Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona McKay, Senior Lecturer in Public Health, Deakin University

Melbourne’s latest lockdown and increased demand for emergency food aid reminds us how many people don’t have enough food for themselves and their family.
We’ve also seen this in past lockdowns.

However, our research shows many Australians rely on emergency and community food relief for years, not just for short periods.

So how do we make emergency food aid available whether or not there’s a lockdown or other crisis?

Read more:
Too many Australians have to choose between heating or eating this winter

Why are people turning to food aid?

Australian cities have some of the highest costs of living in the world. Housing costs are increasing and wage growth is stagnant. So many people are running short and turning to charity to fill the gaps in their budgets.

The food charity sector has grown in Australia since the 1990s and more rapidly so over the past decade.

Four main organisations — FareShare, OzHarvest, SecondBite, and Foodbank — distribute over 50,000 tonnes of food each year to charities in Australia. And it’s these charities that provide subsidised and free food parcels, school breakfasts, and prepared meals to their communities.

People use food charity for many reasons including: poor health, long and short-term unemployment, high costs of living, domestic violence, family breakdowns, and emergencies including fires, floods, and pandemics.

For instance, our research with single mothers tells us low levels of government welfare and high costs of housing in Australia mean some go without food so they can afford to pay other bills.

Read more:
The average Australian wastes 200kg of food a year – yet two million of us also go hungry. Why?

During COVID, many turn to food aid

As Melbourne has gone in and out of lockdown over the past year or so, many casual workers, including international students, found themselves out of work and needing assistance for the first time.

Our research, conducted during the second COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne in May 2020, confirmed more people needed food assistance.

Foodbank Australia also reported a huge increase in the number of people needing food assistance since the start of the pandemic; 1.4 million people sought food aid during May 2020 up from 815,000 before the pandemic.

But the COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerability in Australia’s emergency and community relief sector.

COVID exposed vulnerabilities

The increase in need for food charity, stresses on food supply chains in Australia and globally, and the impact of panic buying, meant some charities had food shortages.

An increase in demand

We saw queues of people lining up at Centrelink in the first weeks of the pandemic. However, many people were protected from the worst of the economic impacts, and protected from poverty and food insecurity. This was thanks to the temporary increase in social welfare through the introduction of the JobKeeper wage subsidy and doubling of the JobSeeker employment-seeking benefit in 2020.

However, according to treasury figures, within four weeks of JobKeeper ending in March 2021, about 56,000 people lost their jobs.

The impact of panic buying

Australia produces enough food to feed itself. However, during COVID-19, many Australians saw bare supermarket shelves.

Panic buying, which reflected the uncertainty many people felt, meant those who could afford to, hoarded more food than they needed. This put pressure on supermarkets and left those on lower incomes reliant on whatever food was left available, often at an increased price, or on charity.

Fewer volunteers

Several food charities also reported a drop in volunteers. Without volunteers to collect and distribute food, food charities struggled to meet the increased demand.

Here’s how we could do this better

To ensure we can assist all in need during the next inevitable crisis, we need to make sure charities are better funded, and can quickly respond to increased need.

Many charities apply for short-term funding often tied to helping a specific group of people. But governments need to provide long-term funding, and more of it, so charities can feed anyone who is in need. This is important if we are to cater for people, as we’ve seen during the pandemic, who have never had to worry about food before and are turning to food charity for the first time.

Most food charities are non-profit and rely heavily on volunteers. And finding volunteers will continue to be a challenge. We have seen the Army pick up some of the slack, but this is not a long-term solution. So finding creative ways to increase the numbers of volunteers will be essential.

Food assistance is also usually just one part of a complex web of people’s needs. Food charities also provide a range of other services, including referring clients to accommodation, family support/domestic violence, medical and mental health care, and financial services. So we need a network that allows people to be referred to other services when they need them.

This story is part of a series The Conversation is running on the nexus between disaster, disadvantage and resilience. It is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay foundation. You can read the rest of the stories here.

Fiona McKay has received funding from the Give Where You Live Foundation.

– ref. Victoria’s COVID lockdown reminds us how many rely on food charity. Here’s how we plan for the next inevitable crisis – https://theconversation.com/victorias-covid-lockdown-reminds-us-how-many-rely-on-food-charity-heres-how-we-plan-for-the-next-inevitable-crisis-160777

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Terry Goldsworthy, Associate Professor in Criminology, Bond University

The Australian Federal Police made global news this week with the revelation its Operation Ironside had help sting organised crime gangs around the world.

This was part of a broader, three-year operation with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews described it as the “most significant operation in policing history here in Australia”.

How did it start?

Operation Ironside started with an investigation and closing down by the FBI of a company called Phantom Secure in 2018.

The Vancouver-based company provided modified Blackberry phones that operated on an encrypted network that could not be decrypted or wire-tapped by police. These devices were used exclusively by criminal networks to conduct various criminal enterprises on a global scale.

Clients included the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel and the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle gang in Australia. Some 20,000 devices were believed to be in use at the time the company’s CEO, Vincent Ramos, was arrested in February 2018.

Next, the AFP and FBI worked together to fill the void left by Phantom Secure with a new encrypted device named ANoM.

Read more:
How an app to decrypt criminal messages was born ‘over a few beers’ with the FBI

Under Operation Trojan Shield, police distributed ANoM among criminals, using a confidential human source — a convicted narcotics importer. This source had been working with FBI agents since 2018 in exchange for the possibility of a reduced sentence for other charges he was facing.

This source has previously distributed Phantom Secure devices and agreed to distribute the devices to his existing network of distributors and clients.

As the AFP explained:

You had to know a criminal to get hold of one of these customised phones. The phones couldn’t ring or email. You could only communicate with someone on the same platform.

Little did criminals know that law enforcement and the source had built a master key into the existing encryption system. This master key surreptitiously attached to each message, enabling police to decrypt and store messages as they were transmitted. So, ANoM was a Trojan horse, not with Greeks inside, but law enforcement.

Australia’s role

Court records unsealed this week provide a fascinating insight into how the operation unfolded.

In October 2018, the source distributed 50 devices to targets in Australia. In this test phase, Australian police saw 100% of the ANoM users were using the app for criminal activity.

Intercepted conversations also showed targets were willing to provide the devices to senior members of organised crime groups overseas. So, a global criminal investigation was now underway.

Since October 2019, the FBI has catalogued more than 20 million messages from a total of 11,800 devices in more than 90 countries. The top five countries where ANoM devices are currently used are Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, and Serbia.

With the assistance of Europol – the European Union’s law enforcement agency — the FBI identified more than 300 transnational organised crime groups using the ANoM devices for criminal enterprises.

The sophistication of the criminal operations is revealed by the fact criminal organisations compartmentalised their activities with multiple brands of hardened encrypted devices.

For example, some users assigned different types of devices to different parts of drug trafficking transactions. In some instances, ANoM was used for the logistics of the drug shipments, but Ciphr or Sky were used to coordinate the concealment of the illicit proceeds.

This compartmentalisation shows how connected the encrypted communications device industry is to organised criminal activity.

Implications for Australia

The haul from Operation Ironside is impressive.

It has led to the arrest of 224 offenders on 526 charges in every mainland Australian state. Since 2018, 3.7 tonnes of drugs, 104 weapons, A$44,934,457 million in cash, and assets worth millions of dollars have been seized.

The AFP also responded to 20 threats to kill, potentially saving the lives of innocent bystanders, with intelligence referred to state police. For example, last week, police rescued former bikie Dillon Mancuso, who was allegedly snatched from his Sydney home by a group of armed men.

The challenge ahead

But the operation has also shown how Australia has become a destination of choice for transnational organised crime groups.

In its annual report, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission notes about 70% of Australia’s serious and organised criminal threats are based offshore or have strong offshore links.

There is also a strong market for illegal drugs. As AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw acknowledged:

Organised crime syndicates target Australia, because sadly, the drug market is so lucrative. Australians are among the world’s biggest drug takers.

Examples of this are the Mexican drug cartels expanding into Australia’s lucrative methamphetamine market.

Law enforcement should be congratulated for the outcome of this operation — but this is far from the end of their work. While we have dealt transnational organised crime a heavy blow, the war will continue as law enforcement seek to stay one step ahead in the race against organised crime.

Terry Goldsworthy 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 ‘most significant’ police operation in Australian history — how it worked and what it means for organised crime – https://theconversation.com/the-most-significant-police-operation-in-australian-history-how-it-worked-and-what-it-means-for-organised-crime-162342

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Mortlock, Senior Risk Scientist, Risk Frontiers, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University

Sea level rise isn’t the only way climate change will devastate the coast. Our research, published today, found it is also making waves more powerful, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere.

We plotted the trajectory of these stronger waves and found the coasts of South Australia and Western Australia, Pacific and Caribbean Islands, East Indonesia and Japan, and South Africa are already experiencing more powerful waves because of global warming.

This will compound the effects of sea level rise, putting low-lying island nations in the Pacific — such as Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands — in further danger, and changing how we manage coasts worldwide.

But it’s not too late to stop the worst effects — that is, if we drastically and urgently cut greenhouse gas emissions.

An energetic ocean

Since the 1970s, the ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the heat gained by the planet. This has a range of impacts, including longer and more frequent marine heatwaves, coral bleaching, and providing an energy source for more powerful storms.

But our focus was on how warming oceans boost wave power. We looked at wave conditions over the past 35 years, and found global wave power has increased since at least the 1980s, mostly concentrated in the Southern Hemisphere, as more energy is being pumped into the oceans in the form of heat.

And a more energetic ocean means larger wave heights and more erosive energy potential for coastlines in some parts of the world than before.

Read more:
Ocean warming threatens coral reefs and soon could make it harder to restore them

Ocean waves have shaped Earth’s coastlines for millions of years. So any small, sustained changes in waves can have long-term consequences for coastal ecosystems and the people who rely on them.

Mangroves and salt marshes, for example, are particularly vulnerable to increases in wave energy when combined with sea level rise.

To escape, mangroves and marshes naturally migrate to higher ground. But when these ecosystems back onto urban areas, they have nowhere to go and die out. This process is known as “coastal squeeze”.

These ecosystems often provide a natural buffer to wave attack for low-lying coastal areas. So without these fringing ecosystems, the coastal communities behind them will be exposed to more wave energy and, potentially, higher erosion.

So why is this happening?

Ocean waves are generated by winds blowing along the ocean surface. And when the ocean absorbs heat, the sea surface warms, encouraging the warm air over the top of it to rise (this is called convection). This helps spin up atmospheric circulation and winds.

In other words, we come to a cascade of impacts: warmer sea surface temperatures bring about stronger winds, which alter global ocean wave conditions.

Read more:
Curious Kids: why are there waves?

Our research shows, in some parts of the world’s oceans, wave power is increasing because of stronger wind energy and the shift of westerly winds towards the poles. This is most noticeable in the tropical regions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the subtropical regions of the Indian Ocean.

But not all changes in wave conditions are driven by ocean warming from human-caused climate change. Some areas of the world’s oceans are still more influenced by natural climate variability — such as El Niño and La Niña — than long-term ocean warming.

In general, it appears changes to wave conditions towards the equator are more driven by ocean warming from human-caused climate change, whereas changes to waves towards the poles remain more impacted by natural climate variability.

How this could erode the coasts

While the response of coastlines to climate change is a complex interplay of many processes, waves remain the principal driver of change along many of the world’s open, sandy coastlines.

So how might coastlines respond to getting hit by more powerful waves? It generally depends on how much sand there is, and how, exactly, wave power increases.

For example, if there’s an increase in wave height, this may cause increased erosion. But if the waves become longer (a lengthening of the wave period), then this may have the opposite effect, by transporting sand from deeper water to help the coast keep pace with sea level rise.

For low-lying nations in areas of warming sea surface temperatures around the equator, higher waves – combined with sea level rise – poses an existential problem.

People in these nations may experience both sea level rise and increasing wave power on their coastlines, eroding land further up the beach and damaging property.
These areas should be regarded as coastal climate hotspots, where continued adaption or mitigation funding is needed.

It’s not too late

It’s not surprising for us to find the fingerprints of greenhouse warming in ocean waves and, consequentially, along our coastlines. Our study looked only at historical wave conditions and how these are already being impacted by climate change.

But if warming continues in line with current trends over the coming century, we can expect to see more significant changes in wave conditions along the world’s coasts than uncovered in our backward-looking research.

However, if we can mitigate greenhouse warming in line with the 2℃ Paris agreement, studies indicate we could still keep changes in wave patterns within the bounds of natural climate variability.

Read more:
Seabirds are today’s canaries in the coal mine – and they’re sending us an urgent message

Still, one thing is abundantly clear: the impacts of climate change on waves is not a thing of the future, and is already occurring in large parts of the world’s oceans.

The extent to which these changes continue and the risk this poses to global coastlines will be closely linked to decarbonisation efforts over the coming decades.

This story is part of Oceans 21

Our series on the global ocean opened with five in depth profiles. Look out for new articles on the state of our oceans in the lead up to the UN’s next climate conference, COP26. The series is brought to you by The Conversation’s international network.

Nobuhito Mori receives funding from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.

Rodolfo Silva receives funding from CEMIE-Oceano.

Itxaso Odériz and Thomas Mortlock 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. Climate change is making ocean waves more powerful, threatening to erode many coastlines – https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-making-ocean-waves-more-powerful-threatening-to-erode-many-coastlines-160998

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Penelope Baker, Professor, Mathematics Education, University of New England

In recent days, dozens of maths professors and teachers wrote an open letter airing concerns about a new draft national maths curriculum. Their concerns include dropping “mastery” of times tables and a “faddish” emphasis on student-led learning.

A proposed curriculum for foundation to year 10 Australian students was released for consultation at the end of April. For maths, it is actually an improvement on the one we have and demands more of students.

Read more:
A ‘crowded curriculum’? Sure, it may be complex, but so is the world kids must engage with

If applied in the proposed form, the new curriculum would result in a deeper understanding of key concepts. It expects students to be able to explain their maths reasoning rather than present their answer without justification. And talking about maths is important. Students learn better when they’re able to articulate what they are thinking and explain this to another person.

It helps students overcome hurdles

The proposed curriculum is based on research that demonstrates the importance of building an understanding of concepts, such as multiplication, rather than just teaching kids to memorise times tables.

With every new concept, students experience a hurdle as they need to completely shift the way they previously perceived the concept. For instance, a child will need to move from seeing a triangle as a pointy shape to focusing on the relationship between the length of sides and angles, as well as its properties (such as symmetry).

The proposed curriculum design acknowledges these kinds of learning hurdles. It provides teaching sequences in key areas such as algebra, measurement and numbers, to help teachers make informed decisions about where to target their teaching.

Say a student reaches the hurdle of needing to focus on the relationships among properties of triangles, which is necessary before they can solve geometric proofs. Here, the proposed curriculum prompts teachers to consider a range of real-word examples. It also provides student-centred activities to support the kids in getting over the hurdle.

Another criticism is that the new curriculum apparently delays linear equations — such as x + 3 = 11 (find the value of x) — from year 7 to year 8.

But the proposed curriculum expects year 7 students to use “algebraic expressions to model situations and represent formulas. Students substitute values into these formulas to determine unknown values and interpret these in the context.”

So, rather than confining students to solving simple linear equations, the new curriculum wants students to consider more complex relationships between numbers. It expects them to understand these, rather than showing them the trivial act of solving simple equations first.

It helps students build their understanding

Three content strands in the current curriculum (number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability) have become six (number, algebra, measurement, geometry, statistics, and probability).

Each of these strands appears in all grades, allowing students to build their understanding gradually.

In year 1, students build algebraic understanding by exploring number patters.

The current year 1 curriculum requires students to:

Investigate and describe number patterns formed by skip-counting and patterns with objects.

Skip-counting is counting forward by numbers other than one. For example 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and so on.

The proposed curriculum adds more detail, requiring students to:

recognise, describe, continue and create growing number patterns formed by skip-counting, initially by twos, fives and tens starting from zero.

Growing patterns this way is a building block for times tables. In this case, the two-times table.

By year 4, students have progressed to dealing with more complex patterns and numbers, including those in multiplication tables. They are developing increasingly efficient mental strategies such as doubling and halving. Research shows these are effective approaches for everyday computations.

Read more:
Jump, split or make to the next 10: strategies to teach maths have changed since you were at school

Research also shows it is important to build a solid foundation from the early school years, while building students’ confidence and success from grade to grade.

The new curriculum sets higher standards

The new maths curriculum actually sets higher standards for students. For example, compare the achievement standards for year 2 geometry:

The current achievement standards are that:

• students compare and order different shapes and objects using informal units (for example, measuring the length of a table using handspans or paperclips)

• they use calendars to identify dates and seasons

• they draw two-dimensional shapes and describe one-step transformations (such as rotating a shape or image or flipping it along a line).

Proposed achievement standards are that:

• students use consistent informal units repeatedly to compare different measurements of shapes and objects (that is, students need to use a single repeated unit, such as a paper clip, rather than mixing units, which children commonly do when learning to measure)

• explain the effects of one-step transformations and compare shapes and objects describing features and properties using spatial terms (such as sides, angles, symmetry, location and direction)

• identify relative positions, locate things on two-dimensional representations (flat shapes) and move within a space by giving and following directions and pathways (using slides, turns and flips).

Opportunities for students to explain their reasoning using more complex language helps them to build connections between maths ideas and lays the foundations for deeper understanding. Listening to students provides guidance for teachers in planning their lessons.

More training for teachers

Neither the current nor proposed curriculum prescribes a particular approach to teaching. Teaching is not a one-size-fits-all activity. Teachers remain free to approach teaching maths in ways that suit their students, using a wide range of activities and resources.

In Australia, many schools struggle to attract qualified secondary maths teachers. Many teachers for whom maths is not a specialisation may fall back on the way they were taught. For instance, they could show students a few worked examples, followed by asking them to complete every second exercise.

Research shows schools successful in maths focus on helping students develop a deep understanding of concepts, using a variety of teaching approaches.

Despite the adoption of a well-structured curriculum, Australia needs to develop a targeted strategy for increasing the number of qualified secondary mathematics teachers in our schools.

Read more:
1 in 4 Australian year 8s have teachers unqualified in maths — this hits disadvantaged schools even harder

The implementation of the new curriculum will also require professional learning for teachers to understand the teaching implications of how students develop maths concepts. Research shows professional learning that is relevant to teachers, and requires teachers to develop their teaching, results in improved maths outcomes.

The proposed maths curriculum has the potential to provide a bridge between teaching, learning and assessment that should, in time, lead to improved maths outcomes.

Rosemary Callingham has received research funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Federal Government and the Tasmanian State Government in the past. She is not currently in receipt of any external funding.

Penelope Baker 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 proposed new maths curriculum doesn’t dumb down content. It actually demands more of students – https://theconversation.com/the-proposed-new-maths-curriculum-doesnt-dumb-down-content-it-actually-demands-more-of-students-162088

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hao Wu, PhD Candidate, School of Civil Engineering, University of Sydney

The ease of reaching urban amenities underpins city life. We led a global research team that compared access to jobs in 117 cities across the globe, including eight capital cities in Australia, and examined strategies that might improve transport in our cities. The newly published research finds access to jobs increases with population and that our two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, compare favourably with similarly sized cities overseas.

Transport infrastructure and land use patterns form the backbone of a city. It’s the reason so many people choose to live and work with other people in cities – despite the noise, congestion and negatives of city life – because they can easily reach a variety of destinations. Towards this objective, many planning agencies set themselves a “30-minute city” goal, which is behind many planning decisions.

Read more:
Access across Australia: mapping 30-minute cities, how do our capitals compare?

What did the study find?

The ease of reaching destinations can be measured by the number of jobs reachable within 30 minutes. Job locations offer both employment opportunities and amenities; restaurants, schools, hospitals, shopping centres and so on are also job clusters.

The research measured how many jobs were accessible within 30 minutes (travelling one way) for four different modes of transport – cars, public transport, cycling and walking. The 117 cities studied are in 16 countries on six continents. The research finds cities really differ in the convenience of transport, but also finds significant similarities between cities from the same country.

Australian and Canadian cities have poorer car access than US, European and Chinese cities. They have better public transport, walking and cycling access than US cities, but access via these modes is generally not as good as in Europe and China.

Read more:
Australian city workers’ average commute has blown out to 66 minutes a day. How does yours compare?

Cities in the United States have reasonable car access, but lag behind globally in public transport, walking and cycling access.

In Chinese and European cities, compact development combined with an intensive network produces the highest access globally across all modes of transport.

One surprising finding is the middling car access in US cities. Despite the reputation of US cities being built around the car, urban sprawl has made it difficult to reach destinations even by car.

This sprawl also exposes the Achilles heel in mass transit and non-motorised modes. Immense spatial separation makes for worse access by public transport and active modes of transport such as cycling and walking. US cities have the largest disparity between public transport and car travel.

This research also finds access to jobs increases with city population, so reaching a greater number of desired destinations would be easier for people in larger cities than in smaller cities. So, despite traffic congestion, larger cities are still more efficient in connecting people with places they want to go.

However, this benefit has diminishing returns. Doubling the metropolitan population results in less than a doubling of access to jobs.

Read more:
How close is Sydney to the vision of creating three 30-minute cities?

What are the lessons for Australian cities?

The moral of the story is that we don’t need to choose between the US-style sprawling development and European-style compact cities. We can and should have the benefits of both development patterns. We need both density and a well-developed transport network for better access.

Massive road building alone can improve access by car to only a limited extent. The problem is that investments in road infrastructure are often accompanied by lower-density development. That makes it harder for people who walk, bike or use public transport to reach increasingly separated places.

Read more:
Three changes in how we live could derail the dream of the 30-minute city

In cities that do have compact land-use patterns, access to jobs remain high across all modes of transport, including cars. So, despite congestion, it is still easier to reach desired destinations in these compact cities. Roads are not race tracks, and high-speed roadways connecting nobody with nowhere are not better than lower-speed paths connecting people and places.

The Australian government is investing A$110 billion over the next ten years in transport infrastructure. This will have significant implications for the future of our cities. If we want our cities to continue to be vibrant, liveable and accessible by all modes of transport, we will need to keep our cities compact and invest more in public transport, walking and biking.

Read more:
People love the idea of 20-minute neighbourhoods. So why isn’t it top of the agenda?

David Levinson has received grants as a Professor at the University of Sydney, including funding from the iMOVE CRC. He has also received funding from the World Bank. He is on the Board of WalkSydney.

Hao Wu 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. Towards the 30-minute city — how Australians’ commutes compare with cities overseas – https://theconversation.com/towards-the-30-minute-city-how-australians-commutes-compare-with-cities-overseas-162183

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Willsteed, Senior Lecturer, School of Creative Practice, Queensland University of Technology

Ed Kuepper has been making groundbreaking music for nearly 50 years. As a member of The Saints, and after the release of their first single (I’m) Stranded in 1976, he was flung from Brisbane’s suburban wasteland into the pre-punk mayhem of London.

(I’m) Stranded was reviewed in Sounds magazine as “Single of this and every week”, and The Saints signed to EMI. Kuepper’s journey as a serious songwriter had begun.

Three separate albums of Kuepper’s music have just been released on vinyl, gathered under the title The Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper. There are two compilations — one of his work with post-Saints band The Laughing Clowns (1979-1985), another of singles from his life as a solo artist (1986-1996) — as well as a recent live recording of The Aints!, Kuepper’s vehicle for performing old Saints material as well as new work.

Three very different albums, but all ringing clearly with his voice and his vision.

The Laughing Clowns compilation — Golden Days When Giants Walked The Earth — beautifully evokes the energy and inventiveness of this critically acclaimed band.

Kuepper returned from London in the late 1970s with his family, and a desire to make something new. Back in Brisbane visiting his parents, and at a party in his honour, he was surprised by the presence of drummer Jeffrey Wegener and sax-man Bob Farrell. These two had come up from Melbourne with friend Ben Wallace-Crabbe and the inkling of a band was formed.

Kuepper had known Jeff at school, and Bob was around in the early days of The Saints, a band whose sound was based on a loose, 50s rock and roll feel. He wanted his next band to carry this vibe but looking more to 60s jazz. He remembers,

One of the big influences was actually a fairly unusual Tony Bennett album, The Beat of My Heart, where he had two or three drummers playing. I was interested in where things could go, rhythmically, and to pull the guitar back a bit.

The astonishing Clowns songs on Golden Days are all wrapped around the spine of Wegener’s drums and Kuepper’s guitar. The rhythms veer and slide, with changing time signatures; songs full of swing and sway, while melodies are juggled between voice, bass, piano and the saxophones of Farrell and later, Louise Elliot.

Kuepper thinks the band, for all its influences and many lineup changes, had a consistent sound; it “emerged fully formed on the first recording — I can’t think of too many other rock and roll groups that were like that”.

But nothing good lasts forever, and after one final tour with various band members falling prey to lifestyle choices while Kuepper valiantly tried to hold it all together, he collapsed The Laughing Clowns in the last days of 1984.

Cultural treasure

The second album in Exploding World gathers the singles from Kuepper’s solo work from 1986-1996. In 1989, on an August afternoon a month after my ejection from The Go-Betweens, I auditioned for his backing band, The Yard Goes On Forever. It was scary, I didn’t get the job, and I went out that night and got totally plastered. It’s entirely possible that I was under-prepared.

The singles, all 39 of them, show more shifts in Kuepper’s approach. Some elements remain, the brass sections and shuffly rhythms, but many others are new.

These are pop songs, catchy and melodic. The lyrics embrace the simplicity and purity of close relationships; his voice settles into his maturing creative life; and he takes the 12-string acoustic and places it in the centre of his sound, marrying it with choirs of women’s voices.

There are synths and sequencers and 60s fairground brass and Mellotrons. I have favourites, to be sure, from the couple of shows where I’ve played bass with Kuepper (at the Brisbane City Hall in 2009, and for Brisbane Festival in 2010). The Way I Made You Feel has all the slinky allure of a Prince track, while Everything I’ve Got Belongs To You is as good a love song as you can find.

But there is so much breadth here, such style: try La-Di-Doh, or Real Wild Life or Fireman Joe with its echoes of Max Merritt and Small Faces. There is a deep seam of wealth here, cultural treasure for all to share.

Judy’s presence

Fifteen years ago, in the evening of the day of Grant McLennan’s funeral, I ended up at a table at a restaurant at Brisbane’s Powerhouse. I found myself sitting opposite Kuepper and his wife Judy Dransfield. They were lovely company in the last chapter of this difficult, heightened day. I realised I barely knew Ed, but I liked him. And Jude.

About a year after that dinner, I enjoyed an afternoon playing banjo under their house in the Brisbane suburbs. Sitting upstairs later with Jude; cups of tea and biscuits. The banjo was for a track on Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog, a family project. Says Kuepper:

We collaborated quite strongly on that album, where [Jude] wrote all the lyrics. Prior to that she’d done photography, and art and stuff like that, but [Jean Lee] was a really interesting thing — a good thing to have done.

Judy Dransfield’s distinctive artwork for his record covers, her photographs and her presence are all intrinsic to what we know of Kuepper.

The third album — The Aints! Live — captures the band (including Peter Oxley from The Sunnyboys and Paul Larsen, from Celibate Rifles) before recording their 2018 studio album The Church of Simultaneous Existence. They have that loose rock and roll feel Kuepper loves, wrapped up in energy and thunder.

Five years ago, as part of a fairly shambling, ongoing attempt to do something about Brisbane’s cultural heritage, I applied to the state government for money to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the release of (I’m) Stranded. We won the grant, and a mural was commissioned.

More importantly, there was money to stage a live show with The Aints!, where songs from 40 years earlier were revived and hammered out, within a hundred metres of The Saints’ old practice room.

Kuepper seemed pleased with the attention, though it’s sometimes hard to tell …

Ed Kuepper and Jim White have embarked on a national tour. They will perform at the Sydney Opera House on June 13.

Quotes in this story are from the author’s chat with Kuepper in mid-May.

I have played bass with Ed Kuepper, but only vary rarely.

– ref. Something really beautiful — dipping into Ed Kuepper’s golden past – https://theconversation.com/something-really-beautiful-dipping-into-ed-kueppers-golden-past-161266

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

Australia is still pursuing the origin of COVID-19, with Scott Morrison strongly supporting President Joe Biden’s efforts to get to the bottom of the outbreak.

In a speech ahead of his trip to the weekend G7 summit, which will discuss the pandemic, Morrison is set to say that “having led calls for an independent inquiry, it remains Australia’s firm view that understanding the cause of this pandemic is essential for preventing the next one”.

“I strongly support President Biden’s recent statement that we need to bolster and accelerate efforts to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic”. The Prime Minister will also “lend Australia’s weight” to achieving a “more independent” World Health Organisation with stronger surveillance powers.

Australia’s push for an investigation into COVID-19’s origins infuriated the Chinese. The eventual WHO-sponsored inquiry was inconclusive.

Biden asked the US intelligence community to examine whether COVID-19 evolved from an animal or a laboratory accident. Late last month he said he wanted efforts redoubled, with a report within 90 days.

In Wednesday’s speech outlining “areas of Australian advocacy and agency” in advance of the G7 meeting, at which climate change will feature, Morrison vigorously defends Australia’s record.

A draft of his speech has been released ahead of its delivery in Perth.

Morrison repeats Australia is committed to achieving net zero emissions “as soon as possible, preferably by 2050”, but will not formally embrace the target, which is supported by the G7 countries.

In a pointed reference to some countries urging trade measures against high emitters, he says: “working cooperatively on clean technologies, rather than combatively through protectionist measures, will ensure that emissions abatement doesn’t come at the cost of growth and jobs”.

“It’s important that nation states be accountable for charting their own path to net zero based on their unique economic structures and energy sources.

“Australia does not support setting sectoral targets or timeframes for decarbonising particular parts of our economy or setting false deadlines for phasing out specific energy sources.

“Australia will continue to be a strong voice for a technology-focused approach, and for countries to work together to drive down the cost of low-emissions technologies.”

Australia is not a member of the G7 but is among several countries invited to attend the meeting, being held in the United Kingdom.

For Morrison, the issue of China will be central, and the G7 countries’ response to its increasing assertiveness, including its aggressive response on trade, which has seen it impose restrictions on Australian products as payback for Australian criticism and policy stances.

In his speech, Morrison says he has been greatly encouraged, in his discussions with other leaders, by “the support shown for Australia’s preparedness to withstand economic coercion in recent times”.

He says the most practical way to address economic coercion is to restore the World Trade Organisation’s binding dispute settlement system.

“Where there are no consequences for coercive behaviour, there is little incentive for restraint.”

He says the G7 meeting gives an opportunity to point a way forward on reforming the WTO’s appellate body when the WTO’s ministerial conference meets in November.

The appellate body is the final decision maker on disputes brought to the WTO. Its effective functioning is particularly important to Australia because of our trade disputes with China. The Trump administration vetoed appointments and it now has no members, so it cannot hear appeals. This means the WTO is unable to impose penalties on nations which have broken its rules.

One focus of Morrison’s discussions including in his bilateral meetings (which include a first face-to-face meeting with Biden since he became president) will be “enhanced cooperation for global security and stability”.

“The simple reality is that Australia’s strategic environment has changed significantly over recent years. Accelerating trends are working against our interests. The Indo-Pacific region – Australia’s region – is the epicentre of renewed strategic competition,” he says in his speech.

“The risks of miscalculation and conflict are growing. And the technological edge enjoyed historically by Australia and our allies is under challenge,” he says.

“We must intensify our cooperation with others to meet the complex security challenges we face.

“Australia has been working hard in our region, building cooperation with the United States, Japan and India. Stepping up in the Pacific. Supporting Southeast Asia and engaging ASEAN as a steadfast partner.”

In relation to keeping supply chains open, Morrison says one priority in his talks will be the development of secure and diverse supply chains for minerals essential for clean energy technologies and military applications.

“At present, the supply chain for rare earths is not diverse – a single nation [China] currently accounts for about 85% of the world’s refined rare earths products.

“Given its endowment in critical minerals, Australia has a responsibility to contribute to greater diversity of critical minerals supply, as far along the value chain as possible.

“The same can be said for lithium.

“That effort will yield both a strategic and economic dividend for Australia.

“I also look forward to discussions on broader supply chain issues as they relate to our economic, health and social resilience.

“Australia is a keen advocate of efforts to keep supply chains open, transparent, competitive, trusted and diverse.”

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

– ref. Scott Morrison says it’s vital to get to the bottom of COVID-19’s origins – https://theconversation.com/scott-morrison-says-its-vital-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-covid-19s-origins-162357

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Haskell-Dowland, Associate Dean (Computing and Security), Edith Cowan University

If you were having difficulty accessing your favourite website on Tuesday evening Australian time, you’re not alone. A jaw-dropping number of major websites around the globe suddenly became unavailable with no immediately obvious explanation — before reappearing an hour later.

It’s disconcerting when the sites we rely on suddenly become inaccessible, and even more so when it happens on such a vast scale. This outage saw seemingly unrelated sites go dark, including the BBC, Pinterest, the Financial Times, Reddit and even The Conversation.

How can so many sites, from so many different organisations, all be affected by the same incident? To understand the answer, you need to know what a CDN (content delivery network) is and how crucial they are to the smooth running of the internet.

Read more:
Remember, Apple AirTags and ‘Find My’ app only work because of a vast, largely covert tracking network

What happened and what’s a CDN?

While it’s too early to provide a comprehensive diagnosis of the incident, the internet (once it was accessible again) quickly pointed to the culprit: Fastly.

Fastly is a cloud computing company that provides CDN services to a range of websites including Amazon and Deliveroo. But how can a single company bring down a noticeable proportion of the internet?

When we access a website, we might assume our browser goes off to the internet, talks to the remote site, and then presents the page on our screen. While this is in essence what happens, it masks a much more complicated process, which can include CDN services.

A CDN is a service that allows popular websites to keep copies of their pages closer to their customers.

For example, if we want to browse the BBC website, we could talk directly to a server in the United Kingdom. While the internet is perfectly capable of transferring the web page from the UK to Australia, there is an inevitable delay (perhaps a few hundred milliseconds). And nobody likes delays.

The experience for the user can be up to ten times quicker if a copy of the page (or elements of its content) can be held in Australia and delivered on demand.

Of course, accessing a version of the page held in Australia would work great if you’re in Australia but if you’re in, say, Los Angeles. So, to ensure fast content delivery for everyone around the world, CDNs usually work on a global scale.

A CDN service provider will typically operate data centres around the world, holding copies of popular content in major population centres to deliver content in each region.

The speed of delivery of a single image or page element may not be noticeably faster coming from a CDN — the difference between 200 milliseconds and 20 milliseconds isn’t discernible to most users.

However, modern websites often contain many elements, including images, videos and so on. When combined, the speed improvement through CDNs can be significant.

So, why did so many sites fail?

CDN services provide a valuable service to improve our web browsing experience — but at a cost.

When a major CDN provider such as Fastly experiences a failure, it doesn’t affect just one website; it’s likely to impact every website they support.

In Tuesday’s example, sites across the world suddenly went offline as requests for the CDN-hosted content were not serviced.

This incident demonstrates how reliant we are on technology — and on the specific implementations of technology in our modern lives.

If each website we visit hosted its own content exclusively, we would not be facing these issues. However, our web browsing experience would be much slower, reminiscent of the days of dial-up modems (well, perhaps not quite that bad).

Despite the global outage, it was resolved within about an hour. That would seem to indicate it’s unlikely to have been a security- or hacking-related issue.

It was more likely due to a short-term failure in Fastly’s infrastructure, or a misconfiguration that spread through its systems.

Could it happen again?

Fastly is not the only CDN provider. Other high-profile services include Akamai and Cloudflare. Outages are not uncommon, but they are usually short-lived.

Readers can be assured (assuming you haven’t lost internet again) that service providers are closely watching this incident to ensure lessons are learned for next time.

Read more:
How to boost your internet speed when everyone is working from home

Paul Haskell-Dowland 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. Fastly global internet outage: why did so many sites go down — and what is a CDN, anyway? – https://theconversation.com/fastly-global-internet-outage-why-did-so-many-sites-go-down-and-what-is-a-cdn-anyway-162371

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Wood, Associate Professor, Discipline of Childhood and Adolescent Health, University of Sydney

As of Tuesday this week, all Australian adults aged 40-49 are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

Some states and territories had already opened up their rollout to under 50s, including Victoria, which invited 40-49-year-olds to come forward from late May in light of the current outbreak. In the Northern Territory, everyone aged over 16 is now eligible, while in Western Australia adults over 30 will be eligible from Thursday.

Most Australians under 50 will receive the Pfizer vaccine, which is the preferred COVID vaccine for people in this age group. This is based on advice from Australia’s Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation around the risk of rare blood clotting disorders following the AstraZeneca vaccine.

To this point, we’ve been quite fixated on the side effects and small risks associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. But with many Australians now lining up for the Pfizer shot, let’s take a look at what we know about side effects and rare adverse events after this vaccine.

We’re monitoring the safety of the Pfizer vaccine in real time

In Australia the Pfizer vaccine is registered for use in people over 16. Two doses are needed, with a gap of at least three weeks between doses.

This vaccine has now been administered to many millions of people around the world. We know a lot about its safety from both clinical trials and safety surveillance programs in the community.

AusVaxSafety has been collecting and regularly updating vaccine safety data from Australians who have received a COVID vaccine, either Pfizer or AstraZeneca.

As of May 30, more than 245,000 people had responded to text message or email questionnaires on side effects after their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and over 140,000 people had responded after dose two.

Close to two-thirds of people reported no reactions after the first dose, and 40% reported no reactions after the second.

The most common side effects include headache, muscle aches and fatigue, and these are more common after dose two compared to dose one.

These sorts of side effects are very similar to those reported in clinical trials and what’s been set out in the Pfizer vaccine’s product information. They occur because our immune system is responding to the vaccine.

Side effects will usually present in the first 24-48 hours after vaccination. We know from AusVaxSafety surveillance and safety data from overseas they usually last less than two to three days, and nearly everyone who experiences side effects is back to normal one week after vaccination.

You can manage symptoms such as pain or fever with medicines like paracetamol or ibuprofen. But if your symptoms persist or get worse, you should see your GP.

Read more:
We’re gathering data on COVID vaccine side effects in real time. Here’s what you can expect

What about allergic reactions?

There have been reports of anaphylaxis after the Pfizer vaccine. Anaphylaxis is an acute allergic reaction where people experience a rash, lip and tongue swelling, trouble breathing and sometimes shock (low blood pressure and fast heart rate).

Overall it’s estimated anaphylaxis occurs in approximately five people per million doses of the Pfizer vaccine administered. Anaphylaxis nearly always happens in the first 15 minutes to half hour after vaccination, which is why people are asked to wait in the clinic after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.

Anaphylaxis is easily treated (reversed) with an injection of adrenaline by nursing and medical staff at the vaccination centres, and people affected generally make a complete recovery.

If you happen to have had an acute allergic reaction after vaccination, it’s important you tell your doctor before getting a second dose of the same vaccine. You may be referred for a specialist allergy consultation.

Myocarditis and pericarditis

Recently there have been reports from overseas, including the United States and Israel, of myocarditis (heart inflammation) and pericarditis (inflammation of the lining of the heart) following vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine.

The US Centres for Disease Control notes these cases have been mostly in younger males (aged 16 years and older), usually appear within several days of vaccination, and are more common after the second dose.

However, no causal link has been formally established. It’s important to note heart inflammation can be caused by many factors. These include infections, particularly from viruses or bacteria; or damage to the heart’s tissue or muscle as a result of autoimmune diseases, medicines, environmental factors, or other triggers, including, rarely, vaccines.

Read more:
How do we know the COVID vaccine won’t have long-term side-effects?

The COVID-19 subcommittee of the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety is also reviewing this issue. They have noted that in most of the reported cases, the people have recovered.

Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration, meanwhile, is continuing to monitor myocarditis and pericarditis as “adverse events of special interest”.

Rigorous studies where we compare the number of myocarditis cases in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations are underway in countries such as Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States to assess whether there is any link between myocarditis and the Pfizer vaccine.

But at this stage, there’s no significant cause for concern.

The benefits outweigh any risks

Real-world studies are showing the Pfizer vaccine has clear benefits in reducing deaths and hospitalisations due to COVID-19.

As we’re seeing right now in Victoria, community outbreaks continue to pose a significant risk. Our path out of this pandemic relies on a high uptake of vaccines, and use of the highly effective Pfizer vaccine is key.

Nicholas Wood receives funding from the NHMRC for a career development fellowship. He holds a Churchill Fellowship

– ref. What are the side effects of the Pfizer vaccine? An expert explains – https://theconversation.com/what-are-the-side-effects-of-the-pfizer-vaccine-an-expert-explains-161667

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

As well as Michelle Grattan’s usual interviews with experts and politicians about the news of the day, Politics with Michelle Grattan now includes “Word from The Hill”, where all things political will be discussed with members of The Conversations’s politics team.

In this week’s episode, politics + society editor Amanda Dunn discusses with Michelle current issues and what’s coming up.

The pair dive into Speaker of The House Tony Smith’s efforts to reform Question Time, Scott Morrison’s agenda for the G7 Summit – taking place this weekend in the United Kingdom, and Victoria’s slow emergence out of lockdown.

Additional audio

A List of Ways to Die, Lee Rosevere, from Free Music Archive.

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: Word from The Hill – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-word-from-the-hill-162352

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University

Australian and US law enforcement officials on Tuesday announced they’d sprung a trap three years in the making, catching major international crime figures using an encrypted app.

More than 200 underworld figures in Australia have been charged in what Australian Federal Police (AFP) say is their biggest-ever organised crime bust.

The operation, led by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), spanned Australia and 17 other countries. In Australia alone, more than 4,000 police officers were involved.

At the heart of the sting, dubbed Operation Ironside, was a type of “trojan horse” malware called AN0M, which was secretly incorporated into a messaging app. After criminals used the encrypted app, police decrypted their messages, which included plots to kill, mass drug trafficking and gun distribution.

25 million messages unscrambled simultaneously

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said the idea for AN0M emerged from informal discussions “over a few beers” between the AFP and FBI in 2018.

Platform developers had worked on the AN0M app, along with modified mobile devices, before law enforcement acquired it legally then adapted it for their use. The AFP say the developers weren’t aware of the intended use.

The AN0M application, once appropriated by law enforcement, was reportedly programmed with a secret “back door” enabling them to access and decrypt messages in real time.

A “back door” is a software agent that circumvents normal access authentication. It allows remote access to private information in an application, without the “owner” of the information being aware.

All the while, the users — in this case the crime figures — believed communication conducted via the app and smartphone was secure.

Law enforcement could reportedly unscramble up to 25 million encrypted messages simultaneously.

Without this back door, strongly encrypted messages would be almost impossible to decrypt. That’s because decryption generally requires a computer to run through trillions of possibilities before hitting on the right code to unscramble a message. Only the most powerful computers can do this within a reasonable time frame.

Read more:
Cryptology from the crypt: how I cracked a 70-year-old coded message from beyond the grave

App providers resist pressure to give ‘back-door’ access

In the mainstream world of encrypted communication, the installation of “back-door” access by law enforcement has been strenuously resisted by providers, including by Facebook for its WhatsApp messaging app.

In January 2020 Apple refused law enforcement’s request to unlock the Pensacola shooting suspect’s iPhone, following the deadly 2019 Florida attack which killed three people.

Apple, like Facebook, has long refused to allow back-door access, claiming it would undermine customer confidence.

Such incidents highlight the struggle of balancing competing demands for user privacy with the imperative of preventing crime for the greater good.

Read more:
Facebook is merging Messenger and Instagram chat features. It’s for Zuckerberg’s benefit, not yours

Getting criminals to use AN0M

Once AN0M was developed and ready for use, law enforcement had to get criminal “underworld” figures to use it.

To do so, undercover agents reportedly persuaded fugitive Australian drug trafficker Hakan Ayik to unwittingly champion the app to his associates. These associates would then be sold mobile devices pre-loaded with AN0M on the black market.

Purchase was only possible if referred through an existing user of the app, or if referred by a distributor who could vouch that the potential customer was not working for law enforcement.

The AN0M-loaded devices were mobiles — likely Android-powered smartphones — but with reduced functionality. They could do just three things: send and receive messages, make distorted voice calls and record videos — all of which was presumed to be encrypted by the user.

The AN0M phone increasingly became the device of choice for a significant number of criminal networks.

Building up a network picture

Since 2018, law enforcement agencies across 18 countries, including Australia, had been patiently listening to millions of conversations through their back-door control of the AN0M app.

Information was retrieved on all manner of illegal activities. This gradually enabled police to etch a detailed picture of various crime networks. Some of the footage and images retrieved have been cleared for public release.

A major challenge was for police to match overheard conversations with identities — as the AN0M phone could be purchased anonymously and paid for with Bitcoin (which allows secure transactions that can’t be traced). This may help explain why it took three years before police openly identified alleged perpetrators.

It’s likely the evidence obtained will be used in prosecutions, now a multitude of arrests have been made.

The future of encryption

Encryption technology is improving fast. It needs to, because computing power is also growing rapidly.

This means hackers are becoming increasingly capable of breaking encryption. When quantum computers become available, this problem will be further exacerbated, since quantum computers are massively more powerful than conventional computers today.

These developments will likely weaken the security of encrypted messaging apps used by law abiding people, including popular apps such as WhatsApp, LINE and Signal.

Strong encryption is an essential weapon in the cybersecurity arsenal and there are thousands of legitimate situations where it is needed. It’s ironic then, that the technology intended by some to keep the public safe can also be leveraged by those with criminal intent.

Networks of organised crime have used these “legitmate” tools to conduct their business, secure in the knowledge that law enforcement can’t access their communication. Until AN0M, that is.

And while Operation Ironside may have sent a shiver through criminal subcultures operating around the world, these syndicates will likely develop their own countermeasures in the ongoing game of cat and mouse.

Read more:
Seven ways the government can make Australians safer – without compromising online privacy

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

– ref. How an app to decrypt criminal messages was born ‘over a few beers’ with the FBI – https://theconversation.com/how-an-app-to-decrypt-criminal-messages-was-born-over-a-few-beers-with-the-fbi-162343

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mladen Adamovic, Research Fellow in Management, Monash University

Since moving from Pakistan to Australia, Mariam Mohammed has gained a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, co-founded a social enterprise (teaching financial literacy to women) and made the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence list.

But there was a time she was so disheartened at not being able to get a job she considered changing her name to something less “Muslim” and more “Anglo”.

Her experience is not unique.

In the past 50 years most Western countries have become more tolerant of cultural diversity. Laws now forbid overt forms of discrimination based on gender, ethnicity or age.

But unconscious biases remain – with one of the most well-documented being discrimination against job applicants with ethnic minority, “foreign” names.

Reviewing 123 resume studies

I have analysed 123 “resume studies” to get a more fine-grained understanding of name-based discrimination in recruitment.

Resume studies typically involve researchers responding to real job advertisements with very similar resumes of fictitious job candidates. In these studies, some resumes have names indicating an applicant comes from an ethnic minority group, while other resumes have more common names. This enables researchers to compare the responses for the different names.

My review covered studies conduct in many countries like Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Sweden, and the United States.

More than 95% of the studies identified high ethnic discrimination in recruitment. On average, ethnic minority applicants received about half as many positive responses to their job applications.

Read more:
Amazon’s sexist hiring algorithm could still be better than a human

Notable differences

There were, however, large differences in the degree of discrimination across the studies.

The following chart shows results from a selection of studies in different nations. The “net discrimination rate” is a common measure in resume studies. The higher the percentage, the higher the discrimination. So the resume studies show applicants with Moroccan names in Italy and African or German names in Ireland are more discriminated against than those with Turkish names in Germany.

Just three of the studies did not find any hiring discrimination against ethnic minorities. Only one reported hiring discrimination against the ethnic majority group – a study in Malaysia finding a Chinese name was more helpful than a Malay name. (Chinese Malaysians represent less than a third of Malaysia’s population, but are disproportionately represented in the business class.)

Yes, it really is the name that counts

The most noteworthy finding is the similar degree of discrimination against immigrants and the native-born children of immigrants (or second-generation immigrants).

Studies measured this effect through resumes for candidates with an ethnic minority name but with local educational qualification and work experience. Resumes for first-generation immigrants indicated attendance at foreign schools and universities and no local work experience. The response rate from recruiters was roughly the same.

These results show it is the ethnic minority name that’s the hindrance, rather than an assessment about a candidate’s language skills or a preference for local qualifications and work experience.

This point is underlined by US and Swedish study findings that adopting an ethnic majority name improves job application success.

Read more:
Bias creeps into reference checks, so is it time to ditch them?

Anonymous resumes may not help

One common assumption among recruiters and human resource managers is that deleting the name of the job application should result in a more equal recruitment process.

But the research has returned mixed findings about anonymous resumes.

A 2012 Swedish study, for example, found anonymous resumes did indeed improve the chances for job candidates of non-Western origin (and also for female candidates).

In contrast, a 2015 study in France reported that anonymous resumes increased ethnic discrimination in recruitment. The researchers suggest anonymous resumes might have led to harsher judgments of “negative signals” such as employment gaps.

So anonymous resumes might not be the solution. What recruiters need to focus on instead is training to recognise their unconscious biases and better evaluate resumes based only on applicants’ actual skills and experience.

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

– ref. What’s in a name? How recruitment discriminates against ‘foreign’ applicants – https://theconversation.com/whats-in-a-name-how-recruitment-discriminates-against-foreign-applicants-160695

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Director, Health Program, Grattan Institute

The federal government has announced more than 850 changes to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) will take effect from July 1.

This has prompted concerns the changes could lead to greater out of pocket costs for consumers.

While changes to the Medicare schedule are needed, three weeks isn’t enough time to for the system to adapt. Surgeons and private health insurers need time to work through the changes and adjust their fees.

With hasty implementation, patients may face higher gap fees. The government should delay the changes so patients aren’t left in the lurch.

Remind me, what’s the MBS?

The Medicare Benefits Schedule is the list of tests, treatments, procedures and “attendance items” for (mostly) doctors’ and some other clinicians’ services. It sets out the government-determined fee and the associated Medicare rebate for each item.

Doctors in Australia can and do set their own fees, resulting in patients often facing significant out-of-pocket payments.

Read more:
Explainer: what is Medicare and how does it work?

Changes to the MBS Schedule have to be implemented carefully – balancing the need for the MBS to reflect contemporary practice and ensuring value for tax-payers’ money, but avoiding patients being left further out of pocket.

For item numbers when patients are in private hospitals, the Medicare rebate is 75% of the fee. Private insurers must pay the 25% balance, and generally pay more on top of that, as part of a “known gap” agreement – where the insurer has entered into an agreement with the surgeon so that the patient’s out-of-pocket payment is fixed and known in advance, say $1000 – or a “no gap” agreement.

If the insurer hasn’t entered into an agreement with a surgeon, the patient may have to pay the full gap between the MBS fee and what the specialist charges.

Each item in the MBS has a “descriptor” which defines precisely what the item means.

The MBS needs to change with the times

Medicine changes with new technology, new anaesthetic techniques and new surgical procedures.

Laparoscopic (key hole) procedures may take longer than open procedures but have better outcomes and reduced length of hospital stay.

New approaches to aneasthesia for other procedures may reduce the time needed for operations, again with better outcomes.

The MBS needs to recognise and adapt to these changes. This means the prices for procedures should be updated regularly.

The process so far

Historically, Australia hasn’t had a good track record of regularly updating the schedule.

Then in 2015, health minister Sussan Ley launched a complete overhaul of the MBS. Every section was to be reviewed to ensure the item numbers were still relevant and the descriptors were appropriate and reflected contemporary practice.

The review examined whether some MBS descriptors were no longer reflective of contemporary practice, or didn’t properly describe contemporary procedures.

The review was also to look at problematic billing practices, where some doctors used ambiguity in the MBS to claim multiple items for a procedure, while others only claimed for one item.

Read more:
Dodgy treatment: it’s not us, it’s the other lot, say the experts. So who do we believe?

The review process involved separate committees for each area of the MBS. The reports of each area were published in dribs and drabs, with the final tranche published late last year.

The changes to the MBS

The government has been slowly responding to the recommendations.

Last year it announced changes to intensive care, diagnostic imaging (including breast imaging and nuclear), chemotherapy, blood products and several specialist areas.

In last month’s budget, it announced changes to varicose veins, gynaecology, pain management and some types of surgery.

The latest round of announcements include:

• 156 changes to general surgery items
• 594 to orthopaedic surgery
• 135 in cardiac (heart) surgical services.

Almost half involve amending existing items (see the chart below).

The process of getting to these recommendations has involved extensive consultation, and the changes have generally been supported by the relevant parts of the profession.

The proposed changes are consistent with those widely consulted recommendations. The MBS Review recommendations say what should happen and the government announcement brings that to reality both with a date for the changes to be implemented and the precise wording of the new item descriptor in the MBS.

The unwelcome surprise is not necessarily the changes themselves but the process of implementation. The general direction of reform was known, but the precise wording wasn’t. The timing of all the proposed changes also came as a surprise.

Will patients have to pay more?

Most of the changes are to hospital-based procedures, where the MBS only covers part of the fee, with much of the rest covered by private health insurance, and the remainder as out-of-pocket payments for patients. Our recent Grattan Institute report shows only about one-quarter of in-hospital services are billed at the MBS fee:

The MBS rebate is, on average, just less than half (48%) the fee charged; private insurers pay about 40% and the balance is the patient out-of-pocket fee.

What private health insurers are prepared to pay determines the size of any gap a patient has to pay.

The response of private health insurers to the new MBS items is crucial. Insurers will have “no-gap” and “known-gap” arrangements with surgeons, and all of these will need to be reviewed as a result of the MBS restructure in the three specialties.

Insurers should negotiate with specialists to ensure they recognise the MBS umpire has decided what the base MBS fee is – and that specialists don’t respond by increasing patients’ out-of-pocket expenses.

Indeed, insurers might use this opportunity to bring down excess fees, which is a core part of making the insurance product more attractive.

Read more:
4 ways to fix private health insurance so it can sustain a growing, ageing population

Each insurer will have their own separate process for doing this, and each will do it on their own timeline.

Although it appears insurers may have been given more notice than doctors, it’s almost certain that some insurers will not have updated their view about what is a reasonable fee, nor finalised new contracts with surgeons about no-gap or known-gap arrangements by the current implementation date of July 1.

This will almost inevitably mean that patients will face increased out-of-pocket costs.

The remedy is simple: the government should defer the changes to allow adequate time for implementation. But it should stress that the delay is about implementation, not about reopening the debate about what is included in the revisions to the MBS.

Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments, $4 million from BHP Billiton, and $1 million from NAB. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and contribute to funding Grattan Institute’s activities. Grattan Institute also receives funding from corporates, foundations, and individuals to support its general activities, as disclosed on its website. Medibank is an affiliate partner of Grattan.

– ref. Medicare needs to change with the times, but rushing this could leave patients with higher gap fees – https://theconversation.com/medicare-needs-to-change-with-the-times-but-rushing-this-could-leave-patients-with-higher-gap-fees-162250

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

I’m guessing you earn less than A$200,000.

And I’m guessing you think you’re missing out. People keep telling you so.

On one side of politics Labor leader Anthony Albanese says anyone earning $200,000 dollars a year “can’t be described as being in the top end of town”.

On the other, Prime Minister Scott Morrison parries with interviewers when asked whether people on $180,000 to $200,000 (the biggest beneficiaries of his planned 2024 Stage 3 tax cut) are “high income”.

“They’re hardworking people working out on mines and difficult parts of the country,” he says. “They deserve a tax cut.”

Hardworking or not, Australians on more than $200,000 are rare. And an awful lot of them don’t work at all.

$200,000 is unusual

I’ve never quite understood why politicians are so keen to tell us such incomes are normal. It might be because they are on them. Each backbencher gets $211,250 plus a $32,000 electorate allowance (boosted by $19,500 if they turn down the use of a private-plated vehicle) plus home internet and travel allowances.

Very detailed tax office figures (updated on Monday) tell us what the rest of us earn, all 14.3 million of us.

Only 2% of those required to pay tax earned more than $211,365. Only 3% earned more than $188,667.

Everyone else — the other 97% — earned less than $188,667, most of them a good deal less, and many more earned even less and weren’t required to pay tax.

The figures released on Monday are for 2018-19, because it takes a while for the tax office to receive and process all the forms. 2019 is when Albanese said $200,000 wasn’t the “top end of town”, 2018 is when Morrison unveiled Stage 3.

The typical taxable income (typical in the sense that half earned more than it, half less) was $59,538. If that’s what you’re on, you’re more likely to find people who earn close to what you do than anyone who earns more or less.

We can get an idea of how lonely it is at the top by examining the top 1%, those Australians with a taxable income of greater than $350,134.

There aren’t many of them, just 110,613 — 82,258 men and 28,355 women.

Only 39,209 have taxable incomes of more than $500,000, and of these only 14,467 have taxable incomes of more than $1 million.

Life at the top needn’t be taxed

You’re probably thinking there’s a difference between taxable incomes and actual incomes, and the tax office figures show you’re right.

15,358 Australians reported total incomes of more than $1 million. By the time they had applied legitimate tax deductions, the number had shrunk to 14,467.

Some of these million-dollar earners were able to shrink their taxable incomes very low indeed. 45 cut their taxable incomes to less than the tax-free threshold of $18,200 — meaning they didn’t have to pay anything, not even the Medicare levy.

Another eight managed to escape the Medicare levy even though their taxable incomes were above $18,200, and another 21 escaped income tax while paying the Medicare levy.

Read more:
Yes, some millionaires pay no tax, but crimping deductions mightn’t help

Many of these millionaires weren’t “hardworking” in the sense Morrison meant. Only 9,144 of the 14,467 Australians on taxable incomes of more than $1 million worked. Only 17,883 of the 57,120 Australians on more than $250,000 worked.

Only nine of the 45 million-dollar earners who cut their taxable incomes to less than the tax-free threshold worked. 27 received so-called franked dividends from companies that had paid tax, enabling them to cut their own tax bills or receive rebates from the tax office. On average, each received dividends of $2.25 million.

Many who aren’t taxed are generous

Seventeen of the 45 million-dollar earners received capital gains, on average $6.4 million each. 38 received interest, averaging $290,000 each.

Against that were set expenses, small and large. Three claimed for work-related car expenses averaging $27,340 each, 13 claimed expenses averaging $57,200 for assistance with tax affairs, eight claimed for previous losses from farms averaging $684,000 each, and eight for losses from other businesses averaging $408,000.

But by far their biggest expense was donations. 14 gave away a total of $161 million in gifts or tax-deductible donations — an extraordinary average of $11.5 million each.

Most of us aren’t like these people.

Most of us claim more modest deductions

Three-quarters of Australians in the tax system earn less than $89,173.

Those on that income typically claim between $1,500 and $1,900 in deductions (men claim more than women) and, thanks to negative gearing, claim losses on properties of between $1,800 and $2,600 (again, men claim more than women).

Such Australians typically report between $1,200 and $2,100 in capital gains (more for women than for men).

If higher-earning Australians are unaware of how most of us live, it’s understandable. Surgeons mix with other surgeons. On average each of Australia’s 4150 surgeons earns $394,303, making surgery our highest-paying occupation.

We mix with, and marry, people like us

And they increasingly marry each other. In 2010 the Productivity Commission found that 68% of Australia’s high earners were married to other high earners. A decade earlier it was 49%.

And high earners live near each other. The average income in Sydney’s Double Bay (Australia’s highest-earning suburb) is $202,598. The average income in Ruse in Sydney’s Campbelltown is $55,100.

People in Double Bay don’t drive through Ruse on their way to the city.

Read more:
The Low and Middle Income Tax Offset has been extended yet again. It delivers help neither when nor where it’s needed

In the United States it is often the other way around. There, low-income suburbs are more likely to be near the city, meaning that high-income Americans at least see them as they go in to town.

That most of us have little idea of what others earn suits those in charge when they propose tax cuts skewed to high earners.

They can con us that most of us will be better off, and those on high incomes can con themselves they are not already better off.

Peter Martin 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. Other Australians earn nothing like what you think. If you’re on $59,538, you’re typical – https://theconversation.com/other-australians-earn-nothing-like-what-you-think-if-youre-on-59-538-youre-typical-162251

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University

On Monday, the image of a small girl in a hospital bed, crying as her big sister gives her a kiss flooded social media feeds.

The girls are Tharunicaa and Kopika Murugappan, the only two children in immigration detention in Australia.

The photo was released by advocates as three-year-old Tharunicaa was medically evacuated to Perth on Monday evening. She had reportedly been unwell for ten days with high temperatures, vomiting and diarrhoea, as her family called for more medical help.

On Tuesday, family supporter Angela Fredericks told reporters,

It looks like they have said she has untreated pneumonia that led to a blood infection.

While the government denies there were treatment delays, it has once again raised the plight of the Tamil family, who have been detained since 2018.

Why are the family on Christmas Island?

Tharunicaa, her parents Priya and Nades and her sister, Kopika, have been in detention on Christmas Island since August 2019.

This followed a Department of Home Affairs attempt to deport the family from a detention centre in Melbourne to Sri Lanka. The deportation was interrupted mid-flight after an urgent injunction from the Federal Court. The plane was forced to land in Darwin, and the family was taken to immigration detention on Christmas Island, pending the outcome of their court appeal.

This came after the family had initially settled in the Queensland town of Biloela. Residents welcomed the family and have been actively campaigning for them to come “home to Bilo”.

Where is their legal fight up to?

The family has been engaged in legal appeals since 2012. Tharunicaa’s father and mother are both Sri Lankan nationals who arrived in Australia by boat in 2012 and 2013 respectively.

As they arrived without visas, they are considered in law to be “unlawful maritime arrivals.” Although Tharunicaa and six-year-old Kopika were born in Australia, they are also “unlawful maritime arrivals”.

Read more:
It’s time to give visas to the Biloela Tamil family and other asylum seekers stuck in the system

Both parents applied for visas claiming they would be persecuted if they returned to Sri Lanka. Kopika was included in their application. But they were refused and appeals to tribunals, courts and the immigration minister were not successful.

Former home affairs minister Peter Dutton repeatedly said the family is not owed protection. They are part of a caseload who had their claims for refugee status determined under a “fast track” process. The Australian Human Rights Commission found significant issues with the “fast track” process and has called for a compassionate response to this family.

Tharunicaa

However, the family’s applications did not include Tharunicaa.

Current legal action centres around the obligations of the government to consider whether she can apply for a visa in Australia. As Tharunicaa is an “unlawful maritime arrival” she cannot apply for a visa unless the Home Affairs Minister (Andrews) personally intervenes.

Lawyers argue she has a strong claim for protection based on a range of factors including: the extensive media coverage of the family, the family’s Tamil ethnicity and their “purported” connections to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers).

In April 2020, Federal Court Justice Mark Moshinsky ruled Tharunicaa had not given “procedural fairness” when her September 2018 request for permission to apply for a protection visa was rejected. That decision was upheld by the Full Court of the Federal Court in February. But further complicating matters, the court also found the immigration minister did not have an obligation to allow her to apply for a visa.

The ongoing litigation means the family will not be removed from Australia any time soon. But it is not clear whether the family or the government will take the next step and go to the High Court.

What are the ongoing health dangers for the family?

According to media reports, Tharunicaa had been unwell for ten days and did not get hospital access until this week, despite her families’ requests. As Priya said in a statement

She has been sick for many days, it took a long time for her to get to the hospital.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs denied there had been any treatment delays.

The minor has been receiving medical treatment and daily monitoring on Christmas Island consistent with medical advice. This has included an IHMS general practitioner and the Christmas Island Hospital.

As soon as the ABF was advised by the treating medical practitioners that the minor required medical treatment in Western Australia, the minor was transferred to a hospital in Western Australia.

The Australian Border Force strongly denies any allegations of inaction or mistreatment of individuals in its care.

Health professionals have long warned of the difficulties of placing vulnerable people in remote locations such as Christmas Island. While primary care is available, there is poorer access to specialist and complex services.

In 2018, a Queensland coroner found delays in diagnosing and removing Iranian asylum seeker Hamid Kehazaei from Manus Island directly contributed to his death from septicaemia.

Tharunicaa has come to Perth with her mother, while her her father and sister have been left on Christmas Island. Last year, Priya was brought to Perth for treatment of an abdominal condition and had to leave the family behind.

This is a grave concern. There is a substantial body of evidence regarding child trauma to suggest that forced involuntary separation from family will have lasting mental health effects. The splitting up of the family will almost certainly compound existing trauma. Children are particularly vulnerable.

What can Karen Andrews do?

Andrews, as the senior minister responsible, is under increasing public pressure to do more for the family.

Dutton has previously said the reason the family was detained on Christmas Island and not the mainland was that it would allow them to be flown back to Sri Lanka without protesters putting Border Force officers in a “difficult position.”

Due to their status as “unlawful maritime arrivals,” only Andrews or Immigration Minister Alex Hawke have the power to allow them to live in the community. This can either be on Christmas Island or on the mainland on bridging visas or in community detention. Andrews recently said she was taking advice on whether she would allow them to live in the community on Christmas Island.

On Tuesday she added the government was “investigating a range of resettlement options”.

The ‘public interest’

The minister can grant any detainee a visa if they consider it to be in the “public interest” to do so.

The published guidelines on the exercise of this power states Andrews can grant a visa if a person has particular needs that cannot be properly cared for in a secured detention facility.

Read more:
Will new Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews bring a more compassionate approach?

In 2013, we were involved in a case with then immigration minister, Scott Morrison. He intervened to release a woman with intellectual disabilities into the community with her family, stating that this was necessary due to her immediate mental health and welfare needs.

The health and welfare of Tharunicaa — at the very least — provides a clear reason to release the family from detention.

Mary Anne Kenny has previously received sitting fees from the Department of Home Affairs.

Nicholas Procter has previously received grant funding and sitting fees from the Department of Home Affairs.

– ref. As a young child is evacuated from detention, could this see the Biloela Tamil family go free? – https://theconversation.com/as-a-young-child-is-evacuated-from-detention-could-this-see-the-biloela-tamil-family-go-free-162289

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meg Parsons, Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland

Our moana (ocean) is in a state of unprecedented ecological crisis. Multiple, cumulative impacts include pollution, sedimentation, overfishing, drilling and climate change. All affect the health of both marine life and coastal communities.

To reverse the decline and avoid reaching tipping points, we must adopt more holistic and integrated governance and management approaches.

Indigenous peoples have cared for their land and seascapes for generations, using traditional knowledge and practices. But our research on marine justice shows Indigenous peoples face ongoing challenges as they seek to assert their sovereignty and authority in marine spaces.

We don’t need to wait for innovative Western science to take better care of the oceans. We have an opportunity to empower traditional and contemporary Indigenous forms of governance and management for the benefit of all people and the ecosystems we are part of.

Our research highlights alternative governance and management models to improve equity and justice for Indigenous peoples. These range from shared decision-making with governments (co-governance) to Indigenous peoples regaining control and re-enacting Indigenous forms of marine governance and management.

Indigenous environmental stewardship

Throughout Oceania, Indigenous marine governance is experiencing a revival. The long-term environmental stewardship of Indigenous peoples is documented around the globe.

In Fiji, customary marine tenure is institutionalised through the qoliqoli system. This defines customary fishing areas in which village chiefs are responsible for managing fishing rights and compliance.

Coastal communities in Vanuatu continue to create and implement temporary marine protection zones (known as tapu) to allow fisheries stock to recover. In Samoa, villages are able to establish and enforce local fisheries management.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori environmental use and management is premised on the principle of kaitiakitanga (environmental guardianship) rather than unsustainable extraction of resources.

Australian Aboriginal societies likewise use the term “caring for country” to refer to their ongoing and active guardianship of the lands, seas, air, water, plants, animals, spirits and ancestors.

From the mountains to the sea

These governance and management systems are based on Indigenous knowledge that connects places and cultures and emphasises holistic approaches. The acknowledgement of inter-relationships between human and nonhuman beings (plants, animals, forests, rivers, oceans etc.) is a common thread. So is an emphasis on reciprocity and respect towards all beings.

Read more:
Respect for Indigenous knowledge must lead nature conservation efforts in Canada

Coastal and island Indigenous groups have specific obligations to care for and protect their marine environments and to use them sustainably. An inter-generational thread is part of these ethical duties. It takes into account the lessons and experiences of ancestors and considers the needs of future generations of people, plants, animals and other beings.

In contrast to Western ways of seeing the environment, the Australian Indigenous concept of country is not fragmented into different types of environment or scales of governance. Instead, land, air, water and the sea are all linked.

Likewise, for Māori, Ki uta ki tai (from the mountains to the sea) encapsulates a whole-of-landscape and seascape view.

Sharing knowledge across generations

Māori hold deep relationships with their rohe moana (saltwater territory). These are increasingly recognised by laws that emphasise Indigenous rights based on Te Tiriti o Waitangi. One example is the Integrated Kaipara Harbour Management Group, which co-manages the Kaipara Moana (harbour). The co-management agreement specifies shared responsibilities between different Māori entities (Kaipara Uri) and government agencies.

The agreement recognises Kaipara hapū (sub-tribes) and iwi (tribe) rights, interests and duties. It provides financial support to enable them to enact kaitiakitanga practices as they work to restore the mauri (life force) of the moana through practical efforts such as replanting native flora and reducing sedimentation.

They are using their mātauranga Māori (Māori Knowledge) alongside scientific knowledge to enact kaitiakitanga and ecosystem-based management.

Read more:
When rehoming wildlife, Indigenous leadership delivers the best results

Another co-management agreement is operating in Hawai’i between the community of Hā‘ena (USA) and the Hawai’ian state government. The Hā‘ena community operates an Indigenous fishing education programme. Members of all ages camp together by the coast and learn where, what and how to harvest and prepare marine products.

In this way, Indigenous knowledge, with its emphasis on sustainable practices and environmental ethics, is transmitted across generations.

Indigenous knowledge, values and relationships with our ocean can make significant contributions to marine governance. We can learn from Indigenous worldviews that emphasise connectivity between all things. There are many similarities between ecosystem-based and Indigenous knowledge management systems.

We need to do more to recognise and empower Indigenous knowledge and ways of governing marine spaces. This could include new laws, institutions and initiatives that allow Indigenous groups to exercise their self-determination rights and draw on different types of knowledge to help create and maintain sustainable seas.

The authors acknowledge Roa Crease, Karen Fisher, and Gloria Hinestroza for their assistance with the research as well as Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge for providing funding.

Meg Parsons receives funding from the National Science Challenge Sustainable Seas Programme through a research grant for 4.3 project Enabling Kaitiaktanga and Ecosystem-based Management (C01X1901)

Lara Taylor is sub-contracted to and receives funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for her research in the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge.

– ref. Why Indigenous knowledge should be an essential part of how we govern the world’s oceans – https://theconversation.com/why-indigenous-knowledge-should-be-an-essential-part-of-how-we-govern-the-worlds-oceans-161649

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tara Roberson, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of Queensland

Over the past six years, quantum science has noticeably shifted, from the domain of physicists concerned with learning about the universe on extremely small scales, to a source of new technologies we all might use for practical purposes. These technologies make use of quantum properties of single atoms or particles of light. They include sensors, communication networks, and computers.

Quantum technologies are expected to impact many aspects of our society, including health care, financial services, defence, weather modelling, and cyber security. Clearly, they promise exciting benefits. Yet the history of technology development shows we cannot simply assume new tools and systems will automatically be in the public interest.

We must look ahead to what a quantum society might entail and how the quantum design choices made today might impact how we live in the near future. The deployment of artificial intelligence and machine learning over the past few years provides a compelling example of why this is necessary.

Let’s consider an example. Quantum computers are perhaps the best-known quantum technology, with companies like Google and IBM competing to achieve quantum computation. The advantage of quantum computers lies in their ability to tackle incredibly complex tasks that would take a normal computer millions of years. One such task is simulating molecules’ behaviour to improve predictions about the properties of prospective new drugs and accelerate their development.

One conundrum posed by quantum computing is the sheer expense of investing in the physical infrastructure of the technology. This means ownership will likely be concentrated among the wealthiest countries and corporations. In turn, this could worsen uneven power distribution enabled by technology.

Other considerations for this particular type of quantum technology include concerns about reduced online privacy.

How do we stop ourselves blundering into a quantum age without due forethought? How do we tackle the societal problems posed by quantum technologies, while nations and companies race to develop them?

Charting a path

Last year, CSIRO released a roadmap that included a call for quantum stakeholders to explore and address social risks. An example of how we might proceed with this has begun at the World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF is convening experts from industry, policy-making, and research to promote safe and secure quantum technologies by establishing an agreed set of ethical principles for quantum computing.

Australia should draw on such initiatives to ensure the quantum technologies we develop work for the public good. We need to diversify the people involved in quantum technologies — in terms of the types of expertise employed and the social contexts we work from — so we don’t reproduce and amplify existing problems or create new ones.

Read more:
Scientists want to build trust in science and technology. The alternative is too risky to contemplate

While we work to shape the impacts of individual quantum technologies, we should also review the language used to describe this “second quantum revolution”.

The rationale most commonly used to advocate for the field narrowly imagines public benefit of quantum technologies in terms of economic gain and competition between nations and corporations. But framing this as a “race” to develop quantum technologies means prioritising urgency, commercial interests and national security at the expense of more civic-minded concerns.

It’s still early enough to do something about the challenges posed by quantum technologies. It’s also not all doom and gloom, with a variety of initiatives and national research and development policies setting out to tackle these problems before they are set in stone.

We need discussions involving a cross-section of society on the potential impacts of quantum technologies on society. This process should clarify societal expectations for the emerging quantum technology sector and inform any national quantum initiative in Australia.

Read more:
Why are scientists so excited about a recently claimed quantum computing milestone?

Tara Roberson is a research fellow within the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems. She is supported by the CSIRO’s Responsible Innovation initiative.

– ref. The ‘second quantum revolution’ is almost here. We need to make sure it benefits the many, not the few – https://theconversation.com/the-second-quantum-revolution-is-almost-here-we-need-to-make-sure-it-benefits-the-many-not-the-few-161878

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sangeetha Pillai, Senior Research Associate, Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law School, UNSW

In a significant judgment, Federal Court judge Geoffrey Flick on Monday ordered the Australian government to pay A$350,000 in damages to a Iraqi asylum seeker who was found to have been unlawfully held in immigration detention for over two years.

It’s an important case because it represents a rare litigation win for an asylum seeker. While the asylum seeker doesn’t automatically get the right to stay in Australia, he has won damages — and that is unusual.

This case (and another known as “the AJL20 case”, which we’ll get to later) open the door to the possibility others in the same position might also be able to claim damages.

It leaves open the prospect of compensation claims for asylum seekers who have been in detention, where no effort has been made to remove them.

Leer más:
Is Australia’s India travel ban legal? A citizenship law expert explains

The facts of the case

The asylum seeker — a 26-year-old man referred to only by the pseudonym “MZZHL” — arrived in Australia by boat in 2012. He applied for a protection visa, and was rejected. He appealed, twice, and was unsuccessful. Despite this, it’s possible that MZZHL may be a genuine refugee. As Justice Flick noted in his judgment, information that emerged much later suggests that the decision to reject his protection claim may have relied on incorrect assumptions.

While his appeals were underway, and for some time after, MZZHL was allowed, by ministerial discretion, to live in the Australian community on a bridging visa. Eventually this bridging visa expired.

Under Australia’s Migration Act, a non-citizen who does not hold a valid visa is an
“unlawful non-citizen”, and must be detained in immigration detention.

In circumstances like MZZHL’s, where options to apply for a visa have been exhausted, this detention must be for the purpose of removal from Australia, and the government must seek to remove the non-citizen from Australia “as soon as reasonably practicable”.

MZZHL was taken into immigration detention in August 2018, and the Department of Home Affairs made initial efforts to arrange his removal from Australia. In October 2018, he made a request in writing to be removed to Iraq, which the department made attempts to fulfil.

Up to this point, Justice Flick found that MZZHL’s detention was lawful, because it was for the purposes of removal from Australia, and the government was making active efforts to remove him as soon as practicable.

When did the detention become unlawful?

In March 2019, MZZHL withdrew his request to be removed to Iraq. He feared if he returned his life would be in danger, because authorities had come searching for him and had burned his family home to the ground.

At this point, the government ceased any efforts to remove him from Australia. It did not explore the possibility of finding a country other than Iraq that might have been willing to accept him.

The government also did not explore the prospect of sending MZZHL to Iraq against his will.

This might seem like a good thing, given that a forced return to Iraq may have exposed MZZHL to harm, contravening Australia’s non-refoulement obligations under international law.

However, section 197C of the Migration Act says that, for the purposes of removing a non-citizen from Australia, Australia’s non-refoulement obligations are “irrelevant”. Section 197C has been amended in the last fortnight, but, at the time MZZHL’s case was heard, it required the government to actively seek to remove him to the first available place — even if this was somewhere where he might face grave harm.

The Commonwealth accepted that, by failing to take active steps to pursue MZZHL’s removal, it had breached its obligation to remove him from Australia as soon as practicable. Nonetheless, it argued MZZHL’s detention was lawful because it was for the legitimate purpose of removal.

Justice Flick disagreed. He held that

the pursuit of any “purpose”, let alone a “purpose of removing [MZZHL] from Australia” had been abandoned.

On this basis, he found MZZHL had been unlawfully detained.

Alternatives to removal

As Justice Flick noted, there was another option available to the government.

The immigration minister has a power, under section 195A of the Migration Act, to grant a visa to a person in detention, where this is in the public interest. The minister has no duty to consider exercising this power — it is simply an option available to them.

On May 4, the first day that MZZHL’s case was listed for hearing, the minister exercised the power under section 195A to grant him a bridging visa. This is not a long term right to remain in Australia, merely an option to live in the community instead of detention until departure becomes possible.

Justice Flick also noted the Commonwealth could have considered whether MZZHL had additional protection claims that had not been determined, in light of the evidence of attacks on his family home, and other information suggesting that, contrary to earlier assessments, he may have been an Iraqi citizen.

For over two years prior to the hearing, none of these options were pursued, and the government also made no efforts to remove MZZHL from Australia. It simply did nothing.

Damages

The Commonwealth argued that even if MZZHL’s detention was unlawful, the only available remedy was a court order demanding that it fulfil its obligation to pursue MZZHL’s removal.

Justice Flick disagreed. He concluded MZZHL had been unlawfully deprived of his liberty, and should have been released from detention “soon after March 2019”.

He awarded MZZHL $350,000 in damages, calculated in a similar manner to that used in false imprisonment cases.

What next? The future is uncertain for MZZHL

Last year, in another Federal Court case, AJL20 v Commonwealth, Justice Bromberg made similar findings to Justice Flick.

The Commonwealth appealed to the High Court, which is yet to deliver a judgment. It remains to be seen whether the outcome of the AJL20 appeal will affect the MZZHL finding.

If the Commonwealth loses, both Federal Court decisions will stand.

But even if the Commonwealth succeeds in overturning the Federal Court decision in AJL20, the decision in MZZHL may stand, because Justice Flick used slightly different reasoning to Justice Bromberg.

Whatever the outcome in the AJL20 appeal, the future is uncertain for MZZHL. He is currently on a bridging visa, but still has an obligation to leave Australia.

The minister has the option to grant him another opportunity to apply for a protection visa.

If this isn’t granted, and his bridging visa expires, he will once again face detention and removal, albeit under a statutory regime that has seen some recent changes.

Leer más:
With billions more allocated to immigration detention, it’s another bleak year for refugees

This article is part of a series on asylum seeker policy supported by a grant from the Broadley Trust.

– ref. Federal Court awards $350,000 to unlawfully detained asylum seeker, opening door to further claims – https://theconversation.com/federal-court-awards-350-000-to-unlawfully-detained-asylum-seeker-opening-door-to-further-claims-162261

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Paul Mika, Senior Lecturer, School of Management, Massey University

Excitement among Cook Islands tourism operators and officials at the opening of quarantine-free travel with Aotearoa New Zealand was understandable. The impact of the pandemic on the island nation’s economy has been massive and will be felt for a long time.

But it wasn’t long before a local environmental organisation sounded a warning about the risks of a return to high-volume tourism.

The popular Muri lagoon area has already suffered from pollution. There is also pressure on sacred sites such as Avana harbour, legendary departure place of the seven canoes that sailed to Aotearoa around 700 years ago.

On the other side of the world, there is a renewed movement to save Venice from pre-pandemic threats of over-tourism and cruise ships damaging its ancient canals.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, too, people have been given pause to think about whether a return to tourism as usual is viable.

One iwi, Tūhourangi Ngāti Wahio at Whakarewarewa in Rotorua, has seriously considered whether to allow tourism to resume in their village. Virtually synonymous with the birth of tourism in Aotearoa, the iwi now questions just what benefits its people are receiving from tourist activity.

Everywhere, it seems, there are debates about what tourism will look like in the post-COVID era.

No return to mass tourism

As regular flights between Aotearoa and Australia resume, the issue of high-volume tourism and its environmental impact is now front and centre.

Significantly, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has advocated for using the disruption caused by COVID-19 to transform the local tourism industry.

This would be based on the industry being accountable for its environmental costs, and involving local communities and mana whenua in decision-making — echoing other calls to recalibrate tourism within “sustainable bounds”.

Few people would argue for a return to unsustainable practices, but what does this really mean? And who might we turn to for solutions?

Read more:
NZ tourism can use the disruption of COVID-19 to drive sustainable change — and be more competitive

Listening to Indigenous voices

We argue Indigenous philosophies of enterprise and economy have the potential to provide those answers — if we are bold enough to allow such voices to be heard.

In Māori philosophy, people and the environment are kin. As such, they depend on one another for their well-being. Consequently, some of the voices we need to hear are those of Papatūānuku (Earth mother) and her elements, the rivers, mountains and seas.

What is more natural than wanting to have a conversation with your relations in times of trouble or joy? This can be an alien concept for many, but the Māori practice of karakia (incantation) is essentially about communicating as kin with the natural elements.

In fact, these ideas have already found expression in Māori tourism operations on the Whanganui River. Te Awa Tupua, an ancestor of the iwi of the river, has been recognised as a person in law through a settlement of past wrongs under Te Tiriti o Waitangi between Whanganui iwi and the Crown.

Ask the river

While relatively novel, the granting of legal personhood to Te Urewera in 2014 and Te Awa Tupua in 2017 enacts a fundamental idea of indigeneity — that all things, human and non-human, are interrelated.

For the iwi of Te Awa Tupua, this sense of unity is captured in the tribal saying:

Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au — I am the river and the river is me.

Perhaps those wanting a conversation about what sustainable tourism might look like could begin by asking the river.

This is not a fanciful suggestion. Te Awa Tupua has been given a human face in the form of Te Pou Tupua, a single role held by two people appointed to speak on behalf of Te Awa Tupua and to uphold Tupua te Kawa, the natural law and values of the river.

Low growth, high quality

Our research has exposed social and ecological tensions between conventional industry ideas and Māori tourism operators’ attitudes to commercial growth. Māori tourism enterprises will more readily opt for lower growth in favour of environmental and community well-being.

One Māori-owned jet boating enterprise, for example, would forgo tours beyond a desired daily maximum to help minimise the environmental footprint of the operation on the awa (river) and surrounds. They preferred to focus on quality of experience, not quantity of visitors.

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Another Māori operator prioritised job opportunities for whānau to harness their cultural knowledge and deepen their connection to the awa. As the owner reflected:

I think the biggest aspiration is for my kids to know and identify themselves with the river.

Similarly, a marae-based tourism experience has avoided catering for busloads of visitors in favour of smaller groups. Tribal narratives of the awa are linked to discussions about climate change, all within a culturally unique space that allows time to reflect on the human connection to Te Awa Tupua.

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Tourism and the Treaty

These examples of Māori tourism demonstrate there are other ways of thinking beyond
a return to the old mode of accentuating growth at the expense of the environment and local communities.

Given the impact of COVID-19 now and likely into the future, the tourism industry can’t ignore the innovative potential of Māori world views.

A sustainable tourism model also recognises the essential purpose of treaty settlements such as those agreed in Whanganui — to allow people to live a good life in peaceful co-existence with each other and the land for all time.

In practice, this means a homegrown Indigenous framework for discussing and building sustainable tourism is already at our doorstep. We need only ask the rivers, the mountains, the seas – our ancestors – for guidance on what that means for coming generations.

Jason Paul Mika receives funding from Massey University to conduct research on Māori tourism on the Whanganui River.

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

– ref. What would sustainable tourism really mean for New Zealand? Let’s ask the river – https://theconversation.com/what-would-sustainable-tourism-really-mean-for-new-zealand-lets-ask-the-river-160438

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paula Gerber, Professor of Human Rights Law, Monash University

The word “reparations” comes from the Latin verb reparāre, meaning “to repair.” However, nowadays, many people equate reparations with the payment of compensation or damages.

We need to understand and embrace the true meaning of the word and start to have genuine conversations about reparations for LGBTQ people — a group that has endured a long and painful history of persecution around the globe.

A brief history of gay persecution

Perhaps the most high-profile persecutions of gays were those perpetrated by the Nazis during the second world war. Thousands of gay men were sent to concentration camps where they were forced to wear a pink triangle and ultimately killed.

But the history of gay persecution predates the Holocaust, and has continued after the Nazi regime ended.

From the 12th century, gays in Christian Europe were castrated, decapitated, drowned in swamps and burned at the stake. And in modern times, the state-sanctioned killing of LGBTQ people continues in many countries, including Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Read more:
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There are still 71 countries that criminalise consensual gay sex — half of which are Commonwealth nations — but thankfully this number is going down.

What are gay reparations?

There are numerous forms that gay reparations can take. They often entail a formal government apology to the LGBTQ community for past wrongs and a promise to do better in the future.

They can also include memorialising the victims of state-sponsored repression of gays, as Germany did in 2008 when it unveiled a memorial to gay victims of the Holocaust.

Gay reparations often include pardons to those convicted of the “crime” of being gay.

In 2017, for instance, the UK issued posthumous pardons to thousands of gay and bisexual men convicted of “gross indecency” in the past, including Alan Turing, the mathematician who famously broke the Germans’ Enigma codes during the second world war. He committed suicide two years after he was convicted for “acts of gross indecency”, based on his relationship with Arnold Murray, and underwent chemical castration.

Occasionally, gay reparations can involve financial compensation for wages or pensions lost due to time spent in prison or a mental institution because of a homosexual offense. Such compensation has been available in Spain since 2009 and in Germany since 2016.

Read more:
Calls for a posthumous pardon … but who was Alan Turing?

What are the arguments against gay reparations?

There is strong resistance to the idea of gay reparations in some countries, especially the United States.

Some of the opposition is rooted in run-of-the-mill homophobia. Statistics show a rise in hate crimes against LGBTQ people in recent years in many countries, including the UK and Germany. Homophobic hate speech by politicians is on the rise in many places, and in Poland, nearly 100 localities have declared themselves “anti-LGBTQ” zones.

But the arguments against gay reparations are more nuanced. Omar G Encarnacion, a US scholar who wrote the new book The Case for Gay Reparations, identified five arguments used by opponents against gay reparations:

1. it is wrong to apply today’s values to the historic persecution of gays because the discrimination perpetrated against gays in the past was generally legal at the time

2. this is no more than an exercise in virtue signaling (the conspicuous expression of moral righteousness), with the risk of becoming a slippery slope that could open the floodgates to reparations for just about anyone who has faced hardship or discrimination in life

3. gay reparations are divisive and take identity politics and “victimhood” to a new level

4. gay reparations lack justification because, unlike the case of racial discrimination, there is little evidence of intergenerational damage linked to anti-gay discrimination

5. they are redundant because of the economic success of the gay community.

Encarnacion systematically refutes each of these arguments, noting that critics of gay reparations are misinformed about the purpose of acknowledging and repairing the wrongs perpetrated against LGBTQ people.

Their arguments rely on stereotypes and flawed comparisons between gays and other groups that have been persecuted (especially African Americans), and generally show a lack empathy for the gay community.

What reparations can look like in practice

There is a clear trend towards countries decriminalising homosexuality with Bhutan, Angola, Gabon, Botswana, Mozambique, the Seychelles and Trinidad and Tobago all abolishing these laws in recent years.

While these reforms are welcomed, they are merely the start of the journey towards equality for LGBTQ people — not the end. It is time all countries acknowledge and offer reparations for the mistakes of homophobic laws that have targeted gays and destroyed millions of lives.

Read more:
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Australia provides a useful model. In 2016, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, in a world first, apologised for the homophobic laws of the past in his state. In a moving speech he said,

There was a time in our history when we turned thousands of ordinary young men into criminals. And it was profoundly and unimaginably wrong. […] This parliament and this government are to be formally held to account for designing a culture of darkness and shame. […] We are so sorry. Humbly, deeply, sorry.

This apology came after laws were enacted in the state of Victoria expunging convictions for homosexual conduct. And it has been followed by other landmark actions, including the enactment of laws banning “conversion therapy” and the construction of the first Pride Centre in Australia to support the LGBTQ community.

Reparations like this must be the ultimate goal. As the writer and philosopher Michael Bassey Johnson once observed:

Sometimes, the mistake is not the problem; the lack of remorse is the real mistake.

Paula Gerber is a director of Kaleidoscope Human Rights Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that works to protect the rights of LGBTIQ people in the Asia Pacific region.

– ref. It’s time to talk about gay reparations and how they can rectify past persecutions of LGBTQ people – https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-talk-about-gay-reparations-and-how-they-can-rectify-past-persecutions-of-lgbtq-people-162086

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Isaacs, Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University of Sydney

In 2019, before COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten greatest threats to global health.

Every year, vaccination saves around 4-5 million lives, although a further 1.5 million lives could be saved annually with improved global vaccine coverage.

Now, we are seeing a new round of vaccine hesitancy in some corners as the COVID vaccine is rolled out. But that’s nothing new. Anti-vaccination movements have existed for as long as vaccination.

Read more:
Coronavirus: the road to vaccine roll-out is always bumpy, as 20th-century pandemics show

From cowpox came the smallpox vaccine

The first modern vaccine was the smallpox vaccine which English country general practitioner Edward Jenner developed from cowpox at the end of the 18th century.

Smallpox was known as the “most terrible of all the ministers of death”, so Jenner’s smallpox vaccine was rapidly adopted around the world. However, some were scared or sceptical.

English satirist James Gillray famously depicted cows emerging from the bodies of terrified people being given cowpox vaccine, as seen below.

In 1853, concerned by pockets of poor uptake of smallpox vaccine, the British parliament introduced the Vaccination Act, making infant smallpox vaccination compulsory. Mandatory vaccination fomented opposition, something we should remember if considering making a modern vaccine mandatory.

In 1885, over 80,000 vaccine dissenters marched through Leicester carrying banners, a child’s coffin and an effigy of Jenner. Dissent spread to the US and Canada. Eventually, the success of Jenner’s smallpox vaccine silenced the anti-smallpox vaccination movement.

Nevertheless, in 1950, over 50 million people worldwide caught smallpox, most in Africa and India. About 10 million died, and it took an extraordinary WHO campaign, in which Australian virologist Frank Fenner played a key role, to eliminate smallpox from the world forever. That was achieved in 1978.

Polio, the silent killer

In the first half of the 20th century, as smallpox began to disappear, polio (infantile paralysis) was the disease most feared in resource-rich countries.

Philip Roth’s novel Nemesis describes the terror of polio, the silent killer, sweeping through Newark, New Jersey, in 1944 killing or paralysing its victims. It is easy to draw parallels with COVID-19.

America was desperate for a polio vaccine. Two Jewish virologists whose families fled the pogroms in Europe, Albert Sabin and Jonas Salk, competed to develop the first polio vaccine.

Salk’s vaccine, made from killed polio viruses, was ready for a large clinical trial in 1954. Families were desperate for their children to be enrolled; children who did so called themselves Polio Pioneers.

Even before the results of the trial were made public, vaccine companies were asked to tender to mass produce the Salk vaccine. Five companies applied, four major pharmaceutical firms and one Californian family firm called Cutter Laboratories. The whole country held its breath and tuned their radios as the trial results were announced.

The press release showed protection against the virus. Reporters cried, “It works, it works”, church bells pealed, sirens blared. Vaccine production began and the vaccine was launched triumphantly in 1955.

The Cutter Incident

But within two weeks disaster struck. Children who received the Cutter vaccine (but not the vaccines made by the four other companies) started to develop paralysis.

Cutter Laboratories had failed to kill the poliovirus incorporated in its vaccine. Of 200,000 children given the Cutter vaccine, 40,000 developed polio, 200 were paralysed and 10 died.

Although the polio vaccination program stalled due to the “Cutter Incident”, the fear of catching polio was so great the public was soon reassured the other vaccines had not caused polio.

Universal polio vaccination resumed with excellent uptake.

What are the lessons from history for COVID-19 vaccination?

Firstly, the public will tolerate risk of harm from a vaccine if their fear of the disease exceeds their fear of the vaccine.

The immediate response of many countries to news of rare but serious cases of blood clotting occurring in people given the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was to suspend use of the vaccine, at least for younger adults.

In public health, the precautionary principle means acting to prevent harm. Arguably, this is an example of inappropriate use of the precautionary principle (which, in public health, means acting to prevent harm). Perhaps there was not sufficient consideration of the possibility that suspending vaccine delivery was a disproportionate response which would alarm the public and increase vaccine hesitancy.

Although the risk of blood clotting with the AstraZeneca vaccine is extremely low, at times when there is almost no COVID-19 circulating (as sometimes happens in Australia and New Zealand) the risk of dying from blood clotting due to the vaccine is slightly higher than dying from COVID-19.

In Australia, a concentration on individual risk at a single point in time ignores the benefits to the community of widespread vaccine uptake.

And as soon as COVID-19 incidence rises, the risk of dying from COVID-19 massively outweighs any slight vaccine risk.

Indeed, COVID-19 itself is far more likely to cause blood clots than the vaccine. However, contravening autonomy by making vaccination mandatory threatens civil liberties and should only be considered in extreme circumstances.

Complacency, inconvenient access to vaccines, and lack of confidence are key factors in vaccine hesitancy.

However, trusted health workers in communities can build public confidence in vaccines and combat hesitancy.

Open and honest communication about vaccine safety is important, but messaging also needs to put vaccine risk in perspective.

History tells us the public can tolerate risk of harm from vaccines when the severity of the disease warrants the risk.

Read more:
Vaccine rollout: history shows us that it’s always a bit shambolic

Professor David Isaacs is the author of the book Defeating the Ministers of Death: The compelling story of vaccination.

– ref. From smallpox to polio, vaccine rollouts have always had doubters. But they work in the end – https://theconversation.com/from-smallpox-to-polio-vaccine-rollouts-have-always-had-doubters-but-they-work-in-the-end-161803

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rupert Posner, Systems Lead – Sustainable Economies, ClimateWorks Australia

Getting to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and 100% renewable energy might seem the end game for climate action. But what if, like Tasmania, you’ve already ticked both those goals off your list?

Net-zero means emissions are still being generated, but they’re offset by the same amount elsewhere. Tasmania reached net-zero in 2015, because its vast forests and other natural landscapes absorb and store more carbon each year than the state emits.

And in November last year, Tasmania became fully powered by renewable electricity, thanks to the island state’s wind and hydro-electricity projects.

The big question for Tasmania now is: what comes next? Rather than considering the job done, it should seize opportunities including more renewable energy, net-zero industrial exports and forest preservation – and show the world what the other side of net-zero should look like.

A good start

The Tasmanian experience shows emissions reduction is more straightforward in some places than others.

The state’s high rainfall and mountainous topography mean it has abundant hydro-electric resources. And the state’s windy north is well suited to wind energy projects.

What’s more, almost half the state’s 6.81 million hectares comprises forest, which acts as a giant carbon “sink” that sucks up dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere.

Given Tasmania’s natural assets, it makes sense for the state to go further on climate action, even if its goals have been met.

Read more:
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The Tasmanian government has gone some way to recognising this, by legislating a target of 200% renewable electricity by 2040.

Under the target, Tasmania would produce twice its current electricity needs and export the surplus. It would be delivered to the mainland via the proposed A$3.5 billion Marinus Link cable to be built between Tasmania and Victoria. The 1,500 megawatt cable would bolster the existing 500 megawatt Basslink cable.

But Tasmania’s climate action should not stop there.

Other opportunities await

Tasmania can use its abundant renewable electricity to decarbonise existing industrial areas. It can also create new, greener industrial precincts – clusters of manufacturers powered by renewable electricity and other zero-emissions fuels such as green hydrogen.

Zero-emission hydrogen, aluminium and other goods produced in these precincts will become increasingly sought after by countries and other states with their own net-zero commitments.

Read more:
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Tasmania’s vast forests could be an additional source of economic value if they were preserved and expanded, rather than logged. As well as supporting tourism, preserving forests could enable Tasmania to sell carbon credits to other jurisdictions and businesses seeking to offset their emissions, such as through the federal government’s Emissions Reduction Fund.

The ocean surrounding Tasmania also presents net-zero economic opportunities. For example, local company Sea Forest is developing a seaweed product to be added to the feed of livestock, dramatically reducing the methane they emit.

Concrete targets are needed

The Tasmanian government has commissioned a review of its climate change legislation, and is also revising its climate change action plan.

These updates give Tasmania a chance to be a global model for a post-net-zero world. But without firm action, Tasmania risks sliding backwards.

While having reached net-zero, the state has not legislated or set a requirement to maintain it. The state’s current legislated emission target is a 60% reduction by 2050 on 1990 levels – which, hypothetically, means Tasmania could increase its emissions in future.

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Also, despite reaching net-zero emissions, Tasmania still emits more than 8,360 million tonnes of CO₂ each year from sources such as transport, natural gas use, industry and agriculture. Tasmania’s emissions from all sectors other than electricity and land use have increased by 4.5% since 2005.

Without a net-zero target set in law – and a plan to stay there – these emissions could overtake those drawn down by Tasmania’s forests. In fact, a background paper prepared for the Tasmanian government shows the state’s emissions may rise in the coming years and stay “positive” until 2040 or later.

The legislation update should also include a process to set emissions targets for each sector of the economy, as Victoria has done. It should also set ambitious targets for “negative” emissions – which means sequestering more CO₂ than is emitted.

Action on all fronts

Under the Paris Agreement, the world is pursuing efforts to limit global warming to 1.5℃ this century. For Australia to be in line with this goal, it must reach net-zero by the mid-2030s.

Meeting this momentous task requires action on all fronts, in all jurisdictions. Bigger states and territories are aiming for substantial emissions reductions this decade. Tasmania must at least keep its emissions net-negative, and decrease them further.

Tasmania has a golden opportunity. With the right policies, the state can solidify its climate credentials and create a much-needed economic boost as the world transitions to a low-carbon future.

Rupert Posner is part of ClimateWorks Australia, which works within the Monash Sustainable Development Institute. ClimateWorks Australia receives its core funding from philanthropic foundations and also undertakes projects which attract funding from industry and government departments and agencies.

Simon Graham is part of ClimateWorks Australia, which works within the Monash Sustainable Development Institute. ClimateWorks Australia receives its core funding from philanthropic foundations and also undertakes projects which attract funding from industry and government departments and agencies.

– ref. Tasmania’s reached net-zero emissions and 100% renewables – but climate action doesn’t stop there – https://theconversation.com/tasmanias-reached-net-zero-emissions-and-100-renewables-but-climate-action-doesnt-stop-there-160927

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University

This is an article from I’ve Always Wondered, a series where readers send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. Send your question to alwayswondered@theconversation.edu.au

Why can’t I flush cat poo down the toilet? Diane, Sydney

When I was a teenager I owned a large dog, a German Shepherd. It was my responsibility to pick up his poo and put it in the bin. I would never have thought to flush it down the toilet.

So, after a quick internet search, I was surprised to find many people do actually flush cat poo down the toilet. I soon discovered training your cat to use a toilet is a hot topic for cat owners, especially for urban cats that live in home units and lack a backyard.

But sharing a toilet with your cat can put your own health in danger. So what do the water authorities say? And is it OK to flush away kitty litter?

It could be dangerous

My first reaction when I read this question was “no”. I suggest you put it in the garbage, like most people do when they walk their dogs. Then, it would be buried in landfill, along with normal household rubbish.

The main reason is that poo from our pets — and other animals — can be a risk to human health. Animals can spread diseases with other species including humans (called zoonotic diseases).

A common and dangerous zoonotic disease is toxoplasmosis. Cats can carry this disease (among others) and pass it to humans, particularly through human contact with their poo.

Read more:
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Toxoplasmosis can cause serious health issues for people, particularly those with weak immune systems. And it is very serious for pregnant women as they can pass an infection to an unborn baby, with other potentially tragic consequences later in the child’s life.

In fact, a study published last year estimated that toxoplasmosis, cat roundworm and cat scratch disease are linked to more than 8,500 hospitalisations and about 550 deaths in Australia each year.

So it’s best you avoid sharing a toilet with your cat — and always be very careful handling pet wastes.

To get an industry answer to this question, I asked five Australian water authorities that manage the largest urban sewerage systems across the country, including Sydney Water, Melbourne Water and Icon Water (Canberra).

Their reaction was generally “no”. You should not flush any pet waste down the toilet. But it was not unanimous — at least one water authority told me they thought it was OK to flush away cat poo.

There was one big issue they all agreed on, however. And that’s to only flush the three Ps: pee, poo and paper down the loo, the only paper being toilet paper.

What about kitty litter?

Every single water authority stressed the message that no kitty litter should be flushed down the toilet. So why is kitty litter so dangerous?

Kitty litter, or other materials that aren’t any of the “three Ps”, can block sewer pipes. Kitty litter is made from all sorts of materials, such as recycled products like old newspapers.

But a common ingredient is a clay material called “bentonite”. It has a remarkable ability to absorb up to 15 times its original weight.

This is the big problem. If you flush kitty litter down your toilet, it can swell up and block sewer pipes, even in the pipes in your home — yuk! Don’t risk it!

Blocked sewer pipes are a horrible, messy and smelly problem. Sinks can block and toilets can stop flushing. They can also cause raw sewage to leak out. Sewage is dangerous for the environment and is very hazardous for people as it can spread infectious disease.

Toilets are not bins

Many of us need to be reminded that we should not use our toilets as flushing garbage bins.

Read more:
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Take wet wipes, for example. Some products are incorrectly labelled “flushable wipes”, and these are particularly dangerous as they don’t break down like toilet paper.

They can form a twisted mess in sewer pipes and block them. In fact, there’s now a new Australian Standard being developed to make sure “wipes” have suitable warning labels.

Taking it to the extreme, consider the “monster fatberg” in the UK in 2017. Thames Water removed a disgusting blockage in sewer pipes that was 250 metres long, and weighed almost as much as a blue whale.

It was a massive and expensive job to remove this. And it was caused by people putting stuff down the toilet and kitchen sink they should have put in the bin.

The bottom line

So while it must take impressive balance and gymnastic skills for a cat to sit on, and use a toilet (there are even books on this topic!), my advice is put your cat’s poo (and poo from other pets) into the garbage bin.

And generally, make sure you don’t flush things down the toilet that really should go into the bin.

I am also yet to see evidence cats can flush the toilet themselves — I suspect this isn’t impossible, though.

Read more:
Don’t let them out: 15 ways to keep your indoor cat happy

I was once employed as an environmental scientist in the water industry.

– ref. I’ve always wondered: can I flush cat poo down the toilet? – https://theconversation.com/ive-always-wondered-can-i-flush-cat-poo-down-the-toilet-159340

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sven Trenholm, Adjunct Lecturer in Mathematics Education, University of South Australia

Screen-based devices have increasingly become part of our human experience – even more so since the pandemic began. This trend includes watching more and more videos. For example, before COVID-19, the average American watched about six hours of videos a day on devices ranging from televisions to desktop computers and mobile phones. By one estimate, this figure has “surged” more than 40% during the pandemic.

In higher education, the online use of recorded lecture videos has also increased greatly. How is this affecting learning? For undergraduate mathematics, a recently published review confirmed the findings of a 2012 study that, overall, the more often students watched such videos the poorer their performance in their course.

Read more:
COVID killed the on-campus lecture, but will unis raise it from the dead?

Recent research has identified a possible reason for this. It might help explain why the findings of these two reviews differ from those of studies of learning from videos in other disciplines.

How might videos depress learning?

Of course, correlation is not causation. It’s possible, for example, that weaker mathematics students tend to rely on videos more than stronger students.

However, an equally plausible explanation is that regular use of these videos is somehow depressing students’ learning. A two-part study was designed to investigate this possibility.

The first study involved two groups of students studying engineering mathematics courses in Australia and the UK. At the beginning and end of each course, students completed a questionnaire to assess how they approached their studying.

In both settings, regular video users were found to become more surface learners over the course of the semester. Those accessing few or no videos were unchanged in their study approaches. This was despite regular video users, as compared to low users, being older in Australia and initially better at mathematics in the UK.

This gave rise to a second study that used interviews with Australian participants to explore how they were using the videos to advance their understanding of mathematics. First, to provide some insight into underlying processes and thus the design of the second study, a review of the cognitive research on the use of television was conducted. Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi sum up this research:

“[…] in every sample we have studied, with different demographic groups and with subjects ranging in age from 10 to 82, and with groups from more than one country, it has been found that people consistently report their experiences with television as being passive, relaxing, and involving relatively little concentration.”

Read more:
Who learns in maths classes depends on how maths is taught

With this understanding, cognitive processes associated with the use of lecture videos were considered as a dual-process system, meaning people tend to think using two channels:

1. “type 1” thinking: fast and intuitive with little to no working memory used.

2. “type 2” thinking: slow and analytical with working memory used.

Working memory has been defined as “the small amount of information that can be held in mind and used in the execution of cognitive tasks”.

The mathematics videos were viewed outside of typical lecture or classroom settings. Students actively controlled their use. Therefore, the second study interview questions focused on the critical point at which students judge their own learning to determine, for example, whether they move on to new learning or not.

All Australian participants were interviewed at the end of the course. The analysis of their responses showed regular users were more prone to type 1 thinking when judging their learning. They relied mostly on “feelings of rightness” rather than, for example, checking that correct procedures were followed. In mathematics, the former may lead to wrong (“pseudo-analytical”) thinking, while the latter typically results in the correct solution.

Findings differ in other disciplines. Why?

At first glance, this discovery contrasts sharply with findings from a recent systematic review that concluded the use of videos was “consistently good for learning”. However, a closer look at the review reveals almost all the included studies (96%) related to instruction in applied undergraduate disciplines, such as health sciences, which represented over 80% of the included studies. Studies on the use of video in mathematics or other abstract disciplines that demand high-level conceptual thinking were not part of the review.

Read more:
Videos won’t kill the uni lecture, but they will improve student learning and their marks

This might suggest the use of video will help learning if the level of thinking required is relatively low, such as learning medical procedures, but not necessarily where it is high, such as gaining conceptual understanding in mathematics.

More research is certainly needed. We still know very little about thought processes when viewing lecture videos.

One question arising from research in undergraduate mathematics is: have we somehow become conditioned by almost a century of television use so that when presented with a simple video recording of a lecture, the medium subconsciously signals its viewers to tone down any mental effort? This is enough to achieve better learning outcomes where low-level cognitive processing is sufficient, but could be detrimental where high-level processing is required.

Put another way, and more broadly, under what circumstances and with which people can screens act as cognitive cues signalling us to relax mentally, in much the same way viewing food can make us salivate?

Sven Trenholm 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 too many recorded lecture videos may be bad for maths students’ learning – https://theconversation.com/why-too-many-recorded-lecture-videos-may-be-bad-for-maths-students-learning-157407

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margaret Brown, Adjunct Research Fellow, UniSA Justice and Society, University of South Australia

In May 2021 a B-double truck mounted a kerb when turning a corner in Melbourne, injuring five pedestrians. In February 2020 a drunk driver drove onto a footpath in Sydney, killing four children and injuring three others as they walked to get ice-creams. These incidents are just two of many grim reminders that pedestrians are an especially vulnerable group of road users.

“Pedestrians” includes most of us as we walk along or across roads, even if it is just to get to our car. Children, young people, city residents, older people and people on low incomes are especially reliant on walking rather than driving.

Read more:
Slaves to speed, we’d all benefit from ‘slow cities’

Pedestrians, along with cyclists and motorcyclists, are most at risk of injury and death when involved in a collision on the roads. In a crash, pedestrians are four times more likely to be injured than those in a vehicle.

The road toll has decreased over recent decades largely because fewer people in cars are dying. Pedestrian deaths have decreased much more slowly. In the decade to 2019, road deaths of car occupants fell three times as fast as for vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists).

What are governments doing to protect pedestrians?

Australia has had many parliamentary inquiries and state and federal road safety strategies in recent years. A federal Office of Road Safety was created in 2019. However, the recommended road safety measures usually improve safety for people in vehicles or improve traffic flow. These measures do nothing for pedestrian safety.

Government reports and bodies have recently begun talking about the “safe system” approach. This approach is supposed to take a holistic view, sharing the responsibility for reducing risk by improving the safety of roads, vehicles and road rules, as well as driver behaviour. While some versions of this approach consider the safety of all road users, including pedestrians, this has not filtered through to government policies.

Some states have adopted climate change plans or strategies that promote walking and cycling. The South Australian Climate Change Action Plan 2021-2025, for instance, promises the state government will work towards a low-emissions transport system, improve public transport and encourage “active travel” – walking and cycling.

However, since the launch of the plan the state government has privatised trains and announced new roadworks to improve the flow of cars and freight vehicles. They are clearly paying little attention to the needs of pedestrians.

Read more:
Cycling and walking are short-changed when it comes to transport funding in Australia

Safety affects everyone’s right to mobility

Australian governments neglect other perspectives such as the right to mobility for all. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, signed by Australia, recognises the right to liberty of movement. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognises the rights to access to transport and to personal mobility.

Our approach to road safety should, as Victoria Walks argues:

“[…] consider road safety as part of mobility for all people, whether they drive or not, and transport as part of the bigger liveability picture”.

Another possible perspective is “liveable communities”. The concept of liveability promotes the critical factors of access to public transport, and walking and cycling infrastructure.

Read more:
How do we create liveable cities? First, we must work out the key ingredients

So, how are Australian state and territory governments recognising our right to mobility and helping to build liveable communities for all?

In 2020, the Commonwealth Parliament’s Joint Select Committee on Road Safety received many submissions from organisations concerned with pedestrian safety. Its final report, released in October 2020, contains 22 recommendations. Yet none of these focus specifically on pedestrian safety, although “pedestrian awareness” is mentioned in relation to driver training.

How to make communities safer and more liveable

Recommendations in the Victoria Walks submission to the select committee covered topics such as:

• the design of crossings and intersections
• maintaining footpaths and walking routes
• banning e-scooters from footpaths
• reducing speed limits in residential areas
• increasing investment in public transport
• expanding the range of data collected on pedestrian injuries and fatalities.

The committee’s final recommendations reflected none of these points.

The Office of Road Safety is yet to release its National Road Safety Strategy. It says the strategy will consider “vulnerable road users” as a whole group. This approach fails to adequately consider the needs of pedestrians separately from motorcyclists and cyclists.

The previous National Road Safety Strategy 2011–2020 did include reducing “the number of serious casualties among pedestrians and cyclists” as one of its “major strategic challenges”. This suggests pedestrians are receiving even less attention now than they were a decade ago.

Read more:
Cycling and walking can help drive Australia’s recovery – but not with less than 2% of transport budgets

Some government publications recognise pedestrians as “vulnerable road users”. Yet almost no attention is paid to the most vulnerable pedestrians, namely older people, children and people with disability.

Governments are prioritising the flow of traffic, including of freight. They argue that’s good for jobs and economic growth.

There is little political will to discourage people from driving, to reduce speed limits, to prioritise walking (and cycling) infrastructure and to increase public transport funding. All of these measures contribute to mobility for all – including children, older people and people with disability. And that, in turn, will make our communities more liveable and sustainable.

I would like to acknowledge the work of my research assistant Kate Leeson and former colleague Peter Lumb.

I am a frequent pedestrian, which involves crossing major roads without pedestrian safety infrastructure.

– ref. We all have to walk across roads — why aren’t pedestrians a focus of road safety? – https://theconversation.com/we-all-have-to-walk-across-roads-why-arent-pedestrians-a-focus-of-road-safety-161183

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martie-Louise Verreynne, Professor in Innovation and Associate DVC (Research – College of Business and Law), RMIT University

It took a chance meeting between Cameron van den Dungen, founder of a start-up mattress company, and Madhu Bhaskaran, an engineering professor at RMIT University, to see an opportunity to collaborate and commercialise research.

Van den Dungen had a dream of creating a bed for use in aged care to monitor sleep quality and comfort. Bhaskaran’s research team at RMIT were developing flexible wafer-like electronic sensors. The fruits of their collaboration is a smart mattress monitoring system known as “REMi”.

It’s the type of collaboration the Australian government says is its top priority for universities. Federal education minister Alan Tudge reiterated that agenda last week:

Our aim is not just to make incremental progress; we want to fundamentally shift the dial, so that in five or ten years’ time, we start to look more like Israel or California or the UK in terms of how our universities interact with business […]

Tudge is not the first minister with such ambitions. The benefits of commercialising university research have been talked about for decades. Yet Australia remains one of the worst-performing developed economies on this score.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’s most recent data, just 5% of Australian businesses have collaborated with university researchers; and the smaller a company the less likely collaboration is.

Which is a problem given that small to medium enterprises – those employing fewer than 200 people – make up more than 99% of all Australian businesses.

So what to do? That’s a subject we’ve sought to answer through surveying 800 small to medium enterprises for the CSIRO.

Starting the conversation

Half of the SMEs we surveyed had engaged with universities or research institutes before. Half had not. These responses pointed to both the barriers and bridges to greater research commercialisation.

Among businesses that had not reached out to collaborate before, stereotypes about university academics were strong. They commonly thought universities would not understand their business, have different R&D aims or be too slow to progress projects.

The first challenge was just getting a conversation started – like that between van den Dungen and Bhaskaran.

Their journey shows what can follow.

Read more:
How to get the most out of research when universities and industry team up

Why a bed company needed a university

Van den Dungen grew up in the bed business. His father Henk had started working in the bedding department at Myer in the 1960s, then in the 1980s became a founding member of the Forty Winks retailer cooperative.

After years working in the family business, van den Dungen founded his own company, Sleeptite, and began looking for ways to make a better bed for use in aged care facilities.

He wanted a mattress with embedded electronic sensors to monitor a patient. This could replace the more haphazard use of pressure mats next to beds know if a patient had fallen out, and “door checks” by staff members doing the rounds at night.

Then came his chance meeting with Bhaskaran. Four years and several government grants later, their home-grown technology to provide real-time monitoring is ready for to be manufactured (by Melbourne mattress maker Sleepeezee Bedding).

Serial collaboration

Businesses said they welcomed the opportunity to commence these conversations, and to establish relationships with researchers through small, entry-level projects such as those funded through Innovation Connections, a federal government program that provides facilitated introductions to researchers and financial support through dollar-matched grants.

Once a relationship was established, like that between Sleeptite and RMIT, further collaboration often occurs without further government funding.

On average, we found collaborating firms had undertaken seven projects with the research sector.

Read more:
Our unis are far behind the world’s best at commercialising research. Here are 3 ways to catch up

Targeting funding

Our findings show that young and micro businesses are especially open to collaborations, yet more targeted funding schemes are required to help them build their new technologies and capabilities.

To improve Australia’s success in commercialising research, funding needs to take a coordinated “pipeline” view – seeing each new project as the start of an ongoing relationship.

Funding needs to be available for training, activities to mitigate mistrust, and for seed and scaling-up collaborations. Universities need to rethink their incentive systems and businesses need to be willing to take strategic risks by venturing into unknown territory.

But most fundamentally a more connected incentive system is needed to enable both businesses and researchers to view collaborations as long-term investments, justifying the upfront money and time associated with initiating those relationships.

Martie-Louise Verreynne received funding from CSIRO to fund this research.

Anne-Laure Mention received funding from CSIRO to support this research.

Rui Pedro Torres de Oliveira receives funding from CSIRO to fund this research. He is affiliated with ARM Hub as an innovation and strategy expert.

George Feast 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. To become an innovation nation, we really need to think smaller – https://theconversation.com/to-become-an-innovation-nation-we-really-need-to-think-smaller-162168

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Georgina Arnott, Postdoctoral Research Associate in History, The University of Melbourne

Today, councillors in Perth’s City of Stirling will vote to decide whether to change their city’s name. This follows a residents’ motion arguing a new name would better “reflect the long standing and relevant history of this land in such a way that is inclusive and in recognition of the Nyoongar community”.

This is not about erasing history, said Whadjuk Noongar Elder Len Collard. It is about extending history, “so that all experiences are reflected”.

Stirling is named after James Stirling, Western Australia’s first governor (1829–1839). City of Stirling resident Jeff Bullen, who proposed the motion, argues Stirling’s direction of an 1834 massacre in Pinjarra, south of Perth, means we cannot honour him. Doing so dishonours those killed in that massacre, and its survivors, as well as their descendants.

My research shows Stirling was also indirectly embroiled in the British slave trade via his family’s commerce in American and Caribbean slave-produced tobacco and sugar. Prior to arriving in WA, he personally profited from slavery by seizing ships laden with slave-produced goods, which were awarded to him as prizes.

Stirling’s central role in the Pinjarra massacre, which led to the death of between 15 and 80 Noongar, is beyond doubt.

Stirling contended that Noongar attacks on settlers threatened to “tempt other tribes to pursue the same course, and eventually combine together for the extermination of the whites”. On the 28th of October 1834, when he led troops to the region, he sought to provide a “check” on that notion by inflicting, in his words, “such acts of decisive severity as will appall them as people”.

However, extending our frame of reference backwards, to take in Stirling’s life before 1829, is illuminating.

Tobacco, sugar and coffee

Although it hasn’t been acknowledged by past histories, Stirling’s family’s wealth was built on the back of slavery business.

More than a century before he was born, two ancestors pioneered the Glaswegian trade in slave-produced Virginian tobacco, becoming extraordinarily wealthy through it. Scottish trade in tobacco during this period grew enormously, linked to the tenfold growth in the purchase of African slave labour in British North America during its first 50 years

After the American Revolution, the Stirlings pivoted towards trade with Jamaica. In James’ generation, two brothers oversaw the family business, in which James appears to have invested his money. When slavery was abolished in 1833, his brother Walter was compensated by the British government for the loss of 230 enslaved people in Barbados and Guiana to the tune of more than $A1.7 million in today’s money. (The enslaved themselves received no compensation.)

Stirling was a Royal Navy captain for six years leading up to 1818 on the HMS Brazen, before being retired on half-pay like so many veterans of the Napoleonic Wars. The ambitious 27-year-old’s income was reduced to roughly that of an innkeeper.

His one salve was the fortune he had made during those six years, capturing enemy vessels. The Royal Navy awarded prize money from the sale of such vessels and their cargo. Stationed in Jamaica, Britain’s richest slave colony, Stirling’s first captured ship had been transporting slave-produced sugar and coffee from Havana to New Orleans, to be sold up the Mississippi River to southern planters.

Read more:
From the Caribbean to Queensland: re-examining Australia’s ‘blackbirding’ past and its roots in the global slave trade

As captain, James received around $A22,000 in today’s money from the sale of the vessel and its cargo. Further captures followed and, though this is not yet clear, it is possible that some ships contained enslaved people, leading to higher prizes. While stationed in Jamaica, Stirling also provided defence for the slave colony and its exports.

The money that Stirling made from capturing vessels, and the ambition it suggested, was just enough to allow him to marry the daughter of wealthy ship owner, James Mangles. Mangles’ ships had transported enslaved Africans from the West Coast of Africa to Jamaica in the late 18th century, but in the 19th he turned to Indian Ocean trading and convict transportation.

In the years leading up to 1829, Stirling lobbied hard to convince a wary British Colonial Office to establish a penal-free colony on the west coast of Australia, which could support East India Company military and merchant activities. Cheap Indian labour, he proposed, on contracts of indenture, might be imported to cultivate crops in the harsh environs. Further schemes were proposed for non-white labour.

Commercial logic

Once in WA, Stirling’s principal concern was identifying and securing fertile pastoral land — for the colonists, the British investors supporting them, and for himself. The success of the colony hinged on pastoral expansion and profit.

The Pinjarra massacre was, in part, led by the commercial logic of this pastoral expansion. If settlers were too frightened of the “unsettled” regions, they would crowd those “settled” around Perth.

Rewinding back in time provides valuable context for the Pinjarra battle and our decisions around commemoration today.

James Stirling’s actions in WA were driven by the logic of imperial commerce. Can the City of Stirling acknowledge this history, and the violence that followed, at the same time as honouring him?

Georgina Arnott receives funding from the Australian Research Council via the Legacies of British Slavery in Western Australia Discovery Project.

– ref. WA’s first governor James Stirling had links to slavery, as well as directing a massacre. Should he be honoured? – https://theconversation.com/was-first-governor-james-stirling-had-links-to-slavery-as-well-as-directing-a-massacre-should-he-be-honoured-162078

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Hocknull, Senior Curator of Geosciences, Queensland Museum, and Honorary Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne

Today, a new Aussie dinosaur is being welcomed into the fold. Our study published in the journal PeerJ documents Australotitan cooperensis – Australia’s largest dinosaur species ever discovered, and the largest land-dwelling species to have walked the outback.

Australotitan, or the “southern titan”, was a massive long-necked titanosaurian sauropod estimated to have reached 25–30 metres in length and 5–6.5m in height. It weighed the equivalent of 1,400 red kangaroos.

It lived in southwest Queensland between 92–96 million years ago, when Australia was attached to Antarctica, and the last vestiges of a once-great inland sea had disappeared.

The discovery of Australotitan is a major new addition to the “terrible lizards” of Oz.

Like finding needles in haystack

Finding dinosaurs in Australia has been labelled an incredibly difficult task.

In outback Queensland, dinosaur sites are featureless plains. Compare that to many sites overseas, where mountain ranges, deep canyons or exposed badlands of heavily-eroded terrain can help reveal the ancient layers of preserved fossilised bones.

Today, the area where Australotitan lived is oil, gas and grazing country. Our study represents the first major step in documenting the dinosaurs from this fossil field.

The first bones of Australotitan were excavated in 2006 and 2007 by Queensland Museum and Eromanga Natural History Museum palaeontologists and volunteers. We nicknamed this individual “Cooper” after the nearby freshwater lifeline, Cooper Creek.

After the excavation, we embarked on the long and painstaking removal of the rock that entombed Cooper’s bones. This was necessary for us to properly identify and compare each bone.

Thousands of kilograms bones in a backpack

We needed to compare Cooper’s bones to all other species of sauropod dinosaur known from both Australia and overseas, to confirm our suspicions of a new species.

But travelling from collection to collection at various museums to compare hundreds of kilograms of fragile dinosaur bones was simply not possible. So instead, we used 3D digital scanning technology which allowed us to virtually carry thousands of kilograms of dinosaur bones in one seven kilogram laptop.

These kinds of research projects have created a new opportunity for museums and researchers to share their amazing collections globally, with researchers and the public.

And thanks to two decades of effort by palaeontologists, citizen scientists, regional not-for-profit museums and local landowners, there has been a recent boom in Australian dinosaur discoveries.

Read more:
Fat-footed tyrannosaur parents couldn’t keep up with their skinnier offspring, fossil footprints reveal

We are family

Perhaps unsurprisingly, we found all four of the sauropod dinosaurs that lived in Australia between 96-92 million years ago (including Australotitan) were more closely related to one another than they were to other dinosaurs found elsewhere.

However, we couldn’t conclusively place any of these four related species together in the same place at the same time. This means they could have evolved through time to occupy very different habitats. It’s even possible they ever met.

The Aussie species share relations with titanosaurians from both South America and Asia, suggesting they dispersed from South America (via Antarctica) during periods of global warmth.

Or, they may have island-hopped across ancient island archipelagos, which would eventually make up the present-day terrains of Southeast Asia and the Philippines.

Trampling through the Cretaceous

Digitally capturing gigantic sauropod bones and fossil sites in 3D has led to some remarkable discoveries. Several of Cooper’s bones were found to be crushed by the footsteps of other sauropod dinosaurs.

What’s more, during Cooper’s excavation we uncovered another smaller sauropod skeleton — possibly a smaller Australotitan — trampled into a nearly 100m-long rock feature. We interpreted this to be a trample zone: an area of mud compressed under foot by massive sauropods as they moved along a pathway, or at the edge of a waterhole.

Similar trampling features can be seen today around Australian billabongs, or waterholes in Africa where the largest plant-eaters, such as elephants and hippopotamuses, trample mud into a hard layer.

In the case of the hippopotamus, they cut channels through the mud to navigate between precious water and food sources. Life in Australia during the Cretaceous period can be pictured similarly, except super-sized.

In the present, out there in Australia’s dinosaur country, you might find yourself staring across a barren plain imagining what other secrets this world of long-lost giants will reveal.

Read more:
Curious Kids: could dinosaurs evolve back into existence?

Scott Hocknull receives funding from Queensland Museum & Australian Research Council.

Róchelle Lawrence receives funding from Queensland Museum and Australian Research Council..

– ref. Introducing Australotitan: Australia’s largest dinosaur yet spanned the length of 2 buses – https://theconversation.com/introducing-australotitan-australias-largest-dinosaur-yet-spanned-the-length-of-2-buses-162177

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katherine Livingstone, NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow and Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), Deakin University

Australian adults get around one-third of their energy intake from junk foods.

Also known as discretionary foods, these include foods such as biscuits, cakes, sausages, sugar-sweetened drinks and alcohol.

Unhealthy diets are a key reason why almost one in every three adults in Australia is obese. Excess weight also increases risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.

Our new research, published today in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, has found personalised nutrition advice, compared to usual dietary advice, helped adults to eat less junk food.

What is personalised nutrition?

Personalised nutrition involves tailoring dietary advice to improve health, based on the characteristics of the individual. So dietary advice could be tailored based on anything from the person’s eating habits and weight to their cholesterol levels and genetics.

The concept of tailored dietary advice isn’t new — dietitians have been giving personalised advice for centuries. What is new is the rise in popularity of new technologies, apps and wearable devices, which allow for detailed monitoring of individual health. Health-care professionals can then use this information to provide personalised advice.

To understand whether personalised nutrition advice improves dietary habits, we conducted the Food4Me Study.

Our research

We recruited 1,607 adult volunteers from across seven European countries into a six-month dietary study.

At the beginning, adults were allocated into either a control group, or one of three personalised nutrition groups.

Usual dietary advice

In the control group adults received usual dietary advice. For example, “eat at least five serves of fruit and vegetables each day”. (In Australia the recommendation is at least seven serves daily.)

Read more:
Supermarkets claim to have our health at heart. But their marketing tactics push junk foods

Personalised dietary advice

To help us understand the best way to personalise dietary advice, the three personalised nutrition groups received tailored dietary advice based on different sets of characteristics. All advice was based on behaviour change strategies, such as swapping discretionary foods for healthier alternatives.

Group 1 received advice based on what they ate.

For example, for someone eating a lot of salty meat products, we told them to reduce their intake of processed meats and pies, and swap salami and bacon for turkey or beef.

Group 2 received advice based on their diet and body measurements.

For example, if someone had high waist circumference and cholesterol levels, and was snacking on biscuits and chocolate, we told them they were carrying too much weight around their middle and had high cholesterol levels so would benefit from snacking on fruit and healthy fats, such as nuts, instead.

Group 3 received advice based on their diet, body measurements and genetic information.

For example, if someone had a genetic risk of high cholesterol, and was eating lots of salty meat products, we told them they have a genetic variation and would benefit from maintaining a healthy intake of saturated fat and normal cholesterol levels. We suggested they swap processed meats, for example burgers and sausages, for lean meats or skinless chicken breast.

Read more:
These 4 diets are trending. We looked at the science (or lack of it) behind each one

So, does personalised nutrition work?

At the beginning and end of the study we asked our volunteers to complete an online questionnaire, which asked them how often they consumed various foods and drinks.

We found participants who received personalised dietary advice reduced their intake of discretionary foods more than participants who received usual dietary advice.

Interestingly, this improvement in diet was seen across all personalised nutrition groups; regardless of whether advice was personalised based on diet, body measurements or genetics, or a combination of these factors.

That said, we did see some evidence that the addition of genetic information (group 3) helped adults to reduce their discretionary food intake more than those who received advice based on their diet and body measurements alone (group 2).

Our findings are consistent with the broader evidence on personalised nutrition.

In a recent systematic review we looked at results from 11 personalised nutrition studies conducted across Europe and North America. We found overall, personalised nutrition advice improved dietary habits more than usual dietary advice.

What do these results mean?

Our results show personalised dietary advice can support people to eat less junk food. This should have important implications for how researchers and health-care professionals design healthy eating strategies moving forward.

It’s important to note our sample was made up of volunteers. So they may be more health-conscious and motivated to improve their dietary habits than the general population.

We need research in more diverse population groups, including young males and people experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. This will be important for understanding whether personalised nutrition advice can benefit everyone.

Read more:
How obesity causes cancer, and may make screening and treatment harder

Some things to consider

Lots of commercial offerings for personalised dietary advice are emerging, such as companies that offer genetic testing and provide dietary advice accordingly, but many are not supported by scientific evidence. Health-care professionals, such as dietitians, should remain the first point of call when seeking dietary advice.

Personalised nutrition advice has the potential to improve the diet and health of Australians. But the reasons for unhealthy diets are complex, and include wider social and environmental influences.

So exploring new ways to support people to eat healthier diets is just one potential way to address the burden of unhealthy eating and related ill-health in Australia.

Katherine Livingstone receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

The Food4Me Study was supported by the European Commission under the Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology Theme of the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. Food4Me co-authors are acknowledged for their contribution to the publication.

– ref. Personalised nutrition is trendy, but can it help us eat less junk food? – https://theconversation.com/personalised-nutrition-is-trendy-but-can-it-help-us-eat-less-junk-food-161191