A retiring NZ MP has suggested joining Australia – we should at least think about it (before saying no)

August 22, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic O’Sullivan, Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University

Big policy ideas usually don’t come up in parliamentary valedictory speeches – they’re for saying goodbye and thank you. So departing Labour MP Jamie Strange was the exception last week when he made a case for New Zealand and Australia becoming one country.

The main problem, he joked, would be integrating the Australian cricket team. But he talked up the potential economic benefits, and the option does remain open under sections 6 and 121 of the Australian Constitution.

In fact, New Zealand did seriously consider joining the Australian federation in the 1890s. After all, it had been administered as part of the colony of New South Wales for about a year after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.

And the relationship was already close. Maori traders began visiting Sydney from the 1790s. Settlers moved back and forth across the Tasman from the earliest contact.

Quite how such a union might be forged in the 21st century, however, raises some interesting questions about how similar – or dissimilar – the two countries have since become.

A simplified relationship

Political union would simplify the relationship: trade would be more efficient, social and cultural ties might be strengthened, passports wouldn’t be needed and banking would be easier.

Indeed, an Australian parliamentary committee recommended political union in 2006, but the Zealand prime minister at the time, Helen Clark, rejected the idea. The then opposition leader, Don Brash, said it should at least be considered, but found little support.

The committee’s second preference was for a common currency to make trans-Tasman business easier.

But close relationships don’t require political union. Australia and New Zealand hold regular ministerial meetings, share various regulatory standards, and there is military and intelligence cooperation.

There are also important policy differences – such as over the AUKUS security pact and New Zealand’s nuclear-free policy. Union wouldn’t mean the two countries coming together as equals. New Zealand members of an Australian government would influence those policies, but they wouldn’t determine them.

From nation to state

Current constitutional arrangements would mean New Zealand simply became a state of the existing Commonwealth of Australia. It would elect members to the federal parliament, but it would no longer have an independent voice in international forums.

Under the Australian Constitution, the New Zealand state parliament would be responsible for schooling, hospitals and transport, among the reserve powers of the Australian states.

Foreign policy, defence, monetary policy, higher education, pharmaceutical and GP funding would be among the responsibilities transferred to Canberra. A better cricket team might not be compensation enough.

But thinking seriously about the idea would also require both countries to consider how they might forge a different commonwealth together. And that would require an assessment of underlying national values that rarely troubles political discourse in either country.

The Voice and the Treaty

Nowhere would this be more evident than in the respective debates about whether democracy should be properly inclusive of Indigenous peoples.

In Australia, opinion polls are showing the proposed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament doesn’t have the support it needs to pass a referendum later this year. The tone of that debate also shows just how differently Australia and New Zealand think about such issues.

In my book Sharing the Sovereign, I argued that while the guaranteed Māori seats in parliament (introduced in 1867) and the role of the Treaty of Waitangi are sharply contested in New Zealand, their influence is gradually increasing.

Political resistance to the ACT Party’s policy of marginalising the Treaty in public life is likely to be intense if it forms part of the government after the election in October. But even then, the idea that Māori people have a voice in government is largely accepted.

Australia’s prime minister argues that the Voice is a matter of justice because “it is common courtesy to consult people when you’re taking a decision that affects them”. The inference being that while First Nations people can have “their” say, “we” are still in charge.

As Wiradjuri scholar Stan Grant observed about the country he grew up in: “we lived in Australia, and Australia was for other people”.

Culture and public life

Based on population, New Zealand would be entitled to about one-sixth of the seats in the Australian House of Representatives. Like the other states it would elect 12 senators. There is no guaranteed Indigenous representation in either house and Australia would no doubt struggle to accept Māori representation. At best, there might be two or three Māori seats in the lower house.

In reality, the Māori presence in public life gives New Zealand a cultural certainty and security that is not so evident in Australia.

And the Treaty of Waitangi extends that place to all migrants. Samoan, Tongan, Chinese and Dutch MPs (among others) occasionally speak their languages in parliament as statements of identity and belonging.

Meanwhile, section 44(1) of the Australian Constitution says people who hold dual or multiple citizenships are not eligible for election to parliament. Although more than half the Australian population was either born overseas or has a parent born elsewhere, this multicultural demographic is not represented in its parliament.

Indeed, then-deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce was forced to leave parliament in 2017 after it was discovered he held New Zealand citizenship. He was one of many forced out in similar circumstances – a citizen of a “foreign power” only by descent but apparently therefore a threat to national security.

Cultural insecurity seems the more likely explanation. In an article on the section 44 scandal, I pointed out the absurdity by describing myself as “a citizen of Australia, Ireland and New Zealand who supports the All Blacks, drinks Guinness and looks forward to fighting for Tamworth when Dunedin invades”.

Australia and New Zealand may well be similar enough for political union to be an idea worth considering, but rejecting – if only to help us each to understand ourselves better.

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

– ref. A retiring NZ MP has suggested joining Australia – we should at least think about it (before saying no) – https://theconversation.com/a-retiring-nz-mp-has-suggested-joining-australia-we-should-at-least-think-about-it-before-saying-no-211728

Our older population will triple in 40 years. But a social insurance model won’t fix the aged care funding crisis

By The Conversation -

August 22, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University

Preliminary data from the 2023 Intergenerational Report shows Autralia’s population aged 85 and over is set to more than triple over the next 40 years. This will exacerbate existing strains on the aged-care system.

The government’s Aged Care Taskforce is investigating aged-care funding options to develop a “fair and equitable” system, while exploring efficiency, affordability and sustainability.

The government will spend more than A$146 billion on aged care in the next four years. General tax revenue will cover that cost, mostly funded by individual income tax receipts. But the government is concerned general tax revenue won’t be enough to fund the expected growth in aged care, in the near future and longer term.

There are three primary options to increase aged-care funding. The government can either increase its contribution, ask consumers to pay more, or use a combination of both.

The need for more consumer contributions has dominated recent aged-care debates. The less asked, but more important, question is whether the general tax revenue model the government uses to fund aged care is an appropriate model to promote sustainability.

While a social insurance model is the main alternative, it won’t be the silver bullet we’re looking for to fix our aged-care funding crisis.

How would social insurance work?

A social insurance model would use either voluntary or compulsory contributions from worker salaries to cover the cost of aged-care services.

It could include a prior build-up of funds, where consumers draw on accumulated savings to purchase aged-care services. Alternatively, it could operate as a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system, where consumers draw on worker contributions each year, with an understanding that workers will draw on future contributions when they require aged care.

The first social insurance model was established in 1883 by the first chancellor of the German Empire, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. He wanted blue-collar workers to remain healthy and productive by providing access to health-care services.

The “Bismarck” model has since permeated throughout Europe, funding health-care systems in Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

While this model works reasonably well in these countries, whether a social insurance model is right for funding aged care in Australia is debatable. How social insurance levies are applied matters to efficiency and equity.

Is social insurance efficient?

An efficient funding model collects and distributes revenue for the least cost possible. A social insurance model would require new legislation and a government agency managing reserves, increasing administration costs.

Less visible but more substantial funding model costs are from market distortions associated with the revenue collection mechanism such as personal income tax or a levy.

Whether a social insurance model is more efficient from a market perspective depends on how the government would otherwise increase general tax revenue.

The impact on efficiency from a social insurance model would be equivalent to an increase in income tax rates under a general tax revenue model. Both would reduce take-home pay and potentially reduce the incentive to work, for example, by reducing the willingness to work overtime.

Efficiency differences would occur if the government increased tax rates faced by businesses. This could distort business decisions, potentially reducing investment.

The size of the impact would depend on the size of the tax increase. The Victorian government introduced the mental health and wellbeing surcharge on payroll tax in 2022 to raise funds for improved mental health-care services. While business suggested it would harm growth, there is no indication this has occurred.

Is social insurance equitable?

Other differences exist between general tax and social insurance models when assessed against equity. An equitable funding model requires people with similar financial means to pay similar amounts, and those with greater financial means to pay more.

Differences primarily result from our ageing population. Under a general tax revenue model, current workers pay for current aged-care services, but may receive more and better quality aged care when older. They will pay less compared to their future cost of care.

Nurse helps elderly man in a wheelchair — It’s difficult to measure future aged-care costs.
Shutterstock

A social insurance model that builds up funds may better match contributions with future costs. But this requires a big ask from workers, to simultaneously build up the fund for future aged-care costs and pay for current aged-care costs.

Future aged-care costs are also uncertain. Underestimating costs mean the government will still need to spend more on aged care. Overestimating costs means workers contributed more funding than needed, losing some opportunity to spend on other goods and services, such as holidays.

What else should the government consider?

A social insurance model is a departure from our broader tax system. The government does not ask workers to contribute to their future health-care costs, nor to future social payments such as the aged pension. Both are funded by general tax revenue.

A social insurance model that required a prior build-up of funds would also take years to establish. It would not help with current underfunding problems in aged care, which have provoked poor quality and provider financial distress.

There is no strong evidence to suggest social insurance is more efficient or equitable than a general tax revenue model. Like general tax revenue models, social insurance models are exposed to shifting political winds.

The best path toward sustainable aged-care funding is for the government and consumers to pay more. The problem of securing aged-care funding may lie less in the funding model and more in securing government commitment when fiscal priorities change.

Henry Cutler 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. Our older population will triple in 40 years. But a social insurance model won’t fix the aged care funding crisis – https://theconversation.com/our-older-population-will-triple-in-40-years-but-a-social-insurance-model-wont-fix-the-aged-care-funding-crisis-211191

I’ve spent 40 years studying Antarctica. The frozen continent has never needed our help more

By The Conversation -

August 22, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dana M Bergstrom, Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Wollongong

After decades immersed in Antarctic science, I’ve learned that physical and biological changes rarely occur smoothly. More often than not, they unfold in sharp steps. Right now, Antarctica’s climate and ecosystems are experiencing disturbing changes.

Much of this winter’s sea ice is missing. A crucial ocean current is slowing down, and glaciers and ice shelves are disintegrating.

On land, fragile moss ecosystems are collapsing. Majestic emperor penguins may be headed for extinction. And pollution from human activity in Antarctica has left a toxic legacy.

It’s almost certain things will get worse. On Friday, hundreds of international scientists called for an urgent expansion – not contraction – of Southern Ocean science in response to the emerging climate crisis. This adds to the scientific chorus claiming we have only a narrow window to save the planet.

I’ve spent 40 years in Antarctic and subantarctic research. Some 22 of those were spent at the federal government’s Australian Antarctic Division; my final day there was last Thursday. No longer a public servant, I feel compelled, as a private citizen now, to publicly stand up for the icy continent and the benefit of Antarctic science to society.

Crucial to life as we know it

Antarctica matters. What happens there affects global weather patterns and sea levels.

But Antarctica’s climate is changing. Record-breaking stored heat is melting ice shelves from underneath, setting off a chain reaction. Without the buttressing of the ice shelves, glaciers flow faster to the sea. In West Antarctica, the Thwaites “doomsday glacier” is melting faster than predicted. In East Antarctica, lesser-known ice shelves have collapsed and glaciers are shrinking, adding to sea-level rise.

Antarctica is governed by the Antarctic Treaty, negotiated by 12 countries, including Australia, during the Cold War in 1959. Australia’s territory in Antarctica comprises 42% of the continent.

In my view, the treaty is magnificent. It represents a grand vision: a continent set aside for conservation, peace and science.

But Antarctica remains under threat. And the biggest threat of all is climate change.

In June this year, all treaty nations, including Australia, collectively stated:

changes in Antarctic and Southern Ocean environments are linked to, and influence, climate impact drivers globally.

They added “further irreversible change is likely” without “accelerated efforts” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Scientific research is crucial in the face of these threats, to help better understand these changes now and over the longer term, and to feed into policy interventions.

Surprisingly a budget shortfall appears to be inadvertently curtailing plans for science this summer, according to the Guardian Australia.

In July, the ABC reported the Antarctic Division told staff A$25 million in budget savings was needed this financial year. This led to a review of plans for field research this summer. Reportedly, two out of three permanent research stations (Mawson and Davis) will not be filled with the normal number of scientists this season. That means some planned and approved projects will not be going ahead this year, including surveys on sea-ice thickness and landfast sea ice.

The Greens claim the $25 million hit to the Antarctic Division represents a 16% cut to its operating budget for the current financial year.

Seizing an opportunity, the Greens and Liberal Party established a Senate inquiry into what they refer to as funding cuts, to report by November 30.

Generally speaking, Antarctic activities receive overwhelmingly bipartisan support. For many decades Australia’s record in Antarctic protection has been impressive. For example, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek recently tripled the size of the marine protected area around Macquarie Island.

Former Labor environment minister Peter Garrett advanced whale conservation. He was instrumental in the campaign against so-called “scientific whaling” in the Antarctic, backed by government scientists, which culminated in Australia’s successful challenge to Japanese whaling in the International Court of Justice in 2014.

Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull funded Australia’s new icebreaker and feral pest eradication from Macquarie Island. And Labor prime minister Bob Hawke, with treasurer Paul Keating, collaborated with French prime minister Michel Rocard in 1991 to ensure a mining ban and sign the Madrid Protocol to protect Antarctic ecosystems.

Support for Antarctic Division activities contributed to curtailing the illegal toothfish fishing in Antarctic waters. A regulated, sustainable industry is now in place. Krill fisheries operate according to science-based decisions. Efforts to reduce albatross bycatch in longline fishing were also led by Antarctic Division scientists.

A photo of icy mountains looming over Ross Sea in east Antarctica — Mount Martin looms over the Ross Sea in east Antarctica.
Dana M Bergstrom

Cleaning up the mess in Antarctica

The story of Antarctica serves as a compelling reminder humanity must end our reliance on fossil fuels. We must also do a far better job of environmental stewardship – including paying for the scientific research so urgently needed.

Failing to fully support vital Antarctic science in a rapidly unfolding climate emergency, in my view, is unwise.

Dana M Bergstrom has received funding from the Australian Antarctic Program. As well as her university affiliation, her recent past position was a Principal Research Scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division.

– ref. I’ve spent 40 years studying Antarctica. The frozen continent has never needed our help more – https://theconversation.com/ive-spent-40-years-studying-antarctica-the-frozen-continent-has-never-needed-our-help-more-211520

Prices are up and the supply of things we need is in flux. How did we get here?

By The Conversation -

August 22, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flavio Macau, Associate Dean – School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University

This is the second article in The Conversation’s series examining Australia’s cost of living crisis. Read the first article in the series here.

Australia is in a cost-of-living crisis. We know that because the prices typical Australians pay for typical products have been climbing much faster than typical wages, as acknowledged in the standard briefing provided to members of parliament by Australia’s Parliamentary Library.

For most of the last century, and certainly for most of the past 20 years, wages have consistently climbed faster than prices, with minor exceptions in 2009 and 2014 when the difference between the two was small – less than 1%.

But since March 2021 prices have been climbing faster than wages.

When inflation peaked in late 2022, the annual consumer price index was climbing 4.4 percentage points faster than wages – a gap that has since shrunk, but remained at 2.4 percentage points in the latest figures for the year to June.

COVID has played an important part. In the beginning, the pandemic brought prices down, and by a lot. Remember paying 80 cents per litre for petrol?

In the first year of COVID, to the June quarter 2020, Australia went through its first year of negative inflation since 1997. That means that, taken together, prices actually fell.

Fast-forward only two years, and the quarterly consumer price index hit 7.8% in December (and the more experimental monthly index hit 8.4%.)

For those born after the 1980s, this was a first. Going from bottom to top at such a speed only increased the pain.

It began with broken supply chains

The acceleration in inflation began with a mismatch between supply and demand.

Before COVID, the world experienced more than three decades of stability and high predictability in supply chains, thanks to an intense move towards globalisation.

Countries became more specialised, industries and agriculture moved away from the United States and Europe, and manufacturing became leaner by using the just-in-time production model which ensured they met demand, but didn’t get stuck with inventories.

This prosperity was based on the assumption that goods and people could move freely across the globe. Until COVID.

Overnight, ports, railroads and trucks saw their operations slashed as people isolated. Air travel came close to a complete shutdown. With insufficient availability, transport prices skyrocketed.

Then governments sprayed us with money

Then there was a huge increase in demand for products as governments splashed around money in an effort to keep their economies afloat.

Being unable to travel, dine out or get a proper haircut, people went online to buy bicycles, air fryers and hair dryers like never before. Online shopping accelerated faster than expected, with big waiting lists for items as diverse as cars, video games, pool chlorine and pet food.

And supply was constrained by workers having to stay home. Factories couldn’t operate at capacity. Because different regions were affected at different times, and most businesses work with low inventories, “just-in-time” struggled.

Parts, components and materials suddenly became scarce. For businesses such as abattoirs, health rules in states like Victoria restricted beef, lamb and pork processing to two-thirds of normal output.

Too many people buying, not enough products to sell, and difficulty moving goods created an imbalance between supply and demand, which pushed up prices globally from late 2020 onwards.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine

In early 2022 just as the world was preparing to open up, Russia invaded Ukraine.

The war triggered an energy crisis. Russia, a major global supplier of gas and oil, was driven out of several markets by international sanctions in what is a textbook trigger for inflation.

In the first wave, petrol, gas and electricity skyrocketed. In Australia, petrol stations reflect changes in international markets in a matter of days. We paid $2.50 per litre at the pump.

People stand in a square carrying a torn Ukrainian flag — As the world was emerging from lockdowns, Russia invaded Ukraine, triggering an oil supply crisis.
Shutterstock

The second wave came as long-term contracts were renegotiated. Industries lock in prices with energy providers months in advance, meaning an increase in costs today takes time to make its way through the system.

The third wave came as prices for parts, components and materials increased downstream in a domino effect.

As an example, the increase in energy prices in early 2022 led to a rise in steel prices in late 2022, reaching home appliance prices in early 2023, and the price of goods sold in shops only in recent months.

And climate change accelerated

The pandemic’s disruptive effects lasted about two years. The war in Ukraine may go for longer, hopefully not. But the time span of both pales when confronted with something that will impact Australians for generations: climate change.

One significant consequence is extreme weather.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s report on the State of the Climate 2022 highlights the ongoing changes for Australia including amplified storms, floods, droughts, heatwaves and blizzards with “one in a 100 year” events multiplying.

Each brings disruption to supply chains, pushing up prices.

Take the rollercoaster ride of an iceberg lettuce going from $2.50 to $12.50 due to floods in Australia last year. Now it’s back to about $3.90.

Or the shortage of frozen chips due to droughts in Europe and floods in New Zealand earlier this year.

Or the recent ban from India on rice exports due to extreme monsoons in South Asia, set to increase international rice prices above the 14% increase already seen in the past year. Supply uncertainty fuels inflation.

The move to renewables, which is fundamental to mitigating climate change, has a price tag attached to it at the moment. Net-zero targets require considerable investment by businesses as they move to green energy and materials.

While there will be a long-term return, there are costs now.

Preparing the factory floor against heatwaves (installing fans), floods (relocating sites), and disruptions (building inventory) drive up prices. On top of that, insurance premiums are on the rise, some becoming prohibitive.

Yet there’s a silver lining

This list of inflation drivers is not exhaustive as there are more forces at play, among them labour shortages, population growth and the housing crisis.

But there is good news. Supply chains are more robust after the pandemic, evidenced by container transport prices going back to what they were in 2020. The world is moving away from fossil fuels faster after the invasion of Ukraine.

Wind and solar energy are becoming cheaper at a remarkable rate, and there is promising news on hydrogen as a fuel. Business continuity plans to minimise disruptions in the face of extreme weather are stronger than before.

Supply and demand should soon find a new lasting equilibrium.

Prices will not go back to what they were, but there is every reason to believe the increases will be tamed sooner rather than later. It will be a welcome relief.

Flavio Macau is affiliated with the Australasian Supply Chain Institute (ASCI)

– ref. Prices are up and the supply of things we need is in flux. How did we get here? – https://theconversation.com/prices-are-up-and-the-supply-of-things-we-need-is-in-flux-how-did-we-get-here-210888

Calories and kilojoules: how do we know the energy content of food, and how accurate are the labels?

By The Conversation -

August 22, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland

Everything we consume contains energy our bodies use to move, grow and maintain health. To work out how much energy is in different foods and drinks, we need to first look at a few core concepts.

Firstly, you’ve probably heard of the units of measurement for energy – calories – as well as the metric equivalent, which is joules. One calorie is defined as the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1℃.

In human nutrition, the amounts of energy needed to maintain health, and to fuel a body, are much larger than the tiny singular calories used to heat up a gram of water. So, the term “calorie” in nutrition commonly refers to a kilocalorie (or kcal), which is 1,000 calories. When you see the word “calories” on a nutrition label, it’s likely referring to kcals.

The energy stored in food and drinks is released when the body breaks down one or more of the four macronutrients inside the food (carbohydrates, proteins, fats, alcohol). The body then uses that energy for activities such as keeping our heart beating, our lungs breathing and our muscles moving.

When energy in food is estimated, it is the amount of energy food and drinks provide for these bodily processes. The four macronutrients provide different amounts of energy:

1 gram of carbohydrate provides about 4 kcal of energy
1 gram of fat provides about 9 kcal of energy
1 gram of protein provides about 4 kcal of energy
1 gram of alcohol provides about 7 kcal of energy.

How are calories estimated?

There are two ways to estimate the amount of energy in food and drinks.

The first is called “bomb calorimetry”. This gold-standard method involves placing a small sample of food or drink inside a device known as a bomb calorimeter. The food is burned in the presence of oxygen, releasing heat.

The amount of heat released is directly related to the amount of energy in the food, allowing a calculation to be made. This method is most commonly used for foods rich in fats and is considered the most reliable (but expensive) method.

The second method, the Altwater system, is a much less expensive method for estimating energy content. It is more commonly used when calculating energy of most food and drinks sold in supermarkets. Named after legendary food researcher Wilbur Altwater, this system uses a standard conversion factor for each macronutrient found in food and drinks. By estimating the amount of each of the four macronutrients, an approximate calculation of the total energy can be made.

However, this method requires detailed knowledge of the ingredients within composite foods (such as muesli bars or hamburgers) – which may reduce accuracy. There is also a margin of error to expect with the Altwater system, because it assumes each ingredient is always the same in composition.

For example, a cup of oats grown in one part of the country won’t necessarily have the exact same nutritional content as another cup of oats grown elsewhere, due to climate and soil differences. So, this system is an estimation based on an average.

Importantly, both methods estimate the amount of energy in food and drinks. But the actual energy our bodies extract from these foods and drinks can vary due to factors such as individual differences in digestion and absorption, as well as food processing and cooking methods.

Why do foods have calories written on them?

In Australia, it’s a legal requirement for packaged food items to have a nutrition information panel that displays the number of kcal it contains.

However, homemade food items sold at places like a fresh market may not be required to provide a nutrition information panel. This will depend on the type of food being sold and the scale of the business operation.

Fresh foods such as fruit, vegetables and meat also don’t require a nutrition information panel. To find out the number of kcal in them, you can either run an experiment with a bomb calorimeter or look up an estimated value in an online nutrition database.

Food composition databases such as CalorieKing compile information about the energy and nutrient content of various foods. Dietitians and other health professionals often use these databases to estimate the energy content of foods to inform dietary recommendations.

Different international standards

Both kJ and kcal refer to energy – they are just two different units of measurements (such as how inches and centimetres are two different units for measuring length). Kilojoules (kJ) is part of the International System of Units (SI).

Australia, New Zealand and some parts of Europe use kJ. The United States and the United Kingdom use kcal. To convert between calories and kilojoules you use the conversion factors:

1 kcal = 4.184 kJ
1 kJ = 0.24 kcal (about ¼).

For example, if you have a packet of chips with an energy content of 200 kcal, you can convert it to kJ as follows: 200 kcal × 4.184 = 836.8 kJ.

As for how many calories are acceptable to eat, the Australian Guidelines for Healthy Eating estimate the average adult requires about 7,000kJ or 1,670Kcal every day. However, differences in age, gender, size, health and physical activity will influence how much energy a person needs.

To estimate your personal energy requirements, you can use this nutrients and dietary energy calculator.

Lauren Ball works for The University of Queensland and receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Queensland Health, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Mater Misericordia. She is a Director of Dietitians Australia, a Director of the Darling Downs and West Moreton Primary Health Network and an Associate Member of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

Emily Burch works for Southern Cross University.

Katelyn Barnes works for The University of Queensland and ACT Health.

– ref. Calories and kilojoules: how do we know the energy content of food, and how accurate are the labels? – https://theconversation.com/calories-and-kilojoules-how-do-we-know-the-energy-content-of-food-and-how-accurate-are-the-labels-211613

Intergenerational report to warn of slow growth and pressures on revenue

By The Conversation -

August 22, 2023

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

New extracts released ahead of the government’s Intergenerational Report show it warns Australia’s economy will grow more slowly in the coming 40 years than in previous decades.

At the same time, there will be pressures on the revenue base, and changes in revenue sources.

Real gross domestic product is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 2.2% from 2022-23 to 2062-63 – which is 0.9 percentage points lower than the average rate over the previous four decades.

The lower growth reflects a slowdown in Australia’s rate of population increase, reduced participation in the workforce as the population ages, and assumed slower long-term productivity growth. Other advanced economies also face slow growth.

The full report will be released by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Thursday.

By the early 2060s, when Australia’s population is forecast to be more than 40 million, the economy is expected to be about two and a half times bigger than now, in real terms.

The report projects total receipts (tax and non-tax) to rise from 25% of GDP to 26.3% in 2033-34, as predicted in this year’s budget, before gradually declining to 26% by 2062-63.

Tax receipts are projected to climb to 24.4% of GDP by 2033-34, as in the budget.

But the report then assumes the tax-to-GDP ratio remains at this level right through to 2062-63.

It describes this as a technical assumption and says assumptions that limit long-term tax-to-GDP growth have been a feature of every intergenerational report.

Without them, “taxes would rise significantly as a share of GDP over the projection period” as income and wages increased and the progressive income tax system operated. The result “would not be realistic”.

In government the Coalition adopted a tax-to-GDP “cap” of 23.9%, but Chalmers, before the 2022 election, rejected the notion of a cap, describing it as “arbitrary” and “imposed for political reasons, rather than good economic reasons”.

The report says the tax-to-GDP ratio averaged around 23.9% over the eight years to 2007–08 (the period between the introduction of the GST and the global financial crisis) before climbing to 24.2% during the mining boom in 2004–05 and 2005–06.

It says since 2007–08 the economy has been affected by significant external shocks, including the financial crisis and COVID.

The report points to structural changes to the economy it says will put pressure on the revenue over coming decades. It says:

Indirect sources of revenue are expected to decline as the decarbonisation of the transport industry and changing consumer preferences erode fuel and tobacco excise bases.

On the other hand, company tax and other taxes including GST are projected to broadly track economic growth, with personal income taxes increasing as a share of GDP, reflecting rising incomes and wages and population growth, but with the increase limited by the technical assumption about the tax-to-GDP ratio.

Chalmers said Australia’s future prosperity would depend on revitalising productivity growth, delivering high quality essential services and ensuring the budget was sustainable.

Earlier on Monday, he told a news conference the intergenerational report was “all about making the big shifts in our economy and our society work for us and not against us”.

He said the report was aimed at building understanding of five big shifts,

from globalisation to fragmentation, from hydrocarbons to renewables, from information technology to artificial intelligence, from younger to older, and what that means them for our industrial base and in particular for a bigger role for the care economy.

Chalmers welcomed an economic reform blueprint released by the Business Council of Australia on Monday, although he said the government did not agree with all of it.

One area of disagreement was its call to put more of the tax burden on the GST.

There was “a huge amount of common ground that we can work with the Business Council on outside the GST,” he said.

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. Intergenerational report to warn of slow growth and pressures on revenue – https://theconversation.com/intergenerational-report-to-warn-of-slow-growth-and-pressures-on-revenue-211916

PNG opposition calls for emergency over Highlands naked body killings

By Asia Pacific Report -

August 21, 2023

PNG Post-Courier

Papua New Guinea’s opposition has called on Prime Minister James Marape to immediately recall Parliament to address the escalating killings in the upper Highlands provinces.

The opposition also wants the debate to include other law and order issues that have spiralled out of control in other parts of the country.

The call was made by Deputy Opposition leader Douglas Tomuriesa following images of victims lined up along the highway in the Enga Province.

“I strongly urge the Prime Minister to recall Parliament for us leaders to come together as one and discuss the possibility of passing an Emergency Act as allowed for by the Constitution to address this serious issue,” he said.

“These gruesome images of human beings been murdered, stripped naked and lined up next to the highway by their enemies or criminal elements, especially in the upper Highlands provinces of Enga, Hela and Southern Highlands, is becoming a regular activity and the government and elected leaders must not take this lightly, its human lives we are talking about.

“It’s a national emergency and I call on the Prime Minister to immediately recall Parliament for a bipartisan committee to be formed to address this issue,” Tomuriesa said.

He said parliamentarians were elected to lead and address such serious issues affecting citizens and the country as a whole.

‘Killings too frequent’
“We as elected leaders shouldn’t be taking long breaks — these killings are becoming too frequent and we should be addressing them head on during Parliament sessions.

“We just cannot ignore it as fake social media posts,” he said.

Tomuriesa said he was making this call as a concerned citizen, a Papuan leader and deputy opposition leader.

“The spillover effects of what is happening up in the upper Highlands region will be felt everywhere — in Mamose, New Guinea Islands and the Southern Region. So as mandated leaders we must do something.”

Republished from PNG Post-Courier with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

LNP takes lead in Queensland Resolve poll, but Labor still far ahead in Victoria

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

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

The Queensland state election will be held in October 2024. A Resolve poll for The Brisbane Times, conducted from May to August with a sample of 947, gave the Liberal National Party 38% of the primary vote (up five since January to April), Labor 32% (down three), the Greens 11% (down one), One Nation 8% (up one), independents 8% (down two) and others 3% (up one).

Resolve doesn’t give a two-party estimate until near elections, but The Poll Bludger estimated a 51.5–48.5 lead for the LNP from this poll, a 4.5-point gain for the LNP since April.

Since the May 2022 federal election, Resolve has had better results for Labor in its federal and state polls than other pollsters, so this is a particularly bad result for Labor. The only other recent Queensland poll was an early July Freshwater poll that gave the LNP a 52–48 lead.

Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s net likeability has deteriorated this year. She was at net +8 in the poll conducted in late 2022, net -5 in early 2023 and now net -15 in this poll. LNP leader David Crisafulli’s net likeability improved six points from April to +7. Crisafulli led Palaszczuk by 37–36 as preferred premier, reversing a Palaszczuk lead of 39–31 in April.

Labor has governed in Queensland since early 2015, but federally, Queensland is the most conservative state. It was the only state the Coalition won at the 2022 federal election.

By the October 2024 state election, Labor will have governed for almost ten years, so there could be an “it’s time” factor for voters.

Victorian Resolve poll: Labor down but still far ahead

A Victorian state Resolve poll for The Age, conducted with the federal July and August Resolve polls from a sample of 1,047, gave Labor 39% of the primary vote (down two since June), the Coalition 28% (up two), the Greens 13% (down two), independents 13% (up one) and others 7% (up one).

The Poll Bludger estimated this poll would give Labor a 60–40 lead, a 2.5-point gain for the Coalition since June.

Labor Premier Daniel Andrews’ net likeability was down eight points since June to -7, while Liberal leader John Pesutto’s net likeability was up four points to -9. Andrews led Pesutto as preferred premier by 44–29 (49–26 in June).

In questions asked only of the August sample, voters opposed the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games by a 39–35 margin, but those supporting the cancellation would include people who thought Victoria should not have offered to hold the games in the first place.

Respondents were opposed by 44–30 to the decision to ban gas connections to new homes from next year. By 49–30, they supported freezing rent levels so owners can only increase rent every two years.

The July federal Resolve poll was conducted entirely before the games cancellation was announced on July 18, so only the August part of this poll would include reaction to this decision.

Federal Morgan and Redbridge polls give Labor large leads

In last week’s Morgan federal poll, conducted August 7–13 from a sample of 1,452, Labor led by 54.5–45.5, a one-point gain for Labor since the previous week. Primary votes were 35.5% Labor, 34.5% Coalition, 12% Greens and 18% for all others. Labor’s lead in Morgan has increased recently from a low of 52–48 in late July.

The Poll Bludger reported on Sunday that a Redbridge federal poll, conducted last week from a sample of 1,000, gave Labor a 55.6–44.4 lead, from primary votes of 38% Labor, 32% Coalition, 10% Greens and 21% for all others.

Additional federal Resolve questions

I previously covered the slide in Labor’s vote, Albanese’s ratings and support for the Indigenous Voice to parliament in a federal Resolve poll for Nine newspapers that was conducted August 9–13 from a sample of 1,603.

In additional questions from this poll, 54% wanted the next federal election after a full term is served in early 2025, while 20% wanted an early election in 2024. By 35–33, respondents did not think Labor’s housing policy important enough to call a special early election of both houses of parliament.

On housing policy, 30% agreed with Labor’s position, 24% with the Coalition, 18% with the Greens and 28% were undecided.

On climate change, 45% (down six since October 2021) thought it a serious and urgent problem that we should be taking action on now, even if that involves significant costs, 29% (up two) thought gradual action adequate, and 16% (up four) said we shouldn’t take action that has significant costs “until we are sure climate change is a real problem”.

By 59–19, respondents supported Labor’s 43% emissions reduction target by 2030, but support for specific climate change measures dropped since October 2021. For example, 29% (down eight) supported the Greens’ proposal to ban all coal mining and exports by 2030.

The poll article in The Age blames cost-of-living increases for undermining support for climate action.

Newspoll to be administered by a new pollster

The Poll Bludger reported on Sunday that Pyxis Polling will conduct Newspoll. Pyxis was formed after two senior staff at YouGov, which used to conduct Newspoll, resigned to start their own polling company.

I do not know when the first new Newspoll will appear, but it has now been five weeks since the last YouGov-conducted Newspoll.

Adrian Beaumont ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. LNP takes lead in Queensland Resolve poll, but Labor still far ahead in Victoria – https://theconversation.com/lnp-takes-lead-in-queensland-resolve-poll-but-labor-still-far-ahead-in-victoria-211674

‘It was a tough battle’, says Radradra after Flying Fijians’ defeat to France

By Asia Pacific Report -

August 21, 2023

By Rohit Deo

The Flying Fijians were defeated by World Rugby Cup hosts France 34-17 in a pre-tournament build-up test in Nantes, France, yesterday.

The Semi Radradra-captained side scored a try in the first spell through hooker Tevita Ikanivere while flyhalf Caleb Muntz added a conversion and penalty as Fiji trailed the second-string French team 21-10 at the break.

Radradra, who has been signed up for the French club Lyon, scored Fiji’s lone try of the second spell as France got points on the board through a try and a couple of penalties after the break.

“It was a tough battle out there for our team, Radradra said after the match.

“We knew they would come out strong. We made a few mistakes which put the home side on the front foot.”

Planet Rugby commented: “After the previous matches of the weekend the visit of Fiji to France must have put a smile on the faces of all who watched the game as both teams produced a little crackerjack of a match that saw Les Bleus successfully explore their depth and the Flying Fijians demonstrate they are an outstanding team with ball in hand.”

Fiji will now play England at Twickenham next Sunday in their last warm-up match before the Rugby World Cup opener against Wales on September 11.

In other pre-Rugby World Cup matches at the weekend, Ireland defeated England 29-10 while South Africa thrashed Wales 52-16.

Georgia beat the United States 22-7 and Italy thrashed Romania 57-7.

Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Geoffrey Miller’s Foreign Policy Briefing: Should New Zealand build bridges with the BRICS?

By Bryce Edwards -

August 21, 2023

Analysis by Geoffrey Miller.

The BRICS are back.

Johannesburg will this week host the 15^th annual summit of the BRICS, an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The loose grouping may be about to become tighter – and bigger.

Some 40 countries have expressed interest in joining the BRICS, which already represent over 40 per cent of the world’s population and 30 per cent of global GDP when measured using purchasing power parity (PPP).

Potential new BRICS members span the globe, from Africa to Asia and Latin America. Candidates and formal applicants include Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The timing of the surge in interest might seem surprising.

After all, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has seen Vladimir Putin become a pariah in the West – and problematic even elsewhere, thanks to the arrest warrant for the Russian president issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March.

South Africa and the ICC’s 122 other member states are obliged to enforce the warrant – which explains why it was decided ‘by mutual agreement’ that Putin would attend this week’s summit only virtually.

This does not mean the Global South wants to completely isolate Russia. Heads of state from 17 African countries – including South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi – attended a Russia-Africa summit in Moscow in July.

Ramaphosa is among those working the diplomatic track to try and find a pathway to peace in Ukraine. He is not the only one: in early August, Saudi Arabia also hosted talks in Jeddah that included representatives from more than 40 countries – including China, India, the US and Ukraine itself. On this occasion at least, Russia was not invited.

It remains to be seen whether the BRICS can – or want to – transform themselves into a larger grouping of Global South countries.

For New Zealand, the potential for an enlarged BRICS poses something of a dilemma.

Until now, the BRICS has been mainly an informal grouping. There is no BRICS secretariat.

However, if the BRICS decide to expand their club and adopt more formal structures, New Zealand would almost certainly rule out engagement because of Russia’s involvement.

Wellington has firmly backed the Western position on Ukraine since the war began, placing sanctions on Moscow and sending military support to Kyiv.

At the leader level, a visit to China in June by New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has been the exception that proves the rule.

The travel patterns of Hipkins and his predecessor, Jacinda Ardern, have heavily favoured Western destinations such as Australia, EU countries, the UK and the US. Only a handful of trips have been to countries that would be considered part of the Global South.

The picture looks a little different when it comes to the travel schedule for Nanaia Mahuta, New Zealand’s foreign minister.

This year, Mahuta has visited three of the BRICS countries – India, China and South Africa. She has also visited Indonesia – for ASEAN meetings – and, in the Pacific, Fiji and Vanuatu.

To be fair, these destinations have been part of a wider travel schedule in 2023 that has also included Brussels for a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting, as well as stops in Japan and Singapore. Mahuta also recently met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he visited Wellington.

Still, there might be something to the notion that Mahuta might be more ‘BRICS-friendly’ than other ministers in the Labour Cabinet. This includes the more pro-Western Hipkins and Ardern, and the Government’s notably hawkish defence minister, Andrew Little.

For example, Mahuta has attempted to put the brakes on New Zealand joining Pillar II of AUKUS. During Blinken’s visit, she told media ‘I’ll be really clear, we’re not contemplating joining AUKUS’, at odds with her own Prime Minister’s line that New Zealand was ‘open to conversations’ on the matter.

And in June, Mahuta gave a speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs (NZIIA) conference in which she rejected ‘binary choices’ and said New Zealand’s ‘global partnerships are not exclusively with those mirroring our views’.

Of course, rhetoric is one thing – and actions quite another.

Mahuta has yet to visit Latin America, for instance. In fact, aside from John Key’s attendance at an APEC summit in Peru in 2016, no New Zealand Prime Minister has made an official visit to Latin America since 2013.

Moreover, the Government recently announced that funding for the Latin America Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence (CAPE) – New Zealand’s only real centre of government capability for engagement with the continent – would be cut entirely from mid-2024. Given the opportunities, the decision appears perplexing at best.

New Zealand’s engagement with the Middle East is also worth considering. Mahuta visited the United Arab Emirates and Qatar as part of her inaugural foreign trip in November 2021, while Damien O’Connor, the trade minister, quietly visited Riyadh last year to chair the first meetings of New Zealand’s Joint Ministerial Commission with Saudi Arabia since 2018.

On the other hand, New Zealand Prime Ministers generally prefer to change planes in the Gulf on their way to Europe without making a stopover – a lost opportunity. The last leader to visit the region was John Key in 2015.

Further west, Helen Clark was the last Prime Minister to visit Egypt – which has officially applied to join the BRICS – in 2007, when she opened New Zealand’s embassy in Cairo.

Morocco has also been suggested as a potential BRICS member, although a report at the weekend rejected earlier suggestions that Rabat had made an official application. The country is home to Africa’s largest port, while Marrakech is hosting the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October.

The BRICS contenders are clearly still hedging their bets.

After all, the biggest achievement of the BRICS so far has been financial in nature: the BRICS-backed New Development Bank (NDB) was launched in 2015 and has provided loans of more than $US30 billion to date.

This is still small when compared with the World Bank, but the NDB is growing and could become an important player in climate finance. There are parallels with China’s Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) that counts New Zealand as one of its members.

The BRICS want to issue more loans in local currencies, circumventing the US dollar that currently underpins much of the international system. A common BRICS currency could be an ultimate end goal.

It is unlikely that New Zealand would be a fan of every BRICS aspiration – and Russia’s inclusion perhaps makes the bloc too hot to handle, at least for the time being.

But the BRICS could yet turn into something akin to APEC, an economic-focused bloc of countries big and small, from different continents.

This could entail all manner of meetings and summits – an outcome that could provide valuable and more effective face-time opportunities for Wellington.

As things stand, New Zealand is too small for the G7 or G20. It is in the wrong region to join a geographically-focused bloc such as ASEAN or the EU. And APEC – while having laudable aims –has lost momentum as geopolitical tensions between its members continue to build.

One thing is clear.

Fifteen years on, the BRICS are not going away.

New Zealand needs to think more about them.

*******

Geoffrey Miller is the Democracy Project’s geopolitical analyst and writes on current New Zealand foreign policy and related geopolitical issues. He has lived in Germany and the Middle East and is a learner of Arabic and Russian. He is currently working on a PhD on New Zealand’s relations with the Gulf states.

What harm could one coal mine do? Plenty – 1.7 million Hiroshima bombs of heat for starters

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Campbell, Senior research fellow and lecturer, Monash University

This year, the Australian government rejected Clive Palmer’s coal mine proposal – but approved three others. Over 100 more fossil fuel projects are in the decision pipeline.

Why are we still approving coal projects when climate impacts are intensifying? There is, as the International Energy Agency has pointed out, no place for new fossil fuels if we have a chance of holding global heating to 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels. Our existing fossil fuel infrastructure is enough to blow our remaining carbon budget.

Unusually, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and her department were required to account for climate impacts in a recent decision.

They decided the climate effects did not have “relevant impact”. One of the key reasons they gave for this was that the emissions from burning the coal from a single mine will, they claim, have a “very small” impact on warming – just 0.00024℃ over the lifetime of the mine.

As a physicist, this argument does not stack up. What seems like a minuscule amount of warming to a politician is, to scientists, very concerning. It’s no wonder environmental organisations are filing lawsuits to try to stop these mines.

coal power — It might not sound like a lot of extra warming – but on a planetary scale, it’s huge.
Shutterstock

One new mine is the same as millions of nuclear bombs of heat

Right now, Plibersek and her department are weighing up final approval for the expansion of the Mount Pleasant coal mine in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley. If approved, it would let the mine’s owners MACH Energy Australia double its extraction rate to 21 million tonnes of coal per year.

So far, the project has breezed through environmental approvals. But how can Australia’s environment minister reason that new coal mines won’t do too much damage to the climate?

Plibersek gives two main arguments. One is the assumption that if we don’t dig up fossil fuels, someone else will. Known as “the drug dealer’s defence”, this rationale has been rejected in a growing number of fossil fuel court cases, for example in in NSW, Queensland and the United States.

The second – the “very small” impact on warming – is worth a closer look.

By the mining company’s calculation, the expanded project will add 535 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) to our atmosphere over the lifetime of the mine. That’s about a year’s worth of Australia’s entire domestic emissions.

The department took this CO₂e figure and estimated how much this would change Earth’s global temperature. That’s where they got the “very small” figure of 0.00024℃.

To a politician, this small number may seem insignificant. But to a physicist it is truly remarkable. What it actually means is we are able to alter an entire planet’s temperature with this single mine extension.

Changing a planet’s temperature takes an enormous amount of energy.

If it weren’t for the greenhouse effect, Earth would be too cold for life. The problem is humans have been steadily increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, causing Earth to retain more and more of the Sun’s vast energy, heating the planet to dangerous levels.

Burning fossil fuels is responsible for most of this.

Our planet is now warming at a rate of 0.018℃ per year.

If we compare that to the department’s figure of 0.00024℃, we see the total warming effect from the Mount Pleasant mine would be about 1.3% of one year’s global warming.

Doesn’t sound like much? Consider this. Human activity is causing about 7.8 zettajoules of extra heat to be added to the Earth’s climate system every year. So, 1.3% of a year’s global warming gives roughly 0.1 zettajoules worth of extra heat through burning the output of an expanded Mount Pleasant coal mine.

Now, a zettajoule is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules of energy. This number is so large we can’t relate to it. We can think of it instead as around 1.7 million Hiroshima bombs worth of extra heat. From one single mine extension.

So, it is not a “very small” amount of energy. And that’s just one mine. If the 25 proposed new coal mines and three recently approved projects go ahead, they would add 12,600 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere. That, in turn, would trap heat equivalent to roughly 43 million Hiroshima bombs. And this doesn’t even count the planned gas and oil projects, or projects approved at the state level.

We can’t claim we don’t know

New fossil fuel project approvals at a time when global heating is accelerating seem like a remarkable disconnect.

It’s for this reason we’re seeing a spike in climate lawsuits. The Environment Council of Central Queensland is taking Plibersek to court, aided by Environmental Justice Australia.

This NASA visualisation shows carbon dioxide being added to Earth’s atmosphere over the course of the year 2021, split into four major contributors: fossil fuels in orange, burning biomass in red, land ecosystems in green, and the ocean in blue. The dots on the surface also show how atmospheric carbon dioxide is also being absorbed by land ecosystems in green and the ocean in blue.

Central to their case will be the claim the minister acted unlawfully when she “refused to accept the climate harm these projects are likely to cause, as outlined in thousands of scientific reports, including from the IPCC and her own department.”

The lawsuit has stopped the Mount Pleasant extension and Whitehaven’s Narrabri mine from proceeding further until the case has been heard.

We can’t predict the outcome of the case – it could go either way.

But we can predict the outcome of new fossil fuel projects. Dig up coal, burn it, heat the planet. We can’t argue our way out of the laws of physics.

Simon Campbell receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with Australian Parents for Climate Action (AP4CA).

– ref. What harm could one coal mine do? Plenty – 1.7 million Hiroshima bombs of heat for starters – https://theconversation.com/what-harm-could-one-coal-mine-do-plenty-1-7-million-hiroshima-bombs-of-heat-for-starters-210384

The interactive art of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: psychic resonance, surveillance and a murmuration of lights

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Prudence Gibson, Author and Research Fellow, UNSW Sydney

“They stole my face,” shouts a ten-year-old boy into a microphone, before stomping away.

We are in the Rafael Lozano-Hemmer exhibition Atmospheric Memory at the Powerhouse in Sydney. The boy’s photograph was taken as soon as he entered the exhibition and then publicly projected onto his shadow.

Like the social media it replicates, the exhibition content is a product of its users – which can feel like theft.

The main exhibition room, Atmospheres, contains a number of different works including a water-spray wall. The mist coming from the wall is a response to changes in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over time. It forms cloud-like visual texts whenever audience members speak into a microphone.

On the walls and floor of the main exhibition room, there are projected outsize images – a moving feast of text and data. These images and data represent the chaos of the digital world and the ubiquity of digital tracking technologies in urban environments.

All this digital imagery and scrambled text is a bit manic and unsettling.

Some of these elements from the Mexican-Canadian artist Lozano-Hemmer have been separately exhibited in Australia and internationally before. But brought together, the frenetic activity of so many competing elements in one room compromises their individual effect, especially as some recording components were not working on the day.

Themes of surveillance

The main work in the exhibition is called Zoom Pavilion. A tower supports 24 robotic cameras, which track visitors as we enter the space and report our appearance to the projectors, throwing our images onto the floor and the walls around us.

This work is a collaboration between Lozano-Hemmer and the pioneering Polish projection artist Krzysztof Wodiczko, and presents Wodiczko’s well-known theme of surveillance.

This type of art is what Lozano-Hemmer calls “relational architecture”, invoking the ideas of engagement and social experimentation (the “relational”) and the built environment.

He has also described these works as “platforms for public participation” and “technological theatre”: artworks that try to augment public space with gigantic interactive projections designed to bring people together in a playful way.

In another room, Field Atmosphonia is a dynamic light display accompanied by 3,000 different sound channels, including field recordings of insects and hundreds of types of birds. It is the complexity of the natural world transposed into the digital.

Imagine a murmuration of lights accompanied by sounds. Visitors walk in confused patterns, in sync with the pulses of light. Several toddlers, enchanted by the sounds and lights, run frantically away from their parents and back again.

Lost connections

This Sydney version of the show incorporates an eccentric variety of objects from the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences’ collection.

These objects include a boomerang, two terrariums with plants and rocks, three glass-blown bush-plum shapes by artist Yhonnie Scarce and, in the foyer, a slow-moving photographic panorama of late-19th-century misty Blue Mountains from the collection of Charles Kerry.

The connections between these collection items and Lozano-Hemmer’s work are hard to understand, except that they all connect to the atmosphere in various ways … at a stretch. The inclusion of the boomerang and glass shapes smacks of First Nations tokenism.

Recreated, reformed and re-presented

The overarching idea for Atmospheric Memory is that voice activation and image recording can be stored then endlessly recreated, reformed and re-presented to the audience.

Lozano-Hemmer attributes the origins of this idea to British 19th-century engineer and inventor Charles Babbage, who claimed perfect recollection is a calculation of the movement of all air molecules and could be rewound to reveal hidden voices.

Lozano-Hemmer has repositioned Babbage’s interest in psychic resonance and spirit reflection alongside his technological forecasting.

Painting the unfamiliar: why the first European paintings of Australian animals look so alien to our eyes

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janelle Evans, Senior Lecturer, Critical and Theoretical Studies, Victorian College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne

The Kongouro from New Holland, 1772, George Stubbs National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

In 1772, Joseph Banks commissioned the foremost painter of animals in England, George Stubbs, to paint a dingo and a kangaroo.

To our modern eyes the paintings lack the vitality and strength of the animals we are familiar with in Australia. The kangaroo more closely resembles a rodent than a bipedal marsupial. The dingo’s glassy-eyed stare lacks any animation.

Stubbs was renowned for how well he captured horses and dogs. Even today, those paintings of his capture the lifelike individual essence of his subject. So why did his paintings of the dingo and kangaroo – some of the earliest European representations of Australian animals – look so strange?

‘To compare it would be impossible’

Stubbs had not travelled with the 1768 Endeavour expedition to the South Seas. Instead, Banks commissioned him to paint from skins collected during the voyage.

While the journey was officially to chart the transit of Venus across the Sun from the vantage point of Tahiti, King George III also secretly instructed James Cook to search for the fabled Terra Australis Incognito and

with the consent of the Natives […] to take possession of a Continent or Land of great extent […]in the Name of the King of Great Britain.

Banks collected the skins of a “large dog” and a “kongouro” (thought to be a misinterpretation of the Guugu Yimidhirr word gangurru, which refers to the Grey Kangaroo) when the Endeavour pulled into safe harbour for repairs after striking the Great Barrier Reef in June 1770.

Banks recorded his first impressions of this very unfamiliar animal in his journal entry dated July 14 1770.

To compare it to any European animal would be impossible as it had not the least resemblance of any one I have seen. Its fore legs are extremely short and of no use to it in walking, its hind again as disproportionately long; with these it hops 7 or 8 feet at each hop in the same manner as the Gerbua, to which animal indeed it bears much resemblance, except in size […]

A simple pencil sketch. — The first European drawing of a kangaroo, by Sydney Parkinson in 1770.
Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London

Sydney Parkinson, one of the artists who accompanied Banks, made five sketches of the dead animal after it was shot by one of the ship’s gamekeepers.

These sketches, the flayed (and possibly inflated) skins, Banks’ journal entry and his personal memories were the material that informed Stubbs as he made his preparations to paint these very unfamiliar animals.

The semantic memory

Stubbs was lauded for his anatomically correct forms of horses and dogs. On occasion, Stubbs also painted exotic animals like the lions housed in the Royal Menagerie.

A beautiful horse — Whistlejacket by George Stubbs, 1762.
National Gallery

But his paintings of the dingo and kangaroo were the first time he painted animals he had never studied from life.

Stubbs capitalised on the swell of interest in the return of the Endeavour by exhibiting the paintings at the Society of Artists in London 1773.

This brought the dingo and the kangaroo to the scientific community and public’s attention. The animals became the two most associated with the new world of Australia – adding greatly to Great Britain’s sense of national pride as the conqueror of new worlds.

Portrait of a Large Dog (dingo) by George Stubbs, 1772.
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

Stubbs’ kangaroo painting set the standard for future representations of the animal until well into the 19th century, serving as a model for engravings and illustrations used in scientific and popular publications.

But Stubbs’ kangaroo more closely resembles the rat-like Gerbua of Banks’ description than the creature we know today. This can perhaps be explained by Stubbs’s unfamiliarity with the animals.

An animal of a new species found on the coast of New South Wales. 1773 engraving based on Stubbs’ painting.
National Museum of Australia

As an artist who had made a lifelong study of the anatomy and movement of animals, he would normally have relied on what psychologists refer to as “implicit memory” when painting his subject in the studio. That is, the unconscious memory he would instinctively rely on from years of painting animals he was familiar with.

It’s a bit like riding a bicycle: once learned, it’s never forgotten.

In this case, Stubbs primarily relied on “semantic memory”, or general knowledge of his experiences in the world, to paint the unfamiliar by utilising the knowledge, written material and personal recollections Banks had given to him.

Having been told a kangaroo was a giant rat-like gerbua by Banks, it is understandable that Stubbs also relied on his implicit memory of rats and gerbuas to depict the kangaroo.

A kangaroo with a joey. — An animal found on the coast of New Holland called kanguroo, 1809, by Thomas Thornton, based on Stubbs’ painting.
National Library of Australia.

Rendering the unfamiliar

As an artist, I can relate to this. My paintings of unfamiliar landscapes in Scotland and Ireland always seem to depict trees that look like eucalypts.

Despite using the same brand of watercolours I have used my whole artistic life, the way I paint the interplay of light, shadow and hue on mountain passes, birch groves and fields of heather and gorse usually seems more gaudy than the dull blue-grey colours of the Australian bush.

Unconsciously, I overlay the hues of the Australian landscape onto my paintings of the British landscape in order to tone the gaudiness down – much like the English painters who conversely depicted the Australian bush as English landscapes.

Rendering the unfamiliar familiar.

Janelle Evans 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. Painting the unfamiliar: why the first European paintings of Australian animals look so alien to our eyes – https://theconversation.com/painting-the-unfamiliar-why-the-first-european-paintings-of-australian-animals-look-so-alien-to-our-eyes-202719

The intergenerational report will prepare us for 2063 – but what exactly is it?

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Woods, Professor of Health Economics, University of Technology Sydney

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is preparing to release the Treasury’s sixth Intergenerational Report on Thursday.

Whereas the first, in 2002, made projections out to 2042, this one will take us beyond the middle of the century, to 2062-63.

Already, Chalmers has spent some of the weekend pre-releasing headline numbers. More on those numbers later.

But first: what is the Intergenerational Report and why do we have it?

What is an intergenerational report?

Australia is one of many countries to produce such reports. They had their genesis in the 1980s, when much of the world became concerned that baby boomers (born in the years after the second world war) would be reaching older ages in the second decade of the 21st century.

At that time they would start leaving work and stop paying income tax.

But – and this was important – it was also the time they would also be needing more taxpayer-funded health care and aged care.

In 1982, the United Nations held a World Assembly to discuss these challenges. By the mid-1990s, four countries – New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom and the
United States – were producing long-term fiscal projections.

In 1998 the Australian parliament made a similar commitment, legislating the Orwellian-sounding Charter of Budget Honesty. This required an intergenerational report within every five years to assess where Australia will be in 40 years’ time.

To date, Australia’s five reports have focused on the key drivers of economic growth, including the size and structure of the population, workforce participation, and productivity.

Some big expenditure items have also been looked into, including the three big supports of the care economy: health care, aged care and disability care. More recently, interest payments and defence spending have also gained prominence. These analyses have allowed the Treasury to compare the proportion of national income it is spending now with the proportion it is likely to be spending in 40 years’ time.

Extract from 2021 Intergenerational Report

Some things included, others not

I am one of a number of public policy experts who have just published a book, More than Fiscal, analysing the strengths and weaknesses of Australia’s 2021 Intergenerational Report.

While we concluded it had some value, we also identified significant shortcomings.

One was that nearly all of the reports to date have been very narrow in their scope. Many of the issues the public wants addressed have been missing.

Apart from the 2010 report, produced by the Rudd Labor government, the reports have included little about climate change, or about such other topics as social and economic inequality, housing availability and affordability.

They have said little about the performance of our cities, life in regional and rural Australia, geopolitical tensions and coping with natural disasters.

One clue that this year’s intergenerational report might be an improvement is Chalmers’ reference at his press conference on Monday to a report that would build our understanding of five big shifts, from

globalisation to fragmentation, from hydrocarbons to renewables, from information technology to artificial intelligence, from younger to older, and what that means them for our industrial base and in particular for a bigger role for the care economy

And yet a flurry of “backgroundings” issued over the weekend have largely served to update data on the topics the report usually covers.

Population growth is projected to slow, but is expected to reach 40 million by the early 2060s. As predicted in previous intergenerational reports, Australia will have a greater proportion of older people.

The budget pressures identified in previous reports – health care, aged care, disability care, interest payments and defence spending – are projected to grow from one-third of total Commonwealth government spending today to one-half of all Commonwealth government spending by 2062-63.

The care economy in particular is expected to almost double from around 8% GDP to around 15% in 2062–63. Further pre-announcements are expected over the next few days.

Too political, and still lacking input from Australians

Another serious concern identified by the expert group is that the reports have at times shown a decidedly political bias. In 2015, this went as far as making projections based on the Abbott government’s unlegislated policy and contrasting them with projections made if the policies weren’t adopted.

Yet another is that the reports have been focused on Commonwealth government spending. This is despite Australia being a federation, in which the states and territories play a very significant role – including running hospitals and schools and having responsibility for legislation relating to housing.

There is no sign Treasurer Chalmers will address these concerns this time, despite solutions being fairly easy to implement.

The next intergenerational report will be published in three years, as Chalmers has increased the frequency to once every three years. It would be great if that and future reports were prepared by an independent body, such as the Productivity Commission, and spanned the full range of government activity across all jurisdictions.

A final thought centres on a key role for the intergenerational reports – to generate widespread discussion about the direction Australia is taking.

Why not require the independent body issue a draft report, which could be debated by all parts of society, with that public input taken into account in the final publication?

Thursday’s report has already fallen short of what it could have been, but there will be another one – and fairly soon.

Michael Woods is a Professor of Health Economics at the University of Technology Sydney and was a former Deputy Chair of the Productivity Commission. He currently receives funding from governments and organisations in relation to ageing research.

– ref. The intergenerational report will prepare us for 2063 – but what exactly is it? – https://theconversation.com/the-intergenerational-report-will-prepare-us-for-2063-but-what-exactly-is-it-211694

It’s Book Week but your child is too anxious to take part. 5 expert tips to save the day

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frances Doyle, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, Western Sydney University

Book Week is here again. Around Australia, parents of primary school-aged children are coming up with costumes, so their kids can take part in parades.

Some kids are going to love wearing costumes and showing them off to classmates and teachers.

But, what if after all that effort, your child doesn’t want to wear their costume? Or, they get to school and nerves take over.

3 things not to do

1. Plan an extravagant costume without your child’s input. It can be helpful to engage your a child in decision-making and problem solving when they are calm.

2. Keep your child home. Avoidance can make anxiety worse. And, avoidance sends the message that the Book Week parade is definitely something to fear.

3. Get angry and upset with your child. While you might feel annoyed or disappointed, kids learn from our reactions. And, we don’t want to teach them talking about feelings is a bad thing.

Why kids might not want to take part in the school parade

It could be they are feeling anxious about looking silly in their costume. Maybe they are worried no one will know their Book Week character. Perhaps, they are concerned other kids will make fun of them.

About 6.9% of Australian children and adolescents have a diagnosed anxiety disorder, with past surveys showing 2.3% experience social anxiety. Yet these figures only include those who qualify for a diagnosis. Many other children have difficulties with worries and fears that might not be interfering with their daily life.

Anxiety is a normal human emotion evoked when we think there is an imminent threat. But, it can be hard to know what to do to support kids who are feeling anxious.

5 ways to support your child

So, what can parents or carers do? Here are some helpful tips.

1. Get input from kids early and often

Follow your child’s lead for a costume idea or give options so they can feel they have a choice in what they will wear. Even if it’s a simple choice like “do you want to wear the red shirt or the green shirt?” Choices help us to feel in control.

2. Play ‘thought detective’ with your child

Often, we can believe worried thoughts are true. But there are often more realistic ways to look at the situation. You can ask questions to help your child come up with alternative ways of thinking about the upcoming parade. Could the feelings be re-framed as excitement? Or freedom from uniforms or usual school clothes? You can also help your child understand what to expect. This might assist with worries they will be the only kid in a costume or that they won’t know what to do.

3. Encourage your child to take small steps

You want to encourage your child to be slightly out of their comfort zone, but not completely overwhelmed. Maybe it’s wearing their normal clothes and holding a picture of a character from a book. Perhaps it’s a hat or mask? Perhaps they feel brave enough to wear a costume, but not do the parade. Of course, if they get to school and feel ready to do the parade, then encourage them to do so. By facing fears, it gives children a chance to experience whether their worries come true or not. And, often, worries don’t come true.

4. Use rewards to help motivation

Rewards help motivate children to do things they might not otherwise want to do. Rewards could be stickers, food treats, a small toy, high fives or some special time together. Your child might be willing to do the parade if they know that they will get extra special time with you. This could be time playing a favourite game, going to the park with you, or time together reading a favourite book.

5. Practise calming strategies

When a child feels anxiety in their body, they will experience physical sensations. This may mean they feel like they want to run away from the situation, freeze or even have an emotional outburst. This might happen before going to school or at the time of the parade. Parents can help kids by using calming strategies, such as taking big breaths or counting.

Treatment for anxiety in kids

If anxiety keeps interfering with your child’s life, there are treatments that can help to reduce symptoms. It can be worth talking to a professional to get them early support.

You can get support from the school counsellor, your GP, a private psychologist or even an online treatment program.

Parents and carers are important people in children’s lives. How you react to your child’s anxiety can really help them as they grow and develop.

Frances Doyle receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council’s Medical Research Future Fund.

– ref. It’s Book Week but your child is too anxious to take part. 5 expert tips to save the day – https://theconversation.com/its-book-week-but-your-child-is-too-anxious-to-take-part-5-expert-tips-to-save-the-day-211826

What harm could one coal mine do? Plenty, producing 1.7 Hiroshima bombs of heat

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Campbell, Senior research fellow and lecturer, Monash University

This year, the Australian government rejected Clive Palmer’s coal mine proposal – but approved three others. Over 100 more fossil fuel projects are in the decision pipeline.

Unusually, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and her department were required to account for climate impacts in a recent decision.

One new mine is the same as millions of nuclear bombs of heat

So far, the project has breezed through environmental approvals. But how can Australia’s environment minister reason that new coal mines won’t do too much damage to the climate?

The second – the “very small” impact on warming – is worth a closer look.

The department took this CO₂e figure and estimated how much this would change Earth’s global temperature. That’s where they got the “very small” figure of 0.00024℃.

Changing a planet’s temperature takes an enormous amount of energy.

Burning fossil fuels is responsible for most of this.

Our planet is now warming at a rate of 0.018℃ per year.

If we compare that to the department’s figure of 0.00024℃, we see the total warming effect from the Mount Pleasant mine would be about 1.3% of one year’s global warming.

We can’t claim we don’t know

New fossil fuel project approvals at a time when global heating is accelerating seem like a remarkable disconnect.

It’s for this reason we’re seeing a spike in climate lawsuits. The Environment Council of Central Queensland is taking Plibersek to court, aided by Environmental Justice Australia.

The lawsuit has stopped the Mount Pleasant extension and Whitehaven’s Narrabri mine from proceeding further until the case has been heard.

We can’t predict the outcome of the case – it could go either way.

But we can predict the outcome of new fossil fuel projects. Dig up coal, burn it, heat the planet. We can’t argue our way out of the laws of physics.

Simon Campbell receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with Australian Parents for Climate Action (AP4CA).

– ref. What harm could one coal mine do? Plenty, producing 1.7 Hiroshima bombs of heat – https://theconversation.com/what-harm-could-one-coal-mine-do-plenty-producing-1-7-hiroshima-bombs-of-heat-210384

Is it worth investing in a battery for your rooftop solar? Here’s what buyers need to know (but often can’t find out)

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asma Aziz, Lecturer in Power Engineering, Edith Cowan University

Recent electricity price increases of 20–30% have hit households hard. Some are installing rooftop solar systems and batteries to reduce or even end their reliance on energy providers.

However, Australia’s uptake of household batteries lags well behind rooftop solar installations. The high upfront cost of batteries is a key reason.

A household battery stores excess electricity generated by your solar power system. You can use it later when solar generation can’t meet your needs – for example, at night or on cloudy days. This reduces the amount of power you buy from the grid.

But how long will the battery take to pay for itself, in the form of lower power bills? The answer varies. It depends, among other things, on where you live, your solar system size and design, how much electricity you use and at what times, network tariffs, and limits on how much surplus electricity you can feed into the grid.

Our current research project has found cases in which a solar panel and battery system will save you money in Western Australia. But the situation varies across Australia. Here, we take a look at what to consider before you buy.

Solar panel ready to be installed in front of a household battery mounted on a wall — Consumers need to consider many factors to work out whether adding a battery to their solar system is worth it.
Shutterstock

A tricky transition for consumers

Almost a third of Australian households have rooftop solar systems – the highest rate in the world. Households can now generate electricity on a massive collective scale.

This capability is key to the clean energy transition. But when solar systems aren’t generating enough power, households must draw electricity from the grid or a battery.

Battery costs vary with brand, size and location. On average, you’ll pay around A$1,420 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to install 1–5kWh of storage capacity. That’s down from $1,710 per kWh in 2017. The point at which buying a battery makes sense for most households is estimated at around $700 per kWh (for a lithium battery with a ten-year warranty).

At current prices, online advice suggests the warranty will typically expire before the battery pays for itself. So consumers might conclude they are better off buying solar systems only and waiting for battery prices to drop.

That’s not always the case. Our modelling found the payback time is less than the warranty period in Perth for at least two cases: using 50kWh per day with a 13.5kW solar system and 13kWh per day Tesla Powerwall 2 battery, and at 30kWh per day with a 6.6kW system and 6.5kWh LG Chem RESU battery. These batteries will cost you around $12,900 and $5,300 respectively, plus installation.

Our research also found that while there can be other reasons to get a battery, most people care about the financial benefits. But it’s not a simple decision. Some situations are good for batteries, but many people can’t use them effectively.

The amount of sunshine where you live and electricity prices also matter a lot.

In many cases, batteries might need government subsidies to be worth it.

What you need to know to design the optimum system

Installers usually advise householders on what size solar and battery system is best for them. To get this right, installers need to know:

household load profile – its energy use at different hours of the day and times of the year
daily load – the household’s average total energy use in 24 hours
tariffs – how much the household is charged for electricity from the grid, with higher tariffs at times of peak demand
grid sales limits – households might be paid for energy they export to the grid. However, retailers may restrict the level of exports, change the feed-in tariff at different times of the day, and block feed-in to maintain grid stability.

Most households will not know their load profile. Even if they do, it might change in response to energy providers’ demand management programs – which give households incentives to reduce electricity consumption at peak times.

A system that was optimally sized might not remain so. And once installed, systems are difficult and costly to modify.

Also, customers can’t control tariff changes and grid sales limits. These can have huge impacts on the returns from their solar investments.

Unless all these factors are considered, a household might end up with an unsuitable solar panel and battery system and never recover the costs.

All this means consumers need a reliable source of information. The problem is not a lack of information but an overwhelming amount from a wide range of sources. It can be hard to tell who has a vested interest in promoting certain choices and who is offering independent advice.

Many consumers will leave the decisions to their installer. They must then choose their installer with care.

Solar panels on tiled roof of house on a sunny day — At times of peak solar generation, household exports of electricity to the grid might be cut off.
Shutterstock

How to fix this

Householders are not the only ones who will benefit from widespread adoption of solar batteries. Network operators will too.

WA has one of the world’s largest isolated electricity grids. It also has a high uptake of rooftop solar. This threatens grid stability when solar generation surges and exceeds the capacity the network is designed to handle. Network operators are permitted to disconnect systems installed after March 14 last year as a last resort.

If more households installed batteries, they could store surplus energy that otherwise could destabilise the grid. But households want to be sure it’s a good investment. As recommended by Energy Consumers Australia, a trusted “one-stop shop” is needed to provide independent, tailored advice to consumers and refer them to government programs and measures.

Retailers and installers should provide households with consumer-friendly technology such as home energy management systems, including smart meters, to help them understand and manage their energy use.

Households should also be informed of alternatives. One option is community batteries, which store and supply energy to a neighbourhood of homes with solar power. Another is virtual power plants – energy-sharing networks that connect thousands of household batteries.

Armed with all this information, consumers could make more informed decisions about investing in the energy transition. Until then, many will defer the decision. And that could increase costs for both households and electricity networks.

The research leading to some of the results mentioned in article has received funding from Edith Cowan University for EMCR Grant Scheme 2022 (Stream 2), 2023 ‑ 2024

Daryoush Habibi tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.

– ref. Is it worth investing in a battery for your rooftop solar? Here’s what buyers need to know (but often can’t find out) – https://theconversation.com/is-it-worth-investing-in-a-battery-for-your-rooftop-solar-heres-what-buyers-need-to-know-but-often-cant-find-out-209219

Hopes fade for ‘room temperature superconductor’ LK-99, but quantum zero-resistance research continues

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Fuhrer, Professor of Physics, Monash University

The past few weeks have seen a huge surge of interest among scientists and the public in a material called LK-99 after it was claimed to be a superconductor at room temperature and ambient pressure.

LK-99 garnered attention after South Korean researchers posted two papers about it on arXiv, a non-peer-reviewed repository for scientific reports, on July 22. The researchers reported possible indicators of superconductivity in LK-99, including unexpectedly low electrical resistance and partial levitation in a magnetic field.

The potential discovery drew enthusiasm on social media and was widely reported in traditional media too. As a physicist working on quantum phenomena in materials, I was gratified to see the interest in superconductivity, and I shared in the excitement about the report. But I also approached the results with scepticism, especially since many previous reports of room-temperature superconductivity have failed to be reproduced.

Now, after follow-up experiments by scientists around the world, it seems LK-99 is not so special after all. However, while this particular avenue of research may be a dead end, the dream of a room-temperature superconductor is still very much alive.

What is a superconductor, and why are they useful?

You’re probably familiar with ordinary conductors, like metals, in which electrons can move fairly easily through the “crystal lattice” of atoms that makes up the material. This means an electric current can flow – but the electrons are jostled around a bit as they move, so they lose energy as they travel. (This jostling is called electrical resistance.)

In a superconductor, there is zero resistance and an electrical current can flow perfectly smoothly without losing any energy. Many metals become superconductors at very low temperatures.

Superconductivity occurs when the electrons slightly distort the crystal lattice of the metal in a way that makes them team up into “Cooper pairs”. These pairs of electrons then “condense” into a superfluid, a state of matter that can flow without friction.

Superconductors are very useful. They can be used to create extremely powerful electromagnets, such as those in MRI scanners, particle accelerators, fusion reactors and maglev trains.

Current superconductors work only at ultra-cold temperatures, so they require expensive refrigeration. A material that superconducts at everyday temperature and pressure could be used much more widely.

Currently, the highest superconducting temperatures at ambient pressure are around –138℃ (135 Kelvin), found in “cuprate” superconductors, a family of copper-containing compounds discovered unexpectedly in 1986. Electron pairing in the cuprates appears to involve a different mechanism than interaction with the lattice.

However, while our understanding of such exotic superconductors has improved, we still can’t yet predict with any certainty new materials which could superconduct at even higher temperature. Still, there is no reason to think this can’t be achieved. Moreover, many if not most superconducting materials are discovered serendipitously – so a claimed discovery of an unexpected room-temperature superconductor can’t be dismissed out of hand.

So what about LK-99?

LK-99 is a compound containing oxygen, phosphorus, lead and copper. Little was known about the material when the papers claiming superconductivity emerged. For example, it wasn’t even known whether it should conduct electricity at all.

The report of superconductivity at ambient conditions sparked a crash effort from researchers around the world to understand the material and reproduce the results. While it is still early days, and neither the initial report nor the follow-ups have been peer-reviewed, a picture has started to emerge that the LK-99 compound described by the authors is not a superconductor, and not even a metal.

So if it’s not a superconductor, why did the original researchers think it was? One study has pointed out that an impurity in the initial LK-99 samples, cuprous sulfide, could explain some of what they saw.

Cuprous sulfide experiences a sudden, large change in resistance at a temperature of around 127℃ (400K). The first researchers saw this drop in resistance and attributed it to superconductivity in LK-99, but it is more likely explained by very low (not zero) resistance in the cuprous sulfide impurity.

The partial levitation of LK-99, which might have indicated a property of superconductors called “magnetic flux pinning”, seems to be caused by ferromagnetism, a familiar effect that occurs in iron and many other materials.

So while nobody has proven the LK-99 samples studied in the original reports don’t superconduct, the balance of evidence right now is strongly in favour of other explanations. Most scientists studying superconductivity don’t see much reason to continue looking at LK-99.

Excitons and beyond

What’s next for superconductivity research? Well, we can cross LK-99 off the list of materials to study, but the search goes on.

In fact, there has been a lot of progress in the past few years towards creating zero resistance under ordinary conditions.

Making electrons pair together is the key to superconductivity, but this is hard to do as they naturally repel each other. However, it’s possible to make an electron pair up with a “hole” in a material – a gap where an electron should be.

These electron–hole pairs are called excitons, and they can be combined with light to form a frictionless superfluid at room temperature. This superfluid doesn’t carry an electrical current (because the charges of the electron and the hole cancel out), but separating the electron and hole might allow supercurrents without resistance.

Topological insulators

An alternate route to zero resistance at room temperature has been found in so-called topological insulators. These are materials that only allow electrons to move along their edges or surfaces, in some cases with no resistance.

Graphene, a material made of sheets of carbon only a single atom thick, can be turned into a topological insulator in a strong magnetic field. But the required magnetic field is so extreme it can only be realised in a few laboratories in the world.

A photo shows a scientist manipulating a levitating piece of metal surrounding by vapour from liquid nitrogen. — Typical superconductors only function at extremely low temperatures.
Michelmond / Shutterstock

There are also other types of topological insulators that work without an externally applied magnetic field. Current versions of these materials show zero resistance only at very low temperatures, but there appears to be no reason they couldn’t work at room temperature.

Unfortunately superfluid excitons and topological insulators can only carry a limited amount of current, and are probably not useful for creating powerful magnets. But they could still be useful for transmitting the tiny electrical signals used in computer chips, and my colleagues and I are using them to create low-power electronic and computing technologies.

Michael Fuhrer receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. Hopes fade for ‘room temperature superconductor’ LK-99, but quantum zero-resistance research continues – https://theconversation.com/hopes-fade-for-room-temperature-superconductor-lk-99-but-quantum-zero-resistance-research-continues-211733

Just the beginning: 7 ways the Women’s World Cup can move the dial on women’s sport forever

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Crawford, Adjunct Lecturer at the Centre for Justice, Queensland University of Technology

So, that’s it then. The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, hosted on Australian and New Zealand soil for the first time, came to an end on Sunday night as Spain beat England 1-0 in the final, after the Matildas lost 2-0 to Sweden on Saturday to finish fourth, their best ever result.

On top of the historic result, the Matildas captured the hearts of a nation. They broke television streaming records, with the semi-final match against England becoming the most-watched program since the current rating method was established in 2001.

Jubilant scenes erupted at live sites, pubs and homes across the nation. One viral video even captured a flight full of international travelers tuning in mid-air to watch the Matildas’ penalty shootout against France.

The Women’s World Cup has also delivered an estimated A$7.6 billion boost to the Australian economy.

Through countless instances such as these, we’re experiencing not just a great sporting moment, but a great cultural one too.

But, as anyone in and around women’s football knows, the Women’s World Cup needs to be more than a four-week football festival.

It needs to move the dial on the treatment of, and investment in, women’s sport, including with the following big-ticket items.

1. Celebrate and extend the cultural shift

The “Olympic Games effect” often sees coverage of women’s sports increase during the Olympics, where people are cheering on not their usual men’s or women’s teams, but their country.

But the Women’s World Cup has generated something incredible: women inspiring girls, women, boys, and men with feats that simultaneously position gender front and centre and inspire changing attitudes around the skills, capability, and value of girls and women.

Encouraging and continuing this cultural shift will be equally, if not more, game-changing.

For starters, it will ensure young girls have idols to look up to – which women’s football greats such as Brazil’s Marta missed out on.

We must cement such a shift with good policy and investment to promote further inclusion. This should have implications beyond sport, including extending to improving women’s representation in boardrooms.

2. Acknowledge no single event can fix everything

In speaking about AFLW, but in a sentiment equally applicable to football, sports journalist Neroli Meadows noted that one day the concept of women not being able to play football, or their playing being seen as a novelty, will be as foreign a concept as women not being allowed to vote.

The 2023 Women’s World Cup has gone at least partway to achieving that normalisation.

But it’s imperative not to overplay what the team and the tournament have brought. No single sport event can neatly address all gender equality issues (we’ve heard such optimism and hype around women’s sport and its gender-equality-advancing ability before).

So while it’s important to celebrate the wins, it’s equally important to recognise the tournament isn’t the endgame but an important next step.

3. Use the data to align value with investment

Until recently, the absence of investment in women’s football and the failure to broadcast matches meant the resulting data have only ever shown us what women’s football is not.

That lack of data is also why broadcasters were able to lowball FIFA when it was trying to sell the 2023 Women’s World Cup broadcast rights. It’s also why Channel 7 was able to secure the rights to screen 15 matches for just A$4–5 million (since described as “the deal of the century”).

It’s likewise why women’s football hasn’t been considered important enough to warrant inclusion under anti-siphoning laws, which facilitate events of national significance being broadcast on free-to-air television to ensure maximum accessibility.

That cannot be allowed to happen again. The astonishing viewership data and record ticket sales must be leveraged into real commercial and gender-equality change possibilities.

4. Invest in gender-specific research and gear

A spate of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries extinguished the tournament dreams of some of the world’s top women’s footballers.

Oft-cited research confirms women are up to eight times more likely to suffer ACL injuries than men. But there remains little women-specific research into ACL injury causes, much less prevention. Addressing this glaring absence is urgent.

This is symptomatic of wider issues around research overlooking women. For example, it was only last week that the world’s first study into period product absorption that used actual blood, not saline or water, was released.

The need to address other barriers is similarly important. For example, poorly fitting kits contribute to a high attrition rate for girls and women from sport. A Victoria University study confirmed what most girls and women already knew: done well, uniforms imbue comfort and confidence. But done poorly, they cause discomfort and self-consciousness and can put girls off wanting to continue sport.

Girls and women want flexibility and self-determination in uniform selection, and shorts and T-shirt options rather than skirts or dresses. Also, breathable dark material that masks sweat – so we should get rid of white shorts.

There’s also a glaring need to consider kits beyond outfield players: women referees remain overlooked.

Likewise, women’s goalkeeper kits have been unavailable for purchase this Women’s World Cup, despite many ‘keepers nation-inspiring defensive efforts. If ever there were something that summed up how women’s football simultaneously excels while being thwarted, this is it.

5. Appoint women to senior positions, but avoid the ‘glass cliff’

England coach Sarina Weigman was the only woman coach in the final four, and women remain a long way from holding apex positions such as the president of FIFA.

This tournament needs to open the door for women to be making decisions for women’s sport.

At the same time, we need to be measured and sustainable in the approach we take. We need to steer clear of the “glass cliff” phenomenon – where women are awarded senior positions only during tumult and the men who usually hold those roles are abandoning ship.

Establishing solid, steady training and mentoring programs and networks is a must.

6. Pay them properly

Providing a public holiday if the Matildas were to have won the final is all well and good. But there remains one key missing element for them, as it is for all women’s sports: pay and prize money commensurate with their contributions and talent.

Having achieved pay parity in 2019 and now earning base payments and bonuses for progressing to the knockout stages, the Matildas are in a slightly better position than their netball peers the Diamonds. The latter won the netball World Cup last week but received no pay and no bonuses for their efforts.

However, FIFA Women’s World Cup prize money, still a fraction of the men’s prize money, remains the elephant in the room. Total prize money for this year’s women’s tournament was US$110 million (A$165 million), while the total for the 2022 men’s edition was US$440 million (A$688 million).

FIFA has paid lip service to achieving prize money parity in coming years, but there’s little to stop it getting there now — especially off the back of record ticket sales.

7. ‘Correct the internet’

Women’s contributions have traditionally been devalued or overlooked (a phenomenon known in science as the “Matilda effect”). This has happened across many domains, including women’s football.

For example, often the historical record has seen football records such as the world’s leading international goalscorer misattributed to men. This is actually Canadian forward Christine Sinclair, having scored 190 international goals, not Cristiano Ronaldo, who’s scored 123.

Former New Zealand international footballer Rebecca Sowden has launched a campaign to “correct the internet”, aided by a gender-bias-correcting approach Google announced in July.

Efforts such as this aim to accurately place the women at the centre of this cultural and sporting revolution, appropriately affording them their place in history.

Fiona Crawford has worked in and around football for more than a decade, including having previously worked for Football Federation Australia/Football Australia.

– ref. Just the beginning: 7 ways the Women’s World Cup can move the dial on women’s sport forever – https://theconversation.com/just-the-beginning-7-ways-the-womens-world-cup-can-move-the-dial-on-womens-sport-forever-210550

Who gets to be healthy? The ‘social determinants of health’ can reduce inequities, but many policies neglect them

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Littleton, Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Centre for Healthy Sustainable Development, Torrens University Australia

The “social determinants of health” is a fancy way of describing a simple idea: that a person’s health is influenced not just by what they eat or do but also by social factors.

These include:

access to education (including in early childhood)
your parents’ income
being able to afford fresh fruit and vegetables
access to decent housing and healthcare
whether a child or their family face discrimination.

There’s growing awareness among researchers and policymakers that addressing the social determinants of health is crucial to tackling inequities in Australia.

And it’s during childhood these factors start greatly influencing a person’s life trajectory.

However, this growing awareness of how social factors affect children’s health is not always reflected in policy.

Our study, published in BMC Public Health, involved analysis of the strategies at the heart of 26 Australian health and education wellbeing policies. We found just 10% addressed the social determinants of health.

This is troubling. Failing to tackle the social determinants of health means reproducing disadvantage again and again.

A child with broken shoes sits on a concrete step. — Addressing the social determinants of health is crucial to tackling inequities in Australia.
Shutterstock

What we did and what we found

Our study involved analysis of 26 state and national strategic health and education wellbeing policies:

We selected these policies by reviewing all publicly available federal and state/territory health department strategic policies, and selecting key education wellbeing policies dated from 2009 on.

We picked out policies with a title that addressed the issues of children, youth, paediatric, adolescent, youth health, or families, as well as education policies that included “wellbeing” in the title.

We also selected whole-of-government policies addressing child and youth health issues, and health promotion or disease-prevention policies with a chapter or extensive section dedicated to children.

What we found was disappointing. Just 10% of the 26 policies we analysed suggested action on the social determinants of health.

And while Australian governments broadly acknowledge the importance of addressing social factors contributing to health and that some groups of children are left behind, there was an imbalance towards an acute care approach.

In other words, we saw a focus on dealing with problems once children are sick rather than looking at what needs to be addressed to prevent problems emerging in the first place.

It is the most vulnerable children who present more often in emergency departments. Addressing this means taking action on the social factors we know will make things fairer for all children.

The good news

The good news is we saw Australian policymakers were paying attention to some of the social determinants of health. For example:

Early childhood and education: many policies included a focus on the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, and the different levels of education. This is good news because we know if children are engaged in childcare, kindies, and schools during childhood they will have better health outcomes throughout life. Several policies also suggested strategies for children who are disengaged with the education system.

Parental workplace conditions: across the policies we analysed, there was recognition parental employment conditions contribute to the health of children. However, more work needs to be done in this area. One area often missed is the need for affordable childcare.

Healthy regulatory settings: several policies suggest we need to address marketing directed at children in close proximity to schools, playgrounds and
childcare centres. This is positive but we still see junk food marketed to children across Australia, especially in sport. We see an opportunity for more regulation in this area.

Healthy spaces: we could see work is underway across a range of policies to make sure children and families have green space to play in, and that cities are more walkable and bike-friendly.

Housing: some policies, especially when talking about youth, are starting to understand housing is crucial to health and wellbeing. This is welcome, but there’s also an opportunity to expand this area, as housing grows more unaffordable for many.

Including children’s voices: we were excited to see acknowledgement across several policies that it’s important for children and youth voices to be heard in the policy design process. This reflects a commitment to Article 12 of the United Nations Rights on the Convention of the Child, specifically that “Children have
the right to have their views taken into account in matters that affect them”.

Mental health: we were also pleased to see a stronger connection between health and education departments when addressing mental health. This could be a key part of tackling the increasing levels of psychological distress some children and youth are experiencing.

A mother leads her child by the hand toward a building. The child is wearing a backpack. — Many policies included a focus on the first 1,000 days of childhood.
Shutterstock

Where to from here?

Our study looked at just a snapshot of policies but represents a possible starting point for a broader discussion about how Australian policymakers could expand their focus on the social determinants of health.

We need a health system that balances both acute care and prevention. This could help toward the goal of ensuring all children living in Australia have better health outcomes and a fairer start in life.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Who gets to be healthy? The ‘social determinants of health’ can reduce inequities, but many policies neglect them – https://theconversation.com/who-gets-to-be-healthy-the-social-determinants-of-health-can-reduce-inequities-but-many-policies-neglect-them-210961

5 tips for getting off gas at home – for a cleaner, cheaper, healthier all-electric future

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trivess Moore, Senior Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University

Burning gas in our homes to cook food or heat air and water has become a contentious issue. Gas is an expensive, polluting fossil fuel, and there’s mounting evidence to suggest it’s also bad for our health.

Five million existing Australian households will need to get off gas within the next 30 years. But for homeowners, the upfront cost can be a major barrier to action. Renters rarely get a say over the appliances installed in their homes. And apartment owners can struggle to make individual changes too.

In most cases it’s worth making the switch, for the energy bill savings alone. For example, analysis suggests a household in Melbourne switching from gas to electricity can save up to A$13,900 over a decade.

If you’re contemplating upgrading gas appliances in your home, or even disconnecting from the gas network altogether, here are a few handy tips and resources to cut through the confusion.

Homes must switch away from gas by 2050, says policy think tank (ABC News)

Tip 1 – Find trusted, independent information

There is no shortage of information on how to make the switch from gas to all-electric appliances. The challenge is finding trusted and independent information.

Not-for-profit organisation Renew has compiled a range of presentations, guides, case studies and research. Choice provides independent reviews of household appliances, including operating costs. The Australian government’s Energy Rating website provides information on appliances to help consumers compare performance. Some local councils and community groups also provide information, support and bulk-buying schemes.

You could also visit some of the all-electric homes open to the public for Sustainable House Day. This can help you learn what works from people who have already made the change.

The My Efficient Electric Home group on Facebook is another active and helpful forum.

If you are going all-electric as part of a wider retrofit, consider an independent Residential Efficiency Scorecard assessment. This will help you understand what to else you can do to maximise thermal comfort, environmental benefits and financial outcomes.

Tip 2 – Plan your approach

Once you understand what to do, the next step is planning how to go about it. Think about what is most important to your household. What is driving the change? If it’s your health, you might like to start by eliminating indoor air pollution from the gas stove. Or if you want to save money, start using reverse-cycle air conditioning to heat your home, rather than gas.

There are three main ways to go all-electric:

Replace all your gas appliances at once. Making the change quickly minimises disruption to your home. You may save money on installation costs by doing everything in one go. You will avoid ongoing fixed gas supply charges once you disconnect from the gas network, but you may be required to pay an “abolishment fee” for permanent disconnection. That fee can vary significantly, depending on your location and gas provider. Costs could be up to $1000 (or more) but some states like Victoria have capped the price a household can be charged at $220. Renters wouldn’t be able to permanently disconnect without permission from the landlord, so they would still be open to paying the daily connection fee even if they found alternative electric options for everything else.
Replace your gas appliances one at a time, as finances allow. However, there will come a point where financially you will be better off replacing all the remaining gas appliances. This is largely because it will not be affordable to keep paying the daily connection cost for gas if you just have one gas appliance remaining.
Just stop using gas appliances in favour of existing electric appliances that do the same job, such as a reverse cycle air conditioner for space heating. You may have – or can buy – plug-in electric alternatives, such as a microwave ovens, portable induction cooktops, air fryers and heaters. These can be a good option for renters when landlords won’t make changes.

You could even borrow portable appliances to see how they work before committing to buying your own.

Households share their electrification journey (Renew)

Tip 3 – Access available rebates and resources

Most states offer various rebates for households to reduce the upfront cost of replacing gas appliances. These could reduce costs by thousands of dollars. Some rebates also target rental housing. Here is a list of key rebates available in different states:

Some not-for-profit organisations (such as the Brotherhood of St Laurence) offer financial and other support for lower-income households struggling to pay their energy bills.

Tip 4 – Wait for a sale or negotiate a better deal

It might sound simple but you can always save money by waiting until these electric appliances are on sale. If you are buying multiple appliances you can try to negotiate a better price. Factory seconds outlets offer lower prices as well.

Tip 5 – Know the issues

While the shift to all-electric will likely provide many benefits there are some things you need to consider:

The carbon emissions from electricity are falling fast, and many homes have rooftop solar. Combining all-electric with solar panels will maximise returns.
You may have to adjust to how new technologies operate and perform. For example, you may need new, metallic cookware for an induction cooktop and become familiar with their fast response. Additionally, some people find heat from reverse cycle air conditioners to be drier and/or draughtier than gas heating. Floor-mounted units heat more effectively.
It is not just the energy performance of appliances that matters. For example, noise from heat pump hot water services can vary across different brands. They can also require more space for installation.
Undertaking a wider energy retrofit (for example, increasing insulation in walls, ceiling and underfloor, upgrading windows to double glazing) may mean you can buy a smaller, cheaper reverse cycle air conditioner when replacing gas heating.
Electric appliances also need maintenance to make sure they perform optimally. For example, reverse cycle air conditioners have filters that must be regularly cleaned. While this can be done by households, it can be hard for people with mobility issues.
Depending on the capacity of your electricity switchboard or wiring, extra electric appliances may require upgrades.
For renters, while you could use portable appliances, you may not be able to disconnect from gas completely, meaning you would still have to pay a daily connection fee.
Gas and electricity prices can change over time, for many reasons. For example, if fixed gas distribution costs are spread over fewer customers.

A worthwhile investment

Australian states and territories have started banning gas in new builds. Victoria and the ACT will soon require new housing and major renovations to be all-electric. Others are likely to follow.

For people in existing housing around Australia, it can be daunting to make the switch. Many of us have grown up with gas in our homes and when one appliance breaks, the easiest thing to do is replace like-for-like. But the weight of evidence shows it’s worth taking the time to look at the alteratives and invest in upgrading to all-electric appliances. The benefits far outweigh the costs.

Trivess Moore has received funding from various organisations including the Australian Research Council, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Victorian Government and various industry partners. He is a trustee of the Fuel Poverty Research Network.

Alan Pears consults to and advises a number of not-for-profit organisations involved in transition from gas issues such as the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity, Energy Efficiency Council, Renew. He has received funding from A2EP, EEC and Energy Consumers Australia for work in this area. He writes a regular column for Renew magazine, and for other websites such as Reneweconomy and thefifthestate.

Nicola Willand receives or has received funding for research from various organisations, including the Australian Research Council, the Victorian State Government, the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, the Future Fuels Collaborative Research Centre, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Centre and the British Academy. She is affiliated with the Australian Institute of Architects.

– ref. 5 tips for getting off gas at home – for a cleaner, cheaper, healthier all-electric future – https://theconversation.com/5-tips-for-getting-off-gas-at-home-for-a-cleaner-cheaper-healthier-all-electric-future-211261

Fewer than 1 in 5 students who are behind in Year 3 catch up and stay caught up

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olivia Groves, Adjunct Research Fellow, Curtin University

We want all students to finish school with the literacy and numeracy skills they need to take advantage of post-school opportunities and to participate fully in society. Currently, in Australia, many students don’t.

The problem of not meeting learning standards starts early, with some students behind in Year 3. An important question is whether these students eventually catch up to their peers.

Our new research, published today by the Australian Education Research Organisation (AER0), indicates this is very difficult to do.

We found less than one in five students who are behind in Year 3 catch up and stay caught up. In fact, most students with early low performance are at risk of not meeting learning standards throughout their schooling with the support they currently get.

It’s hard to catch up

Our research looked at what happens to students who perform at or below the national minimum standards in literacy and numeracy in the Year 3 NAPLAN tests.

We chose “at or below the the national minimum standards” as a cut off point for not meeting learning standards because there is widespread agreement the standards for NAPLAN tests before 2023 were set too low.

Using a new longitudinal NAPLAN data set, we tracked the performance of about 190,000 students who performed at or below the national minimum standards in Year 3 through to Year 9. These students were in Year 3 between 2009 and 2015.

The performance pathways these Year 3 students experience in NAPLAN reading tests is shown in the diagram below. The picture is similar for numeracy.

A diagram with coloured pathways showing the movement of students at/below NMS in reading in Year 3 as they progress through Year 5, Year 7 and Year 9 relative to whether they again perform at/below NMS or above NMS. — Our research shows the pathways for students who were at or below the national minimum standards for reading in Year 3 (2008–2015, excluding 2014).

As the diagram shows, we found a little over a third of the Year 3 students with low performance continued to perform below standards through to Year 9. Almost half of the group performed inconsistently through to Year 9.

This shows Year 3 students who perform below learning standards are at a high risk of continuing to perform at that level throughout their schooling.

We also found less than one fifth of students (17% in reading and 19% in numeracy) went on to perform consistently at expected levels. This means fewer than one in five students were supported to catch up to their peers.

Many Year 3 kids need more support

Our analysis also shows learning gains are hard to maintain.

When students with low Year 3 performance reached learning standards in Year 5, only half of that group continued to perform that well until Year 9. The other half fell below learning standards in secondary school.

This suggests students who perform below standards in Year 3 require more support to catch up to their peers than they currently receive.

About 36% of students who are at or below the national minimum standards (NMS) in Year 3 perform above these standards in Year 5 in reading and numeracy. But only about half of this group remain above the standards consistently from Year 5 on.

A golden opportunity early on

These patterns highlight how important it is to assess student progress early.

By knowing exactly where students are versus where they are expected to be in their learning, we can intervene with teaching and learning programs.

Of the group of students with early low performance in Year 3, the best opportunity we saw for improvement was between Year 3 and Year 5.

This is because 36.1% of the initial group of students moved to performing above national minimum standards in reading between Years 3 and 5.

This is a much higher proportion than the 28.3% that made the same change between Years 5 and 7, and the 21.2% that made this move between Years 7 and 9. There is a similar pattern for numeracy.

This suggests the best time to intervene to catch students up is as soon as they have been identified as not meeting learning expectations.

Children in uniform sit on the ground. — We want all students to finish school with the literacy and numeracy skills they need.
Shutterstock

Small-group tutoring can help

Students who perform below expectations are not likely to catch up without extra support. These students need the best teachers, schools and education systems can offer to help them to achieve learning standards.

There is strong evidence small-group tutoring within a multi-tiered system of supports can help students who have fallen behind.

This system involves assessment of student learning gaps and the delivery of frequent, small-group or one-on-one interventions within the school environment, led by trained school staff.

Any student learning interventions, of course, must also be monitored and assessed to see if they’re effective.

Our findings offer an opportunity to investigate the impact of interventions on students’ literacy and numeracy performance.

This can help identify the best ways to improve outcomes for those least likely to finish school with the literacy and numeracy skills they need.

Our research also involved AERO’s Dr Lisa Williams, Dr Wai Yin Wan and Dr Eunro Lee.

Olivia Groves is a Principal Researcher for the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO).

Lucy Lu is the Senior Manager, Analytics and Strategic Projects for the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO).

– ref. Fewer than 1 in 5 students who are behind in Year 3 catch up and stay caught up – https://theconversation.com/fewer-than-1-in-5-students-who-are-behind-in-year-3-catch-up-and-stay-caught-up-211516

You don’t have to be an economist to know Australia is in a cost of living crisis. What are the signs and what needs to change?

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

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

This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining Australia’s cost of living crisis.

Every day the higher price of seemingly everything is mentioned in the news or in conversations with friends and acquaintances.

The impact is clear as we are required to pay more for most things from our weekly shop and power bills, to filling the car and swimming lessons.

So what is the cost of living and how is it measured?

The “cost of living” refers to the prices people need to pay to meet their needs in their everyday lives.

The most commonly cited measure is the Consumer Price Index compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

This represents the price of a fixed basket of goods and services. The items in the basket reflect the spending of metropolitan households. Each item is given a weight corresponding to its share in the spending of these households. The CPI does not include the price of land or financial assets such as shares.

The rate of change of prices is known as inflation.

Inflation rose sharply in the 1970s, especially after the oil price shocks. It took a long while to get it down. The Reserve Bank adopted an inflation target of 2-3% in the early 1990s to keep inflation low over the medium term. After a long period of low inflation, it rose sharply again during 2022.

It is now declining.

A similar pattern is seen in comparable economies such as the United States and New Zealand. The supply bottlenecks caused by COVID have eased and economic activity is slowing in response to the increases in interest rates in most economies.

Not all prices rise at the same rate

Some prices rise fairly smoothly in line with the overall CPI. Others, such as petrol and fresh food, are much more volatile.

Since 1972 the price of the CPI basket has increased almost 12-fold. But some prices have increased much more.

Cigarettes cost almost 60 times as much (reflecting increased taxes). Labour-intensive hairdressing costs 20 times as much. Prices of other goods have gone up much less, especially after Australia cut tariffs and started importing more from low-cost producers. Over the past decade the prices of clothing and computers have fallen.

People often believe inflation is higher than the CPI reports. Big price rises are more noticeable. You seldom see headlines about prices that have not changed. And when was the last time you heard a discussion about how clothing has been getting cheaper?

House prices are now more than 50 times as high as in 1972, a much larger increase than the CPI. Some of this, however, represents quality changes rather than pure price changes. The average Australian house has roughly doubled in size and may now be the largest in the world.

My inflation is not the same as yours

The CPI reflects the prices faced by an average household. About half of households will have experienced a higher increase in the prices they pay, and half will have seen a lower increase.

Different households consume different goods and services. Retirees tend to spend more on health care and less on childminding. A higher proportion of the spending of lower income households goes on necessities rather than luxuries.

For the “average” household, almost 4% of spending is on tobacco. But of course non-smokers spend nothing while heavy smokers spend much more. So that large rise in cigarette prices affects some people significantly and others not at all.

The ABS publishes some separate living cost indices. The data get much less attention, partly because they are released after the CPI. These differ from the CPI in that they include interest charges. They are also prepared relating to different classes of people.

Over the year to June 2023, the living costs of employees rose by 9.6% but those of self-funded retirees by 6.3% and age pensioners by 6.7%. The main reason for the difference was that interest rates increased and employees are more likely to have a mortgage than are retirees.

These compare to the 6% increase in the CPI over the same period.

Cost of living problem

The cost of living becomes an increasing problem when incomes, notably wages, fail to keep up with it. Over long periods of time, wages tend to grow faster than prices. The economy becomes more productive over time and the gains flow to both workers and companies.

But over shorter periods, this may not be the case. Last week’s data show wages grew by only 3.6% over the year to the June quarter. This is well below the current inflation rate of 6%. But it is around the growth in prices forecast by the Reserve Bank for the coming year.

As well as an income for workers, wages are a major cost for businesses. So if wages grow too fast, and particularly were they to accelerate, there is a risk of a wage-price spiral.

The 3.6% annual wage increase for the June quarter is slightly less than the 3.7% recorded in the March quarter. The quarterly growth rate has been steady at 0.8% for the past three quarters. If labour productivity grows close to its medium-term average, this size of wage increase should not be a concern.

If business starts to expect raw material and input prices, and prices charged by their competitors, to keep growing strongly, they will be likely to keep increasing their own prices a lot. This risks a price-price spiral.

The Reserve Bank is trying to steer the economy along what it calls a narrow path.

It hopes it has raised interest rates enough to slow the economy and return inflation to its 2-3% target within a reasonable time frame. But it hopes it has not raised them too far, which would push the economy into a recession and lead to a large rise in unemployment.

The bank’s goal is to have the cost of living rising by around 2-3% per year and incomes a bit more than this, so living standards steadily improve for all Australians over time.

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

– ref. You don’t have to be an economist to know Australia is in a cost of living crisis. What are the signs and what needs to change? – https://theconversation.com/you-dont-have-to-be-an-economist-to-know-australia-is-in-a-cost-of-living-crisis-what-are-the-signs-and-what-needs-to-change-210373

Patents were meant to reward inventions. It’s time to talk about how they might not

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Giblin, ARC Future Fellow; Professor; Director, Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia, The University of Melbourne

For hundreds of years, we’ve been told patents help deliver big new inventions, such as life-saving drugs.

They are meant to be a bargain between the inventor and the public: tell us how your invention works, and we’ll give you a fixed time – a patent protection period – in which you’re the only person who can make use of it.

Such exclusive rights make it easier for inventors to profit from their investments in research and development, and in theory encourage innovation we wouldn’t get otherwise, which benefits us all.

We’ve long had to accept this bargain on faith. But those core assumptions about patents are increasingly being subject to empirical testing, and – as we detail in a new podcast starting this week – often coming up short.

Many claimed inventions likely don’t work

Consider the most basic assumption – that the public will benefit from patented technologies – both as products and services and as building blocks for more innovation. That’s meant to be achieved by inventors coming up with inventions that work, then telling the patent office how they work.

But research by Janet Freilich from Fordham University in the United States suggests there is a “replicability crisis” in patent claims that rivals those in other fields.

Freilich graded the experiments said to back up 500 life sciences patents against the requirements of the journal Nature – and found as many as 90% didn’t stack up and probably couldn’t be reproduced.

She says

patent law relies on the assumption that, when a patent is filed, it has been “reduced to practice” – meaning that the invention works. The reality is that most inventions likely do not work, casting serious doubt on this assumption.

One of the reasons is the way the patent system works.

Under the ‘first-to-file’ system, when two inventors are developing similar technologies, the inventor who gets to the patent office first gets the patent. Freilich argues this means that any experiments they do conduct will inevitably be quick and preliminary.

Worse still, only 45% of the patents she examined were backed up by any sort of experiment. The remaining 55% were supported only by speculative and hypothetical evidence. This is allowed under patent law at least in some countries, but it does raise questions about what exactly the public gets out of the system.

Research sometimes accelerates when patents expire

We’re also told we grant patents to “incentivise” (encourage and reward) the kind of work needed to get expensive products, like new drugs, to market.

But again, this theory doesn’t always match the practice.

Research led by John Liddicoat of King’s College London finds that in the development of many drugs, the most expensive trials (Phase II and Phase III) actually accelerate once patent protection expires, when universities and hospitals feel free to step in.

This raises a number of serious questions:

why aren’t patents providing an incentive for patent holders to do these trials?
should we shorten the length of patents to bring forward trials?
are commercial organisations best suited for trials?

An AI-driven flood of low-quality patents

Artificial intelligence is set to make it easier to find, and perhaps automatically enforce patents, which could frighten away more genuine innovators.

Generative AI could also lead to more patents: in the words of the government agency IP Australia, it is likely to reduce “the barrier to creating novelty”. This could potentially overwhelm patent offices with even lower quality patents.

It is also likely to mean patent examiners can no longer rely on the default assumption that the claimed invention is solely the result of human exertion, raising the possibility of needing to rethink the patent bargain.

Invention matters more than ever

More and more, new research and new developments are telling us we can no longer take the claims made for the patent system on faith.

Urgent challenges – including climate change, infectious diseases, political polarisation and artificial intelligence – all require cutting-edge science that can be put to work quickly and at scale to solve real-world problems.

That makes this an ideal time to talk about whether our patent system is best equipped for that task, exploring a range of options for finding and applying the innovations we need – and bringing in voices and perspectives that are too often marginalised in intellectual property debates.

These ideas are discussed in the first episode of IP Provocations, a new podcast asking challenging and sometimes controversial questions around IP and data. You can listen here, or via your favourite podcast platform.

Rebecca Giblin receives funding from the Australian Research Council and state and territory libraries for the Author’s Interest Project (authorsinterest.org; FT170100011), the eLending Project (elendingproject.org; LP160100387) and Untapped: the Australian Literary Heritage Project (untapped.org.au). She is a Fellow of the CREATe research centre at the University of Glasgow, and a member of the Author’s Alliance and the Australian Digital Alliance. Support for the podcast series referred to in this article has been provided by IP Australia, but note that IP Australia has no editorial control over the content of the podcast.

Support for the podcast series referred to in this article has been provided by IP Australia, but note that IP Australia has no editorial control over the content of the podcast.

Kimberlee Weatherall receives funding from the Australian Research Council, including as a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence on Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) (CE200100005). She is also involved in a number of research projects with external funding relating to artificial intelligence and automation. Her research is supported via funding and in-kind contributions by the NSW Ombudsman, the Gradient Institute and IAG. Support for the podcast series referred to in this article has been provided by IP Australia, but note that IP Australia has no editorial control over the content of the podcast.

– ref. Patents were meant to reward inventions. It’s time to talk about how they might not – https://theconversation.com/patents-were-meant-to-reward-inventions-its-time-to-talk-about-how-they-might-not-211518

‘Care’ economy to balloon in an Australia of 40.5 million: Intergenerational Report

By The Conversation -

August 21, 2023

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

Australia’s care economy could increase from its present about 8% of GDP to about 15% in 40 years, according to the government’s Intergenerational Report, to be released by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Thursday.

The projections say in four decades’ time Australians will be living longer, with more years in good health – but the larger cohort of aged people will increase the need for care.

By 2062-63, life expectancy for men is projected to be 87 years (currently 81.3), and for women 89.5 (85.2).

Australia’s population is expected to grow at a slower rate in the coming four decades than in any 40 year period since federation, according to the report, prepared by the federal treasury. By 2062-63 Australia would have a population of 40.5 million.

The Intergenerational Report puts a long lens on the nation’s future, looking at the implications of demographic changes and covering a broad range of economic and social areas. The first report was done under the Howard government and the most recent in 2021. While these reports are important for policy makers in identifying trends and signposting looming problems, they are also limited by the extended time frame and the inevitability of changing circumstances and different policies.

This year’s report again highlights the economic and budgetary issues presented by an ageing population. The combination of increased longevity and low fertility means Australia will continue to age over the next four decades. “The number of people aged 65 and over will more than double and the number aged 85 and over will more than triple,” the report says. This will make for “an ongoing economic and fiscal challenge”.

“The average annual population growth rate is projected to slow to 1.1% over the next 40 years, compared to 1.4% for the past 40 years,” the report says. “Australia’s population is projected to reach 40.5 million in 2062–63.”

Present projections are for the number of health care and social assistance workers to increase by 15.8% from 2021 to 2026. The former National Skills Commission projected the demand for aged care workers alone was expected to double by 2050.

Extract from 2023 Intergenerational Report.
Commonwealth Treasury

Chalmers said the report showed growth in the care economy “is set to be one of the most prominent shifts in our society” over the period, with the care sectors playing a bigger role in driving growth.

“Whether it’s health care, aged care, disabilities or early childhood education – we’ll need more well-trained workers to meet the growing demand for quality care over the next 40 years. The care sector is where the lion’s share of opportunities in our economy will be created,” he said.

The report projects population growth to fall to 0.8% in 2062–63.

Both migration and natural increase are expected to fall relative to the size of the population. Net migration is assumed at 235,000 a year.

“The 2023–24 Budget forecast that net overseas migration will recover in the near term due to the temporary catch‑up from the pandemic. It is expected to largely return to normal patterns from 2024-25. Even with the near‑term recovery, on current forecasts, cumulative net overseas migration would not catch up to pre‑pandemic levels until 2029-30,” the report says.

“Over the next 40 years, net overseas migration is expected to account for 0.7 percentage points of Australia’s average annual population growth, falling from 1.0 percentage points in 2024–25 to 0.6 percentage points by 2062–63.”

On budgetary pressures, the report follows a familiar theme. “The main five long‑term spending pressures are health and aged care, the NDIS, defence, and interest payments on Government debt. Combined, these spending categories are projected to increase by 5.6 percentage points of GDP over the 40 years from 2022–23 to 2062–63.”

On the crucial issue of productivity, which has languished for years, the report downgrades the assumption for productivity growth “from its 30-year average of around 1.5% to the recent 20-year average of around 1.2%.

“Placing more weight on recent history better reflects headwinds to productivity growth, such as continued structural change towards service industries, the costs of climate change, and diminishing returns from past reforms. This downgrade is consistent with forecasts in other advanced economies.”

The report points to areas where there are opportunities to lift productivity growth.

These include reforms to reduce entry and exist barriers for firms, facilitating the diffusion of technology, and encouraging labour mobility. It also highlights the potential of digital innovations, including artificial intelligence.

On human capital, the report says, “The jobs of the future will require increasingly specialised skillsets and there is potential to support Australians at all stages of their human capital development. Promotion of foundational skills – such as in literacy and numeracy – at an early age will facilitate participation in the expanding knowledge economy over the next 40 years.”

Chalmers said the report “will make the critical point that the trajectory or productivity growth in the future is not a foregone conclusion, and it will depend on how we respond to the big shifts impacting our economy”.

Meanwhile the Business Council of Australia is unveiling a reform plan, titled Seize the Moment, for ways to reverse Australia’s “productivity slump” and boost competitiveness. It claims if implemented the reform package would “leave each Australian $7000 better off a year after a decade”.

Among its multiple proposals, the BCA says there should be “broad-based reform of the tax system to minimise distortions and increase incentives to invest, innovate and hire”.

It also says federal and state governments should commit to a “10-year national net zero roadmap based on a whole-of-system approach to decarbonising the economy to 2050”. It calls for more action to increase women’s economic participation, a more flexible industrial relations system, “a coherent system of lifelong learning”, and an agenda for microeconomic reform.

– ref. ‘Care’ economy to balloon in an Australia of 40.5 million: Intergenerational Report – https://theconversation.com/care-economy-to-balloon-in-an-australia-of-40-5-million-intergenerational-report-211876

USAID launches ‘reinvigorated’ Pacific mission to help sustainability goals

By Asia Pacific Report -

August 20, 2023

By Kalinga Seneviratne in Suva

The United States government’s overseas development aid arm US Agency for International Development (USAID) opened two new offices in Papua New Guinea and Fiji last week, pledging to assist Pacific island countries in addressing the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The last USAID office in the region was closed over 25 years ago.

The haste with which the US re-established these offices with its Administrator, Dr Samantha Power — a former Harvard professor, flying from the US to officiate in the ceremonies in Suva and in Port Moresby in PNG on August 15 has also got some sceptics in the region questioning its motives.

Addressing Pacific youth at a ceremony at the University of the South Pacific, also attended by the Pacific Island Forum’s Secretary-General Henry Puna — a former prime minister of Cook Islands — Power said USAID was setting up an office in the Pacific to help them to directly “listen, learn, and better understand” the challenges that Pacific Island countries were facing.

“Our new mission here in Fiji and our office in Papua New Guinea — are not going to come in and impose our ideas or our solutions for the shared challenges that we face” she told an audience of students and academics from the region.

USP is one of only two regional universities in the world largely funded by regional countries. She described the two missions as “reinvigorated (US) commitment to the Pacific Islands”.

At a number of times during her 20-minute speech, Power emphasised that USAID only gave grants and they did not give loans.

“As we increase our investments here in the Pacific, I want to be very clear — and this is subject to some misunderstanding — so please, I hope I am very clear,” she said.

Not forcing nations
“The United States is not forcing nations to choose between partnering with the United States and partnering with other nations to meet their development goals.

“That said, we do want you to have a choice. It’s not a choice that we will make for you, but we want you to have options.

“We want Pacific Island nations to have more options to work with partners whose values and vision for the future align with your own.”

Although Dr Power did not mention China in her speech, this could be interpreted as a reference to the Chinese presence in the Pacific and the “rules-based order” the US and its allies claim to promote in the region.

She immediately added to the above comments by pointing out that USAID only gives grants.

“We are very interested in economic independence, and independence of choice and not saddling future generations with attachments and debts that will later have to be paid,” she said.

“And we will engage with you openly, transparently, with respect for individual dignity and the benefits of inclusive governance, the benefits of being held accountable by your citizens, and we will join you in seeking to combat corrupt dealings that can enrich elites often at the expense of everyday citizens.”

Training farmers in new techniques
Another area where they would allocate funding would be training farmers in new techniques to grapple with changing weather patterns and encroaching salt water.

She also announced the launch of a new initiative, a Blue Carbon Assessment, to quantify the true value of the marine carbon sinks across the Blue Pacific continent.

Referring to Dr Power’s comments about reinvigorating the US’s commitment to the region, Maureen Penjueli, coordinator of the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), told IDN that this was a way to frame the US as a partner of choice by allowing the islanders to determine what is a priority in terms of their development.

“The US is not the only development partner that is suggesting this,” she added, “Australia’s recent Development Policy attempts to frame themselves is no different.”

Referring to US ally Australia’s aid policies, she pointed out that for decades there has been accusation of tied aid, “boomerang aid” by many of our development partners — or how aid is an extension of foreign policy and therefore it is by its nature extractive — an iron fist in a velvet glove”.

“But its other implication is to subtly suggest that the US and its allies’ goals are unlike what China does, which is to ‘extract concessions’ through this relationship either through ensuring that Chinese companies get the contracts, Chinese labour is recruited (as well as) many other forms of accusation of Chinese engagement in the region,” Penjueli said.

During an interaction with the local media after her speech, a local television reporter told Dr Power that critics had been quick to say that the US was ramping up support in the greater Indo-Pacific region because it believed that American dominance was at risk.

“How do you respond to such an observation? And why should Pacific leaders choose US diplomatic support over Chinese support?”, the reporter asked.

“Lots of experience around the world is the recognition that governance and human rights, and economic development go hand in hand,” Dr Power replied.

“You can have economic development without human rights, but it’s almost impossible to have inclusive economic development that reaches broad segments of the population.

“So, we really believe that a development model that values transparency, that ensures that private sector investment is conducted in a manner that benefits broad swaths of the population rather than like a couple of government officials who take a bribe or pay a bribe.”

Grants at a time of a different model
Dr Power also added that USAID gave grants at a time when others were pushing a very different model, “which is much more about concentrating both political and economic power, which tends to stifle the voices of citizens to hold their leaders accountable, allows officials to do what they believe is right, but without checks and balances”.

USAID is representing the reopening of the two offices as a follow up to President Biden’s meeting with the Pacific leaders in Washington DC last year.

Its Manila-based deputy assistant director of USAID, Betty Chung, has told Radio New Zealand that currently there are just two staffers in Fiji but by the end of the year, they hope to have eight to 10 there, building up to about 30.

Also the USAID budget for the Pacific has tripled in the past three years.

In a joint press conference in Port Moresby, PNG Prime Minister James Marape has welcomed USAID’s renewed commitments to the region and said that Power’s presence completes what is President Biden’s 3D strategy — diplomacy, defence, and development — in the focus to revamp the US presence in PNG and the Pacific.

He also referred to recent defence agreements signed with the US but said that it should not be a one-way relationship on how they relate to the US. He asked Power and UNAID to assist PNG in preserving their forest resources.

Pacific people need to watch
Pointing out that PNG is home to one-third of the world’s forests and 67 percent of global biodiversity, Marape said that he had asked Dr Power to take the message back to the US and particularly to Congress “who sometimes offer resistance to support to emerging nations” — to help PNG to preserve its forest resources to offset the US “huge carbon footprint”.

Referring to Dr Power’s undertaking that she came to the Pacific to listen, Penjueli said that people in the Pacific needed to watch how USAID could translate this listening exercise into grant-making and in which areas and how they do it.

“For Pacific Island governments, I do believe that they are in a better place, this gives them more options to consider if they (foreign donors) support their own development needs particularly in the current context of a climate emergency, post-pandemic debt stress economies and an ongoing Ukraine war.”

Dr Kalinga Seneviratne is a Sri Lanka-born journalist, broadcaster and international communications specialist. He is currently a consultant to the journalism programme at the University of the South Pacific. He is also the former head of research at the Asian Media Information and Communication Center (AMIC) in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific editor of InDepth News (IDN), the flagship agency of the non-profit International Press Syndicate. This article is republished under content sharing agreement between Asia Pacific Report and IDN.

Dr Samantha Power with USP students — Dr Samantha Power (pink in the centre with garland) with University of the South Pacific students at the Laucala campus in Suva, Fiji. Image: Kalinga Seneviratne/IDN

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Allegations over cult leader feature in new Muslim Media Watch monitor

By Asia Pacific Report -

August 19, 2023

Pacific Media Watch

A new media monitoring watchdog, Muslim Media Watch, published its first edition today featuring a cover story alleging that a Malaysian cult leader who was reportedly now in New Zealand could “create social unrest”.

Named as Suhaini bin Mohammad, he was allegedly posing as a Muslim religious leader and was said to be wanted by the authorities in Malaysia for “false teachings” that contradict Islam.

His cult ideology was identified by MMW as SiHulk, which was banned by the Johor State Religious Department (JAINJ) in 2021.

The front page of the inaugural August edition of Muslim Media Watch. Image: Screenshot

In an editorial, the 16-page publlcation said a need for “such a news outlet” as MMW had been shown after the mass shootings at two Christchurch mosques on 15 March 2019 and the Royal Commission inquiry that followed.

Fifty one people killed in the twin attacks were all Muslims attending the Islamic Friday prayer — “they were targeted solely because they were Muslims”.

The editorial noted “the shooter was motivated largely by online material. His last words before carrying out the shootings were: ‘Remember lads, subscribe to PewDiePie.’”

“It is therefore disappointing that, while acknowledging the role of the media in the shootings, none of the 44 recommendations in the government’s response to the [Royal Commission] relate to holding media to account for irresponsible reporting, or even mention media; the word does not appear in any recommendation,” writes editor Adam Brown.

Often not neutral
“Indeed, the word Muslim appears only once, in ‘Muslim Community Reference Group’.
It has long been acknowledged that media reporting of Muslims and Islam is often not neutral.”

The editorial cited an Australian example, a survey by OnePath Network Australia which tallied the number, percentage and tone of articles about Islam in Australian media in 2017, in particular newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp: The Daily Telegraph, The Australian, The Herald Sun, The Courier Mail and The Advertiser.

“Over the year, the report found that 2891 negative articles ran in those five newspapers, where Islam and Muslims were mentioned alongside words like violence, extremism, terrorism and radical. This equates to over eight articles per day for the whole year; 152 of those articles ran on the front page,” said the MMW editorial.

“The percentage of their opinion pieces that were Islamophobic ranged from 19 percent
to 64 percent.

“The average was 31 percent, nearly a third, with one writer reaching almost two thirds. Also, as OnePath comment, ‘Even though they are stated to be “opinion” pieces, they are often written as fact.’”

Editor Brown said the situation in New Zealand had not improved since the shootings.

“Biased and unfair reporting on Muslim matters continues, and retractions are not always forthcoming,” he wrote.

Examples highlighted
The editorial said that the purpose of MMW was to highlight examples of media reporting — in New Zealand and overseas — that contained information about Islam that was not
accurate, or that was not neutrally reported.

It would also model ethical journalism and responsible reporting following Islamic practices and tradition.

MMW offered to conduct training sessions and to act as a resource for other media outlets.

On other pages, MMW reported about misrepresentation of Islam “being nothing new”, a challenge over a Listener article misrepresentation about girls’ education in Afghanistan, an emerging global culture of mass Iftar events, an offensive reference in a Ministry of Education textbook, and the ministry “acknowledges bias in teacher recruiting”, an article headlined “when are religious extremists not religious extremists”, and other issues.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

West Papua high on agenda as MSG leaders set to convene in Port Vila

By Asia Pacific Report -

August 19, 2023

By Kelvin Anthony, RNZ Pacific lead digital and social media journalist

The Pacific region’s focus will shift briefly to Port Vila next week when Vanuatu hosts the heads of governments from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and the leader of the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) of New Caledonia for the 22nd Melanesian Spearhead Group Leaders’ Summit.

The regional sub-group had met on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting in July last year for the handover of the chair’s role from PNG to Vanuatu.

But next week will be its first full meeting since the leaders last gathered pre-covid in Port Moresby in February 2018.

The theme for this year’s meet is “MSG, Being Relevant and Influential”. It will be 15 years since Vanuatu last hosted the Leaders’ Summit, which is the pre-eminent decision-making body of the MSG.

It is a group fundamentally established 35 years ago to represent and advance the interests of Melanesia and its people.

While the agenda for the meeting is yet to be released by the chair, one issue guaranteed to be on the table is West Papua full membership.

Momentum never stronger
The Leaders’ Summit has for the past decade dabbled with the issue of indigenous Papuan calls for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) to become a full member of the MSG.

But the momentum for that to happen seems to have never been stronger.

In 2018, the MSG leaders’ approved the application by the ULMWP for full membership and referred it to the MSG Secretariat “for processing” under its new membership guidelines.

This week, Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Alatoi Ishmael Kalsakau confirmed to RNZ Pacific that as the chair, Vanuatu would “appeal to the open mindedness of the MSG” concerning the atrocities in West Papua, adding that “hopefully it will go alright”.

“It will be a two-day meeting where we can discuss issues of concern among the Melanesian family and come up with resolutions that will be able to assist us in maintaining and sustaining our membership as a group,” Kalsakau said.

West Papua for full member of Melanesia Spearhead Group MSG. pic.twitter.com/vS3dlJfxvD

— Benny Wenda (@BennyWenda) August 15, 2023

‘In Melanesia’s hands’
Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka caused a stir in February when he met ULMWP’s leader Benny Wenda in Suva on the margins of a special session of the Pacific Islands Forum.

Rabuka, wearing an independence flag Morning Star-branded bilum, became the first Fiji prime minister in 16 years to meet with Wenda for a one-on-one meeting, and assured his government’s backing of the ULMWP bid to become a full member of the MSG, subject to “sovereignty issues”.

“We will support them because they are Melanesians,” he said.

Papua New Guinea, on the other hand, intends to continue building its relations with Indonesia, a MSG associate member.

Prime Minister James Marape believes Indonesia’s control over Papua must be respected.

“We do not want to offset the balance and tempo,” Marape said.

Decisions made at the MSG are by consensus of all the leaders. If they do not agree on any issue, they must continue to dialogue until they arrive at a decision.

This means Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and the FLNKS of New Caledonia will all need to agree that ULMWP can become a full member.

Pacific churches and civil society groups continue to campaign and call for MSG leaders to back the Free West Papua Movement’s bid.

Wenda was present at the 7th Melanesian Festival of Arts and Culture — MGS’s flagship event — last month to further lobby for support.

According to one West Papuan academic, the absence of “Indonesian flags or cultural symbols” at MACFEST “spoke volumes of the essence and characteristics of what constitutes Melanesian cultures and values”.

“The Melanesian people must decide whether we are sufficiently united to support our brothers and sisters in West Papua, or whether our respective cultures are too diverse to be able to resist the charms offered by outsiders to look the other way,” writes Yamin Kogoya, who is from the Lani tribe in the Papuan highlands.

However, Wenda is under no illusions that for indigenous Papuans to be accepted into the Melanesian family: “The issue now is in Melanesia’s hands.”

The Leaders’ Summit will take place on August 23 and 24, and be preceeded by a senior officials meeting on Saturday and a foreign ministers meeting on Monday.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Massive deforestation in West Papua – Greenpeace reveals loss of 641,400 ha

By Asia Pacific Report -

August 18, 2023

Jubi News

Greenpeace Indonesia’s forest campaigner Nico Wamafma says the West Papua region has lost 641,400 ha of its natural forests in the two decades between 2000-2020 in massive deforestation.

Greenpeace’s research shows this deforestation occurred mainly due to the increasingly widespread licensing of land-based extractive industries that damage the rights of indigenous peoples.

Wamafma said that the total forests loss consisted of 438,000 ha spread across Papua, Central Papua, Mountainous Papua and South Papua provinces.

The remaining 203,000 ha were lost in West Papua and Southwest Papua provinces.

“In the last two decades, we lost a lot of forests in Merauke, Boven Digoel, Mimika, Mappi, Nabire, Fakfak, Teluk Bintuni, Manokwari, Sorong and Kaimana,” Wamafma told Jubi in a telephone interview

Papua is losing natural forests due to the licensing of land-based extractive industries, such as mining, Industrial Plantation Forest (HTI), Forest Concession Rights (HPH), and oil palm plantations.

Wamafma said the formation of four new provinces resulting from the division of Papua had also accelerated the rate of deforestation in Papua.

He said that if the government continued to take a development approach like the last 20 years that relied on investment, the potential for natural forest loss would be even greater in Papua.

Wamafma said there were now 34.4 million ha of natural forests in Papua.

Republished from Tabloid Jubi with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

NZ’s Western Bay of Plenty councillors vote for Māori wards – ‘a momentous day’

By Asia Pacific Report -

August 18, 2023

By Alisha Evans for Te Ao Māori , Local Democracy Reporting

After a 12-year fight, mana whenua will get a seat at the table after the Western Bay of Plenty District Council has voted to establish Māori wards at the next election.

Applause then waiata rang out from the packed public gallery as the councillors voted nine to three in favour of Māori wards yesterday.

Speaking after the meeting, mayor James Denyer said it was a “momentous day, particularly for mana whenua”.

LOCAL DEMOCRACY REPORTING: Winner 2022 Voyager Awards Best Reporting Local Government (Feliz Desmarais) and Community Journalist of the Year (Justin Latif)

“This is about making the right decision, not making the popular decision.”

Mana whenua have long advocated for Māori wards in the district. In 2011 the council decided not to establish one and in 2017 the council opted to have a Māori ward, but it was subject to a poll requested by the public.

It was voted down in the poll with 78 percent of the respondents opposed. Just over 40 percent of eligible voters took part.

During the meeting’s public forum, Mabel Wharekawa-Burt said the poll was not an actual reflection of what the community was feeling.

‘Open your minds’
“My job today is to influence you to open your minds a little bit further, not to change your opinions,” she said.

Wharekawa-Burt, of Katikati, worked with the electoral commission for 14 years and urged the councillors to “take a chance”.

“We’re [Māori] not a threat. I’m bound and obligated to make good decisions for my grandchildren.

“Take a chance on me by unequivocally supporting the establishment of Māori wards and I’ll make sure you’re safe,” Wharekawa-Burt (Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngāti Ranginui) said.

Katikati — Waihī Beach Residents and Ratepayers Association chairperson Keith Hay opposed their establishment and said the decision affected all of the community and referred to the previous poll.

“To knowingly override these views without community consultation is arrogant.

“If you vote to introduce Māori wards today, voters’ views are being overwritten,” said Hay, in his opinion.

The council opted not to consult with the community because under the Local Electoral Act 2001 there were no obligations to consult with any person before passing a resolution to establish Māori wards.

‘Spectrum of community views’
WBOPDC strategic kaupapa Māori manager Chris Nepia’s report to council said: “Council already has a good understanding of the spectrum of community views on the establishment of Māori wards through previous processes.”

Tapuika Iwi Authority chief executive Andy Gowland-Douglas said it was “really important mana whenua were represented at the decision making table” and added “significant value”.

Former mayor Gary Webber, who was on the council for 12 years, said it was the third time he had been involved in the decision.

“It is time to do what is tika, what is right. Please don’t say no and be an outlier in the statistics.”

Deputy mayor John Scrimgeour moved the motion. He said it was a legislative requirement and important the council met this.

“Māori have continued to be entirely consistent in their request for Māori wards.

“They wanted to vote for someone that they could identify with and help them represent their interests.”

Not fairly represented
First term councillor Andy Wichers said he had heard from the community that Māori don’t feel they are fairly and effectively represented as individuals and as communities.

“The simple question was this, could Māori wards achieve a fairer and more effective representation? And the answer was yes, and I could not find an argument against it.”

Councillor Rodney Joyce said: “Partnership is deeply and rightly entrenched into our constitutional arrangements.

“Having guaranteed Māori members will help us be a better council.

“This is not a zero sum game where one treaty partner wins at the expense of the other. We can work together to make better decisions, bringing different perspectives.”

He did, however, want there to be consultation with the community.

“We should consult widely on this and seek to bring our community along with us in this decision.”

‘Incredibly rushed’
Tracey Coxhead said as a first time councillor she felt “incredibly rushed in this process” and “not informed enough” to make the right decision.

She too wanted community consultation.

Allan Sole said in his view the Treaty of Waitangi may not be fit for purpose today. — Allan Sole . . . “This actual document, a great piece of our history, may not be fit for purpose today.” Image: John Borren/SunLive/LDR

Also opposed was councillor Allan Sole — he said he was part Māori but chose not to be on the Māori electoral roll.

“I believe that we have got to be people that look and work towards having a more harmonious whole community, not looking after factions.

He said, in his view, if people felt they were unequal he would “almost consider [it] patronising that somebody makes a special place for you”.

“I believe that to protect those special places is totally wrong and not beneficial to the decision making and future of our district and our country.”

Sole also questioned the Treaty of Waitangi: “We also ought to let the people look at it [the Treaty] and say perhaps . . . this actual document, a great piece of our history, may not be fit for purpose today.”

‘Same rights and privileges’
Kaimai ward councillor Margaret Murray-Benge said: “I believe strongly that, as the Treaty of Waitangi made clear that 180 years ago, all New Zealanders had the same rights and privileges.

“Creating racial division between us by creating racially separate based wards is fundamentally wrong.”

Councillor James Dally was visibly emotional as he spoke and referenced the 2021 decision by the local government minister to remove the ability for the public to request a poll on the creation of Māori wards.

He said the number of councils with Māori wards went from three to 34 and there were 66 councillors elected to represent Māori communities at last year’s local government elections.

“Hopefully in time the separatist or racist narrative will become a thing of the past.”

Denyer said: “It’s clear to me that Māori representation at council is deficient and it is no longer a radical or unknown option.”

He said Māori wards “work quite well” for the 35 councils that have them.

Mayor James Denyer said it was about doing what was right. — Mayor James Denyer . . . “This is about making the right decision, not making the popular decision.” Image: Alisha Evans/SunLive/LDR

‘About honouring commitments’
Scrimgeour concluded: “I want to emphasise this is not about establishing a race-based constituency. It’s about honouring commitments that we made under the Treaty of Waitangi.”

Speaking after the meeting, Wharekawa-Burt said: “It felt glorious.

“I’m ecstatic for my grandchildren. I just wanted the right to make my own choice.”

Te Kāhui Mana o Tauranga Moana forum chairperson Reon Tuanau said it had been a long time coming and he had been involved since 2011.

Asked if he had any words for those that were fearful of Māori wards, Tuanau referred to the whakataukī.

“Nā to rourou, nā taku rourou, ka ora ai te tāngata. With your basket and my basket put into the same basket people will thrive.”

Western Bay of Plenty is the 36th council to establish Māori wards. Only those on the Māori electoral roll can vote in that ward.

How the Māori ward will be made up will be considered as part of the district representation review next year.

The review looks at what form the wards and community boards should take and how many elected members there should be, to best represent the district’s population. It will be subject to public consultation.

How they voted:
For: James Denyer, John Scrimgeour, Grant Dally, Anne Henry, Rodney Joyce, Murray Grainger, Andy Wichers, Richard Crawford, Don Thwaites.

Against: Margaret Murray-Benge, Allan Sole, Tracey Coxhead.

Alisha Evans is SunLive local democracy reporter. Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air. It is published by Asia Pacific Report in collaboration.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Politics with Michelle Grattan: WA Premier Roger Cook on Labor’s conference and his state’s issues

By The Conversation -

August 18, 2023

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

Labor this week had its first face-to-face national conference in five years, and it all went Anthony Albanese’s way. He won on AUKUS and rallied the party faithful, who did not rock the government’s boat.

For this podcast we caught up with the new Western Australian Premier Roger Cook on the sidelines of the conference, and canvassed a range of issues, including his recent backdown on the state’s cultural heritage law.

– ref. Politics with Michelle Grattan: WA Premier Roger Cook on Labor’s conference and his state’s issues – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-wa-premier-roger-cook-on-labors-conference-and-his-states-issues-211836

View from The Hill: Labor conference gives Albanese a firm ‘yes’ on AUKUS

By The Conversation -

August 18, 2023

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

Predictably, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese got his way on AUKUS at Labor’s national conference on Friday.

But, ironically, he and his colleagues had to do a good deal more wrangling with the party than Albanese had done when Labor embraced the agreement in opposition and then followed through in government.

After Scott Morrison, US President Joe Biden and then-british Prime minister Boris Johnson announced AUKUS, Albanese had the then opposition quickly fall in behind it, in line with his small target election strategy.

When implementation fell to the Labor government, again there was no hesitation. But extensive unease about AUKUS has been rippling around the Labor rank and file. Paul Keating articulated the sentiment strongly a long time ago.

In the run up to the national conference, Defence Minister Richard Marles and other Labor heavyweights have been taking soundings and smoothing the waters where possible. Marles briefed unions and rank and file party members as the conference loomed.

Intense negotiations among factional movers and shakers continued right up until the last minute.

On the conference floor, the vote was clear. It was taken on the voices.

They didn’t even bother with a formal count (although anyone could have asked for one). That was the way the power brokers wanted things – it left no record of precise numbers.

Like almost everything at this conference, the AUKUS debate was carefully orchestrated.

Albanese came in at the end to make the final pitch. He told delegates that AUKUS “is an act of clear-eyed pragmatism that works in the context of our national interest and in the context of the greater good.”
AUKUS involved “the choices of a mature nation.”

“We have to analyse the world as it is, rather than as we would want it to be. We have to bring our defence capabilities up to speed and AUKUS is central to that.” He said.

“I have come to the position, based upon advice and analysis, that nuclear-powered submarines are what Australia needs in the future”.

Government advocates put AUKUS in the context of Labor’s track record on defence.

The name of Labor icon and second world war prime minister John Curtin was invoked for some heavy-lifting for AUKUS. Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said Curtin had argued in the 1930s for increases in the Australian air force and navy, and contrasted this with the stand of Robert Menzies.

“Do you want to be on the side of John Curtin, or do you want to be on the side of ‘Pig Iron Bob’,” Conroy asked.

In a debate where everyone was trying to be polite to everyone else – apart from some heckling from the floor – the link between appeasement and anti-AUKUS sentiment triggered some blowback. Michael Wright, from the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) who led the opposition against AUKUS, condemned any suggestion that this was akin to appeasement.

Behind the scenes and on the floor of conference, the ability of AUKUS and its submarine program to create jobs was used as a powerful argument. Albanese said it was expected to generate 20,000 well-paid, secure, unionised jobs.

In the pro-AUKUS statement the conference agreed to, jobs featured heavily.

“Labor will ensure that the nuclear-powered submarine program will deliver secure, well-paid unionised jobs and establish a skills and training centre of excellence, with Australian workers trained in the latest technologies that add to Australia’s sovereign capability,” the statement says.

“Labor commits that Australia’s SSN-AUKUS submarines will be built by Australian workers in South Australia, with a peak of 4,000 workers employed to design and build the infrastructure at Osborne and a further 4,000 to 5,500 jobs created to build the submarines.”

One speaker on the opposing side noted that the conversation before the debate was “union-led – both for and against”.

The opponents put forward a range of objections. Wright raised the prospect of a future Coalition government using the nuclear-powered submarines as “the wedge to drive the opening of a nuclear industry in Australia”.

Co-convenor of the Labor Environment Action Network, Felicity Wade, said: “Our people hate nukes”.

Federal Labor backbencher, Josh Wilson, the member for Fremantle, raised the challenge of nuclear waste, and said the decision involved “too many risks”. He rejected the appeasement argument as “ridiculous”. Wilson earlier this year spoke out strongly against the submarines deal.

The statement the conference endorsed says that Labor will “ensure that all Australian warships, including submarines, are Australian sovereign assets, commanded by Australian officers and under the sovereign control of the Australian Government”. It also provides assurances on the disposal of nuclear waste associated with the sumbarines and declares Labor “will maintain the prohibition on the establishment of nuclear power plants”.

Labor conferences are not what they once were in terms of power, but the government’s intense pre-conference efforts to get support for AUKUS showed it recognised it was important to formally sign up the party to this historic agreement.

By maximising the consultation, it minimised the fracture within Labor over this issue.

This sends a significant message to Australia’s US ally, where there is some (minority) questioning of the submarine deal.

Albanese can be well satisfied with this Labor conference, which wraps up on Saturday. It’s been smooth sailing. His authority has been highlighted.

The next few weeks, however, will be much rougher for the PM.

He must soon name the date for the Voice referendum vote. With the polls looking poor, that issue is shaping up as an extremely difficult battle for Albanese and other “yes” campaigners.

If the numbers are turned around, Albanese will end the year on a high. If, however, the double majority needed for success is not reached, it will be a significant blow for him.

That might not translate into the popular vote, especially given most people have their attention on other issues, notably cost of living. But it could diminish Albanese’s authority among his senior colleagues, who might start to question his judgement.

– ref. View from The Hill: Labor conference gives Albanese a firm ‘yes’ on AUKUS – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-labor-conference-gives-albanese-a-firm-yes-on-aukus-211827

Snapchat’s ‘creepy’ AI blunder reminds us that chatbots aren’t people. But as the lines blur, the risks grow

By The Conversation -

August 18, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daswin de Silva, Deputy Director of the Centre for Data Analytics and Cognition, La Trobe University

Artificial intelligence-powered (AI) chatbots are becoming increasingly human-like by design, to the point that some among us may struggle to distinguish between human and machine.

This week, Snapchat’s My AI chatbot glitched and posted a story of what looked like a wall and ceiling, before it stopped responding to users. Naturally, the internet began to question whether the ChatGPT-powered chatbot had gained sentience.

A crash course in AI literacy could have quelled this confusion. But, beyond that, the incident reminds us that as AI chatbots grow closer to resembling humans, managing their uptake will only get more challenging – and more important.

From rules-based to adaptive chatbots

Since ChatGPT burst onto our screens late last year, many digital platforms have integrated AI into their services. Even as I draft this article on Microsoft Word, the software’s predictive AI capability is suggesting possible sentence completions.

Known as generative AI, this relatively new type of AI is distinguished from its predecessors by its ability to generate new content that is precise, human-like and seemingly meaningful.

Generative AI tools, including AI image generators and chatbots, are built on large language models (LLMs). These computational models analyse the associations between billions of words, sentences and paragraphs to predict what ought to come next in a given text. As OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever puts it, an LLM is

[…] just a really, really good next-word predictor.

Advanced LLMs are also fine-tuned with human feedback. This training, often delivered through countless hours of cheap human labour, is the reason AI chatbots can now have seemingly human-like conversations.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is still the flagship generative AI model. Its release marked a major leap from simpler “rules-based” chatbots, such as those used in online customer service.

Human-like chatbots that talk to a user rather than at them have been linked with higher levels of engagement. One study found the personification of chatbots leads to increased engagement which, over time, may turn into psychological
dependence. Another study involving stressed participants found a human-like chatbot was more likely to be perceived as competent, and therefore more likely to help reduce participants’ stress.

These chatbots have also been effective in fulfilling organisational objectives in various settings, including retail, education, workplace and healthcare settings.

Google is using generative AI to build a “personal life coach” that will supposedly help people with various personal and professional tasks, including providing life advice and answering intimate questions.

This is despite Google’s own AI safety experts warning that users could grow too dependant on AI and may experience “diminished health and wellbeing” and a “loss of agency” if they take life advice from it.

Friend or foe – or just a bot?

In the recent Snapchat incident, the company put the whole thing down to a “temporary outage”. We may never know what actually happened; it could be yet another example of AI “hallucinatng”, or the result of a cyberattack, or even just an operational error.

Either way, the speed with which some users assumed the chatbot had achieved sentience suggests we are seeing an unprecedented anthropomorphism of AI. It’s compounded by a lack of transparency from developers, and a lack of basic understanding among the public.

We shouldn’t underestimate how individuals may be misled by the apparent authenticity of human-like chatbots.

Earlier this year, a Belgian man’s suicide was attributed to conversations he’d had with a chatbot about climate inaction and the planet’s future. In another example, a chatbot named Tessa was found to be offering harmful advice to people through an eating disorder helpline.

Chatbots may be particularly harmful to the more vulnerable among us, and especially to those with psychological conditions.

A new uncanny valley?

You may have heard of the “uncanny valley” effect. It refers to that uneasy feeling you get when you see a humanoid robot that almost looks human, but its slight imperfections give it away, and it ends up being creepy.

It seems a similar experience is emerging in our interactions with human-like chatbots. A slight blip can raise the hairs on the back of the neck.

One solution might be to lose the human edge and revert to chatbots that are straightforward, objective and factual. But this would come at the expense of engagement and innovation.

Education and transparency are key

Even the developers of advanced AI chatbots often can’t explain how they work. Yet in some ways (and as far as commercial entities are concerned) the benefits outweigh the risks.

Generative AI has demonstrated its usefulness in big-ticket items such as productivity, healthcare, education and even social equity. It’s unlikely to go away. So how do we make it work for us?

Since 2018, there has been a significant push for governments and organisations to address the risks of AI. But applying responsible standards and regulations to a technology that’s more “human-like” than any other comes with a host of challenges.

Currently, there is no legal requirement for Australian businesses to disclose the use of chatbots. In the US, California has introduced a “bot bill” that would require this, but legal experts have poked holes in it – and the bill has yet to be enforced at the time of writing this article.

Moreover, ChatGPT and similar chatbots are made public as “research previews”. This means they often come with multiple disclosures on their prototypical nature, and the onus for responsible use falls on the user.

The European Union’s AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive regulation on AI, has identified moderate regulation and education as the path forward – since excess regulation could stunt innovation. Similar to digital literacy, AI literacy should be mandated in schools, universities and organisations, and should also be made free and accessible for the public.

Daswin de Silva 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. Snapchat’s ‘creepy’ AI blunder reminds us that chatbots aren’t people. But as the lines blur, the risks grow – https://theconversation.com/snapchats-creepy-ai-blunder-reminds-us-that-chatbots-arent-people-but-as-the-lines-blur-the-risks-grow-211744

‘Wouldn’t want to be on any other team’: the queer joy of watching the Matildas at the ‘outest’ World Cup ever

By The Conversation -

August 18, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee Wallace, Professor, Film Studies, University of Sydney

When we sat down with friends to watch the Matildas take on England, the two of us played it cool through the pre-match period, as if this was a game like any other.

There was the usual chatter while the mascots ushered our now familiar Matildas onto the field. But at half-time – three pizzas and a bottle of viognier in – we were a little subdued and trying to find distraction.

To mask our own anxiety, we found ourselves commenting on the tension observable in others: the stadium crowd oddly tamped down, the ashen face of Australia’s coach Tony Gustavsson.

We rose as one when Sam Kerr delivered her sensational goal in the 63rd minute, but not long after that the game was over. Our girls huddled down and then took the mandatory lap of honour, stunned and wide-eyed as if they, too, were unable to take in what had just gone down.

We are still coming to emotional terms with the 3-1 result. But the matches on the field weren’t the only World Cup story we were interested in. In our group chat and on social media, another game was taking place: queer DIY commentary on the outest World Cup ever played.

In this virtually expanded world, the Matildas can never lose.

Queer women talking

While women have long been associated with gossip, the World Cup has given this ancient form of political and psychological processing a queer twist.

Watching the games and talking about the Matildas is one thing, but the online alt-commentary on the game has been a joy – even for those with little prior relation to social media or, truth be told, sport.

The barrier to entry is low: you can start with the group chat. Ours began organically with six fellow researchers of queer popular culture and media with varied attachments to football.

Our running commentary kept pace with the on-field action and included selfies at games and venues – but it chiefly focused on queer subtextual and para-athletic details such as height of knee socks, brow styling, headbands and ribbons.

Anyone still struggling with the outcome of Wednesday’s match might find solace, as we did, in learning about the children’s book that accompanies the ribbon Hayley Raso was originally gifted by her grandmother to match her jerseys.

That’s the kind of thing lady-amateurs process while the professional commentators beam in on the corporate media channels. They talk about the on-field action, while we tap into the expansive alternative universe of queer social media commentary.

Learning the code

Our chat has been wide-ranging and quizzical as some of us learn the new code.

It has shifted between pure sports commentary – fuelled by our Angel City FC expert, who has a side hustle as a queer sports podcaster – and non-FIFA-approved content sourced from TikTok and Instagram as others like us caught on to the magic of the tournament.

We knew we weren’t alone when comedian Bec Shaw asked why other sports communities weren’t more like ours: up-to-date with game strategy and player performance histories, but also invested in the soapy off- and on-screen melodrama.

The Penrith Panthers and a huge number of other mainstream clubs came online with their reactions. Under their club social media accounts, these teams demonstrated their unequivocal, unquestioned passion for elite sports performance outside of their own codes and genders.

In this respect, they were in line the rest of the world, fully under the spell of the Matildas’ version of queer authenticity.

As queer viewers, our emerging expertise was not limited to the play.

We began trawling through the now infamous “woso chart” (“woso”, of course, short for women’s soccer), modelled on the relationship chart from The L Word, which maps all the intimate relationships, breakups and rumours (aka replays and substitutions) between players.

But, like game plans, diagrams can’t capture the real life drama. For that you need to turn to Brooke’s TikTok serial where she lesbian-splains the intricacies of girl-on-girl attachments to a sweet young hipster who believes they are all just friends.

One of the beautiful things about this World Cup has been the diverse engagements of fans around elite team sport and all its dimensions.

As comedian Mel Buttle captured beautifully, these virtual and actual conversations about women’s sport between friends, colleagues and strangers were unimaginable only a few years ago.

It has been queerly thrilling to be at the centre of this global shift – and to understand that all the feelings we have had along the way have been shared at scale with people we mistakenly think are not like us.

Queer closing fixture

There are not many moments in everyday life where you see euphoria and despair in such painfully close proximity, as we did on Wednesday night.

As one of us said from the house in Tempe where we were babysitting a next-generation sports star while his two mums were making the overlong journey back from Homebush, “It feels like World Pride is over.”

But here’s the good news. It’s not. After the final whistle, the cameras find Kerr. She puts it straight into the top corner for queer Australia with her powerful proclamation, “Wouldn’t want to be on any other team”.

Nor would we. We can’t imagine this World Cup without our virtual team huddle.

It’s not too late to join us. The third-place playoff will be the “gayest” FIFA final ever.

Just pick up your devices and come find us in the virtual dugout, where pop cultural crossovers keep the Matildas effect forever in play.

Thanks to our chat-buddies Cherine Fahd, Annamarie Jagose, Sarah Kessler, Alice Motion, Maddy Motion and Karen Tongson, who all play for SSSHARC FC.

Lee Wallace receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the NSW Department of Communities and Justice.

Victoria Rawlings receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the NSW Department of Communities and Justice.

– ref. ‘Wouldn’t want to be on any other team’: the queer joy of watching the Matildas at the ‘outest’ World Cup ever – https://theconversation.com/wouldnt-want-to-be-on-any-other-team-the-queer-joy-of-watching-the-matildas-at-the-outest-world-cup-ever-211681

Native Hawai’ian official blames colonisation, climate change for wildfires

By Asia Pacific Report -

August 18, 2023

RNZ Pacific

The board chair of the Office of Hawai’ian Affairs says the Maui wildfires were caused in part by climate change and colonisation.

Carmen Lindsey said as kānaka (Native Hawai’ians), no words could describe the devastation of the losses in Lāhainā, the former capital of the Hawai’ian Kingdom, on the island of Maui.

“The fires of today are in part due to the climate crisis, a history of colonialism in our islands, and the loss of our right to steward our ʻāina and wai,” she said.

“Today we have watched our precious cultural assets, our physical connection to our ancestors, our places of remembering — all go up in smoke.

“The same Western forces that tried to erase us as a people now threaten our survival with their destructive practices.”

She said the Office of Hawai’ian Affairs was ready to help with community needs.

The Wiwoʻole #MauiStrong benefit concert on Saturday will raise essential disaster relief funds to support and sustain the victims of the wildfires.

‘Born out of activism’
The Office of Hawai’ian Affairs is a semi-autonomous state agency responsible for improving the wellbeing of native Hawai’ians, for example by annually providing Native Hawai’ian students $500,000 in scholarship money.

It says it was “born out of activism in the 1970s to right past wrongs suffered by Native Hawai’ians for over 100 years”.

According to the 2019 US Census Bureau estimate, about 355,000 Native Hawai’ians or Pacific Islanders reside in Hawai’i, out of a total population of about 1.4 million.

At least 110 people are confirmed dead, while many others remain missing.

But Hawai’i Governor Josh Green told CNN the number of residents still unaccounted for was “probably still over 1000”.

This image courtesy of the US Army shows damaged buildings and structures of Lahaina Town destroyed in the Maui wildfires. — Damaged buildings and structures of Lāhainā Town destroyed in the Maui wildfires. Image: Staff Sergeant Mttew A. Foster/US Army/RNZ Pacific

Help from American Samoa
Six members of the American Samoa National Park Service Fire crew are mobilising to respond to the fires.

In partnership with Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, the National Park of American Samoa trains staff and local villagers in the skills required to fight fires at home and within other areas of the United States.

The fire crew is made up of National Park Service employees, and employees of the American Samoa government and local businesses.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The US navy is still more powerful than China’s: more so than the Australian government is letting on

By The Conversation -

August 18, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Greg Austin, Adjunct Professor, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney

The federal Labor government today used the ALP national conference to address internal dissent over the controversial AUKUS security pact and its plan for acquiring nuclear-powered submarines.

Taxpayers have been asked to fund these subs at an extreme cost, up to A$368 billion, and with many risks in the procurement cycle. This decision, and the price tag, can only be justified by the consideration that Australia would likely join the US in a war against China to protect Taiwan.

But the government hasn’t specifically acknowledged that. Its public rationale for going ahead with the subs is to counter China’s growing military influence in the Asia-Pacific, especially in the maritime domain.

“China’s military buildup is now the largest and most ambitious we have seen by any country since the end of the second world war,” according to Defence Minister Richard Marles.

But how great is China’s naval capability?

The truth is the US navy, alongside its allied navies, especially Japan, remains much more powerful compared with China’s navy – and that’s likely to continue.

The Australian government isn’t being fully open about the cost-benefit analysis. It hasn’t publicly laid out its case for why its pursuit of such extremely expensive subs in relatively small numbers would help redress negative implications of the Chinese military buildup for Australian security.

What’s more, the AUKUS arrangements add little to the security commitment the US and Australia already have. We already have the closest possible alliance with the US, and even the government has said to our Asian neighbours that AUKUS doesn’t upgrade the security guarantees of the US to Australia.

So how do we assess the naval balance of power between China and the US, and do the AUKUS submarines arriving in the 2030s figure in those assessments?

Comparing their navies: the old way

A traditional way of assessing the balance of naval power is to count and compare the number of warships operated by each country. Even on that metric, the US isn’t outgunned by China, based on recent data.

China is frequently described as the world’s largest navy. But the US has more of the most important types of major warships, which are suitable for maritime warfare. The count only shifts in China’s favour for lighter and less heavily armed ships, such as frigates and coastal patrol vessels.

China’s advantage in lighter classes of warships could be particularly important in a conflict contained largely within the Taiwan Strait and other coastal areas near China.

On the other hand, even though the US doesn’t normally deploy all its naval force to the Western Pacific, it could deliver overwhelming naval power in the region in most circumstances if war was imminent.

The ‘missile age’

In today’s world, the ability of a country to carry out missile strikes is a far more important consideration than simply the number of warships.

The US can readily compensate for China’s numerical advantage in light warship numbers with “stand-off” missiles, which can be launched from long distances (more than 1,500km).

In modern war, the count of “weapons platforms” (any structure from which weapons can be deployed, including ships) is far less important than the number of missiles that can be fired from a variety of platforms against enemy targets.

A US think tank has estimated that in the event of China starting a war with Taiwan, the US could fire more than 5,000 anti-ship missiles over the first 3-4 weeks.

The simulation was pessimistic about whether this number would be adequate to hold the Chinese attack at bay or defeat it in the first weeks, but it still saw China suffer significant ship losses. The simulation didn’t include US attacks on Chinese naval bases, which could significantly alter the missile advantage in favour of the US.

In a war between the US and China, we could expect the US would be prepared to undertake crippling cruise missile strikes on naval bases and other targets inside China. Even on short warning, the US navy could, for example, launch more than 1,000 cruise missiles against the Chinese mainland in an initial engagement over several days if it chose to do so.

According to the US Congressional Research Service, the US navy has 9,000 missile vertical launch tubes to deliver long-range cruise missiles, compared with China’s 1,000.

The Australian public need not be so spooked about China’s naval buildup, given the US’s supremacy in the “missile age”.

The US also has the cyber advantage

The US navy also has superior cyber capabilities compared with the Chinese navy.

Its cyber resources are concentrated in its “Tenth Fleet”, with more than 19,000 active and reserve personnel. It has 26 active commands, 40 cyber mission force units, and 29 reserve commands around the world, which could be available to strike China in the event of war. Such missions would likely aim to disable, disrupt or destroy the command and control and fighting effectiveness of the Chinese navy.

For example, it was US navy cyber personnel, alongside Ukrainian counterparts, who successfully blocked what could have been crippling cyber attacks by Russia ahead of its invasion in early 2022.

In contrast, China doesn’t appear to have a dedicated naval cyber command, corresponding forces, or such a substantial global footprint.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has assessed that China is at least ten years behind the US in its cyber power.

This judgement is based on the US’s industrial and technological supremacy, and its much longer history of integrating cyber operations into military planning.

In a war with China, the US could count on the active support of key allies, such as the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, through remote cyber military attacks against China.

The AUKUS pact enhances the strength of this cyber alliance. Australia having nuclear-powered submarines doesn’t hugely change the US/China balance of power.

The allied cyber capabilities together far outweigh those of China. China has no strong cyber allies and has weak cyber defences compared with the US.

What about the long term?

The Congressional Research Service’s May 2023 report assesses that the naval balance remains in favour of the US, especially in submarine capability.

It finds China would have to maintain its robust naval buildup and modernisation for quite some time if that were to change (though it doesn’t estimate a timeline for this). If that transpires, the report concludes China “might eventually draw even with or surpass the United States in overall naval capability”, though in my view this outcome is far from certain.

I estimate the US advantage in naval power over China will likely remain in place for at least the next decade, and probably longer. The government owes the Australian public a granular accounting of the military balance for the longer term.

Greg Austin consults for the International Institute for Strategic Studies whose work is cited in this article.

– ref. The US navy is still more powerful than China’s: more so than the Australian government is letting on – https://theconversation.com/the-us-navy-is-still-more-powerful-than-chinas-more-so-than-the-australian-government-is-letting-on-208466

Nearly two-thirds of the top fossil fuel producers in Australia and the world aren’t on track for 1.5℃ climate target

By The Conversation -

August 18, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Saphira Rekker, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Finance, The University of Queensland

Rapid reductions in fossil fuel production and use are essential to limit global warming to 1.5℃ compared to pre-industrial levels. Our new research shows most of the world’s major coal, oil and gas companies are yet to make meaningful reductions.

Some companies have been quick to announce net-zero targets or other claims of alignment with the Paris Agreement. But how do their actions compare to what must be done to achieve the agreed goal of keeping the temperature increase below 1.5℃?

Our research developed a method to track whether production by individual fossil fuel companies is aligned with putting the world on a 1.5℃ climate pathway. We use production budgets as these can be compared directly with fossil fuel demand scenarios and avoid the need for complex emissions calculations.

More than 60% of the top 142 oil, gas and coal companies – including three of the five Australian companies assessed – were not on track. Rio Tinto and BHP were the two Australian companies found to be on track. Between 2014 and 2020, the fossil fuel sectors exceeded overall production budgets by 64% (oil), 63% (gas) and 70% (coal).

These budgets are the levels of production needed to limit warming to 1.5℃ under the Paris Agreement “middle-of-the-road scenario” (where trends broadly follow their historical patterns).

We need freely available information to understand the impact companies are having on the climate and to hold them accountable. Our results are on the website Are you Paris compliant?.

Trucks carry loads of coal at a mine — Coal producers were 70% over the production budget needed to stay on track for no more than 1.5℃ warming.
Shutterstock

How can we track companies’ actions?

In an earlier research paper, we laid the foundation of what Paris compliance means using a strict science-based approach. We developed several conditions.

Firstly, the base year of measuring progress of an entity should be the same as the starting year of the decarbonisation scenario being used. While there are many such scenarios, the pathway has to be consistent with a 1.5℃ or “well below” 2℃ warming limit as stated in the Paris Agreement.

To prevent constant delay of action, only pathways starting in or before 2015 should be used. That’s when the world’s nations committed to decarbonisation under the Paris Agreement. For example, if a company wants to track its alignment with a well-below 2℃ pathway starting in 2014, it should start tracking from 2014.

Also, companies should make up for action deficits since the base year to stay within their budgets.

Commonly used frameworks such as the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and the London School of Economics’ Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) don’t comply with these conditions. The not-for-profit SBTi is the primary point of call for companies wanting to develop emission reduction targets. It’s a partnership between CDP (which runs the global system of environmental impact disclosures), UN Global Compact, World Wildlife Fund and World Resources Institute.

We have now applied our more rigorous approach to fossil fuel companies. Using publicly available production data from the Climate Accountability Institute allows us to assess a large number of companies.

We evaluated the 142 largest producers of coal, oil and gas against four possible emissions “pathways” to limit temperature increase to 1.5℃ this century. We used three pathways set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2014 and the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero Emissions pathway from 2020. Each pathway involves different scenarios of climate actions, emissions and carbon capture and storage.

a gas fractionation plant — Gas producers exceeded their production budget by 63% from 2014 to 2020.
Shutterstock

Off course, with much more to do

Not only did we find the majority of these companies are not currently aligned, but the outlook is also troubling. If recent trends (2010-2018) continue, the companies would produce up to 68% (coal), 42% (oil) and 53% (gas) more than their cumulative production budgets by 2050.

In Australia, the three companies not on track were Whitehaven Coal, Santos and Woodside. They exceeded their production budgets by 232% (Woodside coal), 28% (Santos oil) and 33% (Santos gas), and 39% (Woodside gas, on track for oil).

BHP was on track because it has reduced its coal, oil and gas production more than required between 2014 and 2020 under the middle-of-the-road 1.5℃ scenario. It used 87% (coal), 85% (oil) and 92% (gas) of its production budgets. Rio Tinto entirely stopped its production of coal in 2018.

While we project future production using historical (2010-2018) growth, a next step would be to assess how current production plans align with 1.5℃ pathways.

Companies can use our method to see how much they need to reduce production to be aligned. They can also see how much carbon capture and storage is required under a certain 1.5℃ pathway.

Sun sets behind an oil production platform and pipeline — Oil producers were 64% over their collective production budget for keeping global warming to 1.5℃.
Shutterstock

Tracking enables accountability

For companies to claim Paris alignment, they must be accountable for achieving the required levels of mitigation (reducing production and carbon capture and storage) under a particular 1.5℃ pathway.

Our method provides a foundation to drive this change. It offers a relatively simple way to measure corporate actions against the reductions required.

Our work aids the development of standards, regulation and guidance on what Paris alignment actually means. The Science Based Targets initiative has yet to finalise a method for the oil and gas sector. It has no method for coal.

Our method provides a process that can fill this void. In addition to tracking individual companies’ compliance with the Paris Agreement, we require clarity on their intentions beyond just setting targets. The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) will play a vital role by requiring detailed climate transition plans from companies in countries that adopt its standards.

Tracking how companies are performing empowers all stakeholders – including governments, investors and individuals like you and me – to advocate for climate action and make climate-safe decisions. For example, investors can use this information to decide which companies to invest in and advocate for change where required. Governments can integrate this information into corporate guidelines for climate action.

Saphira Rekker is affiliated with the Science Based Targets initiative Technical Working Group (Oil & Gas), the Science Based Targets Scientific Advisory Group and the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute Taxonomy Technical Expert Group.

Belinda Wade has a paid position and is an owner/shareholder in the consulting firm Aurecon. She has received internal UQ strategic funding to support research on decarbonisation and has had other grants associated with research projects e.g. Future Fuels CRC and Rural Economies Centre of Excellence.

– ref. Nearly two-thirds of the top fossil fuel producers in Australia and the world aren’t on track for 1.5℃ climate target – https://theconversation.com/nearly-two-thirds-of-the-top-fossil-fuel-producers-in-australia-and-the-world-arent-on-track-for-1-5-climate-target-211609

Interested, curious and empathetic, Michael Parkinson helped bridge the gap between Australia and England

By The Conversation -

August 18, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lea Redfern, Lecturer, Discipline of Media and Communications, University of Sydney

Michael Parkinson, who has died at 88, demonstrated the art of the good interview night after night. He practised deep listening, giving his interviewee his full attention, but he was always aware of the audience. While he was asking questions on behalf of the audience and advocating for the audience, he always had the person he was interviewing as his focus.

As host of Parkinson (1971–82 and 1998–2007) and Parkinson in Australia (1979–83), he was a big presence on Australian TV. He was television the whole family could watch together, never unsuitable for children.

We may not have understood everything, and some references went over our head, but as children we could watch Parkinson with our parents. I remember as a young person regularly watching him and hoping the interview would be funny that week.

There were times you knew it was going to be hilarious. When Billy Connolly or “our” Dame Edna were going to appear it was a must-watch.

Whoever the interviewee, Parkinson brought out their stories, their observations. He gave them space to share engaging stories and never stepped on a punchline. Although humour was a draw card for the audience, their was space for pathos, too.

Finding the shape

Parkinson was an interviewer of great skill. He could be a presence, but never pull focus from the interviewee. He was deeply empathetic, and always in control of the interview.

The form of the interview was always satisfying: he knew how to draw a narrative through the length of the program. When interviewing three people at once, he knew how to be fair and have a balance between everyone and their stories. He made this appear effortless.

From 1979 to 2014 he frequently worked in Australia across the ABC, Channel Ten and Channel Nine.

For a generation of ten pound passage immigrants, he represented the best of the old country: he was never patronising, never spoke down to people, and helped to bridge the gap between Australia and England. He was able to bring us the best of British and Australian interviewees alike, affirming Australia’s international standing in the arts and culture.

When speaking to Australian politicians, sports stars and actors he was always deeply interested and deeply curious. He could reflect us back to ourselves without any of the cultural cringe so evident in the media of the time. The affection Australians felt for him is shown in the diminutive “Parky”.

An authentic voice

Born in Yorkshire in 1935, Parkinson didn’t attend university, starting his career working for newspapers straight out of school. It was perhaps this start which aided in his plain speaking common sense and ability to talk to ordinary people. You got the sense he could speak to anybody. There was no putting on a persona; he was always authentically him.

Today, this authentic self is seen in many of our best interviewers. We know how important it is curiosity and authenticity drive the interview – Parkinson was doing this decades before others recognised its importance.

When I started in radio, I looked towards Parkinson as the gold standard. I admired how he was able to draw people out and reveal so much of themselves. He demonstrated how the media could go beyond the soundbite.

So much of the media of the time was about context-free news and current affairs journalism. Although his interviews were with celebrities, he showed people might share more of themselves and the world if they’re given time and space to speak. Parkinson gave us a fuller, richer sense of the people he spoke to.

His legacy in Australia can be seen in people like Andrew Denton, Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski – long form interviews driven by curiosity.

Some people have been describing Parkinson’s death as the end of an era, but his legacy will live on. When we look at shows like ABC Conversations, and so many longform podcasts, we find curious interviewers who, like Parkinson, build a relationship and find a connection with an interviewee. A soundbite might show up on TikTok or YouTube – but you have to do the longform interview to get there.

Perhaps one of the best demonstrations of this was Parkinson’s interview with Ian Thorpe. In the 2014 interview, Thorpe came out publicly for the first time, and spoke about his depression and use of drugs and alcohol.

Without the relationship Parkinson was able to build over the course of the interview, it is doubtful Thorpe would have felt comfortable to come out in the same way. Parkinson was always interested in giving people the opportunity to reveal themselves.

That Thorpe felt Parkinson’s show was a safe space to come out says something about the tenor of his relationship with his interviewees and his place in Australian culture.

There for the audience

His few missteps seemed to be with women. As I grew older, I realised he was a man of his time, as was made obvious in his awkward interviews with Meg Ryan and Helen Mirren. In these interviews, his occasional awkwardness around gender is writ large, and the interviews go off the rails. He fails to develop his famous rapport and adjust his approach in response to their discomfort.

But given the length of his career, the rarity of these missteps is still impressive. His geniality and quiet generosity came across night after night, for decades.

What defined him more than anything was how he was inclusive of his audience. No matter how complex the ideas or how smart the person he was interviewing, the audience was brought along with them. He was there on our behalf, and able to ask the clarifying questions without worrying about his own ego.

He represents an age of Australian and British relationships in a way that is truly singular and his interviews are artefacts of that age. He was an interiewer who stood out for not having to stand out, and the delights and possibilities of the long-form interview are his legacy.

Lea Redfern 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. Interested, curious and empathetic, Michael Parkinson helped bridge the gap between Australia and England – https://theconversation.com/interested-curious-and-empathetic-michael-parkinson-helped-bridge-the-gap-between-australia-and-england-211824

Curious Kids: why do babies cry when they come out of their mum?

By The Conversation -

August 18, 2023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Dahlen, Professor of Midwifery, Associate Dean Research and HDR, Midwifery Discipline Leader, Western Sydney University

Why do babies always cry when they come out of their mum? – Nam, 12, Hanoi, Vietnam

When babies are born, they all seem to cry. We see this a lot on TV.

But not all newborn babies cry straight away. Here’s what’s going on.

What happens at birth?

When a baby is born, they move from their mum’s warm body, and out of their dark, watery world into a much cooler, drier and brighter one.

It’s a bit of a squeeze. As the baby comes out from their mum, the cooler air hits their wet skin.

The cooler air makes them gasp. They also gasp when the midwife or doctor touches their body to help them come into the world.

That gasp is their first breath, which usually comes with a cry. And when this happens the gasp or cry triggers an amazing change in how the baby gets oxygen and moves it around their body.

What changes?

In the womb, babies depend on their mum for oxygen – via the placenta and umbilical cord.

The placenta looks a bit like a pancake and filters oxygen-rich blood from the mum. The umbilical cord then pumps that to the unborn baby.

Unborn baby with umbilical cord and placenta — The placenta, on the left, and the umbilical cord work together to send oxygen from the mum’s blood to the unborn baby.
Shutterstock

But once babies are born, their first breath or cry triggers a whole range of changes to the way their heart moves blood around their body. So, rather than breathing fluid from the womb, they can now breathe air and get oxygen into their lungs just like we do.

The process of being born also squeezes water out of the baby’s lungs, allowing them to work properly.

A newborn baby crying is a sound parents and health workers are very happy to hear. That’s because it usually means the baby is well and won’t need any extra help to breathe.

But not all newborn babies cry. And it’s not always something to be worried about.

Why don’t all babies cry?

Sometimes this switch to moving oxygen around the body just like us does not happen smoothly.

There might be problems with the baby’s heart, or there may have been a difficult birth. For instance, the baby might have been very short of oxygen in the womb and need some help to start breathing when they are born.

Sometimes, there’s a delay in babies crying.

Babies born by caesarean section – when doctors operate on the mum to lift the baby out of her womb – might be slower to breathe and cry. That’s because they don’t have the fluid squeezed from the lungs like they do when born through the vagina.

Sometimes newborn babies don’t cry at all.

Babies born in water (known as a waterbirth) may have lots of warm water around them and not even realise they are born. That’s because they don’t feel cold air as they come into the world; they are often in their mother’s arms in the water. So they tend to just breathe quietly, and turn pink (showing they are getting enough oxygen), without crying.

Hello, Curious Kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au

Hannah Dahlen receives funding from NHMRC and ARC. She is affiliated with The Australian College of Midwives

– ref. Curious Kids: why do babies cry when they come out of their mum? – https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-do-babies-cry-when-they-come-out-of-their-mum-205477

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