Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paola A. Magni, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Science, Murdoch University

Until the late 19th century, the success of criminal investigations largely hung on witness reports and (often extorted) confessions. A lack of scientific tools meant investigators needed advanced deductive reasoning abilities – and even then they’d often hit a dead end.

Today, investigations demand an interdisciplinary and high-tech approach, involving experts from diverse scientific disciplines. Stabbing investigations are particularly important, as fatal stabbings are the leading cause of homicide in countries with restricted access to firearms, including Australia.

Carefully interpreting CCTV footage can be useful, but sometimes the crime scene won’t have surveillance cameras. The victim’s body may be discovered days, weeks, or months after the event. By then it may be partially consumed by insects – or rain may have washed away the blood stains, or potentially even the murder weapon.

In such a case, analysing damage to a victim’s clothing can provide crucial insight. But how does clothing on a decomposing body react to environmental and biological factors?

This was our question as we conducted research using the decomposing bodies of more than 100 stillborn piglets. Our findings from this first-of-its-kind experiment could help investigators solve future (and past) crimes in which stabs, tears or other damages to clothing are in question.

Pigs wrapped in fabric

Textile analysis has a significant role in forensic investigation. Clothes can preserve crucial information about the events leading up to someone’s death. Evidence might come in the form of fibres under a victim’s fingernails, tears in the clothing resulting from movement or traction, or cuts and holes caused by weapons.

However, the decomposition process itself will also alter the fabric and existing damages. It may even introduce new damages that complicate the analysis.

To understand how clothing might change throughout this process, we conducted an experiment in the summer heat of Western Australia. We used more than 100 stillborn piglets (simulating human remains) wrapped in common fabrics including cotton, stretchy synthetic material, and a fabric blend. Some piglets were left unclothed as control samples.

We intentionally inflicted cuts and tears on most of the fabrics, before leaving the carcasses to decompose naturally in a bushland environment until only bones remained. The bodies were shielded from large scavengers, but not from carrion insects.

While previous research has explored the impact of clothing on decomposition, we were focused on the other side of the coin: how do insects impact the fabric on a decomposing carcass? And in what ways could this jeopardise an investigation?

Read more:
Flies, maggots and methamphetamine: how insects can reveal drugs and poisons at crime scenes

Exposed to natural elements

It wasn’t long before the fabrics started to transform due to exposure to bacteria, fungi, insects and other environmental factors.

They changed in shape and texture, and became stretched as a result of the natural bloating of the carcasses. Less than a week after the carcasses were placed, new holes appeared in the fabric – especially in cotton – as the fibres broke down.

There were also chemical changes due to potential exposure to body fluids and the chemical products of bacteria and fungi.

Insects were particularly active in areas where body fluids were present. Of twenty insect groups collected and identified, blowflies and carrion beetles were the most common antagonists.

Throughout the 47 days of the experiment, we managed to collect a range of data on fabric degradation throughout the decomposition process. It’s the first time this has been documented in such detail in a controlled experiment.

New tools to solve new (and old) mysteries

Although textile damage analysis is vital for forensics, there has been limited research on how it overlaps with forensic entomology and taphonomy (the study of how organisms decompose). Our research shows fabrics can hold significant evidence, and this evidence changes as bodies decompose while being exposed to the environment.

There are myriad examples of crimes where evidence related to clothing has been crucial to solving the case.

In the 1980 Chamberlain case, a jury wrongly found Lindy Chamberlain and her husband Michael guilty of murdering their nine-week-old daughter Azaria, who had disappeared.

It was only when Azaria’s clothing was recovered a week after her disappearance that investigators had evidence of a dingo having snatched her (as the clothes showed signs of having been dragged through sand). The Chamberlains were exonerated as a result.

More recently, a person of interest was arrested in New York as the “Craigslist ripper”, a serial killer responsible for the murder of more than ten people. Investigators obtained DNA evidence from strands of hair found in burlap sacks used to hide and transport the bodies.

Although many details of this particular case remain undisclosed, such investigations will most likely use insect-related evidence and other trace evidence on textiles to help make important inferences, including about time of death.

More generally, our work will help investigators avoid misinterpreting evidence from clothing. For instance, if investigators aren’t aware holes in fabric can form through exposure to insects and natural elements, they might incorrectly attribute them to an animal or human attacker.

Similarly, by gauging which portion of clothing has the most insect damage, they might be able to understand where the most fluid was present on the body (if it’s found as skeletal remains). This could help them figure out where and how damage was inflicted.

This year we published guidelines to help other forensic professionals in the process of observing and collecting insects at a crime scene, and in considering how insect activity may be connected with a victim’s clothing. We hope our work can help future investigations, and maybe even reopen some cold cases.

This research has been conducted in collaboration with Stevie Ziogos (PhD candidate, Murdoch University) and Kari Pitts (ChemCentre). Forensic entomology guidelines have been updated in collaboration with Tharindu Bambaradeniya (PhD candidate, Murdoch University).

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

– ref. Secrets wrapped in fabric: how our study of 100 decomposing piglet bodies will help solve criminal cases – https://theconversation.com/secrets-wrapped-in-fabric-how-our-study-of-100-decomposing-piglet-bodies-will-help-solve-criminal-cases-207418

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Sussex, Fellow, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University

Vladimir Putin’s own version of history casts himself as modern Russia’s bulwark and champion.

According to this narrative, Putin has sturdily held back waves of foreign and domestic adversaries, and simultaneously restored Russia to greatness.

Although these breathless tales of Putin’s heroics may still resonate among Russians who’ve been spoon-fed a rich diet of disinformation for years, informed observers will view them on a spectrum ranging from embellished to the absurd.

Future historians are unlikely to treat Putin kindly. He has ruled through a combination of fear and favour, cynically upending Russia’s proto-democracy by making dissent a crime rather than a crucial part of political life. Russia has become a nation under the thrall of Putin’s singular idea, instead of a healthy contest between competing ones.

He has progressively sickened Russian society, creating a toxic culture that celebrates xenophobia, nativism and violence.

And by launching a foolish war of imperial expansion in Ukraine that his much-vaunted modernised military has proved incapable of winning, he has inadvertently revealed the fragility of his own power structure.

Putin’s ascent

Putin’s political ascent began once he took over as head of the Russian Security Council in March 1999, long seen as a likely pathway to executive leadership. He then assumed Russia’s prime ministership, and, soon after, its presidency as an increasingly infirm Boris Yeltsin sought to anoint a successor.

Putin’s willingness to protect the interests of “the family” – the network of cronies and oligarchs comprising Yeltsin’s inner circle – made him an obscure but nonetheless logical choice.

A struggle for order and stability has been a consistent leitmotif in how Putin has portrayed himself. He played up this theme during Russia’s presidential election in 2000, which followed the crippling 1998 Russian financial crisis, and was held amid Russia’s second war in Chechnya.

In his debut campaign, Putin offered little beyond a vague promise to restore order and make Russia a great power again. He faced little opposition once two leading political figures – Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov and former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov – pulled out of the race. Russians elected him with 53% of the vote, more out of a sense of relief than enthusiasm.

Upon assuming the leadership, Putin set about stabilising the economy. He amended Russia’s tax code, replacing an arcane system of loopholes and tax breaks with flat rates to boost compliance. In 2004, he effectively renationalised the oil and gas industries after the forced breakup of Yukos, which controlled around 20% of Russia’s oil production.

This sent both an economic and a political message: Russia’s future prosperity would be driven by energy revenues, and Russia’s oligarchs would only prosper at Putin’s pleasure. Such has been Russia’s reliance on energy that by 2021, taxes and dividends from oil and gas companies accounted for 45% of Russia’s federal budget.

Putin’s economic miracle?

After the September 11, 2001, attacks and subsequent US-led global war on terror, Russia’s economy rebounded considerably, aided by high energy prices.

Between 2000 and 2007, average disposable income increased considerably. Inflation fell and the economy grew by around 7% a year, although real wages declined. While the economy suffered a recession as a result of the global financial crisis in 2008, growth was swiftly restored.

Annual household income rose to an estimated US$10,000 per capita in 2013, but by 2022 had contracted to only $7,900. Hence Russians have, on average, been worse off over the last decade.

Read more:
How Russia is shifting to a war economy in the face of international sanctions

This is partly due to Western sanctions imposed after the country’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Later, following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia defaulted on its foreign currency debt (for the first time since 1918), and the economy entered recession in November.

Significant structural problems in Russia’s economy and society have persisted under Putin. Wealth is unevenly distributed, concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and in Russia’s regions it’s highly centred on local elites.

Russian life expectancy under Putin has improved only slightly. In 2021, it was estimated at 69 years, compared to 65 years in 2000.

On average, Russians have shorter lives than Iraqis (70 years), and only live marginally longer than citizens of Eritrea (67 years) and Ethiopia (65 years).

Kleptocrats, meet autocrats

Bribery and institutionalised corruption have been just as much a hallmark of Putin’s rule as his predecessor’s.

Despite fanfare about clearing out the oligarchs, Russia has scored consistently poorly on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. In 2022, Russia was ranked 137th out of 180 nations. By comparison, after Putin had finished his first term as president in 2004, Russia placed 90th.

Putin’s rule is also the story of Russia’s slide from a “managed” democracy to an autocratic regime. This was a gradual process, justified by the need for new laws to protect society.

It began in 2003 when Russian media were barred from political analysis during elections. By 2012, Putin’s imposition of new laws that criminalised foreign agents, protests and criticism of the government saw Russia ranked 148th out of 176 countries on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index. This year, it has slipped to 164th out of 180 countries.

After the Ukraine invasion, Russians convicted of “discrediting the military” have faced jail terms, fines, beatings, social ostracism, loss of income and benefits, and even psychiatric confinement.

Putin’s legacy: ostracism and fragility

Putin’s Russia is a society in which enemies abound. With respect to perceived external adversaries – NATO members and the broader West – Putin sees regime security as being synonymous with national security. As a result, his primary fears are personal, not geopolitical.

It’s not NATO expansion that concerns Putin, but what an alliance of largely democratic nations may bring with it: the prospect of “colour revolutions”, in which populations seek to wrest control from the hands of corrupt dictators.

By invading Ukraine, Putin has actually succeeded in enlarging NATO further, with Finland and Sweden joining the alliance. He has prompted Germany and other overdependent European states to wean themselves off Russian oil and gas. And he’s ensured Russia will remain a Western pariah for the foreseeable future, while bequeathing Russia’s next generation the lasting hatred of Ukrainians.

Russia now faces an uncertain future. Instead of Putin’s vision of a Euro-Pacific great power, it seems destined to be little more than a nuclear-armed raw materials appendage of China.

Even worse for Putin, his rule now looks increasingly tenuous. His failures in Ukraine have proven impossible for Russia’s compliant state media to fashion into a story of triumph.

Putin’s response to Yevgeny Prigozhin’s dramatic mutiny in June added to the perception of weakness. It initially took him several hours to appear in an emergency broadcast, in which he spoke of a potential civil war and promised to liquidate the Wagner traitors.

But once a hasty deal with Prigozhin was struck, that strong statement was walked back only hours later by Putin’s press secretary, who was forced to paint the Wagner forces simultaneously as both heroes and enemies of the state.

Read more:
The rise of Yevgeny Prigozhin: how a one-time food caterer became Vladimir Putin’s biggest threat

Later, in an address to Russian soldiers, Putin thanked the military for saving Russia, even though it hadn’t confronted the revolt.

The equally apathetic response by the general public (indeed, nobody tried to lie down in front of a Wagner tank to protect Putin) was also telling. So, too, was the fact Wagner operatives were able to escape the mutiny unpunished, while ordinary citizens face jail terms for even short silent protests.

Putin’s Russia is starting to look like Tsarist Russia: a state that collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions, as British historian Orlando Figes put it. Russia in 2023 now looks even more fractured than it did when Putin took over, ostensibly to save it from turmoil.

Perhaps the greatest irony of Putin’s near-quarter century at the helm, then, is that he has come to personify the chaos he has long professed to abhor.

Matthew Sussex has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Fulbright Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the Lowy Institute and various Australian government departments and agencies.

– ref. More corrupt, fractured and ostracised: how Vladimir Putin has changed Russia in over two decades on top – https://theconversation.com/more-corrupt-fractured-and-ostracised-how-vladimir-putin-has-changed-russia-in-over-two-decades-on-top-206086

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ravisha Jayawickrama, PhD candidate, School of Population Health, Curtin University

The stigma that surrounds people living in larger bodies is pervasive and deeply affects the people it’s directed at. It’s been described as one of the last acceptable forms of discrimination.

Some researchers think the term “obesity” itself is part of the problem, and are calling for a name change to reduce stigma. They’re proposing “adipose-based chronic disease” instead.

We study the stigma that surrounds obesity – around the time of pregnancy, among health professionals and health students, and in public health more widely. Here’s what’s really needed to reduce weight stigma.

Read more:
Lizzo proudly calls herself a ‘fat’ woman. Are we allowed to as well?

Weight stigma is common

Up to 42% of adults living in larger bodies experience weight stigma. This is when others have negative beliefs, attitudes, assumptions and judgements towards them, unfairly viewing them as lazy, and lacking in willpower or self-discipline.

People in larger bodies experience discrimination in many areas, including in the workplace, intimate and family relationships, education, health care and the media.

Weight stigma is associated with harms including increased cortisol levels (the main stress hormone in the body), negative body image, increased weight gain, and poor mental health. It leads to decreased uptake of, and quality of, health care.

Weight stigma may even pose a greater threat to someone’s health than increasing body size.

Read more:
Should GPs bring up a patient’s weight in consultations about other matters? We asked 5 experts

Should we rename obesity?

Calls to remove or rename health conditions or identifications to reduce stigma are not new. For example, in the 1950s homosexuality was classed as a “sociopathic personality disturbance”. Following many years of protests and activism, the term and condition were removed from the globally recognised classification of mental health disorders.

In recent weeks, European researchers have renamed non-alcoholic fatty liver disease “metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease”. This occurred after up to 66% of health-care professionals surveyed felt the terms “non-alcoholic” and “fatty” to be stigmatising.

Perhaps it is finally time to follow suit and rename obesity. But is “adiposity-based chronic disease” the answer?

Read more:
Changing the terminology to ‘people with obesity’ won’t reduce stigma against fat people

A new name needs to go beyond BMI

There are two common ways people view obesity.

First, most people use the term for people with a body-mass index (BMI) of 30kg/m² or above. Most, if not all, public health organisations also use BMI to categorise obesity and make assumptions about health.

However, BMI alone is not enough to accurately summarise someone’s health. It does not account for muscle mass and does not provide information about the distribution of body weight or adipose tissue (body fat). A high BMI can occur without biological indicators of poor health.

Second, obesity is sometimes used to describe the condition of excess weight when mainly accompanied by metabolic abnormalities.

To simplify, this reflects how the body has adapted to the environment in a way that makes it more susceptible to health risks, with excess weight a by-product of this.

Renaming obesity “adiposity-based chronic disease” acknowledges the chronic metabolic dysfunction associated with what we currently term obesity. It also avoids labelling people purely on body size.

Read more:
Using BMI to measure your health is nonsense. Here’s why

Is obesity a disease anyway?

“Adiposity-based chronic disease” is an acknowledgement of a disease state. Yet there is still no universal consensus on whether obesity is a disease. Nor is there clear agreement on the definition of “disease”.

People who take a biological-dysfunction approach to disease argue dysfunction occurs when physiological or psychological systems don’t do what they’re supposed to.

By this definition, obesity may not be classified as a disease until after harm from the additional weight occurs. That’s because the excess weight itself may not initially be harmful.

Even if we do categorise obesity as a disease, there may still be value in renaming it.

Renaming obesity may improve public understanding that while obesity is often associated with an increase in BMI, the increased BMI itself is not the disease. This change could move the focus from obesity and body size, to a more nuanced understanding and discussion of the biological, environmental, and lifestyle factors associated with it.

Read more:
When you’re sick, the support you’ll get may depend on the ‘worth’ of your disease

Workshopping alternatives

Before deciding to rename obesity, we need discussions between obesity and stigma experts, health-care professionals, members of the public, and crucially, people living with obesity.

Such discussions can ensure robust evidence informs any future decisions, and proposed new terms are not also stigmatising.

Read more:
Today’s disease names are less catchy, but also less likely to cause stigma

What else can we do?

Even then, renaming obesity may not be enough to reduce the stigma.

Our constant exposure to the socially-defined and acceptable idealisation of smaller bodies (the “thin ideal”) and the pervasiveness of weight stigma means this stigma is deeply ingrained at a societal level.

Perhaps true reductions in obesity stigma may only come from a societal shift – away from the focus of the “thin ideal” to one that acknowledges health and wellbeing can occur at a range of body sizes.

Blake Lawrence is a member of The Obesity Society and The Obesity Collective.

Briony Hill receives funding from the Australian Research Council and The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre. She is affiliated with The Obesity Collective.

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

– ref. Renaming obesity won’t fix weight stigma overnight. Here’s what we really need to do – https://theconversation.com/renaming-obesity-wont-fix-weight-stigma-overnight-heres-what-we-really-need-to-do-209224

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shona Murray, PhD candidate, The University of Western Australia

Open ocean sharks are elusive and mysterious. They undertake vast journeys that span hundreds to thousands of kilometres across immense ocean basins. We know very little about the secret lives of ocean sharks, where they live and why they are there.

What we do know is sharks are immensely important to the natural systems in which they live. Over 450 million years of evolution have perfected their role as apex predators and they play vital roles in fish community regulation and nutrient cycling. Healthy ecosystems rely on healthy shark populations.

Sharks, numbering more than 500 species, are also among the most threatened groups of vertebrates (animals with backbones). After surviving five mass extinctions through geological time, sharks are now facing the greatest threat to their survival from industrial fishing.

Their elusive nature and the immensity of our oceans means sharks are difficult to study. Our limited knowledge is particularly problematic given their threatened status. A solid understanding of the distribution of oceanic sharks is fundamental to their protection and our new research provides valuable insights into the secret lives of these wide-ranging predators.

Read more:
Oceanic sharks and rays have declined by 71% since 1970 – a global solution is needed

Silky by name, silky by nature

Silky sharks (Carcharhinus falciformis), named for the silky-smooth feel of their skin, are emblematic of open ocean sharks. They are highly mobile, have long life-spans, and are slow to reproduce. They are found throughout tropical and sub-tropical waters.

Silky shark numbers have declined globally due to industrial-scale fishing. Targeted for their fins and meat, they are also frequently incidentally caught in tuna fisheries. In 2017 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature classified this species as vulnerable to extinction. Their trade is controlled under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

What we did

Baited remote underwater video systems, or BRUVS for short, are used to document the wildlife of the open oceans. Armed with a pair of small action cameras and baited to attract predators, BRUVS are suspended at 10m depth and drift with ocean currents. Video analysts review the footage to identify, count and measure all observed animals.

BRUVS have previously revealed the impact of human activity on marine predator populations, the ecological value of offshore oil and gas platforms as novel ecosystems, and even that tunas use sharks to scratch their itches.

We deployed more than 1,000 BRUVS across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans between 2012-20 to record where silky sharks hang out and predict how many there are and how big they are.

Read more:
How do fishes scratch their itches? It turns out sharks are involved

A love affair between silky sharks and seamounts

Silky sharks love seamounts. The closer we sampled to seamounts, the more frequently we observed silky sharks, and in higher numbers.

Seamounts are huge underwater mountains that rise from depths of thousands of metres to pinnacles that summit from hundreds to just tens of metres below the surface. The best estimate predicts the occurrence of more than 37,000 seamounts worldwide.

Seamounts are often hotspots of marine biodiversity. They act as landmarks in the otherwise relatively featureless open ocean seascape. Seamounts provide feeding, breeding, and resting spots for ocean roamers such as sharks, tuna, and whales. Migratory wildlife also use seamounts as navigational beacons and as stepping stones along their trans-ocean journeys.

Our results also reveal the smallest silky sharks hang out closest to seamounts. Seamounts may provide a rich smorgasbord for these rapidly growing youngsters.

A human footprint on silky sharks

Humans are leaving their heavy footprints on much of the ocean and silky sharks are no exception. Silky shark numbers declined the closer we sampled to coastal ports. Only the most remote areas had high numbers of silky sharks.

Silky sharks close to ports and human populations were also smaller than those observed further away. Such patterns are consistent with fishing impacts as exploitation typically first removes the largest individuals from the population. Our results reflect those for other open ocean sharks: hammerhead, sandbar, tiger and whale sharks have all declined globally in numbers and size .

The distribution of silky sharks exemplifies the pervasive and negative impacts of human activity on oceanic sharks more generally. It highlights the critical need for refuges in which these animals are protected from exploitation.

A path to protection

The need for improved protection for oceanic wildlife is well-recognised and marine protected areas are a key tool to deliver this protection. In 2022, under the Convention on Biological Diversity, nearly every country in the world committed to protect 30% of their oceans by 2030.

In 2023, the High Seas Treaty was ratified by the 193 member states of the United Nations, paving the path towards strong and effective protection of the vast swaths of ocean beyond national jurisdiction. Given that less than 2.9% of our oceans are currently highly protected, such opportunities are essential.

Our research provides clues on how best to harness these agreements to protect silky sharks and their open-ocean companions. If marine protected areas are going to work, they need to include areas that threatened wildlife inhabit. As seamounts are hotspots for silky sharks, they are a fitting focus for marine protected areas.

It has never been more important to protect sharks. We have never had as much knowledge to do so. We hope recent commitments to ocean protection will spur research to further unveil the secret lives of oceanic sharks and ensure their survival in the face of their greatest threat yet.

Jessica Meeuwig has received funding from the Ian Potter Foundation, the Bertarelli Foundation, and receives funding from National Geographic’s Pristine Seas programme.

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

– ref. The secret lives of silky sharks: unveiling their whereabouts supports their protection – https://theconversation.com/the-secret-lives-of-silky-sharks-unveiling-their-whereabouts-supports-their-protection-209333

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanessa Cobham, Professor of Clinical Psychology, The University of Queensland

Going to school can be challenging for children and young people at times. Most young people will have patches during their school career where it feels hard. That’s normal. Getting through those hard times can bring with it sense of mastery, confidence and resilience.

Of course, this is not the experience of all young people, and many families find themselves asking whether a change of schools might be the best option for their child.

This is a big decision and one that parents don’t make lightly – few parents think it’s a good idea to change their child’s school on a regular basis.

While there are no black-and-white answers around this, there are some questions that might help your thinking.

Read more:
Back-to-school blues are normal, so how can you tell if it’s something more serious?

Involve the current school if you can

Sometimes, when things are very difficult for your child at school, it can be easy to forget teachers and schools – just like parents – want the best possible outcomes for the children in their care.

If you haven’t already, contact your child’s school or teacher.

The best solutions are usually reached when parents and teachers can work as a team to understand and help children who are unhappy or struggling.

Understanding why school feels like such a struggle

There are many different aspects to school. Students need to manage academic work, peer interactions as well as their own behaviour and emotions in the classroom and playground.

To figure out how best to support your child, you will need to work with them and their teacher(s) to develop a good understanding of exactly what it is about school that is hard.

Maybe they are confused in maths lessons, maybe they are having problems with their friends or maybe your child is experiencing bullying. Often it will be a combination of factors.

Anxiety is often the big emotion behind children’s struggles with school. If this is the case for your child, your child may benefit from learning about how to manage anxiety (there are evidence-based free online programs).

Another important factor to consider is the “goodness-of-fit” between your child’s strengths and abilities and the school they are attending.

Maybe you set your heart on your child attending a particular school (perhaps one that has a reputation for academic or sporting excellence). Maybe you enrolled them as soon as they were born. But is this emphasis right for your child?

Read more:
You can’t fix school refusal with ‘tough love’ but these steps might help

Are there skills or supports your child needs?

Once you’ve identified the aspect(s) of school that are presenting challenges for your child, think about whether there are skills they can be helped to develop to manage these more effectively.

This might include learning how to manage frustration when things don’t go their way, or how to respond assertively, rather than being aggressive when they are challenged,.

There might be supports that can be put in place by the school to help, such as extra learning support. Speak to your child’s teacher if you are concerned they might be being picked on and see if you can work collaboratively to address the problem.

Is changing schools going to help?

Once you feel like you understand your child’s challenges at school, it’s important to ask yourself: “how likely is it that their specific situation is going to be improved by changing schools?”

Keep in mind too the message you may be unintentionally communicating to your child by changing schools – we want to avoid reinforcing avoidance of anxiety-provoking situations that are manageable with the right support.

Also keep in mind that, apart from home, school is the place that children spend the most time. This means that it is likely that sometimes, children’s distress at school is influenced by factors that aren’t necessarily caused by school. This could include mental health issues that are not specifically related to school or worries about the family’s financial situation.

A fresh start

Sometimes, despite everyone’s best intentions and efforts, there might come a point where it’s time to acknowledge a challenging situation at school is not changing. And a child’s mental health and wellbeing is being negatively impacted. If this is the case, a fresh start at a new school may be the best option.

One way to explain it to your child could be to say something like

I believe in you. With your teachers, we’ve tried our best, but this school isn’t the best fit for you and now it’s time for a fresh start.

Leaving one school for another one doesn’t represent a failure. Rather, it represents a change in direction based on the available information.

Read more:
School attendance rates are dropping. We need to ask students why

I am the first author of the Fear-Less Triple P program linked to in this article. The online program is freely available to Australian parents.

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

– ref. How do you know when it’s time to think seriously think about changing your child’s school? – https://theconversation.com/how-do-you-know-when-its-time-to-think-seriously-think-about-changing-your-childs-school-210480

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Peetz, Laurie Carmichael Distinguished Research Fellow at the Centre for Future Work, and Professor Emeritus, Griffith Business School, Griffith University

The surprising thing about the Albanese government’s announced reforms to
“casual” employment is not that they’re happening. It’s that employer advocates are getting so excited about them, despite the small number of people they will affect and the small impact they will have.

That’s not to say the changes aren’t needed. Rather, true reform of the “casual” employment system, of which this is just a first but important step, has a lot further to go to resolve the “casual problem”.

Read more:
Albanese government to make it easier for casuals to become permanent employees

What is the ‘casual problem’?

This problem is that most “casual” workers aren’t really casual at all — as shown by analysis that I and colleague Robyn May did, using unpublished data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The premise for hiring them is that the work is intermittent, short-term and unpredictable. But, as you can see from the chart, the last time the ABS collected these data, a majority of “casuals” worked regular hours.

Almost 60% of “casuals” had been in the job for more than a year. About 80% expected to still be there in a year’s time.

Only 6% of “casuals” (1.5% of employees) who worked varying hours (or were on standby) had been with their employer for a short time, and expected to be there for a short time.

Even now, some “casuals” have been doing the same “casual” work for over 20 years.

Permanent ‘casuals’

All this has led to a class of “permanent casuals” – a nonsense term. They should more accurately be called “permanently insecure”.

The one thing “casuals” have in common is they’re not entitled to sick leave or annual leave, and they are in a precarious employment situation. Their contract of employment only lasts till the end of their work day.

That means they have much less power than other workers. So little power, in fact, that barely half of them even get the casual loading they are meant to be paid in compensation for not receiving other entitlements.

On average, low-paid “casuals” get less pay than equivalent permanent workers, despite the loading.

Changing legal definitions

Not many “casuals” have been brave enough to challenge this exploitative relationship. But when they did a few years ago, Australia’s courts agreed permanent casual work was nonsensical.

To be a “casual worker”, there had to be no promise of ongoing employment. A court would judge this not just by what was in the formal contract of employment but also by what the employer actually did. If they kept hiring you, week after week, on a predictable roster, you weren’t casual.

In 2018, mine worker Paul Skene challenged his classification as a casual worker, arguing he had done pretty much the same work, with a few changes along the way, for five years.

The Federal Court agreed he wasn’t a casual employee and should be back-paid annual leave. Another mine worker, Robert Rossato, had a similar victory in 2020.

Employer organisations were “outraged” by the “billions” in back pay they could be forced to pay for having misclassified ongoing workers as casuals. They lobbied the Morrison government to amend the law, and challenged the rulings in the High Court.

The Morrison government changed the law in early 2021, to give primacy to the written contract, ignore employer behaviour, and protect employers from back-pay claims.

Later that year the High Court overturned the Federal Court decisions, ruling it was the written employment contract that mattered. If that was worded a certain way, you couldn’t test whether a worker was “casual” by whether the employer treated them that way afterwards.

Labor promised to overturn these interpretations, and that’s what this proposal does.

Read more:
Employers will resist, but the changes for casual workers are about accepting reality

What will the legislation change?

The details of the government’s plan is still not clear, but it is likely it will seek to amend the Fair Work Act to revert to something close to the pre-2020 definition of casual work, with a procedural twist.

It will again be possible to judge whether an employee is “casual” based on employer behaviour. And an employee who repeatedly works a similar roster can, after six months, demand “permanency” – meaning rights to sick leave, annual leave, and better protection against arbitrary sacking.

The twist: until they demanded “permanency” they won’t be entitled to any leave. So employers will be protected against claims for back pay.

Theoretically this could affect hundreds of thousands of “casual” workers. In reality, it will likely help far fewer.

Suppose you’re a “casual” labour hire worker in mining. You can tell what time you’ll start work on the first Friday next June. You go to your employer — the labour hire company — and say: “Make me permanent.” The labour hire company says: “We can’t. You might not have a job tomorrow.”

And indeed, now that you’ve asked, maybe you won’t have a job. So would you really ask?

It will depend critically on the protections offered to workers who ask to convert, and how credible they are to workers.

Most people only expect a few people to make the demand. Workplace relations minister Tony Burke says he believes only a “very small proportion” of “casuals” working regular shifts will do so.

Part of that reluctance will be fear of the consequences, and part of it will be that many casuals rely on their casual loading. About half of “casuals” are on the award minimum rate, compared with 15% of “permanent” full-time workers. Most cannot afford to “choose” to trade the money for holidays and other entitlements.

If you’re not getting the casual loading, you’ve got nothing to lose — except your job. If the power imbalance means you don’t get the loading, you won’t fancy your chances.

So, it will just work for a small number or workers – though it’s likely to be very important to them.

More needs to be done

In short, this is a good step but more needs to be done.

In most other wealthy countries all workers – including temporary workers – are entitled to annual leave. That’s not the case in Australia, because of the “casual” ruse. These laws will not change that.

There should be a universal leave entitlements. Sure, there needs to be a loading where work is unpredictable, and hence so short-term that leave entitlements would not be practical.

But everyone else should get annual and sick leave, and minimum award wages should be high enough that low-wage workers don’t have to rely on the casual loading to get by.

The challenge should be about how we transition to that situation.

Over the years, David Peetz has received funding for research from the Australian Research Council, various unions and employers, state and national governments of both political flavours in Australia and overseas, the International Labour Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. He is presently employed by the Carmichael Centre at the Centre for Future Work at The Australia Institute.

– ref. We need more than a definition change to fix Australia’s culture of permanent ‘casual’ work – https://theconversation.com/we-need-more-than-a-definition-change-to-fix-australias-culture-of-permanent-casual-work-210456

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alice Neikirk, Lecturer, Criminology, University of Newcastle

This year marks a significant milestone for women in policing: the 125th anniversary of the first official recognition of a police matron in Australia.

However, women worked in this role for at least 50 years before receiving official recognition.

Known as “police matrons”, these women opened the door for other women to move into the police force as officers, yet their role is still unrecognised or dismissed as an extension of her husband’s policing duties.

While many Australians will have never heard of them, they were trailblazers for women in law enforcement.

Read more:
Hidden women of history: Kate Cocks, the pioneering policewoman who fought crime and ran a home for babies – but was no saint

The female touch in policing

During the Victorian era, it was considered inappropriate for men to touch a woman who was not their wife or an immediate family member. This made men policing women (at least of certain social classes) difficult, particularly if they needed to search a female suspect. To get around this, police began to call on women to search arrestees for them.

Initially, these might have been whoever was nearby – a woman living near the police station, for example. But quickly it was recognised that a “female touch” was also helpful for comforting lost children, talking to female victims of crime, and occasionally soothing an unruly male arrestee. Neighbourhood women were not viewed as entirely suited for these more complex roles, but the wives of police officers were.

In Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, early police stations had both temporary holding cells (a lock-up) and a residence for a police officer. The officer living on site was frequently married – these women became police matrons.

Police matrons in the Victorian era searched female offenders, were responsible for lost or arrested children, kept watch over mentally unwell inmates, and occasionally allowed families facing violence at home to stay in the station.

They also performed tasks we would not generally associate with the work of a police officer. They cleaned and maintained the cells, mended clothes, and hosted clothing drives for the poor. The police stations sometimes doubled as neighbourhood medical centres. These were all tasks that fell to the police matron. They fit within assumptions of the period regarding the natural, nurturing role of women.

Discrimination leading to innovation

Because these tasks were viewed as “naturally” women’s work, questions regarding compensation were skirted. For decades, these were not formal appointments. The matrons were not sworn in, they did not have access to a police pension, and they did not have any authority over male inmates (or male officers).

A few received a modest stipend based on the number of searches they conducted or if they performed an extended psychiatric watch. These matrons would be on-call 24 hours a day, and diaries kept by early matrons show the long hours they kept. Yet their activities were viewed as an extension of their husband’s role, not requiring separate pay.

These women did not go on patrol or have powers to arrest. But there is evidence that police matrons performed tasks that align with current approaches to policing.

For example, a key role of male police in the early Victorian era was to prevent crime by being out in the community: an officer’s presence alone would often deter offending.

Police matrons rarely worked outside of the station, but they did get to know the needs of their community and tried to identify causes of crime. They became advocates, trying to address what they saw as the root causes of crime: excessive consumption of alcohol leading to the violent breakdown of families. Matrons advocated for increased regulation of alcohol and for stations to provide sanctuary for domestic violence victims.

Today, these efforts would be understood as forms of problem-orientated policing: identifying a problem in a community and working with the community to devise solutions for the underlying causes of crime. We cannot go as far as claiming that police matrons started the movement towards problem-orientated policing. But we can recognise that they predated today’s “best practice in policing” model by roughly 150 years.

Read more:
Women have made many inroads in policing, but barriers remain to achieving gender equity

Though we know police matrons were working in this field in the mid-1800s, and gained a degree of official recognition in the 1890s, it was not until 1915 that the New South Wales Police Department advertised two positions for women police officers.

These two positions attracted nearly 500 applications. The first two female police officers in NSW were not allowed to wear a uniform and had to sign a waiver releasing the police department of any responsibility for their safety. Their tasks were similar to police matrons – they were responsible for women and children that came in contact with the criminal justice system. It wasn’t until 1979 that female officers in Australia could carry a firearm, though they were required to keep it in their handbag.

Today, women make up over 30% of police in Australia and have reached the highest ranks as police commissioners. Although Australians may not know much about the early police matrons, it was they who, more than 100 years ago, paved the way for all this to happen.

Alice Neikirk 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. Long before women police officers came police ‘matrons’: who were they and what did they do? – https://theconversation.com/long-before-women-police-officers-came-police-matrons-who-were-they-and-what-did-they-do-210188

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jaelen Nicole Myers, PhD Candidate, James Cook University

“Baby shark doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo, baby shark doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo …” If you’re the parent of a young child, you’re probably painfully familiar with this infectious song, which now has more than 13 billion views on YouTube.

The Baby Shark song, released in 2016, has got hordes of us singing along, but how much do you really know about baby sharks? Do you know how a baby shark is born, or how it survives to become an apex predator?

I study coastal marine ecology. I believe baby sharks are truly fascinating, and I hope greater public knowledge about these creatures will help protect them in the wild.

So sink your teeth into this Q&A on the weird and wonderful world of baby sharks.

How are baby sharks conceived and born?

To the human eye, shark courtship practices may seem barbaric. Males typically attract the attention of a female by biting her. If successful, this is generally followed by even toothier bites to hold on during copulation. Females can carry the scars of these encounters long after the mating season is over.

The act of copulation itself is comparable to that of humans. The male inserts its sexual organ, known as a “clasper”, into the female and releases sperm to fertilise the eggs.

However, in extremely rare cases, sharks can reproduce asexually – in other words, embryos develop without being fertilised. This occurred at a Queensland aquarium in 2016, when a zebra shark gave birth to a litter of pups despite not having had the chance to mate in several years.

Sharks give birth in a variety of ways. Some species produce live pups, which swim away to fend for themselves as soon as they’re born. Others hatch from eggs outside the mother’s body. Remnants of these egg cases have been found washed up on beaches across the world.

How big is a litter of shark pups?

Litter size across sharks varies considerably. For example, the grey nurse shark starts with several embryos but only two are born. This is because the embryos actually eat each other while in utero! This leaves only one survivor in each of the mother’s two uteruses.

Intrauterine cannibalism may seem disturbing but is nature’s way of ensuring that the strongest pups get the best chance of survival.

In contrast, other species such as the whale shark use a completely different strategy to ensure some of their offspring survive: having hundreds of pups in a single litter.

Where do baby sharks live?

The open ocean is a dangerous place. That’s why pregnant female sharks often give birth in shallow coastal waters known as “nurseries”. There, baby sharks are better protected from harsh environmental conditions and roaming predators, including other sharks.

Sites for shark nurseries include river mouths, estuaries, mangrove forests and coral reef flats.

For example, the white shark has established nursery grounds along the east coast of Australia, where babies may remain for several years before moving to deeper waters.

Although most types of sharks are confined to saltwater, the bull shark can live in freshwater habitats. Bull shark pups born near river mouths and estuaries often migrate upstream (sometimes vast distances inland) to escape being preyed upon.

Read more:
How do fishes scratch their itches? It turns out sharks are involved

When are baby sharks born?

Sharks, like most animals in the wild, generally give birth during periods that provide favourable conditions for their offspring.

In Australia, for example, scalloped hammerheads and bull sharks tend to breed in the wet summer months when nursery grounds are warmer and there are rich feeding opportunities.

How long do baby sharks take to grow up?

Sharks grow remarkably slowly compared to other fish and remain juveniles for a long time. Although some species mature in a few years, most take considerably longer.

Take the Greenland shark – the world’s longest living shark. It can live to at least 250 years and according to recent research, it’s thought to take more than a century to reach sexual maturity.

Read more:
Surfers share their waves with sharks, but fear not

What threats do baby sharks face?

While small, sharks must eat or be eaten – all the while enduring the elements and finding enough food to survive and grow.

Yet there is another challenge: humans. In fact, we are the greatest threat to sharks.

Shark nurseries are heavily concentrated in coastal zones, and often overlap with human activities such as fishing, boating and coastal development. And because sharks grow so slowly, they are particularly to vulnerable to overfishing because when populations decline, they can take a long time to bounce back.

Much more to learn

Scientists are still working to understand the life cycles of the 500-plus species of sharks in our oceans. Each time I hear the song Baby Shark, it reminds me there’s a lot more work to do.

It’s crucial to keep monitoring and studying these baby wonders of the deep, to ensure shark populations survive and we maintain the delicate balance of our underwater ecosystems.

Read more:
When we swim in the ocean, we enter another animal’s home. Here’s how to keep us all safe

Jaelen Nicole Myers receives funding from James Cook University, the Ecological Society of Australia, and the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales.

– ref. You’ve heard the annoyingly catchy song – but did you know these incredible facts about baby sharks? – https://theconversation.com/youve-heard-the-annoyingly-catchy-song-but-did-you-know-these-incredible-facts-about-baby-sharks-209865

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tom Williams, Lecturer – Visual Arts, University of Wollongong

Documentary photographers have traditionally aspired to tell other people’s stories. For 15 years, artist Raphaela Rosella and the women close to her have forged their own complex visual narratives, despite frequent interventions by the criminal justice system.

Rosella is an Italian-Australian documentary artist devoted to long-term, socially engaged collaborative projects made with participants from Nimbin, Casino, Lismore and Moree in regional New South Wales.

Aware that photographs can enable stereotypes and mislead viewers, she decided early in her career the people she photographed should be given ongoing control of their representation. This means active collaboration in making images and a body of work, as well as continually seeking consent if sharing it with an audience.

You’ll Know It When You Feel It at Brisbane’s Institute of Modern Art has evolved through these relationships.

Rosella and her co-creators have sought to reclaim and counteract the narratives formed by state records, instead telling stories of the love they feel for family and the challenges they’ve faced: both together and when separated by the geography of prison custody.

Read more:
Can a photograph change the world?

Welcomed into a home

Rosella is close to the women she works with, and knows they have been routinely marginalised and denied freedoms.

Some of the audio-visual archive was produced by participants while imprisoned, in response to a legal system that confronted them at a young age. The women see their collaborative work as a “site of resistance” where they can detach their identities from the procedures and labels imposed by bureaucracy.

Rather than granting sole storytelling agency to one artist or organisation, these women take a central role in communicating their own histories and perspectives.

The show feels like being welcomed into someone’s home: there are fabric curtains, handwritten cards, family photos, the reassuring sound of nearby voices.

This warm familiarity contrasts with the dehumanising language of the official documents on display: “At no time are photographs to be taken of the inmate”.

Each section of the exhibition is accompanied by a short text that reads like the opening lines of a personal letter. We’re entrusted with intimate moments and heartfelt correspondence. There are no image titles or dates on most of the photographs or videos, as if in defiance of the classificatory legal papers interwoven throughout.

The first image we see as we enter is a portrait coauthored by Kamilaroi/Biripi woman Nunjul Townsend. She meets our gaze with an intensity of emotion that reflects the profound bond she has with friend and artistic partner Rosella.

Next to it, a tenderly made photograph of Nunjul and her young son embracing is placed inside a sterile grid of blank “statement of truth” court documents.

The juxtaposition is moving: love between mother and son can’t be reduced to written transcripts – or even captured by a camera. But throughout the show the kinship that connects the group is palpable.

Crucial questions

Each participant has an individual curated space within the gallery, including Rosella and her identical twin. Rosella doesn’t shy away from revealing her own story to the viewer in self-portaits, video and wall text, or reflecting critically on her process (“the camera was enabling your addiction”).

Many of the people whose lives we engage with in the show are Aboriginal, and all have been impacted by violence.

One participant, Tammara, was killed in 2020 after the pair had been working together for a decade. An image of an empty Jim Beam bottle embedded in a wall speaks of the terror of domestic violence that is so sickeningly incessant in Australia.

The space dedicated to Kathleen “Rowrow” Duncan is one of the most affecting. Wall text and a small, handwritten note from mother to her newborn baby tell us that Rowrow is under prison guard. She has given birth and will soon return to a cell.

The majority of this space, from floor to wall, is filled by a transcript that maps Rowrow’s transfers from prison to prison over four years. I counted 30 relocations. It’s hard to imagine the effect this would have on a person’s sense of home; or hope.

In a note Rosella has written to co-creator Tricia, Rosella laments how Tricia’s partner had only “spent three of his birthdays on the outside since he was nine”.

One large wall in the exhibition is filled from floor to ceiling with a mosaic of photos, contact sheets, handwritten notes, drawings, redacted documents and letters (many of them posted from behind bars). Formal portraits are assembled alongside childrens’ drawings and intimate correspondence.

There is no visual hierarchy in the installation: each element speaks of a life, a shared experience, a human connection.

As an audience, we are driven to ask questions. Why are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women imprisoned so disproportionately? Why are many disadvantaged kids who come into contact with law enforcement caught in “cycles of incarceration”? Why don’t we properly address intergenerational trauma?

The strength of You’ll Know It When You Feel It is how it makes us connect with real stories that transcend statistics and theoretical debates.

Read more:
Aboriginal mothers are incarcerated at alarming rates – and their mental and physical health suffers

Collaborative dialogue

Documentary photographers have historically sought to reveal problems and inequalities in the world, fuelled by a desire to provoke change.

Lewis Hine famously played a role in reforming child labour laws in the USA through his images of young children at work. Visual storytellers are documenting the effects of climate change.

But documentary practice has been criticised by scholars for benefiting privileged photographers and institutions too often, advancing careers under the guise of concerned activism at the expense of their subjects.

Rosella, by contrast, engages in a genuine collaborative dialogue. Exhibition and publication are not the driving force.

This project is a rare example of artwork catalysing practical change. These photographs have been used to influence legal outcomes like the length of jail sentences and granting of parole. The voices of participants are heard and preserved.

The final room of the exhibition contains HOMEtruths, an immersive three channel video installation that intercuts home movies from the collaborators with cinematic depictions of family and Country.

It is an absorbing, hope-affirming work that highlights connection to loved ones and significant places across generations. We experience the ancient landscape the artists are part of. Newborn lives engender fresh optimism.

You’ll Know It When You Feel It is at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, until August 19.

Tom Williams 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. More than a picture: how the work of documentary photographer Raphaela Rosella is defined by co-creation – https://theconversation.com/more-than-a-picture-how-the-work-of-documentary-photographer-raphaela-rosella-is-defined-by-co-creation-209799

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Ordway, Associate Professor Sport Management and Sport Integrity Lead, University of Canberra

As the Women’s World Cup grows in size and stature, it’s not surprising concerns are also being raised about match-fixing and the integrity of the sport.

Women’s sport has traditionally not been considered high risk when it comes to match-fixing for a few reasons, including the few gambling options available to punters.

For example, when Australia hosted the men’s AFC Asian Cup and Cricket World Cup in 2015, the Australian Federal Police laid out plans for countering the risk of organised crime infiltration and match-fixing. The women’s Netball World Cup, which also took place in Australia that year, did not feature in its preparations because it was deemed “low risk”.

By the time the FIFA Women’s World Cup was held in France in 2019, however, the football governing body was not taking any chances. It established a monitoring hub for the tournament and worked with Interpol, the French police, France’s betting regulator and financial crime prosecutors to develop the best strategies for preventing any match-fixing incidents.

A similar task force has been set up for this year’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, including the FBI, Interpol, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Sport Integrity Australia, the New Zealand Police and Sportradar, a sport betting data provider.

As sports lawyer Laura Douglas warned in a 2016 analysis on match-fixing, the increasing commercialisation and globalisation of women’s sport – coupled with the poor pay and lack of other support services offered to players – has created a powder keg waiting to explode.

Read more:
Long-range goals: can the FIFA World Cup help level the playing field for all women footballers?

Gambling companies are not only increasingly taking bets on women’s professional sports – millions were wagered on matches at the 2019 Women’s World Cup – but also in community-level sporting events and competitions involving minors.

Sportradar, which provides betting data to bookmakers and analyses the betting markets for potential match-fixing, found that half the suspicious cases it identified in domestic leagues in 2021 came from third-tier leagues or lower, including regional and youth football. The report said:

Many of these competitions lack key integrity protections like bet monitoring and athlete education, making them vulnerable targets for match-fixers.

Pay disputes in women’s football

The most vulnerable athletes are those who are not paid a fair wage or in a timely manner. Unfortunately, in women’s football, this is a major problem.

For this year’s World Cup, several members of the Nigerian women’s team, the Super Falcons, were contemplating a boycott of their first match due to a pay dispute.

Read more:
The gender pay gap for the FIFA World Cup is US$370 million. It’s time for equity

The team had previously protested at the 2019 Women’s World Cup and last year’s Africa Cup of Nations over payments the players said they were owed by the federation.

The coach, Randy Waldrum, had also accused the Nigerian Football Federation of not properly supporting the team and interfering in his squad selections.

Nigeria’s opponent in its opening game, Canada, was also involved in a pay dispute with its federation, as were Jamaica and South Africa.

Why collective bargaining agreements are key

In 2015, the Australian women’s team, the Matildas, went on strike in an effort to increase the minimum wage they were paid and improve conditions for the national team (and later national league players).

It took another four years before the Professional Footballers Australia, the players’ union, and Football Australia were able to sign a new collective bargaining agreement, which would guarantee an equal split of all commercial revenue between the men’s and women’s national teams.

However, the Professional Footballers Australia has chosen not to follow the US model of pooling the prize money offered at the World Cup and dividing it equally among the men’s and women’s teams. The union believes this won’t address the inequity created by FIFA, which it could right with a stroke of the pen. (Prize money at the current Women’s World Cup has increased substantially, but is still a quarter what the men received at the 2022 men’s World Cup.)

Changing the culture within FIFA might be a challenge. One high-ranking football official, FIFA vice president Alejandro Dominguez, is quoted as saying he “doesn’t believe in equal pay” at the Women’s World Cup.

There was some progress at this year’s World Cup, though, with FIFA agreeing to pay all players at least US$30,000 individually.

The Matildas, together with the Australian players’ union, are now calling on FIFA to increase its resourcing for women’s football around the globe. They have particularly highlighted the need for union representation and collective bargaining agreements that guarantee minimum standards and pay.

And for its part, FIFA should be demanding accountability from its member federations on how the money it gives each country is used to support women’s football.

Nearly a decade ago, I argued that creating a stronger culture around integrity in sport will produce a better product on the field. Players will be less vulnerable to bribery, removing the temptation to deliberately throw a game.

Teams need to take a “winning well” approach, similar to the one adopted by the Australian Institute of Sport, which replaces the purely economic devaluation of athletes as “assets” with a more humanistic and inclusive approach that focuses on wellbeing and ethics of care.

If these recommendations are implemented internationally, it will go a long way to supporting the women’s game and strengthening integrity.

Catherine Ordway has previously held voluntary roles with Capital Football and Women Onside, helping to draft submissions as part of the Congress Review Working Group. She has also advised Football Australia in a legal capacity.

– ref. How do we keep women’s football clean? Start paying players a fair wage – https://theconversation.com/how-do-we-keep-womens-football-clean-start-paying-players-a-fair-wage-210134

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lara Herrero, Research Leader in Virology and Infectious Disease, Griffith University

Respiratory viruses like influenza virus (flu), SARS-CoV-2 (which causes COVID) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can make us sick by infecting our respiratory system, including the nose, upper airways and lungs.

They spread from person to person through respiratory droplets when someone coughs, sneezes, or talks and can cause death in serious cases.

But what happens in our body when we first encounter these viruses? Our immune system uses a number of strategies to fight off viral infections. Let’s look at how it does this.

First line of defence

When we encounter respiratory viruses, the first line of defence is the physical and chemical barriers in our nose, upper airways, and lungs. Barriers like the mucus lining and hair-like structures on the surface of cells, work together to trap and remove viruses before they can reach deeper into our respiratory system.

Our defence also includes our behaviours such as coughing or sneezing. When we blow our nose, the mucus, viruses, and any other pathogens that are caught within it are expelled.

But sometimes, viruses manage to evade these initial barriers and sneak into our respiratory system. This activates the cells of our innate immune system.

Patrolling for potential invaders

While our acquired immune system develops over time, our innate immune system is present at birth. It generates “non-specific” immunity by identifying what’s foreign. The cells of innate immunity act like a patrol system, searching for any invaders. These innate cells patrol almost every part of our body, from our skin to our nose, lungs and even internal organs.

Our respiratory system has different type of innate cells such – as macrophages, neutrophils and natural killer cells – which patrol in our body looking for intruders. If they recognise anything foreign, in this case a virus, they will initiate an attack response.

Each cell type plays a slightly different role. Macrophages, for example, will not only engulf and digest viruses (phagocytosis) but also release a cocktail of different molecules (cytokines) that will warn and recruit other cells to fight against the danger.

Read more:
Explainer: how does the immune system learn?

In the meantime, natural killer cells, aptly named, attack infected cells, and stop viruses from multiplying and invading our body further.

Natural killer cells also promote inflammation, a crucial part of the immune response. It helps to recruit more immune cells to the site of infection, enhances blood flow, and increases the permeability of blood vessels, allowing immune cells to reach the infected tissues.
At this stage, our immune system is fighting a war against viruses and the result can cause inflammation, fevers, coughs and congestion.

Launching a specific attack

As the innate immune response begins, another branch of the immune system called the adaptive immune system is activated.

The adaptive immune system is more specific than the innate immune system, and it decides on the correct tools and strategy to fight off the viral invaders. This system plays a vital role in eliminating the virus and providing long-term protection against future infections.

Specialised cells called T cells and B cells are key players in acquired immunity.

T cells (specifically, helper T cells and cytotoxic T cells) recognise viral proteins on the surface of infected cells:

• helper T cells release molecules that further activate immune cells

• cytotoxic T cells directly kill infected cells with a very great precision, avoiding any healthy cells around.

B cells produce antibodies, which are proteins that can bind to viruses, neutralise them, and mark them for destruction by other immune cells.

B cells are a critical part of memory in our immune system. They will remember what happened and won’t forget for years. When the same virus attacks again, B cells will be ready to fight it off and will neutralise it faster and better.

Thanks to the adaptive immune system, vaccines for respiratory viruses such as the COVID mRNA vaccine keep us protected from being sick or severely ill. However, if the same virus became mutated, our immune system will act as if it was a new virus and will have to fight in a war again.

Neutralising the threat

As the immune response progresses, the combined efforts of the innate and adaptive immune systems helps control the virus. Infected cells are cleared, and the virus is neutralised and eliminated from the body.

As the infection subsides, symptoms gradually improve, and we begin to feel better and to recover.

But recovery varies depending on the specific virus and us as individuals. Some respiratory viruses, like rhinoviruses which cause the common cold, may cause relatively mild symptoms and a quick recovery. Others, like the flu, SARS-CoV-2 or severe cases of RSV, may lead to more severe symptoms and a longer recovery time.

Some viruses are very strong and too fast sometimes so that our immune system does not have the time to develop a proper immune response to fight them off.

Read more:
I’ve had COVID and am constantly getting colds. Did COVID harm my immune system? Am I now at risk of other infectious diseases?

Lara Herrero receives funding from NHMRC

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

– ref. What happens in our body when we encounter and fight off a virus like the flu, SARS-CoV-2 or RSV? – https://theconversation.com/what-happens-in-our-body-when-we-encounter-and-fight-off-a-virus-like-the-flu-sars-cov-2-or-rsv-207023

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Kiely, Lecturer, Statistics and Data Science, University of Wollongong

Australians are living and working longer, but a longer working life doesn’t always come with equivalent gains in healthy life.

Our analysis of change in life expectancy, health transitions and working patterns of more than 10,000 middle-aged Australians over the past two decades shows divergences in the number of years they can expect be in good health at work and in retirement.

In particular, education matters.

Those who left school before year 12 are losing years of healthy life, with their extra years in the workforce mainly comprising years of poor health. This is opposite to the trend among people who completed high school.

And while men and women experienced improvements in life expectancy, on average women are not gaining extra healthy life years.

Australians are being encouraged to extend their working life. For this to be sustainable and equitable, government and workplaces policies will need to make allowances for the health capacity of mature-age workers.

How we found our results

We’ve calculated healthy working life expectancies – the average number of years a person can expect to work in good health – for 50-year-olds using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. This is a longitudinal survey, meaning it seeks to interview the same households every year (about 17,000 people), enabling researchers to track life trajectories.

We identified two age groups within HILDA’s survey sample and followed each cohort for 10 years. The first group was 4,951 people aged 50 years and older in 2001. The second group was 6,589 people aged 50 years and older in 2011.

To estimate a healthy working life expectancy, we looked at how people transitioned in and out of good health and employment each year (based on survey data about their paid employment and long-term health conditions that limited participation in everyday activities).

By combining this with deaths data, we have calculated the average duration spent (i) working in good health, (ii) working in poor health, (iii) retired in good health, and (iv) retired in poor health.

Read more:
Longevity app calculates your life expectancy – but will it make us healthier?

Differences by education

The following graphs show our results, based on expectancies at age 50.

We show our data in this way, rather than total healthy life and working life expectancies from birth, because we followed people from age 50 and is this is the time from which workers start to plan for and transition into retirement.

Typically we understand life expectancies to be calculated from birth, but they can be estimated for any age. If you live to 50, your life expectancy is greater than when you were born.

Our first graph shows healthy life expectancies according to school completion. These estimates reflect the cumulative number of years a person will, on average, be healthy or unhealthy from age 50.

Across the two cohorts, those with low education lose 0.8 years of healthy life, while those with high education gain 0.8 years of healthy life.

As with all statistics, there is uncertainty in these estimates. (Our original analysis includes 95% confidence intervals but we do not show them here.)

These inequities are amplified in working-life expectancies, as the next graph shows. Among early school leavers, at age 50 healthy work years rose from 7.9 to 8.4 years, an increase of six months. But their years working in poor health rose from 2.7 to 3.6 years, a difference of 11 months.

In contrast, for those who completed year 12, at age 50 healthy work years rose from 9.6 to 10.5 years, an increase of 11 months. Their years working in poor health rose from 3.1 to 3.5 years, a difference of five months.

The next graph illustrates what this means in proportional terms.

The next graph shows working life expectancies by sex. Men, on average, will spend 25% of their remaining working years in poor health, and women 24%. These percentages have not changed over time.

These findings are consistent with previous analyses demonstrating social inequalities in health expectancies to have been maintained over time, and possibly widened in some circumstances. In that study, women with low educational attainment appeared to have had negligible improvements in life expectancy and lost healthy life years.

Implications for governments and employers

Australia has this month raised the age at which people qualify for the age pension to 67.

When the pension was introduced in 1908, the qualifying age was 65 for men and 60 for women. At the time, average life expectancy for Australians at birth was about 55 for men and 59 for women. Now it exceeds 81 for men and 85 for women (though is considerably lower for some groups, notably Indigenous Australians).

Read more:
Australia’s ‘retirement age’ just became 67. So why are the French so upset about working until 64?

There’s an obvious rationale to prolong people’s working lives – to meet the challenges posed by population ageing and sustain the social security system. Nevertheless, consideration should be made for inequalities in life expectancy and health expectancy. For many ageing workers, health limitations constrain their capacity and opportunity to work.

To achieve longer working lives, workplaces will be need become more supportive of mature-age workers, including accommodating long-term health conditions.

This will likely involve addressing ageism in the workplace, increasing employer demand for older workers, creating appropriate work roles to fit the capacities and preferences of older workers, and providing pathways to lifelong education and training.

We may also need to rethink our idea of flexible work, which has largely centred around the needs of parents and younger workers. Many older workers will have expectations for an independent and active retirement period, and it should be possible for flexible work arrangements to accommodate this.

Finally, we should not discount the unpaid contributions made by many older adults through community service and providing care to loved ones.

Kim Kiely receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). He is also a member of the Australian Association of Gerontology

Mitiku Hambisa is a member of several global and local public health and ageing-related organisations, including the Australian Association of Gerontology (AAG), the International Epidemiological Association (IEA), and the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study network collaborator. He is also a life member of the Ethiopian Public Health Association (EPHA).

– ref. Australians are living and working longer – but not necessarily healthier, new study shows – https://theconversation.com/australians-are-living-and-working-longer-but-not-necessarily-healthier-new-study-shows-210542

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toby Martin, Music historian, University of Sydney

Sinéad O’Connor was well known for her deeply emotional voice, her outspoken stance on political issues – especially her critique of the Catholic Church – and her explorations of spiritualism and religion, but what I want to talk about, mostly, was her extraordinary songwriting.

O’Connor’s first two albums The Lion and the Cobra (1987) and I Do Not Want What I Have Not Got (1990) made a huge impression on me when I was just starting to get into music and songwriting in my last year of high school.

I cottoned onto these records a bit late (I was in Year 12 in 1993) but sometimes quality things take a while to filter through to suburban teenage Australian minds. Those records cut right through the other stuff I was listening to: guitar bands with men mostly.

O’Connor’s music was different.

Here was music that focused right in on the voice and the lyrics. Music that told stories full of detail and delivered with sadness and tenderness and anger.

O’Connor was a visionary and a truth-teller. But she was also an important songwriter. She was a highly thoughtful and supple artist who was able to craft songs that combined observational detail, emotional heft and an ethical conscience.

Her songs always felt personal, rather than preachy.

Read more:
Sinéad O’Connor: a troubled soul with immense talent and unbowed spirit

A particular kind of passion

I think I probably first heard O’Connor because a girl at my school would play the song Troy on guitar and it was amazing. Troy was the first single from the first album, but did not become a huge hit.

But it was always a cult favourite – a six minute micro-opus about the end of a relationship – with the kind of opening that put you right there in the moment:

I remember it
Dublin in a rainstorm
Sitting in a long grass in summer
Keeping warm.

And then the allusion to epic Greek myth. What was this!?

On Troy, O’Connor’s amazing voice was so apparent. Tender and lilting at the beginning with shades of traditional Irish folk singing, and then, out of the blue, shockingly angry.

I don’t think any other singer-songwriter performed anger so well. It was captivating and cathartic.

I suppose I must have seen the video for Nothing Compares 2 U around this time – it was everywhere – but really it was some of the other songs on her second album that connected with me. Especially the songwriting.

The Last Day of Our Acquaintance was just such vivid, plain writing:

This is the last day of our acquaintance
I’ll meet you later in somebody’s office

Very adult stuff for a 17-year-old, but I think that was also part of the appeal. This seemed like serious, grown-up songwriting, full of a particular kind of passion.

Also, it was just two chords so I could learn how to play it.

Black Boys on Mopeds managed to weave political commentary into something much more personal. The song addressed police brutality aimed at black British youth, but connected this to both global politics and issues closer to home in Ireland.

Margaret Thatcher on TV
Shocked by the deaths that took place in Beijing
It seems strange that she should be offended
The same orders are given by her.

O’Connor’s ability to contrast the personal detail with big picture politics was second to none and such a fine feature of her songwriting.

Emperor’s New Clothes rocked more, and became one of her better-known, radio-friendly songs, but was still full of great observant songwriting that resonated so much. “How could I possibly know what I want when I was only 21?” she sang.

I learnt to play these songs, and would play them all the time. They were an amazing education.

What connects these songs as a whole is their attention to detail and their compelling combination of fury and sadness, something that runs through the early period of her music.

Courage and insight

It was later, as I grew older, that I realised how extra-remarkable O’Connor’s achievements were given that she was an outspoken woman and an original thinker dealing with oppressive double standards and sexism.

She was so often dismissed by commentators as mad, rather than respected for her courage and insight.

As we know now, she was completely right about the things she spoke up about. In 1992 on Saturday Night Live she tore up a photo of the Pope in protest of the sexual abuse perpetrated and protected by the Catholic Church. It was highly prescient.

Watching that SNL video now, it is so striking how brave she is. Her critique of religion and politics and her later explorations of Islam and Rastafarianism showed her seeking, questioning mind. Just as her songs do.

O’Connor went on to make eight more very diverse albums, including interpretations of traditional Irish folk music and classic roots reggae music. Her singing voice and her political voice should be remembered and celebrated, as should her peerless songwriting.

In a way to process this heartbreaking news, I am spinning her records today and revelling in the power and magic of her songs and singing.

Read more:
Miley Cyrus, Sinéad O’Connor and the future of feminism

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

– ref. Captivating and cathartic, a visionary and a truth-teller: playing Sinéad O’Connor’s music was my education – https://theconversation.com/captivating-and-cathartic-a-visionary-and-a-truth-teller-playing-sinead-oconnors-music-was-my-education-210554

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Galyna Piskorska, Honorary Senior Fellow at the Advanced Centre for Journalism, University of Melbourne,Associate Professor, Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Faculty of Journalism, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University (Ukraine), The University of Melbourne

I was running from my home in Kyiv as the Russian army occupied Bucha, Gostomel and Irpin in the early stages of its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

By accident, I was leaving in a bus that a nearby international school was using to evacuate its students and staff. We drove for a long time, spending nights in bomb shelters with young people and their kids from China, the Middle East and India who had been studying and working in Ukraine.

When the war broke out, Ukraine was hosting tens of thousands of students from the Global South and was generally viewed as a partner in many countries.

But the war disrupted everything, including public opinion in many of these same countries. Now, Ukraine is struggling to gain support in the Global South, which has shown ambivalence about the invasion and been reticent to cut off ties with Russia.

Differences of opinion

After the February 2022 invasion, Ukraine’s leaders tried to rally the world’s support by focusing on a narrative of fighting for democracy and decolonisation.

As Ukrainians, we see our country as a bastion of democratic values and oppose the totalitarianism taking root in Russia. At the same time, Ukraine perceives the war as a national liberation effort – freedom from centuries of colonial oppression by Russia and the Soviet Union and the enforced dominance of the Russian language.

While the democratic narrative continues to resonate strongly with Ukraine’s western allies, the decolonisation narrative appears to have made little impact outside Ukraine – particularly in the Global South.

Read more:
The Global South is forging a new foreign policy in the face of war in Ukraine, China-US tensions: Active nonalignment

Most countries in the Global South, which includes Africa, Latin America and much of Asia and Oceania, used to be ruled by colonial powers. But it is clear there is not much solidarity with Ukraine’s goal of decisively ending Russia’s colonial influence in the former Soviet republic.

In fact, Ukrainian researchers monitoring the news in the Global South have found many media outlets are instead broadcasting manipulative pro-Kremlin messages.

For instance, the researchers found the Russian claim that Ukraine was being run by Nazis had gained popularity in some countries.

Specifically, there were reports in the Brazilian media that the CIA had organised a “Nazi coup” in Ukraine in 2014, referring to the country’s Revolution of Dignity. One Indian publication went even further, spreading the message that “descendants of the Nazis” came to power in Ukraine after the Orange Revolution in 2004.

These messages are helping to drive public opinion. A global survey conducted one year into the war revealed a large gap between the West and “the rest” when it comes to views of Russia and how the war should end.

As foreign policy analyst Bobo Lo writes, few countries in the Global South are keen to see a “triumphant West”, even if they have misgivings about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions.

They would much rather a world where US and Western power is counterbalanced by other centres of influence. Smaller players would retain agency, preserve their political autonomy, and perhaps leverage great power rivalry to their advantage.

Why does so much of the Global South support Russia?

To be clear, attitudes toward the devastating war vary considerably across the Global South – the region is no monolith of public opinion. And most countries maintain the importance of safeguarding Ukraine’s existing borders.

However, opinion polls in places like China, India and Turkey show a clear preference for the war to end now – even if that means Ukraine having to give up territory.

Clear majorities in Indonesia, Turkey and India also favour maintaining diplomatic relations with Russia.

Many countries of the Global South have a deep-seated “non-aligned” tradition dating back to the Cold War. Their colonial history reinforces a skepticism about the West. Some have also pointed out the West’s hypocrisy in criticising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, given the US and its allies waged disastrous wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The war in Ukraine has also widened the gap between the Global North and South and exposed their different priorities.

While Western leaders are concerned about Russia’s disruption of the liberal democratic order and the rise of China, much of the Global South is focused on economic and development challenges, such as debt relief, food security and climate mitigation.

Even when emerging powers agree with the West, they often maintain good relations with Russia and China. This is what Brazil is currently doing: President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva advocates maintaining his country’s neutrality towards Ukraine and Russia in order to avoid “any involvement, even indirect” in the war. He has, however, acknowledged Russia “has been wrong” to invade a neighbouring country.

Many countries have also pursued their own interests in the face of geopolitical polarisation. Some depend on Russia for wheat, energy and military hardware, or on China for investment, credit and trade.

Specifically, Russia has established a significant presence in parts of Africa. The private military contractor Wagner is operating across the continent, and the Russian and Chinese militaries recently held joint exercises with South Africa.

African leaders are also meeting with Putin this week in St. Petersburg as part of the second Russia-Africa Summit. The first edition, held in 2019, resulted in 92 agreements and contracts worth over US$11 billion.

Read more:
Russia-Africa Summit: five things African leaders must achieve

Is the war of words lost?

Ukraine is aware that its relationship with the Global South is weak. Kyiv has struggled to get its message across to countries on the African continent, in particular, where it has only 10 embassies – a mere quarter of the Russian presence.

Ukraine is now working on opening more embassies and appointing ambassadors across Africa.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also identified the Global South as a priority in international relations. For instance, his foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, embarked this week on his third tour of African countries. The trip was seen as pivotal, with Russia pulling out of a deal to allow Ukraine to export its grain, which is hugely important to many African countries.

Last month, Zelensky also met with seven African leaders in Ukraine, where he stressed the need for “real peace” in the conflict and a complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.

Zelensky has promised to do more to ensure food security in the Global South, for example, through the creation of grain hubs. He also noted Ukraine is ready to significantly expand educational programs for students from Africa.

But will this be enough to persuade the Global South to do more to support Ukraine in the war?

There was once a street in Kyiv named after the Congolese freedom fighter Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba was vital to Africa’s struggle for independence and the end of the colonial rule. Before he was brutally murdered, he wrote:

What we wanted for our country — its right to an honourable life, to perfect dignity, to independence with no restrictions.

Ukrainians can only hope other countries can see their shared aspirations for a fully decolonised world.

Galyna Piskorska 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. Will Ukraine be able to win over the Global South in its fight against Russian aggression? – https://theconversation.com/will-ukraine-be-able-to-win-over-the-global-south-in-its-fight-against-russian-aggression-208948

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato

J. Robert Oppenheimer – the great nuclear physicist, “father of the atomic bomb”, and now subject of a blockbuster biopic – always despaired about the nuclear arms race triggered by his creation.

So the approaching 78th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing invites us to ask how far we’ve come – or haven’t come – since his death in 1967.

The Cold War represented all that Oppenheimer had feared. But at its end, then-US president George H.W. Bush spoke of a “peace dividend” that would see money saved from reduced defence budgets transferred into more socially productive enterprises.

Long-term benefits and rises in gross domestic product could have been substantial, according to modelling by the International Monetary Fund, especially for developing nations. Given the cost of global sustainable development – currently estimated at US$5 trillion to $7 trillion annually – this made perfect sense.

Unfortunately, that peace dividend is disappearing. The world is now spending at least $2.2 trillion annually on weapons and defence. Estimates are far from perfectly accurate, but it appears overall defence spending increased by 3.7% in real terms in 2022.

The US alone spent $877 billion on defence in 2022 – 39% of the world total. With Russia ($86.4 billion) and China ($292 billion), the top three spenders account for 56% of global defence spending.

Military expenditure in Europe saw its steepest annual increase in at least 30 years. NATO countries and partners are all accelerating towards, or are already past, the 2% of GDP military spending target. The global arms bazaar is busier than ever.

Aside from the opportunity cost represented by these alarming figures, weak international law in crucial areas means current military spending is largely immune to effective regulation.

The new nuclear arms race

Although the world’s nuclear powers agree “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”, there are still about 12,500 nuclear warheads on the planet. This number is growing, and the power of those bombs is infinitely greater than the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

According to the United Nations’ disarmament chief, the risk of nuclear war is greater than at any time since the end of the Cold War. The nine nuclear-armed states (Britain, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel, as well as the big three) all appear to be modernising their arsenals. Several deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapons systems in 2022.

The US is upgrading its “triad” of ground, air and submarine launched nukes, while Russia is reportedly working on submarine delivery of “doomsday” nuclear torpedoes capable of causing destructive tidal waves.

Read more:
The Black Sea drone incident highlights the loose rules around avoiding ‘accidental’ war

While Russia and the US possess about 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons, other countries are expanding quickly. China’s arsenal is projected to grow from 410 warheads in 2023 to maybe 1,000 by the end of this decade.

Only Russia and the US were subject to bilateral controls over the buildup of such weapons, but Russian president Vladimir Putin suspended the arrangement. Beyond the promise of non-proliferation, the other nuclear-armed countries are not subject to any other international controls, including relatively simple measures to prevent accidental nuclear war.

Other nations – those with hostile, belligerent and nuclear-armed neighbours showing no signs of disarming – must increasingly wonder why they should continue to show restraint and not develop their own nuclear deterrent capacities.

The threat of autonomous weaponry

Meanwhile, other potential military threats are also emerging – arguably with even less scrutiny or regulation than the world’s nuclear arsenals. In particular, artificial intelligence (AI) is sounding alarm bells.

AI is not without its benefits, but it also presents many risks when applied to weapons systems. There have been numerous warnings from developers about the unforeseeable consequences and potential existential threat posed by true digital intelligence. As the Centre for AI Safety put it:

Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.

Read more:
UN fails to agree on ‘killer robot’ ban as nations pour billions into autonomous weapons research

More than 90 countries have called for a legally binding instrument to regulate AI technology, a position supported by the UN Secretary General, the International Committee of the Red Cross and many non-governmental organisations.

But despite at least a decade of negotiation and expert input, a treaty governing the development of “lethal autonomous weapons systems” remains elusive.

Read more:
War in Ukraine accelerates global drive toward killer robots

Plagues and pathogens

Similarly, there is a fundamental lack of regulation governing the growing number of laboratories capable of holding or making (accidentally or intentionally) harmful or fatal biological materials.

There are 51 known biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) labs in 27 countries – double the number that existed a decade ago. Another 18 BSL-4 labs are due to open in the next few years.

Read more:
Reporting all biosafety errors could improve labs worldwide – and increase public trust in biological research

While these labs, and those at the next level down, generally maintain high safety standards, there is no mandatory obligation that they meet international standards or allow routine compliance inspections.

Finally, there are fears the World Health Organization’s new pandemic preparedness treaty, based on lessons from the COVID-19 disaster, is being watered down.

As with every potential future threat, it seems, international law and regulation are left scrambling to catch up with the march of technology – to govern what Oppenheimer called “the relations between science and common sense”.

Alexander Gillespie 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. Oppenheimer’s warning lives on: international laws and treaties are failing to stop a new arms race – https://theconversation.com/oppenheimers-warning-lives-on-international-laws-and-treaties-are-failing-to-stop-a-new-arms-race-210545

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emmanuel Stamatakis, Professor of Physical Activity, Lifestyle, and Population Health, University of Sydney

Many people know exercise reduces the risk of cancers, including liver, lung, breast and kidney. But structured exercise is time-consuming, requires significant commitment and often financial outlay or travel to a gym. These practicalities can make it infeasible for most adults.

There is very little research on the potential of incidental physical activity for reducing the risk of cancer. Incidental activities can include doing errands on foot, work-related activity or housework as part of daily routines. As such they do not require an extra time commitment, special equipment or any particular practical arrangements.

In our study out today, we explored the health potential of brief bursts of vigorous physical activities embedded into daily life. These could be short power walks to get to the bus or tram stop, stair climbing, carrying heavy shopping, active housework or energetic play with children.

Read more:
Can’t afford a gym membership or fitness class? 3 things to include in a DIY exercise program

How was the study done?

Our new study included 22,398 UK Biobank participants who had never been diagnosed with cancer before and did not do any structured exercise in their leisure time. Around 55% of participants were female, with an average age of 62. Participants wore wrist activity trackers for a week. Such trackers monitor activity levels continuously and with a high level of detail throughout the day, allowing us to calculate how hard and exactly for how long people in the study were moving.

Participants’ activity and other information was then linked to future cancer registrations and other cancer-related health records for the next 6.7 years. This meant we could estimate the overall risk of cancer by different levels of what we call “vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity”, the incidental bursts of activity in everyday life. We also analysed separately a group of 13 cancer sites in the body with more established links to exercise, such such as breast, lung, liver, and bowel cancers.

Our analyses took into account other factors that influence cancer risk, such as age, smoking, diet, and alcohol habits.

What we found out

Even though study participants were not doing any structured exercise, about 94% recorded short bursts of vigorous activity. Some 92% of all bouts were done in very short bursts lasting up to one minute.

A minimum of around 3.5 minutes each day was associated with a 17–18% reduction in total cancer risk compared with not doing any such activity.

Half the participants did at least 4.5 minutes a day, associated with a 20–21% reduction in total cancer risk.

For cancers such as breast, lung and bowel cancers, which we know are impacted by the amount of exercise people do, the results were stronger and the risk reduction sharper. For example, a minimum of 3.5 minutes per a day of vigorous incidental activity reduced the risk of these cancers by 28–29%. At 4.5 minutes a day, these risks were reduced by 31–32%.

For both total cancer and those known to be linked to exercise, the results clearly show the benefits of doing day-to-day activities with gusto that makes you huff and puff.

Read more:
Short bursts of physical activity during daily life may lower risk of premature death – new research

Our study had its limits

The study is observational, meaning we looked at a group of people and their outcomes retrospectively and did not test new interventions. That means it cannot directly explore cause and effect with certainty.

However, we took several statistical measures to minimise the possibility those with the lowest levels of activity were not the unhealthiest, and hence the most likely to get cancer – a phenomenon called “reverse causation”.

Our study can’t explain the biological mechanisms of how vigorous intensity activity may reduce cancer risk. Previous early-stage trials show this type of activity leads to rapid improvements in heart and lung fitness.

And higher fitness is linked to lower insulin resistance and lower chronic inflammation. High levels of these are risk factors for cancer.

Read more:
Poor sleep is really bad for your health. But we found exercise can offset some of these harms

There is very little research on incidental physical activity and cancer in general, because most of the scientific evidence on lifestyle health behaviours and cancer is based on questionnaires. This method doesn’t capture short bursts of activity and is very inaccurate for measuring the incidental activities of daily life.

So the field of vigorous intensity activity and cancer risk is at its infancy, despite some very promising recent findings that vigorous activity in short bouts across the week could cut health risks. In another recent study of ours, we found benefits from daily vigorous intermittent lifestyle activity on the risk of death overall and death from cancer or cardiovascular causes.

In a nutshell: get moving in your daily routine

Our study found 3 to 4 minutes of vigorous incidental activity each day is linked with decreased cancer risk. This is a very small amount of activity compared to current recommendations of 150–300 minutes of moderate intensity or 75–150 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week.

Vigorous incidental physical activity is a promising avenue for cancer prevention among people unable or unmotivated to exercise in their leisure time.

Our study also highlights the potential of technology. These results are just a glimpse how wearables combined with machine learning – which our study used to identify brief bursts of vigorous activity – can reveal health benefits of unexplored aspects of our lives. The future potential impact of such technologies to prevent cancer and possibly a host of other conditions could be very large.

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

– ref. Climb the stairs, lug the shopping, chase the kids. Incidental vigorous activity linked to lower cancer risks – https://theconversation.com/climb-the-stairs-lug-the-shopping-chase-the-kids-incidental-vigorous-activity-linked-to-lower-cancer-risks-210288

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Michael McCarthy, Emeritus Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia

When he released the Universities Accord interim report last week, Education Minister Jason Clare drew attention to the echidna on the front cover.

As he explained, he had asked the review team to be bold.

To offer up a few big spiky ideas. They took me at my word, hence the echidna on the front page.

Clare also says he wants the ideas in the report to the “pulled apart” as they are digested and debated. One of the spiky ideas he is referring to is a levy on international student fees.

But overhanging the whole accord debate is the spikiest question of all: increasing public funding for universities and academic research in a cost-of-living crisis.

What does the report say?

The report acknowledges many stakeholders have been arguing that research funding needs to be “put on a sounder and more predictable footing”. It also notes the current research grant system does not cover the full cost of research, with universities having to pick up the rest of the bill.

It says more consideration should be given to “moving over time” to ensure National Competitive Grants (funding via the Australian Research Council) cover the full cost of undertaking research.

Despite these signals, some stakeholders were disappointed the review did not come out with a clear position when the problems are already well known. For example, Science and Technology Australia branded the report an “epic fail,” saying it had “disastrously missed an historic moment to recommend a ramp up of Australia’s research investment”.

Read more:
The Job-ready Graduates scheme for uni fees is on the chopping block – but what will replace it?

The history and politics of uni funding

The last major review of higher education in Australia was the 2008 Bradley review. This recommended more taxpayer funds for university teaching and research. Instead, in 2013 Labour made a A$2.3 billion cut to the higher education sector to help pay for the Gonski school reforms.

Since then, all governments have expected universities to fend for themselves.

The basic political reason is no education minister (even if they wanted to and most have not wanted too) can convince their colleagues there are votes in university funding. Or as former University of Melbourne vice-chancellor and current head of the Prime Minister’s Department Glyn Davis noted in 2015:

all recent governments have cut university funding per student in real terms. There is no evidence that any paid a political price for doing so.

But this continues to be a problem

This is a simple way to understand university funding in Australia.

In 1998, federal funding for university research was 0.3% of GDP. As of 2021 it was 0.17%.

Australian National University vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt has also noted, Australian government expenditure on academic research as a percentage of GDP is the lowest among the world’s advanced economies.

How unis have responded so far

To meet their funding needs, the university sector upped both domestic and international student enrolments. Consequently, non-government sources of university revenue increased from 21.7% 1995 to 43% in 2019.

As of 2018, universities spent about A$12 billion a year on research.

About $6 billion came from the government while $6 billion came from universities’ own funds, of which $3 billion was from overseas student fees.

So international students are absolutely crucial to research funding in Australian universities.

An international student levy

But rather than demand more public funds for research, at this stage, the interim report turns the issue back onto universities. It does so by floating a levy on international student fees.

[to] provide insurance against future economic, policy or other shocks, or fund national and sector priorities such as infrastructure and research.

Admittedly the review notes “further examination” needs to be given to this idea, “including consideration of some level of investment from governments”.

The levy has already been met with scepticism from the sector. The University of Melbourne’s vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell said he believes the levy is “likely to undermine Australia’s global reputation”.

Students would effectively be taxed for studying in Australia, when they already pay high up front fees to do so.

Read more:
International students are returning to Australia, but they are mostly going to more prestigious universities

International students as soft diplomacy?

Despite the levy, the review couches international students in diplomatic terms. It says it sees international education

less as an industry and more as a crucial element of Australia’s soft diplomacy, regional prosperity and development.

The idea that international students will also be imbued with Australian values when they return home takes us back to the Cold War-era Colombo Plan to train up anticommunist leaders throughout Asia.

And it is not likely to work. International students today have a lot of choice as to where to study, and Western values rank low on their list of priorities. If there are political tensions, they are more likely to support their home country anyway.

The student levy also seems unhelpful (and unworkable) from a domestic perspective.

Monash University vice-chancellor Margaret Gardner has noted there are only seven universities whose research income amount to 20% or more of total operating revenue and nine whose share of postgraduate research students amount to more than 5% of total enrolments.

Given this research intensity in less than ten universities out of more than 40 in Australia, the likelihood of redistributing the international student tax across the sector would be messy. And may see Australia take from research strong to give to the research weak at the expense of the whole sector.

It could also see funds diverted into projects like student housing instead of research.

Read more:
A major review has recommended more independence for decisions about research funding in Australia

We simply need more funds

When the Universities Accord is finalised in December, the federal government wants a document that will drive social equity, increase the number of qualified people for jobs and keep Australian universities in the top rankings worldwide.

We cannot do this by simply rearranging the system. More government funding is needed. As COVID showed us, we cannot reply on international students to fund research indefinitely.

We need a target to increase university funding in line with other OECD countries. For example, the United Kingdom has full funding for competitive research grants.

In 2022, the Australian Institute estimated it would cost and extra $2.6 billion per year restore university research funding back to 1998 levels (of 0.3% of GDP).

But to do this, difficult political discussions need to be had – and cabinet needs to be convinced to put funds where they are needed, but not necessarily where they will win votes.

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

– ref. The Universities Accord draft contains ‘spiky’ ideas, but puts a question mark over the spikiest one of all – https://theconversation.com/the-universities-accord-draft-contains-spiky-ideas-but-puts-a-question-mark-over-the-spikiest-one-of-all-210383

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan McKee, Head of School of Art, Communication and English, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney

We recently saw yet another controversy about sexual representation in Australia. Melissa Kang and Yumi Stynes’ book Welcome to Sex was attacked by the conservative group Australian Women’s Forum, leading to the book being removed from the shelves of Big W – and shooting to the top of the Amazon sales charts.

As a researcher on pornography, I was particularly interested to see that Stynes defended our need for sex education books by saying:

“Many of the discussions around … the putrid effects of porn on real-world sex … come back to teaching about sex and consent and starting that teaching young”.

This is interesting because the book’s critics also feel the same way – Women’s Forum Australia says that it is “deeply concerned about the damaging impact of pornography on women, as well as on men, children and society”.

It seems that wherever you sit politically, there is consensus that pornography is unhealthy.

Read more:
Big W has withdrawn Welcome to Sex from its stores to protect staff – but teen sex education can keep young people safe

Modern pornography

But not all pornography is the same. Digital production and distribution has lowered the barriers to entry, whereas previously the “means of production” (as Marx would put it) required producers to be able to afford expensive cameras, lights, editing equipment, the ability to reproduce material, the ability to advertise it and stock it to adult stores or a mail order business.

Nowadays literally anybody with a phone has the ability to create and distribute sexually explicit material. That’s resulted in an explosion in the variety of pornography you can consume. There still exists – although less – expensive glossy mainstream pornography. Alongside it sits a huge range catering to niche sexual interests – people who are interested in feet, balloons, clowns, or in baths full of baked beans.

There is a continuum now of how interactive sexually explicit material can be – from the traditional archives of videos and photographs (nowadays often accessed through “tube sites” like Pornhub) through to fully interactive “camming”, with media like OnlyFans sitting somewhere in the middle.

In this new world of digital pornography, how might we work out what’s healthy?

To answer this question I worked with a team, including Welcome to Sex author Melissa Kang, to establish an expert panel of sexual health experts, adolescent health experts, sex educators, pornography researchers and pornography producers.

We asked them to give us some examples of pornography they thought could support healthy sexual development – and then to reflect on the criteria they had used as they came up with these suggestions. This research was published in full in the International Journal of Sexual Health.

A different kind of pornography

The experts identified four explicit websites that potentially supported healthy sexual development, all of which feature a slightly different kind of pornography.

PinkLabel.TV favours queer indie materials which are often slightly punk in their orientation, with a range of different sexualities, genders and body types, presenting their sex in unashamed ways.

Sex School distributes pornography with a stated educational aim, naming videos with instructional titles, and providing sexually explicit materials that show viewers how to have sex, and provide information about topics such as “consent” and Squirting.

Lust Cinema takes a feminist approach to pornography, paying explicit attention to women’s pleasure and sometimes drawing on the aesthetics of groundbreaking feminist pornographers such as Candida Royalle, with high-quality lighting, better acting, more focus on story, and attractive male actors.

MakeLoveNotPorn favours an amateur aesthetic, with people who are not professional porn actors, often with bodies that would be considered more ordinary than professional pornography performers, presenting a relaxed and ordinary performance of sexuality, often with their own partners in their own homes.

In terms of the criteria the experts used to identify these examples, six of them had broad agreement. It is important, they said, to know pornography is ethically produced. The experts also agreed on the importance of showing a variety of body types, abilities, genders, races and ethnicities.

Both of these points match well with non-expert critiques of pornography.

Diversity and realism

There was also strong agreement among the group that pornography that showed a variety of sexual practices and pleasures – not just penis-in-vagina sex – had the potential to be healthy. This is an interesting finding because unlike the first two it doesn’t match up so well with non-expert critiques.

A lot of discussions about “porn literacy” at the moment critique pornography for being “unrealistic” – and when you dig down into the details often they mean pornography shows too much variety in sex – group sex, anal sex, kinky sex – rather than vanilla, monogamous loving sex.

The experts here are disagreeing with popular narratives about what should count as healthy sexuality.

Negotiation of consent

A fourth criterion on which the experts agreed was the value of showing the negotiation of consent on screen.

This is also an interesting one because most pornography doesn’t show the negotiation of consent. That’s not to say it’s non-consensual – the only pornography you can find on the internet (as opposed to the dark web) is consensually produced. However it doesn’t often show negotiation of consent – pornography is set in a world of fantasy where everybody enjoys everything they do sexually, all the time.

This means most pornography is not a great place to learn how to negotiate consent – that’s simply not what it’s designed for. Ironically the one genre of porn that often does show consent negotiation is BDSM – a form of porn that popular narratives about porn rejects as being particularly unhealthy.

Experts also noted pornography that focused on pleasure for all participants could contribute to healthy sexual development – important when we live in patriarchies that focus on men’s pleasure more than women’s.

Navigating pornography

In this world where so many different kinds of people are producing different kinds of pornography, don’t assume it’s all the same. If you want to find healthy pornography – or you want to advise young adults in your life about how to find healthy pornography – then here are some of the questions you should be asking.

Does it show a variety of body types, genders and sexual acts? Does it pay attention to the sexual pleasure of everyone involved? And does it show consent? If you pay attention to these issues, you can be more comfortable the pornography you’re consuming is helping you to have a happy and healthy sex life.

Alan McKee has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council. He is a member of the Society of Australian Sexologists. He is an expert on entertainment and healthy sexual development. His new book (with Paul Byron, Katerina Litsou and Roger Ingham) – called What Do We Know About the Effects of Pornography After Fifty Years of Academic Research? – emerges from an Australian Research Council Discovery grant entitled ‘Pornography’s effects on audiences: explaining contradictory research data’. He also worked on an ARC Linkage grant with True (previously Family Planning Queensland) to investigate the use of vulgar comedy to reach young men with information about healthy sexual development. He was co-editor of the Girlfriend Guide to Life and co-author of Objectification: on the difference between sex and sexism (2020). He has published on healthy sexual development, and entertainment education for healthy sexuality in journals including the Archives of Sexual Behavior, the International Journal of Sexual Health, the Journal of Sex Research and Sex Education.

– ref. Not all porn is created equal – is there such a thing as a healthy pornography? – https://theconversation.com/not-all-porn-is-created-equal-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-healthy-pornography-209387

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Madden, Emeritus Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews’ decision to back out of a commitment to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games because it might cost A$6 billion to $7 billion that did “not represent value for money” raises the question: is it even possible to work out the costs and benefits of such major events?

It’s a question still hanging over Brisbane’s plans for the 2032 Olympics.

Except in extreme cases – such as the 1976 Montreal Olympics, which is widely regarded as a financial disaster – comparing the costs and benefits of events such as the Commonwealth and Olympic Games is anything but straightforward.

Often economic studies are carried out before the events to build the case for hosting them. In the lead-up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a study prepared for the New South Wales government by the consulting firm KPMG pointed to benefits topping $7 billion.

But after the event, when much more information is in, official studies are rare.

The Sydney Olympics’ $3.7 billion cost

A decade after the Sydney Olympics, James Giesecke and I attempted to fill the gap using an economic model developed by the Centre of Policy Studies and the data that arrived in the subsequent years to examine what the games changed.

Our study found the 2000 Olympics reduced Australia’s real private and public consumption by about $3.7 billion (adjusted to 2023 dollars) over the nine years in which the Olympics impacted the economy.

It is often claimed that hosting the Olympics brings intangible benefits to the host nation – things such as national pride and social cohesion.

Our modelling didn’t take these into account. There’s no doubt there were some, but they came at a substantial price.

How to calculate the value of a mega event

If you want to disentangle the effects of an event from the effects of all the other forces acting upon an economy, an economic model is required.

It’s important to use a model equipped for the task, and to properly simulate the effect of the event.

In the past, major event studies – such as KPMG’s pre-Sydney Olympics study – used input-output models.

But they have limitations. These include assuming there is unlimited labour and capital available at fixed prices – meaning they often generate unrealistically large benefits.

A better way to assess the economy-wide effects of an event is to use a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the kind we used to study the Olympics after it was over.

Central to CGE modelling are supply constraints and price-responsive behaviour, features missing from input-output models.

Modern CGE models track deviations from what would have otherwise happened, as the effects of an event work their way through the economy.

Correctly setting up a simulation to properly capture the economics of an event is important. For instance, past studies have often failed to include all of the costs of the event, such as diverting public services away from their usual uses.

Studies undertaken before the event often include predicted legacies, such as a large boost to tourism following the event.

These are rarely supported by post-event studies. Our study found no evidence the Sydney Olympics produced a boost in post-event international tourism.

Feelings aside, the Sydney Games had a net cost

The net direct cost of the Sydney Olympics (Olympic costs not funded by Olympics revenue), when updated to 2023 prices, was $4.5 billion.

But our post-event modelling showed that once the direct effects of the Olympics worked their way through the economy, they caused a reduction of about $3.7 billion (again in 2023 dollars) in Australia’s real private and public consumption, relative to the base-case forecast over the nine years from 1997-98 to 2005-06.

A frequent claim by proponents of big events is that the demand stimulus from the event will far offset its net direct cost. But our real consumption result indicates the demand stimulus offset only about a fifth of the net direct cost.

Unsurprisingly, the loss fell almost entirely on NSW households.

But while hosting the Olympics cut real consumption in NSW, that doesn’t automatically mean it wasn’t value for money.

Feelings and other intangible benefits

Hosting the Olympics clearly brought enjoyment, for which many people would have been willing to pay a price. The question is: how big a price?

The loss in real consumption (including forgone public services) of $3.7 billion works out at about $1,440 per NSW household at today’s prices, given the population at the time.

That is a sizeable figure to pay for the intangible benefits not already counted in the prices of tickets, broadcasting rights and other organising committee sales.

However, those intangible benefits – including national and sporting pride, a feelgood atmosphere and inspiring children – might also be sizeable.

There are no estimates for the value of intangible benefits from the Sydney Olympics. However, a 2008 UK study found Britons would have been willing to pay almost £2 billion for the net intangible benefits thought to arise from hosting the 2012 Olympics.

Converting to 2023 Australian dollars, that’s A$230 per UK household. Londoners were found to be willing to pay a higher amount, about A$440 per household.

It may be that NSW households were willing to pay as much as their London counterparts for intangible benefits from hosting a Summer Olympics – maybe much more.

However, it’s difficult to see NSW households willing to pay enough to match what we worked out to be the real consumption cost of $1,440 per head.

Read more:
Hosting the Olympics: cash cow or money pit?

The UK study showed households outside London also perceived intangible benefits, though only half as much per household as their London counterparts.

This suggests some greater spreading of the financing burden across Australia might be fairer, which would reduce the average cost to NSW households – but not enough to bring it down to the willingness to pay.

And in any event, assessing how to spread costs in line with the geographical diversity in willingness to pay would be extremely problematic.

Lessons for future mega events

In all of the work that’s been done to date on the economics of hosting mega events, a few lessons stand out.

For an event to have the best chance of representing value for money for the host, it should require little government support, generate large foreign interest and have large intangible benefits.

Events with wide appeal can generate enough revenue to cover their operating costs – and this was the case for the Sydney Olympics. But they still have to rely on sizeable government support for infrastructure.

Hosts using suitable existing venues therefore have an advantage. New venues are unlikely to provide a post-event legacy and often require substantial ongoing government support to continue to operate.

Read more:
‘Existential questions’: is this the beginning of the end of the Commonwealth Games?

The most important lesson is that bidders for such events ought to conduct a rigorous analysis of the event’s expected net value before submitting their bids.

Ideally, this would involve an independent expert CGE study. If intangible benefits are to be considered, a separate study should be undertaken to properly estimate the intangibles’ value to residents of the host city and the rest of the nation.

Moreover, bidders ought to make all of the costs known, with no part of arrangements shielded from scrutiny under the veil of “commercial-in-confidence”.

Some mega events might pay their way, when intangibles such as the feelings they engender are taken into account. But the existence of intangibles doesn’t automatically mean they will. The evidence so far suggests they are unlikely to.

John Madden is a past recipient of ARC funding. In the 1990s, the New South Wales Treasury and Arthur Andersen funded the University of Tasmania for research studies, undertaken by John, estimating the economic effects of the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics.

– ref. How can you tell if hosting the Olympics or Commonwealth games offers value for money? Here are our expert tips – https://theconversation.com/how-can-you-tell-if-hosting-the-olympics-or-commonwealth-games-offers-value-for-money-here-are-our-expert-tips-210161

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

A report this week from the Productivity Commission has exposed – without spelling it out – an odd shortcoming in the Albanese government’s sales pitch for its Voice proposal.

The commission examined the progress of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap that all governments and the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations reached in 2020.

This agreement aimed to accelerate reducing disadvantage by having Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as partners in decision-making. The assessment in the PC’s report (still in draft form) is depressingly predictable.

By documenting the continuing lack of agency First Australians have, the commission has strengthened the case for the Voice.

But it has also provided a reminder that a comprehensive framework is there for involving Indigenous people in decisions affecting them.

The impression we often get from the Albanese government is of a total void the Voice will fill.

Of course the constitutional status being sought for the Voice makes it distinct, and that has raised its own issues. It would also be a representative and advisory body, while Indigenous bodies in the national agreement’s processes are supposed to be making decisions and implementing policies.

But given the government says the Voice will be vital in helping to close the gap, its case surely would be strengthened by casting it as a major – albeit different – additional building block that would help the current agreement work more effectively. It would be filling a hole, rather than a void.

This would put the Voice into a wider, more structured context, which could reassure some undecided or sceptical voters. They would still not know as much as they wished about it, but they could have a clearer view of where it might fit.

The Calma-Langton report on the Voice said it would “complement existing arrangements such as the National Agreement, building on the strengths of what is in place”.

The PC report also carries a salutary message for anyone who might think the Voice would change everything quickly.

It spells out how hard it is to reform bureaucracies, and how much inertia comes from governments, even when they’ve signed up with presumably good intentions. The Voice, if it comes to pass, potentially could run into many of the problems the agreement has.

And, as with the agreement, how much change the Voice had achieved would inevitably be judged a few years on, reflecting well or ill on the Albanese government.

Read more:
Governments are failing to share decision-making with Indigenous people, Productivity Commission finds

Under the national agreement governments are committed “to building and strengthening structures that empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to share decision-making authority with governments”. This is through “place-based partnerships, policy partnerships and plans for strengthening key sectors (initially covering the priority policy areas of justice, social and emotional wellbeing, health, housing, early childhood care and development, disability and languages)”.

The review found it “too easy to find examples of government decisions that contradict commitments in the agreement, that do not reflect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s priorities and perspectives and that exacerbate, rather than remedy, disadvantage and discrimination”. It points to youth justice systems as a particular example.

The commission asks whether “governments have fully grasped the scale of change required to their systems, operations and ways of working to deliver the unprecedented shift they have committed to”.

Such questions are relevant to the Voice. Critics fear it could clog government. Supporters emphasise it would have no veto. Charting a course through these rocks, the Voice would need to be selective (as the government has said) and well-informed (for which it would require adequate resources) about the issues on which it advised and the initiatives it pushed.

Read more:
View from The Hill: It’s just too hard and too late to delay and recalibrate Voice referendum

Those receiving the representations, politicians and bureaucrats, would have to be both open-minded and judicious in dealing with them.

Of all policy areas, none is more replete with what political scientists term “wicked problems” than Indigenous affairs. And (as the PC highlights) these cover not just what is done, but how it’s done. Ceding power, sharing decision-making in true partnerships with the central stakeholders, is extremely difficult for government organisations.

Then there are the decisions themselves. Take the issue of bail laws for example, where the desperate need to reduce the incarceration of young Indigenous people rubs up against the expressed demand for community protection.

Or think of the conflicting pulls in trying to provide equality of educational opportunity for young Aboriginal people: how do you deliver advanced learning for those in very remote communities?

Pat Turner is lead convenor of the Coalition of Peaks (comprising more than 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled peak and member bodies) and she stood beside Morrison when the 2020 agreement was announced. Turner was unsurprised by the PC’s findings.

We’ve been telling governments this from the start, but they are very slow to understand the changes needed. It’s really hard for people to change their mindset from ‘business as usual’.

Turner, who has been involved in both bureaucracy and activism for decades, wants all agreements between the federal and state governments (on hospitals, schools and the like) to reflect the Closing the Gap commitments.

She’s also pressing for the annual federal budget to include a statement on spending and programs in Indigenous affairs. This should be attractive to Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who is preoccupied with the interface between budgetary and social policy. Indeed it is surprising it has not been done already, given the budget has its women’s statement.

Turner has direct experience of an area of successful Indigenous decision-making, in her role of CEO of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO). During the pandemic, “we drove the response in Aboriginal Australia,” she says. “The government took our advice.” Communities were closed; the Indigenous death rate were much lower than initial fears.

Read more:
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Battle of the Voice – Greens senator Dorinda Cox & Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle

The PC is still collecting information for its final report, presented late this year, after we know the referendum’s outcome. If the Voice gets up, potentially it could deliver heft to the national agreement, through tapping into what Indigenous communities are saying and needing, and by having a national stage to amplify the messages.

Regardless of the result, however, it is vital governments step up efforts on the national agreement. A “no” vote would bring a period of disillusionment and anger among Indigenous people. It would simply add disaster to defeat if that turned the spotlight away from the pursuit of progress in dealing with the problems Aboriginal Australians face.

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. Grattan on Friday: Albanese government should be selling Voice as part of its wider framework for reducing Aboriginal disadvantage – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-albanese-government-should-be-selling-voice-as-part-of-its-wider-framework-for-reducing-aboriginal-disadvantage-210552

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Biddle, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University

August 2026 may seem like a long way away. Between now and then, there will be at least one federal election, the 2024 Paris Olympics will have been and gone, another Ashes cricket series will have taken place, and the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup will have just finished.

Planning for the August 2026 census is, however, well under way at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

On Thursday, the ABS released results from the first round of consultations, and gave an indication of likely directions for the 2026 census. It received 260 submissions in this phase, and some of the proposed changes are quite exciting for better understanding the nation as we enter the second quarter of the 21st century.

While the model won’t “fundamentally change”, the big decisions for the ABS are whether to add new questions to the survey, whether to take some away, and whether some of the questions need to be adapted.

The ABS flagged there could be changes to topics such as income, ethnic identity, gender and sexual orientation. The ABS is also considering dropping some questions on fertility, owner-managers, motor vehicles and unpaid work.

Balancing act

Governments, researchers, the media and community organisations all rely on data from the census, so changes don’t happen lightly.

Dropping a question from the census can have serious impacts on our ability to track changes in outcomes and leave a gap in what we know about our nation.

At the same time though, adding too many questions is risky. If the ABS made the census too long, the burden on the community would be unsustainable, and people may stop completing it. This poses a devilishly difficult tradeoff.

Potential removals

The ABS is considering removing the question on income from the census, and instead linking to “administrative data”. What that would mean is a census record would be supplemented with tax and social security data.

Data linkage to the census is done routinely in other countries, and has a certain appeal. Income is one of the questions that has historically had a high non-response rate, and it takes up a lot of space on the form. Plus, there’s more and more administrative data on income that can be linked to the census, which is increasingly being used in research.

But tax and social security data on income isn’t perfect and can miss people. Plus, there’s no guarantee the social licence to keep using linked administrative data will continue as people become more concerned about data privacy on the back of high profile data breaches. It’s an idea worth exploring, but not without risks.

There are four further topics considered for removal:

• number of children ever born

• number of employees (employed by owner-managers)

• number of motor vehicles in the household

• and level of unpaid work on domestic activities.

It isn’t that these topics aren’t interesting, but the ABS thinks there are alternative data sources available. There will undoubtedly be people who see the census as still the best method of collection for these topics, but they’re going to have to make a strong case for their retention.

What about additions?

There are 12 new topics the ABS is considering for inclusion.

In a year in which Australia will vote on the Voice to parliament, the ABS continues to consider additional questions on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural identity.

The ABS is also considering adding a topic on ethnic identity, which could be used in addition to many existing questions (like ancestry, language, country of birth) to get a richer picture of Australia’s cultural diversity.

However, the ABS is concerned there are differences in how people interpret the term “ethnicity”. It’s seeking feedback on whether to add an additional question, or whether to replace ancestry with ethnic identity.

The ABS is also exploring whether and how to ask questions on gender, sexual orientation, and variations of sex characteristics. The census hasn’t included these questions in the past so we are reliant on survey data with much smaller samples to know how many LGBTQI+ people there are in the country.

For the first time, in 2021, the ABS made available the option for non-binary when people were asked about their sex. However, the ABS’ review of responses concluded it “did not yield meaningful data”.

There’s limited information on sexual orientation in the census, mainly by looking at someone’s relationship status and the sex of their partner. However, that misses those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual (or use a different term) and aren’t in a relationship with someone in their household.

The ABS recognises the importance of such a question, but one of its concerns with this topic is privacy, and answering the question with other member of the household present. Although this is understandable, it’s unclear whether this is a strong enough argument for not including it, and how attitudes on the topic will have continued to shift by 2026.

Read more:
LGBTIQ+ people are being ignored in the census again. Not only is this discriminatory, it’s bad public policy

What you can do

As the next phase of consultation is open, people are encouraged to identify whether the potential new topics might be helpful, and what the risks might be in dropping or changing existing topics.

All Australians benefit from having a robust and relevant census. The more Australians able to give their views to the ABS, the better the census will be, and the better the decisions that will flow from the data.

Nicholas Biddle is a member the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Australian Statistics Advisory Council.

– ref. Gender, sexual orientation and ethnic identity: Australians could be asked new questions in the 2026 Census – https://theconversation.com/gender-sexual-orientation-and-ethnic-identity-australians-could-be-asked-new-questions-in-the-2026-census-210543

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Peel, Director, Melbourne Climate Futures, The University of Melbourne

Australians relish being at the top of international league tables in sport. But few would know we’re a global champion when it comes to using the courts to hold governments and companies to account on climate change.

A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme found a staggering 127 climate lawsuits in Australia. We’re second only to the United States on the number of cases and slightly ahead on a per capita basis. The count started in the 1990s and runs through to December 2022.

The research comes as the Northern Hemisphere suffers through unprecedented heatwaves and Antarctica experiences record sea ice retreat. And in Australia, we are bracing for an El Niño-charged summer.

The report says “climate litigation represents a frontier solution to change the dynamics of this fight” against climate change. And Australia, with our many cases and innovative tactics, is on the frontlines. But the report does not capture wins or losses. So while the case load is certainly growing and the field of law is maturing, it’s not yet clear what difference it will make in the long run.

Read more:
The UN is asking the International Court of Justice for its opinion on states’ climate obligations. What does this mean?

What is climate litigation?

Climate litigation describes a broad range of legal interventions brought to address climate change. The goal is generally to reduce emissions of climate-harming greenhouse gases (mitigation) or improve resilience in the face of climate impacts (adaptation).

These cases have become more common as the climate crisis has worsened and the gap grows between needed action and what governments and companies are actually delivering.

As the report states:

Climate change litigation provides civil society, individuals and others with one possible avenue to address inadequate responses by governments and the private sector to the climate crisis.

It’s an avenue that’s widely available. It can be accessed by many different groups including some of the most vulnerable. And it can be initiated using a wide range of laws, such as those protecting human rights, preventing misleading greenwashing, requiring corporate disclosures of climate risk or regulating the obligations of countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

This could make climate litigation a powerful tool for those disproportionately affected to demand and secure climate justice.

Read more:
Capitalising on climate anxiety: what you need to know about ‘climate-washing’

Australia as a climate litigation hotspot

The US tops the climate litigation charts with 1,522 lawsuits filed. Australia comes second with 127.

But we’re in front on a per capita basis. The US figure works out to about 4.6 lawsuits per million people, compared to 4.8 lawsuits per million in Australia.

Australia’s status has been driven by several factors. These include our carbon-intensive economy and significant fossil fuel exports. Until recently, the dearth of climate policy nationally also encouraged some to resort to the courts for solutions. Australia also has a very active and engaged civil society which has tried a range of innovative legal arguments.

A key example in the report is the case brought by eight Torres Strait Islanders and six of their children to the UN Human Rights Committee.

In 2022, the committee delivered a landmark decision, finding the Australian government was violating its human rights obligations to Torres Strait Islanders through climate inaction. The decision delivered a number of legal world-firsts including the first time a country had been held responsible for its greenhouse gas emissions under international human rights law.

Australia has also been a pioneer in climate litigation against private sector entities, starting a wave of cases now building to a tsunami globally. Leading this trend are anti-greenwashing complaints.

The report singles out a case brought by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility against oil and gas company Santos. It alleges the company’s pledge of net zero emissions by 2040 is misleading and deceptive in violation of Australia’s consumer protection laws. This case is before the courts.

More where that came from

The report acknowledges it applies a “narrow approach” to defining climate litigation by excluding cases not sent to courts or quasi-judicial bodies, or which don’t feature climate change as a central issue.

As we’ve found in our Australian and Pacific Climate Change Litigation database, maintained by Melbourne Climate Futures, a broader lens yields even more climate cases. Between 2000-22, our database records 371 examples of Australian climate litigation.

In previous research we found most Australian cases do not yield court wins. For example, there have been many cases against coal mines but only a handful have actually stopped the mine going ahead.

How do lawsuits help fight the climate crisis?

Litigation is an important tool for advancing climate action and accountability. A report last year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change considered climate litigation for the first time, finding some cases influenced the outcome and ambition of climate governance.

The latest report spells out ways individuals, communities and groups are using litigation to drive action. This includes efforts to:

• enforce existing climate laws

• ensure climate issues are widely integrated into planning and economic decision-making

• force governments and companies to raise the ambition of their emissions reduction commitments

• establish a link between climate change and human rights violations, and

• seek compensation for climate harms.

Many cases put forward innovative legal arguments but are ultimately unsuccessful in getting the remedy they seek. One example is the 2021 Australian litigation by teenage climate activist Anjali Sharma and other young people against the federal environment minister, then Sussan Ley. Even where lawsuits do deliver a legal win, the report highlights potential “implementation challenges” when it comes to putting those judgements into action.

The report predicts where climate litigation might head next. This includes the potential for more cases addressing risks of climate displacement and migration, and consequences of climate-fuelled disasters such as the Black Saturday bushfires.

It also forecasts more cases brought by vulnerable groups, a trend we are already seeing in Australia. In the last year, several cases were brought by First Nations people and Indigenous youth. These challenged coal mines and gas projects impacting their traditional lands, or fought for greater government action to prevent islands in the Torres Strait being overwhelmed by sea level rise.

As demands for climate justice increase, further growth and worldwide spread of climate litigation now seems a given.

Read more:
Could the law of the sea be used to protect small island states from climate change?

Jacqueline Peel receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) for research on advancing investor action to address climate change and the clean energy transition. She has previously received funding from the ARC for a project on Australian and US climate litigation which led to the founding of the Australian and Pacific Climate Change Litigation database mentioned in the article.

– ref. Climate litigation is on the rise around the world and Australia is at the head of the pack – https://theconversation.com/climate-litigation-is-on-the-rise-around-the-world-and-australia-is-at-the-head-of-the-pack-210375

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanessa Pirotta, Postdoctoral Researcher and Wildlife Scientist, Macquarie University

On Tuesday night, a pod of almost 100 long-finned pilot whales stranded itself on a beach on Western Australia’s south coast. Over the course of Wednesday, more than 100 parks and wildlife staff and 250 registered volunteers worked tirelessly to try to keep alive the 45 animals surviving the night.

They used small boats and surf skis to try to get the pilot whales into deeper water. Volunteers helped keep the animals’ blowholes above water to prevent them drowning, and poured water on them to cool them down.

Our rescue efforts were, sadly, unsuccessful. The animals (actually large ocean-going dolphins) able to be towed or helped out to deeper water turned around and stranded themselves again, further down the beach. Sadly, they had to be euthanised.

Unfortunately, towing whales and dolphins is not simple. It can work and work well, as we saw in Tasmania last year, when dozens of pilot whales were rescued. But rescuers have to have good conditions and a fair dash of luck for it to succeed.

Rescuing beached whales is hard

When we try to rescue stranded whales and dolphins, the goal is to get them off the sandbars or beach, and back into deep water.

Why is it so difficult? Consider the problem. First, you have to know that a pod has beached itself. Then, you have to be able to get there in time, with people skilled in wildlife rescue.

These animals are generally too big and heavy to rely on muscle power alone. To get them out far enough, you need boats and sometimes tractors. That means the sea conditions and the slope of the beach have to be suitable.

Often, one of the first things rescuers might do is look for those individuals who might be good candidates to be refloated. Generally, these are individuals still alive, and not completely exhausted.

Read more:
An expert explains the stranding of 97 pilot whales in WA and their mysterious ‘huddling’ before the tragedy

If rescuers have boats and good conditions, they may use slings. The boats need to be able to tow the animals well out to sea.

Trained people must always be there to oversee the operation. That’s because these large, stressed animals could seriously injure humans just by moving their bodies on the beach.

There are extra challenges. Dolphins and whales are slippery and extremely heavy. Long-finned pilot whales can weigh up to 2.3 tonnes. They may have never seen humans before and won’t necessarily know humans are there to help.

They’re out of their element, under the sun and extremely stressed. Out of the water, their sheer weight begins to crush their organs. They can also become sunburnt. Because they are so efficient at keeping a comfortable temperature in the sea, they can overheat and die on land. Often, as we saw yesterday, they can’t always keep themselves upright in the shallow water.

And to add to the problem, pilot whales are highly social. They want to be with each other. If you tow a single animal back out to sea, it may try to get back to its family and friends or remain disorientated and strand once again.

Because of these reasons – and probably others – it wasn’t possible to save the pilot whales yesterday. Those that didn’t die naturally were euthanised to minimise their suffering.

Successful rescues do happen

Despite the remarkable effort from authorities and local communities, we couldn’t save this pod. Every single person working around the clock to help these animals did an amazing job, from experts to volunteers in the cold water to those making cups of tea.

But sometimes, we get luckier. Last year, 230 pilot whales beached themselves at Macquarie Harbour, on Tasmania’s west coast. By the time rescuers could get there, most were dead. But dozens were still alive. This time, conditions were different and towing worked.

Rescuers were able to bring boats close to shore. Surviving pilot whales were helped into a sling, and then the boat took them far out to sea. Taking them to the same location prevented them from beaching again.

Every stranding lets us learn more

Unfortunately, we don’t really know why whales and dolphins strand at all. Has something gone wrong with how toothed whales and dolphins navigate? Are they following a sick leader? Are human-made undersea sounds making it too loud? Are they avoiding predators such as killer whales? We don’t know.

We do know there are stranding hotspots. Macquarie Harbour is one. In 2020, it was the site of one of the worst-ever strandings, with up to 470 pilot whales stranded. Authorities were able to save 94, drawing on trained rescue experts.

We will need more research to find out why they do this. What we do know suggests navigational problems play a role.

That’s because we can divide whales and dolphins into two types: toothed and toothless. Whales and dolphins with teeth – such as pilot whales – appear to beach a lot more. These animals use echolocation (biological sonar) to find prey with high-pitched clicks bouncing off objects. But toothless baleen whales like humpbacks (there are no dolphins with baleen) don’t use this technique. They use low-frequency sounds, but to communicate, not hunt.

So – it is possible to save beached whales and dolphins. But it’s not as easy as towing them straight back to sea, alas.

Read more:
About 200 dead whales have been towed out to sea off Tasmania – and what happens next is a true marvel of nature

The Conversation thanks 10-year-old reader Grace Thornton from Canberra for suggesting the question that gave rise to this article.

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

– ref. Why can’t we just tow stranded whales and dolphins back out to sea? – https://theconversation.com/why-cant-we-just-tow-stranded-whales-and-dolphins-back-out-to-sea-210544

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

Australia’s inflation moderated somewhat this week. But in economic terms, there will be more tough months ahead for households and for businesses.

Meanwhile, the relationship between business and the Albanese government is somewhat scratchy. From the point of view of business, the Government is delivering to the unions. Business is particularly critical of the Government’s industrial relations changes those already made and those to come.

In this weeks podcast, our guest is Andrew McKellar, the chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI). He joins us to give a business take on the economy, issues concerning business and relations with the Albanese Government.

ACCI describes itself as Australia’s largest and most representative business network, saying it covers businesses “of all shapes and sizes”.

With the news that Australia is finally seeing inflation fall, McKellar believes that further interest rate rises could do more harm to the economy than good.

it’s not clear that further interest rate increases at this point in time are really going to help. In fact, they could risk going the other way.

This week workplace relations minister Tony Burke announced new changes to casual employment laws, to make it easier for casuals to become permanent employees. Business has reacted sharply. McKellar says:

Firstly, there is already a pathway for conversion from casual to permanent employment, if that’s what suits the employee and what suits the business. We think there is an issue around the change in the test to that, and particularly the uncertainty that that can create for smaller businesses.

So whether it be on labour hire, service, contracting, the ability for companies, for employers to engage labour in those circumstances […] There’s a broad range of concerns that business has and we’re obviously trying to work through those issues with government behind the scenes.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced the new head of the Productivity Commission this week, appointing Chris Barrett from the Victorian Department of Finance and Treasury to the role. Australia’s productivity growth per annum is at its worst in 60 years, and McKellar believes Barrett has a mammoth task ahead of him:

I think we’ve seen a period where there hasn’t been a strong reform agenda. This government has to make a choice. It can make a difference. When you look back at some of the positive things that have been done by governments of either persuasion in the past, whether it be Hawke and Keating, whether it be Howard and Costello, then I think having that strong impartial advice, looking at taking on some of those challenges, making some unpopular decisions at times, but trying to build a consensus around what will drive productivity growth [and] that’s sorely needed in Australian public policy.

With the sweeping industrial relations changes being implemented by the government, McKellar says business, big and small, needs to be measured:

We don’t want to diminish our credibility as business advocates by ‘overegging the omelette’ – and we’ve got to be careful on that point.

But where we see risks and where we see things that are taking us potentially in the wrong direction on policy, then I think it’s quite legitimate to have that debate in a pretty robust way, and I don’t think anyone’s shying away from that.

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

– ref. Politics with Michelle Grattan: ACCI Head Andrew McKellar on industrial relations and boosting Australia’s productivity – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-acci-head-andrew-mckellar-on-industrial-relations-and-boosting-australias-productivity-210547

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Starling, Postdoctoral researcher, University of Sydney

To most of us, a dog showing its teeth is a pretty clear signal of threat. In 1872, Charles Darwin first suggested animals showed emotions similar to ours in their body language, and we might be able to use this to better understand their behaviour and motivations.

There is perhaps no better species for investigating this idea than the domestic dog. We live alongside them, yet they have teeth that can inflict significant damage on a human. So we ought to be invested in knowing when they are happy, neutral or angry, at the very least.

Adult humans are good at identifying an angry dog visually or by sound, regardless of how much experience they have with dogs. However, young children do not show the same skill, and in fact may mistake a fierce dog for a happy dog.

A new study published in PLOS ONE, by University of Helsinki animal cognition researcher Heini Törnqvist and colleagues, has sought to identify when children start to develop dog-reading skills and what role their experience with dogs may play in this.

Rating dog faces

It is certainly useful to know when children become as good as an adult at reading dog body language. It helps us to make decisions about the level of supervision children need around dogs. It can also help to anticipate them making choices that we as adults would think are an obviously terrible idea when interacting with a dog.

However, dogs are also special. They have been with us for so long, we have influenced their evolution, and maybe they have influenced ours as well. This co-domestication hypothesis raises the possibility our long association with dogs may have led to both species being particularly quick to bridge the species divide and manage to communicate effectively with each other.

In the new study, 34 adults, 34 four-year-olds and 31 six-year-olds were presented with a series of photos of dog faces and human faces. They were asked to report how excited each dog or person was, how good or bad their mood was, and whether they were happy, neutral or angry.

The results revealed that four-year-old children rated angry dogs to be in a more positive mood than the older children and adults did, even if these youngest kids were experienced with dogs. The six-year-olds, if experienced with dogs, were as good as adults at identifying dog emotions from photos.

Adults were equally likely to correctly identify dog emotions whether they were experienced or inexperienced with dogs. Meanwhile, children were equally good at identifying human emotions from photos regardless of age.

These results show that age may indeed affect how accurately children can identify dog emotions from the animals’ facial expressions, with experience factoring into how early they develop these skills.

Children under the age of five are likely to interpret dog expressions by looking for similarities to human expressions. This is particularly troublesome when angry dogs show their teeth, as children may interpret this as a friendly smile.

By the age of six, children who have lived with a dog may have learned exposed teeth are an angry expression in dogs, whereas children who haven’t spent much time around dogs may continue to make interpretation errors.

Read more:
Is your dog happy? Ten common misconceptions about dog behaviour

Supervision is key

This highlights how important it is to closely supervise young children when they are around dogs.

According to a study from 2001, children 0-4 years in age are the most likely age group to suffer severe dog bites in Australia. Some of those bites may occur as a result of children misunderstanding dog threat displays, and their tendency to lean into dogs when interacting with them.

The results may have been influenced by a few additional factors. This study only presented images of dogs, whereas young children may be more attuned to auditory signals, such as a deep growl or bark.

Additionally, participants were considered “experienced” with dogs only if they had lived with one, whereas “inexperienced” individuals may have spent a lot of time with dogs in other contexts that was not captured.

What does this mean for the co-domestication hypothesis? The jury is still out. The results suggest children learn to read dogs through experience, but this is occurring at a young age. It’s difficult to tell whether children are primed to learn to read dogs, or if it is simply a species they have the most experience with from an early age.

But you likely do want to watch closely when your children interact with the family dog, even if they grew up together. Older children can make mistakes with dogs as well, and we shouldn’t rely on our dogs to always be highly tolerant of provocative things children may do.

Read more:
Genetic research confirms your dog’s breed influences its personality — but so do you

Melissa Starling 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. ‘Is the doggy angry?’ Research hints children under 5 can easily confuse dog emotions – https://theconversation.com/is-the-doggy-angry-research-hints-children-under-5-can-easily-confuse-dog-emotions-210381

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Marriott, Professor of Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

It feels like there is a high-profile liquidation every other week. Media coverage has included stories on the collapse of tiny home companies, construction firms and homeware retailers, among many others. In just the past week, a failed pool company was under the spotlight.

When businesses enter liquidation they usually leave a trail of destruction – unpaid suppliers and employees as well as customers who do not receive what they have paid for.

There are things we can do as individuals to minimise the risk associated with choosing a business to work with. For instance, you can obtain a business credit report which offers a snapshot of a company’s creditworthiness. But this comes with an added cost of at least NZ$49.

But my research shows Inland Revenue is doing less to share information about failing businesses than other comparable government agencies overseas. This needs to change to give New Zealanders greater transparency about businesses on the brink.

Early warning signs to watch for

Inland Revenue initiates more than 60% of liquidations in most years in Aotearoa. But this move often comes after a long period of non-payment.

Early recognition of uncollected tax debt can signal to potential customers or business partners that a company has problems.

The taxes that are likely to point to larger business issues are non-payment of goods and services tax (GST) and employment related withholding taxes, such as KiwiSaver contributions and pay-as-you-earn (PAYE).

Read more:
What struggling businesses can do to weather the economic storm

These taxes are withheld on behalf of the state. There are relatively short periods between when these funds are collected and when they should be paid to Inland Revenue. Therefore, non-payment provides an early signal of trouble.

Over half of the Inland Revenue tax debt as of 2021 was made up of GST and employment related taxes, totalling $2.4 billion. And it is well established that the longer debts are unpaid the less likely they are to be collected.

My research – soon to be published in the Australian Tax Review – suggests that the non-payment of certain taxes can function as an early warning sign and minimise the knock-on impact on customers and other businesses when a company is no longer viable.

What Inland Revenue can learn from overseas

Other countries approach failing businesses more proactively than we do in New Zealand. Here are three ways New Zealand can improve how it deals with companies heavily in debt.

1. Publish details of tax defaulters

Many European countries do this. For example, the Irish Tax and Customs publishes a quarterly list of tax defaulters. This includes their name, address, occupation, unpaid tax, interest, penalties and the type of tax.

There are some criteria for publication, such as that debts must exceed €50,000 (around NZ$90,000). But a press release is written and sent out with each list.

2. Tell credit ratings agencies about business tax debts

In Australia, this can happen when the tax debt is above A$100,000, is more than 90 days overdue, and the taxpayer is not engaging with the tax authority on repayment. This visibility is intended to inform others who are in business with, or looking to do business with, the defaulting company.

Read more:
NZ’s plan for deposit insurance falls well short of protecting people’s savings

3. Make business directors personally accountable

Again in Australia, company directors can be personally responsible for certain business tax liabilities – specifically pay-as-you-go (PAYG) withholding, GST and the superannuation (Australia’s main type of retirement fund) guarantee charge.

When this happens, the Australian Tax Office issues a “director penalty notice”. After this is issued, it can only be remitted by full payment of the debt within 21 days, appointing an administrator, appointing a small business restructuring practitioner, or commencing winding up proceedings. If one of these actions isn’t taken within 21 days, the director becomes personally liable for the debt.

There is an argument that directors need protection from personal liability for tax debt incurred by their company, to ensure they are willing to engage in some level of risk taking.

However, the Australian director penalty regime is intended to minimise any incentive to engage in excessive risk taking, such as trading while insolvent.

Quick and direct action

Quicker – and more transparent – action by Inland Revenue is likely to better contain the contagion of a failed or failing business. This would ensure that current and potential suppliers, current and potential employees, and other stakeholders are aware of the business’ financial situation.

Read more:
The ugly story of Dick Smith, from float to failure

While being more proactive in responding to failing businesses, Inland Revenue needs to support taxpayers to meet their tax obligations. There is nothing to be gained from forcing viable entities into liquidation when they have a short-term trading or cash flow problem.

But allowing unviable businesses to continue to operate with unpaid withheld tax obligations for long periods is likely to increase the negative impact on the wider community. In many cases, Inland Revenue has the potential to reduce this impact.

Lisa Marriott 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. Failed NZ businesses leave a trail of destruction. Here are 3 things Inland Revenue could do to minimise damage – https://theconversation.com/failed-nz-businesses-leave-a-trail-of-destruction-here-are-3-things-inland-revenue-could-do-to-minimise-damage-210370

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jawad Harb, PhD Candidate, RMIT University

Ten years ago, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) created the “myTax” portal, an easy way to lodge your tax return online.

There was an “e-Tax” filing option before the 2015-16 tax year, but this was quite complicated and barely better than filling out a form online.

In comparison, myTax is simpler and more automated. It’s available 24 hours a day, is free to use, and you will typically get your refund within two weeks.

But the chances are you won’t be using it.

In fact, slightly less than 36% of Australia’s 15 million taxpayers used the myTax portal in 2020-21 – the most recent tax year for which the tax office has published data.

About 64% of tax returns were lodged through tax agents. This is one of the highest rates among 38 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations. Meanwhile, just 0.6% of Australians still used the paper-based form.

So why have Australians – who have quickly embraced the internet for everything from shopping to dating – been so slow to embrace myTax?

For some, particularly older people, it’s about being intimidated by the technology. Others may be concerned with cybersecurity risk.

But for most it’s about the perceived complexity of the tax system and the process, regardless of the technology. They see using a tax agent as easier and the way to maximise their tax refund.

While in some cases this may be true, in many instances it’s simply a perception – but one the tax office will need to address if it wants to promote use of myTax.

Reasons for the low uptake of myTax

Our research suggests most people who have used the myTax portal think it is easy to use.

We surveyed 193 taxpayers who have used the system. About three-quarters agreed the system was clear and understandable, and said they would keep using it.

But of course these are people who have chosen to use the system, so their responses don’t shed much light on the reasons people don’t use myTax.

Answers to that come from other published research, in particular from the Inspector-General of Taxation (the independent office investigating complaints about the tax system) as well as the House of Representatives’ Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue.

Evidence submitted to these bodies indicate that Australians prefer tax agents to avoid errors in claiming deductions.

The parliamentary committee’s 2018 inquiry into the tax system was told the use of tax agents ballooned from about 20% in the 1980s, peaking at about 74% of all taxpayers:

The Tax Commissioner considered that the size of the TaxPack had probably
contributed to that rise, driving many people with simple tax affairs to a tax
agent because it looked daunting.

In short, habits are hard to break. Having come to rely on tax agents, most Australians keep using them, despite the system being vastly improved.

For example, the myTax system now simplifies the process by pre-filling data from government agencies, health funds, financial institutions and your own employer. About 80% of our survey respondents said this was helpful.

Taking care of the digital divide

This suggests the main barrier to increasing use of the myTax system is mostly habit and the perception the tax system is too complicated to navigate without an expert.

There is also a small percentage of people who feel uncomfortable with computers. This is reflected in the minority of respondents in our study who said they were unlikely to use myTax again, as well as the tax office’s data showing some people continue to stick with paper lodgement.

Those more likely to find the system daunting are the elderly, those with low English skills, people with disabilities and those with low educational attainment.

Read more:
The downside of digital transformation: why organisations must allow for those who can’t or won’t move online

These people’s needs should not be forgotten as the Australian Digital Government Strategy aims to making Australia a “world-leading” digital government by 2025, delivering “simple, secure and connected public services”.

Even with the greatest online system in the world, it’s unlikely there will ever be a complete transition.

Jawad Harb receives funding for related research from RMIT University. He is affiliated with RMIT University as a PhD candidate.

Jawad is affiliated with St John Ambulance Victoria as a volunteer.

Elizabeth Morton is contracted to co-facilitate a short-term training contract for tax and crypto facilitated by UNSW for the ATO. This is not related to the topic of this article. Elizabeth has not received grant funding for research in relation to the content of this article; however, does undertake research in this space.

– ref. myTax is fast and free – so why do 2 in 3 Australians still pay to lodge a tax return? – https://theconversation.com/mytax-is-fast-and-free-so-why-do-2-in-3-australians-still-pay-to-lodge-a-tax-return-207305

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Nicholls, Associate professor of regulation and governance, UNSW Sydney

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) paid out more than half a billion dollars to cyber criminals between July 2021 and February 2023, according to an ABC report.

Most of the payments were for small amounts (less than A$5,000) and were not flagged by the ATO’s own monitoring systems.

The fraudsters exploited a weakness in the identification system used by the myGov online portal to redirect other people’s tax refunds to their own bank accounts.

The good news is there’s plenty the federal government can do to crack down on this kind of fraud – and that you can do to keep your own payments secure.

How these scams work

Setting up a myGov account or a myGov ID requires proof of identity in the form of “100 points of ID”. It usually means either a passport and a driver’s licence or a driver’s licence, a Medicare card, and a bank statement.

Once a myGov account is created, linking it to your tax records requires two of the following: an ATO assessment, bank account details, a payslip, a Centrelink payment, or a super account.

These documents were precisely the ones targeted in three large data breaches in the past year: at Optus, at Medibank, and at Latitude Financial.

Read more:
Why are there so many data breaches? A growing industry of criminals is brokering in stolen data

In this scam, the cyber criminal creates a fake myGov account using the stolen documents. If they can also get enough information to link to the ATO or your Tax File Number, they can then change bank account details to have your tax rebate paid to their account.

It is a sadly simple scam.

How government can improve

One of the issues here is quite astounding. The ATO knows where salaries are paid, via the “single touch” payroll system. This ensures salaries, tax and superannuation contributions are all paid at once.

Most people who have received a tax refund will have provided bank account details where that payment can be made. Indeed, many people use precisely those bank account details to identify themselves to myGov.

At present, those bank details can be changed within myGov without any further ado. If the ATO simply checked with the individual via another channel when bank account details are changed, this fraud could be prevented. It might be sensible to check with the individual’s employer as well.

Part of the problem is the ATO has not been very transparent about the risks. If these risks were clearly set out, then calls for changes to ATO procedures would have been loud and clear from the cyber security community.

The ATO is usually good at identifying when a cyber security incident may lead to fraud. For example, when the recruitment software company PageUp was hacked in 2018, the ATO required people who may have been affected to reconfirm their identities. This was done without public commentary and represents sound practice.

Sadly, the millions of records stolen in the Optus, Medibank and Latitude Financial breaches have not led to a similar level of vigilance.

Another action the ATO could take would be to check when a single set of bank account details is associated with more than one myGov account.

A national digital identity would also help. However, this system has been in development for years, is not universally popular, and may well be delayed until after the federal election due in 2024.

Read more:
Australia’s National Digital ID is here, but the government’s not talking about it

Protecting yourself

The most important thing to do is make sure the ATO does not use a bank account number other than yours. As long as the ATO only has your bank account number to transfer your tax rebate, this scam does not work.

It also helps to protect your Tax File Number. There are only four groups that ever need this number.

The first is the ATO itself. The second is your employer. However, remember you do not need to give your TFN to a prospective employer, and your employer only needs your TFN after you have started work.

Your super fund and your bank may ask for your TFN. However, providing your TFN to your super fund or bank is optional – it just makes things easier, as otherwise they will withhold tax which you will need to claim back later.

Read more:
‘We have filed a case under your name’: beware of tax scams — they’ll be everywhere this EOFY

Of course, all the usual data safety issues still apply. Don’t share your driver’s licence details without good reason. Take similar care with your passport. Your Medicare card is for health services and does not need to be shared widely.

Don’t open emails from people you do not know. Never click links in messages unless you are sure they are safe. Most importantly, know your bank will not send you emails containing links, nor will the ATO.

Rob Nicholls receives funding from each of Google, Meta, and the Australian Research Council.

– ref. The $500 million ATO fraud highlights flaws in the myGov ID system. Here’s how to keep your data safe – https://theconversation.com/the-500-million-ato-fraud-highlights-flaws-in-the-mygov-id-system-heres-how-to-keep-your-data-safe-210459

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lorraine Mackenzie, Associate Professor, Clinical and Health Sciences, University of South Australia

Dandruff can be dry, like snowflakes, or greasy, with yellow clumps. Up to half of all adults have had this scalp condition at one point, so you’ll no doubt know about these skin flakes and the itchiness.

Dandruff can be embarrassing. It can affect many aspects of people’s lives, such as how they socialise, how they style their hair, and what clothes they wear.

Dandruff is not a modern problem. In fact, it has been around for millennia and was described by Greek physicians. We don’t know for sure whether our ancestors were as bothered by it as much as we are today. But they were interested in what causes it.

Read more:
Big hair? Bald? How much difference your hair really makes to keep you cool or warm

What causes dandruff?

Dandruff is mainly caused by the yeast Malassezia. The yeast lives on most people’s skin, either on the surface or in the opening of the hair follicle, the structure that surrounds a hair’s root and strand.

The yeast feeds on sebum, the natural moisturiser secreted by your sebaceous glands to stop your skin drying out. These glands are attached to every hair follicle and the hair provides a dark, sheltered micro-environment ideal for the yeast to flourish.

As the yeast grows, it releases molecules that irritate the skin and disrupts how the skin normally renews itself. This causes the cells to cluster together, appearing as white flakes. When there is excess sebum, this can mix with the cells and cause the dandruff to appear yellow.

The link between dandruff and yeast was made nearly 150 years ago. The person who first identified and described this yeast in 1874 was Louis-Charles Malassez (the yeast’s namesake).

Read more:
Invisible skin mites called Demodex almost certainly live on your face – but what about your mascara?

Why do I have dandruff?

As Malassezia is found on most people, why do some people get dandruff and others don’t? This depends on a range of factors.

These include the quality of your skin barrier. This may mean yeast can penetrate deeper if the skin is damaged in some way, for example, if it’s sunburnt. Other factors include your immunity, and external factors, such which hair-care products you use.

How Malassezia grows also depends on the balance of other microorganisms that live on your skin, such as bacteria.

How do I get rid of dandruff?

Dandruff is mostly treated with anti-fungal shampoos and scalp treatments to dampen down growth of Malassezia. The shampoos most commonly contain the anti-fungal agent zinc pyrithione (ZnPT for short). Other common anti-fungals in shampoos include selenium sulfide, ketoconazole and coal tar.

You can also treat dandruff with scalp masks and scrubs that help restore the scalp barrier, by reducing inflammation and irritation. But as these may not have any anti-fungal action, your dandruff is likely to return.

Home remedies include tea tree oil, coconut or other oils, and honey. There is some evidence to support their use, mostly from studies that show extracts from botanical ingredients can reduce growth of the yeast in the lab. But there is great variation in the quality and composition of these ingredients.

There is also the risk of making the problem worse by providing more oils that the yeast will enjoy, causing more imbalance to the scalp micro-organisms and leading to more irritation.

So it’s best to stick with commercial products.

Read more:
Does the price of your shampoo affect how clean your hair is? Here’s the science

Why does my dandruff come back?

Your dandruff is likely to return unless the active ingredients in your shampoo can reach the right spot, at the right concentration, for the right amount of time needed to kill the yeast.

Our research focussing on zinc pyrithione-based products showed these shampoos reached the skin surface. But they less-reliably ended up in the harder-to-reach hair follicles.

We found the zinc pythione seemed to target the top of the follicles rather than deep into the follicles.

So this may explain why dandruff keeps on coming back. Your shampoo’s active ingredient may not reach the yeast that causes your dandruff.

We don’t yet know how we can encourage existing formulations to penetrate deeper into the follicles.

Read more:
What is toe jam? From harmless gunk to a feast for bugs

What about future treatments?

We’ll likely see new formulations of dandruff shampoos and scalp treatments that better deliver the active ingredient to where it’s needed – deeper into the hair follicles.

We can also expect new active ingredients, such as carbonic anhydrase enzymes. These might target how the yeast grows in a different way to current active ingredients.

We are also beginning to see the development of creams and lotions that aim to boost the health balance of flora of the skin, much like we see with similar products for the gut. These include pre-biotics (supplements or food for skin flora) or pro-biotics (products that contain skin flora). However we have much to learn about these types of formulations.

Read more:
Your bed probably isn’t as clean as you think – a microbiologist explains

In a nutshell

Dandruff is annoying, treatment helps, but you may need to repeat it. Hopefully, we can develop improved shampoos that better deliver the active ingredient to where it’s needed.

But we need to strike a balance. We don’t want to eliminate all micro-organisms from our skin.

These are important for our immunity, including preventing more disease-causing microbes (pathogens) from moving in. They also help the skin produce antimicrobial peptides (short proteins) that protect us from pathogens.

Read more:
Essays on health: microbes aren’t the enemy, they’re a big part of who we are

Sean Mangion is also a medical student at The University of Sydney.

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

– ref. What is dandruff? How do I get rid of it? Why does it keep coming back? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-dandruff-how-do-i-get-rid-of-it-why-does-it-keep-coming-back-201082