their positive values and behaviours are being recognised. At the Tokyo Olympics for example, skateboarders were highlighted for their friendship, inclusivity and collaboration.

These are values that all sports can continue to learn and benefit from.

Thriving on independence: how these athletes learn

This evolving landscape has allowed researchers to explore not only the values and motivations of sports participation but also how action sports athletes learn and develop their skills.

Spoiler alert – they’re often different from traditional learning methodologies and pathways.

Instead of being coached from junior levels as seen in most traditional sports, action sports participants tend to take responsibility for their own learning by going to the skate park or building their own ramps and obstacles in dirt or snow.

Indeed, some athletes like BMX freestyler Logan Martin have built their own freestyle parks in their backyard.

This speaks to the flexibility, freedom and creativity of when, where, and how participants engage in their sport.

In Martin’s case, it was an investment in his own professional development and it paid off – he won gold in Tokyo.

The role of peer-coaching

In action sports, athletes often learn from each other rather than from coaches. They watch each other’s moves, talk about what works and solve problems together.

This kind of peer-coaching boosts confidence and team spirit especially when everyone has a common goal.

In these sports that are considered high-risk, athletes rely on their peers’ advice and encouragement when attempting to complete a new jump or trick. The emotionally safe environment allows athletes to turn fear into courage, supporting their learning and skill development.

Even at the elite level, many action sports athletes learn differently. While some may have touchpoints with performance support staff like coaches, sports scientists, psychologists and dietitians, many don’t.

For many action sports athletes, this often occurs only once they have been identified as a “podium potential” athlete – meaning they have already met certain performance benchmarks alongside international competition performances.

Under these guidelines, athletes are afforded scholarships allowing them to dictate their own performance support management.

Even though action sports participants remain independent athletes, insights from my research into the Australian BMX scene shows coaches are respected and accepted as being “one of them” because they understood the BMX world; they created a positive, trusting environment where athletes could be themselves, share feedback and get the most out of their training sessions.

Out with the old, in with the new?

No doubt some coaches and clubs from traditional sports have started to move the goalposts to meet the demands of the younger generation. However, there remain many that can learn valuable lessons from the practices of action sports athletes.

Encouraging athletes to learn from each other, rather than solely relying on coaches, can enhance skill and personal development. Just like in action sports, observing teammates, discussing strategies and collaborating can lead to better performance.

Traditional sports can benefit from creating environments where athletes feel supported, which will result in them remaining committed to a sport and continuing to develop both on and off the field.

Coaches can achieve this by prioritising the building of trust and feedback-rich relationships between them and their athletes.

Coaches in more traditional sports can empower their athletes by giving them more control over their training, recovery and mental wellbeing. This is where scholarships and personalised resources like physiotherapy, psychology, and nutrition can be helpful.

So rather than coaches calling all the shots, why not let the athletes take over? What’s the worst that can happen?

If it’s safe in a high-risk sport, it’s likely to be safe in a traditional one.

Eva Ellmer 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. No coaches, no worries? How action sport athletes are bucking traditional sports pathways – https://theconversation.com/no-coaches-no-worries-how-action-sport-athletes-are-bucking-traditional-sports-pathways-234481

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ran Porat, Affiliate Researcher, The Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University

There have been widespread, large-scale protests against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel for more than a year.

These have been in response to a controversial judicial reform plan and then the horrors of the October 7 Hamas attack and the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

So far, Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition government remains intact. However, draft notices sent in recent days to about 1,000 young Jewish religious men now have the potential to bring it down.

The current war in Gaza – as well as the heightened tensions with Hezbollah in recent days – have made clear an urgent need to increase the size of the Israeli army.

But the crisis surrounding the army service exemption for ultra-Orthodox youth is more than a political, economic or even moral issue. It touches on the very essence of the relationship between the Jewish state and its citizens.

The origins of the exemption

Israel’s founding father and first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, decided in 1948, during the war that resulted in the creation of Israel, to grant service exemptions in the newly founded Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to 400 ultra-Orthodox men (Haredim in Hebrew).

The idea of “Torahto umanuto” (“His Torah is his job”) was intended to allow these men to pursue their studies in Jewish religious institutes (yeshivas). The goal was to ensure the preservation of hundreds of years of Jewish learning and religious knowledge, which was under severe threat after millions of Jews perished in the Holocaust.

For many years, the number of exemptions remained capped. Following the 1977 elections, the Likud Party secured a governing coalition for the first time by wooing religious parties to join the government in exchange for removing the limitations on such exemptions.

As a result, by 2021, the number of exemptions jumped to almost 10,000 Haredim each year, representing 18% of the total 18-year-old Jewish men and women required by law to enlist in the IDF.

For decades, this arrangement has caused significant tensions within Israeli society.

Critics point to the inherent injustice it represents. A large majority of Israelis of all denominations dedicate years to serving in the army, with many risking their lives and even being killed in action. A politically powerful minority group, however, is given a free pass from any such obligation.

Financial interests in avoiding the draft

This inequality also has significant financial implications. The Haredim population is growing faster in proportion to other segments of the Israeli population due to higher fertility rates (six children per family, double that of secular families).

Demographic predictions suggest the Haredim will constitute about 25% of Israel’s population by 2065, up from about 13% today.

And in recent years, the Haredim have turned their growing population into increased political power in Israel’s system of proportional representation; they now have 19 members in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) out of 120.

And over time, Haredi politicians have constructed a complex system of state financial subsidies to sustain the young men exempted from military service and their families. To maintain these benefits, the yeshivas list them as students until they turn 26 – the age when all citizens become exempt from service.

As a result, keeping the exemption arrangement intact has become a major economic pillar of the ultra-Orthodox sector.

Because of this, many Haredi men do not work, which has led to an increase in the percentage of ultra-Orthodox women entering the workforce to support their families. Other men are working illegally in violation of their IDF exemptions.

Religious leaders fear that army service will lead to secularisation, due to exposure to the outside world. For example, women are an integral part of the IDF, including in combat roles, but certain types of inter-gender interactions are perceived as “promiscuous” in ultra-Orthodox circles.

Yet, in recent years, the army has been able to incorporate a small number of ultra-Orthodox youth into specific units (such as the Netzach Yehuda), thanks to special adjustments made to accommodate their religious expectations and skill sets.

A threat to Netanyahu’s coalition

Despite the power of ultra-Orthodox political parties, attempts to codify the Haredi draft exemption into Israeli law have so far failed.

Last month, Israel’s Supreme Court ordered an end to the funding of yeshivas that do not comply with draft quotas and instructed the army to start enlisting ultra-Orthodox men. The IDF then began issuing the first draft notices.

The ultra-Orthodox response has been defiant – the leadership ordered yeshiva students to ignore the notices and started collecting money to replace the government funding being withdrawn.

In March, the former chief Sephardic rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, threatened to leave Israel if Haredim are forced to join the army, while other Haredi leaders have said that they would “rather die” than obey the orders.

For the ultra-Orthodox parties, the draft exemption is the single most important issue. Unless a solution is found soon, they could elect to bring down Netanyahu’s government by leaving the coalition. This would allow the opposition to win a no-confidence vote.

There is little appetite among the members of the governing coalition to go to an election. Recent polls have predicted a heavy defeat for the Likud bloc.

Israel needs a new contract

More than a political question, the relationship between the state and its citizens is at the heart of the Haredi army draft conflict.

A core obligation of any government to its people – to provide security – was shattered on October 7. The army also needs more recruits.

Given this, many Israelis are now demanding that what they see as years of injustice and inequality be corrected by establishing a new contract between the ultra-Orthodox sector and the rest of society. They believe this is especially important as the size of the ultra-Orthodox community and the impact of their exemptions are expected to become ever more significant in coming years.

Ran Porat is a research associate at The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) and Research Fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Reichman University, Herzliya, Israel. He is affiliated with Australian Centre for Jewish Civilization, Monash University,

– ref. Why ultra-Orthodox opposition to serving in the Israeli army is the most significant threat to Netanyahu’s government – https://theconversation.com/why-ultra-orthodox-opposition-to-serving-in-the-israeli-army-is-the-most-significant-threat-to-netanyahus-government-235585

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gita Mishra, Professor of Life Course Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland

What’s the difference? is a new editorial product that explains the similarities and differences between commonly confused health and medical terms, and why they matter.

Former US First Lady Michelle Obama revealed in her memoir she had a miscarriage. UK singer-songwriter and actor Lily Allen has gone on the record about her stillbirth.

Both miscarriage and stillbirth are sadly familiar terms for pregnancy loss. They can be traumatic life events for the prospective parents and family, and their impacts can be long-lasting. But the terms can be confused.

Here are some similarities and differences between miscarriage and stillbirth, and why they matter.

Let’s start with some definitions

In broad terms, a miscarriage is when a pregnancy ends while the fetus is not yet viable (before it could survive outside the womb).

This is the loss of an “intra-uterine” pregnancy, when an embryo is implanted in the womb to then develop into a fetus. The term miscarriage excludes ectopic pregnancies, where the embryo is implanted outside the womb.

However, stillbirth refers to the end of a pregnancy when the fetus is normally viable. There may have been sufficient time into the pregnancy. Alternatively, the fetus may have grown large enough to be normally expected to survive, but it dies in the womb or during delivery.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare defines stillbirth as a fetal death of at least 20 completed weeks of gestation or with a birthweight of at least 400 grams.

Internationally, definitions of stillbirth vary depending on the jurisdiction.

How common are they?

It is difficult to know how common miscarriages are as they can happen when a woman doesn’t know she is pregnant. There may be no obvious symptoms or something that looks like a heavier-than-normal period. So miscarriages are likely to be more common than reported.

Studies from Europe and North America suggest a miscarriage occurs in about one in seven pregnancies (15%). More than one in eight women (13%) will have a miscarriage at some time in her life.

Around 1–2% of women have recurrent miscarriages. In Australia this is when someone has three or more miscarriages with no pregnancy in between.

Australia has one of the lowest rates of stillbirth in the world. The rate has been relatively steady over the past 20 years at 0.7% or around seven per 1,000 pregnancies.

Who’s at risk?

Someone who has already had a miscarriage or stillbirth has an increased risk of that outcome again in a subsequent pregnancy.

Compared with women who have had a live birth, those who have had a stillbirth have double the risk of another. For those who have had recurrent miscarriages, the risk of another miscarriage is four-fold higher.

Some factors have a u-shaped relationship, with the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth lowest in the middle.

For instance, maternal age is a risk factor for both miscarriage and stillbirth, especially if under 20 years old or older than 35. Increasing age of the male is only a risk factor for stillbirth, especially for fathers over 40.

Similarly for maternal bodyweight, women with a body mass index or BMI in the normal range have the lowest risk of miscarriage and stillbirth compared with those in the obese or underweight categories.

Lifestyle factors such as smoking and heavy alcohol drinking while pregnant are also risk factors for both miscarriage and stillbirth.

So it’s important to not only avoid smoking and alcohol while pregnant, but before getting pregnant. This is because early in the pregnancy, women may not know they have conceived and could unwittingly expose the developing fetus.

Why do they happen?

Miscarriage often results from chromosomal problems in the developing fetus. However, genetic conditions or birth defects account for only 7-14% of stillbirths.

Instead, stillbirths often relate directly to pregnancy complications, such as a prolonged pregnancy or problems with the umbilical cord.

Maternal health at the time of pregnancy is another contributing factor in the risk of both miscarriage and stillbirths.

Chronic diseases, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid), polycystic ovary syndrome, problems with the immune system (such as an autoimmune disorder), and some bacterial and viral infections are among factors that can increase the risk of miscarriage.

Similarly mothers with diabetes, high blood pressure, and untreated infections, such as malaria or syphilis, face an increased risk of stillbirth.

In many cases, however, the specific cause of pregnancy loss is not known.

How about the long-term health risks?

Miscarriage and stillbirth can be early indicators of health issues later in life.

For instance, women who have had recurrent miscarriages or recurrent stillbirths are at higher risk of cardiovascular disease (such as heart disease or stroke).

Our research has also looked at the increased risk of stroke. Compared with women who had never miscarried, we found women with a history of three or more miscarriages had a 35% higher risk of non-fatal stroke and 82% higher risk of fatal stroke.

Women who had a stillbirth had a 31% higher risk of a non-fatal stroke, and those who had had two or more stillbirths were at a 26% higher risk of a fatal stroke.

We saw similar patterns in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, a progressive lung disease with respiratory symptoms such as breathlessness and coughing.

Our data showed women with a history of recurrent miscarriages or stillbirths were at a 36% or 67% higher risk of COPD, respectively, even after accounting for a history of asthma.

Why is all this important?

Being well-informed about the similarities and differences between these two traumatic life events may help explain what has happened to you or a loved one.

Where risk factors can be modified, such as smoking and obesity, this information can be empowering for individuals who wish to reduce their risk of miscarriage and stillbirth and make lifestyle changes before they become pregnant.

More information and support about miscarriage and stillbirth is available from SANDS and Pink Elephants.

Gita Mishra receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council, Medical Research Funds, Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. She is a board member of the Queensland Heart Foundation.

Jenny Doust receives funding from NHMRC for grants, including understanding the relationship between women’s health and later diseases.

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

– ref. What’s the difference between miscarriage and stillbirth? – https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-miscarriage-and-stillbirth-225660

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah L Harris, Associate Professor Nursing, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

New Zealand’s health system is grappling with a severe workforce shortage. Media reports frequently highlight individuals and families being unable to access timely healthcare, exacerbated by a shortage of general practitioners (GPs) and overflowing emergency departments.

But one potential solution to the ongoing crisis – the greater use of nurse practitioners (NPs) – is conspicuously absent from the government’s 2024 health policy statement.

Nurse practitioners are highly skilled nurses with advanced education (a minimum of a masters degree), clinical training and experience. They have the legal authority to practice beyond the level of a registered nurse.

NPs can write prescriptions and help people with screening and vaccinations. They can also help manage chronic conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

New Zealand’s 800 NPs practice in primary health services, hospitals and speciality clinics. They work on their own and in teams with other health professionals.

But despite having delivered healthcare for nearly 25 years, and playing a critical role in closing gaps in access to health services, there remains a disconnect between policy support, education funding and practical implementation of the nurse practitioner workforce.

The role of nurse practitioners

The role of nurse practitioner was first established in New Zealand in 2001.

Globally, the ability of NPs to diagnose, treat and manage patients has been shown to enhance the efficiency of hospital services, reduce wait times, and improve both patient outcomes and experiences.

Nurse practitioners are not a substitute for medical doctors. However, overseas research has shown collaboration between doctors and NPs can lead to improved delivery of healthcare and patient satisfaction. Where NPs were available, there was a statistically significant decrease in emergency room use and admissions to hospital.

While there is ongoing debate over whether NPs can or should replace doctors, this is ultimately unhelpful. They are different roles. And it distracts from the very real concern of decreased access to healthcare for many New Zealanders.

A more useful approach is to identify where each can contribute expertise to delivering healthcare and improving the patient outcomes.

A health workforce solution

Supporting nurse practitioners is essential to address New Zealand’s healthcare workforce crisis. However, to sustain and grow this workforce, the government must address a number of critical issues.

After two decades, many New Zealanders are unaware of the role of registered NPs. The lack of a comprehensive plan following the development of the role has led to uneven integration into the health services. This failure in planning has continued to this day.

Despite research highlighting the capabilities of NPs to diagnose and treat patients effectively, there is a noticeable lack of strategic planning for the role.

Decisions about the nurse practitioner workforce are commonly made by people who do not understand their role – there are no NPs at decision-making tables, including the Nursing Council of New Zealand.

Another critical issue is the uncertain funding for nurse practitioner training programmes. These are offered in partnership with employers and educational organisations such as universities and polytechnics.

Earlier this year, the government announced funding for 121 places on the nurse practitioner training programme (NPTP). But the funding is largely unstable and fragmented, creating uncertainty and anxiety for aspiring nurse practitioners, education providers and the wider workforce.

Implementing supportive policies that maximise the nurse practitioner contribution is essential. This includes removing legislative barriers, and ensuring stable funding for training programmes. Additionally, fostering a culture of collaboration between nurse practitioners and doctors will further enhance patient care, as each profession brings unique strengths to the healthcare team.

Bridging the gap

Supporting nurse practitioners through policies and collaborative practices is an essential and logical pathway to address New Zealand’s healthcare workforce crisis.

By recognising and utilising the full potential of nurse practitioners, we can bridge the gap in healthcare delivery and support access for everyone.

With nearly 800 registered nurse practitioners, and another 100 expected to register between December and February 2025, we have an evidence-based, capable, caring and flexible workforce ready to meet growing healthcare demand.

It is imperative policymakers, nursing and healthcare leaders, as well as the wider public, recognise the vital role nurse practitioners play in our health system. By championing policy changes that support their proper integration, we can create a more resilient, dependable and accessible health system for those we serve.

Kathy Holloway is affiliated with National Nursing Leadership group as co-chair

Deborah L Harris 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. Nurse practitioners can ease NZ’s healthcare pressures – why is the role not better recognised or funded? – https://theconversation.com/nurse-practitioners-can-ease-nzs-healthcare-pressures-why-is-the-role-not-better-recognised-or-funded-235658

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katherine M. FitzGerald, PhD Candidate, Queensland University of Technology

On July 13, less than an hour after the attempted assassination on US presidential candidate Donald Trump, Elon Musk posted the following to his more than 190 million followers on X (formerly Twitter):

A few days later it was reported Musk planned on committing US$45 million per month to a pro-Trump super political action committee (PAC). Musk denied this and said he had established a new “America PAC”, with a focus was on “meritocracy and individual freedom”.

It’s expected Trump will benefit from donations by Musk, who has said “Republicans are mostly, but not entirely, on the side of merit and freedom”.

Musk has previously described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and political moderate. His political views often haven’t aligned neatly with the left-right binary. In the context of US presidential elections, however, he supported the Democratic candidate in every election between 2008 and 2020.

Now he is being viewed as a potential meal ticket for conservatives – particularly after his endorsement of Trump. So what changed?

The death of Twitter – and birth of X

Ever since Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 and rebranded it as X, the platform has been criticised for allowing hate speech and bots to proliferate. Research suggests both accusations are true.

According to a 2023 report from The Centre for Countering Digital Hate, Musk’s ownership corresponded with a 119% rise in tweets relating to a conspiracy that claims LGBTQ+ people are grooming children. The report sparked Musk’s ire and legal backlash.

This week, Musk is in the news for using transphobic rhetoric in reference to his own daughter, Vivian Wilson, whom he has described as being “dead — killed by the woke mind virus”. This isn’t the first time Musk has been involved in anti-trans rhetoric.

Last year, a colleague and I conducted our own analysis of X posts that revealed the strong presence of predominantly right-wing bot accounts.

Over the course of the first Republican primary debate (and simultaneously streamed interview between Trump and right-wing media figure Tucker Carlson) in August, we found a coordinated network of more than 1,200 accounts promoting the conspiracy theory that Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 US presidential election. This content received more than three million impressions.

We also found a sprawling network of 1,305 unique bot accounts (many of which were pro-Trump).

Beyond this, Musk’s rule over X has prompted hundreds of thousands of users (including journalists and academics) to delete or abandon their accounts. But while left-leaning public figures lost followers, reinstated right-wing personalities including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate and Trump himself have rapidly gained them.

Last year, NPR News was falsely labelled as “state-affiliated media” – a label that until then had been reserved for propaganda outlets from autocratic regimes. X later revised the label to call it “government-funded media”, despite NPR stating less than 1% of its budget is from the government.

What this mean for Trump supporters?

X was once touted as being a “global town square” where journalists, politicians and interested citizens could congregate for public debate. But given the number of journalists, academics and left-leaning users who have left, it seems unlikely it will ever return to this.

In the absence of diverse perspectives and robust moderation practices, it’s no surprise it has become a space for Trump supporters to mobilise.

Just this week, Musk seemingly violated his platform’s policies by sharing a deepfake video of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris without noting that it was satirical. The video, which includes voice manipulation, purports to show Harris making negative comments about President Joe Biden, Democrats and her own qualifications to be president.

Musk also called Harris an “extinctionist” in relation to a video in which she discusses young people’s climate anxieties.

Offline, Musk has reportedly been involved in meetings with a group of conservative billionaires aiming to ensure Trump wins the election.

As to why he has changed his political tune from being a consistent Democratic voter, we can only speculate. Before his acquisition of Twitter, Musk claimed his problems with the platform stemmed from the “far left” management’s censorship of content.

Reporters have also noted Musk’s actions often seem motivated by personal grievances and business motives. For example, after the Biden administration didn’t invite Tesla to a White House event for electric vehicle manufacturers, Musk took to Twitter to post criticisms of the US president.

As the world’s richest man – with key positions in companies including Space X, Tesla, Neuralink and The Boring Company – Musk’s business bottom line has long been subject to policies and regulatory action from both sides of government.

What’s next?

Musk isn’t the first billionaire to air his personal political grievances online. Nor is he the first to throw money at whatever candidate’s policies suit him most. But he is arguably the first to do so while having control over a social media mouthpiece the likes of X.

Returning to the upcoming US presidential elections, it is particularly concerning that Musk is seemingly allowing both incendiary speech and bots on his platform – especially in light of the Russian interference in the 2016 elections. And our own research from last year shows X’s bot problem is far from solved.

In the lead-up to the November election, it will be important for researchers to keep track of automated activity and accounts on X. Unfortunately, they won’t be able to do this as they have in the past. Much of the valuable research that was once conducted through free access to Twitter’s API stopped last year when Musk made this access prohibitively expensive.

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

– ref. How Elon Musk allowed X to become a stalwart platform for Trump supporters – https://theconversation.com/how-elon-musk-allowed-x-to-become-a-stalwart-platform-for-trump-supporters-235516

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ausma Bernot, Lecturer in Technology and Crime, Griffith University, Griffith University

The Apple Vision Pro is the newest tool for Australians to access three-dimensional, immersive online environments, also known as the metaverse. Released in Australia earlier this month, it allows users to take a (virtual) walk in the savanna from their living room, watch sports matches in an immersive environment, or even buy a house after completing a virtual inspection.

But these new online environments also have the potential to enable new crimes.

Metacrimes are those crimes occurring in the metaverse. They challenge our definitions of crimes in the digital realm, because they do not fit into existing frameworks of reporting and investigating crime.

Our new study tackles this problem by shedding light on the key characteristics of metacrimes. And by understanding these crimes better, we will be better able to fight them.

Metaverse, metacrime and cybercrime

The metaverse is a loose term describing a kind of three-dimensional, virtual world that users access via a virtual reality headset.

The 2018 movie Ready Player One provides a good visualisation of what the metaverse might look like. In the movie, people put on special goggles and pick their avatar to enter a massive, interactive digital universe where they can do almost anything.

Our research found crimes committed in the metaverse have commonalities with conventional cybercrime. For example, both involve different kinds of illegal activities happening online or in virtual spaces. As technology gets better, these crimes are also becoming more global and anonymous. This makes it near impossible to catch the perpetrators.

But we also found a number of metacrime features that do not overlap with conventional cybercrime.

The unique features of metacrimes

One such feature is immersive VR attacks, which are made to feel real through immersion and spatial presence.

Immersion is created through a number of sensory techniques in the headset, including visual, sound and haptic (touch). This creates a feeling of spatial presence that allows the user to perceive and experience the virtual space as real. This means negative experiences such as sexual violence and harassment also feel real.

Unless you are constantly recording your interactions in the metaverse via your headset, crucial evidence of that unpleasant interaction would not be captured. Some companies have created user controls, such as a safety bubble that can be activated around your avatar. However, we do not yet have sufficient research to know whether these are effective.

Our study argues the impact of metacrimes will also be exacerbated for vulnerable populations, especially children who occupy a large proportion of active metaverse users. Difficulties in verifying children’s age online add extra concerns about grooming and minor abuse.

These risks are not hypothetical.

In 2022, researchers from the Center for Countering Digital Hate conducted 11 hours and 30 minutes of recorded user interactions on Meta’s Oculus headset in the popular VRChat. They found that users, including children, encounter abusive behaviour approximately every seven minutes.

Bullying and sexual harassment was also rife, and minors were often manipulated into using racist slurs and promoting extremist ideas.

In January 2024, police in the United Kingdom launched the first case of rape in the metaverse after a 16-year-old girl’s avatar was attacked. Police reported the victim suffered psychological and emotional trauma, similar to an attack in the physical world.

The outcomes of the case are currently pending and are likely to set a legal precedent for the protection of minors in the metaverse. At the moment, metacrime presents new challenges in defining, measuring and pursuing avatars’ liability that conventional cybercrime does not usually confront.

We also found other risks including hacking and recording of a person’s environment. Manipulation of VR technologies, such as haptic suites that enable users to physically engage with virtual spaces, also enable perpetrators to inflict direct physical harm on users.

This can include inflicting visual vertigo, motion sickness, and neurologic symptoms.

Where to from here?

Major tech companies such as Apple, Meta and Microsoft are investing heavily in the metaverse, developing both hardware and software to enhance their platforms. Research firm Gartner predicted by 2026, 25% of people will spend at least an hour each day in the metaverse for work, shopping, education, social media and entertainment.

This prediction may be not too far away from reality. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner’s national online safety survey conducted in 2022 found 49% of metaverse users said they had entered the metaverse at least once a month in the last year.

It is therefore urgent that governments and tech companies develop metaverse-specific legal and regulatory frameworks to safeguard immersive virtual environments. National and international legal frameworks will need to account for the new characteristics of metacrime we have identified. Law enforcement will need to upskill in metacrime reporting and investigations.

In the past, companies have talked about using new technologies responsibly – but haven’t taken responsibility when their platforms were used for crimes and harms. Instead, tech leaders deploy what researchers are now calling an “artful apology” (for example, “I’m sorry you experienced this on our platform”).

But this does nothing tangible to tackle the problem, and metaverse companies should instil clear regulatory frameworks for their virtual environments to make them safe for everyone to inhabit.

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

The National Sexual Assault, Family and Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.

The research receives funding from Charles Sturt University. You Zhou is affiliated with Monash University.

Ausma Bernot, Kai Lin, and Milind Tiwari 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. What are ‘metacrimes’ – and how can we stop them? – https://theconversation.com/what-are-metacrimes-and-how-can-we-stop-them-235589

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine J. Frieman, Associate Professor in European Archaeology, Australian National University

We have no written evidence about how people lived in Europe during the Bronze Age (2300–800 BCE), so archaeologists piece together their world from the artefacts and materials they left behind. Unlike perishable materials such as wool or wood, it’s the metal that has been well preserved.

Considerable archaeological attention focuses on elite members of society, largely because common people left fewer traces. A new study suggests we can learn something about these everyday people from buried hoards of metal – and that their economic lives were much like our own.

Why did people bury hoards of metal?

During the Bronze Age, it was a common practice across Europe to deposit hoards of metalwork in the ground. People would gather metal objects and then bury them together or place them at a special location, such as a bog or a boundary.

Sometimes these hoards included many objects, sometimes just a few. Sometimes they were composed of a single type of object – hoards of tens of axes of the same form are a well-known example. Sometimes they included a variety of objects, and even fragments of broken objects.

Despite their variety, the hoards show the Bronze Age world was interconnected across Europe, and that bronze objects had a special value throughout most of it.

Why did people deposit these hoards? Archaeologists have spent decades trying to answer this question.

Was it a religious act? An intentional destruction of valued goods designed to lessen wealth inequalities? Scrap hidden during times of strife or put aside for future use in metalworking?

Only a small number of Bronze Age people have ever been found. Often these were people buried in huge mounds of earth, who are presumed to have been important figures – ritual leaders, chiefs or other elites. Archaeologists have tended to assume that these people and their alliances shaped the movements of metal in the Bronze Age.

Bronze as money for common folk?

In a new paper in Nature Human Behaviour, archaeologists Nicola Ialongo and Giancarlo Lago propose a different way of understanding hoards. Instead of focusing on elites as the movers and shakers, they suggest hoards show how common people contributed to the interconnected Bronze Age world and the spread of metal objects within it.

Ialongo and Lago analysed nearly 25,000 objects from hoards in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and Germany dating from the full 1,500-year span of the Bronze Age. They found that, over the centuries, a standardised weight system emerged that was widely shared across the Bronze Age world.

The paper goes on to argue this standardisation indicates that small pieces of bronze of standard weights could have been used as currency for everyday transactions by ordinary people.

The spread of European standards

Well before 2300 BCE, there seems to have been growing standardisation in artefact forms, at least on a surface level. Distinct types of objects emerged, such as daggers or certain pottery vessels, which appear similar across large areas but had different local uses in different places.

Archaeologists believe this sort of standardisation arose from a mix of shared religious rites and a growing interest in long-distance travel. When encountering new people whose language you don’t speak, having a shared way of dressing or acting can be a sort of social lubrication, easing communication and the exchange of stories and goods.

During the Bronze Age, this manifested in widely recognised social personae, or roles in society. The best known of these is “the warrior” with his characteristic bronze equipment and armour, which was common to much of the continent.

But does it follow that this interest in standardised forms – and later weights – means we see the development of a nascent currency system? And if so, does this mean we should assume that Bronze Age peoples’ economic behaviour was the same as our own?

What is money, anyway?

There are many views about what money is and what it does for different societies, both today and in the deep past.

Many modern economists focus on money’s usefulness in transactions as a medium of exchange. This emphasises market-based buying and selling.

Other economists apply “chartalist” theory (taken from the Latin word for “token”) to emphasise money as a unit of account. In this view, money can be used for “social accounting”, to keep track of socially important activities such as gifts, debts, tributes and offerings. This is not just a historical idea, as even some modern debts function through social collateral.

The distinction between these two views of money may seem like splitting hairs, but it points to a profound disagreement.

Beyond the market

How would we know which view of money is more correct? To understand the function of money in a society, archaeologists and anthropologists would suggest starting with the social and technological meaning of the material tokens themselves. That is, the bits of bronze buried in those ancient hordes.

Ialongo and Lago argue that discovering standardised counting units reveals a system of exchange, and therefore markets. But that raises a bigger question: does standardisation do anything other than indicate an exchange value for those bits of metal?

We know things other than metal were circulating long distances, and exchange systems were likely complex. Archaeologists believe wool, fleeces and textiles were key Bronze Age valuables and drivers of long-distance communication, though they are harder to find archaeologically.

Standardisation also has many uses beyond social cohesion and economics. For example, Bronze Age smiths needed careful control of proportions of different metals (copper, tin, antimony, lead and others) to make different kinds of bronze for use in their sophisticated metalworking. We don’t know exactly how they achieved this control, but Sumerian texts from the same time period tell us Sumerian smiths did it by weight.

Ialongo and Lago show how metal hoards may teach us about the everyday livelihoods of Bronze Age communities, not just the elites. But if we overemphasise the role of exchange in their economic worlds, we risk turning them from puppets of elites to thralls of the invisible hand.

Understanding money as a form of social accounting, and standardisation as a technology, can reveal much more about their lives.

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. What did Bronze Age people do with all that bronze? New research revives old arguments about the nature of money – https://theconversation.com/what-did-bronze-age-people-do-with-all-that-bronze-new-research-revives-old-arguments-about-the-nature-of-money-235413

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bartholomew Stanford, Lecturer in Political Science/Indigenous Politics (First Peoples), Griffith University

Linda Burney, Minister for Indigenous Australians, announced her retirement from politics last week, and Labor has quickly appointed Northern Territory Senator Malarndirri McCarthy to take over the portfolio.

McCarthy comes into the position at a difficult time. Burney was a strong advocate for Indigenous rights, but her tenure as minister finished on a sour note.

The defeat of the Voice to Parliament proposal at last year’s referendum has increased disillusionment in Indigenous communities about the role of the federal government on key Indigenous issues. Since the referendum, Indigenous affairs have been largely absent from national politics.

Amid this lack of direction from Canberra, state and territory governments are making progress on issues such as Treaty, agreement-making, and establishing state advisory bodies. South Australia held elections for its First Nations Voice to Parliament in March.

There is declining interest from the public on Indigenous issues, which is at its lowest since 2021. This has implications for government and industry support for Indigenous policy and advancement more generally.

Declining voter turnout in remote Indigenous communities continues to be an issue for governments. This raises ongoing questions about how to increase Indigenous participation in democratic processes. After the referendum loss last year, turnout in upcoming elections is likely to decline further in the absence of some unheralded solution.

Territory issues, national significance

While these factors make the Indigenous affairs portfolio a daunting task at a national level, some of the most demanding cases exist in McCarthy’s own senate seat. The NT is where she will face her toughest challenges and critics while in the ministry.

With an NT general election set for the August 24 and a federal election scheduled for next year, Labor’s lead in both jurisdictions is being narrowed. The Country Liberal Party (CLP) and Territory Labor are polling closely just under month out from the NT election.

In 2016, the CLP lost government and was reduced to two members. In 2020, it improved on that result and finished with eight seats in the assembly. The CLP has also acquired double the election donations relative to Territory Labor for this election, which could prove to be vital in campaigning for remote seats.

Although this battle is at the territory level, this election result will be an indication of support for Labor’s Indigenous policies.

The most pressing issue for Indigenous people in the NT continues to be housing. In March, the Albanese government announced a $4 billon agreement with the territory government, land councils and the peak remote housing body. The commitment under this deal is to build 270 homes a year over ten years in remote communities in the NT. However, with current housing and skills shortages nationwide, it is a wonder whether this goal and timeframe is realistic.

There are other significant issues that might make McCarthy’s role difficult: Territory Labor’s support for fracking and lack of commitment to Treaty.

Fracking has been an important issue for Aboriginal Traditional Owners of the NT for some time. It’s only become more of a focus since the Territory Labor government gave approval to expand development in the Beetaloo Basin. Some Traditional Owners of the region are opposed to fracking, citing concerns about environmental degradation and climate change.

In 2018, the Territory Labor government signed a memorandum of understanding with the four NT land councils to commit to working towards treaty-making with Aboriginal people. A Treaty Commission was established and given funds to consult with Indigenous communities throughout the NT. However, in 2022, after submitting a report on the viability of Treaty, the Commission was disbanded. No further progress has been made on Treaty to date.

Critics in close quarters

If that’s the policy, there’s also the politics to consider.

McCarthy’s strongest critic as minister will be the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. Both senators are Traditional Owners of respective Aboriginal communities in the NT. Both have experience as presenters on TV. Both have expressed concerns about resource development in the NT.

They do share some similar characteristics, but what separates them is their views on the paths forward for Indigenous Australians. Price and McCarthy prioritise different ways to address Indigenous socioeconomic disadvantage.

Price has focused on social and family issues in Indigenous communities, while McCarthy on healthcare and employment. Both campaigned on opposite sides of the Voice referendum – the result of which will surely feature in future Indigenous policy debates, especially in the lead up to the next federal election.

McCarthy’s most important role before next year’s election will to be communicate a clear agenda for Indigenous affairs to the public post-referendum. Indigenous communities and the Australian public are looking for leadership and planning moving forward.

With the Voice to Parliament off the table for the foreseeable future, there needs to be a clear indication of government’s willingness for change. Existing policies and structures are not making adequate improvements to Indigenous lives.

Bartholomew Stanford 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. Malarndirri McCarthy is the new Indigenous Affairs minister. She faces an extremely difficult task – https://theconversation.com/malarndirri-mccarthy-is-the-new-indigenous-affairs-minister-she-faces-an-extremely-difficult-task-235654

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ibrahim Javed, Enterprise and NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, UniSA Clinical & Health Sciences, University of South Australia

A recent study has suggested Shingrix, a relatively new vaccine given to protect older adults against shingles, may delay the onset of dementia.

This might seem like a bizarre link, but actually, research has previously shown an older version of the shingles vaccine, Zostavax, reduced the risk of dementia.

In this new study, published last week in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers from the United Kingdom found Shingrix delayed dementia onset by 17% compared with Zostavax.

So how did the researchers work this out, and how could a shingles vaccine affect dementia risk?

From Zostavax to Shingrix

Shingles is a viral infection caused by the varicella-zoster virus. It causes painful rashes, and affects older people in particular.

Previously, Zostavax was used to vaccinate against shingles. It was administered as a single shot and provided good protection for about five years.

Shingrix has been developed based on a newer vaccine technology, and is thought to offer stronger and longer-lasting protection. Given in two doses, it’s now the preferred option for shingles vaccination in Australia and elsewhere.

In November 2023, Shingrix replaced Zostavax on the National Immunisation Program, making it available for free to those at highest risk of complications from shingles. This includes all adults aged 65 and over, First Nations people aged 50 and older, and younger adults with certain medical conditions that affect their immune systems.

What the study found

Shingrix was approved by the US Food and Drugs Administration in October 2017. The researchers in the new study used the transition from Zostavax to Shingrix in the United States as an opportunity for research.

They selected 103,837 people who received Zostavax (between October 2014 and September 2017) and compared them with 103,837 people who received Shingrix (between November 2017 and October 2020).

By analysing data from electronic health records, they found people who received Shingrix had a 17% increase in “diagnosis-free time” during the follow-up period (up to six years after vaccination) compared with those who received Zostavax. This was equivalent to an average of 164 extra days without a dementia diagnosis.

The researchers also compared the shingles vaccines to other vaccines: influenza, and a combined vaccine for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Shingrix and Zostavax performed around 14–27% better in lowering the risk of a dementia diagnosis, with Shingrix associated with a greater improvement.

The benefits of Shingrix in terms of dementia risk were significant for both sexes, but more pronounced for women. This is not entirely surprising, because we know women have a higher risk of developing dementia due to interplay of biological factors. These include being more sensitive to certain genetic mutations associated with dementia and hormonal differences.

Why the link?

The idea that vaccination against viral infection can lower the risk of dementia has been around for more than two decades. Associations have been observed between vaccines, such as those for diphtheria, tetanus, polio and influenza, and subsequent dementia risk.

Research has shown Zostavax vaccination can reduce the risk of developing dementia by 20% compared with people who are unvaccinated.

But it may not be that the vaccines themselves protect against dementia. Rather, it may be the resulting lack of viral infection creating this effect. Research indicates bacterial infections in the gut, as well as viral infections, are associated with a higher risk of dementia.

Notably, untreated infections with herpes simplex (herpes) virus – closely related to the varicella-zoster virus that causes shingles – can significantly increase the risk of developing dementia. Research has also shown shingles increases the risk of a later dementia diagnosis.

The mechanism is not entirely clear. But there are two potential pathways which may help us understand why infections could increase the risk of dementia.

First, certain molecules are produced when a baby is developing in the womb to help with the body’s development. These molecules have the potential to cause inflammation and accelerate ageing, so the production of these molecules is silenced around birth. However, viral infections such as shingles can reactivate the production of these molecules in adult life which could hypothetically lead to dementia.

Second, in Alzheimer’s disease, a specific protein called Amyloid-β go rogue and kill brain cells. Certain proteins produced by viruses such as COVID and bad gut bacteria have the potential to support Amyloid-β in its toxic form. In laboratory conditions, these proteins have been shown to accelerate the onset of dementia.

What does this all mean?

With an ageing population, the burden of dementia is only likely to become greater in the years to come. There’s a lot more we have to learn about the causes of the disease and what we can potentially do to prevent and treat it.

This new study has some limitations. For example, time without a diagnosis doesn’t necessarily mean time without disease. Some people may have underlying disease with delayed diagnosis.

This research indicates Shingrix could have a silent benefit, but it’s too early to suggest we can use antiviral vaccines to prevent dementia.

Overall, we need more research exploring in greater detail how infections are linked with dementia. This will help us understand the root causes of dementia and design potential therapies.

Ibrahim Javed receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

– ref. Could the shingles vaccine lower your risk of dementia? – https://theconversation.com/could-the-shingles-vaccine-lower-your-risk-of-dementia-235597

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Paul Streit, Research Fellow in Just Ocean Governance, The University of Melbourne

Climate change has killed billions of corals and fundamentally changed coral reefs. The response, especially in Australia, has been to fix the symptoms, not address the cause – climate change for which humans are responsible.

Much money and research effort is expended in replacing, regrowing and supporting corals, in the hope reefs may survive a warmer world.

These technological and scientific “solutions” give hope that something can be done. But as we argue in Nature Climate Change today, there is little evidence these measures will create resilient or healthy reef ecosystems over the long term.

Humanity must take dramatic action on climate change. By focusing so much attention on treating the symptoms – such as replacing dead corals – we risk squandering money, time and public trust in science.

We believe coral restoration may be, at best, a feel-good measure that satisfies a human urge to do something about climate change – and at worst, a dangerous distraction from climate action. A fundamental rethink is needed.

What to do about our troubled reefs?

The world’s coral reefs have suffered devastating damage due to climate change and resulting warmer seas. This includes the Great Barrier Reef, which last summer experienced yet another mass bleaching.

Clearly, something must be done.

In recent years, a popular solution has emerged in the form of direct scientific interventions. These include:

• growing baby corals in a nursery to later plant them on an ocean reef

• selective breeding, which involves identifying heat-tolerant corals, collecting their eggs and sperm, and breeding heat-tolerant offspring

• minimising stressors, for example, cloud-seeding or building structures to shade coral, pumping cooler water onto reefs or removing natural predators such as crown-of-thorns starfish.

Such interventions attract substantial research and philanthropic funding. But many scientists, including us, are concerned about their growing popularity.

There is little compelling evidence these interventions improve outcomes across coral reef ecosystems.

For example, a 2020 study synthesised current knowledge in coral reef restoration. It found 60% of projects had monitored restored sites for less than 18 months. Most projects were small-scale, with a median restored area of 100 square metres.

It concluded coral restoration projects were poorly designed, lacked clear and achievable objectives, and improvements were needed in monitoring and reporting.

Another study last year found some forms of coral rehabilitation “may be feasible, affordable, and ethical”, but the benefits were small and the measures expensive.

The researchers said legislation and policy should concentrate on “bolstering ecosystem resilience by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other drivers of reef degradation”.

We don’t always have to ‘do something’ on reefs

In some areas of science, such as human health, people have been shown to prefer solutions that involve active intervention: that is, adding something new, regardless of evidence for or against its efficacy. The same “intervention bias” may be influencing how we try to help coral reefs.

A vast literature on coral reefs calls for action in the form of scientific intervention.

However, resilience, recovery and change are an inherent feature of natural ecosystems. This was demonstrated by a review of 400 studies of disturbed ecosystems, which showed human restoration provided no consistent benefits over natural recovery.

Recent evidence from the northern Great Barrier Reef, following a major bleaching event, supports the idea that, in the short-term at least, nature can recover on its own. There, coral cover jumped from 10% in 2016, the lowest ever recorded, to an ephemeral but record high of 36% just six years later.

This is not to say the bounce-back will last. Heatwaves will continue to kill regrown corals, rendering this natural success temporary. That’s why drastic emissions reduction is essential.

What is a healthy reef?

Intervention on coral reefs usually aims to increase live coral cover. This approach rests on the assumption that more coral leads to healthy reefs.

Corals are undoubtedly a foundational and iconic part of coral reefs. But corals and reefs are not the same. Corals are important, iconic organisms. Coral reefs are highly diverse, complex ecological systems composed of thousands of animal, plant and bacteria species.

The science is not clear on whether more corals will return reefs to a “healthy” state, especially given such scientific interventions are usually small in scale. There is also evidence suggesting reefs can grow, even when coral species decline.

More science is needed to determine what a “healthy” reef is. A pretty reef with plenty of coral? A usable reef with plenty of fish? Or a reef that is unspoiled by human activity?

And there’s another important research question to answer: how can humanity come to terms with reefs transformed by climate change?

Towards transformative solutions

We do not seek to divide reef scientists into camps “for and against” coral restoration.

But we are not confident that specific, targeted coral interventions will have wider benefits. What’s needed is broader, evidence-based investigation into transformation across reefs and human communities – to bring about real, large-scale solutions.

We realise our position may be considered controversial. But the stakes are high – and an evidence-based approach to caring for coral reefs is urgently needed.

David Roy Bellwood receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Tiffany Morrison receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Robert Paul Streit 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. Coral restoration is a speculative, feel-good science that won’t save our reefs – https://theconversation.com/coral-restoration-is-a-speculative-feel-good-science-that-wont-save-our-reefs-235657

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katherine Sievert, Research Fellow in Food Systems, Deakin University

Australia was once the world’s largest exporter of live animals. But exports have declined in recent years.

In May, the federal government announced live export of sheep by sea would end on May 1 2028, in response to animal welfare concerns. This does not extend to other livestock animals or modes of transport.

Despite 30 years of public scrutiny, the suffering of livestock at sea continues. In our new research, we wanted to understand how the meat industry manages to sustain the status quo.

We explored parts of the meat industry in Australia, Brazil and the United States. We found a highly concentrated global industry, with close ties to governments, a lack of regulatory oversight, and protective cultural norms. To address these power imbalances, we propose a different approach to regulation.

Wielding power over nature, animals and people

Industrial production, trade and consumption of meat is harmful in many ways.

Aside from the human health consequences of eating to excess or risking antibiotic resistance, many types of meat production operations produce substantial greenhouse gases. They also degrade and contaminate natural resources and contributes to biodiversity loss. Some operations also involve the exploitation of workers, or harmful treatment of animals.

But the true costs of mass production are typically diverted from the producer onto others. In economics, this is called cost-shifting.

How do they get away with it? Large profit-driven corporates in the industrial livestock and meat-processing sector wield significant economic and political influence. This enables many of the negative impacts associated with meat production to continue. It also means our capacity to regulate them is limited.

These issues are not unique to Australia. Our research looked at three case studies across global meat supply chains:

• soybean production in Brazil, for export to feedlots in China
• live animal export from Australia
• meat processing in the United States.

We found close relationships between governments and industry, strong cultural and social values around meat, a lack of transparency in supply chains, and undue influence on policy-making. All contributed to prioritising high levels of meat production, despite the harms involved.

Power play in Australia’s live export trade

The production and consumption of meat has surged in recent decades. Meat has become a staple in the modern Australian diet and a major export commodity.

Australia’s meat production depends on a powerful network of farmers, large-scale multinationals, powerful agribusiness representative groups, and close political and institutional relationships.

This network has successfully justified the practice of live export as essential to the economic and cultural interests of global food security.

Consequently, the live export trade is often portrayed as a “solution” to global hunger, overlooking that many populations already consume meat well in excess of nutritional needs.

The industry also emphasises live export as a significant economic contributor and employment provider in rural Australia. These organisations also make policy submissions and conduct their own research advocating for live export as a crucial sales channel for Australian producers.

Parallels in Brazil and the US

We see similar power dynamics operating overseas.

In Brazil, substantial financial investment has been devoted to developing soybean production facilities. Most soybeans are grown to feed animals in feedlot production systems.

Close relationships between the meat industry and Brazilian politicians have enabled the industry’s expansion. In one case, a former governor of Mato Grosso – the largest area of the Amazon affected by deforestation for soy production – is also the owner of one of Brazil’s largest soybean producers. Such political relationships have also allowed for a softening of Brazil’s deforestation regulations.

Similar relationships exist in the US. During the COVID pandemic, meat-processing workers were vulnerable to infection because they work in close proximity. After a brief shutdown, a US meat industry trade group urged authorities to grant an exemption and reopen meat processing facilities.

This action was framed as “necessary” for economic reasons and to maintain domestic food supply. That’s despite the labour violations involved in compromising the safety of workers, many of whom were migrants or refugees who may not have felt empowered to advocate for their rights.

Ways forward

Policies proposed to address food system harms include consumption taxes, labelling schemes and education campaigns. But these are mostly “adjustments” to the food system, rather than structural changes.

Our research suggests a more holistic and multifaceted approach is needed across the food system – for instance, restricting foreign land ownership in Brazil to prevent further ecological damage in the Amazon. In the US, redistributing agricultural subsidies toward more small-scale, diverse and “agroecological” farming operations would foster more ethical and environmentally friendly food production. However, such a transition would also necessitate a reduction in the total amount of meat produced and consumed.

Changing cultural attitudes towards meat production may help too. Retailers can mandate ethical standards from their meat suppliers and include animal welfare in sustainability policies. National dietary guidelines and subsidies could also encourage people to eat more minimally processed plant foods and less meat for both human and planetary health.

More broadly, more diligent implementation of competition policy could break up the concentrated power of just a few large meat companies.

Katherine Sievert received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council to conduct this research (APP1190933). She has also received funding from the World Health Organization for previous consulting work related to this topic. Katherine Sievert is an Executive Member and President of Healthy Food Systems Australia, a not-for-profit advocacy organisation promoting healthy, sustainable and equitable food systems for all Australians.

Christine Parker previously received funding from The Australian Research Council for a project entitled “Regulating food labels: The case of free range food products in Australia” (DP150102168).
Christine Parker is an Executive member of the Australasian Animal Law Teachers and Researchers Association, and has contributed in the past to the work of the animal welfare lawyers sub group of the Corporations Law Committee of the Law Council of Australia.

– ref. Our beef with ‘Big Meat’: the power perpetuating Australia’s live export trade is at play elsewhere – https://theconversation.com/our-beef-with-big-meat-the-power-perpetuating-australias-live-export-trade-is-at-play-elsewhere-235655

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stuart Evans, Lecturer Teacher Education, Physical Education, Sport and Movement., La Trobe University

Apart from literacy and numeracy, some of the most important skills children learn in their primary school years are throwing and catching. These are considered “fundamental movement skills” because they underpin other, more complicated physical activities.

For many years, researchers have been highlighting concerns about a decline in children’s throwing and catching skills.

How can parents help their children develop these important skills?

Why is it so important to be able to throw and catch?

Not every child will go to the Olympics or want to. But it is important they develop fundamental movement skills (along with ball skills, these include running, skipping and balancing).

These skills are seen as “fundamental” because they are needed to engage in physical activities effectively and confidently. These also form the basis of skills in all other sports.

So even if they are not going to be a sporty child or sporty adult, these skills will give kids the essentials they need to remain active and healthy throughout their lives. As research tells us, the foundation for an active lifestyle is formed in early childhood.

Children need help to learn

By the time a child is about five, they should be able to throw using a coordinated movement of the throwing arm and opposite leg stepping forward. They should be able to catch using their hands only.

A common misconception is children learn skills such as throwing and catching automatically. But research both overseas and in Australia shows an increasing number of children are not developing adequate basic skills.

For example, a 2014 study on West Australian primary students showed a marked decline in six-year-olds’ ability to do an underarm throw and bounce and catch a ball since the 1980s.

To add to concerns, Australian research shows children and young people are not playing as much sport as they used to. A recent report on sports participation in Victoria showed sports participation in children aged ten to 14 was lower in 2022 than in pre-COVID years. The participation rate peaked at 67% in 2017 before dropping to 57% in 2022.

How can you help your child’s throwing and catching skills?

Early education services and schools include fundamental movement skills in their programs. Guidelines note it takes between 240 and 600 minutes of teaching time for a child to become proficient in one fundamental movement skill.

But research suggests parents can also help their kids at home and you can start building these skills from about the age of two. Here are some tips:

Start simple

When you’re helping your child, start with larger balls or balloons and work on overarm throwing, underarm throwing and two-handed passes. These can include chest passes and bounce passes like you see in netball and basketball.

As your child gets older, you can make the balls smaller and distances greater. And you can introduce challenges, such as “show me a different way of throwing or catching”.

Have formal and informal sessions

Research shows it’s important for children to get both unstructured play and structured practise to learns these skills.

This gives them specific tips and a chance to experiment and develop their skills.

Vary the activities

Repeatedly practising the same skill under the same conditions can lead to rapid gains in skill development. But it does not teach children how to apply this skill.

Research suggests children should practise skills in a variety of ways.

If a task is unpredictable it will create a more “game-like” environment so children are challenged to find solutions.

For example, you could have a game that involves throwing to a target. You could have changing targets (instead of just throwing at the same target over and over).

Keep it fun

While you may be “practising” or “working” on a skill, try and make it enjoyable. Perhaps it forms part of a trip to the park or it involves a favourite toy. Maybe it involves different equipment or a game where the ball is a character.

If you have concerns about how your child’s fundamental movement skills are developing, talk to their teacher, early childhood educator or a paediatrician.

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. Even if they aren’t sporty, all kids need to throw and catch. How can you help if your child is struggling? – https://theconversation.com/even-if-they-arent-sporty-all-kids-need-to-throw-and-catch-how-can-you-help-if-your-child-is-struggling-234274

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John L. Hopkins, Associate professor, Swinburne University of Technology

Next month, changes to the Australian Fair Work Act will give workers the formal right to disconnect from all work communication outside their usual work hours.

The main driver for introducing “right to disconnect” laws has been to protect the health and wellbeing of workers in an increasingly hyper-connected world.

But what exactly will the new laws mean for Australian businesses, managers and employees?

Right to disconnect origins

Right to disconnect laws were first introduced in France in 2017 in response to concern about the welfare of workers who were increasingly connected to their workplaces as a result of expanding digital technologies.

France introduced a law requiring companies with more than 50 employees to negotiate agreements with staff on their rights to ignore their smartphones and other electronic devices after work hours.

The reaction was mixed. Some praised the move for promoting work–life balance and reducing stress, while others raised concerns about its potential impact on productivity and competitiveness.

One critic at the time said

the French may quickly discover that their most productive workers are routine “lawbreakers” who stay connected during off-hours.

To learn more about this topic, I reviewed 21 academic articles on the right to disconnect, from 15 different countries over the past seven years, and identified several themes that may help Australian managers.

The ‘always on’ culture

The growth of digital devices – including smartphones, laptops, tablets and smart watches – means many Australian workers have been working way beyond their contracted number of hours for many years.

A 2023 Australia Institute study estimated Australian workers on average were doing an extra 5.4 hours of unpaid work per week.

The unofficial encroachment of work duties into workers’ personal time – also called “availability creep” or “time theft” – equates to an extra 281 hours’ unpaid work per year.

This is estimated to be costing workers an average of AU$11,055 annually. It has led to serious concerns for employee health and welfare, work-life balance and workplace exploitation.

The post-pandemic rise of flexible work arrangements in Australia, while offering many lifestyle and health benefits, may also contribute to our “always on” culture and expectations to be constantly available and contactable.

This digital presenteeism has been found to affect the health of workers in different ways, including causing headaches, eyestrain, insomnia, back pain, anxiety and burnout.

Protecting workers

Another key theme of right to disconnect laws is how working time, work availability and rest times are observed.

Portugal has even taken things a step further than other countries, placing the responsibility for the right to disconnect on the employer, by implementing “refrain from contact” laws. This means companies with more than ten employees can be fined if they text or email staff outside their contracted hours.

However, the new Australian law won’t restrict managers from contacting employees whenever they wish, but it will give their employees a legal right to refuse to

monitor, read or respond to communications from an employer or third party made outside their working hours, unless refusal is unreasonable.

If an employee chooses not to respond, disciplinary action cannot be taken, nor can the employee be treated differently, such as through rostering or performance requirements, for deciding to disconnect.

This should encourage conversations about what represents reasonable contact. The Fair Work Commission says this must be based on the reason for contact, the employee’s personal circumstances, the nature of the employee’s role and responsibilities, and whether the employee is being compensated for being available outside ordinary work hours.

Making the change

In some countries, right to disconnect policies have been formally set in law, while others rely on self-regulation by employers instead.

France, for example, legislated out-of-hours’ electronic communication between employers and employees through statutes and legislation, meaning government entities are required to enforce the right and a court is needed to interpret it.

Germany, on the other hand, does not formally legislate disconnection provisions but many of its companies (including car manufacturers Volkswagen and Daimler) already have their own regulations in place.

In Australia, the right to disconnect will be a right under general protection laws. Disputes about an employee’s response will need to be discussed and resolved at the workplace level but, if a resolution isn’t possible, employees or employers can take the case to the Fair Work Commission.

The commission can then make orders or deal with the dispute in other ways.

What to expect

The new laws come into effect 26 August.

They are an important step towards encouraging sensible conversations about the importance of rest, availability, and whether it is necessary to contact workers outside their normal hours.

Right to disconnect laws should challenge managers to create a work culture where employees feel comfortable disconnecting from work and understand the importance of maintaining a clear boundary between work and rest, where their rest periods are formally respected and preserved.

As an initiative for supporting improved digital wellbeing and work-life balance, in today’s hyperconnected world, clearer boundaries between working time and rest are crucial.

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

– ref. The right to disconnect is coming to Australia. What does this mean for you? – https://theconversation.com/the-right-to-disconnect-is-coming-to-australia-what-does-this-mean-for-you-231690

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edith Jennifer Hill, Associate Lecturer, Learning & Teaching Innovation, Flinders University

If you’re on TikTok, you’ve probably come across Nara Smith. The 22-year-old model and influencer has been showered in viral fame since she started posting on the platform in late 2022. At the time of publishing this article, her account had 8.9 million followers and 394 million likes.

Much of Smith’s content comes in the form of far-fetched cooking videos in which she prepares everything from homemade bubble gum, to marshmallows, to cough drops. She’ll usually do this dressed in beautiful clothes and aided by a seemingly endless pantry.

Smith has been called out repeatedly for her tradwife (traditional wife) aesthetic, in which women are shown to embody traditional gender roles and are framed as only being “homemakers” and “child rearers”.

Tradwives present themselves as “domestic goddesses” of sorts – effortlessly completing every household chore while they keep their clean girl makeup intact.

Many tradwives wear clothes inspired by the 1950s and ‘60s housewife. Smith takes this a step further by wearing glamorous gowns and jewellery.

Her videos get mixed reactions. Some users find them useful or even inspiring, while others rage at the impracticality of the message she sends to other mothers and young women. So what can we make of it all?

Weighing harm against intent

Smith’s stylised look is part of a carefully honed aesthetic. Her glamorous outfits may be antithetical to the practicalities of the life she presents, but they are integral to her brand.

In one recent video, she “claps back” (as one commenter put it) at those claiming she has an entire production team behind her and doesn’t do any work work outside of making content. In the video, she describes herself as a working mum who simply finds joy in cooking for her family – and reminds viewers of her lupus, a condition she must live and work with every day.

Smith may indeed be a hardworking mother, who is also a content creator, who lives with a chronic illness and enjoys caring for her family because she can. At the same time, she can also be perpetuating harmful stereotypes and setting up unachievable standards for her viewers. All of this can be true at once.

Curated to the T

Smith’s content is heavily produced. Her first video on TikTok showed a different aesthetic, of a young woman in a trendy outfit with a popular song playing in the background. Since then, she has poured countless hours into curating her now famous persona.

As the audience, we see her living in a beautiful home with a perfect family, kneading dough with a full set of rings and having the time – despite raising three children – to cook pizza entirely from scratch (yes, including the cheese).

This domestic bliss is never interrupted by a stained dress, or having to pick dough out from a ring.

As academic Georgiana Toma explains, successful consumer-perceived authenticity online is achieved through stylistic consistency, quality commitment and a softening of commercial motives.

Smith does the latter particularly well. While she receives sponsorships, she doesn’t push them onto viewers with the kind of force many other influencers do.

What is a mother’s role?

Smith’s audience is divided on how she presents motherhood, which features heavily in her content. Take the following video, which was posted less than two weeks after her child’s birth:

Some commenters say they wish they looked like Smith, or hope to become a similar kind of mother as her.

Recent gender studies research shows that mothers can use social media for community and to feel a sense of belonging – but can also be judged if they don’t present the “right” kind of motherhood.

The gap between the perceived act of motherhood (as it’s shown online) and real motherhood can lead to pressure and potential harm for women who view this online content as real or aspirational.

Rage bait?

Some of Smith’s videos are deliberately inciteful – or at least, it’s difficult to imagine them being anything else. For instance, when she makes cola from scratch, you can’t help but feel she is poking fun at herself.

Her audience often responds with a similar jest, with users requesting she make things such as a “husband”, “Ozempic” and an “iPhone 15 Pro Max”.

Rage bait is a genre of (usually outrageous) content that incites viewers’ rage, shock or frustration to boost engagement. While there is no straightforward path to instant virality online, content that prompts a lot of engagement (both good and bad) has a better shot.

Much of Smith’s content sits on the edge of rage bait. It certainly comes across as outrageous. Is it supposed to be? Possibly.

Step back from the fantasy

Whether or not Smith and similar tradwives believe their content is harmful or not, the reality is they present highly unrealistic portrayals of domesticity.

Tradwife content links explicitly to the ideology of choice feminism, in which women can choose to do whatever they want, even if it means waking up at 6am to make a meal from scratch for their husband.

However, as La Trobe University lecturer and political scientist Meagan Tyler writes, choice arguments are deeply flawed “because they assume a level of unmitigated freedom for women that simply doesn’t exist.”

Yes, many tradwife content creators are choosing to live their life that way. But these choices are “shaped and constrained by the unequal conditions in which we live. It would only make sense to uncritically celebrate choice in a post-patriarchal world.”

So, while there’s nothing wrong with watching and enjoying Smith, her videos definitely shouldn’t be held up as something to aspire to. It’s important we all take a critical eye to such content, lest we start to think that’s what life – and what women – ought to look like.

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

– ref. TikTokers are entranced by Nara Smith’s tradwife aesthetic and ‘domestic bliss’. But confusing it for reality could be harmful – https://theconversation.com/tiktokers-are-entranced-by-nara-smiths-tradwife-aesthetic-and-domestic-bliss-but-confusing-it-for-reality-could-be-harmful-235017

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Blair, Teaching Fellow in Music, University of Otago

The announcement on The Chills’ social media last night that Martin Phillipps had died hit me in the chest: shock, sadness, my stomach in flutters. Martin was a friend, and his death has deeply saddened me. I know I’m not the only one.

Martin had many friends, and he was well-loved in Dunedin. Today there is a whole community – Martin’s family, friends, acquaintances and loved ones – navigating and processing his loss.

As founding member of The Chills, he was not only a pivotal musician who leaves an important legacy, but also a friend entwined in the life of the city, and the wider music community.

I first met Martin over 20 years ago. He’d made a mix tape for a mutual friend, Roi Colbert, with songs all about rain.

In Roi’s record shop – Records Records, housed in the iconic pale apricot terrace houses of Dunedin’s upper Stuart Street – we chatted about rain-themed songs and agreed on some favourites. We also agreed you could listen to the whole tape on a rainy day.

The Chills themselves had recorded a song about rain on their 1987 debut studio album Brave Words. When Martin sang “Rain taps the window pane”, it became a lasting image for me, recalling those wet Dunedin days. But, of course, being inside at home while the rain pours down outside is a universal experience.

The sound of Dunedin

A sense of place, land and human experience was present throughout Martin’s songwriting. In this way, he crafted the songs that would become part of many people’s personal soundtracks – though resonating ever more deeply if you lived in Dunedin.

Martin was from here, and his music was from here too. It evoked people, places and memories through imagery of landscapes, the sea, friends, home.

Linking a style of music to a particular place can quickly become cliché. But to many of us in Dunedin, Martin’s music, his melodies and imagery, are bound up with our lives in this southernmost city. The songs are part of its landscape and architecture, imprinted in minds and hearts.

Martin was a pivotal and influential figure in the development of what became known as the “Dunedin Sound” and the bands that defined it: The Chills, The Clean, The Verlaines, Straitjacket Fits, Sneaky Feelings, Look Blue Go Purple, the 3Ds and many more.

Martin had also played keyboards with The Clean, notably on the still delightfully chaotic Tally Ho! single (1981). Characterised in the music press as indie rock with jangly guitars, pop melodies and reverb, the Dunedin Sound became synonymous with the Flying Nun record label.

As Flying Nun expanded, The Chills reached an international audience, getting crucial airplay on American college radio. They influenced other bands and musicians everywhere – Mike Mills of R.E.M. reportedly called them “the second best band in the world”.

Homecoming gigs in Dunedin were high energy celebrations. Heavenly Pop Hit and I Love My Leather Jacket would switch an audience into a higher gear of elation, affiliation, memory and sense of community.

In some ways, this is what really defines the Dunedin Sound. More than just a musical style, as embodied by The Chills it evokes a time and a place – and a feeling. Decades after the Dunedin Sound’s peak, that feeling remains.

Submarine bells

Martin was a familiar figure in Dunedin. You’d see him uptown and around the city. He was open and friendly, kind, caring, intelligent and funny. He was immersed in pop culture, with an impressive collection of music, films, magazines, and comic books, all meticulously catalogued.

He shared some of his personal archive of Chills memorabilia with the public in 2018, in the Otago Museum’s exhibition Things Change: Martin Phillipps and The Chills, and in the Hocken Collections’ Kaleidoscope World: 40 Years of Flying Nun.

Most of all, though, Martin was committed to music as an art form. He had a deep knowledge of music history, and the gift of crafting memorable, buoyant melodies. His voice was unique, singing in his own distinctively New Zealand accent.

The glorious hooks of Heavenly Pop Hit sit alongside the haunting unease of Pink Frost, the high energy of I Love My Leather Jacket, and the emotional nuance of Submarine Bells. The lyrics to that last song showcase Martin’s gift for crafting imagery, character and voice:

I know deep down hidden in you submarine bells chime

Gold and groaning, sunlit toning, submerged sound sublime […]

Deep and dark my submarine bells groan in greens and grey

Mine would chime a thousand times

To make you feel okay

Right in the heart. In all of this and more, Martin leaves a legacy that is imprinted on New Zealand music, Dunedin music culture and, most importantly, on Dunedin’s music community.

Today in Dunedin it’s raining. Rain taps the window pane.

Alison Blair 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. Martin Phillipps, 1963–2024: Dunedin loses a musical son, ‘rain taps the window pane’ – https://theconversation.com/martin-phillipps-1963-2024-dunedin-loses-a-musical-son-rain-taps-the-window-pane-235647

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

The United States election will be held on November 5. It’s been a week since President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential contest and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris. No other Democrat is contesting the Democratic nomination, so Harris will be the nominee.

FiveThirtyEight does not yet have an aggregate of polls for Harris against Republican nominee Donald Trump. Individual national polls usually have Trump ahead by one or two points. Trump led Biden by 3.2 points nationally in the final FiveThirtyEight aggregate.

Harris does better in polls where third party candidates are included. In a Siena poll for The New York Times, Trump led Harris by one head to head, but Harris led by one with other candidates. In a poll for The Wall Street Journal, Trump led by two head to head, but Harris by one with others.

Polls conducted during Biden’s candidacy didn’t show this difference. Natural Democrats have probably returned to Harris after saying they would vote third party out of frustration with Biden.

In a national Ipsos poll for US ABC News that was conducted Friday and Saturday, Harris’ net favourability surged to +1 from -11 last week, before Biden’s announcement. Trump’s net favourability dropped five points to -16 after peaking following the Republican convention last week. The net favourability of Trump’s vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, slumped nine points in a week to -15.

Trump is now 78 and Harris will be 60 by the election. Biden will be almost 82. The age difference between the candidates now advantages Harris.

US presidential elections are not decided by the national popular vote, but instead use the Electoral Vote (EV) system. There are a total of 538 EVs, and each state receives a number of EVs based mostly on population. With two minor exceptions, states award their EVs winner takes all. It takes 270 EVs to win the presidency.

The six closest Biden-won states in 2020 were Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. These are considered the key states in this election. It’s likely that Trump has about a two-point edge in the key states relative to the national popular vote, so Harris will need to win nationally by about two points to win.

At the 2020 election, Biden won nationally by 4.5%, but only won the decisive state (Wisconsin) by 0.6%, so the Electoral Vote system favoured Trump by 3.9 points relative to the national vote.

I think the August 19–22 Democratic convention will be very important for Harris. Major party presidential candidates are normally well known to voters much earlier in the year as they need to win primaries to clinch their party’s nomination. The primaries occur early in an election year.

While Harris has been vice president since January 2021, she has been in Biden’s shadow. The US vice president has no power of their own except to break a tie in the Senate. The Democratic convention will give Harris a chance to differ herself from Biden, and be personally appealing to voters.

Overall, the polls suggest that Trump is still favoured to win, but Harris has improved on the polling during Biden’s candidacy, and could further improve with a successful Democratic convention.

Proposed Supreme Court reforms and US savings rate

Biden has called for Supreme Court reforms to impose term limits on judges and establish an enforceable code of ethics. A constitutional amendment would probably be required to enact these reforms, which requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers of Congress and a three-quarters majority of the state legislatures.

As long as Republicans are opposed, such a constitutional amendment would be impossible to obtain. The Supreme Court, which has a 6–3 right majority, has a 56.0% disapprove, 36.0% approve rating in FiveThirtyEight’s tracker, so this is probably a good issue for Democrats.

There was a blowout in disapproval after the decision overturning Roe vs Wade in June 2022, but perceptions of the court had improved by April 2023, with more approving than disapproving. A second blowout in disapproval came in May 2023, and disapproval has kept rising.

In June the personal savings rate (the percentage of personal income that is saved) dropped 0.1 point to 3.4%, the lowest since December 2022. After surging during COVID owing to government stimulus, the savings rate has been between 2.7% and 5.2% since June 2022.

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

– ref. Trump marginally ahead of Harris in US national polls, but Harris improves from Biden’s polls – https://theconversation.com/trump-marginally-ahead-of-harris-in-us-national-polls-but-harris-improves-from-bidens-polls-235632

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Prudence Flowers, Senior Lecturer in US History, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Flinders University

In the past week, old comments by Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance about people without children have resurfaced, offending huge swathes of the American public.

In a 2021 interview, Vance described Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies”, directly referencing Vice President Kamala Harris, who has two step-children with her husband Doug Emhoff.

The comment has garnered criticism from the likes of Jennifer Aniston and Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Republican senator John McCain. Many critics have pointed to billionaire Taylor Swift who is 34, unmarried, without children, and a famously devoted owner of three cats.

Vance quickly clarified that his comments were meant to be sarcastic, but he doubled down on his argument that the left was pursuing “policies that are profoundly anti-child”.

So, why are these comments angering so many people, particularly women, across the political spectrum?

Vance’s views have racialised undertones

Vance’s pro-natalist views are not new.

He has lauded efforts by authoritarian Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to boost his country’s birth rates, which include financial incentives for couples who have children.

He has suggested Americans without children should be taxed more than those with children and giving children the vote, which parents would exercise on their behalf.

Above all, Vance believes people without children do not have “an investment in the future of this country” and so should have less of a say.

In lamenting the declining birth rate in the United States, Vance also flirts with a racialised political view that opposes immigration and criticises minority birth rates, encapsulated in the far-right “Great Replacement Theory”.

He has condemned Democrats for believing they can “replace American children with immigrants,” even as his Indian-American wife Usha, the daughter of immigrants, has been targeted by white supremacists.

The irony here is the Republican Party opposes many government policies that support parents and children, such as protections and accommodations for pregnant workers, expanding Medicaid coverage for postpartum people, universal child care and government-funded pre-kindergarten, and benefits that would reduce child poverty, just to name a few.

Complex presidential families

Republicans have long insisted they are fighting to defend traditional family life, envisaged as the heterosexual nuclear family depicted in the television show Leave it to Beaver in the 1950s.

However, the lives of past US presidents demonstrate the ahistorical nature of these claims to defend tradition.

While Harris has not personally given birth, neither has any other occupant of the White House.

Five US presidents did not have any biological children, including George Washington, the “father of the nation”, who, like Harris, was a devoted step-parent.

Pregnancy and birth has always encompassed risk. Shame and silence have often surrounded experiences of infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death, making these events family secrets.

However, we know that Ronald Reagan and his first wife Jane Wyman, John and Jackie Kennedy, and Michelle and Barack Obama experienced such heartbreak.

Presidents have always had complex personal and family lives, including:

• being widowed and remarrying
• having affairs
• rumoured same-sex relationships
• fathering children out of wedlock (including with enslaved women).

Former presidents have adopted children and raised step-children, too. Trump, notably, has five children from three different marriages.

Not just an American problem

Vance’s comments reveal much about the enduring stigma surrounding women, particularly those in positions of authority and leadership, who do not have children. And this scrutiny of the reproductive lives of female leaders is not restricted to the US.

In Australia, a Liberal senator once claimed that former Prime Minister Julia Gillard was not fit to lead the country because she was “deliberately barren”.

Similar attacks were lobbed at New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark. In the UK, both Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon endured speculation and negative commentary about not having children.

Yet, when New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had a baby in office, she was also criticised. And when Ardern resigned from office, a BBC headline asked the sexist question, “Can women really have it all?”

And the idea that good leadership requires biological children has rarely come up in discussions of childless male leaders such as France’s Emmanuel Macron or Japan’s Shinzo Abe.

Nor are male leaders questioned about their levels of engagement as parents. Political scientist Jessica Smith argues men in politics still have an automatic “opt-out clause” around discussions of family.

Biology as destiny

In 2024, it’s beyond comprehension to suggest that a person who is unable to become pregnant or who elects not to would be any less committed to society than a parent.

Yet ugly, gendered assumptions persist. They are deemed selfish, “unnatural,” “unwomanly,” immature and having hatred towards children.

More broadly, many women in the West, whether they have children or not, believe Vance is merely saying out loud what many people silently think. Too often, women are judged solely through a biological lens. Our value, our ability to contribute meaningfully to society, is reduced to our ability to reproduce.

Nothing else we do matters. In Harris’ case, this means being a “Momala” to her stepchildren, a beloved aunt, a “Big Sister General” and a spouse, in addition to being a woman of colour who has shattered multiple glass ceilings.

In the West, women and people who can become pregnant live in an unprecedented moment. The cumulative effect of the sexual revolution and feminist and LGBTQ+ movements has given us the ability to choose how we live and love.

Despite the rolling back of abortion rights in the US, women today have a level of control over their lives that was unimaginable in 1946, the year Trump was born.

As Vance’s views on this and other issues make clear, however, it is precisely this agency that many conservatives want to restrict or take away.

Prudence Flowers has received funding from the South Australian Department of Human Services. She is a member of the South Australian Abortion Action Coalition.

– ref. George Washington didn’t have biological children. So, why is the criticism of Kamala Harris touching such a nerve? – https://theconversation.com/george-washington-didnt-have-biological-children-so-why-is-the-criticism-of-kamala-harris-touching-such-a-nerve-235590

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robin Smit, Adjunct Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney

Transport emissions have grown in line with the population and economy. Without intervention, the Australian government expects transport to be the largest emissions source by 2030. So, cutting transport emissions is a crucial, but challenging, element of the net-zero strategy.

Independent research estimated Australia would cut road transport emissions by only 35-45% from 2019 to 2050. This is due to a projected increase in travel, a sustained rise in sales of large passenger vehicles (SUVs, utes) and a delayed uptake of electric trucks. It’s clear electrification of the on-road fleet is not going to cut it.

The federal government notes:

Additional policy measures are thus required in an attempt to meet net zero emissions in 2050 for the transport sector. One such option is mode shift, the shift of passenger and freight travel from high emission modes to lower emission modes.

Our comprehensive study of mode-shift impacts on emissions has been published in two new papers. The first used the Inland Rail project linking Brisbane and Melbourne as a case study of the emissions performance of land-based transport. We examined well-to-wheel emissions (from fuel production, distribution and use) for passenger and freight transport for three years: 2019, 2030 and 2050.

In Australia, we found electric rail is hands down the land transport mode with the lowest emissions intensity (the amount of greenhouse gas produced per kilometre travelled) for both passengers and freight. Compared to road and diesel trains, electric rail could provide deep, fast and robust emission cuts of 80% to 90% from 2030 onwards.

What’s the mix of transport modes in Australia?

The use of different transport modes is highly skewed in Australia.

Domestic passenger travel was 443 billion passenger-kilometres pre-COVID (2018-19). Most of this travel was by road (79%). Only 4% was by rail, with 17% by air.

Domestic freight activity was 785 billion tonne-km pre-COVID (2018-19). Most was by road (28%) and rail (56%). Coastal shipping (15%) made up most of the rest. Air freight was less than 0.05% of the total.

What did the study look at?

Modelling of the impacts of transport mode shifts on emissions needs to consider a broad range of inputs and information.

It must also adequately reflect local conditions. We did not identify any recent studies of the effects of mode shift on emissions in Australia. Older studies tended to use data from overseas, which may not be appropriate to assess the Australian situation.

For road transport, we investigated representative Australian passenger vehicles (cars, SUVs) and long-haul trucks (B-doubles), reflecting a power-train technology mix that changes over time. For rail transport we considered both diesel and electric freight trains and a high-speed electric passenger train, noting that these specific electric options are not yet used in Australia.

To fairly assess performance, we used the well-to-wheel approach. It includes both direct emissions and indirect emissions from producing and distributing fossil fuels, hydrogen and electricity.

The analysis was based on statistical modelling. That is, instead of estimating single emission values, we quantified the most likely value, as well as a plausible range in emissions performance.

If a distribution is wide (spanning a wide range of possible emission values), there is a lot of uncertainty and variability in the emissions performance. The impact of shifting to this transport mode is less certain.

A narrow distribution means we can be more certain the transport mode will perform as expected. There is less risk of over-promising and under-performing.

It is also very important that the estimates reflect Australian conditions. For instance, we specifically modelled the changing Australian on-road fleet mix and their emissions performance, as well as the emission intensities of the electricity grid. We included various mode-specific aspects such as vehicle weight and capacity, passenger occupancy, freight payload, battery charging losses, hydrogen distribution losses, travel distance and annual passenger and freight volumes.

What did the study find?

Electric rail is the land-based mode with the lowest emission intensity for both passenger and freight transport. Shifting from road to e-rail is estimated to cut emission intensity for passenger transport (grams of CO₂-equivalent per passenger kilometre) by 75% in 2019 and 90% in 2030 and 2050. For freight transport, shifting from road to e-rail cuts emission intensity by an estimated 45% in 2019 and 80% in 2030 and 2050.

All modes improve their emission performance over time. It is clear, though, that the paths to lower emissions are quite different.

Australia is rapidly decarbonising its electricity grid. This immediately affects e-rail emissions. In comparison, the effect on road transport is delayed, due to slow fleet turnover and increasing sales of ever bigger cars and SUVs.

This is an important finding as it means the total cumulative emissions from 2030 to 2050 are estimated to be much lower for electric rail. The level of uncertainty about its performance is also the lowest. This means e-rail would also provide the most robust emission cuts of all modes considered.

The emissions performance of diesel freight trains sits between electric rail and long-haul trucks. It would cut emissions by 45% emission compared to road in 2030. But this difference closes to 10% in 2050 as only marginal improvements are expected for diesel trains over time.

What does this mean for policy?

Mode shift from road to rail has unused potential in Australia, since road transport dominates both passenger travel and non-bulk freight.

This study suggests governments should seriously consider rapidly expanding and electrifying rail from an environmental and climate change perspective. Compared to road, electric rail provides deep, immediate and robust emission cuts of 80% to 90% from 2030 onwards.

Some barriers would need to be overcome to make this a reality. These include steam-age (low speed) railway track alignments and additional travel distances and times due to long and winding routes.

Robin Smit is the founding Research Director at the Transport Energy/Emission Research (TER) consultancy.

– ref. We compared land transport options for getting to net zero. Hands down, electric rail is the best – https://theconversation.com/we-compared-land-transport-options-for-getting-to-net-zero-hands-down-electric-rail-is-the-best-234092

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua McLeod, Lecturer in Sport Management, Deakin University

The Olympics has been the world’s premier sporting event for more than a century.

Throughout this time, the Olympic Movement has faced many challenges, but what is often overlooked is how it has continually needed to evolve since the first modern games in 1896.

Today, arguably the most significant challenge for the Olympics is maintaining its appeal to modern audiences, particularly Generation Z.

To meet this challenge, the Olympic movement is undergoing something of a reinvention: adding new and unconventional sports in the hope of appealing to younger people, who are thought to have markedly different tastes.

The question is, will it work? And could there be unintended consequences?

Gen Z and sport

Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2009, are widely considered to be distinct from their predecessors as the first digitally native generation.

Although the exact age range of Generation Z is subjective, they are defined by an upbringing coinciding with the advent of social media and smart phones. Thus their relationship to technology is thought to influence their preferences, attitudes and behaviours.

One such difference is their relationship with sport. Generation Z is considered less avid viewers of sports than older generations.

A recent study found Gen Z views entertainment content at a significantly higher rate (48%) compared to sports content (23%). This contrasts sharply with older generations, such as Baby Boomers (1946-1964), who have a higher sports viewership at 41%.

However, Gen Z’s apathy toward sport should not be overstated.

While they may watch comparatively less of it, sport still plays a key part in their lives. The difference lies in how they consume it – primarily online, in shorter forms or highlight packages, while they are also more inclined to follow individual athletes than teams or leagues.

How is the Olympics catering to Gen Z?

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has, in recent times, added a suite of new sports to the Olympic programme in an effort to attract younger viewers.

This saw the Tokyo games feature a record number of total sports (33) and events (339), which included the non-traditional sports of skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing.

The Paris games retains these new sports, while debuting breaking, known to many as breakdancing.

Support for these new inclusions appears high among the younger generations.

According to a recent YouGov survey, a significant proportion of Gen Z respondents indicated their likelihood of watching the Paris games increased due to the specific inclusions of breaking (30%), skateboarding (31%), sports climbing (32%) and surfing (24%).

This positive trend carried forward to Millennials (1981-1996): breakdancing (32%), skateboarding (34%), sports climbing (32%) and surfing (33%).

Balancing tradition and modernisation

The Olympics must perform balancing act when introducing new sports. Can it modernise the games to attract new audiences, while at the same time preserving the traditions and prestige that have developed over 128 years?

From one perspective, the IOC could learn from the widely studied “new Coke” fiasco, which offers a cautionary tale of well-loved products over-adapting in response to perceived trends.

Concerned that younger customers appeared to prefer Pepsi’s sweeter taste, Coca-Cola altered its 99-year-old recipe in 1985 to produce “new Coke”. The move sparked fierce backlash from loyal customers and resulted in Coca-Cola reintroducing “Coca-Cola Classic” after only 79 days.

History, however, also demonstrates that sport has evolved successfully to changing cultural norms and tastes.

ESPN’s launch of the X Games in 1995 offers an instructive example.

The X Games identified and capitalised on the popularity among younger audiences of extreme sports that sat outside the sporting mainstream: skateboarding, surfing, and BMX, which have since graduated to the Olympic programme.

The X Games demonstrated that when preferences of a consumer group are ignored, these consumers will seek alternatives.

Unintended consequences

While the integration of unconventional Olympic events may attract younger viewers, it may also risk disillusioning older, existing audiences as per the “new Coke” case study.

In the same YouGov study we referenced earlier, 36% of Baby Boomers expressed the inclusion of skateboarding made them less likely to watch the Olympics. A similar sentiment was held towards sport climbing (31% less likely) and surfing (29% less likely).

However, their strongest ire is towards breaking, with 45% stating its inclusion makes them less likely to watch the Olympics overall.

The sentiment among Baby Boomers may be that these new sports lack the purity, tradition and Olympic legacy of more established sports, and their inclusion undermines the prestige of the competition.

Generational shift

Although Baby Boomers appear displeased with these new additions, the IOC will no doubt be attuned to the shifting balance of power between generations.

Within the Australian population for instance, Gen Z (16.6%) are nearing Baby Boomers (18.5%) in population size. When Gen Z is coupled with its successor Alpha (2010-today), and Baby Boomers with its predecessor Silents (1925-1945), their shares of the Australian population are now 33% and 24% respectively.

So as this generational shift continues, it is the preferences of the young that are more likely to be prioritised in the strategic direction of the Olympic Movement.

For now, the IOC is likely to tread a careful tightrope, balancing innovation with tradition.

Trial and error, along with detailed viewer analytics, will be used to ensure it adapts quickly to a changing environment and satisfies the most people.

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. Can the Olympics attract Gen Z eyeballs while preserving its traditions? – https://theconversation.com/can-the-olympics-attract-gen-z-eyeballs-while-preserving-its-traditions-228008

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Kirby, PhD Candidate in History, University of the Sunshine Coast

Sport plays an important role in the conception of Australian national identity. With the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games currently in swing and Queensland preparing to host the games in 2032, international success in the green and gold remains a focus of the Australian media.

But away from international performances, banal experiences in everyday settings also contribute to perceptions of national identity. Experiences in local and school sport – away from the bright lights of sporting mega-events – are crucial to understanding how and why sport connects strongly to Australian identity.

What can you remember about your own school sports days? Many people still remember their allocated school sports house name and colour – even decades after childhood.

Our new research looked at the historical and contemporary naming of school sports houses in Queensland to understand how our broader societal ideas about role models and other positively regarded places, animals and things might have changed over time.

Sports houses are typically named for people or things school leadership and the community believe hold admirable qualities they hope to encourage in students. As Australian society evolves and opinions change, so too should the namesakes deemed appropriate for school sports houses.

The making of school houses

Limited initially to private schools in Britain from the 1850s, the practice of implementing school sports houses spread to Australian private schools by the 1900s and expanded into British and Australian public schools throughout the first half of the 20th century.

Tied to the origins of physical education and its ambition for all male children to be fit to defend empire and nation, sports houses continue to be seen as a way to encourage a sense of team loyalty and to foster healthy competition. The names, mascots, colours and “war cries” of these sports houses play an important part in fostering a sense of belonging.

While many private secondary schools opened in Queensland in the first half of the 20th century, it was not until the postwar period that large numbers of public high schools were founded, with the initial wave ending by 1969.

In our research we compared the names of houses for both public and private schools in Queensland in 1969 and 2023, to understand how school sports house culture has changed since.

At least 66% of Queensland high schools had adopted sports houses by 1969. By 2023, this had risen to 95%.

Who gets to be a namesake?

Sports houses are often named for people, places or things perceived as having positive qualities schools believe children should respect or emulate.

In 1969, private Queensland high schools predominantly named sports houses after people from the fields of education and religion, with some houses named after significant school community leaders.

By 2023, little had changed with private high school naming traditions, with religion remaining the most common category of sports house names.

Queensland’s public high schools initially turned to colonial namesakes, such as Cook House (for Captain James Cook), Kennedy House (for the colonial explorer Edmund Kennedy) and Leichhardt House (for the colonial explorer and naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt).

Like private schools, public schools have tended to retain their sports house names over time, with one notable exception: some public high schools renamed their sports houses to non-colonial namesakes over the past few decades, sometimes choosing local First Nations language terms or places as replacements.

Despite this, in 2023, 40 Queensland public high schools had colonial namesakes for their sports houses.

The rise of the woman sport star

The most remarkable change evident in the data is houses named after sportspeople had risen dramatically in popularity, from 10 houses in 1969 to 115 in 2023, all identified at public schools.

The diversity of sportspeople represented also increased. Bradman House (for Sir Donald Bradman) remains the most popular in this category, but he is now followed by Fraser House (for Dawn Fraser) and Freeman House (for Cathy Freeman).

The rise in women athletes as house namesakes in the 2023 data indicates a desire to provide schoolchildren with a greater diversity of role models. In 1969, 11% of all high school sports houses with people namesakes were named after women, increasing to 22.6% by 2023.

But there are dramatic differences when considering types of schools. In 2023, of the houses at public co-ed schools named after people, 16.3% were women namesakes. At private girls high schools, the figure jumps to 67.3%.

In comparison, at Queensland’s private boys high schools, over 90% of such house names were after men.

Colours and mascots

While the “best” house colour is a conversation for another day, we can confirm the four most popular house colours in use in 2023 were blue (20.97%), red (20.81%), green (19.81%) and yellow/gold (18.54%).

We expected maroon to be more popular, given its status representing Queensland in the State of Origin, but only 27 sports houses had this colour in 2023.

Animal mascots were also interesting: the most popular in 2023 were aggressive predator types such as eagles, sharks, lions and crocodiles. Cuddlier Australian natives like koalas, possums and wombats were rare inclusions, though the “fighting kangaroo” was the eighth most common animal mascot.

In addition to being a shared experience of growing up in Australia, school sports houses are potent examples of banal nationalism, whereby elements of Australianness are reinforced through the tradition of school athletics and swimming carnivals.

In addition to providing organisation and belonging within a school setting, sports houses exist as primers for local, state and national identities.

The choices made by school administrators about house names, colours and mascots point not only to a school’s history and traditions but also the social environments in which such decisions are made and remade.

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. School sports houses help shape our understanding of belonging and identity. Does who they’re named after matter? – https://theconversation.com/school-sports-houses-help-shape-our-understanding-of-belonging-and-identity-does-who-theyre-named-after-matter-234164

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirsty Volz, Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology

When we think of what Australian schools look like, we probably think of large grounds with single or double storey buildings. They’re usually in suburban areas on relatively flat blocks.

But there are less conventional ways to build schools. Imagine your child going to class in a building that was taller than it was wide, and right in the middle of your city’s central business district.

These already exist in Australia and they’re called vertical schools. While some people may approach the idea with trepidation, these schools may hold the key to revitalising our cities, as well as creating engaging learning environments for students.

What is a vertical school?

Vertical schools can be defined by their height, ranging between four and 17 storeys.

They are also defined by their location, which is usually in inner-city, urban areas. They’re often located on or near sites previously occupied by a traditional horizontal school. An example of this is the Fortitude Valley State Secondary College, on the former Fortitude Valley State School site in Brisbane.

This reflects broader population and housing trends. Where families once retreated to the outer suburbs, they are now returning to inner-city living.

As Australian cities grow in density, many building types – including schools – need to adapt to a vertical world. Designing a vertical school is as much about practicality as it is about fitting in with Australia’s increasingly dense cities. Vertical schools make the most of compact sites accommodating spatial needs across one or two connected buildings.

They include learning and teaching environments, administrative areas, as well as indoor and outdoor social and play spaces. The architecture and visual appeal of vertical schools, like any civic building, aim to contribute positively to the scenic amenity of cities.

There are vertical schools in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. A few of these schools have involved the refurbishment of former office buildings. St George’s Anglican Grammar School in Perth was converted from a five-storey office building in 2015.

Another example is the Adelaide Botanic High School, which opened in 2019. The school converted a 1960s office tower into an innovative education precinct. A new high-rise section of this school recently opened.

As with any school, learning and teaching in an inner-city setting extends beyond the classroom. At Adelaide Botanic High School, 20% of the curriculum is planned within its CBD context. This includes collaborations with Adelaide Zoo, universities and local technology startups.

Research from the Thriving in Vertical Schools project has focused on students’ experiences in these schools. Students feel connected to the city, with views framed throughout the school via an open, central atrium and many windows.

Students have been part of the design process for these spaces. This improves the way vertical schools are designed now and into the future.

Getting it right

Having schools in the CBD opens up a list of considerations about how to keep children safe in bustling, crowded areas.

Walkability and the development of safety standards that support children to navigate cities as pedestrians are crucial. More green infrastructure and public open green space for playing would be enjoyed by children and adults alike.

There should also be practical infrastructure plans for transport, both public and private. An example of how this could look is staggered school starts. The school day at Adelaide Botanic High School is planned around peak hour demands. Start times are arranged for after 9am so as not to add to congestion.

More “end of trip” facilities in cities is another requirement. These are spaces to support people who use active transport options such as bicycles, scooters or walking or running. Facilities like these provide secure places to store bags and personal belongings.

Another practical necessity is safe external gathering spaces in the city for students in the case of a fire or other emergencies.

All of these design considerations would make for better cities for everyone, not just students, because they’d help make cities safer and more accessible. They would provide positive economic development opportunities and help to diversify the occupation of buildings.

This would, in turn, generate new streams of revenue for businesses including child-friendly cafes, restaurants, shops and other recreation spaces. Including children in the design of cities would activate new vibrancy, creating new experiences for everyone to enjoy.

Breathing new life into the city

This economic activity is important because continuing popularity of working from home or hybrid work arrangements have contributed to a steady increase in vacancy rates in Australian CBD office buildings. Low occupancy rates have a direct impact on other economic activity in cities including hospitality and retail businesses.

The issue is shared internationally and was discussed at the 2023 World Economic Forum. One solution suggested at this meeting was the conversion of vacant office buildings into apartments. However, the high costs involved in converting office towers into residential building would fail to provide much-needed affordable housing.

For cities to become more resilient, our CBDs should be filled with buildings with a diversity of different purposes. Converting vacant office buildings into vertical schools is one way to do this.

More broadly, further research needs to be undertaken to understand children’s experiences of inner-city precincts. Children are rarely considered in the design of CBDs, which are predominantly designed for adults. With the rise of inner-city residential apartments and vertical schools, more inclusive city planning practices are needed, especially for children.

Kirsty Volz receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Queensland State Government, Local Government Authorities and Collaborative Research Centres. She is affiliated with the Australian Institute of Architects.

Jenna Gillett-Swan receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Queensland Government.

Jill Willis receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Queensland Government.

– ref. Would you send your child to school in a skyscraper? Vertical schools could revitalise our cities – https://theconversation.com/would-you-send-your-child-to-school-in-a-skyscraper-vertical-schools-could-revitalise-our-cities-234472

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tom Shand, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

As the Olympics get going in earnest this week, not everyone’s attention is focused on host city Paris. Surf fans are heading to Tahiti, half a world away in French Polynesia.

Why? Well, apart from the French coast resembling a lake at this time of year, on the south-west coast of Tahiti Iti is a wave unlike any other on the planet: Teahupo’o, which translates somewhat ominously as “place of skulls”.

The wave is unique in the way it breaks. The lower part of the wave appears to drop away below sea level, with the top half folding over dramatically to create an almost cartoonishly perfect form.

It is both the weight of water in the plunging lip and the risk of injury or death for a surfer in the wrong position that make this one of the world’s heaviest waves (in both senses of the word).

To understand why the wave breaks like this, we need to start with bathymetry: the shape of the seabed that influences waves as they approach the shore. At Teahupo’o, a combination of factors comes into play.

A one-of-a-kind wave

Waves arriving at Teahupo’o generally originate from intense “roaring forties” storm systems south of New Zealand. By the time the waves reach Tahiti they have become ordered swell, with wave heights of two to five metres and periods of 14 to 20 seconds between successive waves.

These types of long-period waves normally start interacting with the seabed at depths of around 200 metres. On most coasts, this depth would occur up to several kilometres offshore. But at Teahupo’o, it is much closer, just a couple of hundred metres.

This rapid change in depth forces the wave to “shoal” very quickly – the wave speed slows, the distance between waves compresses and the wave height increases.

The change is so abrupt that the wave is still very linear – it hasn’t had time to develop the peaked crest and flat trough (the lowest part of the wave) typical of waves in shallow water.

Waves breaking on this type of steep slope would typically collapse, breaking from the middle of the wave and creating an unsurfable mess. But this doesn’t happen.

At around ten metres’ depth, a flatter shelf in the reef allows the wave to stabilise and “stand up” with a steep front face, before finally breaking as the reef rises again.

And break it does. Owing to the linearity, there is far more water in the crest (the part above water) then most waves, and a deeper trough in front.

This makes for the characteristic below-sea-level break at Teahupo’o, with the overturning lip being half the wave height, and a jet of compressed air forced out of the wave’s barrel after breaking.

The larger the wave, the closer to the steep offshore ramp it breaks, and the more extreme the plunging.

A pro surfers’ paradise

A range of other unique features contribute to the way the wave breaks at Teahupo’o – and what makes it so challenging as a surfing wave.

A deep channel runs alongside the shallow reef shelf. The wave doesn’t break in this deeper area, allowing it to peel – to break in one direction (in this case towards the left looking towards the shore) – and enabling surfers to ride the wave before it finally closes out onto shallow reef.

A part of the shallow reef platform extends offshore, into the reef pass. This shallow area bends and focuses wave energy from the wider, deeper part of the wave back into the breaking wave. This happens particularly on more westerly orientated swells, increasing the intensity of breaking.

As well as this, the Teahupo’o wave breaks in a direction nearly opposite to the prevailing trade winds, keeping the wave face smooth.

A low tidal range also limits the times the reef is too deep or too shallow to surf. And the wave is near the Passa Hava’e reef pass, which helps the wave’s focusing and breaking. But because it isn’t right in the pass, the wave isn’t affected by high tidal or wave-induced currents.

New-generation wave models that simulate individual waves, rather than just average energy density, provide insight into what creates a surf break such as Teahupo’o (see figure below). These models provide insight into what happens as waves shoal and refract (bend and focus) over the seabed as they approach break point.

They also significantly improve our understanding of what makes a particular surf break unique. This can help in assessing the potential impact of human or natural modifications to the environment.

Tom Shand is affiliated with the Engineering Consultancy Tonkin + Taylor and with the industry association PIANC (World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure).

– ref. Anatomy of a wave: what makes the Olympic surf break at Teahupo’o unique – and so challenging – https://theconversation.com/anatomy-of-a-wave-what-makes-the-olympic-surf-break-at-teahupoo-unique-and-so-challenging-235301

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

Over recent months, a number of politicians have supported calls to ban social media for children under 16 in Australia. Currently, kids under 13 are not allowed to use social media.

There’s some research that suggests social media can be helpful for certain young people by, for example, connecting them with like-minded peers.

That said, there are a raft of reasons for this proposed change. The most compelling is evidence showing inappropriate screen time and social media use are linked to poor mental health in children and young people, including depression and anxiety.

Overuse or misuse of social media can damage many areas of psychological wellbeing. But, as an expert in adolescent development, I’ve been exploring one that’s not often considered: identity development.

Identity development has long been regarded as the core psychological business of adolescence. You decide who you are, what you want to become, what underlying values you stand for and what you want out of life as you move toward adulthood. But might social media risk thwarting this process?

Developing an identity

Between the ages of about 11 and 15, the human brain becomes increasingly sensitive to attention and feedback from peers. The parts of the brain responsible for developing perspective, judgment, critical thinking and self-control will not fully mature until a person’s early to mid 20s.

Teenagers have always compared themselves to others. They seek validation from peers as they explore their values, develop their personalities and seek to express themselves. But social media have provided a platform for adolescents – particularly those high in FOMO, or fear of missing out – to obsess over how they compare to many more people, including aptly named “influencers”.

It can be difficult for a young person to develop a clear sense of self when they’re constantly comparing themselves to and following others.

Similarly, young people are developing many of their opinions based on what they see on social media. An individual’s tendency to conform to other people’s opinions is sometimes called the “bandwagon effect”.

While plenty of social media content can be harmless enough, social media – like the real world – are becoming increasingly political and polarised, with little tolerance for opposing ideas.

Some teens may find themselves latching onto ideologies fed to them via marketing algorithms. And we know young people can become radicalised through social media.

Living in the public sphere

Who are you? How do you see yourself? Are you the same person in public, in private, with friends, family or at work? Would you honestly admit some of your deepest feelings to your work colleague, friend, or even your partner? How about to yourself?

Harry Triandis, a psychology researcher who died in 2019, proposed differences between the “public” and “private” self that we all embody. Most people can relate to keeping their real opinions or values to themselves while in public or in an unknown group of people.

Once we are confident that our manner of speaking and underlying value systems won’t be misconstrued, we start to reveal ourselves bit by bit. This process is the basis of forming friendships. And it’s only in our most intimate relationships that we reveal ourselves fully.

Ask yourself, what embarrassing beliefs did you harbour across your lifespan, especially during your teenage years when your brain was still developing? Perhaps you held some stereotypes or biases that you now find embarrassing?

Your private self is the basis for quiet reflection, learning and changing your mind. But nowadays we see teens playing out their entire lives in the public sphere – essentially skipping this step.

Not only are they developing many of their opinions based on what they see on social media, but they often broadcast them online instantly. At a later time, they may be forced to defend these ideas.

In a 24/7 virtual world, there’s less opportunity for today’s teenager to critically think about what they are seeing online, self-reflect, explore and change their mind. There is little room to make mistakes, test boundaries, explore ideas and analyse information to forge their own identity.

These concerns are among the reasons many medical experts, parents and politicians alike want to limit access to social media for children.

While social media can continue to have detrimental effects for people older than 16, the earlier part of adolescence is an important time for the development of a young person’s identity and self-worth.

Research has shown identity disturbance in adolescence – essentially an unstable sense of self – is a strong precursor to personality disorders in adulthood. We don’t yet completely understand what life on social media does to developing identity, but it’s vital we continue to explore this area.

Rachael Sharman 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. Social media can hamper teenagers figuring out who they want to be. Banning it until 16 is a good idea – https://theconversation.com/social-media-can-hamper-teenagers-figuring-out-who-they-want-to-be-banning-it-until-16-is-a-good-idea-233866

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney

So you’re thinking of buying an electric car. Perhaps you want to save money on fuel, or reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, or both. After all, for Australia to reach net zero it needs to electrify vehicles (and expand public transport use).

But you’ve heard arguments against electric cars: they have limited range and many owners can’t easily charge at home. They cost too much, resale values are poor and insurance costs are higher than for other cars. They’re also heavier and cause more damage to our roads.

Alarmingly, the mining of some minerals used to make them involves modern-day slavery.

Are these concerns warranted? Let’s walk through them.

Driving range

In 2014, an electric vehicle’s top driving range was between 160 and 210 kilometres. Today, most new models can travel 300–600km under real-world conditions.

In Australia, the average privately owned car travels 12,100km a year. That’s about 33.2km a day. Current models have more than enough battery capacity to cover most trips.

Access to chargers

What about longer trips? Many drivers still worry about finding a public charger. It’s common to see long queues at public charging stations (when they are working) or owners searching for a charger.

Public charging infrastructure is struggling to keep up with rising demand. While not an issue for short trips (90% of owners charge at home or work), it’s a challenge for longer travel.

Private home chargers are getting cheaper but not everyone has off-street parking. Some resort to the legally questionable strategy of running power cables over sidewalks or through trees.

Apartment block residents typically have requests to install private chargers rejected for safety reasons (mainly fire risks). Many also can’t install solar panels, which would greatly reduce charging costs.

Purchase costs

While electric vehicles cost more than petrol or diesel vehicles today, this won’t be true in future. In 2023, the average price of a new petrol car in Australia was A$40,916, compared to $117,785 for battery electric vehicles.

But the problem with averages is they’re skewed by outliers. And there are lots of very expensive outliers on the electric vehicle market. You can own a Porsche Taycon Turbo S for $374,000, or a Mercedes-AMG EQS 53 for $327,000.

Three models account for about 70% of electric vehicle sales in Australia: the Telsa Model Y (from $60,900), Tesla Model 3 (from $58,900) and the BYD Atto 3 (from $48,011). The Model 3 entered our market in 2019 at $66,000, so it’s clear prices are dropping, and dropping fast. You can buy the GWM ORA or MG4 Excite MY23 for $39,990.

Prices becoming cheaper is common for most new technology. It’s just we notice it more with electric vehicles because they cost more than most technology we buy, including phones and TVs.

Secondhand value

Concerns about resale value may be justified. In the year to January 2024, the value of used electric vehicles fell 21%, which was more than for fossil fuel vehicles.

A higher initial price does not necessarily carry over to the second-hand market. Early adopters valued EV technology, but most buyers have different priorities.

As the technology improves and misconceptions fade, resale values could rebound.

Insurance costs

Insurance costs are also higher than for other vehicles – typically around 20% more.

The vehicles generally cost more to buy in the first place and newer technology is more costly to produce and replace. The supply chain for parts is still developing, with fewer trained technicians and service centres to maintain these vehicles.

As the market grows and service infrastructure improves, insurance costs should fall.

Environmental damage?

One recent study suggests electric vehicles are actually more environmentally damaging than petrol and diesel vehicles. They are typically heavier, resulting in more tyre wear and heavier braking. As this produces small particulate matter with a diameter of 10 microns (PM10) or less (a typical human hair is 50–70 microns wide), the suggestion is electric vehicles will produce more of it.

But such studies often compare particulate emissions from EVs to tailpipe emissions from their fossil fuel counterparts. They ignore the latter’s tyre and braking concerns, which means comparing apples to oranges. More scientific studies suggest electric vehicles, particularly smaller ones, produce less PM10 from non-exhaust sources than their non-electric equivalents.

Slavery in the supply chain

Unfortunately, the modern-day slavery concern is very real.

Electric vehicle batteries require cobalt. About 70% of the world’s supply comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. About 20% of this mining activity involves small, informal, subsistence mines with little or no mechanisation and often using child labour.

The minerals from such mines are scattered throughout the world’s supply chains. Those who raise slavery concerns against electric vehicles are usually silent on other affected products such as phones and laptops. Much more must be done to reduce these concerns about battery supply chains.

The good outweighs the bad

On balance, you’re justified in buying an electric vehicle, assuming you want one. Overall operating costs are far lower than for other vehicles. Public charger issues affect a small percentage of trips.

While prices are dropping quickly, this doesn’t mean the bottom is falling out of the market. Price reductions simply represent greater supply of cheaper electric vehicles. Previous market-leading manufacturers can no longer charge hefty premiums for their products.

And demand isn’t decreasing. The share of electric vehicles on the road continues to increase.

Further, the technology is evolving. Trials of vehicle-to-grid charging, where vehicles return power to the grid or directly to a person’s house, have been taking place across Australia. This ability to power your house will help reduce energy bills, saving owners even more money.

Aside from justifiable concerns about human rights abuses, most of the perceived barriers to EV uptake aren’t really barriers at all, or soon won’t be.

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. Want to buy an electric car but unsure you can justify it? Here’s how the arguments against EVs stack up – https://theconversation.com/want-to-buy-an-electric-car-but-unsure-you-can-justify-it-heres-how-the-arguments-against-evs-stack-up-229608

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Patterson, Associate Professor, School of Nursing, University of Wollongong

In August many Australian universities have open days as Year 12 students make up their minds about what they want to study next year.

There will be lots of things for prospective students to think about – including what course they want to study and what career they want to pursue.

Beyond questions about study content, there are five other important aspects to investigate about university life. These can have an impact on how much you enjoy your studies and how much you are supported to succeed.

1. Academic supports

Studying at university is different from school. You need to be more independent and there is less time “in class” (lectures or tutorials). This can be an adjustment for some students.

Check out what kinds of support are available to help students meet academic expectations. Some questions you could ask include:

• what academic writing resources and supports are available?

• can I get help to understand the expectations of essay writing and other forms of assessment?

• can the library support me with database searches and referencing?

• are there peer-supported study groups for my course?

• what online learning platform is used and do we get an orientation?

• can I use ChatGPT for assignments and what is the university’s approach to the use of AI?

2. Health and wellbeing services

Study at university can coincide with health and wellbeing challenges for students. You may be worried about study deadlines or cost-of-living, or there may be other things going on in your life you need help with. Some questions you could ask include:

• what resources are available to help manage my health and wellbeing?

• are there counsellors or mental health professionals?

• is there a general practice or health clinic on campus?

• is there a pharmacy?

• are urgent mental health services accessible at all times?

• what supports are available if I need help with access and inclusion?

3. Work-life-study balance

Many students need to work part-time to support themselves and have family or other life commitments. This can be challenging if deadlines all come at once or your schedule is very full.

Ask your university about how healthy work-life-study balance can be supported. This is of particular concern if your course has mandatory work experience placements. You could ask:

• are there flexible study options?

• can I start or switch to part-time study during my course or term?

• how and when can I take a study break or leave of absence?

• is there an option to complete part of my degree remotely?

4. Living costs

Being a student is typically a time of life when money is tight. But this is made even more difficult during cost-of-living and housing crises.

Ask about the full costs of study. Along with course fees or loans, check out the associated costs (such as equipment or textbooks) as well as potential supports. Specifically you could ask:

• does the university offer emergency financial assistance?

• is there financial counselling?

• are there grants and scholarships and help to apply for these?

• what materials do I need to buy for my course?

• are there student discounts at local businesses to help reduce living expenses?

Also, don’t forget there are government payments available for eligible students.

5. Social supports and community

A significant part of enjoying university will be feeling as if you belong. So consider universities that foster inclusive environments and offer supportive networks. Some questions to ask include:

• how does the university ensure students from diverse backgrounds are included and represented in campus activities and decision-making?

• are there specific programs to support First Nations students?

• what resources and support services are available for LGBTQIA+ students?

• what supports can I access if I have disability?

Choosing a university isn’t just about the course or the degree – it’s finding your fit in a place that will help you realise your study and life goals. So, keep asking questions – academics, university staff and students at open days are there to help.

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. Uni is not just about lectures. When choosing a degree, ask what supports are available to you – https://theconversation.com/uni-is-not-just-about-lectures-when-choosing-a-degree-ask-what-supports-are-available-to-you-235308

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Blacklow, Lecturer in Economics, University of Tasmania

This article is part of The Conversation’s “Business Basics” series where we ask experts to discuss key concepts in business, economics and finance.

It’s hard to remember a time before the cost-of-living crisis dominated news headlines. Most of us would certainly like it to be over.

But the fundamental question at its heart – which points to the problem we have to solve – seems simple. What determines the prices we pay?

The cost of producing goods and services is certainly one big factor in determining how much we pay for them. So, too, is what we’re prepared to fork out.

But when we talk about lowering prices, we often also talk about increasing competition – the number of firms vying to sell us a particular offering.

It’s so important for efficient pricing that the government body tasked with making our markets fair is called the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission – the “ACCC” for short.

But why does having more people trying to sell us things drive down their prices? And can companies find ways to get around this?

More sellers, lower prices

In a free market system, there are a few different types of competition.

In the most ideal, a perfectly competitive market, firms must use resources efficiently to produce what we consumers want at the lowest possible cost.

In perfect competition:

• the products and services traded are identical (or very similar)
• there are many buyers and sellers
• information is perfect
• firms can enter and exit freely.

A firm charging prices well above the minimum cost will sell no goods or services and be forced to leave the market. Why? Because its competitors will be able to steal customers by charging slightly less for exactly the same thing.

Only lower-cost firms will remain and compete prices down until they cover the lowest cost of supplying the good or service, plus an average or normal “return on capital”.

At a high level, think of this return as an acceptable monetary reward for the business for investing the inputs and taking on the risks required to operate.

If ever an industry is earning above-average returns given its level of risk, new firms will enter and charge less, until only normal returns are earned.

Conversely, below-normal profits will see firms exit, decreasing supply and raising prices.

Do perfectly competitive markets exist? There are arguably some examples that come close, such as casual labour services, some agricultural commodities like grain, livestock and fruit, and financial and currency markets.

But there are more examples of less competitive markets.

The winner takes it all

At the opposite extreme, in monopoly markets, there is only one seller of a good or service. Typically, there is some barrier preventing new firms from entering the market and driving prices down.

Without government regulation, monopoly firms will reduce supply, increase prices and earn above-normal profit levels.

However, sometimes monopolies emerge naturally because it is far more efficient to have a single coordinating supplier of a particular service – such as in letter delivery, rail tracks, or internet infrastructure.

To strike a balance, governments typically regulate or own monopolies.

Same same, but different

More common than monopoly is what’s called monopolistic competition, which is the market structure for many of our tech, entertainment and dining goods and services.

In monopolistic competition, firms try to make their offering different by investing in R&D and advertising, so that they do not have to compete on price alone.

Think Apple’s iPhone versus Samsung’s Galaxy. Both are technically the same kind of product, but have created their own unique markets.

Differentiation allows firms to price above minimum cost and earn above-normal rates of return. At least, that is, until new firms enter and imitate them, increasing supply and lowering prices and profits to normal levels.

A few big players hold market power

In Australia, many key goods and services are traded in oligopoly markets.

Oligopolies arise when a few large firms dominate a particular industry, such as supermarkets, domestic airlines, banking, mobile telecommunications, and petrol retailing.

Some oligopoly markets are very competitive and drive prices down to cost, plus normal return to capital. But in other more concentrated markets with a few powerful firms, firms may have significant market power and be able to keep prices above the competitive level.

It is not illegal to possess market power, but according to Australia’s Competition and Consumer Act 2010, it is illegal to use it “for the purpose, effect, or likely effect of substantially lessening competition”.

It is illegal, for example, for firms to explicitly work together when setting prices. This is called collusion. Neither can they force suppliers to deal with them exclusively, or set prices below cost when new firms attempt to enter a market.

But that doesn’t mean some firms haven’t learned subtle and legal ways of reducing competition.

For example, loyalty programs and charging special loss-leading prices can seem at first glance to be good for consumers, but can also increase the cost of switching to the lowest-priced firm.

Read more:
Loyalty programs may limit competition, and they could be pushing prices up for everyone

Are we getting a good deal?

Still, you may have noticed the prices charged for many goods and services are very similar across different firms in the economy.

Have these prices been driven down by competition to their cost plus a normal return to capital? Or are firms abusing their market power to lessen competition in the market?

What can we do if firms are reducing competition through legal measures?

These are just some of the difficult questions both government and industry are currently grappling with.

Paul Blacklow is affiliated with Economic Society of Australia.

– ref. What is competition, and why is it so important for prices? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-competition-and-why-is-it-so-important-for-prices-234082

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jackie Cumming, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

New Zealanders’ first point of contact for healthcare – their general practice – is increasingly harder to reach, to the detriment of the overall health system.

Our new research found 80% of general practices in Aotearoa New Zealand stopped enrolling new patients (known as closing the books) at some point between 2019 and 2022. While the pandemic has exacerbated the issue, it is not the only cause.

The key reasons for not enrolling new patients included workforce shortages, high workloads and staff burnout, funding issues, concerns about quality of care and insufficient physical space.

This can lead to no access, or delayed access, to primary care, worsening health conditions, undiagnosed or untreated diseases, and less or no access to preventive care for many.

In the short term, the government needs to consider increasing investment in primary care and the training of doctors and nurses. But in the longer term, New Zealand needs to consider if the current model of care works, or if there are alternative models that would better suit the healthcare needs of New Zealanders.

An entry point to the healthcare system

There are approximately a thousand general practices in Aotearoa New Zealand. While they are private businesses, they are largely funded by the government.

Being enrolled with a general practice means reduced consultation fees, the centralisation and management of patient data and higher levels of preventive care. Enrolled patients also then have a team who can take responsibility for prescriptions, referrals to specialised care and subsequent followups.

If someone can’t enrol in a specific practice, many of these elements of primary care become a lot harder to access.

We interviewed 17 people (including general practitioners (GPs), practice managers, academic researchers, a nurse practitioner and a national general practice leader) and undertook a survey, to which 227 people responded (including practice managers, GPs, practice owners and administrative staff). The responses revealed six key reasons why practices closed their books.

1. Workforce shortages

A shortage of GPs was cited as one of the key reasons for closing the books. As one survey respondent explained:

Recruitment and staff retention, especially GPs and nurses, has been the key issue. Almost no job applicants, and those few that do, have multiple offers to pick between because there are so many vacancies around.

There is a growing number of GPs who are reaching retirement age. And, while 50% of New Zealand’s GPs have been trained overseas, COVID restrictions made it more difficult to recruit from other countries.

There is also a significant pay gap between primary doctors and nurses and those in secondary and tertiary care (hospital staff and specialists). As a consequence, fewer medical students are choosing primary care compared with other fields.

2. Under-funding of general practices

There is also insufficient funding for general practices. They are partially funded through a formula based on the number of people enrolled and their needs. But many in primary care feel the model doesn’t adequately account for the complexity of conditions many patients have.

As one interviewee told us:

Funding per patient does not reflect the workload that is required. It is problematic especially for high-needs patients.

3. High workloads and staff burnout

Underfunding and staff shortages have caused a higher workload among existing staff, resulting in staff burnout in general practice.

As one survey respondent wrote:

General practices are asked to take on more and more work, including work that was previously performed in hospitals. The paperwork has also increased. So, there is more work but a seriously declining number of healthcare workers (most particularly GPs) to carry out this work.

4. The impact of COVID-19

The pandemic had both direct and indirect impacts on healthcare. The workload of general practices increased with the rising number of sick patients. Along with an increase in patient demand there were added precautions needed to treat COVID-19 patients.

The pandemic also resulted in staff shortages due to staff or family sickness. The border closure enforced during the pandemic worsened New Zealand’s existing workforce shortages due to a high reliance on overseas-trained medical professionals.

5. Quality of care concerns

Work shortages and increasing demands meant many of the research participants were concerned about the quality of care they were delivering to their patients. Practices closed their books to ensure they were able to still deliver care to clients – even if this didn’t make the best business sense.

From a business point of view, there is a disincentive to close your book. But at some point, patient care has [to] take priority over financial benefit.

6. A lack of space

The final reason given for the rise in closed books was a lack of space in the current practices.

Our research participants noted there may not be a sufficient number of rooms for examination and treatment. In some practices, patient waiting areas were also limited. In some cases, staff were working in shifts to occupy the working spaces available to them.

The road to better primary care

When it came to improving primary care, 95% of our survey respondents said there needed to be better funding, 91% called for support for pay equity between general practice nursing and hospital nursing staff, and 89% called for pay equity for GPs. Some 77% called for an increase in medical students and 85% called for increasing the recruitment of overseas doctors.

As well as an increase in funding, policymakers should be asking if there are other models that could help meet New Zealand’s needs. For example, could nurse practitioners work with community organisations to enrol patients so there is, at least, somewhere for them to go?

With ongoing issues around access and affordability, it is time to consider what are the necessary improvements in general practice care in Aotearoa New Zealand.

This research was completed with Nisa Mohan, Maite Irurzun-Lopez, Megan Pledger, Mona Jeffreys, all from Te Hikuwai Rangahau Hauora – Health Services Research Centre at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington.

Jackie Cumming receives funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the Marsden Fund. This research was funded by a Lottery Health Research Funding Grant. She also undertakes research on behalf of a range of Health New Zealand/Te Whatu Ora and Pacific Perspectives. She is affiliated with the Kāpiti Health Advisory Group.

– ref. Under pressure, 80% of GPs closed their books to new patients at some point since 2019 – here’s why – https://theconversation.com/under-pressure-80-of-gps-closed-their-books-to-new-patients-at-some-point-since-2019-heres-why-235500