Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matteo Vergani, Associate professor, Deakin University

The Albanese government has named Jewish lawyer and businesswoman Jillian Segal as the county’s first antisemitism special envoy. The appointment was made in response to rising incidents of violence against Jewish people against the backdrop of the Gaza war. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government would also soon appoint an Islamophobia special envoy.

So what are these roles and why are they needed?

When overseas wars reach Australian shores

Overseas conflicts often lead to tensions within diaspora communities. The Israeli–Palestinian war, due to its global symbolic importance and high death toll, is creating significant strain worldwide. Australia is not immune to this, and there have been ongoing incidents and friction that have the potential to fracture Australia’s multicultural society.

Since October 7 and the subsequent war, documented incidents of hate have dramatically increased, globally and in Australia. These have included antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents ranging from verbal abuse and graffiti to extremely serious incidents of physical assault.

This in turn has led both communities to feel traumatised, unsafe, and frustrated with the government’s inability to protect them. On top this, there is the feeling in both communities that these problems are not being taken seriously.

While antisemitism and Islamophobia were both tracked in Australia long before October 7, the recent escalation in Israel and Gaza has seen reports increase dramatically. The creation of antisemitism and Islamophobia envoys is one of the ways the Australian government is trying to address this delicate situation.

Antisemitism special envoys are not an invention of the Albanese government. They exist in many countries, including Canada, the United States and Germany.

In Australia, the antisemitism envoy’s responsibilities will likely include recommending stronger anti-vilification laws and better reporting of hate crimes. This will also likely include better support for hate crime victims, leading education and advocacy activities to combat anti-Jewish sentiment, and attending international conferences to discuss antisemitism with other global envoys. The envoy will report directly to the prime minister and the minister for immigration, citizenship and multicultural affairs.

Contestation around the nomination

Segal is the past president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), an umbrella organisation for more than 200 Jewish organisations across Australia. The ECAJ has a broad national reach and more members than any other Jewish community organisation, considering the membership of its affiliates.

However, some Jewish voices have vocally opposed the ECAJ and its positions in support of the military operations in Gaza, which Segal has publicly endorsed multiple times. For this reason, smaller-scale Jewish community organisations such as the Jewish Council of Australia have criticised her appointment, saying it “risks breeding divisions”.

Another key point of contention is whether anti-Israel positions should be considered antisemitic. The ECAJ adopts the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism (adopted by 44 countries globally, including Australia), which includes both incidents targeting Jewish identity and those targeting Israel using antisemitic themes, such as drawing comparisons between contemporary Israeli policy and that of the Nazis.

Some, including pro-Palestinian voices and critical voices within the Jewish community, criticise the IHRA definition of antisemitism, accusing it of being used to silence legitimate criticism of Israel. Supporters of the IHRA definition argue such criticism is permissible, but not when it uses antisemitic tropes or dehumanisation. The debate is highly contentious.

Where is the Islamophobia envoy?

Like the antisemitism envoy, Islamophobia envoys are not an invention of the Albanese government. Canada has a special representative for combating Islamophobia, and earlier this year, a UN general assembly resolution requested a special envoy to combat Islamophobia.

However, while Albanese announced one would be appointed soon, it’s been “more of a challenge”, and at this stage, the envoy has not been announced.

The reasons for this “challenge” were not explained by Albanese, so we can only speculate as to the reason behind the delayed announcement. It may be because it’s harder to identify a body that represents Muslim communities with a national reach comparable to the ECAJ. The ECAJ’s structure, with state-based constituents and affiliate organisations, has provided the Jewish community with a clear point of contact for the government and other stakeholders.

While there are national bodies such as the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) and Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC), they operate both structurally and in practice quite differently to ECAJ. This means the Albanese government would have needed to consult more widely to get a truly representative insight into who the diverse Muslim community would support in the role.

Whatever the reason, the lack of announcement of the Islamophobia envoy alongside the antisemitism envoy risks giving the impression to Muslim communities that the government is not being evenhanded with both groups, a sentiment that is already felt by some.

However, the Albanese government would say such a conclusion is incorrect, and that although the government wanted to announce both envoys simultaneously, the antisemitism envoy was appointed now because of the upcoming World Jewish Congress in Argentina. In addition, Segal was secured months ago (her appointment was first flagged by Sky News in April, and the Islamophobia envoy will be announced soon as they are confirmed.

It serves no-one’s purpose to pit antisemitism and Islamophobia against each other, as both are manifestations of hate – and often perpetrated by the same individuals. Certainly, the war in Gaza complicates and heightens these matters, and navigating these complexities is precisely what the antisemitism and Islamophobia envoys will need to do.

Matteo Vergani receives funding from the Australian Human Right Commission, the New South Wales Government, the Canadian Government, Red Cross Australia.

Susan Carland has received funding from the Australian Research Council to research islamophobioa. She has received funding from the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Monash University to research antisemitism and Islamophobia. She is a board member of the Islamophobia Register Australia.

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

– ref. Australia has its first antisemitism special envoy, with an Islamophobia special envoy to follow. What will this mean? – https://theconversation.com/australia-has-its-first-antisemitism-special-envoy-with-an-islamophobia-special-envoy-to-follow-what-will-this-mean-234359

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

Senator Fatima Payman, who quit Labor last week to sit as a crossbench independent, says she would advise Muslims not to form their own political party.

The Middle East conflict, which has greatly increased Muslim activism, has led to speculation of the possible formation of a Muslim party that could contest seats in western and south western Sydney and parts of Melbourne.

Payman has told The Conversation’s Politics podcast: “I can’t speculate what they plan on doing and not doing. But what I can say is, I don’t think it would be wise to have a Muslim party.

“And so if I was to advise them, I’d say, don’t establish a Muslim party because you need to look at your broader base.”

Different states had different demographics but “I just don’t think that would be conducive to the way things function in our democratic system”.

While it was the prerogative of those involved as to whether to go down that route, “if I was to advise whoever wants to start a party out there [I’d say] think about the bigger picture. Think about Australia as a whole.

“Think about how we look so different to what we did even 30 years ago. And we’re going to keep evolving into this melting pot of incredible cultures and, you know, identities and belief systems. And I think that’s just beautiful.”

Last week Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned against faith-based parties. He said: “I […] don’t want Australia to go down the road of faith-based political parties because what that will do is undermine social cohesion”.

Payman pointed out there have been faith-based parties previously, and said a Muslim party would not challenge social cohesion.

“People are free to do what they want to do and [set up] parties they want to set up. There’s the fishers and farmers and all sorts of parties out there. So if people want to go down this route they can.

“It’s incorrect to […] not just politicise the Muslim faith, but also to make it seem like they’re a threat to social cohesion or it’s going to impact the way we politically engage.”

She said the important thing was to educate the community about their right to vote, how to use it effectively and how to understand the political system.

“A lot of multicultural communities out there have come from countries where democratic ways of governing is not established or is not a thing. And so for them, voting can be quite an alien concept. And so education is paramount to these communities.”

“They have the right to voice their concerns, to voice their opinions and if they think that their elected members or incumbent members are not doing a great job representing their voice, they can they can use the elections as a way of sending a message to their local representatives.”

Payman said if she were setting up a party – which she hasn’t ruled out – “I would not set up a Muslim-only party. I see the bigger picture of my constituency in Western Australia and know that I represent people from all walks of life.”

She said the genocide in Palestine was “not the only thing that I’m focused on. And that’s why it’s important for me to immerse myself within the broader West Australian community to understand what are the things that are important to them,”

She was not intending to play a major role in mobilising the Muslim vote at the next election.

“I don’t intend on doing that. But more power and strength to as many communities out there who want their voices heard.”

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

– ref. Fatima Payman advises Muslims: ‘Don’t establish a political party’ – https://theconversation.com/fatima-payman-advises-muslims-dont-establish-a-political-party-234372

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

Western Australian Senator Fatima Payman quit Labor after defying the party’s “solidarity” rule. Her action, spurred by the Gaza issue, has intensified Labor fears about the possible impact of the Muslim vote in some of its safe seats at the election.

The now-independent senator joined the podcast to discuss her decision, the challenges of regrouping as a crossbencher, and the impact of the Muslim vote.

Payman is bluntly against Muslims forming their own party:

I don’t think it would be wise to have a Muslim party. And so if I was to advise them, I’d say, don’t establish a Muslim party because you need to look at your broader base.“

In her position on Palestine, Payman insists she was following Labor’s platform:

I understood our platform to be very clear […] The advocates from Gough Whitlam to Bob Hawke to Paul Keating, all those big Labor giants who have been so outspoken on Palestinians’ right to self-determination and statehood. And knowing that the Prime minister himself has advocated for longer than I’ve been around. For me, I felt like this is the best time. Like, we’ve come from opposition, into government, we’re progressive. We’ve got our party platform in order. We know what our constituents and rank-and-file members want from us. So, I did not see it as a recipe for disaster.

On how she’ll vote on other issues, Payman styles herself as an independent voice for West Australians:

It’s going to be quite challenging and an interesting new chapter in my life because, obviously, I’ll have to go through each piece of legislation, understand how it’s going to impact West Australians. Make sure that I know what West Australians need from me as their independent voice in Canberra and then moving forward, make those big decisions. It’s no longer just following what the whip or the caucus decide as a whole.

On her identity, personal and public, she says:

I am a devout Muslim. That’s personal and private to me. I try praying five times a day. And I do rely on spiritual guidance. But that’s for me. That’s personal. When I’m serving the best interests of West Australians, I’ll be talking to people. I’ll be on the ground. I will listen to their concerns and be their voice in Canberra. And whether that’s through a party or me as an independent, [it’s] paramount for me to make it clear to everyone that, no, I will not be forming a Muslim party because I represent voices from all backgrounds, people from all walks of life, here in WA.

Asked what message she would give the local Jewish community, Payman says:

I’m very hopeful that in the time to come that there [will be] a ceasefire, to be able to see Israelis and Palestinians be able to live side by side within their own recognised borders, their own states, their own freedoms and liberties. And hopefully that will ease the tensions here in Australia because I believe that we can live in a harmonious society with our differences but focusing more on what brings us together and what the common denominator is here in Australia, and that’s that we’re all proud Australians.

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

– ref. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Fatima Payman on the challenges and opportunities of being a crossbencher – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-fatima-payman-on-the-challenges-and-opportunities-of-being-a-crossbencher-234358

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic T. Jordan, Sessional Academic, Edith Cowan University

Many of us would like to think if we saw a stranger committing a crime, we’d be able to identify them later in a lineup. Even if it was only a fleeting glimpse, a haircut or a different outfit wouldn’t stop us recognising them again shortly after. Surely we’d remember their facial structure, or eyes or any distinctive marks?

Our research indicates probably not. Even subtle changes in appearance that can occur in a matter of days can make identifications incredibly difficult.

Having eyewitnesses accurately identify people suspected of crimes is a crucial part of police investigations. But as studies have repeatedly shown, it’s a fallible process that can result in wrongful convictions.

Here’s what we found about how even the slightest changes to someone’s appearance alter our ability to recognise a face, and why it’s so significant.

Read more:
How mistaken identity can lead to wrongful convictions

Hazy memories, wrongful convictions

In a criminal trial, the most compelling evidence is often the identification of a suspect by a witness to a crime.

Unfortunately, research has shown eyewitness identifications are often mistaken, resulting in the imprisonment of many innocent people. In the United States, evidence collected by the Innocence Project suggests identification errors contributed to 65% of wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence.

In Australia, the exact number of mistaken identifications leading to wrongful convictions is unknown.

However, there have been several high profile cases, like Terry Irving’s. Irving spent five years in prison after being mistakenly identified by witnesses to an armed robbery. This shows identification errors can and do contribute to wrongful convictions domestically.

Appearances can be deceiving

For many years, researchers have tried to understand and identify factors that contribute to mistaken identification.

In our study, 350 people were shown a photograph of a “guilty” suspect. They were then asked to identify that same person from a photographic lineup. Half of the lineups included the “guilty” suspect, the other half did not.

Photographs of lineup members were presented together (a simultaneous lineup) or one at a time (a sequential lineup). In some lineups, the “guilty” suspect had slightly shorter hair, their stubble was gone, and they were wearing different clothes.

While many criminals, such as bank robber Conrad Zdzierak, go to great lengths to avoid being recognised, this sort of effort may be unnecessary. We found participants were 50% less likely to correctly identify the “guilty” suspect when appearance changed in just a small way.

Participants who were 100% confident in the accuracy of their decision were also much more likely to mistakenly identify an “innocent” suspect, whom they had never seen before, when appearance changed than when it had not. Regardless of their accuracy, identifications made with high confidence are extremely persuasive in court.

Police have direct control over how the lineups are conducted. Alarmingly, we found the method used to present lineups and the position of the suspect in the lineup did not improve the accuracy of identification when the suspect’s appearance had been altered.

Collectively, our findings suggest when perpetrator appearance changes in the delay between a criminal event and police lineup, witnesses may mistake them for different people. Even changes that occur naturally, easily and often appear to lead to large declines in identification accuracy.

Based on this, eyewitness researchers and policymakers may have greatly overestimated the capabilities of eyewitnesses in making identifications from lineups in the real world.

Where to from here?

Several exciting innovations in the field of police lineups have emerged in the last decade that (in theory) might better reflect the limited recognition capabilities of eyewitnesses.

For example, a range of experimental lineups have recently been developed that do not require witnesses to make a categorical (yes/no) identification. These new procedures frame recognition as similarity or matching tasks, where witnesses rate how closely lineup members resemble their memory of a perpetrator.

Although such procedures are not yet recommended for investigative and legal purposes, they might represent the future of police lineups and may help to reduce wrongful convictions associated with mistaken identifications.

Read more:
Kathleen Folbigg pardon shows Australia needs a dedicated body to investigate wrongful convictions

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. Think you could pick a criminal suspect out of a lineup? If they’ve shaved or changed their clothes, you’d probably fail – https://theconversation.com/think-you-could-pick-a-criminal-suspect-out-of-a-lineup-if-theyve-shaved-or-changed-their-clothes-youd-probably-fail-233117

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lyndell Bruce, Senior Lecturer in Sport Science, Deakin University

Are you too old to be an Olympian?

If you are older than 18 and not already competing at a high level of sport, it’s unlikely you’ll compete at the Olympics.

The oldest Olympian ever was 72 but that was back in 1920 – Oscar Swahn was a Swedish shooter who completed at three Olympics, winning three gold medals.

At the other end of the scale, Australia’s Chloe Covell is 14 and has booked her ticket to Paris in skateboarding. She is a world champion silver medallist, X Games gold medallist and ranked fourth in the world.

The demands of a sport – physical, technical and tactical – have a large bearing on the age at which athletes reach optimal performance.

In endurance sports such as triathlon and distance running, athletes typically peak in their early-to-mid 30s.

In contrast, gymnasts and divers typically reach peak performance earlier, with women around the age of 16 and men early-to-mid 20s.

This can affect the age at which talent is identified.

Talent identification and early specialisation

Usually, athletes have been participating in their sport for many years before competing at an Olympics.

They have accumulated many hours of practice but these hours may not all be in their chosen sport, which is unlikely to be a bad thing.

Why? Because specialising in one sport from an early age can lead to burnout and an athlete dropping out of the sport.

It’s useful for athletes to pursue more than one sport for the sake of diversity. For every Rafael Nadal – who reportedly trained maniacally by the age of seven – there are multiple athletes who have quit their sport and not made it to the highest level.

Research exploring the developmental histories of Olympic and world champion athletes shows they often sample several sports before specialising.

They were often not typically successful as a junior athlete and had invested similar amounts of sport-specific practice as athletes who had specialised earlier.

Participating in multiple sports as a child provides greater adaptability as an athlete, as children can develop various physical, technical and tactical skills due to the varying nature of sports.

What about talent transfer?

Another avenue for identifying talent is through the process of talent transfer.

Talent transfer occurs when an athlete stops participating in one sport (maybe due to injury, failing to reach a certain level or retiring from their sport) and then takes up another sport that likely has similar attributes.

Often, the skills learnt in the first sport can be transferred to the second.

Australia has a strong history of using talent transfer with younger athletes, including the successful diving program of the NSW Institute of Sport and the aerial skiing program of the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia. In both cases, gymnastics is typically the “donor” sport.

Talent transfer has also put older elite athletes on the path to success.

Notable examples include Jana Pittman, a former multiple world champion 400m hurdler who, after retiring from athletics, transferred into bobsleigh. Within two years she competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

You need not only the right fit of athlete but also importantly, the right coaching talent for successful talent transfer.

That is, specialist and experienced coaches who can see the future skill potential in an athlete and can capitalise on the athlete’s prior training history and skills.

Athletes may be approached directly by a sport coach or administrator to transfer. Alternatively, as an athlete exits a sport, they may be advised to try a different one, or they can attend “come and try days” or “talent identification days” which match them with a sport.

What about the Paralympics?

Talent identification is likely to be different in Paralympians. Some athletes acquire a disability while others have a congenital disability.

For some Paralympians, the ascent to a world class level can be very fast.

Australia’s Lauren Parker had a serious training accident in 2017 when preparing for an Ironman race that left her with paraplegia.

After just three months of training, Parker was able to transfer her able-bodied skills and experience into para-triathlon and win a bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. In 2022, she won gold at the world championships and now also competes in para-cycling.

Within Australia, regular talent identification programs are run, such as Paralympics Australia’s talent identification days and the Queensland government’s YouFor2032 program, which aim to identify Paralympic talent.

What do talent identification and development programs do?

Specialised talent identification programs typically focus on physiological testing such as sprinting, jumping and endurance. In some instances, match or competition performance is also assessed.

Every sport has a different process for how they identify talent. And the age of talent identification varies as well.

For team sports, young athletes are often selected into representative teams. This then leads to regional and state representation.

For individual sports, athletes are often identified by their result, like a time or distance. The best performing athletes then represent the district and potentially progress to state and national competitions.

Physical attributes are often used to identify athletes. However, in young athletes this leads to a phenomenon know as “the relative age effect” – when children born in, or close to, a critical age cut-off period may have a sporting advantage.

Research has shown coaches make decisions about talented athletes on the basic of their tacit knowledge or instinct.

However, coaches do not always agree on the potential of athletes.

Athletes who excel are provided opportunities for further training and coaching.

A successful environment for the talented athlete is one where they are supported, which includes appropriate coaching related to their age and rate of development. An emphasis on health and wellbeing (not solely focusing on their athletic pursuits) and the athlete’s long-term development are also important.

While age is important for athletes and coaches with Olympic dreams, it shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all for competitors at lower levels.

Organisations need to sometimes “look outside the square” and take a chance using varied identification strategies and not look at a prospective athlete’s age but their “X factor” and mindset.

The author would like to thank Juantia Weissensteiner for her contributions to the article. Juanita is the Principal Advisor of Pathways at the NSW Office of Sport and has a research background in talent identification and talent transfer.

Dr Lyndell Bruce receives funding from the Victorian government Office for Women in Sport and Recreation, and the Australian government through the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.

– ref. Are you too old to be an Olympian? Spoiler alert: probably – https://theconversation.com/are-you-too-old-to-be-an-olympian-spoiler-alert-probably-227782

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nathan Bartlett, Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle

We’re in the midst of a bad cold and flu season in Australia. Along with the usual viral suspects, such as influenza, RSV, and rhinoviruses (which cause the common cold), bacterial pathogens are also causing significant rates of illness, particularly in children. These include Bordatella pertussis (whooping cough) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae.

Meanwhile, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) is responsible for recurring waves of infection as it continues to evolve and mutate into new variants which keep it a step ahead of our immunity.

The latest variant is nicknamed “FLuQE”, and is reportedly gaining traction in Australia and other countries. So what is there to know about FLuQE?

From FLiRT to FLuQE

In recent months, you may have heard of the “FLiRT” subvariants. These are decedents of the Omicron variant JN.1, including KP.1.1, KP.2 and JN.1.7.

KP.2, in particular, significantly contributed to COVID infections in Australia and elsewhere around May.

The name FLiRT refers to the amino acid substitutions in the spike protein (F456L, V1104L and R346T). Amino acids are the molecular building blocks of proteins, and the spike protein is the protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 which allows it to attach to our cells. These changes in the spike protein arise from mutation – random changes in the genetic code of the virus.

SARS-CoV-2’s goal is to select mutations that produce a spike protein that binds strongly to our cells’ receptors to support efficient infection (sometimes called viral fitness) while avoiding neutralising antibodies in our immune system (immune pressure).

The FLiRT mutations seem to reduce the ability of neutralising antibodies to bind to the spike protein, potentially enabling the virus to better evade our immunity.
But at the same time, it appears the immune pressure which has selected for these mutations may have affected the ability of the virus to bind to our cells.

These findings are yet to be peer-reviewed (independently verified by other researchers). However, they suggest the FLiRT variants may have traded in some ability to infect our cells for a spike protein that’s more resistant to our immune system.

According to experts in Australia and internationally, what appears to have occurred with FLuQE is an additional mutation has restored fitness that may have been lost with the FLiRT mutations.

FLuQE (KP.3) is a direct descendant of FLiRT, meaning it has inherited the same mutations as the FLiRT variants. But it has an additional amino acid change in the spike protein, Q493E (giving FLuQE its name).

This means the amino acid glutamine at position 493 has changed to glutamic acid (the spike protein is 1,273 amino acids long). Glutamine is a neutral amino acid, whereas glutamic acid has a negative charge, which changes the properties of the spike protein. This could improve the ability of the virus to infect our cells.

It’s still early days for FLuQE and we don’t have peer-reviewed research on this yet. But it appears we now have (another) immune evasive virus that is also well adapted to infecting our cells. It’s no surprise, then, that FLuQE seems to be becoming dominant in many countries.

What next?

We would expect with widespread transmission of and infection with FLiRT and FLuQE variants, population immunity to these variants will mature, and in time, their dominance will be supplanted by the next immune-evasive variant.

The tug of war between our immune system and SARS-CoV-2 evolution continues. The issue we are dealing with now is vaccines don’t sufficiently protect from infection or suppress virus transmission. While they’re very good at protecting against severe disease, the virus still infects lots of people.

As well as the burden on people and health care, lots of infections means more opportunities for the virus to evolve. The more “rolls of the dice” the virus has to find a mutation that helps it evade our immune system and infect our cells, the more likely it is to do so.

Next-generation vaccines and therapies really need to boost immunity in the upper respiratory tract (nose and throat) to reduce infection and transmission. This is where infection initiates. A human challenge study, where volunteers are experimentally exposed to SARS-CoV-2, showed people who didn’t become infected had a robust anti-viral immune response in their upper respiratory tract.

To this end, there are immune-stimulating nasal sprays and nasal vaccines in clinical development. The hope is this approach will slow down the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and the emergence of new subvariants that continue to drive waves of infection and disease.

Fortunately, so far these mutations have not generated a virus that is obviously more pathogenic (causes worse disease), but there are no guarantees this won’t happen in the future.

Nathan Bartlett 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. From FLiRT to FLuQE: what to know about the latest COVID variants on the rise – https://theconversation.com/from-flirt-to-fluqe-what-to-know-about-the-latest-covid-variants-on-the-rise-234073

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris North, Associate Professor, Outdoor and Environmental Education, Te Kaupeka Oranga Faculty of Health, University of Canterbury

Most of us will remember a school trip – that sense of excitement and anticipation of days spent outside the classroom, away from school and home, making new friends, appreciating teachers and parents in a new light.

Indeed, what is known as “education outside the classroom” (EOTC) provides some of the most important and memorable school experiences. Along with field trips, theatre performances, noho marae and international exchanges, “school camp” can add so much depth to educational experiences.

In 2020, a national study showed more than 96% of schools saw EOTC as an important part of school life. They valued the way it enhances learning and engagement, enriches the curriculum, develops relationships between students and staff, and works for different types of learners.

But school trips also demand a lot of teachers, on top of what we already expect of them. As well as the duty of care to their students, there are the legal requirements governing school trips to consider.

In fact, our research was inspired by the concerns we began hearing from teachers and principals worried about the impact the Health and Safety at Work Act may have on the EOTC experience.

Our newly published research shows how anxiety about legal liability and the burden of paperwork are affecting teacher attitudes to EOTC. Already busy, many feel overworked and under-trusted.

At the same time, some schools continue to run EOTC at similar or even higher levels than previously. We wanted to know what differences exist between these schools.

Risk and reward

EOTC trips take students into environments far less controlled than classrooms. Busy roads, swimming pools, machinery and outdoor hazards all contribute.

So, EOTC is not without its dangers. In the past 24 years, there have been 22 fatalities during school trips in New Zealand, with 20 of those drownings.

International studies of fatalities on school and youth group excursions conclude most could have been prevented. Clearly it’s important teachers plan these trips carefully.

The purpose of health and safety law is that everyone comes home healthy and safe. The law creates expectations that all practicable steps will be taken to avoid accidents. And it allows for fines or imprisonment for serious breaches.

These penalties can be applied to school board trustees, principals, teachers, parents and even students in some situations.

As with all laws, of course, those governing EOTC can have a variety of effects. They can make people think and act differently, or they can encourage the appearance of compliance without real behavioural change.

How schools are responding

Importantly, we found strong evidence teachers and principals cared deeply for the learning and safety of their students.

They spoke of their anxiety when “driving other people’s babies” and how they lost sleep when their students were away on trips. In short, they did not take the responsibility of EOTC lightly.

However, the Health and Safety at Work Act adds legal and bureaucratic responsibilities to those natural human anxieties. We found three responses to this from teachers and principals.

1. Stop offering EOTC

In our survey, 44% of schools indicated the law was reducing EOTC, while only 35% said EOTC was not affected.

Stopping EOTC obviously removes the safety risk, fear of legal liability and need for extra paperwork. But it also deprives students of valuable learning experiences.

2. Put little effort into paperwork

The time between filling out forms and the actual school trip can be considerable, and some teachers found it difficult to see the links between paperwork and any benefit to students. Some saw it as simply “butt covering and box ticking”.

While understandable at one level, this clearly raises concerns about depth of engagement. If an incident were to occur and the paperwork didn’t show proper planning, or was not relevant to what was actually happening on the trip, it could contribute to legal liability.

3. Continue to run EOTC programs

We found around a third of teachers and principals were now offering EOTC at the same or a higher level than they had in the past.

In these cases, there was some combination of four enabling factors: competent staff, systems to minimise paperwork, a specialised EOTC coordinator to support teachers, a whole-school commitment to EOTC, and attending professional development courses.

Saving the school trip

Schools are influenced in different ways by health and safety law, with secondary schools less affected than primary or intermediate ones. We think larger school size and more staff, including specialist teachers, may explain some of this difference.

For small or rural schools, limited staffing can make EOTC more challenging. Schools in the highest 20% of socioeconomic areas had fewer concerns. This may be due to them having more resources, but further research into this is needed.

We understand the law governing EOTC adds to the workload on teachers and principals already struggling with resource constraints and other demands on their energies.

But the research shows how perception and observance of the law is limiting student access to the rich and diverse educational experiences available through EOTC. There are ways to overcome this, however.

As well as focusing on the four enablers referred to above, schools can keep trips more local and focus on lower-risk activities. This will reduce the stress and paperwork, and help support EOTC in these challenging times.

The research project received funding from Education Outdoors New Zealand. He is a board member of Education Outdoors New Zealand.

– ref. Legal risk and more paperwork: do health and safety laws threaten the great Kiwi school trip? – https://theconversation.com/legal-risk-and-more-paperwork-do-health-and-safety-laws-threaten-the-great-kiwi-school-trip-233982

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Blake, PhD student, Monash University

Amber is fossilised tree resin. Unlike traditional fossils found on land or in the sea, amber can preserve ancient life forms in incredible detail. It’s often considered the “holy grail” of palaeontology worldwide.

Amber acts like a time capsule, capturing tiny animals, plants and even microorganisms from millions of years ago. These fossils – also known as inclusions – can appear astonishingly fresh, preserved just as they were when they died trapped in sticky tree resin.

Australian amber is now helping to understand the biological diversity of ancient Gondwanan environments from 42 million years ago and their connections to today’s Australian forests. From it, we can learn yet more reasons for why we must protect today’s forests.

The unique value of Australian amber

Unlike typical, squashed fossil rock shapes, palaeontologists value amber for its remarkable ability to preserve inclusions in full three dimensions. This means we can study fossil organisms that would otherwise not have been recorded in such detail.

This is especially important considering that around 85% of modern biodiversity comes from arthropods (spiders, flies, beetles, bees and the like). Only 0.3% is represented by the “bony” mammals more commonly found as fossils in rocks.

Overall, only a tiny fraction of all life throughout geologic time has been fossilised. This means we work with a biased fossil record that may not accurately represent past diversity.

Amber provides a unique opportunity to find less common specimens. It helps to reveal the diversity of past ecosystems and to reduce these biases in our understanding of ancient life.

Most amber discoveries come from the Northern Hemisphere (the Baltic region, Spain, China, Myanmar). Australia is one of the rare places in the Southern Hemisphere where scientists can also study organisms trapped in amber.

The most promising site for finding these preserved organisms is a former coal mining area in Victoria. The amber and fossils from this site are estimated to be 42–40 million years old, dating back to the Eocene epoch.

At that time, Australia and Antarctica were still connected as part of the slowly fragmenting supercontinent called Gondwana. Australia had a warm and moist climate, and forests teeming with insects, arachnids and other creatures.

Living fossils

The amber we’re working with has been studied by researchers since 2014. Findings described in 2020 include biting midges, baby spiders, and even a pair of mating flies.

Our latest work reveals more details on the species. We’ve learnt not only where these organisms lived in the past, but also the surprising fact that many of them still exist in Australia’s forests today, albeit in greatly reduced geographic ranges.

This means creatures from ancient Gondwana have persisted for more than 40 million years. Their survival for so long gives even more reason to protect them into the future.

One major breakthrough in our research is based on new advancements at ANSTO’s Australian Synchrotron research facility in Melbourne. Improved resolution and the capability to scan smaller samples with X-rays have greatly improved how we can produce images of organisms trapped in amber. This allows us to create detailed 3D reconstructions, and we can identify the species more easily.

The synchrotron has also made it possible to finally detect inclusions within large, opaque pieces of amber that were hard to examine previously with traditional microscopes.

What have we found in Australian amber?

Some of the new major findings have been a “non-biting” or “feather” midge from the Podonominae insect subfamily. It’s the first fossil record of the genus Austrochlus in the Southern Hemisphere. Even though it was widely distributed globally in the past, it is now restricted to Australia.

With the synchrotron, we revealed not only the specimen’s sex and position in its family tree, but also internal structures of what are potentially wing muscles. Even in amber fossils, that’s a rarity.

We also found a true biting midge that’s still around today (Austroconops). It’s the first fossil of its kind dating back to the Cenozoic, spanning the last 66 million years. Once widespread, today this midge is only found in Western Australia, again restricted just to our continent.

A wasp from the family Embolemidae, recognised today from all around the world to be a parasite on planthopper nymphs, is another highlight from Australian amber. This group has quite a scarce fossil record, and this is only the second time one has been found in the Southern Hemisphere.

All of these insect fossils are the first of their kind found in Australia. And we’ve only scratched the surface – there are many more yet to be described.

Remarkably, these insects are still around in Australian forests today, tracing their lineage back in time to ancient Gondwana. Without realising it, we exist among living fossils.

While we know these species were widely distributed in the past, today most of them are found only on this continent. They now face new challenges which threaten their habitats. The threats include climate change, deforestation and urban sprawl.

Protecting these ancient “living fossils” and their environments is essential for the health of our native ecosystems.

Jeffrey Stilwell is an Associate Professor (Adj.) at Monash University and a Research Associate at the Australian Museum.
Funding for the amber research has come from Monash University, Australian Research Council, ANSTO and Australian Synchrotron, Museums Victoria, and Australian Museum.

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

– ref. Australian amber has revealed ‘living fossils’ traced back to Gondwana 42 million years ago – https://theconversation.com/australian-amber-has-revealed-living-fossils-traced-back-to-gondwana-42-million-years-ago-232990

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scarlett Smout, PhD Candidate (under examination) and Research Associate at The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health & Substance Use and Australia’s Mental Health Think Tank, University of Sydney

Judging by recent headlines and policy ideas, you might think screen time is the only lifestyle behaviour influencing teen wellbeing.

But with young people struggling to deal with mounting mental health issues, it’s crucial we don’t get tunnel vision and instead remember all the lifestyle levers that can play a role.

Our research, published today, tracked Australian high school students from 71 schools across New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. Over time, improvements in sleep, fruit and vegetable intake, and exercise were associated with small but significant improvements in mental health.

The reverse was also true when it came to unhealthy behaviours like screen time, junk food, alcohol use and tobacco.

A comprehensive look at adolescent lifestyles

Our new study of more than 4,400 Australian high school students looks at a suite of lifestyle behaviours: sleep, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, sedentary (inactive) recreational screen time, fruit and vegetable intake, consumption of junk food and sugary drinks, alcohol use and smoking.

Firstly, we asked year 7 (students aged 12–13) to report their levels of these lifestyle behaviours and to rate their psychological distress (a general indicator of mental ill-health) using a well-known measurement scale.

Then we examined how changes in each of the lifestyle behaviours between year 7 and year 10 (age 15–16) were linked to psychological distress levels in year 10. Importantly, we accounted for the level of psychological distress participants reported in year 7, as well as their lifestyle behaviours in year 7. This means we can see the average benefits associated with behaviour change, no matter where people started out.

Our research showed increases over time in healthy behaviours were associated with lower psychological distress. Conversely, increases in health risk behaviours were associated with higher psychological distress.

How much makes a difference?

On average, when looking at the change between year 7 and 10, every one-hour increase in sleep per night was linked to a 9% reduction in psychological distress.

Each added day of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week was linked to a 3% reduction in psychological distress. Each added daily serve of fruit or vegetables was linked to 4% lower psychological distress.

By contrast, each added hour of screen time was linked to a 2% increase in psychological distress, as was each unit increase in junk food or sugary drinks.

Because drinking alcohol and smoking are less common in early adolescence, we only looked at whether they had or hadn’t drank alcohol or smoked in the past six months. We saw that switching from not drinking in year 7 to drinking in year 10 was associated with a 17% increase in psychological distress. Switching from not smoking to smoking was linked to a 36% increase in psychological distress.

It’s important to note our study can’t definitively say lifestyle behaviour change caused the change in distress. The study also can’t account for changes in a student’s circumstances such as in their home life or relationships. With the baseline survey done in 2019 and the year 10 survey done in 2022, there was also the potential impact of COVID.

But our longitudinal design (tracking the same subjects over an extended period) and the way we structured the analysis does help illustrate the relationship over time.

Our study didn’t measure vaping, but evidence shows that, like smoking, it has clear links with adolescent mental health.

What does this mean for teens and parents?

National guidelines for these behaviours set out aspirational targets based on optimum health goals. But movement guidelines and dietary guidelines might seem out of reach for many teens. Indeed, most participants in our study were not meeting guidelines for physical activity, sleep, screen time, and vegetable consumption in year 10.

What our research shows is that a healthy lifestyle change doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

Even relatively small changes – getting an extra hour of sleep each night, eating one extra serve of fruit or vegetables each day, cutting out one hour of screen time, or adding an extra day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week – are linked to improvements in mental health. And stacking changes in multiple areas is likely to stand you in even better stead.

Parents can play a major role in shaping lifestyle behaviours (even into the teenage years!). Expense and time can be barriers, but anything parents can do within their means is a step in the right direction.

For example, modelling healthy social media use, making affordable changes to your grocery shop to improve nutritional content, or even introducing set bedtimes. And parents can gather information so young people can make positive choices around alcohol, tobacco and other substance use including vaping.

The bigger picture

Lifestyle changes can support better adolescent mental health, but they’re only one piece of the puzzle. We can’t place the burden of addressing the youth mental health crisis solely on teen lifestyles. There is plenty to be done at a school, community, and policy level to create a society that supports youth mental health.

Young people who are struggling with their mental health may need professional support, which parents and carers can support them to access. Teenagers or young people can also contact ReachOut or Kids Helpline directly for resources and support.

Scarlett Smout was funded by a PhD scholarship from the University of Sydney to complete the research on which this article is based. The University of Sydney scholarship was funded by philanthropic funds from the Paul Ramsay Foundation as part of the Health4Life Study. Scarlett is currently employed in a post-doc position on The Mentally Healthy Futures Project at The Matilda Centre, which is funded by a philanthropic grant from the BHP Foundation. As part of this role, Scarlett also provides Research Support for Australia’s Mental Health Think Tank.

Katrina Champion receives funding from the University of Sydney via a Sydney Horizon Fellowship was previously funded by a previous NHMRC Early Career Fellowship to KC. The Health4Life Study was funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

Lauren Gardner 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. New research shows small lifestyle changes are linked to differences in teen mental health over time – https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-small-lifestyle-changes-are-linked-to-differences-in-teen-mental-health-over-time-233870

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Associate Professor, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide

Dog hair comes in many varieties, from shaggy to short, curly to straight. If you live with a dog, you live with their hair – on your couch, in your clothes, it’s everywhere!

Beyond colour, have you ever wondered what’s behind the differences in coat type?

We actually know quite a lot about why dogs have different coats, and it comes down to their genes.

What are the main coat types in dogs?

The three main features of dog coats are how long the hairs are, whether they are curly or straight, and whether they have extra flourishes. The flourishes are called “furnishings”, and can include a hairy moustache and shaggy eyebrows.

Combinations of these three features result in seven different coat types in dogs: short, wire, wire and curly, long, long with furnishings, curly, and curly with furnishings.

We know from a study of more than 1,000 dogs with varying coats that differences in only three genes are responsible for this variety.

The gene responsible for long hair (called FGF5) is recessive, meaning dogs must have two copies of the mutated gene to have long hair. In humans, the same gene has been identified in families with excessively long eyelashes.

Curly coats in dogs are related to a gene called KRT71, which affects keratin, a protein involved in hair formation. Mutations in this gene in cats result in hairless (Sphynx) or curly-haired (Devon Rex) breeds.

The gene responsible for furnishings (RSPO2) is involved in establishing hair follicles. Hair follicles are small pockets in the skin that grow hair.

Variations in these three genes could explain the coat type in most (but not all!) of the dogs tested. For example, the long coat of the Afghan hound is not explained by these three genes. Further study is needed to identify less common mutations and genes controlling the coat in these dogs.

The earliest dog breeds would have been short-haired, as a result of the “wild-type” genes. Later changes would have arisen through mutation and deliberate selection through modern breeding practices.

If all three mutations are present, the dog has a long, curly coat with furnishings. An example is the Bichon Frisé.

What else varies in dog coats?

Dog coat types can also be single or double. In a double-coated breed such as a Labrador, there is a longer coarse layer of hairs and a softer and shorter undercoat. Wolves and ancestral dogs are single-coated, and the double coat is a result of a mutation in chromosome 28.

In the Labrador, the mutation was probably selected for as they were bred to retrieve fishing nets in Canada. The double coat is a great insulator and helps them to stay warm, even in icy water.

Why does it matter what kind of coat a dog has?

We know with climate change our world is going to get hotter. Dogs with a double coat are less able to tolerate heat stress, as their hair prevents heat loss.

In a study of dogs suffering heat-related illness, most of the 15 breeds at higher risk had double coats. The death rate in these dogs was 23%. We can only imagine how it must feel going out on a 40 degree day wearing a thick fur coat.

Dogs with a double coat shed more hair than dogs with a single coat. This means even short-haired breeds, like the Labrador retriever, can shed an astonishing amount of hair. If you can’t tolerate dog hair, then a dog with a double-coat may not suit you.

When we think of wool we think of sheep, but in the past woolly dogs were kept for their wool that was woven by Indigenous groups and used to make blankets.

A dog’s coat also affects how much time and effort is needed for grooming. Dogs with long or curly hair with furnishings are likely to need more time invested in their care, or visits to a professional groomer.

Designer dogs (cross-bred dogs often crossed with a poodle, such as groodles), are likely to be curly with furnishings. In a US study, people with designer dogs reported meeting their dogs’ maintenance and grooming requirements was much harder than they expected.

It’s not just bank balances and the time needed that can suffer. If people are unable to cope with the demands of grooming long-haired dogs, lack of grooming can cause welfare problems. A study of animal cruelty cases in New York found 13% involved hair matting, with some hair mats causing strangulation wounds and 93% of affected dogs having long hair.

How can you prevent problems?

If you have a curly- or long-haired breed of dog, it will help to train them to like being brushed from an early age. You can do this by counter-conditioning so they have a positive emotional response to being groomed, rather than feeling anxious. First show the brush or lightly brush them, then give them a treat. They learn to associate being brushed with something positive.

If you take your dog to the groomer, it’s very important their first experience is positive. A scary or painful incident will make it much more difficult for future grooming.

Is your dog difficult to groom or hard to get out of the car at the groomers? It’s likely grooming is scary for them. Consulting a dog trainer or animal behaviourist who focuses on positive training methods can help a lot.

Keeping your dog well groomed, no matter their hair type, will keep them comfortable. More important than looking great, feeling good is an essential part of dogs living their best lives with us.

Susan Hazel is affiliated with the Dog & Cat Management Board of South Australia, the RSPCA South Australia and Animal Therapies Ltd.

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

– ref. Why do dogs have different coats? Experts explain – and give grooming tips for different types – https://theconversation.com/why-do-dogs-have-different-coats-experts-explain-and-give-grooming-tips-for-different-types-232480

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tamara May, Psychologist and Research Associate in the Department of Paediatrics, Monash University

You may have seen some new ways to describe when someone is autistic and also has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The terms “AuDHD” or sometimes “AutiADHD” are being used on social media, with people describing what they experience or have seen as clinicians.

It might seem surprising these two conditions can co-occur, as some traits appear to be almost opposite. For example, autistic folks usually have fixed routines and prefer things to stay the same, whereas people with ADHD usually get bored with routines and like spontaneity and novelty.

But these two conditions frequently overlap and the combination of diagnoses can result in some unique needs. Here are five important things to know about AuDHD.

1. Having both wasn’t possible a decade ago

Only in the past decade have autism and ADHD been able to be diagnosed together. Until 2013, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) – the reference used by health workers around the world for definitions of psychological diagnoses – did not allow for ADHD to be diagnosed in an autistic person.

The manual’s fifth edition was the first to allow for both diagnoses in the same person. So, folks diagnosed and treated prior to 2013, as well as much of the research, usually did not consider AuDHD. Instead, children and adults may have been “assigned” to whichever condition seemed most prominent or to be having the greater impact on everyday life.

2. AuDHD is more common than you might think

Around 1% to 4% of the population are autistic.

They can find it difficult to navigate social situations and relationships, prefer consistent routines, find changes overwhelming and repetition soothing. They may have particular sensory sensitivities.

ADHD occurs in around 5–8% of children and adolescents and 2–6% of adults. Characteristics can include difficulties with focusing attention in a flexible way, resulting in procrastination, distraction and disorganisation. People with ADHD can have high levels of activity and impulsivity.

Studies suggest around 40% of those with ADHD also meet diagnostic criteria for autism and vice versa. The co-occurrence of having features or traits of one condition (but not meeting the full diagnostic criteria) when you have the other, is even more common and may be closer to around 80%. So a substantial proportion of those with autism or ADHD who don’t meet full criteria for the other condition, will likely have some traits.

Read more:
ADHD looks different in adults. Here are 4 signs to watch for

3. Opposing traits can be distressing

Autistic people generally prefer order, while ADHDers often struggle to keep things organised. Autistic people usually prefer to do one thing at a time; people with ADHD are often multitasking and have many things on the go. When someone has both conditions, the conflicting traits can result in an internal struggle.

For example, it can be upsetting when you need your things organised in a particular way but ADHD traits result in difficulty consistently doing this. There can be periods of being organised (when autistic traits lead) followed by periods of disorganisation (when ADHD traits dominate) and feelings of distress at not being able to maintain organisation.

There can be eventual boredom with the same routines or activities, but upset and anxiety when attempting to transition to something new.

Autistic special interests (which are often all-consuming, longstanding and prioritised over social contact), may not last as long in AuDHD, or be more like those seen in ADHD (an intense deep dive into a new interest that can quickly burn out).

Autism can result in quickly being overstimulated by sensory input from the environment such as noises, lighting and smells. ADHD is linked with an understimulated brain, where intense pressure, novelty and excitement can be needed to function optimally.

For some people the conflicting traits may result in a balance where people can find a middle ground (for example, their house appears tidy but the cupboards are a little bit messy).

There isn’t much research yet into the lived experience of this “trait conflict” in AuDHD, but there are clinical observations.

4. Mental health and other difficulties are more frequent

Our research on mental health in children with autism, ADHD or AuDHD shows children with AuDHD have higher levels of mental health difficulites than autism or ADHD alone.

This is a consistent finding with studies showing higher mental health difficulties such as depression and anxiety in AuDHD. There are also more difficulties with day-to-day functioning in AuDHD than either condition alone.

So there is an additive effect in AuDHD of having the executive foundation difficulties found in both autism and ADHD. These difficulties relate to how we plan and organise, pay attention and control impulses. When we struggle with these it can greatly impact daily life.

5. Getting the right treatment is important

ADHD medication treatments are evidence-based and effective. Studies suggest medication treatment for ADHD in autistic people similarly helps improve ADHD symptoms. But ADHD medications won’t reduce autistic traits and other support may be needed.

Non-pharmacological treatments such as psychological or occupational therapy are less researched in AuDHD but likely to be helpful. Evidence-based treatments include psychoeducation and psychological therapy. This might include understanding one’s strengths, how traits can impact the person, and learning what support and adjustments are needed to help them function at their best. Parents and carers also need support.

The combination and order of support will likely depend on the person’s current functioning and particular needs.

Do you relate?

Studies suggest people may still not be identified with both conditions when they co-occur. A person in that situation might feel misunderstood or that they can’t fully relate to others with a singular autism and ADHD diagnosis and something else is going on for them.

It is important if you have autism or ADHD that the other is considered, so the right support can be provided.

If only one piece of the puzzle is known, the person will likely have unexplained difficulties despite treatment. If you have autism or ADHD and are unsure if you might have AuDHD consider discussing this with your health professional.

Tamara May works in private practice as a clinical psychologist. She is a member of the Australian ADHD Professionals Association and Monash University affiliate.

– ref. What is AuDHD? 5 important things to know when someone has both autism and ADHD – https://theconversation.com/what-is-audhd-5-important-things-to-know-when-someone-has-both-autism-and-adhd-233095

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louis de Koker, Professor of Law, La Trobe University

The withdrawal of major banks from Pacific islands poses significant socio-economic risks to the region, prompting intervention by Australia, the US and New Zealand.

The so-called debanking of the Pacific – when banks close or restrict accounts because they believe customers pose regulatory, legal, financial or reputational risks to their operations – was the focus of discussions at this week’s Pacific Banking Forum in Brisbane.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden announced the forum last year to deal with growing concerns about the loss of correspondent banking relationships in the Pacific.

Correspondent banks provide banking services to other financial institutions overseas.

For example, a person in Vanuatu might want to send money to someone in Australia, where their local bank may not operate, so another Australian bank will facilitate the transaction on behalf of the Vanuatu bank.

While these relationships have declined globally in the past decade, the fall in the Pacific has been particularly steep. Between 2011 and 2022, the region lost about 60% of its correspondent relationships.

These relationships are significant because, among other things, they enable domestic banks to make and receive international payments. When foreign trade payments cannot be made, trade is threatened.

Also, many Pacific communities rely on money remitted by family members working overseas. In 2022, remittance receipts amounted to 44% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in Tonga, 34% in Samoa and 15% in Vanuatu.

Yet the value of these remittances is eroded by banking costs that consistently rank among the highest globally. In the fourth quarter of 2022, the average remittance cost in the Pacific was 9.1% of the transaction value – more than triple the global target of 3%.

Why is the Pacific facing a debanking crisis?

The provision of banking services in the region is challenged by the vast distances and small populations of Pacific Islands.

Foreign bankers also have to navigate different laws, regulations and risks of each jurisdiction. While general crime risks may be relatively low in the region, organised crime is increasing.

Money laundering laws require bankers mitigate financial integrity risks relevant to each jurisdiction and business relationship. This adds to the complexity and costs of each banking relationship. In some cases, bankers respond to this risk by terminating or limiting the relationship.

Pacific Islands such as the Marshall Islands are left with one bank and it is expected it might also close.

While other Pacific Islands – including Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu – may have a higher number of banking relationships, some services have been limited or are provided at a higher cost.

Why the US, NZ and Australia are involved

This week’s Pacific Banking Forum, co-hosted by the Australian and US governments, drew together a wide range of debanking stakeholders.

Officials of governments, central bank governors, regulators, domestic and foreign bankers and representatives of international financial institutions and the Pacific Islands Forum joined to consider the drivers of debanking and potential solutions.

In his keynote address at the forum, Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers pointed to the importance of these services for local communities as the reason why his government has

been actively talking to all the major Australian banks to let them know how important a continued Australian banking presence in the region is to the government.

Forum speakers also recognised the benefits of healthy and resilient cross-border correspondent banking relationships.

In her video remarks to the forum, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen noted that correspondent banking

promotes healthy market competition in the financial services sector; facilitates trade financed through regional and global financial centers; enables financing for infrastructure and development projects; and helps to make economies and financial systems more resilient to shocks.

Positive change

The Pacific debanking tide may be turning. In 2023, the Pacific Islands Forum commissioned and adopted a debanking study of the World Bank. They also adopted a roadmap of actions informed by the study to make correspondent banking more resilient in the region.

Discussion about the problem now involves Australian, New Zealand and US banks and their regulators. US, Australian and New Zealand dollars are key trade currencies for Pacific jurisdictions and correspondent banking services are important to the economic health of the region.

At the Brisbane forum, a number of Pacific representatives acknowledged the problem of scale in the Pacific and spoke in favour of regional solutions, aggregation of transactions and greater consistency of laws and processes.

International bankers and regulators, on the other hand, positioned the need for compliance with global anti-money laundering standards and the benefits of improved national identification systems, digital identity and appropriate technology.

While definitive solutions will take time to implement, the World Bank is considering a regional solution that will support temporary access to correspondent banking services if a country loses its last banking service in a key currency.

This will provide the relevant jurisdictions with access to appropriate services while they secure services by another correspondent bank. Such a facility will ease the immediate pressure on the Pacific and allow time for more sustainable solutions to be developed and implemented.

The Australian treasurer also pledged A$6.3 million in funding to secure digital identity infrastructure in the Pacific, improve compliance with global anti-money laundering standards and help build criminal justice and law enforcement capacity in the region.

It is important cross-border banking systems are open, secure and inclusive. The discussions this week in Brisbane may mark a return to a more resilient, re-banked Pacific Island community.

Louis de Koker receives funding from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank Group and was a co-author of the 2023 World Bank/Pacific Island Forum diagnostic report on the decline of correspondent banking in the Pacific.

– ref. Pacific islands are being ‘debanked’. What does it mean – and why are Australia, NZ and the US concerned? – https://theconversation.com/pacific-islands-are-being-debanked-what-does-it-mean-and-why-are-australia-nz-and-the-us-concerned-234157

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olaf Meynecke, Research Fellow in Marine Science and Manager Whales & Climate Program, Griffith University

Global whale numbers are increasing for many species. While this is good news for conservation, the higher numbers coupled with dangers such as pollution, boating and climate change have caused an increase in whale deaths and strandings.

Some dead whales reach the shore, where their disposal poses a logistical challenge for authorities. Towing the carcass out to sea is one option, but it poses risks, such as the remains floating back to shore or into shipping channels. So understanding where whale bodies drift at sea is important.

That’s where our new research comes in. Last year, we tracked a whale carcass floating off the Queensland coast. We then compared this real-world data to that produced by computer modelling software typically used to help find boats lost at sea. We found the model accurately predicted where the carcass ended up.

Whale strandings are undoubtedly sad events. But with the help of science, the body can be disposed of in a way that doesn’t harm nature or people.

Big animal, big problem

When a whale dies at sea, it will initially sink but may refloat after a day or two, as gas develops in its intestines. If the carcass washes up on the beach, it must be dealt with.

Disposing of dead whales is complicated. Last century, authorities sought to blow up the carcasses to break them into smaller, more manageable pieces – a method, thankfully, which is no longer pursued.

In most cases these days, whale remains are buried in sand dunes or trucked to landfill.

Burying whale carcasses is not without challenges. They include the potential spread of diseases, groundwater contamination, and the attraction of scavengers which may impact local fauna and trigger public safety concerns.

Landfill disposal is also an imperfect solution. It requires an excavator and a truck to be brought to the beach – not always possible in very remote or inaccessible locations. To be feasible, a landfill should be located within a reasonable distance. And the loading and unloading of the carcass creates the potential for disease to spread.

The disposal of whale remains in landfills is also culturally controversial and raises ethical questions. Often, people have built up a positive connection with whales and want them buried respectfully.

Finally, the decomposition of organic matter in landfills produces climate damaging gases such as methane and carbon dioxide. It also removes important nutrients from the ocean.

Towing the carcass back out to sea may often be the best alternative. But it also comes with challenges – chiefly, preventing the carcass returning to shore or from becoming a hazard to boats. That’s why it can be useful to predict the movement of deceased whales adrift at sea.

The drift of a whale carcass is influenced by several factors such as wind, waves, tides and currents. Decomposition rates also play a role, and this can be affected by sun exposure, water temperature and scavengers.

A high-tech investigation

Our study involved a dead whale floating towards Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in July last year. The remains were identified as a 14-metre long female humpback, likely killed by a ship strike. The remains provided an opportunity to test and develop a prediction method for the whale drift trajectory.

The whale remains were disposed of about 30 kilometres offshore, close to the southward-moving East Australian Current. We then attached a satellite transmitter to the carcass, which provided information about the position of the whale remains every few minutes.

We tracked the whale remains for a week until we lost the signal – presumably because the carcass sank. We found the remains drifted towards the north – which was unexpected, given the prevailing current flowed in the opposite direction. We were also surprised that the remains travelled more than 150 kilometres.

The next step was to compare the real-world results against a computer simulation, to see how accurately the software predicted the path of the whale drift. Using search and rescue software known as SARMAP – designed to find various types of vessels lost at sea – we simulated the movement of the whale remains over the same period we tracked the carcass.

And the results? We found a simulation of a capsized skiff gave the best match for the actual path of the whale. It travelled in the same direction as the whale remains, within a few kilometres. We suspect this is because the objects are similar in terms of size and exposure above the sea surface.

The finding showed the forecasting of where whale remains might end up at sea is possible with surprisingly high accuracy.

Doing disposal well

Simulating the drift of a whale carcass towed to sea would reduce the risk of it being washed back ashore and help determine the best possible release location.

This would allow for more deceased whales to be returned to sea, where their remains play an important role in the marine ecosystem. The deep sea is generally deprived of nutrients, meaning a sunken whale carcass can be the only available food for many marine creatures.

Offshore disposal can be an ethical, cost-effective and safe option if managed well. To achieve this, we need better collaboration between local authorities, scientists and coastguards.

Olaf Meynecke receives funding from a private charitable trust as part of the Whales & Climate Program and is CEO of the not for profit organisation Humpbacks & High-rises.

– ref. We tracked a floating whale carcass to see where it drifted – and the result was fascinating – https://theconversation.com/we-tracked-a-floating-whale-carcass-to-see-where-it-drifted-and-the-result-was-fascinating-233326

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Rowe, Senior Researcher in the School of Education, Deakin University

If you feel like you’re paying a lot for your child’s private school education, that’s because you probably are.

When we look at the international data, we see Australian households are contributing a lot more to their children’s education than other countries in the OECD.

Why is this happening? And why is it a problem?

What is the data?

I looked at the most recent OECD data on education (released in September 2023). This shows us how much private sources, including households, contribute to the costs of school education.

While the data does not specify which type of education (government, independent or Catholic), the OECD’s notes on how this data is collected refer to “private schooling”.

The analysis looks at primary and “upper secondary” school. In Australia, we generally understand this to be years 11 and 12.

For primary school, the OECD data shows “private spending” on education. This includes both households and sources such as companies and non-profit organisations. For upper secondary school, the OECD data shows household spending.

What do Australians spend compared to the rest of the world?

On average, private sources contribute 10% to primary education across the OECD. But in Australia, they contribute 20%. This makes Australia the fourth highest out of 40 countries.

In upper secondary school, on average, OECD households provide 9% of the total funding for school education.

But in Australia, households provide 21.4% of the total funding for these years. The only other countries with a slightly higher proportion are Hungary and Türkiye. The United Kingdom provides about 16% and New Zealand provides 6.5%. In Finland it is only 0.4%.

Why is this?

Australians contribute so much to the costs of their childrens’ education because so many students go to private fee-charging schools. This proportion is much higher than other OECD countries.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, about 36% of Australian students go to non-government private schools with 64% going to public schools.

But enrolment significantly differs between primary and secondary schools. For primary, almost 69% of students are enrolled in public schools. For high school, this shrinks to 58%.

We also know tuition fees for private schools are increasing. For example, this year they have risen to almost A$50,000 per year per child in the senior years at the most expensive schools in Sydney.

We are seeing this “user-pays” mentality in public education, with parents being asked to donate funds for things such as school facilities and resources, as well as rising costs for basic items such as uniforms.

Why does this matter?

In Australia, private schools receive government funding without any regulation of how much they charge or how they enrol students. This is unusual in world terms.

In most OECD countries, if private schools receive government funds they are not allowed to charge any tuition fees.

If a private school can charge high fees, this can act as a barrier for some students. It means high-fee schools in Australia overwhelmingly enrol students from wealthy families. Researchers describe taking the students who come from the wealthiest backgrounds as “cream skimming”.

This means schools maximise their image by having students from high socioeconomic backgrounds without needing to improve their educational quality. As my 2017 research has shown, a key factor for parents choosing a school is who their child’s peers will be. Wealthy families tend to choose schools with children from similar backgrounds.

What can we do instead?

International research shows high-performing school systems are also equitable systems. This means they provide good quality education for the broad majority of students (not only those who can afford to pay).

From these figures, we can see how Australian households contribute far more towards school education than many other OECD countries. Beyond the individual pressure on families, this has an impact on how fair our system is and how well it provides for all students.

We know some other countries do not allow private schools to receive government funds and set their own fees. While this debate would be a controversial one, it does suggest we need to have a serious conversation about how private school fees are regulated in Australia.

Emma Rowe receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. Australian families spend far more on private schooling than many other countries. Here’s why that’s a problem – https://theconversation.com/australian-families-spend-far-more-on-private-schooling-than-many-other-countries-heres-why-thats-a-problem-232700

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Graffam, PhD Candidate in Theatre, Monash University

Chappell Roan is on a steep rise to fame.

You may have encountered her current hit Good Luck, Babe! on the radio, at cafés or out in bars and clubs. If not, the song is a must-add to your favourite playlist.

Good Luck, Babe! is an upbeat, contemporary pop track with clear influences of 1980s pop-synth. Roan’s vocals soar across the track and offer a nostalgic recall of Kate Bush’s ethereal power and pitch.

Roan is gifted with an impressive vocal range and her lyrics paint a vivid array of images, people and places. Her 2023 album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, is described by Pitchfork as “a bold and uproarious pop project stitched with stories about discovering love, sex, and oneself in a new place”.

Roan moved from small city Willard, Missouri, to Los Angeles upon signing with a record label in 2018. Living in California, she started to come to terms with her queerness.

Somewhere in the process of exploring queer identity and community, while dwelling in queer performance spaces (likely bars and clubs), Roan has emerged as a drag artist. In interviews, she speaks of the influences of drag on her visual and musical aesthetic, alongside fashion, theatre and other cultural forms.

But can a cis woman be a drag queen?

Traditions of cross-dressing in drag

A mainstream understanding of drag is informed by traditional acts of cross-dressing from one’s assigned birth gender: those born male become drag queens; those born female become drag kings.

In such a formula, the act functions by the audience having a clear, pre-existing awareness that the performer’s out-of-drag gender identity does not align with their onstage performance. Transgression, irony and humour ensues.

Often in drag acts, gender stereotypes are exaggerated to breaking point. Camp aesthetics can influence a subversion of beauty and aesthetic appeal in favour of embracing the trashy, ugly or gritty.

Drag might also function in the reverse: performers appear so attractive as to disturb a fixed sense of sexuality and desire among audiences. If you haven’t yet felt sexually confused at a drag show, I encourage you to see more and diverse examples.

Drag seeks to break down stereotypes of gender, sexuality and desire by holding space for multiple identities – real, performed, imagined – to simultaneously clash and coexist.

It’s a fabulously messy affair. It also does not necessarily rely on an act of cross-dressing from one’s assigned birth gender, or from any gender with which we identify.

Roan is a useful example of this point. Her drag leans into hyper femininity, at times toying with beauty ideals and elements of “ugliness” and trash. She performs with beautifully painted, soft facial and physical features and couples the visuals with hyper feminine movement. But you’ll notice a cigarette butt caught in her hair, or she’s wearing a massive nose prosthetic, or all parts of her visible skin are painted a deathly grey.

While Roan’s drag celebrates and plays up femininity and feminine beauty, she firmly holds a middle finger up at those same societal ideals and expectations.

Queer utopias and performance

With Pink Pony Club, Roan traces for us a process of coming out.

She sings:

I know you wanted me to stay

But I can’t ignore the crazy visions of me in LA
And I heard that there’s a special place
Where boys and girls can all be queens every single day.

The music video is set in what feels like a Midwest dive bar with Roan taking the stage to perform her song.

There are flashes of a queerly utopic alternative to the oppressively drab dive bar setting: leather daddies fill the dance floor, glitter falls from the ceiling, and drag queens Pork Chop and Meatball – icons of American drag – take the stage with Roan.

But it all ultimately falls away by the end of the song. The inspiration for the performer, while stirring, is only fleeting.

Queer performance scholars have written widely on the utopic potentiality of performance: the concept of alternative, “better” worlds emerging and converging on the horizon of performance. These offer a breathing space, however fleeting, away from the stultifying and oppressive real world that awaits performers and audiences outside of venues.

Conjuring and enacting such utopias is a survival strategy for queer people and other marginalised individuals, especially those craving the relief of alternative worlds and improved possible futures that deny the homophobic and transphobic everyday realities that surround us.

It is the same kind of momentary escape Roan explores in Pink Pony Club.

Expanding the world of drag

Roan is also known to enact spiritual beings such as fairies and sprites.

Here is yet another potential of drag: the embodiment of non-gendered spiritual and ethereal beings, aliens, monsters and creatures, which move beyond obsessions of the gendered body.

The power of drag in freeing individuals to temporarily inhabit alternative and exaggerated genders and sexualities – even species – challenges rigid societal beliefs and expectations. Drag offers an opening, “where boys and girls can all be queens every single day”.

Drag can be a performance of the opposite gender, but it can also hold space for diverse performances of gender to be explored. Where all those living within, in-between and beyond the gender binary can engage in playful and powerful imaginative acts that offer a momentary escape into the utopic and euphoric.

Jonathan Graffam 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. Can a woman be a drag queen? Chappell Roan shows anyone of any gender can perform in drag – https://theconversation.com/can-a-woman-be-a-drag-queen-chappell-roan-shows-anyone-of-any-gender-can-perform-in-drag-233217

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine McCarthy, Senior Lecturer in Interior Architecture, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

There is a lot of good in Housing Minister Chris Bishop’s new housing policy – especially in relation to mixed-use developments and intensification along transit corridors. But he has also proposed the abolition of minimum floor area and balcony requirements.

Will removing minimum dwelling sizes result in poor quality housing? The short answer is yes.

The minister has justified the minimum requirements by arguing any apartment, regardless of the size, will be bigger than a car or an emergency motel room.

Of course, he’s right about this. For those vulnerable to homelessness and poor housing – the poor, immigrants, pensioners, students and ex-prisoners, for example – a warm, dry shelter is vital. Anything is better than nothing for those without.

But there are risks to removing size regulations, even when it is meant to help solve New Zealand’s long-running housing crisis.

Small can work

Small does not necessarily mean bad. As the United Nations has noted, smaller units are often more sustainable. Other factors also determine the quality of living spaces. Overcrowded conditions, for example, can make a perfectly liveable space unviable.

There are numerous examples of high-quality small and micro-apartments – usually defined as being 14–32 square metres (sqm).

Take, for example, PKMN Architecture’s La Casa de Yolanda (Madrid, 50 sqm), Graham Hill’s Life Edited Apartment (SoHo, New York City, 39 sqm), Tsai Design’s Type Street Apartment (Richmond, Australia, 33 sqm), Proctor and Shaw’s Shoji Apartment (North London, 29 sqm), Brad Swartz’s Darlinghurst Apartment (Sydney, 27 sqm), Takeshi Hosaka’s Love2 House (Tokyo, 18 sqm), and A Little Design’s Taiwanese studio (Taipei, 17.6 sqm).

But these are all architect-designed and expensive. They often use generous room heights to create a sense of spaciousness. On top of that, many require owners to have sufficient strength to move walls or unfold furniture to transform a room from, say, a bedroom into a living room.

That could be ideal for the proverbial young professional, living much of their lives outside their flat, or for the short-term rental market. But it doesn’t work as well for families or older people.

The fear of shoebox apartments

A lack of minimum regulations can also cause unintended consequences.

In Melbourne, loose regulations resulted in “saddleback bedrooms” – where long thin light corridors (or “snorkels”) were built to access the required external windows. Bedrooms became reliant on borrowed light from other rooms.

Using borrowed light is now banned there, and snorkels have restrictions.

Auckland’s late 20th century shoebox apartments were built as small as 12 sqm – smaller than many of the motel rooms Bishop uses to justify abandoning minimum dwelling sizes.

These apartments led to the introduction of New Zealand’s minimum size requirements in the early 2000s.

Existing protections

New Zealand’s building code requires “adequate” openings for natural light, with illuminance of no less than 30 lux at floor level (for 75% of the time) – 30 lux being the equivalent of the light from 30 candles.

Openings must be transparent, suitably located and provide awareness of the outside.

Councils have different, but often similar, requirements for interior spaces. For example, Wellington’s District Plan’s Residential Design Guide requires dwellings get at least four hours sun in the main living room during the winter.

All habitable rooms must have natural light, rooms must be large enough for furniture, and circulation and windows must be placed for privacy.

The guide also requires that sleeping areas are shielded from external noises. These safeguards will mean there is a minimum quality for new apartments even if they are small. But it will also require political will from local government to ensure these safeguards are mantained.

Building for future risks

The real question, though, is whether the new policy will protect New Zealand long term – when the full wrath of climate change hits, or during any lockdown when the inevitable next pandemic emerges.

New Zealand needs homes offering longevity and resilience, as well as compassion for when we are most vulnerable. Cramped spaces are not great for mental well-being.

Housing rules need to be cognisant of infrastructure needs for a changing climate and decades of network neglect. This will be a challenge. Under the proposed policy, councils will not be able to refuse a development on the grounds that infrastructure costs are too high.

So yes, these changes will undoubtedly increase housing supply – but we need to ask if these builds are fit for purpose. There needs to be a balance between the very real need for more houses on one hand, and the need to preserve adequate dwelling standards on the other.

Christine McCarthy 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. Size matters: why NZ’s new housing rules risk cheap builds and shoebox apartments – https://theconversation.com/size-matters-why-nzs-new-housing-rules-risk-cheap-builds-and-shoebox-apartments-234162

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor (Practice), Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Monash University

Violence against women has been declared a national crisis in Australia. National Cabinet convened its first ever meeting focused solely on the issue in May. Framed by its commitment to delivering the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children, state and federal governments have committed to an array of different policies.

Sexual violence has, however, received less attention from the media and in political commentary of late. Research released by the Australian Institute of Criminology overnight provides stark evidence for why we must not let combating sexual violence fall off the national agenda.

Shockingly, the study found one in five (22.1%) participants had perpetrated one or more forms of sexual violence against another person since the age of 18. One in ten (9.9%) had done so in the past 12 months.

The prevalence of sexual violence

The study, by the Australian Institute of Criminology, is one of the largest community surveys conducted in Australia to focus on sexual violence perpetration. It surveyed 5,076 Australian residents aged 18–45 years about their use of various forms of sexual violence.

The survey defined sexual violence broadly to include sexual harassment and coercion, sexual assault and image-based sexual abuse.

Within sexual harassment and coercion, one in ten (10.2%) participants reported pressuring someone for dates or sex since the age of 18. One in 20 (6%) reported using emotional or psychological manipulation to get someone to participate in sexual activity (for example, telling them they were a prude if they didn’t have sex).

Just over 4% of respondents reported pressuring someone to take drugs or alcohol before requesting sexual activity. Another 4% reported pressuring someone to participate in unprotected sexual activity.

The most common forms of self-reported sexual assault were non-consensual kissing (6.6%) and non-consensual touching (6.4%). Meanwhile, 2.5% of participants reported having perpetrated sexual intercourse without a victim’s consent since the age of 18, while 2.4% said they had perpetrated stealthing (non-consensual removal of a condom during sex) or related behaviours.

Some 3.3% of participants said they had perpetrated image-based sexual abuse. This was defined as recording, sharing or threatening to share intimate, nude or sexual images or videos of someone else without their consent.

The gendered nature of sexual violence

The study finds the perpetration of sexual violence in Australia is highly gendered. Men were significantly more likely than women to report using all forms of sexual violence, including among perpetrators of multiple forms of these behaviours.

There are specific gender differences that stand out. Men were almost twice as likely to pressure someone into drug and alcohol use before asking for sex. Men were three times as likely as women to have blackmailed someone into sex in the 12 months prior to the survey.

Men were also three times more likely than women to perpetrate image-based sexual abuse. Men were significantly more likely than women to have perpetrated multiple forms of sexual violence.

Aligning with recent calls for a greater focus on serial perpetrators of violence, the study found that among participants who had used any form of sexual violence, 28.9% had used multiple forms since the age of 18.

While these figures are shocking, the report’s authors also warn they are likely to be an underestimate of the true prevalence of sexual violence in Australia. Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than 500 survey participants refused to provide information about their use of sexually violent behaviours.

Why focus on perpetrators?

Until now, our understanding of the nature and extent of sexual violence in Australia has relied on self-reported data from victims.

Latest results from the Personal Safety Survey show one in five adult women and one in 15 adult men have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. While important, data from victims reveals little about the people who perpetrate sexual violence.

In recent years there have been calls for a greater understanding of who uses domestic, family and sexual violence. Research shows all forms of sexual violence are under-reported to police. Yet our understanding of perpetration relies almost solely on police and other justice system data.

There is a need for significantly improved understanding of who perpetrates sexual violence. This will inform effective responses, early intervention and prevention initiatives. This research partly addresses this gap.

What is needed now?

Perpetrator research is a difficult undertaking, particularly when asking about behaviours such as domestic, family and sexual violence. Social desirability bias means people may be unwilling to answer such questions truthfully for fear of making themselves look bad. Perpetrators can also deny or minimise their behaviours.

But we cannot effectively respond to and prevent what we do not measure. Sexual violence prevention programs and perpetrator interventions must be underpinned by an accurate understanding of the cohort being targeted and the nature of the abusive behaviours being used. This will maximise their likelihood of being effective in preventing future harm.

This study represents a step forward in furthering our understanding of sexual violence perpetration in Australia. However, we still need more detailed insights.

We need a better understanding of the characteristics of those who engage in multiple forms of sexual violence. We also need research on the nature of sexual violence within under-researched communities such as LGBTQIA+ and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

This is crucial for informing the current and future work of federal, state and territory governments in developing effective interventions for people who use sexual violence.

Kate has received funding for family violence related research from the Australian Research Council, Australian Institute of Criminology, Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, the Victorian, Queensland and ACT governments, and the Commonwealth Department of Social Services. This piece is written by Kate Fitz-Gibbon in her role at Monash University and is wholly independent of Kate Fitz-Gibbon’s role as Chair of Respect Victoria.

Hayley Boxall has received funding to undertake domestic and family violence research from the Australian National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, and the Queensland and ACT Governments.

– ref. New research shows 1 in 5 Australians have perpetrated sexual violence in their adult lives. The true rate might be even worse – https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-1-in-5-australians-have-perpetrated-sexual-violence-in-their-adult-lives-the-true-rate-might-be-even-worse-234271

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jamie Ferrill, Senior Lecturer in Financial Crime Studies, Charles Sturt University

Australia’s stable political and legal systems – and relatively resilient economy – make it an attractive place to do business.

But they also make it an alluring place for criminals to launder ill-gotten gains, heightened by the fact our anti-money laundering regulations are not up to par.

In a joint address to the National Press Club on Tuesday, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) chief executive Brendan Thomas jointly announced the release of two new national risk assessments on money laundering and terrorism financing in Australia.

This followed the closure of a second round of consultation on anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing reforms last month.

Dreyfus and Thomas painted a bleak picture of a country not only fraught with vulnerabilities to criminal activity and money laundering, but also lacking adequate controls to curb them.

What is money laundering?

Money laundering is the process of cleaning “dirty” money.

Dirty money typically refers to the proceeds of crime, which could include drug trafficking, tax fraud, corruption and bribery, or scams.

Money generated through crime typically can’t just be spent by the criminals involved. Simply depositing it in a bank would set off all kinds of alarms.

Criminals need to make it harder for authorities to trace it back to them, so they use a range of methods to launder it. Put simply, they attempt to make it seem like legitimate income.

This could be by buying real estate, funnelling funds through shell companies, depositing small amounts into various bank accounts, or gambling with it at casinos.

Today’s address highlighted that many of these money-laundering methods are often enabled by corrupt or unwitting professional service providers, including legal practitioners, accountants, consultants, trust and company service providers, financial advisers and real estate professionals.

These are known as “gatekeeper entities” because they act as intermediaries who can control access to certain services or information that criminals can use to launder money.

Regulations aren’t up to scratch

In Australia, these gatekeeper entities are not currently covered under the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime, making us one of only a few countries neglecting this huge vulnerability.

Coincidentally, on Tuesday, the global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing watchdog the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) also released a report reviewing gatekeepers’ “technical compliance related to corruption”.

Australia, China, and the United States all scored 0% on requirements to cover gatekeeper sectors, putting all three at the bottom of global rankings.

According to the report, in our case this is largely because:

In Australia, these sectors are required to implement none of the preventive measures that have been required by the FATF Standards since 2003.

A recipe for criminal exploitation

AUSTRAC’s risk assessment ranked domestic real estate, luxury goods, and cash (as both transfer and store of value) as “very high risk” channels or sectors for money laundering.

Accountants, lawyers, precious metals, and legal structures were all ranked “high risk”. These sectors could be playing a role in better controlling money laundering in Australia. Instead, they are currently passive, and sometimes active, enablers.

In rankings of proceed-generating crime threats, illicit drugs, tax and revenue crime, and government-funded program fraud were identified as the highest-risk. The proceeds of these crimes are known to be laundered. Careful laundering can allow criminals to keep using that money with impunity, fueling further crimes.

Bring those two sets of risk ratings together, and it’s clear Australia has both highly profitable criminal activity and a range of sectors highly vulnerable to money laundering abuse. That is a recipe for criminal exploitation.

There’s an appetite for change

The national risk assessments are out at a useful time. Tranche II reforms to update Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures are in progress. In the last budget, A$166.4 million was set aside to implement the necessary reforms.

Under these reforms, a wide range of gatekeeper businesses in Australia will be required to develop an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing program. Organisational risks will need to be assessed. Suspicious transactions will need to be reported. Awareness and education about money laundering through these legal channels will undoubtedly result.

The national risk assessments were a significant undertaking by AUSTRAC. They provide an evidence-base for the money laundering and terrorism financing risks we face in Australia.

As noted by AUSTRAC chief executive Brendan Thomas, Australia’s strong business sector is appealing to both legitimate and illegitimate business. Criminals are good at exploiting weaknesses, so the controls to slow them must be stronger.

An effective anti-money laundering regime is the best tool we can have to control flows of dirty money. While we will never completely eradicate it, we can certainly do a better job of detecting, deterring, and preventing the abuse of legal channels in Australia.

Our government has had 17 years since passing the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act to bring the legislation up to the minimum standards set by the global Financial Action Task Force. So far, it has failed to deliver. Not only does this leave gaping holes for criminals to exploit, but it also means we are not collecting data on suspicious transactions within these gatekeeper industries.

Read more:
Australia is awash with dirty money – here’s how to close the money-laundering loopholes

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

– ref. Australia’s professional services sector is being used to launder money. It’s time for tougher laws – https://theconversation.com/australias-professional-services-sector-is-being-used-to-launder-money-its-time-for-tougher-laws-234278

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney

Since early 2023, the Northern Territory and federal governments have been trialling a range of social control measures in Alice Springs (Mparntwe) to address moral panics in relation to youth crime.

The initial focus was on reinstating restrictive alcohol laws in Aboriginal communities, then more police and funding for prisons, and now curfews.

Yesterday, the NT Police Commissioner announced a snap three-day curfew following violent incidents, including off-duty police officers being assaulted.

But there’s little evidence to suggest it will work, either to drive down violent behaviour or to protect the public.

Curfew fears realised

In January 2023, trailblazing Arrernte midwife Cherisse Buzzacott saw the writing on the wall. She said, “We fear curfews”. Cherisse grew up during the NT Intervention years and knows what it is like to be an Aboriginal young person surveilled by police and subject to racially discriminatory laws.

Barely a year on from her comments, these fears were realised. In March 2024, the NT government announced a two-week curfew to ban young people from the Alice Springs CBD between 6pm and 6am. This was then extended by a further week.

Following advice from the NT Police, the territory government granted powers under the Police Administration Act to declare 72-hour curfews when the police commissioner reasonably believes there is public disorder or a significant risk of it. The commissioner can also request an extension of up to seven days.

Unlike the previous curfew, the new legislation allows for criminal penalties. Non-compliance with curfew orders is a “strict liability” criminal offence, which means even if the person honestly believes they are complying, they will be criminalised. The maximum penalty is a fine of A$1,480.

The NT government suspended the Anti-Discriminatory Act 1992 to enable the enforcement of curfews. This raises a red flag about its potential discriminatory impacts, even though the laws are ostensibly neutral.

The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Association (NAAJA) has raised concerns about police targeting Aboriginal young people in the enforcement of curfews, and described the curfews as “racist lockdown laws”.

History of curfews, here and abroad

Curfews are not a new government strategy. They have been deployed for decades to restrict the movement and liberties of Aboriginal people in Australia. Curfews were enabled by the Aboriginal Protection Acts – a legislative regime that controlled and segregated Aboriginal people.

In the NT, Aboriginal people were barred from entering Alice Springs between sunset and sunrise from 1928 to 1964. In Western Australia, curfew laws were passed in 1905 that barred Noongar people from central Perth after 6pm. There were also 9pm curfews on Aboriginal reserves in Queensland.

More recently in Redfern and surrounding areas in Sydney in the 1960s and ‘70s, police enforced nightly 10pm curfews on Aboriginal people. The same strategy had been used for slaves across the colonies, including in the United States.

Do curfews increase safety?

The most rigorous studies in relation to curfews have been undertaken in relation to youth curfews in the US. One study in 1994 showed 77% of large US cities having a curfew policy, and another in 1997 indicated it was as high as 80%.

Studies of these curfews have repeatedly found that they do not reduce crime. US curfews have been imposed on the assumption that restricting young peoples’ hours in public will “limit their opportunities to commit crimes or become victims”, but this objective has not been realised.

A 2016 review of ten studies on the impact of youth curfews in the US since 1960 found they were ineffective in reducing criminal behaviour and victimisation among youth.

In fact, young people were slightly more likely to commit crime during the curfew hours, compared to the hours when the curfew was not imposed.

Similarly, victimisation rates were not affected by the curfew. A contemporaneous study of the tightening of Baltimore’s youth curfew laws found it “did not have the desired effect of reducing juvenile crime during curfew hours”, but did have the effect of increasing arrests of young people. Another review in 2018 found the basis for curfews lacked “empirical” evidence.

Studies in relation to particular offences, such as knife crimes, also found curfews did not have a significant impact.

There do not appear to be similar studies on whole-of-population curfews, which is occurring in relation to the Alice Springs curfew. This type of curfew appears unprecedented in its extension to adults.

However, it is likely to manifest in a similar way to the curfews that sought to control Aboriginal people. From the experience in Redfern, the overwhelming consequence was an increase in police charges, arrests and violence.

What are the risks?

In Alice Springs, there are risks for particular groups that are unable to comply with curfew orders. The NT has the highest homeless population in the country, and people who are unable to find shelter outside of the town are likely to be subject to law enforcement.

Young people who are in the child protection system are also likely to walk the streets at night due to neglect by state agencies, as exposed in the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory. In addition, people with mental health and trauma needs may be unable to comply with the curfew requirements.

The curfew approach has high risks for little proven gain. After almost 20 years of top-down punitive interventions in NT Aboriginal communities, since the NT Emergency Response was rolled out in 2007, it is time to critically reflect on this track record.

The response to the colonial curfews in Alice Springs in the early 20th century was to build Alice Springs town camps that would restrict Aboriginal movement into the CBD after hours. This new curfew policy is repeating a process that has not changed.

At a time when the NT police is facing intense scrutiny and accusations of a culture of racism, handing executive powers to the NT Police Commissioner to declare curfews is unlikely to improve community safety and may likely increase community tensions.

Thalia Anthony receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Juanita Sherwood 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. Alice Springs is under a snap curfew. But where’s the evidence it will actually work to reduce violence? – https://theconversation.com/alice-springs-is-under-a-snap-curfew-but-wheres-the-evidence-it-will-actually-work-to-reduce-violence-234267

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edward Narayan, Senior Lecturer in Animal Science, The University of Queensland

A popular wildlife park in Brisbane has announced it will no longer offer “koala holds”, prompting questions about whether other captive animal facilities should follow.

Koala handling has long been criticised by animal welfare advocates. They say koalas are naturally solitary, nocturnal animals that become stressed when placed in close proximity to humans – so hugging them is “completely unacceptable”.

I study stress in animals, particularly marsupials – and I can confirm koala cuddles are detrimental to these animals.

There’s a compelling evidenced-based argument for other zoos and wildlife parks to reassess their policies on koala handling. I would also argue this review should be extended to other human-animal interactions more broadly. The zoological industry should go further and call for the practice to be banned nationwide.

Research into koala handling and stress

The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary ended koala cuddles on July 1. It denies animal welfare concerns prompted its decision.

Instead, the sanctuary says the move was triggered by “strong visitor feedback” from people wishing to spend more time with koalas, without necessarily holding them. Management says both local and international guests still want to get “up close”, just not so personal.

Regardless of the motivation, public attitudes to animal welfare are shifting around how animals should be treated, and whether endangered species such as koalas should be kept in captivity at all.

Research shows chronic stress in captivity can cause physiological problems such as weight loss, changes to the immune system, and decreased reproductive capacity.

Koalas naturally avoid humans in the wild. They see people and other animals as a threat.

The simple presence of tourists walking through their habitat can elevate a koala’s heart rate.

Levels of the stress hormone cortisol can increase both during and after handling sessions in adult koalas, although this stress response varies depending on gender and reproductive status.

Male koalas are more stressed to begin with. This may be because they are highly territorial. Interacting with people could disturb their sex drive, with unfortunate consequences for koala breeding programs.

Koalas are nocturnal in the wild, but in zoos they are displayed during daytime. This may disturb their sleep when they are on a break.

Humans also wear fragrances that could be irritating, given koalas have highly sensitive noses.

All these sources of stress add up over time. We know chronic stress has long-term effects on health and wellbeing in humans and animals. Some animals are particularly prone to stress in captivity.

Broader implications for wildlife in zoos

Australia’s Zoo & Aquarium Association says it strongly supports the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary’s new position for koala experiences. In a statement, it said the decision

will address the desires of visitors to see koalas in their natural state while still providing the immersive, unforgettable, and educational experiences that drive conservation engagement in ZAA-accredited institutions.

Caring for animals goes beyond providing food, water and a place to live. It taps into the deeper cognitive and emotional dimensions of how wildlife relate to their environment, especially the presence of humans.

Accredited zoos employ well-trained and skilled professionals to take care of animals. But not all animals are suited to interactions with visitors.

For example, a study on cheetahs in captivity found stress from handling and other human interactions was linked to lower reproductive rates and higher instances of illness.

All animals can experience some form of discomfort when handled. However, zoo animals are handled by trained professionals and provided appropriate rest breaks.

Extra care should be taken when handling birds such as parrots and raptors, as they also suffer from stress and behavioural disruptions due to handling.

Reptiles, including snakes and lizards, are more resilient but stress can disrupt thermoregulation and feeding. Amphibians such as frogs and salamanders are particularly sensitive due to their permeable skin, making handling more risky. Large carnivores and primates can experience psychological stress and behavioural issues from human interactions.

Alternative approaches

Zoos balance animal welfare against the need to engage the public. People want to interact with wildlife and there are many ways to achieve this, aside from visitors handling the animals. They include:

Observation-based experiences: zoos can offer guided tours and observation experiences where visitors can learn about animals in a more natural setting. This can include watching feeding sessions, enrichment activities and natural behaviours from a safe distance.

Interactive technology: augmented reality and virtual reality can provide immersive experiences that allow visitors to feel close to the animals without physical interaction. These technologies can simulate close encounters and provide educational content in a captivating manner.

Educational programs: zoos can enhance educational programs by incorporating more talks, demonstrations and interactive exhibits that focus on animal behaviour, conservation and the importance of respecting wildlife.

Volunteer opportunities: For those keen on a more hands-on experience, zoos can offer volunteer programs where participants can assist with habitat maintenance, animal enrichment and other behind-the-scenes activities that do not involve direct handling.

A big act to follow

One wildlife park’s decision to cease offering koala cuddles is a huge step in the right direction. It reflects a growing recognition of the need to prioritise animal welfare in a zoo setting.

Research consistently shows handling can cause significant stress to koalas and other wildlife, leading to adverse health effects. As stewards of conservation and education, zoos must balance visitor engagement with the ethical treatment of animals.

By adopting alternative approaches that minimise stress and promote natural behaviours, zoos can continue to educate the public and foster a deeper appreciation for wildlife – without compromising the wellbeing of the animals in their care.

Balancing tourism and animal welfare involves species-specific handling policies, proper training, and alternative engagement methods. Educating visitors about the importance of animal welfare can help reduce the demand for direct handling. While outright bans may not be necessary, minimising handling and employing ethical practices are crucial for ensuring animal welfare in captivity.

Edward Narayan 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. A wildlife park has scrapped koala cuddles. Is it time for a blanket ban? – https://theconversation.com/a-wildlife-park-has-scrapped-koala-cuddles-is-it-time-for-a-blanket-ban-234098

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jade Cartwright, Associate Professor, School of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania

Australian celebrity cook Maggie Beer has long been an advocate for better quality meals in aged care. It led her to a four-month immersion in an aged care residence with the goal of transforming the meals and dining experiences there.

She and the producers of a three-part ABC documentary series, Maggie Beer’s Big Mission, which will premiere and stream from tonight, hope it will spark nationwide change.

The program was motivated by the high levels of neglect, malnutrition and social isolation identified by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and a new rights-based Aged Care Act, which is currently being drafted.

Our team of speech pathologists, occupational therapists, dietitians, and researchers had a behind-the-scenes view of this “social experiment”. We helped evaluate its impact for residents and staff, to understand how other centres could use the same evidence-based approach.

Read more:
Serving up choice and dignity in aged care – how meals are enjoyed is about more than what’s on the plate

Turning problems into solutions

The experiment took place a section of Meath Care’s Dr Mary Surveyor Centre in Kingsley, Western Australia, home to 44 residents.

At the start of the experiment 78% of residents evaluated were at risk of malnutrition or malnourished and 46% experienced depression. These figures are confronting yet not unusual based on previous studies and the Royal Commission estimate that 68% of Australians in residential aged care are malnourished or at risk of becoming so.

Maggie, aged 79, and her team of experts worked alongside staff and residents to design and implement a new model of mealtime care. This included:

• making meals more nourishing, flavoursome and visually appealing, with increased protein and fresh ingredients
• giving residents variety, choice and independence with a buffet-style offering
• involving residents in mealtime roles such as setting tables and restocking supplies
• creating a calmer, more dignified and social mealtime experience.

These sound like simple changes, but they can be challenging given budget adjustments, physical renovations and staff training and support. Resident and staff responses revealed a pathway to better nutrition and socially engaging care.

Here’s what the experiment showed can work:

1. Influential leadership

Maggie Beer has championed this issue, modelling humility and openness to learning. She fronted a team with a shared vision – “to make every mouthful count”.

She shows leaders can work alongside staff to understand the challenges and identify solutions, share accountability for change and celebrate success.

2. Questioning habits and the status quo

Just because meals have always been prepared or served in a certain way, doesn’t mean it’s the best way. Standards of care can be re-imagined and the evidence translated into resident-centred care.

What the program shows is small changes (like making one’s own fresh toast, served hot) can make a difference to choice and mealtime enjoyment.

It also means being flexible enough for different needs and safety considerations. For example, texture modified diets – food textures that improve safety for residents with swallowing difficulties – can be hard to get right. But that doesn’t mean change can’t happen. As one senior staff member noted, there is dignity in having the same meal as others:

Traditionally, the aged care puree diet would be yesterday’s food or batch prepared and put in the freezer. Now, having the same food cooked out of the same oven and then modified, for me, I think that runs to dignity.

3. Experiencing change

Maggie and her team provided more than 175 hours of training to staff. Topics included nutrition, swallowing, oral health, as well as leadership and person-centred care.

Coaching, mentorship and support in the kitchen and dining room was also provided.

Staff valued seeing, feeling and experiencing the benefits that flowed from new ways of facilitating residents’ choice and independence during meals. This built momentum and shifted mindsets. As one care worker said:

[…] you don’t realise how independent some people [residents] can be. They’ve never had the opportunity. They never cease to amaze me about what they can do if they’re given the opportunity.

4. Harnessing mealtime expertise

We know there is not enough access to allied health care in residential settings. This means residents don’t always get the support of occupational therapists, dietitians or speech pathologists when they need it.

The series shows bringing allied health expertise into the dining room can enhance residents’ health and wellbeing. Mealtime interventions – making therapeutic changes such as suitable eating implements, modified diets and textures or assistance with eating in a real-life context – helps care staff see the residents’ potential.

5. Keeping the model going

The program and the changes it brought were not without tension. But these were viewed as a positive sign of change.

As part of the recipe for change it is important to set staff up for success, providing the knowledge, tools (such as self-assessments and mealtime auditing) and ongoing support to sustain change and recognise if the quality of meals and dining experiences are slipping. As one team leader said:

I’m probably most proud of the way the staff have been able to adapt […] I’m proud of how they’ve stood up and said, oh, hang on a minute, we’ve all learned that this is not a really good way of doing it.

Will it work on a bigger scale?

This real-life experiment successsfully improved residents’ appetite, mealtime satisfaction and mood, with full results being prepared for publication.

The standard of mealtime care was lifted with many residents enjoying increased choice and independence, as one resident said:

I can see what I’m getting, and I can get what I want.

It is a model that can be adopted nationwide if aged care organisations invest in the vision, training and ongoing support for staff to make the necessary change.

Tools have been created for other aged care organisations to replicate the model, considering self-service options for example.

We all have a role to play in supporting this mission and lifting the standard of care – ensuring residents are nourished, socially engaged and active partners in their care.

Jade Cartwright has previously received funding to Curtin University from Catholic Homes Inc and Villa Maria Catholic Homes to evaluate mealtime models of care in aged care settings. She was one of Maggie Beer’s team of experts during the ABC series featured in this article.

Anne Whitworth has previously received funding to Curtin University from Catholic Homes Inc and Villa Maria Catholic Homes to evaluate mealtime models of care in aged care settings. She was consulted during the production of the ABC series featured in this article.

Elizabeth Oliver is the founder of Memory Box Collective which consults to aged care organisations. Elizabeth previously received funding to Curtin University to evaluate mealtime models of care in aged care settings from Catholic Homes Inc and Villa Maria Catholic Homes. She was one of Maggie Beer’s team of experts during the ABC series featured in this article.

Lynette R. Goldberg has received funding related to older people at-risk for poor nutrition from the NHMRC/National Institute for Dementia Research (NNIDR) Dementia Collaborative Research Centre; Tasmanian Community Fund; Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation. She currently receives MRFF funding related to culturally respectful and safe care for Aboriginal people with dementia. She was consulted during the production of the ABC series featured in this article.

– ref. Maggie Beer’s aged care eating mission is feel-good TV – but is it a recipe for real change? – https://theconversation.com/maggie-beers-aged-care-eating-mission-is-feel-good-tv-but-is-it-a-recipe-for-real-change-230556

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya Hill, Senior Curator (Astronomy), Museums Victoria and Honorary Fellow at University of Melbourne, Museums Victoria Research Institute

Any night now, a “new star” or nova will appear in the night sky. While it won’t set the sky ablaze, it’s a special opportunity to see a rare event that’s usually difficult to predict in advance.

The star in question is T Coronae Borealis (T CrB, pronounced “T Cor Bor”). It lies in the constellation of the northern crown, prominent in the Northern Hemisphere but also visible in the northern sky from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand over the next few months.

Most of the time T CrB, which is 3,000 light years away, is much too faint to be seen. But once every 80 years or so, it brightly erupts.

A brand new star suddenly seems to appear, although not for long. Just a few nights later it will have rapidly faded, disappearing back into the darkness.

A burst of life

During the prime of their lives, stars are powered by nuclear fusion reactions deep inside their cores. Most commonly, hydrogen is turned into helium creating enough energy to keep the star stable and shining for billions of years.

But T CrB is well past its prime and is now a stellar remnant known as a white dwarf. Its internal nuclear fire has been quenched, allowing gravity to dramatically compress the dead star.

T CrB also has a stellar companion – a red giant that has puffed up as it enters old age. The white dwarf mops up the swollen red giant’s gas, and this forms what’s known as an accretion disc around the dead star.

The matter keeps piling up on a star that’s already compressed to its limit, forcing a continual rise in pressure and temperature. Conditions become so extreme, they mimic what once would’ve been found inside the star’s core. Its surface ignites in a runaway thermonuclear reaction.

When this happens, the energy released makes T CrB shine 1,500 times brighter than usual. Here on Earth, it briefly appears in the night sky. With this dramatic reset, the star has then expelled the gas and the cycle can begin all over again.

How do we know it’s due?

T CrB is the brightest of a rare class of recurrent novae that repeat within a hundred years – a time scale that allows astronomers to detect their recurrent nature.

Only ten recurrent novae are currently known, although more novae may be recurrent – just on much greater timescales that aren’t as easily tracked.

The earliest known date of T CrB erupting is from the year 1217, based on observations recorded in a medieval monastic chronicle. It’s remarkable that astronomers can now predict its eruptions so precisely as long as the nova follows its usual pattern.

The star’s two most recent eruptions – in 1866 and 1946 – showed the exact same features. About ten years prior to the eruption, T CrB’s brightness increased a little (known as a high state) followed by a short fading or dip about a year out from the explosion.

T CrB entered its high state in 2015 and the pre-eruption dip was spotted in March 2023, setting astronomers on alert. What causes these phenomena are just some of the current mysteries surrounding T CrB.

How can I see it?

Start stargazing now! It’s a good idea to get used to seeing Corona Borealis as it is now, so that you get the full impact of the “new” star.

Corona Borealis currently reaches its best observing position (known as a meridian transit) around 8:30pm to 9pm local time across Australia and Aotearoa. The farther north you are located, the higher the constellation will be in the sky.

The nova is expected to be a reasonable brightness (magnitude 2.5): about as bright as Imai (Delta Crucis), the fourth brightest star in the Southern Cross. So it will be easy to see even from a city location, if you know where to look.

We won’t have much time

We won’t have long once it goes off. The maximum brightness will only last a few hours; within a week T CrB will have faded and you’ll need binoculars to see it.

It almost certainly will be an amateur astronomer that alerts the professional community to the moment when T CrB outbursts.

These dedicated and knowledgeable people routinely monitor stars from their backyards on the chance of “what if” and therefore fill an important gap in night sky observations.

The American Association of Variable Star Observing (AAVSO) has a log of over 270,000 submitted observations on T CrB alone. Amateur astronomers are collaborating here and around the world to continually monitor T CrB for the first signs of eruption.

Hopefully the nova will erupt as expected sometime before October, because after that Corona Borealis leaves our evening sky in the Southern Hemisphere.

Amanda Karakas receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Tanya 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. Look up! A once-in-a-lifetime explosion is about to create a ‘new’ star in the sky – https://theconversation.com/look-up-a-once-in-a-lifetime-explosion-is-about-to-create-a-new-star-in-the-sky-233884

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Baka, Honorary Professor, School of Kinesiology, Western University, London, Canada; Adjunct Fellow, Olympic Scholar and Co-Director of the Olympic and Paralympic Research Centre, Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University

After two COVID-affected Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 (summer) and Beijing in 2022 (winter), the Paris Games should see a return to normalcy.

With no health-related restrictions, tourists and spectators will be there in droves. Athletes will be able to mix in the city rather than stay locked down in the Olympic Village.

The City of Lights promises plenty to do and a buzzing atmosphere. There will be 32 sports and 329 events taking place, several large fan zones and numerous tourist sites in this enchanting and famous world-class city.

Hospitality is guaranteed to be in full swing, accentuated by French “joi de vivre”.

So, what lessons can Brisbane learn eight years ahead of hosting the 2032 Games?

Getting ready for Brisbane

Brisbane will have its challenges trying to emulate Paris but has the potential to bring a distinctive “Aussie slant” to the Olympics.

Here are some of the changes that may take place.

New Sports: Breakdancing will be a new addition in Paris. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) sets out policies and guidelines that determine which sports can be added to the portfolio.

However, a host city’s organising committee can recommend new sports to be approved for their games. Under this arrangement, the Los Angeles games added squash, flag football, lacrosse, cricket and baseball/softball to the existing 27 core sports.

Brisbane can have the same influence and is likely to keep most of the 2028 additions and may look to add sports such as surf lifesaving, coastal rowing, netball, lawn bowls or even pickleball.

An Enhanced Spectator Experience: About 10 million tickets will be available in Paris for spectators who have been provided with designated mobile applications and (online) information links.

There are lots of special hospitality options including sites at Nations Park, Champions Park as well as 33 “party houses” the public can visit either free or at a modest cost – usually a lot less than sport tickets.

Most of these venues have been set up by countries’ National Olympic Committees but there are others like Pride House and one called the AICO House for Olympic Collectors.

Surprisingly, Australia does not have an Olympic House, an omission that could change for future Olympics.

Tourism Boost: The 2024 Paris games are set to increase tourism spending by up to A$6.5 billion. Likewise, the Brisbane games can deliver a similar boost for Australia – currently ranked the fifth best tourism destination in the world.

TV/Media Initiatives: There will be unprecedented television, streaming and media coverage of the Paris games around the globe. It will likely set records as the most viewed Olympics of all time. This could expand further by 2032 with creative new platforms and ways to follow the events.

Opening Ceremonies: Paris is planning unique opening ceremonies, initially using the Seine River for a 90+ boat cavalcade with up to 300,000 spectators able to watch. It will then move to the Trocadero where the remaining elements of the Olympic protocol take place.

Depending on how well this is received, the Brisbane River is a possibility to be used in a similar vein.

Security, Terrorism, Cyber Hacking, Water Pollution, Social and Political Unrest: How will the French handle a host of key issues which threaten to disrupt or ruin the event?

As France sits in the busy European corridor, and with nearby international problems in the Ukraine and Gaza, there could be major security issues.

Even though Australia is a remote island continent far removed from current hot spots, new problems could emerge by 2032.

Extreme Weather Conditions: Extreme heat, which has been predicted for Paris in a Rings of Fire Report, can lead to schedule problems and athlete health concerns. In contrast, the Brisbane games will take place in the Australian winter months, which are not traditionally affected by extremely hot temperatures, excessive rain, storms or cyclones.

Doping Issues and Controversies: Although there will be strict drug testing in Paris, athletes may still get caught cheating and consequently banned. This might even occur post-games as test protocols get more sophisticated.

A current controversy highlights this – Chinese athletes who were not banned at the Tokyo 2021 games by the World Anti-Doping Agency after testing positive before those games commenced.

Doping remains a thorn in the side for upcoming Olympics, including Brisbane in 2032.

Banned Olympic Countries and Cyber Hacking Retaliation: For Paris, Russia and Belarus cannot send their national teams except as individual neutral athletes (with no flags or marching in the ceremonies).

There are strong indications Russia may retaliate and engage in cyber hacking at the 2024 games.

What will be the case a long eight years from now? Could there still be bans on certain nations and cyber issues Brisbane organisers will need to deal with?

Iconic Venues with Tradition and History: Paris is using many iconic venues such as beach volleyball being held near the Eiffel Tower and equestrian at the Palace of Versailles.

Brisbane can try to create an Aussie theme emphasising a “sun and beach culture”. With both the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast serving as regional sites, the Sunshine State can promote this as a distinctive feature.

Aussie Success at the Summer Games: As a very successful Olympic nation (11th overall), predictions are for Australia to finish fifth on the medal table in Paris with around 50 medals.

Host nations improve in the vast majority of cases on previous games so by 2032 Australia could reach third place, tying the best ever placement achieved in Melbourne in 1956.

The current state of play for the Brisbane games

Planning is well under way for the 2032 games with the establishment of the Brisbane Organising Committee for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games as well as the Brisbane 2032 Coordination Office. The vast majority of sport venues, the four athletes’ villages and transport upgrades have also been confirmed.

One hiccup is a disagreement over the decision not to build a new state-of-the-art stadium, and instead use existing ones. This decision was made by the Queensland government and endorsed by the IOC and the AOC.

An October 2024 state election could see this situation change as several proponents are keen to have a new stadium.

Most Queenslanders remain in favour of hosting the games but others have expressed concerns about the event’s impact on finances, infrastructure and daily life.

With eight years to go, there is plenty of time to sort out issues and also take lessons from the Paris games, as well as Los Angeles four years later.

Both Melbourne in 1956 (often referred to as the “Friendly Games”) and Sydney in 2000 (labelled the best Games ever by then IOC President Juan Samaranch) hosted extremely successful Olympics.

Brisbane should be aiming to follow suit.

H. Björn Galjaardt is a PhD Candidate in Olympic Coaches’ Learning at the University of Queensland and a casual academic in Sports Coaching subjects.

Richard Baka 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. From challenges to innovations, what lessons can Brisbane learn from the Paris Olympics? – https://theconversation.com/from-challenges-to-innovations-what-lessons-can-brisbane-learn-from-the-paris-olympics-228496

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bjorn Sturmberg, Senior Research Fellow, Battery Storage & Grid Integration Program, Australian National University

Electric vehicles are an increasingly common sight on Australian roads. Each one cuts carbon emissions by half compared to fossil fuel vehicles, but increases household electricity use by 50%.

This extra electricity demand could be a major strain on the grid unless the charging of vehicles is coordinated. But the large batteries in electric vehicles could also be enlisted to discharge power to the power grid when needed. The average electric vehicle battery stores more than two days worth of household electricity, so this could have a big effect.

Over the past five years I’ve been a part of the Realising Electric Vehicle-to-grid Services (REVS) project to establish the technology to do this in Australia.

This project utilised 50 ACT government-owned Nissan LEAF electric vehicles and chargers across Canberra. Another project partner, JET Charge, set up the chargers to monitor the state of the electricity system. Electricity retailer ActewAGL programmed the chargers to discharge short bursts of power to the national grid on the rare occasions it rapidly loses power generation.

Such a grid emergency happened on February 13 this year. A storm blew over high-voltage transmission towers west of Melbourne, triggering the disconnection of Loy Yang coal power station and two wind farms.

The results of this real-world test prove a vehicle-to-grid system can work. The vehicles quickly discharged power when the generators disconnected. However, the results also highlight the need to be smarter about how all electric vehicles charge, especially during such emergencies.

Vehicle discharging to the rescue

At the time of the event, around 1pm, 16 electric vehicles from our fleet were plugged in to chargers at six properties across Canberra. Four vehicles were charging, 12 were idle.

When the power generators disconnected, that created an immediate shortage of power supply in the national grid.

The chart shows how the 16 vehicle-to-grid-enabled vehicles responded. They quickly switched from charging to discharging power into the grid, as our system set them up to do.

In total, the 16 vehicles provided 107kW of support to the grid. This was the first time in the world such a vehicle-to-grid response to a grid emergency has been demonstrated.

For context, we would need only 105,000 vehicles providing such a response to fully cover the typical spare capacity in the NSW and ACT system used to balance supply and demand when an unexpected event occurs. We already have more than 200,000 electric vehicles on Australian roads. Of these, 98,436 new electric vehicles were sold last year and more than 40,000 in the past five months.

The REVS vehicles kept discharging for ten minutes. This is in line with the electricity market rules, which specify that devices should respond for ten minutes.

What came next is a warning that more needs to be done to manage electric vehicle charging.

Timing makes all the difference

The growing demand for vehicle charging raises the question: how can we manage charging to meet the needs of both drivers and the electricity system?

Part of the answer is to manage the rate and timing of charging. The grid won’t be able to cope with everyone charging their vehicles at the same time when they get home of an evening.

And grid security and disconnected customers don’t benefit from vehicles charging when there’s not enough power to supply all customers.

In February, once the vehicles had discharged power for ten minutes, nine vehicles started charging. This is because their default behaviour is to charge when their batteries are below a certain level. It’s the last thing the power system needs while trying to stabilise.

The six vehicles that switched to an idle state after ten minutes must have still had enough energy in their batteries. That one vehicle kept discharging for ten more minutes was due to a software bug.

What’s more, when we looked at data from other ACT government vehicles parked in these properties, we found 23 were charging throughout the event. Again this directly obstructs power system recovery.

There would have been absolutely no inconvenience or cost for the vehicles to delay charging for an hour or two.

Stopping 6,000 vehicles charging (at 5kW) could have kept the power on for the 90,000 customers whose power was cut that afternoon. However, electric vehicles in Australia have not been set up to respond to grid emergencies.

Securing the grid in an all-electric future

Electrifying our homes’ stoves, vehicles, space and water heaters is essential for the transition to a zero-emissions future. But we need to better design how all these devices interact with the electricity system that powers them.

Devices that aren’t needed urgently should not use power when the grid is stressed. Instead, they should use power when there is ample renewable supply.

Our results show vehicle-to-grid can be a powerful contributor to power system security. At the same time, they highlight the need to make better use of any available flexibility in the timing of when certain appliances use power.

Electric vehicle charging is the largest opportunity but electric hot water heaters could also make a big contribution without causing inconvenience. These vehicles and heaters offer exceptionally efficient and effective ways to create a more resilient and clean electricity system.

For vehicles, our related research indicates that better engaging the auto industry is a crucial missing link. Car salespeople and fleet managers introduce drivers to electric vehicles and shape their expectations of how these vehicles are to be used.

Approaching the issue from the auto side, we could update the Australian Design Rules to require that vehicle manufacturers make electric vehicles stop charging automatically during a grid emergency (with a driver override for urgent charging).

Bjorn Sturmberg received funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (grant number 2019/ARP061). The views expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency or Australian Government.

– ref. When transmission lines fell, 16 electric vehicles fed power into the grid. It showed electric vehicles can provide the backup Australia needs – https://theconversation.com/when-transmission-lines-fell-16-electric-vehicles-fed-power-into-the-grid-it-showed-electric-vehicles-can-provide-the-backup-australia-needs-230673

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yassine Souilmi, Group Leader, Genomics and Bioinformatics, Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, University of Adelaide

For at least 3,500 years, dingoes have been Australia’s top terrestrial predator. And in current times, they are one of the continent’s most iconic but controversial animals. Dingoes hold significant cultural value, including a long connection with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Dingoes also play a crucial ecological role, helping to regulate the population of native animals such as kangaroos, and feral animals such as rabbits and cats.

However, while dingoes are protected in some national parks, in many areas they are persecuted and commonly killed.

Our ability to trace the origins, arrival and history of the dingo has been limited by potential interbreeding with introduced modern dog breeds since the British invasion.

Our team used ancient DNA sourced from dingo bones predating the European invasion of Australia’s east and west coasts to help answer all of these questions. Our study is now published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Turning back the clock

To circumvent the ambiguity introduced by any potential interbreeding between dingoes and modern dog breeds, our team collected 42 ancient dingo skeletal remains. Our collection included dingoes ranging in age from 400 to 2,746 years from all around Australia.

We successfully extracted ancient DNA from these skeletal remains, effectively rolling back the clock to take a rare glimpse into the genetic makeup of dingoes in the past, free from any modern dog interbreeding.

By examining these ancient genomes, we can trace the lineage of dingoes back thousands of years and understand how their populations have changed over time.

Two groups of dingoes

Modern dingoes are classified today into two major geographical groups, East and West.

How did this grouping arise? One theory has been that the groups were separated by the dingo fence built in the late 19th to mid-20th century. It divides the southeast of the continent from the rest.

However, our study of ancient genomes shows that genetic differences between the East and West groups emerged well before the European invasion.

This suggests dingoes adapted to their environments and formed separate populations in different regions of Australia thousands of years ago, highlighting the resilience and adaptability of dingoes in various Australian landscapes.

An unlikely link with New Guinea

To our surprise, we uncovered an unlikely genetic connection between ancient dingoes from coastal New South Wales and the endangered New Guinea singing dogs.

New Guinea singing dogs are wild roaming dogs, currently only found in small numbers in New Guinea’s highlands. They are known for their melodious howls. They are the closest known relative of dingoes, and look similar to them.

Our study suggests at least one wave of migration between New Guinea singing dogs and dingoes roughly 2,500 years ago, at least a thousand years after dingoes arrived in Australia.

Given the length of the sea crossing from New Guinea to Australia, dingoes must have moved with human populations as companion animals, likely during trade.

This genetic link with New Guinea singing dogs confirms evidence for regional movement of humans provided by recent finds of pottery of similar age from New South Wales and far north Queensland.

Little mixing with modern dogs

Contrary to previous concerns, our tests showed modern dingoes have retained much of their ancient genetic makeup, with little genomic ancestry from post-colonial interbreeding with domestic dog breeds.

This finding highlights the importance of populations protected in national parks, such as the iconic “Wongari” population of K’gari (briefly named Fraser Island in post-colonial times), which was represented by three individuals in our study. The ongoing culling of dingoes in much of Australia makes this protection even more important.

Read more:
New DNA testing shatters ‘wild dog’ myth: most dingoes are pure

By providing a clearer understanding of the genetic heritage and population history of dingoes, our research supports efforts to preserve the ecological role and cultural significance of these animals in Australia.

Our study confirms that modern dingoes remain genetically distinct and preserve their ancient heritage. They are crucial for the conservation and management of dingo populations.

Yassine Souilmi receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Academy of Science, the Environment Institute at the University of Adelaide, and was previously supported by the Australian Research Council. Yassine Souilmi holds affiliations with The Telethon Kids Institute, the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, the Australian National University, and Copenhagen University.

Gabriel Conroy receives funding from the Department of Environment and Science, the Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment, Transport NSW and Sunshine Coast Regional Council. He is affiliated with the K’gari World Heritage Advisory Committee and the Glossy Black Conservancy.

Jane Balme receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is affiliated with the University of Western Austtralia.

Sally Wasef receives funding from the Environmental Futures Research Institute Strategic Leverage Fund, Griffith University. She is affiliated with Forensic Science Queensland, Queensland Health and Queensland University of Technology.

– ref. What were dingoes like before the European invasion? Centuries-old DNA reveals a surprising history – https://theconversation.com/what-were-dingoes-like-before-the-european-invasion-centuries-old-dna-reveals-a-surprising-history-232491

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nina Van Dyke, Associate Professor and Associate Director, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University

A healthy diet protects us against a number of chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

From early childhood, we receive an abundance of information about how we should eat to be healthy and reduce our risk of disease. And most people have a broad understanding of what healthy eating looks like.

But this knowledge doesn’t always result in healthier eating.

In our new research, we set out to learn more about why people eat the way they do – and what prevents them from eating better. Lack of time was a major barrier to cooking and eating healthier foods.

How do you decide what to eat?

We spoke with 17 adults in a regional centre of Victoria. We chose a regional location because less research has been done with people living outside of metropolitan areas and because rates of obesity and other diet-related health issues are higher in such areas in Australia.

Participants included a mix of people, including some who said they were over their “most healthy weight” and some who had previously dieted to lose weight. But all participants were either:

• young women aged 18–24 with no children
• women aged 35–45 with primary school aged children
• men aged 35–50 living with a partner and with pre- or primary-school aged children.

We selected these groups to target ages and life-stages in which shifts in eating behaviours may occur. Previous research has found younger women tend to be particularly concerned about appearance rather than healthy eating, while women with children often shift their focus to providing for their family. Men tend to be less interested in what they eat.

We asked participants about how they decided what food to eat, when, and how much, and what prevented them from making healthier choices.

It’s not just about taste and healthiness

We found that, although such decisions were determined in part by taste preferences and health considerations, they were heavily influenced by a host of other factors, many of which are outside the person’s control. These included other household members’ food preferences, family activities, workplace and time constraints, convenience and price.

Healthy eating means consuming a balanced diet rich in nutrients, including a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and healthy fats, while limiting processed foods, added sugars and excessive salt. Healthy eating also includes how we eat and how we think about food and eating, such as having a positive relationship with food.

One 35- to 45-year-old woman, for example, said that time constraints and family preferences made it difficult to prepare healthier food:

I love the chance when I can actually get a recipe and get all of the ingredients and make it properly, but that doesn’t happen very often. It’s usually what’s there and what’s quick. And what everyone will eat.

One of the 35- to 50-year-old men also noted the extent to which family activities and children’s food preferences dictated meal choices:

Well, we have our set days where, like Wednesday nights, we have to have mackie cheese and nuggets, because that’s what the boys want after their swimming lesson.

Research shows that children are often more receptive to new foods than their parents think. However, introducing new dishes takes additional time and planning.

An 18- to 24-year-old woman discussed the role of time constraints, her partner’s activities, and price in influencing what and when she eats:

My partner plays pool on a Monday and Wednesday night, so we always have tea a lot earlier then and cook the simple things that don’t take as long, so he can have dinner before he goes rather than buying pub meals which cost more money.

Despite popular perceptions, healthy diets are not more expensive than unhealthy diets. A study comparing current (unhealthy) diets with what the Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend people should eat found that the healthy diet was 12–15% cheaper than unhealthy diets for a family of two adults and two children.

However, learning and planning to prepare new types of meals takes effort and time.

Simply educating people about what they should eat won’t necessarily result in healthier eating. People want to eat healthier, or at least know they should eat healthier, but other things get in the way.

A key to improving people’s eating behaviours is to make it easy to eat more healthily.

Policy changes to make healthy eating easier could include subsidising healthier foods such as fresh produce, providing incentives for retailers to offer healthy options, and ensuring access to nutritious meals in schools and workplaces.

So how can you make healthier food choices easier?

Here are five tips for making healthy choices easier in your household:

1. If certain days of the week are particularly busy, with little time to prepare fresh food, plan to cook in bulk on days when you have more time. Store the extra food in the fridge or freezer for quick preparation.

2. If you’re often pressed for time during the day and just grab whatever food is handy, have healthy snacks readily available and accessible. This could mean a fruit bowl in the middle of the kitchen counter, or wholegrain crackers and unsalted nuts within easy reach.

3. Discuss food preferences with your family and come up with some healthy meals everyone likes. For younger children, try serving only a small amount of the new food, and serve new foods alongside foods they already like eating and are familiar with.

4. If you rely a lot on take-away meals or meal delivery services, try making a list ahead of time of restaurants and meals you like that are also healthier. You might consider choosing lean meat, chicken, or fish that has been grilled, baked or poached (rather than fried), and looking for meals with plenty of vegetables or salad.

5. Remember, fruit and vegetables taste better and are often cheaper when they are in season. Frozen or canned vegetables are a healthy and quick alternative.

Read more:
Cost of living: if you can’t afford as much fresh produce, are canned veggies or frozen fruit just as good?

Nina Van Dyke receives funding from the Victorian Department of Health to conduct a policy evidence brief on healthy eating.

– ref. We know what to eat to stay healthy. So why is it so hard to make the right choices? – https://theconversation.com/we-know-what-to-eat-to-stay-healthy-so-why-is-it-so-hard-to-make-the-right-choices-231489

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracy Woodroffe, 2024 ACSES First Nations Fellow, Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges, Charles Darwin University

Australia has a nationwide teacher shortage. But there is a particular shortage of Aboriginal teachers. This is very worrying because we know Aboriginal teachers are desperately needed to boost learning and school outcomes for Aboriginal students.

Not only do they bring vital cultural knowledge to schools, it also means Aboriginal students are represented by those who educate them. Aboriginal teachers can use Indigenous knowledge in the classroom and build effective student-teacher relationships which are vital for learning.

To boost the overall teaching workforce in late 2023, the federal government launched a campaign to “Be That Teacher”. But we need more specific measures, designed to resonate with Aboriginal students and communities.

In a new, ongoing project, we are talking to Aboriginal high school students and teachers to understand how we can encourage more Aboriginal people to become teachers in the Northern Territory.

What are the current figures?

As of 2023, 39.3% of school students in the NT were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, this is the highest proportion of any state or territory. Nationally, Aboriginal students account for 6.5% of all school students.

As of 2020, there were 260 registered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers in the NT. This includes the public, private and Catholic system and represents only 4.6% of the teaching workforce.

As of June 2024, there were just 163 Aboriginal teachers, senior teachers and principals in the public system, according to the NT Department of Education.

While there are existing initiatives to encourage Aboriginal people to become teachers, such as the Remote Aboriginal Teacher Education program, clearly more can be done to increase teacher numbers.

Our project

In an ongoing project, in collaboration with the NT Department of Education, we are talking to students and teachers to ask:

how can Aboriginal people encourage and inspire each other to become teachers?

So far, we have surveyed 23 Aboriginal students and ten Aboriginal teachers across government, independent and Catholic schools. Students are in the final years of schooling and at least 16-years-old.

Do you want to be a teacher?

When asked if students would like to be a teacher when they left school, most students we surveyed responded negatively.

As one student said, “school environments are mentally damaging”. They added the best way to encourage young people to teach would be to “put them in a school that actually accepts them”.

Some of the main reasons students gave for not being interested in teaching were having other career plans, not being interested in school and their teachers’ attitudes to the profession.

Some said their teachers “don’t look enthusiastic about their job” and “always complain about it”. While it was not specified if their teachers are Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal, we know statistically, the vast majority of teachers in the NT are non-Aboriginal.

More information

Students are also telling us they want more information about what it is like to be teacher and the practicalities of the profession. As one student said, they want to be shown “how to be a teacher”.

Another respondent told us:

Sit and talk to them and ask if they are interested in becoming a teacher by explaining the benefits of helping young people.

Role models can help

A strong theme to emerge so far is the importance of role models. Students said their teachers could help them consider becoming a teacher by the way they do their jobs. This was particularly so if they portrayed the profession as one focussed on student success and passion.

One student told us students could be attracted to the profession if they were told about how teachers helped “the next generation [to] follow in elders’ footsteps”.

Students also said they needed encouragement. As one respondent told us, they are worried about being treated badly by students.

Tell [students] that they can do it and do not need to be afraid.

Teachers’ own experiences matter

Aboriginal teachers also emphasised the importance of role models and personal experience. They told us their experience at school, whether as a student or later working in supporting roles, was a key reason behind deciding to teach. As one teacher said:

I loved school. I was really lucky enough that I had a school and teachers that were engaging and really lovely people.

But another was also inspired by negative experiences growing up:

I wanted to be a better teacher than the ones I’d had.

They stressed how passion was integral to their work and helping students to learn. They also talked of the importance of culture – something that could be emphasised with potential new recruits. As one teacher told us:

[I am] putting my own perspective on things. Embedding Indigenous content and a different pedagogical [teaching] approach.

Another teacher told us their work also had a simple purpose: “to combat racism”.

What now?

Our research is showing the need for more accessible information for Aboriginal students on how they get into a teaching career. According to students and teachers alike there is also a need for role models to encourage Aboriginal students to take up teaching.

We will keep surveying students and teachers this year and translate our findings into materials and information for universities and schools by the end of 2024.

This article talks primarily about Aboriginal people. Some of the data sources we accessed describe “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander,” statistics, which is why different terms have been used.

Tracy Woodroffe received 2024 ACSES First Nations Fellowship funding from the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES) to conduct the research described. She has previously worked as a teacher for the NT Department of Education.

Khushi Chauhan is a research associate on the ACSES First Nations Fellowship project.

– ref. ‘Tell students they can do it’: how Aboriginal people can inspire each other to become teachers – https://theconversation.com/tell-students-they-can-do-it-how-aboriginal-people-can-inspire-each-other-to-become-teachers-233565

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ryan North, PhD Researcher in Antarctic Geomorphology, University of Wollongong

In March 2002, the Larsen B Ice Shelf collapsed catastrophically, breaking up an area about one-sixth the size of Tasmania.

In a paper published today in Scientific Reports, we used nearly 1,000 film photographs of Antarctica from the 1960s to reconstruct exactly what five glaciers were like decades before the Larsen B Ice Shelf collapse. This allowed us to precisely calculate their contribution to sea-level rise.

Although Antarctica is far away, and changing conditions there may seem distant, the changes can have a profound effect for us all. The removal of an ice shelf can cause glaciers to rapidly melt into the ocean and raise global sea levels.

After consecutive years of unusually warm temperatures, the Larsen B Ice Shelf collapsed over the course of a week. This induced dramatic change for the glaciers that used to flow into it. The glaciers have since been thoroughly monitored – but there were few observations of them before 2002.

However, an archive of more than 300,000 historical images contains an invaluable record of this area from 1968 and helped us measure the difference between then and now.

Observing glaciers

Ice shelves are thick floating bodies of ice attached to the coastline of Antarctica. The melting of an ice shelf does not directly cause sea-level rise.

However, ice shelves “hold back” the flow of glaciers. Once the shelves are removed, glaciers rapidly melt into the ocean. This transfers ice from the land to the ocean and causes sea-level rise.

To accurately predict how Antarctica’s glaciers will respond to future climate change, it is critical to understand how they have responded in the past. But some places in Antarctica are so remote, it is almost prohibitively difficult and expensive to get there and gather data.

Scientists often look to satellites to collect data because it is relatively cheap and easy. However, persistent cloud cover on the Antarctic Peninsula can interfere with satellite observations for most of the year.

This means that for many areas in Antarctica, observations are rare and often short-term.

Historical photographs are an invaluable record

Between 1946 and 2000, United States Navy cartographers flew over almost every corner of Antarctica recording 330,000 high-quality, large-format film photographs in an effort to map the continent.

Scans of the photographs have been archived by the Polar Geospatial Center, University of Minnesota and are available to freely download. These photographs are as high resolution as what many modern satellites can capture.

We created accurate and real-world scaled 3D models of five glaciers in the Larsen B area using a technique called photogrammetry. Traditional photogrammetry uses two overlapping photos from different angles to create a 3D surface – like how our two eyes can visualise objects in three dimensions.

Advances in computing now allow hundreds of overlapping photos to be combined with relative ease. Matching points in overlapping photos are detected automatically and their 3D position is calculated geometrically. An accurate glacier surface can then be made from a cloud of millions of matching points.

Identifiable features in the images with known coordinates, like nearby mountain peaks or uniquely shaped boulders, can then be assigned a GPS point to scale the model.

Then and now

After comparing five glaciers in 1968 and 2001 (the latter just months before the collapse), we found they were relatively unchanged.

After the collapse, the glaciers lost 35 billion tons of land-based ice. From one large glacier, 28 billion tons was lost: equivalent to around 0.1 mm of global sea-level rise.

This doesn’t sound like much, but is the result of one glacier from one event. Put another way, it is equal to every single person on Earth tipping out a one litre water bottle every day for ten years.

These images were essential to observing the glaciers in high resolution decades before they were affected by the ice shelf collapse.

A new record of Antarctica

As climate change accelerates, warming of the atmosphere and ocean threatens the remaining ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula. The historical image archive will become increasingly important to extend the record of change and establish just how significantly things are changing.

The same images could be used to investigate other ice shelves or glaciers, changes to coastlines, penguin colonies, the expansion of vegetation, or even direct human impacts.

The historical image archive is a priceless resource waiting to be tapped.

Tim Barrows receives funding from the Australian Research Council in the form of a Future Fellowship.

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

– ref. We used 1,000 historical photos to reconstruct Antarctic glaciers before a dramatic collapse – https://theconversation.com/we-used-1-000-historical-photos-to-reconstruct-antarctic-glaciers-before-a-dramatic-collapse-233972

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gordon Noble, Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney

Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, the world has seen an incredible surge in investment, development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. According to one estimate, the amount of computational power used for AI is doubling roughly every 100 days.

The social and economic impacts of this boom have provoked reactions around the world. European regulators recently pushed Meta to pause plans to train AI models on users’ Facebook and Instagram data. The Bank of International Settlements, which coordinates the world’s central banks, has warned AI adoption may change the way inflation works.

The environmental impacts have so far received less attention. A single query to an AI-powered chatbot can use up to ten times as much energy as an old-fashioned Google search.

Broadly speaking, a generative AI system may use 33 times more energy to complete a task than it would take with traditional software. This enormous demand for energy translates into surges in carbon emissions and water use, and may place further stress on electricity grids already strained by climate change.

Energy

Most AI applications run on servers in data centres. In 2023, before the AI boom really kicked off, the International Energy Agency estimated data centres already accounted for 1–1.5% of global electricity use and around 1% of the world’s energy-related CO₂ emissions.

For comparison, in 2022, the aviation sector accounted for 2% of global energy-related CO₂ emissions while the steel sector was responsible for 7–9%.

How is the rapid growth in AI use changing these figures? Recent environmental reporting by Microsoft, Meta and Google provides some insight.

Microsoft has significant investments in AI, with a large stake in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI as well as its own Copilot applications for Windows. Between 2020 and 2023, Microsoft’s disclosed annual emissions increased by around 40%, from the equivalent of 12.2 million tonnes of CO₂ to 17.1 million tonnes.

These figures include not only direct emissions but also indirect emissions, such as those caused by generating the electricity used to run data centres and those that result from the use of the company’s products. (These three categories of emissions are referred to as Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, respectively.)

Meta too is sinking huge resources into AI. In 2023, the company disclosed is Scope 3 emissions had increased by over 65% in just two years, from the equivalent of 5 million tonnes of CO₂ in 2020 to 8.4 million tonnes in 2022.

Google’s emissions were almost 50% higher in 2023 than in 2019. The tech giant’s 2024 environmental report notes that planned emissions reductions will be difficult “due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute”.

Water

Data centres generate a lot of heat, and consume large amounts of water to cool their servers. According to a 2021 study, data centres in the United States use about 7,100 litres of water for each megawatt-hour of energy they consume.

Google’s US data centres alone consumed an estimated 12.7 billion litres of fresh water in 2021.

In regions where climate change is increasing water stress, the water use of data centres is becoming a particular concern. The recent drought in California, where many tech companies are based, has led companies including Google, Amazon and Meta to start “water positive” initiatives.

These big tech firms have announced commitments to replenish more water than they consume by 2030. Their plans include projects such as designing ecologically resilient watershed landscapes and improving community water conservation to improve water security.

Climate risk

Where data centres are located in or near cities, they may also end up competing with people for resources in times of scarcity. Extreme heat events are one example.

Globally, the total number of days above 50°C has increased in each decade since 1980. July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded.

Extreme heat translates to health impacts on local populations. A Lancet 2022 study found that even a 1°C increase in temperature is positively associated with increased mortality and morbidity.

On days of extreme heat, air conditioning can save lives. Data centres also like to keep cool, so their power use will spike with the temperature, raising the risk of blackouts and instability in electricity grids.

What’s next?

So what now? As we have seen, tech companies are increasingly aware of the issue. How is that translating into action?

When we surveyed Australian sustainability professionals in July 2023, we found only 6% believed data centre operators provided detailed sustainability data.

Earlier this year we surveyed IT managers in Australia and New Zealand to ask what they thought about how AI applications are driving increased energy use. We found 72% are already adopting or piloting AI technologies.

More than two-thirds (68%) said they were concerned about increased energy consumption for AI needs. However, there is also significant uncertainty about the size of the increase.

Many IT managers also lack the necessary skills to adequately address these sustainability impacts, regardless of corporate sustainability commitments. Education and training for IT managers to understand and address the sustainability impacts of AI is urgently required.

Gordon Noble works on UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures projects funded by corporations, government and philanthropic organisations.

Fiona Berry works on UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures projects funded by corporations, government and philanthropic organisations.

– ref. Power-hungry AI is driving a surge in tech giant carbon emissions. Nobody knows what to do about it – https://theconversation.com/power-hungry-ai-is-driving-a-surge-in-tech-giant-carbon-emissions-nobody-knows-what-to-do-about-it-233452

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

Senator Fatima Payman’s defection over Labor Party policy on statehood for the Palestinians has generated wider discussion about the written and unwritten rules of Australian politics. One of those involves the vexed question of the role of religious faith.

Scott Morrison’s prime ministership inevitably raised it. Morrison did not hide his evangelical Christianity. His strange memoir revived the issue because it showed Morrison’s faith was not incidental to his politics. By his own account at least, faith was its organising principle.

So far as I’m aware, Morrison’s Christianity was not understood as a threat to social cohesion – weird, certainly, but not dangerous in that way. Those who talked up its dangers were often treated as engaging in hyperbole, or even hypocrisy – since Kevin Rudd’s Christianity did not receive the same level of scrutiny or criticism.

The context for Albanese’s commentary was Payman’s defection, and reports that she had been in contact with an organisation called The Muslim Vote, which intends organising candidates in Labor-held seats with large numbers of voters of this faith:

I don’t think and don’t want Australia to go down the road of faith-based political parties because all that will do is undermine social cohesion. It seems to me, as well, beyond obvious that it’s not in the interest of small and minority groups to isolate themselves – which is what a faith-based party system would do.

Even a cursory glance at the historical record indicates a long list of Australian minor parties that were explicitly Christian. Albanese probably disliked each and every one of them, but they have not usually attracted his adverse notice. The parties used by Fred Nile and his wife Elaine – Call to Australia and the Christian Democratic Party – to get themselves elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council are among the best known, but there were many others.

There was a Protestant Independent Labor Party in the 1920s, active mainly in New South Wales, formed by Walter Skelton. He was able to take advantage of a short-lived experiment in multi-member constituencies and proportional representation to get himself a Legislative Assembly seat. Skelton was elected at a time when religious sectarianism was often vicious, and frequently spilt over into mainstream political contention.

Politicians of the centre right – then concentrated in the Nationalist Party – harvested the issue for votes. The most notorious of them was Thomas Ley, a minister in the New South Wales state government and later a federal parliamentarian. He moved on from a career in parliamentary politics and Catholic-baiting to one in crime. Ley was widely suspected of killing a political opponent in 1925 and later, in England, he was convicted of a murder.

Religious sectarianism – essentially conflict between Catholics and Protestants – was once a drain on Australia’s social cohesion. As Australia’s party system emerged, the Labor Party was disproportionately Catholic. Meanwhile, its non-Labor rival – operating under various names before settling on “Liberal” in 1944 – was overwhelmingly Protestant in composition if not invariably in electoral support.

“Be careful, boys. Here comes the Papist”, Robert Menzies would joke in the presence of John Cramer, a rare Catholic bird in the Liberal nest. It is only in recent decades that some Catholics have been able to find a more comfortable home in the Liberal Party.

Two of Labor’s three great splits of the 20th century were deeply influenced by religious sectarianism: in 1916, over conscription for overseas service, and in 1955, over such matters as policy towards communism and the Catholic Church’s involvement in labour movement affairs. The breakaway party that emerged from the latter split, the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), was ostensibly secular but Catholic in all but name.

Albanese undoubtedly has a genuine objection to faith-based political parties. He is a mainstream politician with secular leanings and a strong commitment to existing social and political institutions. It is nonetheless hard to escape the impression that what is most alarming for critics is not merely that the party might be faith-based as such, but that it would register a Muslim political identity. That would challenge authorised ways of imagining political identity in Australia.

Australia’s multiculturalism worries over the place of Muslims in Australian society. The country calls itself secular, but retains a Christian identity in culturally ambiguous but nonetheless tangible ways.

Muslims are commended when they conform to the role of model minority in such a society. Explicit support for “Australian values” is regularly demanded of them in a way no Christian migrant group experiences. A key measure of community integration is understood as absorption into the existing political institutions of the country. For Albanese, that includes his beloved Labor Party.

Talk of a Muslim party or political movement is seen to challenge social cohesion. It does not conform with a key demand made of people of Muslim faith: that they accept the existing rules of political engagement. Here is a conservative face of multiculturalism, as discussed by scholars such as Ghassan Hage. The rules migrant communities are expected to follow are overwhelmingly the handiwork of the host society, not of migrants.

The most serious challenges for Australia’s political system and social cohesion are not the prospect of a Muslim party or political movement. It may well go the same way as the plethora of minor Christian parties of the past.

Rather, it is how we can make our political system work in a way that responds effectively to the cultural diversity of our society while preserving what is most authentically democratic about it. We certainly can’t do that if we insist that only some of us get a say in making the rules.

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

– ref. Faith-based politics is nothing new in Australia – so what’s Albanese really worried about? – https://theconversation.com/faith-based-politics-is-nothing-new-in-australia-so-whats-albanese-really-worried-about-234070

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brandon Michael Sideleau, PhD student studying human-saltwater crocodile conflict, Charles Darwin University

Late last week, the remains of a missing 12-year-old girl were found after she was taken by a saltwater crocodile in the Northern Territory.

The incident occurred in a waterway known as Mango Creek near the community of Nganmarriyanga/Palumpa in the remote and sparsely populated West Daly region, about 350 kilometres southwest of Darwin.

Understandably, the tragedy elicited a strong reaction from the public – including debate about crocodile numbers in the wild.

I am based in the Northern Territory and have worked extensively in the field of human-crocodile conflict management, including establishing CrocAttack, a global open-source database of crocodilian attacks. Amid the emotion surrounding this latest incident, it’s important to remember fatal crocodile attacks are extraordinarily rare in Australia – and there is no evidence to suggest their numbers are too high.

Croc numbers don’t equate to attacks

Saltwater crocodiles in NT number about 100,000 (excluding those just hatched). Research shows about five crocodiles, on average, for every kilometre of waterway in the territory.

Fatal crocodile attacks in the NT peaked in 2014 when four people died. Prior to the latest incident, the last fatal attack in the NT occurred in 2018 when an Indigenous ranger was killed while fishing with her family.

The fatality rate is far lower than elsewhere in the saltwater crocodile’s range. In Indonesia, for example, at least 85 people were killed last year alone. What’s more, crocodile incidents in Indonesian Papua are believed to go largely unreported, so the number of actual deaths is likely much higher.

Despite this, there appear to be vastly fewer crocodiles in Indonesia. Most surveys reveal densities of significantly less than one individual per kilometre in waterways.

Why crocodile attacks in the NT are rare

There are several theories on why saltwater crocodile attacks are comparatively rare in Australia.

First, Australians generally have access to fresh water in their homes. Unlike people in, say, Indonesia, they do not need to travel to waterways to bathe, carry out domestic chores and collect drinking water. That means they are less likely to encounter crocodiles.

Second, Australians have access to fishing equipment which does not require them to submerge themselves in waterways to fish, and safer fishing vessels which, unlike in Indonesia, are not prone to capsizing.

The Northern Territory is also more sparsely populated and developed than other areas where saltwater crocodiles live. That means less habitat destruction, more natural prey for crocodiles, and fewer people in crocodile habitat.

Importantly, the Northern Territory also has an extensive crocodile safety education program in the form of the CrocWise campaign, as well as a robust management plan.

Crocs don’t need culling

The NT crocodile management plan was recently amended to increase the territory’s crocodile removal quota from 300 to 1,200 a year, stopping short of a widespread cull.

However, each time a croc attack is recorded in Australia, it provokes debate about whether tougher management of croc numbers is required.

Following the latest crocodile attack, NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler told the ABC:

We can’t have the crocodile population outnumber the human population in the Northern Territory […] We do need to keep our crocodile numbers under control.

Claims that crocodile populations need “controlling” make little sense. Research shows apex predators such as crocodiles do not overpopulate. Crocodile numbers in the Northern Territory have never been, and will never be, out of control.

This is particularly true for the saltwater crocodile, for which less than 1% of hatchlings survive to adulthood. It is also a fiercely territorial species, and conflict between males often results in death.

A 2015 Australian study found removing all crocodiles from a location was not a practical option, given the species’ mobility and dispersal across a range of habitats. It said culling programs would not ensure the absence of crocodiles in a targeted area and swimming activities would remain unsafe to the public.

Other Australian research has found crocodile numbers would have to fall by 90% to prevent one annual attack.

Preventing crocodile attacks in the Northern Territory requires more community education, more signs warning of the crocodile danger, and tougher fines for people wilfully engaging in unsafe behaviour.

New tools are also being developed. This includes detecting crocodiles with multi-beam sonar in areas where the attack risk is high, and attaching magnets to crocodiles while moving them to disrupt their natural homing instinct. These methods require further studies.

Ultimately, through public education and management, it is possible for humans to live alongside crocodiles with minimal conflict.

Brandon Michael Sideleau 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 latest crocodile attack is tragic – but the Northern Territory doesn’t have a croc problem – https://theconversation.com/the-latest-crocodile-attack-is-tragic-but-the-northern-territory-doesnt-have-a-croc-problem-234072

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Moira Dunsmore, Senior Lecturer, Sydney Nursing School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, University of Sydney

Our ageing population brings a growing crisis: people over 65 are at greater risk of dual sensory impairment (also known as “deafblindness” or combined vision and hearing loss).

Some 66% of people over 60 have hearing loss and 33% of older Australians have low vision. Estimates suggest more than a quarter of Australians over 80 are living with dual sensory impairment.

Combined vision and hearing loss describes any degree of sight and hearing loss, so neither sense can compensate for the other. Dual sensory impairment can occur at any point in life but is increasingly common as people get older.

The experience can make older people feel isolated and unable to participate in important conversations, including about their health.

Causes and conditions

Conditions related to hearing and vision impairment often increase as we age – but many of these changes are subtle.

Hearing loss can start as early as our 50s and often accompany other age-related visual changes, such as age-related macular degeneration.

Other age-related conditions are frequently prioritised by patients, doctors or carers, such as diabetes or heart disease. Vision and hearing changes can be easy to overlook or accept as a normal aspect of ageing. As an older person we interviewed for our research told us

I don’t see too good or hear too well. It’s just part of old age.

An invisible disability

Dual sensory impairment has a significant and negative impact in all aspects of a person’s life. It reduces access to information, mobility and orientation, impacts social activities and communication, making it difficult for older adults to manage.

It is underdiagnosed, underrecognised and sometimes misattributed (for example, to cognitive impairment or decline). However, there is also growing evidence of links between dementia and dual sensory loss. If left untreated or without appropriate support, dual sensory impairment diminishes the capacity of older people to live independently, feel happy and be safe.

A dearth of specific resources to educate and support older Australians with their dual sensory impairment means when older people do raise the issue, their GP or health professional may not understand its significance or where to refer them. One older person told us:

There’s another thing too about the GP, the sort of mentality ‘well what do you expect? You’re 95.’ Hearing and vision loss in old age is not seen as a disability, it’s seen as something else.

Isolated yet more dependent on others

Global trends show a worrying conundrum. Older people with dual sensory impairment become more socially isolated, which impacts their mental health and wellbeing. At the same time they can become increasingly dependent on other people to help them navigate and manage day-to-day activities with limited sight and hearing.

One aspect of this is how effectively they can comprehend and communicate in a health-care setting. Recent research shows doctors and nurses in hospitals aren’t making themselves understood to most of their patients with dual sensory impairment. Good communication in the health context is about more than just “knowing what is going on”, researchers note. It facilitates:

• shorter hospital stays
• fewer re-admissions
• reduced emergency room visits
• better treatment adherence and medical follow up
• less unnecessary diagnostic testing
• improved health-care outcomes.

Read more:
Too many Australians are waiting for a home care package. Here’s how to fix the delays

‘Too hard’

Globally, there is a better understanding of how important it is to maintain active social lives as people age. But this is difficult for older adults with dual sensory loss. One person told us

I don’t particularly want to mix with people. Too hard, because they can’t understand. I can no longer now walk into that room, see nothing, find my seat and not recognise [or hear] people.

Again, these experiences increase reliance on family. But caring in this context is tough and largely hidden. Family members describe being the “eyes and ears” for their loved one. It’s a 24/7 role which can bring frustration, social isolation and depression for carers too. One spouse told us:

He doesn’t talk anymore much, because he doesn’t know whether [people are] talking to him, unless they use his name, he’s unaware they’re speaking to him, so he might ignore people and so on. And in the end, I noticed people weren’t even bothering him to talk, so now I refuse to go. Because I don’t think it’s fair.

So, what can we do?

Dual sensory impairment is a growing problem with potentially devastating impacts.

It should be considered a unique and distinct disability in all relevant protections and policies. This includes the right to dedicated diagnosis and support, accessibility provisions and specialised skill development for health and social professionals and carers.

We need to develop resources to help people with dual sensory impairment and their families and carers understand the condition, what it means and how everyone can be supported. This could include communication adaptation, such as social haptics (communicating using touch) and specialised support for older adults to navigate health care.

Increasing awareness and understanding of dual sensory impairment will also help those impacted with everyday engagement with the world around them – rather than the isolation many feel now.

Annmaree Watharow is affiliated with Deafblind Australia.

Emily Kecman and Moira Dunsmore 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. ‘I keep away from people’ – combined vision and hearing loss is isolating more and more older Australians – https://theconversation.com/i-keep-away-from-people-combined-vision-and-hearing-loss-is-isolating-more-and-more-older-australians-232142

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Merja Myllylahti, Senior Lecturer, Co-Director Research Centre for Journalism, Media & Democracy, Auckland University of Technology

Evidence is mounting that the new generative AI internet search tools provided by OpenAI, Google and Microsoft can increase the risk of returning false, misleading or partially correct information.

Despite the implications of this for the news industry and an informed democracy, the New Zealand government has decided to leave AI considerations out of its plans to revive the previous government’s Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill.

The proposed law will require Google and Meta (which runs Facebook and Instagram) to pay news companies for their content. While plenty of local news organisations receive money from Google, they don’t receive payments from Meta.

Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith says the proposed bill will have some amendments, but these will not be related to the increasing role of generative AI in news searches. The “broad issue of AI” would be considered later, he says.

However, the bill will give the minister the power to decide which companies will be included under a new law, potentially opening the door to bring the likes of Microsoft and OpenAI to the negotiating table.

How do news companies respond?

AI-powered chatbots such as Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT respond to user prompts, giving answers based on information “scraped” from the internet, including news media sites. They also use news content – or any content they can find – to “train” their AI models.

As AI companies are struggling to find enough data to do this training, they are making deals with news companies to use their content, including archives, to feed into their models.

Therefore, it is not surprising many big news companies – including News Corp, The Financial Times (owned by Nikkei) and Germany’s Axel Springer – have signed commercial deals for their content with AI companies.

On the other hand, companies such as The New York Times and Alden Global Capital (the second largest newspaper owner in the US) have taken a different approach. They are suing Microsoft and OpenAI for “illegally using news articles to power their AI chatbots”.

Alden says OpenAI and Microsoft use “millions of its copyrighted articles without permission and it uses these to train and feed their generative AI products”.

In 2023, leading New Zealand news publisher Stuff stopped ChatGPT from using its stories to feed its software models. Since then, my new research shows Stuff’s news content has also dropped in visibility in Google’s and Microsoft’s searches.

News diversity is shrinking

I analysed what Microsoft’s and Google’s search engines and their respective chatbots, Copilot and Gemini, offer as news.

In general, search engines return results based on a user’s inquiry, linking to information. Chatbots use large language models to create answers by scraping data from sources, often without any links to information.

The study gathered three months of data in 2023 and again in 2024. Search engines were prompted to offer the “main news in New Zealand today”, and chatbots were asked to provide links and sources to news stories.

The results showed news diversity shrank in Google and Microsoft search. While both search engines offered news from legacy news media outlets, the category “other sources” grew dramatically between 2023 and 2024.

What these AI-powered search engines offer as “news” sources is worrying. They increasingly link to random, non-news sources such as industry forums and press releases.

Furthermore, the Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot chatbots offered old stories as the main news of the day, did not give links to the specific news stories, and gave no sources in the answers they provided.

Having been asked about the main news in New Zealand today, the search engines were then asked: can you give any sources for the stories? This from Google Gemini was representative of the responses:

I am a large language model, and I am able to communicate and generate human-like text in response to a wide range of prompts and questions. Is there anything else I can do to help you with this request?

As more data is fed into AI-powered searches and chatbots, they may become more accurate. Until then, however, users should be careful about the reliability or independence of information sourced this way.

Democracy, news and AI

Dealing with AI companies has left news organisations in a difficult situation. If they don’t make deals, they may lose potential extra revenue. If they do, there is no guarantee how their content will appear in generative AI search or chatbots.

In May this year, for example, Google confirmed its search engine will offer more AI answers than website links. This means it will provide detailed AI responses to user prompts, and snapshot summaries without linking to any sources of information.

If the links disappear from the AI-generated search responses, it potentially means Google and other providers don’t need to pay news companies for the snippets and links they have been using in their services. This may have implications for the revived Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill.

On the other hand, AI providers are already paying some news companies for their current and archived content to train their chatbots, which could lead to better search results.

How this all plays out will have consequences for democracy as much as for media revenues, which my ongoing research aims to investigate.

Merja Myllylahti 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. AI search tools and chatbots may make NZ news less visible and reliable – new study – https://theconversation.com/ai-search-tools-and-chatbots-may-make-nz-news-less-visible-and-reliable-new-study-233980

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Huw Griffiths, Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Sydney

The figure of Dracula has always lived somewhere between the written word, screen projections and our fantasy lives. His story is tailor-made for one of Kip Williams’ hybrid adaptations.

Williams’ technique is, by now, familiar to Sydney audiences. Again with Dracula, the third part of this loose trilogy, he makes spectacular use of live action, live filming and recorded video, all interwoven into exciting spectacles that drive the story forward.

Dracula on screen

Bram Stoker’s novel was first published in 1897. It only took 24 years for the count to make his way onto screen. This first film version appeared more than a hundred years ago: a lost 1921 Austrian silent movie, Drakula halála.

More familiar is F.W. Murnau’s loose adaptation, Nosferatu (1922), with its startling central performance from Max Schreck.

From these early appearances, cinema did not look back, bringing us multiple Hammer Horror appearances, the camp romanticism of Coppola’s more faithful adaptation in 1992, and onwards to this year’s much-anticipated revisiting of the Murnau film from director, Robert Eggers.

The Sydney Theatre Company production makes some cheeky references to these screen versions while developing a compelling visual language of its own. It all centres on Zahra Newman’s utterly brilliant performance of all 23 characters.

Her virtuosic shifts between the count’s victims, his multiple hunters, and the glamorous vampire himself ensure the audience is drawn into a world of desire, fantasy and horror from start to finish.

A queer rewriting

Dracula’s use of journals, newspaper reports, and letters really lends itself to this kind of stage treatment, but the difficulty of adapting a long-ish novel into a short live production does strain the audience’s capacity to keep up at times.

If you aren’t familiar with the story (and perhaps it’s OK to assume that people are familiar with it?) then some sequences might escape you.

Williams’ habit of faithfully reproducing the prose really worked in Jekyll and Hyde, mainly because Stevenson is a beautiful writer.

But Stoker’s strengths as a writer do not lie in his prose style and, in the word-laden first half of this production, there is a sense of trying to cram in too much.

That said, Williams has made some judicious cuts throughout, all of which lead to a stunning and subtly celebratory queer rewriting of the novel’s final passages.

About half way through the production, the monologues give way to much more intense visual spectacle. Some of the production’s welcome humour falls away, to be replaced by some really sexy uses of the stage, much of it leaving the audience gasping with gleeful surprise.

An emerging modern world

In common with the other two pieces of writing from the 1890s Williams has brought to the stage as a trilogy, Dorian Gray and Jekyll and Hyde, Stoker’s Dracula reflects on an emerging modern world at the turn of the century and considers whether older ideas of crime, sin, virtue and heroism will still be of use.

The way the story of the novel is told is firmly wedded to the modern world: diaries are recorded on phonograph and transcribed by typewriters that produce automatic copies; people communicate via telegram as well as in letters; journeys are taken by train and steam ship as well by horse and sail.

It is a world in which it seems like an old world is being replaced by modernity.

But, with the vampire’s refusal to die, old ideas reassert themselves: superstitions and old moralities cannot be left behind quite so easily. As Van Helsing says:

It is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain.

Where Stoker’s novel might lean, albeit ambiguously, towards endorsing a reassertion of traditional morality in an modern uncertain world, subsequent adaptations have never been so sure.

This story has not persisted into our cinemas and within our imaginations because we side with Van Helsing and his brotherhood of Christian warriors but because, like the poor doomed Lucy Westenra, we are all half in lust with the vampire.

In this production, Williams extends the capacities of his hybrid staging, making it all much more private, personal and intimate.

Between the live action and the screened action, we see mouths, lips and eyes being continually overlaid.

Distinctions are blurred not only between the living and the dead but between the monster and his victims, and between the desirer and the desired. The count is dead; long live the count.

Dracula is at the Sydney Theatre Company until August 4.

Huw Griffiths 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. Sydney Theatre Company’s Dracula: a virtuosic performance, sexy staging, and a queer rewriting – https://theconversation.com/sydney-theatre-companys-dracula-a-virtuosic-performance-sexy-staging-and-a-queer-rewriting-231806

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania

Olympic Games are big affairs that require massive infrastructure projects to build the various stadiums and venues.

Many of the sports have specific requirements – fake whitewater and rocks for kayaking, huge slopes for ski jumps, or sand for beach volleyball. On top of that, these venues need to be able to support large crowds and the technology needed to manage the events.

As former Victorian premier Dan Andrews discovered in 2023, hosting big sporting events costs big money.

The Tokyo Olympics are estimated to have cost A$23 billion dollars, a lot of which was spent building infrastructure.

A 2022 report from the International Olympic Committee revealed that 85% of the stadiums, venues and structures used in the Olympics are currently still in use.

But how are they used, were they new structures and what happened to the 15% of venues that have fallen into disuse?

Stadiums

The all-marble Panathenaic Stadium hosted the first modern Olympics in Athens, Greece in 1896. It was used again during the 2004 Olympics (archery and the marathon finish) and is now a popular tourist attraction that has hosted events such as concerts and fashion shows in recent years.

Francis Olympic Field in St Louis in the United States was used as the main venue for the 1904 Summer Olympics. It is the oldest Olympic stadium still in regular use for official sporting events.

It has been renovated several times and is currently used by Washington University’s track and field, cross country, football, and soccer teams.

Many Olympic stadiums continue to be used for local, national and international sports such as athletics and soccer, as well as large concerts and performances.

For example, the 1960 Summer Olympic Stadium in Rome, Italy is the home ground of the national rugby union team and soccer clubs Roma and Lazio. It has also hosted matches in the 1990 FIFA Soccer World Cup, UEFA Soccer Champions League, World Athletics Championships and more.

Fisht Stadium in Sochi, Russia hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. It also hosted games in the 2018 Soccer World Cup (including Australia vs Peru) and is now the home stadium for soccer team PFC Sochi.

Cities that have hosted multiple Olympics have refurbished and reused venues.

For example Tokyo reused 1964 venues such as the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium and Nippon Budokan Hall in 2021; the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Rose Bowl were both Summer Olympic sites in 1932 and 1984 and will be used again in 2028.

Venues

Olympic venues continue to be used for sporting and non-sporting activities.

Many existing venues such as skiing slopes and summer venues such as Banyoles Lake (rowing – 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics) and Wimbledon (tennis – 1908 and 2012 London Summer Olympics) hosted their sport before the Olympics and have continued to host it after the Olympics.

Other venues have been reused in a variety of ways.

For example, the stadium and skating and ice hockey venues used in the 1928 and 1948 Winter Olympics in St Moritz, Italy are now part of a private residence.

The 1980 Winter Olympic village in Lake Placid, US, is now a federal prison.

The Water Cube (swimming, diving, water polo – 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics) is now a popular water park.

Unused Venues

Some Olympic venues such as the Mt Eniwa downhill events site (alpine skiing – 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics) and Copacabana beach volleyball arena (beach volleyball – 2016 Rio Summer Olympics) were temporary venues that were dismantled after the games as planned.

Many other older venues have been renovated and redeveloped.

Other venues have unfortunately fallen into disrepair for various reasons.

The Trebevic Olympic Bobsleigh and Luge Track (bobsleigh, luge – 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics) was damaged during the Bosnian War (1992-1995) and has not been repaired. It is now overgrown and covered with graffiti.

Alonzo Herndon Stadium (hockey – 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics) is in a similar graffiti-covered state of disrepair.

Most of the Helliniko Olympic Complex (softball, canoe/kayak, hockey, baseball, basketball – 2004 Athens Summer Olympics) is closed or has been demolished due to poor planning and political, economic and administrative upheaval.

Australia

So how have Australia’s Olympic venues fared? In short, pretty well.

Most Melbourne 1956 Summer Olympic venues such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground (athletics, soccer, hockey, opening and closing ceremonies) and Exhibition Building (basketball, weightlifting, wrestling, modern pentathlon) are still used regularly.

Only the Melbourne Olympic Park Velodrome (cycling, currently a medical centre) and the Merritt Rifle Range (shooting, currently a housing estate) are not in use.

Venues built specifically for the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics such as the Sydney International Aquatic Centre (swimming, diving, water polo) and Penrith Whitewater Stadium (canoeing, kayaking) continue to be some of the premier locations for their sports in Australia. The Olympic Village is now part of the suburb on Newington.

Some temporary venues such as the Bondi beach volleyball arena were dismantled after the games as planned. The Sydney Entertainment Centre (volleyball) is the only non-temporary venue no longer in use. It was demolished in 2016 as part of the redevelopment of Darling Harbour.

As we head towards the Brisbane Olympics in 2032, careful planning will be needed to ensure that planned infrastructure is cost effective and can be used by local residents, and others, for many years after the games have finished.

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. Looking back at the Olympic venues since 1896 – are they still in use? – https://theconversation.com/looking-back-at-the-olympic-venues-since-1896-are-they-still-in-use-229606