Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Fuller, Charles Perkins Centre Research Program Leader, University of Sydney

Have you ever found yourself negotiating with a pint-sized dictator about eating a single pea? You’re not alone. Almost half of kids go through a stage of picky eating, and this typically peaks around the age of three.

Our hunter-gatherer ancestors developed a natural aversion to unfamiliar foods and bitter flavours to avoid ingesting toxins. They also learnt to seek and store specific types of high-energy, palatable foods to avoid starvation during periods of food scarcity.

But the food we eat from an early age shapes our lifelong food preferences and diet. So what can you do if your child is unwilling to eat familiar or new foods, or wants to restrict their diet?

Here are the five most common types of picky eating – and how to overcome them.

1. Only eating beige or white foods

When it comes to fussy eating, beige and white foods typically reign supreme. This is because these foods are:

• familiar – they’re the colour of breastmilk and the foods typically used when we introduce solids, such as infant cereal

• bland or mild-flavoured – they don’t overwhelm toddlers who have 30,000-plus tastebuds (versus the 10,000-plus adults have)

• easy – they’re often soft and easy to chew, making them appealing to toddlers developing chewing skills

• non-threatening – they’re the opposite of what our hunter-gatherer ancestors have programmed us to avoid: brightly coloured – and toxic – foods found in the wild.

While it can be tempting to give in and serve chicken nuggets at every meal, a diet consisting of only beige and white foods is likely to be highly processed and low in dietary fibre. This can result in constipation and the depletion of healthy gut bacteria.

A beige/white diet can also lack the vitamins and minerals needed for healthy development and growth, including vitamins B and C, and iron.

To add healthier food options, and more colour, to your toddler’s diet:

• mix things up. Combine less healthy beige and white foods with healthier ones, like blending cannellini beans and cauliflower into mashed potatoes

• make healthy swaps. Gradually replace the favoured white bread, pasta and rice with wholegrain versions; for example, mix brown rice into a serving of white

• use familiarity to your advantage. Introduce colourful food options alongside the familiar beige and white ones, such as offering fruit to dip in yoghurt, or a healthy red or green sauce with pasta.

2. Refusing anything but milk

It’s no surprise toddlers love milk. It has been the constant in their life since birth. And it’s associated with more than just satisfying hunger – it’s there when they’re tired and going to sleep, when they’re upset and need comfort, and when they’re enjoying closeness with mum or dad.

It also contains lactose, a sugar found naturally in milk, so it tastes sweet and appeals to our hunter-gatherer instinct to seek foods high in natural sugar to avoid starvation.

While dairy provides essential calcium for toddlers, it needs to be part of a balanced diet. The Australian Dietary Guidelines suggest toddlers have 1–1½ servings of milk (1 cup = 1 serve), yoghurt (200g = 1 serve) and cheese (2 slices = 1 serve) (or alternatives) daily.

If your toddler is consuming too much milk, they’re at risk of iron deficiency, as milk is a poor source of iron and interferes with our body’s ability to absorb it.

To move your toddler away from milk, try:

• fact-finding. When your toddler asks for milk, ask questions to understand what they really want. Are they hungry, thirsty or wanting comfort? Offer that instead

• filling up on solids first. Tempt your toddler with healthy and interesting-looking foods, and only offer milk after they’ve eaten something solid

• smaller serves. Switch to serving milk in a smaller-sized cup.

3. Avoiding textured foods

Refusing to eat lumpy, chewy or strangely textured foods is common as toddlers’ sensory and oral motor skills develop.

It’s also common for parents to continue pureeing these foods as a result of the upsetting gagging that often accompanies trying different textured food.

To support your toddler’s transition to textured foods and ensure they’re developing the muscles needed to eat safely:

• turn the texture up slowly. Start with food your toddler enjoys, such as pureed carrot, and gradually blend it for less time to retain some lumps

• stay calm if your toddler gags. Let them know it’s OK, and give them time to work it through on their own. After they have coughed it out, encourage them to try another spoonful, or try again next time.

4. Refusing vegetables

The texture, brightness and bitter taste of some veggies can be off-putting for some children.

But vegetables are a good source of the vitamins, minerals and fibre toddlers need.

To overcome your toddler’s aversion to veggies, get creative. The appearance of food affects our perception of its taste, so boost veggies’ appeal by arranging them into fun plate art.

Extend this creativity to introduce vegetables in new ways, for example, grating carrots or kale into muffins and using a spiraliser to make zucchini noodles.

Focus on offering sweeter tasting vegetables, such as peas, carrot and sweet potato, and roasting them to bring out their natural sweetness. Children are more likely to go for sweeter-tasting veggies than bitter ones like broccoli.

5. Refusing to eat meat

Meat contains protein and iron, but many toddlers refuse to eat it because of its tough, chewy texture and strong taste.

If you want your toddler to get their daily serving of protein (for example, 80g cooked chicken or 65g cooked beef from lean meat) but you’re finding it challenging:

• start small. Offer leaner, lighter-tasting meats in small portions that are easy to chew, such as minced chicken or slow-cooked meat

• involve your toddler in meal preparation. Ask them to choose the meat for dinner and get their help to prepare it.

There are also alternatives you can offer as you work on overcoming their meat aversion. Eggs, tofu, beans, lentils and fish are also high in protein.

Issues with chewing and swallowing and food aversion can be symptoms of underlying medical conditions, so consult your GP or child and family health nurse if your child’s fussy eating behaviour persists beyond the toddler and pre-school years.

Dr Nick Fuller works for the University of Sydney and RPA Hospital and has received external funding for projects relating to the treatment of overweight and obesity. He is the author and founder of the Interval Weight Loss program, and the author of Healthy Parents, Healthy Kids.

– ref. 5 picky eating habits – and how to help your child overcome them – https://theconversation.com/5-picky-eating-habits-and-how-to-help-your-child-overcome-them-230970

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle O’Shea, Senior Lecturer, School of Business, Western Sydney University

Time off work to deal with IVF, menopause, gender transition treatments, vasectomies and other reproductive health issues would be enshrined in all workplace awards if a national union campaign succeeds.

Using the line, “It’s for every body”, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is in Canberra this week lobbying federal politicians to agree to ten days paid leave so workers can have time to deal with reproductive health.

The call for recognised leave coincides with our research which found symptoms of menstruation, menstrual disorders, menopause and chronic conditions such as endometriosis significantly affect women’s engagement in paid work.

Our review examined 66 articles globally on workplace policies and practices relating to supporting workers with reproductive health needs.

We found employers should foster a workplace culture encouraging communication and understanding around menstruation, menstrual disorders, and menopause.

Seeking national change

This week’s national push, led by the ACTU, has been buoyed by not-for-profit disability service provider Scope agreeing to provide 12 days reproductive leave to its 7,000 workers. They were the first employer in the country to do so.

Earlier this year, the Queensland government also introduced reproductive health leave, giving public sector workers access to ten days a year.

While unions representing health care, banking, community and education sectors have had similar success for many of their members, the ACTU now wants the National Employment Standards expanded to include the leave for all workers.

Unions representing health care, banking, community and education sectors have had similar success for many of their members.

Now the ACTU wants the National Employment Standards – the minimum employment entitlements for all employees covered by the Fair Work Act – expanded to include the leave for all workers.

What is reproductive health leave?

Reproductive health leave is a workplace entitlement acknowledging the need
for paid time and work flexibility to treat or manage reproductive health conditions.

These conditions could include menstruation, perimenopause, menopause, polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, IVF treatments, vasectomy, hysterectomy and terminations.

It differs from other leave entitlements such as personal/carer’s leave, compassionate leave and the more recently enacted family and domestic violence leave
because it is not a national standard in the Fair Work Act 2009.

Figures included in the Australian Benefits Review 2023 of consultancy firm Mercer suggested businesses and governments have been slow to adopt this type of leave.

They reported only 11% of employers offered paid leave for fertility treatments, while a further 4% gave workers unpaid leave.

Fertility rates

The number of Australians needing fertility help to become pregnant is increasing. Current statistics show fertility issues affect about one in nine couples.

The impact of menstruation, menstrual disorders, menopause and chronic conditions, such as endometriosis have received much needed attention.

A National Action Plan for Endometriosis has set out a productive blueprint focused on improved awareness, education, diagnosis, treatment and research to address the condition’s insidious effects.

The current federal parliamentary inquiry into menopause and perimenopause further recognises the significance of reproductive health.

Why reproductive health is a work issue

As our research showed, the effects of reproductive health issues ripple through workplaces and extend to the Australian economy.

Workplace rights in Australia are typically grounded in men’s experience of life and work. The “ideal” worker is an individual, typically a male, who has no external obligations or bodily demands outside their work.

Women’s bodies in the workplace are often seen as problematic, unreliable and weaker because they can menstruate, be affected by disorders of the menstrual cycle, and can experience menopause.

Due to their health needs, many women report experiencing harassment, career derailment, lack of career progression and underemployment. Some retire prematurely due to health problems.

Different views

Some women experiencing endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain reported extra leave, while important, was not necessarily their top priority. Instead, they preferred a focus on improving workplace culture, awareness and support.

Education and training of senior leaders was highly valued. Allowing workers to take bathroom breaks when needed together with quiet/rest areas were identified as ways to manage symptoms and remain engaged and productive in the workplace.

The inclusion of male specific issues, such as vasectomy and prostate screening, highlights the importance of inclusively of gender and sex in policy, however extra leave was unlikely to reduce barriers for these procedures.

Very few men report taking time off work was a barrier to getting a prostate screening, or for having a vasectomy.

Instead, barriers were mostly related to other factors. In the case of vasectomy this was often related to perceptions about lowered libido or the pain of the procedure itself.

Hiding the problem

Many employees go to significant lengths to conceal their reproductive health issues.

They remain at work “pushing through the pain”, choosing not to disclose their conditions, given the stigma and taboo associated with reproductive health issues.

A recent study found young people aged 13 to 25, in particular, are significantly affected by reproductive health issues.

While they report missing more days of work due to menstrual symptoms than their older counterparts, younger workers are less likely to be entitled to reproductive health leave because they are often employed in casual roles.

Is extra leave the answer?

The most important consideration when assessing the value of a national plan for reproductive health leave, is there has been little research on its impact.

Our research showed there was a growing body of evidence aimed at understanding women’s experiences managing their menstrual and reproductive health in the workplace and how this affected their work/career trajectories.

However, we found a dearth of research centred on understanding interventions, and most research simply reported on menopause guidelines and focused on the United Kingdom and European Union member countries.

We currently don’t know how beneficial these entitlements may be, if they have unintended negative consequences or if people will feel like they can access them.

Before we enshrine reproductive health leave in the national employment standards, we must assess the impact this and similar leave has had in workplaces where it’s already available.

Danielle Howe receives funding from Western Sydney University to complete her PhD in developing workplace guidelines and supports for people with endometriosis.

Mike Armour has previously received funding from Endometriosis Australia and Western Sydney University for the development of workplace support for people with endometriosis.

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

– ref. What is reproductive health leave and why do we need it? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-reproductive-health-leave-and-why-do-we-need-it-238581

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Shortis, Adjunct Senior Fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University

Judging debates usually comes down to picking a winner or loser.

Seeking a more nuanced approach to the first presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, we asked our experts in US politics, history and the media to weigh in on four points: overall performance, policy strength, truthfulness and omissions, and the most memorable moments. Here’s how they saw Tuesday’s performances.

You can also watch the whole debate below.

Emma Shortis is senior researcher in international and security affairs at The Australia Institute, an independent think tank.

Jared Mondschein and Matthew Ricketson 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. Trump and Harris trade insults and competing visions: 3 experts give their verdicts on the US presidential debate – https://theconversation.com/trump-and-harris-trade-insults-and-competing-visions-3-experts-give-their-verdicts-on-the-us-presidential-debate-238694

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Shortis, Adjunct Senior Fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University

Emma Shortis is senior researcher in international and security affairs at The Australia Institute, an independent think tank.

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

– ref. Trump and Harris trade insults and competing visions: our experts give their verdicts on the US presidential debate – https://theconversation.com/trump-and-harris-trade-insults-and-competing-visions-our-experts-give-their-verdicts-on-the-us-presidential-debate-238694

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Robert Knowles, Associate Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Swinburne University of Technology

For most people, the daily or near-daily ritual of having a bowel motion is not something we give a great deal of thought to. But for some people, the need to do a “number two” in a public toilet or at work can be beset with significant stress and anxiety.

In recognition of the discomfort people may feel around passing a bowel motion at work, the Queensland Department of Health recently launched a social media campaign with the message “It’s okay to poo at work”.

The campaign has gained significant traction on Instagram and Facebook. It has been praised by health and marketing experts for its humorous handling of a taboo topic.

A colourful Instagram post is accompanied by a caption warning of the health risks of “holding it in”, including haemorrhoids and other gastrointestinal problems. The caption also notes:

If you find it extremely difficult to poo around other people, you might have parcopresis.

What is parcopresis?

Parcopresis, sometimes called “shy bowel”, occurs when people experience a difficulty or inability to poo in public toilets due to fear of perceived scrutiny by others.

People with parcopresis may find it difficult to go to the toilet in public places such as shopping centres, restaurants, at work or at school, or even at home when friends or family are around.

They may fear being judged by others about unpleasant smells or sounds when they have a bowel motion, or how long they take to go, for example.

Living with a gastrointestinal condition (at least four in ten Australians do) may contribute to parcopresis due to anxiety about the need to use a toilet frequently, and perceived judgment from others when doing so. Other factors, such as past negative experiences or accessibility challenges, may also play a role.

For sufferers, anxiety can present in the form of a faster heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating, muscle tension, blushing, nausea, trembling, or a combination of these symptoms. They may experience ongoing worry about situations where they may need to use a public toilet.

Living with parcopresis can affect multiple domains of life and quality of life overall. For example, sufferers may have difficulties relating to employment, relationships and social life. They might avoid travelling or attending certain events because of their symptoms.

How common is parcopresis?

We don’t really know how common parcopresis is, partly due to the difficulty of evaluating this behaviour. It’s not necessarily easy or appropriate to follow people around to track whether they use or avoid public toilets (and their reasons if they do). Also, observing individual bathroom activities may alter the person’s behaviour.

I conducted a study to try to better understand how common parcopresis is. The study involved 714 university students. I asked participants to respond to a series of vignettes, or scenarios.

In each vignette participants were advised they were at a local shopping centre and they needed to have a bowel motion. In the vignettes, the bathrooms (which had been recently cleaned) had configurations of either two or three toilet stalls. Each vignette differed by the configuration of stalls available.

The rate of avoidance was just over 14% overall. But participants were more likely to avoid using the toilet when the other stalls were occupied.

Around 10% avoided going when all toilets were available. This rose to around 25% when only the middle of three toilets was available. Men were significantly less likely to avoid going than women across all vignettes.

For those who avoided the toilet, many either said they would go home to poo, use an available disabled toilet, or come back when the bathroom was empty.

Parcopresis at work

In occupational settings, the rates of anxiety about using shared bathrooms may well be higher for a few reasons.

For example, people may feel more self-conscious about their bodily functions being heard or noticed by colleagues, compared to strangers in a public toilet.

People may also experience guilt, shame and fear about being judged by colleagues or supervisors if they need to make extended or frequent visits to the bathroom. This may particularly apply to people with a gastrointestinal condition.

Reducing restroom anxiety

Using a public toilet can understandably cause some anxiety or be unpleasant. But for a small minority of people it can be a real problem, causing severe distress and affecting their ability to engage in activities of daily living.

If doing a poo in a toilet at work or another public setting causes you anxiety, be kind to yourself. A number of strategies might help:

• identify and challenge negative thoughts about using public toilets and remind yourself that using the bathroom is normal, and that most people are not paying attention to others in the toilets

• try to manage stress through relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation, which involves tensing and relaxing different muscles around the body

• engaging in gradual exposure can be helpful, which means visiting public toilets at different times and locations, so you can develop greater confidence in using them

• use grounding or distraction techniques while going to the toilet. These might include listening to music, watching something on your phone, or focusing on your breathing.

If you feel parcopresis is having a significant impact on your life, talk to your GP or a psychologist who can help identify appropriate approaches to treatment. This might include cognitive behavioural therapy.

Simon Robert Knowles 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. ‘It’s okay to poo at work’: new health campaign highlights a common source of anxiety – https://theconversation.com/its-okay-to-poo-at-work-new-health-campaign-highlights-a-common-source-of-anxiety-238682

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amali Cooray, PhD Candidate in Genetic Engineering and Cancer, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)

Catherine, Princess of Wales, has announced she has now completed a course of preventive chemotherapy.

The news comes nine months after the princess first revealed she was being treated for an unspecified form of cancer.

In the new video message released by Kensington Palace, Princess Catherine says she’s focused on doing what she can to stay “cancer-free”. She acknowledges her cancer journey is not over and the “path to recovery and healing is long”.

While we don’t know the details of the princess’s cancer or treatment, it raises some questions about how we declare someone fully clear of the disease. So what does being – and staying – “cancer-free” mean?

What’s the difference between being cancer-free and in remission?

Medically, “cancer-free” means two things. First, it means no cancer cells are able to be detected in a patient’s body using the available testing methods. Second, there is no cancer left in the patient.

These might sound basically the same. But this second aspect of “cancer-free” can be complicated, as it’s essentially impossible to be sure no cancer cells have survived a treatment.

It only takes a few surviving cells for the cancer to grow back. But these cells may not be detectable via testing, and can lie dormant for some time. The possibility of some cells still surviving means it is more accurate to say a patient is “in remission”, rather than “cancer-free”.

Remission means there is no detectable cancer left. Once a patient has been in remission for a certain period of time, they are often considered to be fully “cancer-free”.

Princess Catherine was not necessarily speaking in the strict medical sense. Nonetheless, she is clearly signalling a promising step in her recovery.

What happens during remission?

During remission, patients will usually undergo surveillance testing to make sure their cancer hasn’t returned. Detection tests can vary greatly depending on both the patient and their cancer type.

Many tests involve simply looking at different organs to see if there are cancer cells present, but at varying levels of complexity.

Some cancers can be detected with the naked eye, such as skin cancers. In other cases, technology is needed: colonoscopies for colorectal cancers, X-ray mammograms for breast cancers, or CT scans for lung cancers. There are also molecular tests, which test for the presence of cancer cells using protein or DNA from blood or tissue samples.

For most patients, testing will continue for years at regular intervals. Surveillance testing ensures any returning cancer is caught early, giving patients the best chance of successful treatment.

Remaining in remission for five years can be a huge milestone in a patient’s cancer journey. For most types of cancer, the chances of cancer returning drop significantly after five years of remission. After this point, surveillance testing may be performed less frequently, as the patients might be deemed to be at a lower risk of their cancer returning.

Measuring survival rates

Because it is very difficult to tell when a cancer is “cured”, clinicians may instead refer to a “five-year survival rate”. This measures how likely a cancer patient is to be alive five years after their diagnosis.

For example, data shows the five-year survival rate for bowel cancer among Australian women (of all ages) is around 70%. That means if you had 100 patients with bowel cancer, after five years you would expect 70 to still be alive and 30 to have succumbed to the disease.

These statistics can’t tell us much about individual cases. But comparing five-year survival rates between large groups of patients after different cancer treatments can help clinicians make the often complex decisions about how best to treat their patients.

The likelihood of cancer coming back, or recurring, is influenced by many factors which can vary over time. For instance, approximately 30% of people with lung cancer develop a recurrent disease, even after treatment. On the other hand, breast cancer recurrence within two years of the initial diagnosis is approximately 15%. Within five years it drops to 10%. After ten, it falls below 2%.

These are generalisations though – recurrence rates can vary greatly depending on things such as what kind of cancer the patient has, how advanced it is, and whether it has spread.

Staying cancer-free

Princess Catherine says her focus now is to “stay cancer-free”. What might this involve?

How a cancer develops and whether it recurs can be influenced by things we can’t control, such as age, ethnicity, gender, genetics and hormones.

However, there are sometimes environmental factors we can control. That includes things like exposure to UV radiation from the sun, or inhaling carcinogens like tobacco.

Lifestyle factors also play a role. Poor diet and nutrition, a lack of exercise and excessive alcohol consumption can all contribute to cancer development.

Research estimates more than half of all cancers could potentially be prevented through regular screening and maintaining a healthy lifestyle (not to mention preventing other chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes).

Recommendations to reduce cancer risk are the same for everyone, not just those who’ve had treatment like Princess Catherine. They include not smoking, eating a nutritious and balanced diet, exercising regularly, cutting down on alcohol and staying sun smart.

Amali Cooray is also affiliated with the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute.

John (Eddie) La Marca is also affiliated with the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute. He has previously received funding from the CASS Foundation.

Sarah Diepstraten receives funding from the Victorian Cancer Agency.

– ref. The Princess of Wales wants to stay cancer-free. What does this mean? – https://theconversation.com/the-princess-of-wales-wants-to-stay-cancer-free-what-does-this-mean-238681

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Hamilton, Adjunct associate professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Monash University

It’s no secret Australia has abundant and cheap renewable energy, especially wind and solar power. But yes, there are times when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. We need energy storage to get us through those still nights and dreary days.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) reports investment in storage capacity continues to increase, filling gaps left by retiring coal-fired power stations. But it warns sufficient storage is needed to ensure electricity supply is reliable throughout the transition.

Energy storage is the special sauce that makes renewables work anytime, anywhere and everywhere. Being able to send this stored renewable energy back to the grid on demand makes the most of the existing electricity network, including transmission lines.

We need both short- and long-duration storage to maintain energy security. This will enable renewable energy to be collected, stored and dispatched when needed. AEMO forecasts reliability levels can be maintained over most of the next ten years if programs and initiatives already established are delivered on time and in full. But we can’t afford any delays.

Storage on the grid

Old-fashioned power stations burning coal tend to run continuously, which helps make the electricity grid stable and reliable. In contrast, renewables need to be backed with storage such as batteries to provide a continuous supply of electricity.

The modern electricity network is being designed to handle the power produced when the sun is shining brightly and the wind is blowing hard, at the same time. But this only happens about 25% of the time.

Similarly, transmission lines are being built to a maximum capacity. But we could get by with fewer transmission lines if we store more solar and wind power for later. That’s why many renewable generation projects include storage on site or nearby, and why it also makes sense to have batteries in our homes or communities.

Australia has some of the world’s biggest batteries

The 300 megawatt Victorian Big Battery, near Geelong, is the biggest in Australia and one of the biggest in the world. It can store enough energy to power more than a million homes for 30 minutes.

The federal government is also funding six large-scale batteries through the Capacity Investment Scheme. This includes a 350MW energy storage system on the site of the Jeeralang Power Station, near Morwell in the LaTrobe Valley. But the title of the nation’s biggest battery will soon be handed to the 850MW Waratah Super Battery in New South Wales.

What’s next?

Other emerging battery systems could power the future. For example, new lithium-sulphur batteries deliver more energy per gram and last longer than existing lithium-ion batteries. This has been achieved simply by adding sugar.

Australia has all the critical minerals needed to make batteries (lithium, nickel, copper, cobalt). But about 90% of the batteries we currently use come from China.

The 2024 National Battery Strategy vision is for Australia is a globally competitive producer of batteries and battery materials by 2035.

Battery booster scheme needed

Australia has the policy settings and incentives about right for building grid-scale storage systems. But almost half the effort in getting to 82% renewables by 2030 will come from consumers – mainly rooftop solar systems, backed by home and business battery storage.

We have just passed the point at which the payback period for small-scale batteries falls within the product’s lifetime, making the upfront cost worthwhile.

But government incentives are still needed to make it more affordable to install small-scale solar batteries. This would help families and businesses reduce their power bills, gain better control of when and how they produce energy, and build a more resilient energy system.

More than 300,000 solar power systems are installed on Australian homes and businesses each year. The total reached more than 3.7 million systems at the start of this year. With the right ambition and policy settings, we could have similar rates of uptake in home batteries – going from about 250,000 at the moment to more than one million by 2030.

What’s more, electric vehicles are essentially large “batteries on wheels”. They can be plugged in at home to provide backup power in blackouts, or at times of peak demand.

Government incentives are also needed here to drive the further uptake of electric vehicles in the domestic, commercial and industry sector. The upfront price of an EV is too high for many Australians. Perverse incentives such as the diesel rebate are also slowing the switch in some sectors such as mining.

Australia is already a world leader in rooftop solar. With the right policy levers, we can also lead the world in home energy storage.

The energy storage toolkit

Batteries alone aren’t enough. As the penetration of renewables increases, the importance of long duration energy storage technologies will increase. In general, these technologies provide more than eight hours of energy storage using various electrochemical, mechanical, thermal and mechanical means.

Beyond batteries, other energy storage solutions include pumped hydro such as Snowy 2.0, “green gravity” using mine shafts, green hydrogen and concentrated solar thermal power plants.

Get smart about storage

Many energy storage options are readily available now and could be manufactured in Australia. We have the technology to empower communities, create thousands of new jobs and help save the planet.

If we’re smart about it, we can even get by with fewer transmission lines and less bulky electricity infrastructure.

Scott Hamilton is an adjunct associate professor with the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering at Monash University. He is a senior advisor to the not-for-profit organisation Smart Energy Council, he is a non-executive Director for the not-for-profit organisation Hi Neighbour Ltd, and is an ALP member.

– ref. With a million home batteries, we could build far fewer power lines. We just need the right incentives – https://theconversation.com/with-a-million-home-batteries-we-could-build-far-fewer-power-lines-we-just-need-the-right-incentives-237851

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judith Ireland, Education Editor, The Conversation, Australia

The Albanese government has announced it will introduce a social media ban for children.

The government has not yet nominated a minimum age but is trialling age-assurance mechanisms for those aged 13–16. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the legislation will be introduced this year.

This follows criticism from a range of experts, who argue it will be difficult to enforce and does not take into account the positive impacts of social media for young people.

Announcing the ban on Tuesday, Albanese highlighted parental concerns about their kids being on social media.

Parents are worried sick about this. We know they’re working without a map – no generation has faced this challenge before.

Which is why my message to Australian parents is we’ve got your back. We’re listening and determined to act to get this right.

So, should parents be worried about social media? We asked five experts.

Three out of five said no.

Here are their detailed responses.

Disclosure statements

Catherine Page Jeffery has received funding from the federal government through the Online Safety Grants Program, as well as from the Australian Research Council. She is a board member of Children and Media Australia.

Daniel Angus receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is an Associate Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making & Society.

Jo Robinson sits on an advisory board for Meta. Orygen has received funding from Meta for the translation of #chatsafe guidelines and resources, which aim to help young people communicate safely online about suicide and self-harm. She has received funding from the Commonwealth Department of Health, the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council. She sits on the board of the International Association for Suicide Prevention.

Nandi Vijayakumar receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council.

Stephanie Wescott receives funding from Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS).

– ref. Should parents be worried about social media? We asked 5 experts – https://theconversation.com/should-parents-be-worried-about-social-media-we-asked-5-experts-238772

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ella Plumanns Pouton, Researcher in Ecology, The University of Melbourne

Fire is a natural part of Australian ecosystems. Many plants have developed ways to adapt and even thrive after fire. They may store their seeds in the soil, ready to sprout after fire. Or they may flower after fire, which helps them to produce the next generation of seeds.

Most of what scientists know about plants and fire comes from studying what happens above ground. In my new research, my colleagues and I examined what happens below ground.

I studied plants in the eucalypt woodlands of Gariwerd, including the species-rich Grampians National Park of Victoria. I wanted to find out which seeds were waiting in the soil, and whether their presence or absence had anything to do with past fires. But first I had to grow them.

Through a series of glasshouse experiments, I discovered the seedbank in each soil sample reflected its past experience of fire. More frequent fire depleted stores of annual plants, such as purple-leaved groundsel (Senecio picridioides) and pimpernel sundew (Drosera glanduligera). But perennial plants that live for many years were more resilient.

It was also clear that landscapes benefit from a patchwork or a “mosaic” pattern of fire, where some areas have burnt more recently than others. Managing landscapes to create a mosaic pattern of fire history will ensure that landscapes can support the requirements of a diverse range of species.

Studying soil transplants

I sampled soil from 57 sites in Gariwerd/Grampians that had experienced different patterns of fire over the past 80 years. Some had burned just once, and others up to nine times.

I then exposed the soil samples to various heat and smoke treatments, to mimic the variety of environmental cues different seeds need to germinate and grow into plants. For example, smooth parrot pea, a yellow-flowered shrub from the study area, is known to prefer hot heat to germinate. This species has a hard seed coat which cracks open under high heat, allowing them to grow. In contrast, some herbs and grasses prefer no heat at all.

Once treated, I took each soil sample to a greenhouse where I watered them and waited for the seeds to grow into plants.

Over 15 months, I watched an incredible 39,701 plants grow from 245 different plant species. Some of the amazing species that came up included twisted beard heath, which has pretty tufted white flowers and twisted leaves, and the endangered Grampians trigger plant, found only in Gariwerd, which uses a trigger system to spurt pollen at insects when they visit its flower.

What I found by looking underground

The species growing in the greenhouses told a story of the fires that occurred where they were collected.

The frequency of fire was important. But how fire frequency influenced species presence in the soil depended on whether a species lived for one year (annuals) or many years (perennials). Or how long a species was able to store seeds.

Frequent fire (at least once every 15 years) reduced the occurrence of seeds of annual species which can store their seeds in the soil for many years. This is probably because every fire stimulated the sprouting of seeds, depleting the seed store.

Yet the seeds of other species, including perennials who store their seed in the soil for a short time only, appeared to be able to withstand the frequency of fires experienced to date. This is probably because these kinds of species rely less on storing their seeds in the soil to persist after fire than other measures, such as the resprouting of mature individuals from their trunk or base.

Interestingly, more than half (53%) of the species found in the soil seedbank were not growing as plants above ground. And for species with both seeds in the soil and plants above the ground, their response to fire above and below ground was not always the same. This highlights that the complex relationship between fire and plant life cycles is more than that meets the eye (above ground)!

Our findings point to the importance of researching plants at all stages of their life cycles, including their largely invisible time as seeds below ground.

Healthy mosaic patchwork of fire

When it comes to fire in the landscape, my research suggests Victorian eucalypt woodlands benefit from variety. This means ensuring some areas remain unburnt for many years, while others are burnt more recently. Such a mosaic of fire patterns would enable a diverse range of plants to survive and thrive.

This new knowledge helps us act to protect plants, both locally and globally.

At the local scale, I was pleased to donate several thousand germinating plants to the Nature Glenelg Trust. They used them to help restore a native wetland, bringing the seeds back to Gariwerd.

On a national and global scale, this research can help us make sense of changing fire patterns to help protect biodiversity. This year, California experienced the fourth largest fire in the state’s history, burning an area bigger than Los Angeles in under a week. And during the 2019-20 Australian Black Summer bushfires, more than 100 plant species had their entire above ground populations burnt.

Studies of seeds in the soil can help us find out how plant populations can recover after fire. Finding out which plants are affected by fire, in what ways, and why, will help us protect them into the future.

I would like to acknowledge my colleagues listed as coauthors on the research paper that formed the basis of this article: forest ecologist Sabine Kasel, fire scientist Trent Penman, fire ecologist Matthew Swan, and Luke Kelly, researcher in biodiversity dynamics.

Ella Plumanns Pouton receives funding from the Australian Research Training Program, the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, and Natural Hazards Research Australia.

– ref. Buried treasures: how seeds help us learn about fire in the Australian landscape – https://theconversation.com/buried-treasures-how-seeds-help-us-learn-about-fire-in-the-australian-landscape-235788

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Evangeline Mantzioris, Program Director of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Accredited Practising Dietitian, University of South Australia

Even the most casual sports fan would have seen athletes gulping down sports drinks after a contest or even snacking on something like a protein ball or energy gel during a break.

There is a reason why they do this.

Athletes have special nutritional requirements to maximise their performance.

They need carbohydrates, protein, fluids and other nutrients such as electrolytes in the right amounts and at the right time to achieve their training, performance and recovery goals.

Sports dietitians promote a food-first approach, which focuses on using everyday foods to meet athletes’ energy and nutrient needs before considering sports foods.

However, sports foods are convenient alternatives to everyday foods to fuel performance. There are, however, some potential downsides to consuming them.

What are sports foods?

Sports foods are specially manufactured for athletes to provide the nutrients they may need during training or performance.

They include products like sports drinks, protein supplements, energy gels and protein bars. They are intended for sport-specific use – not to replace an everyday diet.

Why do athletes consume them?

Sports foods can be more convenient for athletes compared to everyday foods – they are easier to carry or take less time to prepare.

They can also provide safe alternatives where there are food intolerances or allergies.

Sports foods can be safe and hygienic alternatives where there’s limited availability or few storage options for food.

Pros and cons

There is strong scientific evidence that sports foods can improve performance by providing a readily available source of energy and nutrients. There is no evidence of a detrimental impact on performance.

However, there may be a detrimental impact on health due to the nature of their production and formulation. Sports foods are considered as ultra-processed foods (UPF) according to the NOVA system.

The NOVA system classifies foods into four groups based on the extent of their processing: unprocessed or minimally processed foods; processed culinary ingredients; processed foods or ultra-processed foods.

What are ultra-processed foods?

Ultra-processed foods are foods that cannot be made in a typical home kitchen because of the ingredients needed and processing techniques used. They include foods like mass-produced bread, ice-cream, lollies and ham.

They are often packaged attractively and marketed as convenient replacements for less processed foods. Many people consume ultra-processed foods in Western countries, comprising up to 60% of energy intake.

Emerging evidence has associated ultra-processed food intake with poor mental and physical health and higher rates of death.

Ultra-processed foods also have a greater impact on the environment than everyday foods, particularly through processing and packaging.

Given this, we studied how athletes felt about these products despite the recent evidence on their potential impact on health and the environment.

Our research with Australian athletes

We asked adult Australian athletes how often they trained and how often they consumed ultra-processed sports foods during the past year through an anonymous online survey.

We also asked the athletes why they chose to use sports foods (or not), what alternatives they consumed and whether they were concerned about ultra-processed foods.

One hundred and forty Australian adult athletes participating in recreational (55 athletes), local/regional (52 athletes), state (11 athletes), national (14 athletes) or international (nine athletes) sports completed the survey.

The majority identified as females (64%), who were training for individual events (64%) and trained between five and nine hours per week (49%).

What did we find?

Most of the athletes (95%) had consumed sports foods within the past year. Sports drinks were the most popular (73%), while protein supplements were used most frequently, with 40% of athletes consuming them at least once per week.

Athletes in individual sports who trained for longer periods were more likely to use sports foods.

Athletes told us everyday foods were more affordable, tasted better and there was less risk of them containing banned substances but many found them less convenient to prepare and carry while training, and with greater risk of spoilage than sports foods.

We then asked the athletes what everyday foods they use instead of ultra-processed foods. More than half of the options they listed (54%) as everyday foods were still classified as ultra-processed foods, such as lollies and muesli bars.

Half (51%) of the athletes told us they were worried about the health effects of ultra-processed foods. The half who were unconcerned said it was because they either only occasionally used sports foods, only ate them in small amounts, or used them only for training and competition.

Do we know if this impacts health or performance?

Unfortunately, there are few published studies in this space.

One small study showed high intake of ultra-processed foods compared to low intakes in athletes led to no difference in performance. However a high intake of ultra-processed foods affected their microbiome negatively.

Apart from this study, there have been no others that specifically looked at ultra-processed foods in athletes.

But what if I’m otherwise ‘healthy’?

Unfortunately, there are still possible downsides.

An umbrella review of all studies looking at eating ultra-processed foods has shown increased risk of death, heart disease, diabetes and poorer mental health with greater intakes of these foods.

And some studies have shown there are health risks from eating ultra-processed foods regardless of whether a person has an otherwise healthy diet. That means that eating ultra-processed foods may be risky even if you also eat lots of whole, fresh foods.

Although we are uncertain if all processed foods should be considered as ultra-processed, or if all of them are linked to poorer health, the consensus is generally, we should be eating less of them as part of an overall healthy dietary pattern.

Also, scientists believe the health risks of eating ultra-processed foods seem to remain regardless of how much exercise someone does. However, no one has specifically researched the role of exercise in lessening the impact of ultra-processed foods on health.

Some tips for athletes

1. Do your own meal preparation – start looking at recipes that are easy to make ahead of time, store well and can be taken with you as you train. Energy balls, muesli bars or sandwiches with jam or peanut butter are good options. The Sports Dietitians Australia website has some great suggestions.

2. Check in with your training buddies. Ask them what they eat for training and competition, and look to see what is available in your local food stores.

3. You can also let your local food outlets know you are interested in purchasing minimally processed alternatives.

4. If you need to have them for training, limit the amount of ultra-processed foods you eat for the rest of your day. Every little bit may make a difference.

5. Adhering to the recommendations of the Australian Dietary Guidelines is still important. These have been designed to reduce the risk of chronic diseases for healthy Australians, including athletes. This means eating a variety of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, lean meat and alternatives, and milk products and alternatives each day.

A visit with an accredited sports dietitian can help you develop a individualised food plan that includes minimally processed options to meet your personal needs and performance goals.

Evangeline Mantzioris is affiliated with Alliance for Research in Nutrition, Exercise and Activity (ARENA) at the University of South Australia. Evangeline Mantzioris has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, and has been appointed to the National Health and Medical Research Council Dietary Guideline Expert Committee.

Adrienne Forsyth receives funding from Research Australia, CSIRO, Rugby Australia, and Inspiro Community Health. She is a member of Dietitians Australia, Sports Dietitians Australia, and Exercise and Sport Science Australia.

– ref. Athletes’ bodies are supposedly temples. So why do so many consume ultra-processed foods? – https://theconversation.com/athletes-bodies-are-supposedly-temples-so-why-do-so-many-consume-ultra-processed-foods-234916

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Teresa Ubide, ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor in Igneous Petrology/Volcanology, The University of Queensland

Imagine you had a crystal ball that revealed when a volcano would next erupt. For the hundreds of millions of people around the world who live near active volcanoes, it would be an extremely useful device.

As it turns out, certain crystals really can help us forecast volcanic eruptions. These crystals are produced in molten rock as it travels from deep inside Earth to the surface.

With increasingly sophisticated scientific methods, we can extract a secret history of volcanoes from these crystals – the why, where and when of past eruptions.

These historical records can help us interpret if signs of volcano unrest, such as earthquakes tracking the movement of magma towards the surface, may lead to an eruption. So, as I explain in a new column in Nature Geoscience, we are getting closer to having crystal balls (for volcanoes, at least).

Volcano crystal balls

Magma, the super-hot molten rock which feeds volcanic eruptions, is generated many tens of kilometres below the surface in Earth’s mantle.

On its journey up to the surface, magma may get stalled in different reservoirs along the way, and travel to its eventual eruption along a complex pathway. As the magma rises it also cools down, producing tiny crystals that can be brought to the surface during eruptions.

When the magma reaches the surface, it can flow – generating lavas – or explode, generating fragmented particles called pyroclasts. Once the lavas and pyroclasts cool down, they form volcanic rocks containing the crystals from great depths.

Our precious crystal balls have survived the hot and complex journey to the surface and the eruption, holding a memory of everything they “saw” inside the volcano.

The crystals look different depending on the mineral that makes them. For example, green olivine is very common in Hawaiian lavas, and white plagioclase can be as large as a square of chocolate in the lavas of Tweed volcano at the border between Queensland and New South Wales.

A very important mineral for understanding volcanoes is called clinopyroxene, which makes shiny black crystals holding particularly precious information.

What do clinopyroxene records look like?

Clinopyroxene crystals are often tiny, the size of a sand grain. But under the microscope, they can show spectacular growth features that record what happens inside the volcano before eruptions.

The crystals grow incrementally in concentric zones, much like tree rings. And just as tree rings contain a record of climate change, the chemistry of clinopyroxene zones changes if the magma environment inside the volcano changes.

The final growth zone at the rim of the crystal is particularly important, as it tells us if the eruption was triggered by new magma rising from the depths. We can even estimate the typical amount of time it takes the magma to reach the surface, for example by measuring the blurring of chemical changes in the crystals while they are inside the volcano.

This information is important for future volcano monitoring, because we can often tell when new magma is rising deep beneath a volcano from earthquakes or changes in the chemistry of the gases the volcano gives off. If we know new magma precedes an eruption, we would have an early warning.

Clinopyroxene crystals can also grow with different compositions in different directions, which gives us even more clues. This is called sector zoning and looks like an hourglass inside the crystal.

It is useful because it tells us the crystal grew relatively quickly, which suggests the magma underwent complex events such as mixing with other magma, convection, rising, or releasing gases before the eruption. When monitoring active volcanoes, we can then look for indirect signs of these processes from the surface to see if an eruption may occur.

It is also important to locate where eruption triggers take place inside the volcano. This can tell us if the depths of earthquakes or deformation are particularly indicative of an upcoming eruption.

How can we measure crystal chemistry to read volcano histories?

The chemistry of clinopyroxene helps with this as well, because it tells us about the pressure conditions at the time of crystallisation, which can be translated into the depth of magma storage below the surface.

Measuring chemical variations in these tiny crystals takes some fancy lab work. We use tools such as hair-thin lasers fired at the volcanic crystals, or synchrotron light from enormous particle accelerators like the one in Melbourne, which can be focused into a beam as small as a bacteria.

This micro-scale analysis helps us extract the magma secrets from the volcanic crystals, to reconstruct the inner anatomy of a volcano as if we were opening a doll’s house.

So next time you hike a volcano, whether in Hawai’i or Iceland, or the Glass House Mountains or Mount Gambier in Australia, look for coloured specks in the rocks. You may be looking at the crystal balls containing the volcano’s history – and clues about its future.

Teresa Ubide works for The University of Queensland. She receives funding from the Australian Research Council and infrastructure funding from AuScope NCRIS.

– ref. Crystals hold a secret history of volcanoes – and clues about future eruptions – https://theconversation.com/crystals-hold-a-secret-history-of-volcanoes-and-clues-about-future-eruptions-234808

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Tregear, Principal Fellow and Professor of Music, The University of Melbourne

The current Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Nicholas Reece, has said that if re-elected he would sell the City of Melbourne’s majority stake in the Regent Theatre and redirect the funds to support, among other things, a new arts festival.

The future of this venue matters. More than just an impressive piece of Melbourne’s heritage architecture – it also supports aspects of the city’s intangible cultural heritage.

A theatre for Melbourne

The Regent was built in the late 1920s as an opulent movie cinema. But as movie going habits changed, along with the rise of television and the dawning of the era of the multiplex, it could not compete.

In 1969, its owners Hoyts Cinemas sold the theatre to the City of Melbourne who closed it the following year.

Plans the council then had to demolish and redevelop the prime inner-city site would have likely succeeded had it not been for the intervention of the infamous Builders Laborers Federation. The union was “convinced that the theatre should be saved and restored”, and banned any demolition work from taking place.

Community sentiment was on their side. Eventually, the State Government and Melbourne City Council came to an agreement with theatre company The Marriner Group whereby it was fully refurbished as a venue for live performance.

The Regent reopened to great success in 1996.

But the fact it was so long under threat of becoming yet another example of Melbourne’s lost heritage demonstrates just how fragile the line can be between a great building’s survival and destruction.

Preserving ‘intangible cultural heritage’

These fights are not just about preserving nice bricks and mortar. They are also about preserving a building’s broader cultural and social function – something explicitly recognised in the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

This 2003 convention acknowledges cultural heritage also encompasses impalpable things like oral traditions, the performing arts, social practices, shared knowledge and traditional craftsmanship.

Australia has not adopted the convention. One of the on-going impacts of that decision is the concept of intangible cultural heritage does not have the kind of prominence or rhetorical force here it arguably should.

In the case of the Regent, it is easy to see how its built form also supports or enhances the kinds of intangible cultural heritage – such as a community’s performing arts traditions – UNESCO found to be worthy of protection.

While the theatre is a commercial operation, under the current ownership structure its principal role as a performing arts venue is not under threat. Would that continue to be the case were it to be entirely in private hands?

A risk to our churches, too

A similar issue of use arises around the fate of our disused churches.

The combined impact of declining church attendance, broader demographic changes, the creation of the Uniting Church in 1977, rising maintenance costs, and the need to fund compensation schemes has resulted in many historic church properties being sold into private hands

The former Methodist Church in Queenscliff is now a single four-bedroom house.

The spectacular 4,800 square metre site of the North Melbourne Uniting Church (including a magnificent pipe organ), was sold last year to an overseas investor, and quickly sold again, also to be turned into a private residence. The nearby Wesleyan Sunday School in Brunswick, is currently being turned into serviced offices.

There is a concurrent loss to the wider community, however, when these transformations away from public access and use occur.

Church buildings have traditionally provided us with a space that can serve as an oasis of calm, peace, and aesthetic beauty in our built environment – whether we are religiously minded or not. They are also often available outside service times for use as a meeting place, a rehearsal or performance venue, a lecture space, or a social event space.

All such uses benefit our broader community and wellbeing, and can also form part of our intangible cultural heritage.

Beyond that, the very existence of a church building is also usually the result of many generations of community investment. Some formal recognition of this investment should be in play when these buildings are sold into private hands.

A much better outcome for a disused church is that which befell St Peters Anglican Church, in the central Victorian town of Carapooee.

When it was put up for sale in 2021, the local community rallied around and raised the funds to buy the property, ensuring the building would still be available for community use.

Preserving both physical and intangible heritage

The fate of the Regent Theatre after it was closed in 1970 is another good example of how imaginative thinking and cooperation between various community stakeholders can help to preserve both a building’s physical fabric, and underlying social function.

Reece told The Sunday Age he was “confident” the space would remain a theatre after sale, but, as the paper also reports, there is no guarantee.

Once buildings fall out of public ownership, they frequently fall out of public use – and risk being lost to the community forever.

This is not just a risk for our theatres and churches. We could add to this list other community-servicing public infrastructure such as schools, town halls and post offices. None should be sold to the highest bidder without a full consideration of the accompanying loss to the community-at-large or their role in supporting our intangiable cultural heritage.

We can then better account for the real cost of sale to the communities these spaces once served.

In the absence of other formal protections, it is perhaps time for governments at all levels to consider introducing formal covenants or other protective measures over community-facing properties like the Regent Theatre. We can thereby help ensure that, alongside their physical form, something of their social function can also be preserved.

Peter Tregear was a founding member of the Friends of the Former Wesleyan Church in Brunswick, now discontinued.

– ref. The future of the Regent Theatre: why we must preserve not only architecture, but also public use of our community spaces – https://theconversation.com/the-future-of-the-regent-theatre-why-we-must-preserve-not-only-architecture-but-also-public-use-of-our-community-spaces-238548

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hazel Easthope, Professor, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney

Ten of Australia’s leading consumer groups have now written to the federal treasurer calling for an urgent inquiry into Australia’s strata management industry.

The open letter from Choice, the Owners Corporation Network, the Australian Consumers Insurance Lobby and seven other groups follows this week’s ABC Four Corners investigation, showing many apartment owners were being ripped off by their strata management firms.

When the ABC asked property owners about suspicious activities in the industry earlier this year, they were flooded with more than 1,000 separate reports in a fortnight.

The allegations include hidden kickbacks from builders and insurance companies, their hidden ownership of companies with which they deal, and indifference to the needs of the property owners who employ them.

Even for us, some of the allegations were shocking. But many were not – because we had just concluded our own separate investigation into strata management. We found an extraordinary array of ethical tensions in the industry.

So what did we find? And what does our research show us needs to happen next?

How many people are potentially affected?

An estimated 16% of Australians – four million people – live in strata and community title properties. They own their own residences but share common ownership of shared spaces, including the buildings and grounds.

All strata owners automatically become members of an owners’ corporation, which is responsible for maintaining and managing the common spaces and usually contracts a strata manager to help with the work.

In practice, individual strata managers are often asked to provide guidance and advice, and can influence how a property is managed.

The developer often chooses a strata manager to work for the owners corporation, so that when individual units are sold or transferred to buyers there is a manager in place.

Although employed as an agent of the owners’ corporation, the strata manager has an opportunity to benefit by securing kickbacks for referrals to service providers and charging brokerage fees for insurance and other contracts.

We found conflicts of interest abound

We’ve spent the past three years investigating how we can rebuild trust in residential building construction in Australia.

Funded by the Australian Research Council, Australia’s professional standards councils, legal firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth, and the Queensland and West Australian governments, our Constructing Building Integrity report, was published just last month.

Our research found uneven – and in places nonexistent – regulation of the strata management industry. This leaves some people living in apartments or other strata title properties ripe for exploitation by unscrupulous operators.

To be clear, not all strata managers are unscrupulous. Many do a good job in difficult circumstances. And some states require strata managers to be licensed or registered and have minimum qualifications – but others do not.

The industry’s national peak body has a code of conduct and complaints process. However, the most serious penalty is a loss of membership and referral to a licensing authority (if one exists).

Strata managers have many bosses

As well as the conflicts raised by their own self-interest, individual strata managers have many “bosses”, including the owners corporation, the strata committee and its individual office holders, the developer who might have hired them in the first place, and regulators.

Each of these “bosses”, who expect the strata manager to respond to its concerns, can exert pressure. But responding to one boss can mean frustrating another. It might even result in avoiding crucial ethical obligations.

An example is the tension between obligations to the owners’ corporation and the interests of the developer who hired the strata manager.

The strata manager might avoid recommending the owners’ corporation take action against the developer over defects as a way of protecting its ability to get future contracts from that developer.

A different tension arises when the strata committee or an individual office bearer instructs the strata manager to do something that is not in the best interests of the owners’ corporation (all unit owners).

The strata manager can have little incentive to resist and defend the owners’ collective interests.

A further tension arises when the owners’ corporation is legally obliged to maintain the property, but is unwilling to do so because of the costs involved.

The strata manager has to balance obligations to the public (and to potential future owners) against its client’s immediate wishes.

Strata managers appointed by an outside tribunal to get a dysfunctional scheme in order experience this tension acutely.

Aggressive competition between strata management firms and work overload further increases the pressure and ethical tensions strata managers face in their day-to-day jobs, as they try to respond to the demands of multiple bosses.

What can be done?

Even before this latest scandal, there were signs the strata management industry was ready for reform.

The New South Wales chapter of the peak industry body, Strata Community Association, adopted a Professional Standards Scheme in 2021.

In response to concerns about what the ABC described as a “decade-long history of self-dealing and conflicts of interest” at the strata management firm Netstrata, in April Strata Community Association Australasia announced a six-point plan to ensure confidence in the industry.

Among the points were mandatory disclosure of contracts with insurers, brokers and software providers, and an independent chair for the association’s complaints and conduct panel.

An independent review of the claims against Netstrata is being undertaken at the request of the NSW Commissioner for Fair Trading.

In June, NSW Fair Trading banned a strata manager for 10 years, in a sign that breaches of obligations are being taken seriously.

More action is needed

While these measures are welcome, they are unlikely to be enough to restore confidence in the industry, especially while professional associations lack the tools needed to obtain evidence and ban people from the industry.

The best approach will probably be co-regulation, with government regulators and professional associations acting as partners, each playing to its strengths.

But increased regulation by itself will not be enough in the context of aggressive competition between firms and the massive amounts of work expected of individual managers.

Giving them legal and contractual frameworks that allow them to push back, along with professional support, will also go a long way.

There’s never been a better time to start fixing things than now.

The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of former West Australian building commissioner Peter Gow, who chaired the steering group for this research project.

Hazel Easthope receives research funding from the Australian Research Council and the Strata Community Association.

Prof Charles Sampford receives funding from Griffith University (funding of his Research Chair in Ethics), from the Australian Research Council (including leading a linkage grant that includes the other authors), from the Professional Standards Authority, from the Blue Economy CRC, and from the Victorian Parliament (as Parliamentary Integrity Adviser).

Hugh Breakey receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the Linkage Project ‘Constructing Building Integrity: Raising standards through professionalism’ (LP190101218).

– ref. Many strata managers who handle apartments are conflicted: here’s how – https://theconversation.com/many-strata-managers-who-handle-apartments-are-conflicted-heres-how-238683

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Conley Tyler, Honorary Fellow, Asia Institute, The University of Melbourne

World Bank president Ajay Banga is in Canberra this week. It’s the first time a World Bank president has visited Australia in seven years.

Why is he here? It goes to the heart of the World Bank’s purpose.

Set up after second world war to fund reconstruction, the World Bank’s modern mission is to create a world free of poverty on a liveable planet. It has 189 member countries .

What does the World Bank do?

The bank funds projects in developing countries through a mix of grants and concessional loans that countries pay back. Last year it provided A$136 billion to 75 nations in grants and loans.

One of its funds, the International Development Agency, supports projects in 76 of the world’s least developed countries.

Through this work 36 countries have graduated from least developed to middle income status, and many, like South Korea, have now become donors themselves.

That means a big part of the World Bank president’s job is securing funding. The International Development Agency fund is currently in a three-yearly “replenishment” round where it seeks contributions from donor countries.

The World Bank has set an ambitious goal of raising about A$44.2 billion from donors who will announce their pledges at the bank’s December meeting.

If it can convince donors to reach this figure, it can leverage this into a A$149.9 billion fund by using its AAA credit rating to borrow further in international capital markets.

Why Australia’s role is important

From the bank’s perspective, Australia plays a significant role. It is a particularly important donor in the Pacific, for example, donating money for a fund which has contributed to a 50% increase in the World Bank’s Pacific-based staff and a seven-fold increase in its projects in the region.

This supports more than 95 projects on agriculture, digital development, education, fisheries, health, renewable energy, transport and employment.

Compared to other countries, Australia gives a relatively low proportion of its development funding through multilateral bodies like the World Bank – directing more of its funding through bilateral channels.

The World Bank needs a coalition of countries including Australia to make big pledges to fund the bank’s work.

Who is Ajay Banga?

Banga is not your typical appointment, having being born and grown up in a developing country and taking on the presidency which is traditionally held by an American. He is an American citizen.

He comes from business, having previously been president and CEO of Mastercard, as well as roles with PepsiCo, Citigroup and Nestlé in India. He was chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce.

He is known for his work at Mastercard launching the Centre for Inclusive Growth, which advances equitable and sustainable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world.

He also stands out compared to his predecessor on climate change. He added the words “on a livable planet” to the World Bank’s mission.

As well as visiting Australia on this trip, he has been to Fiji and Tuvalu where he saw the devastation caused by climate change first-hand.

With this background – and access to all the World Bank’s facts and figures – he has a sense of the lived reality of people’s lives and the gravest dangers to this planet.

Banga’s top priorities

This week the president said “jobs” was his top priority.

In little more than a decade, 1.2 billion young people worldwide will be of job-seeking age, according to figures he presented to think tank, the Lowy Institute. With current forecasts of 400-500 million jobs likely to be created, there’s a huge gap.

That means there’s an urgent need to create jobs so these young people don’t become a migration, drugs or conflict problem.

Banga said we need “governments, philanthropies and multilateral development banks working together” to produce more jobs.

It’s a reminder why it is so important for a developed country like Australia to invest in development aid to create a stable, prosperous region and wider world.

Dealing with global poverty is preventive. It’s cheaper and easier to invest in electricity, health care and education now than with the costs of instability or chaos later.

The good news is the world’s investments in development have led to a sharp reduction in global poverty since 1981. Banga’s message to Australia is

Ultimately the World Bank is an instrument that reflects the ambition of those on whose generosity it relies, and the progress we aspire to achieve demands more.

Melissa Conley Tyler is Executive Director at the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue (AP4D), an initiative funded by the foreign affairs and defence portfolios and hosted by the Australian Council for International Development. She met with Ajay Banda as part of his visit.

– ref. 1.2 billion young people will need a job in the next 10 years. The World Bank is trying to help them find one – https://theconversation.com/1-2-billion-young-people-will-need-a-job-in-the-next-10-years-the-world-bank-is-trying-to-help-them-find-one-238587

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pep Canadell, Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO Environment; Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, CSIRO

The goal of the 2021 Global Methane Pledge is bold: cut methane emissions by 30% by the end of the decade. This is to buy us vital time to work on cutting carbon dioxide emissions. Over 150 nations have now signed up to the pledge – representing more than half of the world’s emissions of an extremely potent but short-lived greenhouse gas.

To put the pledge into action, many leaders announced policies to cut methane. However, the latest research shows global methane emissions are still rising rapidly. Atmospheric concentrations are now growing faster than at any other time since global record-keeping began about 40 years ago.

These findings are published today in our fourth global methane budget, in a paper and pre-print research undertaken through the Global Carbon Project, with contributions from 66 research institutions around the world.

Natural sources of methane include decaying organic matter in wetlands. But humans have supercharged methane emissions. We tracked changes in all major sources and sinks of this potent greenhouse gas and found humans are now responsible for two-thirds or more of all global emissions.

This is a problem, but we can improve upon it. Cutting methane emissions is one of the best and only short-term levers we can pull to slow the rate of climate change.

Why is methane so important?

After carbon dioxide, methane is the second most important greenhouse gas contributing to human-driven global warming.

Although human activities emit much less methane than carbon dioxide in real terms, methane has a hidden punch – it’s 80 times as effective as CO₂ in trapping heat in the first two decades after it reaches the atmosphere.

Since the pre-industrial era, the world has heated up by 1.2°C (taken as an average of the past 10 years). Methane is responsible for about 0.5°C of warming, according to the latest reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

In the atmosphere, methane rapidly mixes with oxygen and converts into carbon dioxide and water. By contrast, carbon dioxide is a much more stable molecule and will stay in the atmosphere, trapping heat, for thousands of years until absorbed by ocean and plants.

The combination of short lifespan and extreme potency make methane an excellent candidate for efforts to rapidly tackle climate change.

Methane is not slowing

In the early-to-mid-2000s, methane emissions growth rates actually fell. Analyses suggest it was driven by a combination of reduced fossil fuels emissions and chemical changes in the atmosphere’s capacity to destroy methane.

Since then, however, methane has surged. Methane emissions from human activities increased by 50-60 million tonnes per year over the two decades to 2018-2020 – a 15-20% increase.

This doesn’t mean atmospheric methane goes up by the same amount, as methane is constantly being broken down.

During the 2000s, an extra 6.1 million tonnes of methane entered the atmosphere each year. By the 2010s, the rate of growth was 20.9 million tonnes. In 2020, growth hit 42 million tonnes. Since then, methane has been added even more rapidly. Growth rates are now higher than any previously observed year.

Where does the methane come from?

Human activities such as farming livestock, coal mining, extracting and handling natural gas, growing rice in paddies, and putting organic waste in landfills contribute about 65% of all methane emissions. Of this, agriculture (livestock and rice paddies) contributes 40%, fossil fuels 36%, and landfills and wastewater 17%.

Methane emissions from fossil fuels are now comparable to livestock emissions. The fastest growing contributors are from landfill and fossil fuels (think natural gas escaping during extraction and processing).

Our impact is even higher when we account for indirect emissions such as the leaching of organic matter into waterways and wetlands, the construction of reservoirs, and the impacts of human-driven climate change on wetlands.

In 2020, human activities led to emissions of between 370 and 384 million tonnes of methane.

The remaining emissions come from natural sources, primarily the decomposition of plant matter in wetlands, rivers, lakes, and water-saturated soils. Tropical wetlands are particularly large emitters. The world’s large areas of permafrost (permanently frozen ground) also produce methane, but at relatively low rates. As permafrost melts due to higher temperatures, this is changing.

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Who emits most? By volume, the top five nations in 2020 were China (16%), India (9%), the United States (7%), Brazil (6%) and Russia (5%). The fastest-growing areas are China, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

European nations have begun to lower their emissions over the last two decades, due to efforts to cut emissions from landfill and waste, followed by smaller cuts in fossil fuels and farming. Australia may also be lowering emissions mainly from farming and waste.

What does this mean for net zero?

Unchecked methane emissions are bad news. Recent observed atmospheric concentrations of methane are consistent with climate scenarios with up to 3°C of warming by 2100.

To keep global temperatures well-below 2°C – the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement – means cutting methane emissions as rapidly as possible. Methane has to be cut almost in half (45%) by 2050 to achieve that goal.

It’s not an impossible problem. We now have have methods of rapidly cutting methane for every sector.

The oil and gas sector could cut their emissions 40% at no net cost, according to the International Energy Agency.

In agriculture, we can achieve rapid reductions by feed additives to reduce methane belched from cows, sheep, goats and buffalo, and by mid-season drainage in rice paddies.

Capturing landfill methane and using it for energy production or heat is now well established.

Three years ago, the world committed to slash methane emissions. Our findings show that we need to rapidly accelerate solutions across the globe to address and reduce methane emissions.

Pep Canadell receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program-Climate Systems Hub.

Marielle Saunois receives funding from the French agency for research (ANR, Agence National de Recherche.

Rob Jackson receives funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the United Nations Environment Programme, and Stanford University.

– ref. Methane emissions are at new highs. It could put us on a dangerous climate path – https://theconversation.com/methane-emissions-are-at-new-highs-it-could-put-us-on-a-dangerous-climate-path-237809

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sebastian Chekunov, PhD Candidate, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide

Trade in “exotic” pets from foreign countries is a global multibillion-dollar industry. Australian species are highly sought after.

Australia banned the commercial export of all live native animals in 1982. But once wildlife is taken out of the country, these laws no longer apply. Many species can be legally traded without restrictions once they are beyond our borders.

In our new research, we found 163 Australian reptile species and seven frogs traded as pets overseas. That’s more than one in six (16%) of all Australian reptile species – and around 3% of Australian frogs.

While many species may be bred in captivity to supply the pet trade, seizure records show some are still illegally taken from the wild. We need to deploy more sophisticated methods to monitor the booming online trade. Australia must also enlist the support of other countries to monitor the wildlife trade and identify those species most at risk for greater protection.

What we did and what we found

We scoured the web for evidence of online trade in Australian reptiles and amphibians worldwide. This included monitoring online stores and forums, including classified advertisements. We probed both the surface web – the pages readily available to the general public such as pet stores, public forums and public social media – and the deep web, which can’t be searched by standard search engines. It includes private forums and password-protected or special-access social media sites.

Web scrapers automated our data collection and machine learning helped sift through the data for relevant information.

We also extracted data from published papers, trade databases and seizure records.

We found Australian species being sold on 152 websites and 27 social media pages, particularly in the United States and Europe.

The most commonly traded species were bearded dragons, goannas such as the ridgetail monitor, and a range of geckos including barking and knob-tail geckos.

Wildlife smugglers

As species become rarer, their value to smugglers goes up. A species with only a few hundred individuals left in the wild can command very high prices. Unscrupulous traders often attempt to get around the law and smuggle rare and unique reptiles out of Australia.

A police bust in New South Wales this year found more than 250 lizards destined for illegal export, worth up to A$1.2 million.

But this is not the first time, and it won’t be the last. Years of seizure records show ongoing smuggling of Australian wildlife. Some species, such as the shingleback skink, are routinely targeted by poachers and smugglers, while others may be victims of opportunity.

Our research found smugglers have tried to take 58 reptile and three frog species out of Australia since the export ban was introduced. It’s likely many more have never been caught.

Regulating global trade

The main international approach to regulating trade in wildlife is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES.

This is an agreement between 184 governments to ensure international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten species’ survival.

For a species to be covered under this agreement, it has to be added to one of three lists (known as Appendix I, II, and III), according to the degree of protection needed. Appendix I species have the highest level of protection.

In 2022, Australia added 127 lizard species to Appendix III.

It was the first big listing of Australian reptiles in the convention’s history. But at the time of the listing, there had been no comprehensive study of Australian reptiles and frogs in global trade. It is unclear how those species were selected.

Appendix III is used for monitoring trade rather than restricting it. Australian authorities can watch to see if trade is threatening any of these species and upgrade the listing if so.

Just over half of the Australian species we identified in our study are now covered by the convention. Most (64%) of these were added in 2022.

That means a large portion of Australian reptiles (and all Australian frogs) remain unregulated and unmonitored in the international market. We recommend the Australian government consider listing these remaining species in Appendix III. We specifically recommend listing gecko species in the Diplodactylidae family, which make up the largest group of species in trade. We also recommend listing any species classified as threatened or endangered.

Improving surveillance

Our study also showcases emerging online trade surveillance methods through the use of web scrapers.

As the online pet trade grows, these methods will improve and become more effective for capturing trade, including trade that has circumvented the convention and other regulations. We found almost 90% of traded Australian reptiles and frogs have been advertised online at some point.

Protect Australian reptiles and frogs

Australia banned native wildlife from commercial export to protect species from exploitation. Yet seizure records show some are still being illegally harvested from the wild.

Given the covert nature of this illegal trade, there is no way of determining exactly how many animals are poached or which species are targeted. But by monitoring trade beyond Australian borders, we can uncover patterns and determine if trade poses a threat to any native Australian species.

Our study provides the first comprehensive overview of trade in Australian reptiles and frogs worldwide. Ongoing monitoring is needed to ensure this trade poses no threat to survival of these species.

We encourage the Australian government to list more species under the convention and deploy more sophisticated online surveillance methods. Now we know which species are traded overseas, we need to ensure the trade is sustainable.

Phill Cassey receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions.

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

– ref. We found one in six Australian reptile species traded as pets overseas, despite the export ban – https://theconversation.com/we-found-one-in-six-australian-reptile-species-traded-as-pets-overseas-despite-the-export-ban-229723

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

The federal opposition has torpedoed Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ attempt to get a bipartisan deal to install a specialist monetary policy board in the Reserve Bank, claiming the reform would enable the treasurer to “stack” the new board.

Chalmers said shadow treasurer Angus Taylor had been “rolled again” by his colleagues.

Negotiations for an agreement have been underway for months. Chalmers recently said agreement was close and he hoped to have the new structure operation at the start of next year.

He will now explore a deal with the Greens, who will hold out for their own concessions.

The change, recommended by the independent review of the bank, said there should be two boards instead of the present one. The second would oversee the bank’s general administration.

The opposition has used last week’s controversy over Chalmers’ comment that interest rate rises were “smashing” the economy to justify withdrawing from negotiating a bipartisan agreement.

Taylor said “we don’t want a sack and stack strategy”.

Chalmers released a detailed timeline of the extensive talks he had had with Taylor. During the negotiations Chalmers gave considerable ground to the opposition.

Chalmers said Taylor had raised six issues and he had accommodated all of them.

“He wanted the chair of the governance board to be the governor, and I facilitated that.

“He wanted flexibility in term limits, and I’ve facilitated that as well.

“He wanted senior RBA executives to have oversight of the operation. I made sure that the deputy governor was a member of the governance board.

“He wanted to ensure that the dual mandate should exclude references to equal weight, and so I made sure that the legislation and the Statement on Conduct don’t mention equal weight for the dual mandate.

“He asked that Section 11 [that allows the treasurer to override the board] be retained. I’m proposing that we retain section 11 and focus it more appropriately.

“He asked that all current members of the RBA board should move to the monetary policy board, and I proposed an amendment so that all current board members move to the monetary policy board unless they don’t want to.”

Chalmers said he had even started to consult Taylor on possible appointments to the board. “So he knows I have absolutely no intention of making political appointments to these boards.”

Chalmers said Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock supported the reform.

“This shows the Coalition were never serious on Reserve Bank reform.”

On another front, the Coalition is continuing to string out negotiations on the government’s aged care proposals, seeking further points and clarifications. The government had hoped that the plan would go to the Coalition party room on Tuesday but it did not.

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. Coalition torpedoes bipartisan deal on Reserve Bank monetary policy board – https://theconversation.com/coalition-torpedoes-bipartisan-deal-on-reserve-bank-monetary-policy-board-238685

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Faith Gordon, Associate Professor in Law, Australian National University

The vast expanse of internet connectivity, online media, social media platforms, gaming platforms, and new forms and uses of artificial intelligence (AI) have opened enormous opportunities for commerce and communication.

The sheer convenience and ubiquity of online connectivity have made the internet a new way of life for nearly everyone in the 21st century. This is especially the case for children, whose social lives have almost entirely migrated online.

As my research on digital childhoods demonstrates, this realm of online communication has also created disturbing opportunities for harms to children.

These harms have concerned politicians, with the government announcing a plan to impose a minimum age for children accessing social media and gaming platforms.

As digital natives, children are part of the solution. In a discussion dominated by adults, my research looks at what kids think about the harms they experience and how to prevent them.

New forms of harm

The explosive emergence and multiplication of online harms poses serious threats to the safety and wellbeing of children. Harms facilitated by generative AI are just one example.

In a study I conducted involving participants in Australia and in the United Kingdom and in-depth interviews on the experiences of 42 children in the UK, children reported they were experiencing:

• cyberbullying

• unwanted contact

• unwanted content

• grooming

• exploitation.

Some young people say the harm caused by deepfakes, eating disorder videos, sextortion, child sexual exploitation material, misogynistic content, scams and other forms of online harm are having long-lasting effects on their mental health.

We need to keep holding AI and tech developers, companies and social media owners to account. These are commercial services and companies – ultimately, people are making a profit while children are experiencing harm.

For instance, Harvard Medical School’s study estimates social media companies are making billions of dollars from US children’s use of online platforms.

A recent global report from Human Rights Watch exposed serious violations of the privacy of children. Australian children’s images, names, locations and ages were being harvested and used without permission to train artificial intelligence (AI) models.

The report’s author urged the federal government to “urgently adopt laws to protect children’s data from AI-fuelled misuse”.

Regulatory catchup

In June 2024, Australia’s attorney-general introduced a bill in parliament to create new criminal offences to ban the sharing of non-consensual deepfake sexually explicit material. In relation to children, this would continue to be treated as child abuse material under the criminal code.

A Senate committee released its report on the bill last month. It recommended the bill pass, subject to recommendations. One recommendation was “that the Education Ministers Meeting continues to progress their work to strengthen respectful relationships in schools”.

The federal government’s approach has been critiqued by Human Rights Watch. It argues it “misses the deeper problem that children’s personal data remains unprotected from misuse, including the non-consensual manipulation of real children’s likenesses into any kind of deepfake”.

We are still awaiting reforms to the Privacy Act and the development of the first Children’s Online Privacy Code.

What can we do to help?

While these wheels of reform turn slowly, we need to urgently continue to work together to come up with solutions. Evidenced-based media reporting, campaigns and educational programs play key roles.

Children and young people say they want to be part of developing the solution to tackling online harms. They already do important work supporting and educating their peers. I refer to this as “digital siblingship”.

My research calls for greater recognition of young people for the role they play in protecting, promoting, and encouraging other children to know their rights online.

Children want the adults, governments and tech companies to swiftly act to prevent and address harms online.

However, a lot of parents, guardians, carers and grandparents report feeling a step behind on technology. This means they can feel at a loss to know what to do to protect, but also empower, the children in their lives.

Adults should talk with children about online safety often, not just when something’s gone wrong. These discussions should not lay blame, but open communication and create safe boundaries together.

Children feel better education and training for their peer group and for the adults in their lives is essential.

In the classroom, children suggest peer-led training on online safety would be more effective. They want other young people to educate, train and support them in learning about and navigating online platforms.

But education should not just be happening in schools. It needs to extend well beyond the classroom.

Policymakers, educators, regulators and the mainstream media need to commit to equipping all Australians with the most up to date information, knowledge and education on these issues. The companies need to comply with the law, regulations, standards and commit to being more transparent.

In an era where digital landscapes shape childhood experiences, safeguarding children from online harms requires a collective commitment to strategies which promote vigilance, education, and proactive regulation. We must ensure children are empowered to thrive in a secure and supportive online environment.

Faith Gordon currently receives funding from The Australian Research Council. Faith Gordon has also received funding from the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration, The Social Switch Project in the UK and was an academic consultant for one project with Encorys in the UK.

– ref. Kids are digital natives. They have ideas to help protect children from being harmed online – https://theconversation.com/kids-are-digital-natives-they-have-ideas-to-help-protect-children-from-being-harmed-online-237869

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Crozier-De Rosa, Professor in History, University of Wollongong

At 16, Kathryn Joy applied for a passport. To do this, they had to obtain their mother’s death certificate. After growing up in a house in which their father had killed their mother – an act he refused to talk about – Kathryn learned exactly how their mother had died: “gunshot wound to the head”.

The bare brutality of this information shocked them into looking anew at their father, escaping from small town to big city, spiralling into trauma-induced mental anguish, and embarking on a journey of self-discovery through tracing their family’s violent history.

Eight years of this journey are documented in the new Australian documentary Killjoy.

At home alone with a woman-killer

On January 31 1985, Allan James Stuckey fatally shot his wife, Carolyn Joy Stuckey, in their home in Lismore, New South Wales. Carolyn was 32. She had been having an affair with a fellow member of her local theatre club. Stuckey phoned the police to inform them he had killed his wife.

Carolyn’s and Allan’s three young children were in the house at the time of the shooting. They were entrusted to the sole care of their father in the long period between him being charged and being tried. He was found guilty of manslaughter.

After serving 22 months in prison, they were returned to his care.

For some years, Kathryn – by all accounts a physical likeness of their mother – lived alone with a woman-killer.

Finding a woman’s life in the historical archives

Carolyn’s brief story has all the ingredients of a tragic melodrama, but while the spectre of her death is ever-present (at one point eerily portrayed via film footage of her performing as the dead wife making ghostly visitations to her husband in Noël Coward’s play, Blythe Spirit) this is not Killjoy’s focus.

Rather, the narrative is held together by two investigative processes: finding out about how Carolyn had lived, as well as died; and understanding how to travel through, and with, pain and vulnerability to a place of fullness and purpose.

As all historians who try to trace the lives of women are aware, women still tend to be identified more with the private, domestic sphere. Because of this, it is more difficult to find their voices in public records.

Even when they are part of public conversation, their experiences are often mediated through a male lens. Controversies in recent years about how the media reports women’s deaths at the hands of their intimate partners have exposed this issue and have led to more sensitive reporting, including a decrease in “victim-blaming” and “perpetrator excusing” portrayals.

As Kathryn was to discover, through past newspapers and interviews with Carolyn’s former friends, this was not the case in the 1980s. Carolyn was the “scarlet woman” and Allan the “poor chap”. Their mother’s killer successfully pleaded “provocation” as a partial defence, hence the offensively brief prison sentence.

The film takes us with Kathryn as they trace their own history, irrevocably intertwined with that of their mother, through a patchwork of school photographs, theatre scrapbooks, prison letters, scrolls of microfiche, personal interviews, video diaries, text messages, extracts of letters (both loving and threatening), court transcripts, expert testimonies, new friendships, memorial stones and grief rituals.

The result is a unique journey into the inner turmoil, development, hopes and passions of a beautiful sensitive mind struggling to understand themselves against an ongoing backdrop of gender violence and political activism.

Control and killjoys

Ultimately, Killjoy is a story about control.

Provocation still exists as a partial defence in New South Wales, Queensland, the ACT and the Northern Territory. But even in the states where it has been abolished, men still cite a loss of control when trying to excuse themselves of woman-killing.

Women do not control their fates when an unconscionable number of them continue to die at the hands of their intimate partners – there have been 47 violent deaths in Australia by September 6 this year.

The Australian government has committed itself to a National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children by 2032. Of specific relevance to Kathryn’s story as a child who experienced domestic homicide, it has pledged A$80 million to “trauma-informed support for children and young people to promote recovery and intervene early to prevent inter-generational violence”.

Hope is warranted – although this does not ameliorate the critical need for continued activism.

The film closes with Kathryn’s claim that, while not “cured”, had they the chance, they would tell their mum that their life is “so full” now. A gender violence researcher and activist, they have reached the stage where they embrace the label “feminist killjoy”, a reference to theorist Sara Ahmed’s concept of the justice warrior who gladly disrupts people’s blissful and/or wilful ignorance by calling out sexism, racism and more.

While the “killjoy” element of the film is a little undercooked, appearing as it does in the title and only again in brief commentary at the end, Killjoy is a raw, emotional production that allows viewers a privileged insight into how the personal is political, and into the personal made public.

Killjoy is now streaming on Stan.

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

Sharon Crozier-De Rosa receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. The documentary Killjoy captures the personal and the political of family violence and gender activism – https://theconversation.com/the-documentary-killjoy-captures-the-personal-and-the-political-of-family-violence-and-gender-activism-238546

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Golding, Associate Professor, Swinburne University of Technology

It is difficult to imagine a world of pop culture villains without Darth Vader.

The masked and cloaked figure now casts perhaps the longest shadow of any film character on popular culture. When Vader first appeared on screen in 1977, audiences recognised something elemental, and reportedly did something that hadn’t been done since the days of Vaudeville and silent cinema: instinctively, they hissed.

One look at Vader and you recognise a cinematic villain. Beyond the visual, every element of Vader builds the perfect bad guy. There’s that voice, provided by James Earl Jones, who died today at age 93. There are the lines – “I am your father”. Then there’s that theme tune by John Williams, a piece of music so well loved that it’s often forgotten that it wasn’t written until the second Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back in 1980.

George Lucas created Darth Vader in the earliest drafts of the original Star Wars script, after completing American Graffiti in the early 1970s, describing him as a “a tall, grim-looking general”. Lucas was inspired by comic books and the serial shorts of the 1940s like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.

When it came time to film Star Wars, Lucas hired an English bodybuilder and strongman, David Prowse, to fill out the suit. Yet Prowse spoke with a strong Devonshire accent, earning him the nickname “Darth Farmer” on set.

Lucas searched for a replacement voice to be dubbed over Prowse, and, after asking Orson Welles finally settled on the profoundly sonorous James Earl Jones.

Prowse, who had hoped to voice the lines himself like Anthony Daniels had for C-3PO, had a strained relationship with Lucas from that moment on, and when Vader was unmasked at the end of Return of the Jedi in 1983, it was English stage actor Sebastian Shaw who appeared to deliver the character’s final lines.

Vader’s mythos

Vader has always been a composite character. Despite being one of the most famous parents in the galaxy, he has many different creators.

Lucas, Prowse and Jones are joined by Williams, but also Ralph McQuarrie, the concept artist whose dramatic images defined the character, and Ben Burtt, the sound designer whose breathing through a scuba mask you hear whenever Vader is on screen.

Vader’s mythos has also been built over the years through actor Hayden Christensen’s appearances in the prequel films and recent Disney+ series.

In popular culture, Vader has become a useful shorthand to describe everything from being a bad dad to a political villain. When Ronald Reagan proposed his Strategic Defense Initiative, nicknamed “Star Wars” by the press, newspapers ran cartoons of him as Vader.

Dick Cheney called himself the “Darth Vader of the Bush administration,” defiantly wearing the villainous mantle. Here in Australia, then-Federal Minister Christopher Pyne went up against Vader as the Empire’s chief fixer.

The voice lives on

That James Earl Jones was the only black actor in the original Star Wars film was not lost on viewers at the time.

Astronomer Carl Sagan criticised Star Wars on the Johnny Carson show in 1978:

they’re all white […] not even all the colours represented on the Earth are present, much less greens and blues and purples and oranges.

More recently, Melissa Harris Perry observed that Vader is voiced by a black man while villainous, but portrayed by a white man when redeemed.

Jones’ passing marks the end of an era for Vader as a character. Yet death has always been as central to the Star Wars franchise as its impermanence. After all, Ben Kenobi’s death in the very first Star Wars film has not stopped the character from appearing in almost every subsequent film and gaining his own spin-off TV series.

“If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine,” he says to Vader.

Then there’s Han Solo, whose character was killed off in The Force Awakens in 2015 before getting a dedicated film, Solo, just two years later.

So it may be with James Earl Jones and Vader. In 2022, fans were surprised to hear the ageing Jones appear as the voice of Vader in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

It was later revealed Jones had signed over the rights to his archival voice work to Lucasfilm, and his performance had been created from that work using AI startup Respeecher, opening the possibility of infinite future appearances.

Voiced by Jones or not, it is clear Vader has become one of popular culture’s most enduring villains. We will certainly hear more from him in the future – even if he is more machine now than man.

Dan Golding 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. James Earl Jones has died – but as the voice of Darth Vader, he will live forever – https://theconversation.com/james-earl-jones-has-died-but-as-the-voice-of-darth-vader-he-will-live-forever-238678