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

Federal education Minister Jason Clare has released the highly-anticipated Universities Accord final report, billing it as a “blueprint” to change higher education for decades to come.

It is the first broad review of the sector since 2008. As The University of Melbourne’s Gwilym Croucher has noted it “could mean the most significant changes to higher education in a generation”.

More than a year in the making, the final report is 400 pages and contains 47 recommendations.

Where did it come from?

The Universities Accord started as a pre-election promise when Labor was in opposition. In 2021, then Labor education spokesperson Tanya Plibersek proposed to

seek to end some of the political bickering over higher education policy by establishing an Australian universities accord.

As higher education expert Gavin Moodie has written, the name invokes the landmark Prices and Incomes Accord, negotiated by the Hawke government and union movement.

But when the accord process was set up by Clare in November 2022, the emphasis was more on creating “lasting reform” and a “long-term plan” for higher education.

Clare appointed an expert panel to undertake a review for the accord. It has been led by Mary O’Kane, former vice-chancellor of the University of Adelaide and includes former Labor minister Jenny Macklin and former Nationals minister Fiona Nash.

What has happened so far?

The review has involved more than 820 public submissions and 180 meetings with stakeholders. It has covered almost every aspect of higher education from student fees, to research, teaching, student and staff welfare, and international students.

The emphasis from the government and review team has been on ideas that can last for decades.

O’Kane called on contributors to “be bold. Think big and think beyond the immediate challenges”. An interim report was released in July, seeking feedback on more than 70 “spiky” policy ideas, such as a levy on international student fees (which is noticeably missing from the final document).

What’s in the final report?

The final report finds “significant change” is needed in higher education if Australia is going to have the skills and knowledge it needs to support its economy and society. It sets “ambitious targets”, including:

• increasing the tertiary education attainment rate from the current 60% to at least 80% of Australians in the workforce by 2050

• increasing the proportion of university educated Australians aged 25 to 34 from 45% to 55% by 2050.

It says to achieve this increase, the government will need to more than double the number of Commonwealth supported students at university from 860,000 to 1.8 million by 2050.

This is going to require more people from disadvantaged backgrounds (including Indigenous students, students in regional areas and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds) to go to university. The review wants to see these students achieve “participation parity” by 2050.

Read more:
These 5 equity ideas should be at the heart of the Universities Accord

More financial help for students

Other recommendations cover support for students on the way through their study as well as what happens to their loans once they graduate. These include:

• a “jobs broker” to help university students find part-time work and work experience

• increased availability of free-free preparation courses for university

• financial support for compulsory work placements

• “higher and more accessible” income support for university students

• ditching the Job-ready Graduates scheme (which made arts degrees so expensive) and replacing it with course fees based on students’ lifetime earnings

• “fairer and simpler” indexation for HELP loans.

International students

The review notes how important international students are to Australia’s economy and higher education sector (international education is Australia’s fourth largest export). The report calls for

• less reliance on just a handful of source countries

• more international students studying in regional campuses.

Read more:
We are hurtling towards a million international students in Australia – migration changes will only slow this growth, not stop it

Funding

While it didn’t include precise dollar figures in the report, the review made multiple recommendations around funding arrangements in different parts of the system. These include:

• new targets for how much Australia spends on research and development as a proportion of GDP

• a fund to support universities to solve challenges facing Australia

• developing a “pathway” to fund the “full economic cost of research”

• a new “needs based” funding system that provides extra funding to universities for educating students from disadvantaged backgrounds

• and a “Higher Education Future Fund” with contributions from universities and government to build infrastructure (like student housing).

Read more:
Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt’s big ideas for how Australia funds and uses research

What happens now?

Ultimately, the review panel wants to see a new Australian Tertiary Education Commission set up to oversee the reforms and the sector as a whole.

But it does not recommend quick change. Rather, it initially calls for a committee to oversee implementation and for a “staged approach”.

The federal government, (which has had the report since December) is now “considering” the recommendations. Clare is already managing expectations about timing. As he said on Sunday:

This is a plan not for one budget, but a blueprint for the next decade and beyond.

– ref. Universities Accord final report: what is it, and what does it recommend? – https://theconversation.com/universities-accord-final-report-what-is-it-and-what-does-it-recommend-224251

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dwan Vilcins, Group leader, Environmental Epidemiology, Children’s Health Environment Program, The University of Queensland

Bushfires are currently burning in Australian states including Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia. In some areas, fire authorities have warned residents about the presence of smoke.

Bushfire smoke is harmful to our health. Tiny particles of ash can lodge deep in the lungs.

Exposure to this type of smoke may worsen existing conditions such as asthma, and induce a range of health effects from irritation of the eyes, nose and throat to changes in the cardiovascular system.

Public health recommendations during smoke events tend to provide general advice, and don’t often include advice specifically geared at children. But children are not just little adults. They are uniquely vulnerable to environmental hazards such as bushfire smoke for a number of reasons.

Different physiology, different behaviour

Children’s lungs are still developing and maturing.

Airways are smaller in children, especially young children, which is associated with greater rates of particle deposition – when particles settle on the surfaces of the airways.

Children also breathe more air per kilogram of body weight compared with adults, and therefore inhale more polluted air relative to their size.

Further, children’s detoxification systems are still developing, so environmental toxins take longer to effectively clear from their bodies.

Read more:
The Black Summer bushfires put an enormous strain on families with young children. We can’t make the same mistakes again

Meanwhile, children’s behaviour and habits may expose them to more environmental toxins than adults. For example, they tend to do more physical activity and spend more time outdoors. Higher levels of physical activity lead to more air inhaled per kilogram of body weight.

Also, a normal and important part of children’s early play is exploring their environment, including by putting things in their mouth. This can result in kids ingesting soil, dust and dirt, which often contain environmental contaminants.

For these reasons, it’s important to consider the specific needs of children when providing advice on what to do when there’s smoke in the air.

Keeping our environments healthy

The Australian government offers recommendations for minimising the health risks from exposure to bushfire smoke. The main advice includes staying indoors and keeping doors and windows closed.

This is great advice when the smoke is thick outside, but air pollutants may still accumulate inside the home. So it’s important to air your home once the smoke outside starts to clear. Take advantage of wind changes to open up and get air moving out of the house with a cross breeze.

Kids are natural scientists, so get them involved. For example, you and your child can “rate” the air each hour by looking at a landmark outside your home and rating how clearly you can see it. When you notice the haze is reducing, open up the house and clear the air.

Read more:
Bushfires in Victoria: how to protect yourself if the air is smoky where you live

Because air pollutants settle onto surfaces in our home and into household dust, an easy way to protect kids during smoky periods is to do a daily dust with a wet cloth and vacuum regularly. This will remove pollutants and reduce ingestion by children as they play. Frequent hand washing helps too.

Healthy bodies and minds

Research exploring the effects of bushfire smoke exposure on children’s health is sparse. However, during smoke events, we do see an increase in hospital visits for asthma, as well as children reporting irritation to their eyes, nose and throat.

If your child has asthma or another medical condition, ensure they take any prescribed medications on a regular schedule to keep their condition well controlled. This will minimise the risk of a sudden worsening of their symptoms with bushfire smoke exposure.

Make sure any action plans for symptom flare-ups are up to date, and ensure you have an adequate supply of in-date medication somewhere easy to locate and access.

Kids can get worried during bushfires, and fire emergencies have been linked with a reduction in children’s mental health. Stories such as the Birdie’s Tree books can help children understand these events do pass and people help one another in times of difficulty.

Learning more about air pollution can help too. Our group has a children’s story explaining how air pollution affects our bodies and what can help.

It’s also important for parents and caregivers not to get too stressed, as children cope better when their parents manage their own anxiety and help their children do the same. Try to strike a balance between being vigilant and staying calm.

Read more:
Bushfires can make kids scared and anxious: here are 5 steps to help them cope

What about masks?

N95 masks can protect the wearer from fine particles in bushfire smoke, but their use is a bit complicated when it comes to kids. Most young children won’t be able to fit properly into an N95 mask, or won’t tolerate the tight fit for long periods. Also, their smaller airways make it harder for young children to breathe through a mask.

If you choose to use an N95 mask for your children, it’s best to save them for instances when high-level outdoor exposure is unavoidable, such as if you’re going outside when the smoke is very thick.

N95 masks should be replaced after around four hours or when they become damp.

If your child has an existing heart or lung condition, consult their doctor before having them wear an N95 mask.

Our team is currently recruiting for a study exploring the effects of bushfire smoke in children. If you live in south east Queensland and are interested in participating in the event of a bushfire or hazard reduction burn near your home, please express your interest here.

Dwan Vilcins receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Nicholas Osborne has received speaking fees from Reckitt.

Paul D. Robinson receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

– ref. Bushfire smoke affects children differently. Here’s how to protect them – https://theconversation.com/bushfire-smoke-affects-children-differently-heres-how-to-protect-them-215535

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edith Jennifer Hill, Associate Lecturer, Flinders University

Mother and family YouTube creator Ruby Franke was this week sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse.

Franke came under fire from viewers many times throughout her time on YouTube for her controversial parenting, which included videos of withholding food from the children, or sharing she made her son sleep on a bean bag for seven months after pranking his younger brother.

In court, prosecutor Eric Clarke said “the children were regularly denied food, water, beds to sleep in, and virtually all forms of entertainment”.

Now, nine years after the channel started, Franke and her friend and business partner Jodi Hilderbrandt are going to prison.

Family channels are very popular on YouTube, with millions of subscribers. They feature the intimate lives of a family, are most often run by the mothers and focus on everyday family life: school, food, parenting, and occasionally discipline.

Family channels have been consistently scrutinised by the media and others online for sharing the lives of children online without their consent. While the Franke case is an extreme example, it raises important questions about sharing children’s lives online.

‘Sharenting’

Parents sharing – or, more often, oversharing – information about their children online has been called “sharenting”. Sharenting allows parents to publicly post about their children and receive praise and validation, while also providing a sense of community. Many parents online share information in low-risk ways on their private social media accounts.

However, when influencers share their children to their massive public platforms, the risks are magnified.

Read more:
Should I post photos of my children online? Here’s what new parents need to know about sharenting

Researchers worry about how this level of sharing is taking away agency from children and how it creates an online life story for them to which they cannot consent. There are also real risks of sharing children to potential predators online, with concerns about videos being saved or embedded into unsavoury websites.

To combat some of these risks, YouTube recommends parents turn off the embedding function on videos as part of its best practice guide for content with children.

In one case, YouTuber Allison Irons took her children off her channel after looking at her analytics and realising her videos were being embedded onto websites for paedophiles. After turning off the embedding function, her male viewership dropped from 40% to 17%.

Outside of legal issues, YouTube is largely a self-policing platform, where users and content creators dictate what is appropriate content within their own communities.

There have been multiple cases in which the community has decided the actions of a family channel have been inappropriate. The YouTube channel DaddyOFive shocked the community when the parents were shown “pranking” their children on camera, in a way many interpreted as abuse. The channel is no longer active.

Similarly, Myka and James Stauffer received severe backlash after posting videos about giving up their adopted child after making multiple videos sharing his face and name with their followers.

But it’s not just children of influencers who are concerned about their lives being shared online. A survey conducted in 2020 found “children were generally quite negative toward sharenting” and all children in the survey wanted their parents to ask for permission before posting content of them online.

The case against 8 Passengers

Ruby Franke and husband Kevin Franke began their YouTube channel, 8 passengers, in 2015. The channel featured the couple and their six children. At the height of the channel, they had 2.5 million subscribers and 1 billion channel views. The channel was deleted in 2022 after a series of controversies involving the channel. Ruby and Kevin have since separated.

A 2020 petition called for an investigation into the Franke parents based on elements of their videos, including one in which Ruby Franke refused to drop lunch off at school for her six-year-old daughter, stating it was her responsibility to bring food and teachers were not allowed to feed her.

In 2023, one of Franke’s young children “escaped”, according to media reports, and asked a neighbour for help, who then contacted the police, leading to this month’s court hearing.

The court heard the children had been victims of severe corporal punishment, including removal of food and bedding, and physical punishments such as being made to perform wall-sits or do manual labour in harsh weather.

Of course, not all family vloggers are the same as 8 Passengers. However, we do need to consider the ethical ramifications of sharing children online and the rights of all children on family channels.

What should family vlogging look like?

The landscape of family channels on YouTube is changing. In 2021, France implemented a law to protect the income of children online. In the United States, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act came into effect in 2021.

The world of sharing your child online is ethically complex. Sharenting could impact the development of a child’s identity formation and sense of self.

It’s imperative parents be aware of the dangers of public sharing and take the necessary steps to protect their children. Ask permission before sharing your children online, and consider the long-term effects of curating an online life for them. For more research on online child safety and education, parents should consult the Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.

Read more:
Why aren’t there any legal protections for the children of influencers?

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

– ref. YouTube influencer Ruby Franke will go to prison for child abuse. What are the ethics of family vlogging? – https://theconversation.com/youtube-influencer-ruby-franke-will-go-to-prison-for-child-abuse-what-are-the-ethics-of-family-vlogging-220847

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emily Booth, Research assistant, University of Technology Sydney

As misinformation and radicalisation rise, it’s tempting to look for something to blame: the internet, social media personalities, sensationalised political campaigns, religion, or conspiracy theories. And once we’ve settled on a cause, solutions usually follow: do more fact-checking, regulate advertising, ban YouTubers deemed to have “gone too far”.

However, if these strategies were the whole answer, we should already be seeing a decrease in people being drawn into fringe communities and beliefs, and less misinformation in the online environment. We’re not.

In new research published in the Journal of Sociology, we and our colleagues found radicalisation is a process of increasingly intense stages, and only a small number of people progress to the point where they commit violent acts.

Our work shows the misinformation radicalisation process is a pathway driven by human emotions rather than the information itself – and this understanding may be a first step in finding solutions.

A feeling of control

We analysed dozens of public statements from newspapers and online in which former radicalised people described their experiences. We identified different levels of intensity in misinformation and its online communities, associated with common recurring behaviours.

In the early stages, we found people either encountered misinformation about an anxiety-inducing topic through algorithms or friends, or they went looking for an explanation for something that gave them a “bad feeling”.

Read more:
Three reasons why disinformation is so pervasive and what we can do about it

Regardless, they often reported finding the same things: a new sense of certainty, a new community they could talk to, and feeling they had regained some control of their lives.

Once people reached the middle stages of our proposed radicalisation pathway, we considered them to be invested in the new community, its goals, and its values.

Growing intensity

It was during these more intense stages that people began to report more negative impacts on their own lives. This could include the loss of friends and family, health issues caused by too much time spent on screens and too little sleep, and feelings of stress and paranoia. To soothe these pains, they turned again to their fringe communities for support.

Most people in our dataset didn’t progress past these middle stages. However, their continued activity in these spaces kept the misinformation ecosystem alive.

When people did move further and reach the extreme final stages in our model, they were doing active harm.

In their recounting of their experiences at these high levels of intensity, individuals spoke of choosing to break ties with loved ones, participating in public acts of disruption and, in some cases, engaging in violence against other people in the name of their cause.

Once people reached this stage, it took pretty strong interventions to get them out of it. The challenge, then, is how to intervene safely and effectively when people are in the earlier stages of being drawn into a fringe community.

Respond with empathy, not shame

We have a few suggestions. For people who are still in the earlier stages, friends and trusted advisers, like a doctor or a nurse, can have a big impact by simply responding with empathy.

If a loved one starts voicing possible fringe views, like a fear of vaccines, or animosity against women or other marginalised groups, a calm response that seeks to understand the person’s underlying concern can go a long way.

The worst response is one that might leave them feeling ashamed or upset. It may drive them back to their fringe community and accelerate their radicalisation.

Even if the person’s views intensify, maintaining your connection with them can turn you into a lifeline that will see them get out sooner rather than later.

Read more:
Out of the rabbit hole: new research shows people can change their minds about conspiracy theories

Once people reached the middle stages, we found third-party online content – not produced by government, but regular users – could reach people without backfiring. Considering that many people in our research sample had their radicalisation instigated by social media, we also suggest the private companies behind such platforms should be held responsible for the effects of their automated tools on society.

By the middle stages, arguments on the basis of logic or fact are ineffective. It doesn’t matter whether they are delivered by a friend, a news anchor, or a platform-affiliated fact-checking tool.

At the most extreme final stages, we found that only heavy-handed interventions worked, such as family members forcibly hospitalising their radicalised relative, or individuals undergoing government-supported deradicalisation programs.

How not to be radicalised

After all this, you might be wondering: how do you protect yourself from being radicalised?

As much of society becomes more dependent on digital technologies, we’re going to get exposed to even more misinformation, and our world is likely going to get smaller through online echo chambers.

One strategy is to foster your critical thinking skills by reading long-form texts from paper books.

Another is to protect yourself from the emotional manipulation of platform algorithms by limiting your social media use to small, infrequent, purposefully-directed pockets of time.

And a third is to sustain connections with other humans, and lead a more analogue life – which has other benefits as well.

So in short: log off, read a book, and spend time with people you care about.

Read more:
A month at sea with no technology taught me how to steal my life back from my phone

Emily Booth is supported by funding from the Australian Department of Home Affairs and the Defence Innovation Network.

Marian-Andrei Rizoiu receives funding from the Australian Department of Home Affairs, the Defence Science and Technology Group, the Defence Innovation Network and the Australian Academy of Science.

– ref. How people get sucked into misinformation rabbit holes – and how to get them out – https://theconversation.com/how-people-get-sucked-into-misinformation-rabbit-holes-and-how-to-get-them-out-223717

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liyana Kayali, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Sydney

Around 1.5 million Palestinian civilians are currently squeezed into the southern Gaza city of Rafah after repeatedly being forced by Israeli bombardment and ground assaults to evacuate further and further south.

The town, which originally had a population of 250,000, is now host to more than half of Gaza’s entire population. They are sheltering in conditions the UN’s top aid official has called “abysmal”, with disease spreading and famine looming.

In a military onslaught the International Court of Justice has ruled a plausible case of genocide, Israel has so far killed over 29,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Now there are increasing fears Israel’s expected ground assault on Rafah could push civilians across the border into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

Originally designated as a “safe zone”, Rafah is now being targeted by Israeli airstrikes, as well. Those fleeing the violence have nowhere safe to go.

However, Egypt, the only country aside from Israel that has a border with Gaza, has rebuffed pressure to accept Palestinian refugees displaced by Israel.

Reports have indicated that Israeli officials have tried to lobby international support to compel Egypt to accept refugees from Gaza.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, however, has been adamant in refusing to allow humanitarian corridors or the entry of large numbers of Palestinians into Sinai. He has called it a “red line” that, if crossed, would “liquidate the Palestinian cause”.

In recent days, the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has validated Egypt’s position. Grandi said displacing Gazans to Egypt would be “catastrophic” for both Egypt and the Palestinians, who, he indicated, would likely not be allowed to return.

Read more:
Israeli siege has placed Gazans at risk of starvation − prewar policies made them vulnerable in the first place

Why Egypt is opposed to the idea

There are a few reasons for Egypt’s opposition.

The first is that Egypt does not want to be seen to be facilitating ethnic cleansing through the permanent resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza.

In October, a leaked document from Israel’s Intelligence Ministry included recommendations to forcibly transfer of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million out of the territory and into tent cities in Egypt’s Sinai Desert.

Government ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir have also both openly advocated the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza to make way for their replacement by Israeli settlers.

Further, in January, a conference in Israel calling for this very plan was attended by 11 members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet and 15 additional members of parliament.

While Netanyahu last month said Israel has “no intention of permanently occupying Gaza”, he hasn’t shut down talk from his ministers about it. When asked about the conference in January, for example, he said everyone was “entitled to their opinions”.

Sisi is also conscious of the strong surge of sympathy the Egyptian public has demonstrated for the Palestinians and the support they have shown for his opposition to any displacement of people across the border. This is due to feelings of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, as well as an awareness of the lessons of history.

Recalling 1947-49, when an estimated 750,000 were either expelled or forced to flee their homes by Zionist forces during the war surrounding the creation of the state of Israel, Egypt doesn’t want to be seen to be enabling another Nakba, or “catastrophe”.

The total number of refugees created by the Nakba now stands at around 6 million. According to the UN, about a third live in refugee camps, Israel having denied their right to return to their homeland.

Significantly, in November, Israel’s minister for agriculture, Avi Dichter, declared: “We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba,” adding, “Gaza Nakba 2023. That’s how it’ll end.”

Read more:
Why do Israelis and the rest of the world view the Gaza conflict so differently? And can this disconnect be overcome?

Egypt’s complicated relationship with Hamas

Another key concern for Egypt is its security. If Palestinians were resettled in Sinai, it could make the Egyptian territory a new base from which to launch resistance operations. This could drag Egypt into a military conflict with Israel.

In addition, Sisi has only just managed to clamp down on Islamist insurgents in North Sinai in recent years and is presumably concerned that an influx of refugees could be destabilising.

Finally, Sisi likely believes Hamas could mount opposition to his regime.

After overthrowing President Mohamed Morsi in a military coup in 2013, the Sisi regime cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood and repressed all dissent. This extended to a demonisation of Hamas, which grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch.

Between 2014 and 2016, the Egyptian military bombed and flooded tunnels linking Gaza with Egypt, at the same time as accusing Hamas of colluding with the Muslim Brotherhood against the state. It has also enforced Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Having said that, the relationship is not straightforwardly antagonistic. Hamas and Egypt have co-operated on counterinsurgency operations against the Islamic State in Sinai. Egypt has also played a role in mediating current and past ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel.

However, the latest rounds of negotiations have gone nowhere, leaving Egypt to nervously ramp up its warnings around any Israeli moves on the border.

Egypt and Israel have had a peace treaty since 1979, and their relationship has become stronger with Sisi in power. However, Egypt has threatened to suspend the peace treaty if Rafah is invaded.

Read more:
Israel-Egypt peace treaty has stood the test of time over 45 years: expert explains its significance

Where does this leave the people of Gaza?

Netanyahu has vowed to push ahead with a ground incursion of Rafah in the coming weeks.

Concurrently, Egypt has moved to fortify its border and, according to reports and satellite images, begun building a walled buffer zone of about 21 square kilometres in the Sinai. This suggests Egypt is preparing for a potential removal or exodus of Palestinians.

While it isn’t entirely clear whether this is being done in co-ordination with Israel or as a “contingency” measure, the zone would condemn Gazans to yet another densely packed open-air prison with dire human rights implications.

As much as states like Egypt and Jordan have strengthened their rhetorical opposition to Israel in the past few months, neighbouring Arab countries have done little to seriously pressure Israel to halt its military operations or significantly improve aid access to the Gaza Strip.

In fact, Egypt’s intermittent closures of the Rafah crossing have delayed the entry of desperately needed aid into Gaza. There are also reports Egyptian authorities are demanding thousands of dollars in bribes from those desperate to leave via Rafah, deepening a sense of cynicism, despair and, ultimately, abandonment.

Liyana Kayali has signed a statement of solidarity with Palestine from academics in Australian universities as well as a statement of scholars warning of a potential genocide being committed in Gaza.

– ref. Why Egypt refuses to open its border to Palestinians forcibly displaced from Gaza – https://theconversation.com/why-egypt-refuses-to-open-its-border-to-palestinians-forcibly-displaced-from-gaza-223735

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sian Troath, Postdoctoral Fellow, Political Science and International Relations, University of Canterbury

There is little doubt the National-led coalition is showing greater interest in the AUKUS security agreement, with Australian officials due to visit New Zealand later this year to brief the government.

So far, much of the discussion and analysis of New Zealand potentially joining the so-called “pillar two” of AUKUS has focused on the usual geopolitical and security narratives.

Australia is New Zealand’s only formal ally, New Zealand is already part of the Five Eyes spy network, and there are shared historical ties and values between Western states.

Like Australia, too, New Zealand has been walking a tightrope between its close trading relationship with China and its security relationship with the United States, as tension grows between the two superpowers.

Of course, perceptions of the strategic environment play a role. But they are far from the only motivating factor. In comments from the relevant ministers, and in briefing notes from department officials, it is clear economic arguments are being made in favour of New Zealand joining pillar two.

The government was elected, in part, on a platform of cutting public spending. At the same time, New Zealand under-invests in the research and development the government sees as essential for economic growth.

Given AUKUS is already a controversial initiative, any incentive to use it as a means to subsidise inadequate research, science and innovation budgets needs greater public scrutiny.

A change of heart

Under the previous Labour government, New Zealand put up a relatively ambivalent front on AUKUS.

Any involvement in pillar one (which provides for Australia to buy at least eight nuclear-powered submarines from the US and UK) was immediately ruled out, given its impact on New Zealand’s nuclear-free policies.

While the government left the door open to pillar two – which allows for collaboration on advanced technologies and building connections between defence industrial bases – there were seemingly conflicting views within the Labour Party.

While former defence minister Andrew Little seemed more open to the discussion, former foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta raised concerns about the impact it could have on New Zealand’s independence and relationships in the Pacific.

Read more:
Moving closer to Australia is in New Zealand’s strategic interest – joining AUKUS is not

In opposition, the National Party was critical of AUKUS. Its then foreign affairs spokesperson, Gerry Brownlee, said the deal would not make New Zealand safer.

Now in power, however, National and its coalition partners appear to have a newfound enthusiasm for AUKUS. Defence Minister Judith Collins made it clear the government was considering what benefits AUKUS could provide New Zealand, and what New Zealand could bring to the table.

With Foreign Minister Winston Peters, she raised these matters in their meeting with Australian ministerial counterparts at the inaugural Australia-New Zealand Foreign and Defence Ministerial Consultations (ANZMIN) in early February.

Their joint statement said AUKUS makes “a positive contribution toward maintaining peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific”.

AUKUS economics

Economic factors appear to be playing a significant role in this tack towards AUKUS. A briefing by defence officials to the previous government listed eight “opportunities for New Zealand’s research community and industry”.

This focus on research is notable. Not only were the benefits outlined in the briefing, but it was also shared with the then minister of research, science and innovation.

As well as being defence minister, Collins is also minister for science, innovation and technology, as well as minister for space. It is unsurprising she would see harmony in these three portfolios when it comes to AUKUS. She has shown considerable enthusiasm for technology as a pathway to economic growth.

Read more:
New Zealand is reviving the ANZAC alliance – joining AUKUS is a logical next step

Collins has pointed to the space industry as a key sector in which New Zealand could make a contribution. Technology and space are also the areas that, in Collins’ words, “offer opportunities to New Zealand businesses and scientists”.

At the same time, the government has requested budget cuts from its departments, including a 7.5% reduction from defence. State funding for research and development has long been inadequate, and this seems unlikely to change.

Interest in AUKUS, then, exists in a broader economic context beyond the obvious strategic defence considerations.

Time for a broader debate

The government clearly hopes collaboration on AUKUS pillar two can help provide something of a cross-subsidy for both defence and related civilian research and industries.

Many of the technologies involved – including space-related technology such as that used by RocketLab – are dual-use, meaning they have both civilian and defence applications.

Indeed, for several years now Australia has been building closer links in emerging technologies between its academic sector, defence and civilian industries.

Read more:
AUKUS is already trialling autonomous weapons systems – where is NZ’s policy on next-generation warfare?

It is important to understand these economic motivations. The prospect of New Zealand joining pillar two of AUKUS is already controversial at a geo-strategic level. If one of the primary motivations is also economic, some harder questions need to be asked.

Does it make sense to fund research, science and innovation via a defence partnership? And would that justify joining a controversial defence arrangement that potentially compromises other important international relationships?

The AUKUS question in general now needs to be considered in the context of broader debates about New Zealand’s role in the world, and the role of government in society.

Sian Troath receives funding from The Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund..

– ref. Joining AUKUS could boost NZ’s poor research and technology spending – but at what cost? – https://theconversation.com/joining-aukus-could-boost-nzs-poor-research-and-technology-spending-but-at-what-cost-223719

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Abby Mellick Lopes, Associate Professor, Design Studies, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney

Weather extremes driven by climate change hit low-income communities harder. The reasons include poor housing and lack of access to safe and comfortable public spaces. This makes “climate readiness” a pressing issue for governments, city planners and emergency services in fast-growing areas such as Western Sydney.

We work with culturally diverse residents and social housing providers in Western Sydney to explore how they’re adapting to increasing heat. Residents hosted heat data loggers inside and outside their homes.

Last summer was relatively mild, but we recorded temperatures as high as 40°C inside some homes. Recalling a heatwave in 2019, one resident said: “The clay had cracks in the grass that you could almost twist your ankles.”

We correlated these data with what residents and social housing providers told us about managing the heat and what is needed to do this better. Different cultural groups used different strategies. Through the project, residents shared a wealth of collective knowledge about what they can do to adapt to the extremes of a changing climate.

Read more:
Why Western Sydney is feeling the heat from climate change more than the rest of the city

Air conditioning has limitations

Official responses to climate extremes typically rely on a retreat indoors. These “last resort” shelters depend in most cases on a reliable electricity supply, which can be cut during heatwaves.

There have been efforts, but not in Australia, to establish a “passive survivability” building code. The aim is to ensure homes remain tolerably cool during a heatwave (or warm during a cold snap) even if power is cut for a number of days.

We recognise air conditioning is vital for vulnerable populations, including older people and those with health conditions, but we do not want to give up on going outside!

Outdoors, approaches such as pop-up cooling hubs for the homeless are compassionate. While important, such approaches don’t get beyond “coping”.

There’s also a risk of perpetuating a deficit narrative that sees the city’s poorest as lacking capacity to act on their circumstances. Our strengths-based action research approach looks for alternative solutions that draw on the collective knowledge and practices already found in communities.

Read more:
Australia’s first mobile cooling hub is ready for searing heat this summer – and people who are homeless helped design it

How was the research done?

Our project, Living with Urban Heat: Becoming Climate Ready in Social Housing, is part of a broader research program, Cooling the Commons. Its focus is the role of shared spaces and knowledge in designing climate-resilient cities.

We use participatory design methods. Adaptation strategies are developed by working with people who are already attuned to their place and community.

In a first step, to get a better grasp on the micro-climates at each site, residents hosted data loggers in their homes. The data show that the location, degree of urban density and type of housing influence residents’ experience of heat.

In Windsor, for example, the extremes are felt inside the home. Last summer, loggers in Windsor and Richmond recorded 69 days above 30°C. On average, temperatures inside were 6°C warmer than outside and hit 40°C four occasions.

Further east in Riverwood and Parramatta recorded lower temperatures. However, for project researcher Sebastian Pfautsch, these data also highlighted the urban heat island effect. In Riverwood, the average day and night temperatures were 25.8°C and 25.4°C respectively, as brick surfaces hold the heat.

We correlated these data with what residents and social housing providers told us about how they manage heat and comfort in their different places.

Read more:
Too many renters swelter through summer. Efficient cooling should be the law for rental homes

So how do residents manage the heat?

At bilingual design workshops across the locations, themes from the interviews between groups of residents were shared.

Residents who said “I retreat” felt trapped rather than safe in their poorly adapted homes.

“Taking comfort” meant using ice, water spray, sheets and towels to cool spaces and bodies. Chinese residents used foods such as rice porridge congee to cool down. Residents also took comfort from housing providers and neighbours checking on their wellbeing on hot days.

Residents with access to a car “chased the air”. This meant moving between air-conditioned spaces: friends’ homes, coffee shops and supermarkets.

Residents without cars used cool spots, such as public libraries, that they could get to by public transport. Others whose families have lived in the area for decades used their local knowledge to chase the “Dee Why Doctor” and other local breezes, as well as sitting in the river.

Read more:
When the heat hits, inland waters look inviting. Here’s how we can help people swim safely at natural swimming spots

Residents often return, though, to a home that has baked in the heat all day.

They had ingenious ways to get air moving with windows, doors and fans. “Making the air” was an important pattern across the groups.

Air movement was as important for bodily comfort as a cooler temperature, particularly for people who found it hard to breathe in the heat. As one participant said: “It’s stuffy in the bedroom. It’s really hard sometimes […] I feel I can’t open the window because of the smells and noise.”

Residents also created “rules” to manage the heat in their homes. These ranged from opening and closing doors and windows at certain times, to keeping lights off, to avoiding baking, to rationing air conditioning.

The groups benefited from sharing these themes. For example, the Chinese community, most of whom did not drive, had never thought of “chasing the air”. On the other hand, using congee to feel cooler was news for others.

Collective adaptation works best

In each community, sharing these approaches prompted a broader conversation about more collective forms of adaptation, including shared spaces and practices in the built and natural environments.

This research is raising questions. There is a tension, for example, between the enclosure that air conditioning requires and the movement of fresh air many residents see as healthy. What implications might this have for a cooling hubs blueprint and the future of social housing, particularly where a need for security often means blocked openings and locked doors?

Climate-readiness does not mean reinforcing inadequate technical solutions that shut us in, or barely remedial solutions. These reduce us to what philosopher Georgio Agamben termed a “bare life”, a condition that precludes the possibility of a good one. That need not be so.

Our research is trialling adaptive practices, drawing on local knowledge of cool spaces (both natural and built), and sharing these practices across cultures. It shows we can reimagine climate-readiness as part of a flourishing community.

Abby Mellick Lopes receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Program Project number: LP210200622

Cameron Tonkinwise receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Program Project number: LP210200622.

Stephen Healy receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Program Project number: LP210200622

– ref. When homes already hit 40°C inside, it’s better to draw on residents’ local know-how than plan for climate change from above – https://theconversation.com/when-homes-already-hit-40-c-inside-its-better-to-draw-on-residents-local-know-how-than-plan-for-climate-change-from-above-221870

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Kate Kelly, PhD Candidate, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, RMIT University

Coles and Woolworths, the supermarket chains that together control almost two-thirds of the Australian grocery market, are facing unprecedented scrutiny.

One recent inquiry, commissioned by the Australian Council of Trade Unions and led by former Australian Consumer and Competition Commission chair Allan Fels, found the pair engaged in unfair pricing practices; an ongoing Senate inquiry into food prices is looking at how these practices are linked to inflation; and the ACCC has just begun a government-directed inquiry into potentially anti-competitive behaviour in Australia’s supermarkets.

Read more:
8 ways Woolworths and Coles squeeze their suppliers and their customers

Earlier this week, the two companies also came under the gaze of the ABC current affairs program Four Corners. Their respective chief executives each gave somewhat prickly interviews, and Woolworths chief Brad Banducci announced his retirement two days after the program aired.

A focus on the power of the supermarket duopoly is long overdue. However, one aspect of how Coles and Woolworths exercise their power has received relatively little attention: a growing high-tech infrastructure of surveillance and control that pervades retail stores, warehouses, delivery systems and beyond.

Every customer a potential thief

As the largest private-sector employers and providers of essential household goods, the supermarkets play an outsized role in public life. Indeed, they are such familiar places that technological developments there may fly under the radar of public attention.

Coles and Woolworths are both implementing technologies that treat the supermarket as a “problem space” in which workers are controlled, customers are tracked and profits boosted.

For example, in response to a purported spike in shoplifting, a raft of customer surveillance measures have been introduced that treat every customer as a potential thief. This includes ceiling cameras which assign a digital ID to individuals and track them through the store, and “smart” exit gates that remain closed until a purchase is made. Some customers have reported being “trapped” by the gate despite paying for their items, causing significant embarrassment.

At least one Woolworths store has installed 500 mini cameras on product shelves. The cameras monitor real-time stock levels, and Woolworths says customers captured in photos will be silhouetted for privacy.

A Woolworths spokesperson explained the shelf cameras were part of “a number of initiatives, both covert and overt, to minimise instances of retail crime”. It is unclear whether the cameras are for inventory management, surveillance, or both.

Workers themselves are being fitted with body-worn cameras and wearable alarms. Such measures may protect against customer aggression, which is a serious problem facing workers. Biometric data collected this way could also be used to discipline staff in what scholars Karen Levy and Solon Barocas refer to as “refractive surveillance” – a process whereby surveillance measures intended for one group can also impact another.

Predicting crime

At the same time as the supermarkets ramp up the amount of data they collect on staff and shoppers, they are also investing in data-driven “crime intelligence” software. Both supermarkets have partnered with New Zealand start-up Auror, which shares a name with the magic police from the Harry Potter books and claims it can predict crime before it happens.

Coles also recently began a partnership with Palantir, a global data-driven surveillance company that takes its name from magical crystal balls in The Lord of the Rings.

Read more:
Solving the supermarket: why Coles just hired US defence contractor Palantir

These heavy-handed measures seek to make self-service checkouts more secure without increasing staff numbers. This leads to something of a vicious cycle, as under-staffing, self-checkouts, and high prices are often causes of customer aggression to begin with.

Many staff are similarly frustrated by historical wage theft by the supermarkets that totals hundreds of millions of dollars.

From community employment to gig work

Both supermarkets have brought the gig economy squarely inside the traditional workplace. Uber and Doordash drivers are now part of the infrastructure of home delivery, in an attempt to push last-mile delivery costs onto gig workers.

The precarious working conditions of the gig economy are well known. Customers may not be aware, however, that Coles recently increased Uber Eats and Doordash prices by at least 10%, and will no longer match in-store promotions. Drivers have been instructed to dispose of the shopping receipt and should no longer place it in the customer’s bag at drop-off.

In addition to higher prices, customers also pay service and delivery fees for the convenience of on-demand delivery. Despite the price increases to customers, drivers I have interviewed in my ongoing research report they are earning less and less through the apps, often well below Australia’s minimum wage.

Viewed as a whole, Coles’ and Woolworths’ high-tech measures paint a picture of surveillance and control that exerts pressures on both customers and workers. While issues of market competition, price gouging, and power asymmetries with suppliers must be scrutinised, issues of worker and customer surveillance are the other side of the same coin – and they too must be reckoned with.

Lauren Kate Kelly receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. She works with United Workers Union which has members across the supermarket supply chain.

– ref. The secret sauce of Coles’ and Woolworths’ profits: high-tech surveillance and control – https://theconversation.com/the-secret-sauce-of-coles-and-woolworths-profits-high-tech-surveillance-and-control-224076

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emily Roycroft, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian National University

Australia can lay claim to two new native mammal species, discovered as part of our collaborative research published today in the journal Molecular Ecology.

Australia has some of the most unique biodiversity in the world, and our native mammals are particularly well known. For many, the iconic marsupials might be the first that come to mind – but we also boast an impressive and fascinating diversity of native rodents.

Unlike the invasive pests introduced since European colonisation, native rodents have been evolving in Australia for around five million years. With over 150 species in Australia and New Guinea found nowhere else in the world, there’s a lot to love about our native rats and mice.

Our new research adds two more species to this list, and, like many of Australia’s recently described mammals, they’ve been hiding in plain sight.

Hiding in plain sight

The two new species belong to a group of very small and aptly named Australian rodents: the delicate mice.

These dainty creatures differ from the invasive pests you might come across in your home or backyard. With adults weighing as little as six grams, they are typically smaller, and are a crucial part of Australia’s natural environment and ecosystems.

Prior to our discovery, the namesake of the group, the delicate mouse or Molinipi (Pseudomys delicatulus) was thought to be a single species spanning a massive stretch of the country – from the Pilbara in Western Australia, across parts of the Northern Territory and through Queensland down to the New South Wales border.

However, our team has now confirmed the delicate mouse is three species, not one.

We discovered this using genomic sequencing of delicate mice from across the country, combined with data on reproductive traits and high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scans.

The three species are genetically distinct. Their sperm and chromosomes also aren’t compatible, which likely prevents them from interbreeding.

Despite this, they do look quite similar to each other – which is why these two additional delicate mouse species have remained undiscovered until now.

New names for cryptic species

One of these mice gets to keep its original scientific name, so Pseudomys delicatulus now refers to the “northern delicate mouse”. The other species needed their own names.

The new “western delicate mouse” (Pseudomys pilbarensis) or Kalunyja in the Kariyarra language, occurs mainly in Western Australia, including the Pilbara, Great Sandy Desert and southern Kimberley regions.

The “eastern delicate mouse” (Pseudomys mimulus) or Kalla, in the Wik-Mungkan language, occurs through eastern Queensland and northern New South Wales, around Mount Isa in western Queensland, and on Groote Eylandt.

The western delicate mouse is the first new Pseudomys described this century. While we know a lot about Australia’s native mammals, there is still more to uncover. This discovery follows the description of two very tiny new marsupials last year, along with a host of other new marsupials and bats described since 2000.

By giving these species their own names, we’re taking the first step toward ensuring they’re given the right conservation attention.

Conserving our iconic native mammals

Native rodents are one of our most threatened mammal groups and have been disproportionately impacted by extinction since European colonisation of Australia began in 1788.

Recognising Australia’s mammals under official taxonomic names is crucial to ensure they can be assessed and prioritised for conservation listing and funding.

The northern delicate mouse has not previously been a conservation priority – but that might be because it was thought to have a distribution three times larger than it actually does. The western and eastern delicate mice haven’t had any conservation or research attention, because we didn’t know they were unique species.

As part of our research, we also showed how species in the delicate mouse group are specialised to unique Australian environments: from the arid central deserts to the northern monsoonal tropics. Given their habitat specialisations, models in our research suggest that up to 95% of current delicate mouse habitat may become unsuitable by the year 2100 under a moderate future warming scenario.

Combined with more immediate threats – predation by feral cats, habitat clearing and introduced diseases – the delicate mice may be more at risk that we previously thought.

Our discovery is significant for the future of the tiny mice, with their new names already endorsed by the Australasian Mammal Taxonomy Consortium. Recognition in government legislation is to follow.

This will allow us to reassess the conservation status of the three species, to determine what action is needed to protect them into the future.

Emily Roycroft receives funding from the Australian Research Council. This research was supported by the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment, Native Australian Animals Trust and Bioplatforms Australia via the Oz Mammals Genomics Initiative.

– ref. We discovered two new Australian native mammals – the first of their kind this century – https://theconversation.com/we-discovered-two-new-australian-native-mammals-the-first-of-their-kind-this-century-223740

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Marchese, PhD Student at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University

If you’re thinking about buying plant-based foods, a trip to the supermarket can leave you bewildered.

There are plant-based burgers, sausages and mince. The fridges are loaded with non-dairy milk, cheese and yoghurt. Then there are the tins of beans and packets of tofu.

But how much is actually healthy?

Our nutritional audit of more than 700 plant-based foods for sale in Australian supermarkets has just been published. We found some products are so high in salt or saturated fat, we’d struggle to call them “healthy”.

Read more:
The vegans are coming! What’s fuelling the interest in plant-based eating?

We took (several) trips to the supermarket

In 2022, we visited two of each of four major supermarket retailers across Melbourne to collect information on the available range of plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy products.

We took pictures of the products and their nutrition labels.

We then analysed the nutrition information on the packaging of more than 700 of these products. This included 236 meat substitutes, 169 legumes and pulses, 50 baked beans, 157 dairy milk substitutes, 52 cheese substitutes and 40 non-dairy yoghurts.

Read more:
4 plant-based foods to eat every week (and why science suggests they’re good for you)

Plant-based meats were surprisingly salty

We found a wide range of plant-based meats for sale. So, it’s not surprising we found large variations in their nutrition content.

Sodium, found in added salt and which contributes to high blood pressure, was our greatest concern.

The sodium content varied from 1 milligram per 100 grams in products such as tofu, to 2,000mg per 100g in items such as plant-based mince products.

This means we could eat our entire daily recommended sodium intake in just one bowl of plant-based mince.

An audit of 66 plant-based meat products in Australian supermarkets conducted in 2014 found sodium ranged from 316mg in legume-based products to 640mg in tofu products, per 100g. In a 2019 audit of 137 products, the range was up to 1,200mg per 100g.

In other words, the results of our audit seems to show a consistent trend of plant-based meats getting saltier.

Read more:
Remind me again, why is salt bad for you?

What about plant-based milks?

Some 70% of the plant-based milks we audited were fortified with calcium, a nutrient important for bone health.

This is good news as a 2019-2020 audit of 115 plant-based milks from Melbourne and Sydney found only 43% of plant-based milks were fortified with calcium.

Of the fortified milks in our audit, almost three-quarters (73%) contained the recommended amount of calcium – at least 100mg per 100mL.

We also looked at the saturated fat content of plant-based milks.

Coconut-based milks had on average up to six times higher saturated fat content than almond, oat or soy milks.

Previous audits also found coconut-based milks were much higher in saturated fat than all other categories of milks.

Read more:
Soy, oat, almond, rice, coconut, dairy: which ‘milk’ is best for our health?

A first look at cheese and yoghurt alternatives

Our audit is the first study to identify the range of cheese and yoghurt alternatives available in Australian supermarkets.

Calcium was only labelled on a third of plant-based yoghurts, and only 20% of supermarket options met the recommended 100mg of calcium per 100g.

For plant-based cheeses, most (92%) were not fortified with calcium. Their sodium content varied from 390mg to 1,400mg per 100g, and saturated fat ranged from 0g to 28g per 100g.

Read more:
Plain, Greek, low-fat? How to choose a healthy yoghurt

So, what should we consider when shopping?

As a general principle, try to choose whole plant foods, such as unprocessed legumes, beans or tofu. These foods are packed with vitamins and minerals. They’re also high in dietary fibre, which is good for your gut health and keeps you fuller for longer.

If opting for a processed plant-based food, here are five tips for choosing a healthier option.

1. Watch the sodium

Plant-based meat alternatives can be high in sodium, so look for products that have around 150-250mg sodium per 100g.

2. Pick canned beans and legumes

Canned chickpeas, lentils and beans can be healthy and low-cost additions to many meals. Where you can, choose canned varieties with no added salt, especially when buying baked beans.

3. Add herbs and spices to your tofu

Tofu can be a great alternative to meat. Check the label and pick the option with the highest calcium content. We found flavoured tofu was higher in salt and sugar content than minimally processed tofu. So it’s best to pick an unflavoured option and add your own flavours with spices and herbs.

4. Check the calcium

When choosing a non-dairy alternative to milk, such as those made from soy, oat, or rice, check it is fortified with calcium. A good alternative to traditional dairy will have at least 100mg of calcium per 100g.

5. Watch for saturated fat

If looking for a lower saturated fat option, almond, soy, rice and oat varieties of milk and yoghurt alternatives have much lower saturated fat content than coconut options. Pick those with less than 3g per 100g.

Laura Marchese receives funding from a Deakin University Postgraduate Research Scholarship and a CSIRO R+ top-up scholarship.

Katherine Livingstone receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (APP117380) and the National Heart Foundation (ID106800).

– ref. We looked at 700 plant-based foods to see how healthy they really are. Here’s what we found – https://theconversation.com/we-looked-at-700-plant-based-foods-to-see-how-healthy-they-really-are-heres-what-we-found-222991

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cris Townley, Postdoctoral research fellow, Western Sydney University

A new group of young children has just started school for the first time, with many excited about new friends, uniforms and being at “big school”.

But for trans kids, starting school can be a much more daunting process.

They have likely gone from preschools and daycare where they had the freedom to wear what they want and play what they want, whether that was dinosaurs, dolls or dress ups. The boy who likes to be Rapunzel was probably viewed as “cute” and the girl always playing pirates was encouraged to do so.

But school culture is much more cisnormative. This means schools tend to assume children can be sorted into boys and girls and everyone is comfortable in what category they are in.

Read more:
Explainer: what does it mean to be ‘cisgender’?

You can see this in formal ways, with boys’ and girls’ uniforms and toilets and in informal ways, with boys and girls making different friendship groups and playing different games at lunch.

This makes it difficult for trans children to feel as though they belong at school. Trans students often have lower levels of wellbeing and lower educational outcomes than non-trans students.

My research looks at what schools can learn from preschools and other early learning settings such as daycare centres about how to support trans students.

Read more:
4 out of 5 parents support teaching gender and sexuality diversity in Australian schools

My research

In 2023 I partnered with P-TYE, an advocacy network for parents of trans children. The study, which is currently in peer review, looked at how we can integrate support for trans children across a range of services including education, medical and mental health.

Through P-TYE and wider networks, we recruited 12 families with trans children. The children had an average age of 13 and had been recognised as trans between two and ten years.

Though interviews, I spoke to them about their experiences of childcare and school. Three themes emerged.

1. The importance of being ‘child-centred’

Early education services are “child-centred”. This means educators are trained to place a child’s “belonging, becoming and being” at the centre of their curriculum (as per the Early Years Learning Framework). This includes freely exploring gender and their identity.

As one parent told us their trans girl “had an incredible teacher” for preschool

who’d take old curtains and make things […] these three-tiered skirts that were heavy and they made beautiful sounds and they caressed you when you wore them and [my child] found such joy in these creations.

Another child showed her foster parents a photo of herself at daycare

in a dress up pushing a pram around with a baby in it. And she’s got a handbag on, jewellery and everything. She’s about three years old in the picture. And she says, this is the first time I knew I was a girl.

In contrast, trans identity in schools often means “breaking the rules”. Parents in the study described examples of schools not letting trans students express their identity.

every day she was asking, ‘why can’t I wear a dress to school’? Why do I have to go to the boys’ toilets? They’re mean to me when I’m in there.

2. Not categorising kids by gender

Parents in the study also reported how children weren’t categorised into genders by pre-school routines. As one interviewee said:

all the kids use the same toilet […] they [were called the] ‘cockatoos’ and the ‘koalas’ or whatever […] they weren’t ever separated by gender.

But at school, children faced daily choices about whether they are a boy or a girl. One parent described how a class had segregated lunch crates for boys and girls. Their trans child stood out with “this pink drink bottle with unicorns on in a sea of dinosaurs”.

Children also have to wear the correct uniform, be in the right line for sport and use the assigned toilet and can be bullied by other students when they try.

One child “survived kindergarten by walking”. She told her parent

I just realised that if I wasn’t still, I was less of a target so I just made sure in kindergarten to keep moving and I never stopped moving.

For non-binary children – who don’t feel like a boy or a girl – school brings a more complex set of difficulties.

One parent talked about a lucky dip at the school fete with boy or girl gifts. They said this signals to their child “I have to be one of these things or the other” and “tells my kid that they don’t fit in the world”.

3. Support for educators

Research shows having teachers who are positive about gender diversity is crucial for the wellbeing of trans students.

My interviews also suggested responses to trans kids often depend on individual educators and schools. Many preschool educators were supportive and “totally fine to change pronouns, like immediately”. But as one parent told the study, one educator reportedly said: “I’m not going to play this name game” and refused to use a child’s new name.

Some school teachers did make a difference. One wellbeing officer “put out all the uniforms and said, ‘which one would you like to wear?’”

At a schools sports day one trans boy was allowed to compete with the boys. As his parent said:

he’s never been a sporty kid. He came last and everything, but it made him really happy to to be in with the boys.

Another teacher was “fantastic” but “a bit old school” saying “I’ve got no idea what to do, what to call her, what to say. I’m really out to sea here.”

This suggests both early education and school teachers need access to education and resources, so whether students get support isn’t left up to chance.

Read more:
‘It’s kind of suffocating’: queer young Australians speak about how they feel at school and what they think of politicians

What should schools do differently?

Schools should take the lead from early learning environments and stop “sorting” students based on gender.

This could mean:

• having a range of uniform items children can select from as some schools already do

• more all-gender toilet facilities, where privacy is protected for all students

• preferred names and pronouns should be easy to change in school systems and teachers should use these.

Teachers also need access to resources and information so they can confidently have conversations about gender. This needs to be part of a whole-of-school approach to supporting trans students and their families.

Cris Townley is a member of the advocacy network Parents for Trans Youth Equity (P-TYE).

– ref. ‘Why can’t I wear a dress?’ What schools can learn from preschools about supporting trans children – https://theconversation.com/why-cant-i-wear-a-dress-what-schools-can-learn-from-preschools-about-supporting-trans-children-223859

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cherine Fahd, Associate Professor Visual Communication, University of Technology Sydney

House of Gods is a gripping new Australian TV drama. It reveals the inner workings of an imam’s family and community, and the corrupting effects of power, ambition and secrets on family and faith.

Set in Western Sydney, the saga commences on election day at The Messenger mosque. Sheikh Mohammad (Kamel El Basha) is a progressive, charismatic contender for the esteemed position of head cleric. But he is embroiled in controversy when a young woman unexpectedly plants a kiss on his cheek while posing with him for a selfie.

The seemingly harmless gesture swiftly snowballs into a scandal dividing the community and sparking a clash of ideologies within the mosque’s tight-knit community.

Although Sheikh Mohammad eventually emerges victorious over his conservative adversary Sheikh Shaaker (Simon Elrahi), the triumph is tainted by a startling revelation. Sheikh Mohammad’s adopted son, Isa (Osamah Sami, also co-creator and writer), has struck a clandestine deal with a corrupt official to secure his father’s win in exchange for hefty monthly payments.

The cleric’s efforts to bridge the gap between multiple generations and connect Islam with modern life in Australia is at the heart of the story. But unaware of his son’s dealings, an intricate web of lies, bribes and familial rivalry soon emerges, set against the backdrop of mosque politics.

Read more:
Black comedy, political drama and a documentary about a cult: what we’re streaming this February

The realism of lived experience

Sami’s performance as Isa is spot-on, thanks to his firsthand understanding of growing up as the son of a progressive Shi’ite cleric. His personal background brings depth and authenticity to the character, making his portrayal truly compelling.

Fadia Abboud’s direction is enriched by her deep understanding of the Arabic community, lending genuine realism to every scene. Take, for instance, the conversation between Sheikh Mohammad and the local football coach, where the historic tensions between Sunni and Shi’ite faiths are delicately portrayed. Both characters navigate their differences with respect and caution, reflecting the nuanced dynamics within their community.

The inclusion of Arab, Middle Eastern and Muslim actors adds an authentic touch to the drama. Their performances capture the cultural and social subtleties reminiscent of my own Arabic family and community. Through expressive body language, lively facial expressions, and intense physical affection, the actors animate the passionate social dynamics often characteristic of Middle-Eastern societies.

Sky Davies’ cinematography captures both private and public moments with striking compositional intention. The beautiful garden scenes where Sheikh Mohammad converses with his eldest daughter, Batul (Maia Abbas), under a luminescent grape vine, reference the central role dappled light plays in the intricate designs of mosques.

Integrity shines through the costume and set design and in the meticulous portrayal of Muslim dress and architecture. These elements reflect a profound understanding of how faith influences the transition between private and public life, adding credibility to the storytelling.

Mighty heroines

Sami was joined by co-creator and associate producer, Shahin Shafaei, and co-writer Sarah Bassiuoni. Shafaei and Bassiuoni come from Iranian and Egyptian families. Their collective experience provides valuable insights into the female experience, enriching the depiction of Muslim women beyond Western stereotypes of female oppression.

The struggles encountered by characters such as Batul, her younger sister Hind (Safia Arain), and her mysterious best friend Jamila (Priscilla Doueihy) echo real-life challenges. For instance, the scenes at the swimming pool vividly illustrate the women’s desires and rebellions, as well as their activism and resilience in advocating for women-only hours at the public pool.

Batul and Hind are mighty. Their rivalry hinges on their personal freedoms and to what extent they conform to community expectations. This ensures that they negotiate power and agency within their own cultural context – refreshingly removed from Western standards.

Sheikh Mohammad champions his daughters’ freedom, sparking discussions on gender equality and underscoring his progressive views on women’s roles in the Islamic community. A notable instance is when he appoints his daughter, Batul, as vice president of the mosque, defying traditional expectations and causing shock in the community.

Written by Arabs, featuring Arabs

The lead performances are outstanding. El Basha is a Palestinian screen and stage actor, theatre director, playwright and producer. He gained critical acclaim in 2017 when he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. In House of Gods, the actor again shows he is adept at capturing a proud and principled man who values his dignity and honour.

House of Gods is more than just an Australian television series. It’s a bold and unflinching exploration of contemporary life that is thought-provoking, authentic and complex. With its intricate plot twists and nuanced characters, it has the capacity to showcase the depth and diversity of Australian storytelling worldwide.

Abboud remarks that House of Gods:

stood out as original and risky. Importantly, it wasn’t an ‘us’ and ‘them’ story. The dilemma didn’t come from our relationship to the West and racism. It was a powerful drama, with no big-name Anglo actor, which always seemed to be needed in shows with non-English speaking communities.

For many in the Australian Arabic community, including Abboud, seeing a project created and written by Arabs featuring Arabs as lead characters is an exciting and welcome development.

House of Gods is on ABC and iView from February 25.

Read more:
Shayda: this unflinching portrayal of domestic violence marks a profound shift in Australian cinema

Cherine Fahd 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. ABC’s House of Gods: a bold and compelling exploration of contemporary life in an Australian imam’s family – https://theconversation.com/abcs-house-of-gods-a-bold-and-compelling-exploration-of-contemporary-life-in-an-australian-imams-family-222988

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ann Kayis-Kumar, Associate Professor, UNSW Sydney

Imagine believing you owed nothing to the Australian Tax Office, and then suddenly finding out decades later that you did, and that the Tax Office had been accruing interest and penalties on it for decades.

You might think it was like Robodebt, the disgraced scheme under which the government tried to extract money from welfare recipients that was eventually found to be unlawful by a Royal Commission.

You might even call the scheme “Robotax”. This is how it is being referred to in reporting. It is eventually expected to collect debts on hold worth A$15 billion.

On Wednesday Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan said he hadn’t wanted to pursue these old (and in some cases very small) debts but had been forced to after the Australian National Audit Office told the Tax Office it had no legal authority not to chase them.

“As a regulator, we can’t purposely not conform with the law,” he told the National Press Club. “We have to, so we’re working our way through.”

Small debts climb to tens of thousands

Here’s an example, from our Tax and Business Advisory Clinic at the University of NSW.

One of our clients had previously been involved in a small business with her husband. When he tragically died she was left to look after their children on her own and told she didn’t owe the Tax Office any money.

But when she recently returned to work and lodged her tax return, a long-absent tax debt reappeared. It turns out that although she had been told it was “written off” at the time, it had only been classified as “non-pursuit”.

Non-pursuit meant it hadn’t appeared in her or her husband’s tax statements.

By the time it reappeared, she owed $37,000. The clinic was able to establish that most of this – about $29,000 – was interest and penalties.

We asked the Tax Office to waive the interest and penalties, which, to its credit, it did. It’s an option many financially vulnerable taxpayers won’t know they have and won’t know how to get without professional advice (which they can’t afford).

It gives government-funded tax clinics a valuable role.

How it happened

The Tax Office has for many years been classifying debts as “written off” or “not economical to pursue”, usually where the debts are small or it has lost contact with the taxpayer.

Commissioner Jordan told the Press Club his view had been it was “ridiculous” to spend money chasing debts as low as $2.

But a taxpayer might not realise this has happened, or might not have realised that “written off” doesn’t have its standard English meaning. Debts written off continue to exist. Without a statute of limitations on them, they cannot expire.

The Tax Office merely decided not to pursue them. On their statements, these taxpayers saw no acknowledgement of these debts and often saw a balance of “nil” on their accounts.

New advice from the Australian Government Solicitor has forced the Tax Office to collect these debts where would have preferred not to, even where the clients are old or on low incomes.

Read more:
Robodebt was a fiasco with a cost we have yet to fully appreciate

Temporary halt

On Wednesday, the Tax Office said it had “heard the concerns raised by the community” and paused all recovery action on debts placed on hold prior to 2017, a temporary solution whose legal basis is unclear.

In Australia, there is no statute of limitations on tax debts placed on hold, even though US research has found tax debts not collected within two years of assessment are unlikely to be collected at all.

Although Australia’s Finance Minister has the power to waive individual debts, it is unclear whether this could be used to waive an entire class of debts.

And there is one class of debts the minister has no power to waive, even in cases of extreme hardship – those from businesses that have collected the goods and services tax.

The Tax Office was warned

The Commonwealth Ombudsman warned the Tax Office of a problem back in 2009 in a report entitled Re-raising Written-off Debts.

It said the Tax Office used the term “write-off” in a way that differed from the commonly understood commercial meaning

It made a number of recommendations, one of which was that the Tax Office:

notify taxpayers about the decision to write off their debt, indicating that there is an amount owing which the Tax Office has decided not to pursue at that time but may seek to do so later.

Another was that the Tax Office:

provide further information to taxpayers when a debt is re-raised. This information should include the source of the debt (including how much interest has been charged), the circumstances which caused the debt to be re-raised and how to obtain further information.

Something else that would help is a requirement to inform those affected that the Tax Office is able to remit interest and penalties – and to offer guidance about how to request this.

Ultimately, it might require legislation

Legislating to give the Tax Office permission to waive debts in certain circumstances would be the best fix, and could probably be done quickly if government ministers are willing.

As he prepared to step down after a decade as Tax Commissioner this month, Jordan pointed with pride to the Tax Office’s status as the third most trusted arm of the Australian public service.

Unless the Tax Office is given the discretion to behave with compassion towards vulnerable Australians, it risks losing that status and perpetuating cycles of debt.

We need a legislative fix. The Tax Office needs in its armoury the ability to help – rather than hinder – people in serious financial hardship. The last thing it should want to do, and want to be seen to want to do, is to squeeze blood from stones.

Ann Kayis-Kumar receives funding from the Australian Government’s Australian Taxation Office National Tax Clinic Program and the Ecstra Foundation’s Financial Capability Program.

– ref. ‘Robotax’ is a symptom of a gap in Australia’s tax laws. Here’s how to fix it – https://theconversation.com/robotax-is-a-symptom-of-a-gap-in-australias-tax-laws-heres-how-to-fix-it-223962

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Grimmer, Senior Lecturer in Retail Marketing, University of Tasmania

There is no escaping Taylor Swift. Even if you try to ignore the star, she is currently everywhere. On the airwaves, on playlists, streaming services, social media, in the news, on the big screen and at a mega-stadium near you.

Devoted “Swifties” around the globe have their own lore, with the 34-year-old’s appeal crossing sex, age, class and cultural groups.

The largest US newspaper chain, Garnett, even appointed a dedicated Taylor Swift Reporter to cover her every move.

Arguably, we haven’t seen fan love (or media coverage) for a musical act on the scale of Taylor Swift since The Beatles.

What is it about her that drives unrelenting attention and adoration on such a grand scale? And could her current ubiquity actually turn out to be a threat?

Read more:
Taylor Swift didn’t just update the lyrics for Better Than Revenge – she updated her public image

What defines the Taylor Swift brand?

Swift’s talent as a songwriter, singer and performer cemented her as a multi-award winning artist . She has been nominated for 52 Grammys and won 14, and recently made history as the only artist to win Album of the Year four times.

She is both the girl next door and a mega-star with cross-generational appeal.

And she is also a global brand.

Almost anything (or anyone) can become a brand, with its own distinctive name, term, design or symbol. But a successful brand is more than an identity: it exists solidly in the public consciousness, like Nike, Apple and Google.

To occupy such a position, the keys to success for strong brands include: consistent messaging, differentiation and brand experience.

Read more:
How did Taylor Swift get so popular? She never goes out of style

Taylor has crafted the all-American girl next door image by sharing consistent messaging about her personal experiences through her lyrics.

She also differentiates her brand from those of other artists by encouraging an organic fan community, complete with its own look and feel.

Fans wear album-themed colours or costumes and trade friendship bracelets.

The brand experience manifests through social media, surprise announcements, hidden “Easter eggs”, concert tours, and even the Eras Tour film. Fans are never short of an opportunity to connect with the star.

The most successful brands form an emotional connection with consumers.

In this regard, Swift’s approach is pure genius. In the lead up to the release of her album 1989 she spent time scouring the internet and selecting 89 fans who were invited to her home for exclusive listening sessions – now referred to as the 1989 Secret Sessions.

Taylor treats fans as friends with whom she shares secrets. Her lyrics, albums, videos and even her NYU honorary doctorate speech are littered with hidden messages that fans can discover, decode and discuss.

This level of shared intimacy – albeit with millions of fans– keeps Swifties engaged in speculation and builds a community of “insiders”.

Brands are also susceptible to imminent threats and risks.

The biggest threat is a moodshift

One major risk for Swift is overexposure. Could her immense popularity start to work against her?

At present the answer is an unqualified “no”, as demand for show tickets exceed supply, and local economies in concert cities enjoy soaring expenditure on everything from accommodation to nail salons and sequins to cowboy boots.

But in the long term, there is always the possibility the public’s mood could shift, leaving Swift behind.

She has already drawn criticism for expressing political opinions, for announcing the release of her new album during the Grammys, and for her private jet’s carbon emissions.

Measuring Brand Taylor

How valuable a brand is can be measured by marketers using “brand equity”. How well is it recognised? How do consumers perceive it? Is it trusted?

Brands with strong equity have much higher customer loyalty and market share.

Swift has incredibly strong brand equity as demonstrated by the economic impact on Eras Tour stops, and stores selling out of the things that Swifties use to make their tour outfits including beads, sequins, cowboy hats and sparkly boots.

Not to mention the cost of concert tickets and merchandise, and (for many fans) flights and accommodation.

We can also get a hint of Swift’s brand equity through endorsements from others. In December 2023, Forbes named Swift the world’s fifth most powerful woman, ranking her just after the European Commission President, the President of the European Central Bank and two politicians.

Where to from here?

Swift is currently riding sky high in popularity. She is well-known and well-liked, and she knows what she’s doing when it comes to marketing her brand.

The current Eras Tour and the announcement of her new album The Tortured Poets Department are continuing this momentum.

Many artists appeal to a specific generation and, as their fans age, their success and popularity usually wanes (Bros or Hanson anyone?).

For the time being at least, Brand Taylor is going strong – though there is no doubt she is mindful of threats to her brand and will need to work hard to continue to bring her fans along with her.

Read more:
Why are Taylor Swift tickets so hard to get? The economics are complicated

Louise Grimmer 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. Team Taylor – why Swift’s brand works so well and how it could come under threat – https://theconversation.com/team-taylor-why-swifts-brand-works-so-well-and-how-it-could-come-under-threat-223443

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Burridge, Professor of Linguistics, Monash University

Much has been written about the power of Taylor Swift’s poetic lyrics to resonate deeply with her audiences. But forget poetry and literary allusions — their influence pales in comparison to the cultural impact of a resounding “yeah-nah”.

During last Friday evening’s concert, Swift’s dancer Kameron Saunders bellowed the cherished Australian phrase in response to Swift’s line “You know that we are never getting back together” — and 96,000 Swifties at the Melbourne Cricket Ground went wild.

It was enchanting to meet you — introducing ‘yeah-nah’

According to the first ever study of this little Aussie icon, “yeah-nah” arrived on the linguistic scene probably around the late 1990s. But it didn’t really come to the attention of Australians until the early 2000s, much the same time as Swift and her guitar began to rise to fame in Nashville. And, just like Swift, it’s not always been plain sailing for “yeah-nah” — a rocky start and a career marked by continual change and innovation.

Condemned by many in the early 2000s, “yeah-nah” was branded with disparaging labels such as “speech junk” — and lumped together with other “unnecessary words that clutter up our language”. “Yeah-no” was a symptom of Australia’s inarticulateness, they argued, and it should go.

Read more:
Yeah, nah: Aussie slang hasn’t carked it, but we do want to know more about it

But somehow “yeah-no” climbed out of the linguistic abyss — came back stronger than a nineties trend, as Swifties would put it — and won people’s hearts. When ABC radio stations around the country asked their listeners to send in their favourite Aussie slang expressions, “yeah-nah” came second out of more than a thousand unique phrases (it might even have come first had “mate” not got that unfair boost from other favourites like “g’day mate”).

“>

Now a major protagonist in William McInnes’ book Yeah, Nah!: A celebration of life and the words that make us who we are, this much loved linguistic celebrity also makes regular public appearances — popping up everywhere from car sales adverts to the branding initiatives of condom companies. It’s prominently adorned on earrings, signet rings, necklaces, T-shirts and even features in beautifully intricate needlework embroideries.

What’s ‘yeah-nah’ anyway?

“Yeah-nah” (or its more formal version “yeah-no”) is one of those highly idiosyncratic expressions dotted through our speech. Its functions have to do with hedging, politeness and solidarity, but they are complex and pinning them down is tricky. As you’d expect — it is after all the fall-out of the hidden thought processes of humans interacting with other humans.

Here are some examples to illustrate just some of its duties.

You might want to decline someone’s kind offer of assistance: “Do want a hand?” — “Yeah-nah, I’ll be fine.” To simply say “no” would be blunt.

You might want to agree with a negative question: “So you didn’t get the Taylor Swift tickets?” — “Yeah-nah, we were too slow.” A simple “yes” or “no” would be ambiguous.

You might want to indicate enthusiastic agreement: “So you enjoyed Taylor Swift?” — “Yeah-nah, she was fantastic.” The effect of “no” is to reinforce “yes” by knocking on the head any possibility of contradiction.

You start talking after a lull in the conversation: “Yeah-nah, I was hoping to go to the concert.” “Yeah-nah” strengthens rapport with your conversational partner; it suggests interest or support.

You’re under pressure to accept a compliment, but at the same time want to appear modest. “You played brilliantly today” — “Yeah-nah, I was lucky really.” “Yeah” acknowledges the compliment (not to would seem ungrateful), and the following “nah” effectively softens its impact.

Read more:
Brekkies, barbies, mozzies: why do Aussies shorten so many words?

So which one did Taylor Swift’s dancer use?

The “yeah-nah” starring in the Eras tour is one of the newest functions, sometimes dubbed the “shutdown” use: an intense, sarcastic form of disagreement, which effectively shuts down the topic altogether (“Would you give me your tickets for Saturday night’s concert?” “Yeah, nah”.) The “yeah” sarcastically feints at an agreement that is clearly not possible, before the crystal-cold clarity of the disagreement is issued: “nah”. Curiously, this use has earlier and stronger documentation in US English, and only more recently has it been found in Australian English.

“Shutdown” uses have proliferated on Twitter since at least 2018 (and, yes, that an intense form of disagreement should gain momentum on Twitter is perhaps the least surprising part of this story). The strong strand of internet language feeding the development of this function is perhaps why newer studies have found this form of “yeah-no” is used predominantly by younger people.

A little surprising, really — in most other functions, Baby Boomers have been documented to be the most prolific users of “yeah-no”.

You belong with me — language binds us

Language is all about communicating (of course), but it’s also about defining the gang — and never underestimate the significance of this second function. Members of Swift’s fandom are known for weaving her song lyrics (“blank space, baby”, “red lip classic”) into their conversations. These fragments of lyrics become a kind of “clique”, or in-group recognition device — “if you’re quoting Taylor Swift, that connects us”.

Swift is certainly aware of the power of language when it comes to creating bonds, and not just through relatable lyrics and themes. She is brilliant at acknowledging local culture and using colloquial phrases to connect with her audiences. And she nailed it with “yeah-nah”.

Kate Burridge receives funding from ARC SR200200350
Metaphors and Identities in the Australian Vernacular.

Isabelle Burke receives funding from ARC SR200200350 Metaphors and Identities in the Australian Vernacular.

– ref. Are you ready for it? ‘Yeah-nah’ comes back stronger – with a little help from Taylor Swift – https://theconversation.com/are-you-ready-for-it-yeah-nah-comes-back-stronger-with-a-little-help-from-taylor-swift-224062

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Kenway, Research Group Leader, Water-Energy-Carbon, The University of Queensland

Why is there such a big gap between people, industries and government agreeing we need urgent action on climate change, and actually starting? Scope 3 emissions are a great example. These are greenhouse gas emissions that organisations can influence, but don’t directly control.

Our research has identified the benefits of tackling these emissions in Australia’s urban water sector. If we consider the energy we use to heat water, water costs us far more than we think. It’s an issue of cost of living as well as water supply and energy infrastructure.

In Victoria, for example, water utilities are the largest source (about a quarter) of scope 1 and 2 emissions from the government sector. Scope 1 emissions come from activities utilities directly control, such as driving their vehicles. Scope 2 emissions are from the energy they buy.

Our research has found the gains from pursuing scope 3 emissions from the use of water that utilities supply could be about ten times bigger than their planned reductions in scope 1 and 2 emissions.

Extrapolating from Melbourne household data suggests domestic water heating accounts for 3.8% of each person’s share of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions – on a par with the 4.1% from aviation. Our research indicates that in Melbourne alone a city-wide program to retrofit showerheads could, by reducing water and energy use, have the same impact on emissions as taking tens of thousands of cars off the road.

Such a program would cost much less than all other renewable energy investments water utilities are making. It would also save water users money.

Read more:
Australian homes can be made climate-ready, reducing bills and emissions – a new report shows how

How to tackle scope 3 emissions

Water utilities don’t directly control scope 3 emissions, but they could influence what customers do. If they encourage more efficient water use, customers use less water and, in turn, less energy to heat it.

Water utilities account for 24% of scope 1 and 2 emissions from the Victorian government sector. While the sector has shown leadership in acting on these emissions, there is very little active accountability for, or even quantification of, scope 3 emissions.

Our research has found a Melbourne-wide program to retrofit showerheads to next-generation technology could save 12-27 billion litres (GL) of water a year (about 6% of current use).

The resulting energy savings would be 380-885GWh per year, cutting emissions by 98,000-226,000 tonnes. That equates to taking 21,000 to 49,000 cars off the roads.

Customers would also save up to $160 a year on their bills. The full economic benefit to society is more than five times the cost of the program.

Read more:
How to maximise savings from your home solar system and slash your power bills

Who influences water use? Everyone

Helping customers adopt highly efficient showerheads could cut emissions at much lower cost than all other renewable energy investments water utilities are making.

Most households don’t realise hot water systems account for around 24% of their total energy use. Their total energy use for water heating is larger as it includes appliances such as washing machines, dishwashers and kettles. An even larger percentage of household energy use is “water-related” if pool filtration, rainwater tank pumps and so on are included.

Read more:
Using electric water heaters to store renewable energy could do the work of 2 million home batteries – and save us billions

We think only of the savings on water bills, but efficient water use also affects our power bills and emissions. But communicating the link isn’t easy.

Showerhead manufacturers tell us they aren’t promoting efficient showerheads because they respond to demand. Water utilities don’t invest in them because it is a present cost for a future benefit – it doesn’t help them balance their budgets. And for policymakers it’s hard to celebrate the water and energy you don’t need to consume.

The combined impact is lack of action on saving water to reduce emissions – even though it’s a great option.

A ‘tragedy of the commons’ dilemma

Without direct control or accountability by any one organisation, we face a “tragedy of the commons” – individuals overconsuming a shared resource at the wider expense of society. The limited resource today is the ability of our planet to process greenhouse gas emissions before they change our climate.

The tragedy of the commons was used to describe externalities: costs borne by others that a decision-maker does not pay for. Examples include the future costs of increased flooding, more severe droughts and bushfires, and rising sea levels.

If we fully considered the costs and benefits to consumers and society (rather than just costs to utilities), investment priorities would change towards “least cost to the community” solutions.

Many water utilities will be carbon-neutral for scope 1 and 2 by 2025. This means they are at the global forefront of reducing emissions – but the water industry can do much more by tackling scope 3 emissions.

Committing to a scope 3 reduction challenges a water company to move toward things it can only influence rather than control. So, does it pursue all possibilities, without knowing if it can cut emissions? Or does it take a conservative approach and commit to only scope 1 and 2 emissions?

Reducing emissions from water use requires community, industry and government to act together. The stumbling block is decision-making and current legislation.

Read more:
All-electric homes are better for your hip pocket and the planet. Here’s how governments can help us get off gas

So, what is the solution?

First, we need to call out the problem.

Second, we must find a way to ensure the reward for pursuing action is higher than the penalty for failure. A key to this will be highlighting how much cheaper and better many actions are that focus on scope 3 emissions, rather than solely “within business” strategies. We need to find solutions that are genuinely “least cost to community” rather than “least cost to individual business entities”.

Third, as a “commons”, this challenge must be communicated beyond utilities and government to communities. There needs to be broad understanding of the benefits of new approaches and of the pitfalls of a “do nothing” approach.

Big savings are up for grabs in the water industry. More broadly, all industries (from manufacturing to mining) need to consider scope 3 emissions from use of the products they sell.

Steven Kenway receives funding from the water industry, state and local government, Collaborative Research Centres and competitive funding schemes (eg The Australian Research Council). He is a long-term member of the Australian Water Association and former member of the International Water Association.

Liam Smith receives funding from several government bodies, including state water utilities and local, state and federal government environment departments. He is also a Lead Councillor on The Biodiversity Council.

Paul Satur receives funding from a number of public and private associations including water utilities, federal and state governments. He is also the CEO and co-founder of Our Future Cities Inc.

Rob Skinner 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. Emissions from households’ water use are on a par with aviation. The big cuts and savings they can make are being neglected – https://theconversation.com/emissions-from-households-water-use-are-on-a-par-with-aviation-the-big-cuts-and-savings-they-can-make-are-being-neglected-221853

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Mountain, Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University

Last week’s destructive storm took Victoria by surprise. As winds of up to 150 kilometres an hour raced through the state, transmission towers near Geelong toppled and the grid went into chaos.

At its worst, almost one in five Victorian homes were left without electricity
while the main transmission system came close to collapse.

That makes it comparable to Victoria’s last grid-crippling storms in October 2021.

But this power outage could have been much worse. It speaks to the urgent need to harden our grid against the more frequent extreme weather expected under climate change.

What actually happened?

It was very hot in Victoria on February 13. Fires raged in central Victoria, claiming dozens of houses. When a cool change arrived, it brought extreme winds.

At about 12.35pm, Australia’s largest windfarm, Stockyard Hill, disconnected from the grid, as a grass fire threatened its grid connection.

As it happens, the loss of the windfarm was actually a lucky break.

At 2.08pm, six of Victoria’s highest voltage transmission towers (500 kiloVolt) were toppled by extreme downdrafts. This catastrophe took out two sets of 500 kV powerlines transporting much of the electricity from wind farms in western and south western Victoria to Melbourne.

Read more:
Unsexy but vital: why warnings over grid reliability are really about building more transmission lines

At the time of collapse, the circuits were likely fairly heavily loaded. They would have been much more heavily loaded had Stockyard Hill windfarm not dropped off the system 90 minutes earlier from the unrelated grass fire.

In response to the 500 kV faults, voltages dipped, forcing all four of the large coal-fired generating units at Loy Yang A to disconnect. Two wind farms in western Victoria were disconnected automatically, as intended in their cases.

During most of the transmission crisis, rooftop solar became the largest source of supply in Victoria.

In addition to the transmission events, Damage to local distribution poles and wires was widespread, especially in regional Victoria. This cut power to about one in five Victorian homes.

In about two hours, the power system had stabilised. Gas and hydro generators rushed in to fill the gap left by Loy Yang A and the wind farms, and Victoria got through its evening peak. Many homes on however still remain without power through distribution network failures.

In response, the Victorian government has announced it will appoint an independent panel to review the disaster, closely following the review of devastating storms in June 2021.

In the final recommendations from the review of the 2021 storms, the panel played it safe, calling for better communication with affected communities, beefed up emergency responses and relief delivery and so on.

The government also accepted a key recommendation: any major changes to strengthen network resilience should be referred to the Australian Energy Markets Commission, thereby kicking the big challenges into the long grass.

This time round, the omens are inauspicious. The government has explicitly excluded transmission from its review, instead relegating it to the electricity safety regulator. This is short-sighted. The Victorian transmission network is heavily exposed to weather risk and it is getting worse.

What should be done about it?

This won’t be the last grid-buckling extreme weather we’ll see. Far from it.

There are many things that can be done to reduce weather risk, and putting high (and low) voltage lines underground is often spoken about.

It will be expensive. In the wake of devastating fires, California’s largest utility committed to put 16,000 km of lines underground. So far, almost 1,000 km has been completed. But the cost has been substantial – around A$3.2 million a kilometre.

Victoria has 148,000 km of distribution lines of which 84% is overhead and 16% underground, a similar proportion to the rest of Australia. It’s much easier and cheaper to put distribution lines underground than transmission lines.

If we optimistically assume the same cost as in California, boosting the proportion of Victoria’s distribution network that is underground by 10 percentage points (to 26%) would cost around $37 billion. That’s more than double the regulatory value of the distribution network in Victoria.

Is enhanced vegetation management – widespread tree clearing near lines cheaper? Perhaps not. Research in California suggests undergrounding may actually be more cost-effective in terms of fires avoided.

More cost-effective than undergrounding are rapid switches, devices able to quickly clear faults and reduce the chance downed lines will start fires. Victoria began requiring distributors to install these from 2016, following the state’s 2009 Black Saturday fires, where downed powerlines sparked several lethal blazes. Their effectiveness is yet to be proven.

These are difficult questions and much is to be gained by considering them carefully. This will require the government to reach for more than another set of “must-try-harder” recommendations.

What about building new transmission lines?

Even as extreme weather topples huge transmission towers, state and federal governments are pressing ahead to build more. Expanding transmission capacity is important to decarbonise our electricity supply. But if not done well, it will increase exposure to weather risk.

Our study of VNI-West, the proposed massive new Victoria-New South Wales interconnector, found it would greatly increase Victoria’s energy security risk.

Why? Because it will be very heavily loaded, much more so than the 500 kV lines that failed last week, and it carries two sets of conductors on one set of towers.

This proposed new interconnector will make Victoria deeply dependent on NSW for its electricity supply. In a little over a decade Victoria is expected to import 26% of its grid-supplied electricity, much of it conveyed on VNI-West. This is an astonishing and little-known aspect of Victoria’s existing electricity policy.

Vandalism or extreme weather could, at a stroke, disable this new transmission line. In our report we drew attention to sabotage and weather risk and since out report we have seen yet more evidence of sabotage, and now we have another clear example of the risks from extreme weather.

To date, Australia’s market operator has brushed off our critique without reason.

Victoria dodged a bullet last week. It could have been far worse. To be ready for the next major storm, we should at the very least have a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry into the events of February 13. And this must scrutinise whether the proposed Victoria-NSW interconnector could survive a similar event – and what would happen if it did not.

Read more:
A major blackout left 500,000 Victorian homes without power – but it shows our energy system is resilient

Bruce Mountain 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. Victoria’s power outage could have been far worse. Can we harden the grid against extreme weather? – https://theconversation.com/victorias-power-outage-could-have-been-far-worse-can-we-harden-the-grid-against-extreme-weather-224142

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nathanael Melia, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow – Climate Science, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Last week, wildfire burnt through 650 hectares of forest and scrub in Christchurch’s Port Hills. This is not the first time the area has faced a terrifying wildfire event.

The 2017 Port Hills fires burnt through almost 2,000 hectares of land, claiming one life and 11 homes. It took 66 days before the fires were fully extinguished.

It is clear New Zealand stands at a pivotal juncture. The country faces an increasingly severe wildfire climate. And our once relatively “safe” regions are now under threat.

At all levels of government, New Zealand needs to consider whether our current investment to combat fires will be enough in the coming decades.

Our research integrating detailed climate simulations with daily observations reveals a stark forecast: an uptick in both the frequency and intensity of wildfires, particularly in the inland areas of the South Island.

It is time to consider what this will mean for Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ), and how a strategic calibration of resources, tactics and technologies will help New Zealand confront this emerging threat.

The climate drivers of wildfires

Last year was the warmest year on record by a large margin. And with El Niño at full throttle into 2024, conditions in late-summer Aotearoa New Zealand are hot and dry. There is also plenty of vegetation fuel from the departing wet La Niña.

The tinder-dry scrub and grass vegetation in the Port Hills – an area that was around 30% above “extreme” drought fire danger thresholds – drove the flammability of the region. And on February 13, when the latest fires started, a strong gusty northwesterly wind was blowing 40-50kph with exceptionally dry relative humidity values.

Read more:
Human exposure to wildfires has more than doubled in two decades – who is at risk might surprise you

These conditions resulted in the extreme wildfire behaviour. Only the rapid and coordinated response of FENZ on the ground and in the air prevented this fire from becoming much worse.

While conditions are already bad, our study revealed a concerning trend: the widespread emergence of a new wildfire climate, with regions previously unaffected by “very extreme” wildfire conditions now facing unprecedented threats.

The most severe dangers are projected for areas like the Mackenzie Country, upper Otago and Marlborough, where conditions similar to Australia’s “Black Summer” fires could occur every three to 20 years.

This shift is not merely an environmental concern, it is a socioeconomic one. The increased threat of wildfires will affect communities, the government’s tree-planting initiatives and financial investments in carbon forests.

Enhanced resources and agile response

New Zealand’s firefighting strategy emphases speed and manoeuvrability, especially in the initial attack phase, to prevent wildfires from escalating into large-scale disasters.

Approximately NZ$10 million is allocated annually to general firefighting aviation services, translating into around 11,000 flight hours. The aerial battle over the Port Hills peaked on Thursday and Friday. This effort cost over $1 million, with up to 15 helicopters active over the two days.

Read more:
How wildfires affect climate change — and vice versa

FENZ operations are primarily funded by property insurance levies. However, with the severity and frequency of wildfires on the rise, it may be necessary to review this funding model to match the evolving risk portfolio.

Climate change is already driving insurance retreat – a phenomenon whereby coastal properties are unable to renew their insurance due sea level rise. It is plausible insurance companies could take a similar stance in extremely fire-prone areas.

The agility of FENZ and associated rural fire teams, coupled with the investment and integration of advanced technologies and modelling for better wildfire prediction and management, can significantly enhance the effectiveness of firefighting efforts.

Policy adjustments and community engagement

Adjustments in policy and regulatory frameworks are also crucial in mitigating wildfire risks, and should be explored by experts.

To significantly reduce the ignition of new fires, there needs to be greater implementation of restrictions on access, and banning of high-risk activities, when areas are under “extreme fire risk”.

Moreover, community engagement and preparedness initiatives are vital. One successful example is Mt Iron, Wanaka, where a model was developed after interviews, focus groups and workshops with residents identified wildfire risk awareness and mitigation actions.

Read more:
Living with wildfire: How to protect more homes as fire risk rises in a warming climate

Educating vulnerable communities about their wildfire risks and preparedness strategies can also enhance community resilience and safety.

The emergence of a more severe wildfire climate in New Zealand calls for a unified response, integrating increased investment in FENZ, strategic planning and community involvement.

By embracing a multifaceted approach that includes technological innovation, enhanced resource, and community empowerment, New Zealand can navigate the complexities of this new era with resilience and foresight.

Nathanael is the founding director of Climate Prescience. He has received government funding from MBIE NZ to research the effect of climate change on wildfire risk. The opinions expressed here are his own.

– ref. Climate change is fanning the flames of NZ’s wildfire future. Port Hills is only the beginning – https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-fanning-the-flames-of-nzs-wildfire-future-port-hills-is-only-the-beginning-224133

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

The arrival of a boat on the coast of north-western Australia last week predictably set off an opposition political feeding frenzy. Peter Dutton was quick to claim the Albanese government had “lost control” of the border.

But a boat (or even two – there was another landing late last year) does not an armada make. Australian authorities might need to lift their detection game – no doubt they are getting that message – but so far there is not evidence of a new wave of people smuggling.

Further arrivals would change the dynamics but, in the absence of that, the opposition needs to be careful of overreach, for a couple of reasons.

One is that it’s irresponsible, thinking of Australia’s national interest, to be in effect telling the people smugglers there are fresh opportunities for them. Signals are important: for example, there’s a suggestion last year’s release of the immigration detainees (in the wake of the High Court decision) fed into the people smugglers’ pitch.

Secondly, the border issue is unlikely to play as strongly with voters these days. Kos Samaras of the RedBridge Group, a political consultancy that does regular research, says: “The political heat that was associated with the politics of boat people in the early 2000s is all gone. I think that we’re dealing with a different generation of politics now, and Australians generally just don’t get all that worried or concerned about what sort of people will stumble onto our shores and walk into a town looking for food.”

Read more:
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Antony Green, Kos Samaras and Tim Costello on Dunkley contest

With eyes firmly on their pockets, people are likely to see excessive rhetoric about boats for what it is, a scare tactic.

The issue of boat arrivals should be distinguished from immigration, which is current in many people’s minds and related to debates around housing and cost of living.

Both issues, however, do take us to the question of the Home Affairs Department, a behemoth encompassing the Australia Border Force, immigration, citizenship and multiculturalism, and cyber security. ASIO sits under it too. It is overseen by cabinet minister Clare O’Neil, with a junior minister, Andrew Giles, having responsibility for immigration, citizenship and multicultural affairs.

Put bluntly, the department has been a nest of trouble. There are very strong arguments for breaking it up.

The department has been scandal-ridden. A recent report by Dennis Richardson, former head of Foreign Affairs, Defence and ASIO, documented how it failed to do due diligence on contracts. The revelation of extraordinary emails by its former secretary, Mike Pezzullo, led to his dismissal last year.

This empire was trimmed when Labor took office. The Australian Federal Police and a couple of other crime-fighting agencies were moved to come under the Attorney-General’s Department. ASIO would fit more appropriately there too, but Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus lost that battle.

Pezzullo ran the Home Affairs Department with an iron rod and morale was at rock bottom. There are mixed views about whether his successor, Stephanie Foster, who had been the department’s associate secretary, is a strong enough leader for the demands of this very tough job.

A central problem is that the department’s component parts are a bad fit. There seems an overwhelming case for separating immigration, citizenship and multicultural affairs into their own department with cabinet status.

That way, immigration could be viewed essentially as an economic department and cast in more positive terms, to promote nation building. This was how it was seen in earlier times.

At present, immigration suffers from being in the more negative national security environment that dominates Home Affairs.

Former senior bureaucrat Paddy Gourley, an expert on the public service, has argued that “the grandest failure of Home Affairs and its leaders has been the diminution of immigration as a principal function of the federal government”.

A freestanding department would allow “a clear-eyed, high-priority concentration on immigration policy and service delivery free of the distractions and distortions to which it is vulnerable in Home Affairs”, Gourley wrote on Inside Story in November.

Equally, multiculturalism requires a lot more attention, especially at the moment.

Multiculturalism has been a great success story of Australia’s immigration program, celebrating diversity while also promoting unity and commitment to common Australian values.

But the community frictions prompted by the Israel-Hamas conflict have highlighted that at times the tensions that lurk in a multicultural society can test its cohesion. Crises abroad can cause local divisions to flare dangerously. At present the Albanese government is seriously worried about community harmony.

The level of anti-Semitism we’re currently seeing in this country is deeply disturbing, striking fear into many Jewish Australians. Meanwhile, many in the Islamic community, with family or friends in Gaza, are traumatised, plus there’s been a rise in islamophobia. And the regular pro-Palestinian demonstrations since the start of the current Middle East conflict have, on occasion, tested authorities.

Reacting to these challenges is not likely to get any easier. A separate immigration department could mean more bureaucratic attention and resources for engagement with the various multicultural communities.

On another front, prospective citizens are not receiving the attention they deserve. Peter Hughes, a one-time deputy secretary in immigration, has condemned “the outrageously long time it takes to process applications for Australian citizenship”.

Writing for Pearls and Irritations last month, Hughes said a person who’d met all the requirements, including the four-year residential qualifying period, could expect to wait up to 15 months for a decision and another six months for a conferral ceremony. Imagine the outcry if it took this long to get a passport for an overseas trip, Hughes added.

This week Anthony Albanese hosed down speculation that there could be an election this year. He intends to run full term – the election is due by May next year.

At some point the Prime Minister may consider freshening his team. This is not a prediction, but a reshuffle would provide the ideal opportunity to split the Home Affairs Department and rescue immigration from what often seems its also-ran bureaucratic status.

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

– ref. Grattan on Friday: Unshackle immigration from Home Affairs and give it its own department – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-unshackle-immigration-from-home-affairs-and-give-it-its-own-department-224155

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

The National Anti-Corruption Commission will provide guidance on “corruption vulnerabilities” ahead of next year’s federal election, NACC Commissioner Paul Brereton said on Thursday.

“The commission will produce guidance concerning corruption risks and vulnerabilities associated with issues such as grants, political donations and fundraising, foreign interference, government advertising and appointments,” Brereton said.

He told a a conference in “Rebuilding trust and integrity in the Australian Public Service”, run by The Mandarin, that there was a vast difference in the integrity landscape now compared with when the first anti-corruption commission was set up – the ICAC in New South Wales – 35 years ago.

“Since then, there has been a sea change in the tolerance of the public, the press and the public service for corrupt conduct.”

Brereton said corruption was “about the misuse of public power, position, privilege or property” usually for private purposes. “It results in the diversion of public resources, and the undermining of trust in our public institutions. Although it is not the only form of corrupt conduct within the definition, breach of public trust lies at its core.”

Brereton stressed that “mere mistakes, incorrect decisions, and even negligent maladministration, are not in themselves corrupt conduct”. Generally, there must be an element of dishonesty and/or personal benefit.

Up to February 18 the commission had received 2,534 referrals of suspected corrupt conduct, overwhelmingly voluntary referrals from the public. Nearly 80% were excluded because they didn’t involve a Commonwealth official or didn’t raise a corruption issue.

The commission had opened 18 preliminary investigations, of which five had been finished, in each case with a finding of no corruption.

It had opened 13 corruption investigations, four of them jointly with other agencies, and had referred five corruption issues to other agencies for investigation.

In 220 cases which passed triage, the commission had decided to to take no more action.

“Typically, this is because there are insufficient prospects of finding corrupt conduct, or the matter is already being adequately investigated by another agency, or a corruption investigation would not add value in the public interest.”

The commission also progressed seven investigations that were started by the former Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.

Brereton said the statistics showed “that the public perception of corruption greatly exceeds the actuality”.

But this wasn’t a reason to be complacent “first, because the perception bespeaks a lack of trust and confidence in our institutions, and secondly, because there is still an actuality that underlies it”.

He said in the public service there were two main areas where there was the perception and actuality of corrupt conduct – procurement, and recruitment and promotion.

“Concerns in both those areas relate to the preferring of family, friends and associates, and misuse of official information to gain an advantage.”

While many complaints about selection and promotion reflected grievances by disappointed applicants, not all could be dismissed on these grounds. In procurement, mere compliance with the rules didn’t mean the conduct was ethical. “In particular, contracts for a value just under the threshold for a limited tender process tend to be a red flag.”

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. National Anti-Corruption Commission to warn of ‘corruption vulnerabilities’ ahead of federal election – https://theconversation.com/national-anti-corruption-commission-to-warn-of-corruption-vulnerabilities-ahead-of-federal-election-224158

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Marie Quigley, DECRA Research Fellow (James Cook University), Principal Research Scientist (Minderoo Foundation), James Cook University

Seas surrounding Australia this month hit an alarming level of warming. It comes on the back of serious marine heatwaves in the Northern Hemisphere summer.

Such warming is highly dangerous for corals. Every half a degree of ocean warming increases their risk of bleaching and potential death.

The best long-term strategy to protecting Earth’s coral reefs is to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions and so limit global warming. But in the meantime, we must urgently make corals more resilient and protect those that are vulnerable.

That is particularly true for the huge, ancient features of reefs known as boulder corals. Research suggests they will be a vital part of reef survival in a warmer world.

The old-growth trees of the sea

Boulder corals (Porites) can grow to more than 10m high and live for more than 600 years. In Australia they are often referred to as “bommies”. Each bommie can comprise multiple species, but they’re often a single massive individual.

The corals play a crucial role in reefs, including providing habitat for marine life. Importantly, they can maintain these functions even when other coral species are absent.

Some species are thought to be resistant to stress. Old corals have likely experienced
– and survived – past warming episodes, proving their resilience.

For example, a paper in 2021 described a giant boulder coral discovered on the Great Barrier Reef which was thought to be more than 400 years old. It has survived 80 major cyclones, numerous coral bleaching events and centuries of exposure to other threats.

This resilience can benefit the whole reef ecosystem. We can think of boulder corals as akin to old-growth trees in a forest. Just like forests containing big, old trees are more resistent to fire, studies show a mix of different growth forms, including old and large boulder corals, fare better in the long-term under marine warming.

Older and bigger corals may also produce more offspring, so can more rapidly replenish the reef after disturbances.

Clearly, as our oceans face unprecedented pressures under climate change, we must protect – and learn from – these sentinels of the sea.

Read more:
Snorkellers discover rare, giant 400-year-old coral – one of the oldest on the Great Barrier Reef

Preparing for the challenges ahead

Understanding boulder corals is crucial to predicting how they might cope under climate change, and planning for their protection.

But scientists still have much to learn about boulder corals. In particular, we don’t know exactly how many species exist, their life histories and how they evolved.

My colleagues and I are aiming to overcome this knowledge gap. We are studying reefs across Australia, with a particular focus on boulder corals at Ningaloo Reef off Western Australia.

We are creating maps of what species of boulder corals exist and where they are located. And using cutting-edge genomics technology, such as DNA sequencing, we are measuring the tolerance of each species to warming and trying to predict when they will reproduce.

Importantly, we are also examining the mutually beneficial relationship between the corals and algae. This relationship provides algae with shelter, gives corals their colour and provides nutrients to both partners. It may also be a main factor in coral resistance to warmer temperatures.

So far, we have found more diversity than initially expected. This is exciting because it may signal an increased capacity to resist different types of stress. But the work to fully map Ningaloo’s coral diversity has only just begun.

We hope our findings, once finalised, can inform local community management actions such as:

• public education campaigns and signs
• managing visitor numbers to reefs
• installing public moorings to reduce harm from boat anchoring, especially during coral spawning.

The information can also be used in broader management actions such as:

• establishing “baseline” conditions from which to measure change
• zoning decisions, including the establishment or ramping up of of marine park protections, especially for resilient coral species and individuals
• impact assessments following events such as heatwaves
• direct conservation actions for iconic, at-risk bommies, such as providing shade to diminish stress from heat
• the development of national reef management plans.

Read more:
Photos from the field: why losing these tiny, loyal fish to climate change spells disaster for coral

Something worth fighting for

The stress to coral wrought by recent marine heatwaves compounds damage incurred over decades. The Great Barrier Reef, for example, has experienced five major heatwaves in 30 years.

Broadly, making reefs more resilient to these pressures involves:

• resisting, recovering, managing and adapting to shocks across ecosystems
• improving governance structures
• preparing human communities for change.

Awareness of the need to increase reef resilience is growing. For example, it formed the basis of a 2017 blueprint for the Great Barrier Reef and a strategy for the Ningaloo Coast released last year.
But more work is required.

There’s also a need for coordination across Australia’s reef areas. This might include the exchange of knowledge and data between researchers and combined lobbying efforts to better protect reef ecosystems.

What’s more, Traditional Owners must be offered the opportunity to be consulted about, and meaningfully engaged in, protection of reef areas, including co-management of Sea Country.

The Australian Coral Reef Society, of which I am a councillor, last week released an open letter to the federal government, calling for action on climate change to protect reefs. The task has never been more urgent.

There is still a lot of reef worth fighting for – but only if we act now.

The author would like to acknowledge the contribution of Ningaloo marine park managers – in particular, Dr Peter Barnes – to the research she and her colleagues are undertaking.

Kate Quigley receives funding from the Australian Research Council in the form of the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) and holds a joint position as Principal Research Scientist at Minderoo Foundation, a philanthropic organisation.

– ref. Sentinels of the sea: ancient boulder corals are key to reef survival in a warmer world – https://theconversation.com/sentinels-of-the-sea-ancient-boulder-corals-are-key-to-reef-survival-in-a-warmer-world-223207

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist; Research Fellow, University of Technology Sydney

A class-action lawsuit filed in the United States against Match Group – the parent company of dating apps Tinder, Hinge and The League – is making headlines around the world.

The claimants accuse Match of having a “predatory” business model and using “recognised dopamine-manipulating product features” to get people addicted to their apps.

So, can dating apps really be addictive? Are we swiping right into a trap? Here’s the science behind how dating apps are influencing our brains.

How do apps give us a dopamine hit?

Dating apps, like many apps these days, are designed to keep users engaged. Like any product on the market, one of the developers’ goals is for the app to be sold and used.

While dating apps are designed to facilitate connections, some people may find themselves developing an unhealthy relationship with the app, constantly swiping left and right.

Dating apps can feel addictive because they activate the dopamine reward system. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter – a chemical messenger in the brain, one of many such chemicals essential for our survival.

One of dopamine’s crucial roles is to influence when and how we experience pleasure and reward. Think about the rush of winning money at a casino, or getting lots of likes on Instagram. That’s dopamine working its magic.

However, dopamine does more that just help us feel pleasure and excitement. It also has a key role in motivating us to seek out pleasurable things. It’s released not only when we experience something pleasurable, but also when we’re anticipating and seeking out a pleasurable experience.

Read more:
The problems with dating apps and how they could be fixed – two relationship experts discuss

Excitement and unpredictability

Certain app features make it more likely we will open our phones and start swiping. When you get a match on a dating app, it feels exciting – that’s dopamine at work.

But an element of unpredictability adds to this excitement. Each time you open the app, you don’t know what profiles you might see, and who might match with you. This element of surprise and anticipation is especially important in getting us hooked.

Imagine if instead of swiping through profiles one by one, you were shown a long list of them at once. It would still feel good to match with people, but that excitement and anticipation of swiping through one by one would be missing.

Additionally, intermittent reinforcement comes into the mix. This is where “rewards” – in this case, matches – are provided at irregular intervals. We know we might eventually get some matches, but we don’t know when or with whom.

Imagine if instead of being drip-fed your matches, you received a list of any matches from the past 24 hours, at 9am each day. Your excitement and desire to check the app throughout the day would likely lessen.

Other small features, such as “hearts” and “roses”, make dating apps socially rewarding. These are all forms of approval. It feels different to receive a heart or a rose compared to something unemotional like a “tick” or “thumbs up”. These social stimuli are rewarding and activate our dopamine, too.

6 addictive signs to watch out for

Not every dating app user will develop an unhealthy relationship to it. Just like not everyone who gambles, plays mobile games, or drinks alcohol develops a problem with those.

However, some people are biologically more vulnerable to addictions than others. A review of the research into problematic dating app use found the people likely to spend more time on the apps are those high on personality traits such as neuroticism, sociability and sensation-seeking. Problematic use of online dating apps is also associated with low self-esteem.

While there’s no current diagnosis of a “dating app addiction”, some people do develop unhealthy app habits and experience day-to-day harms as a result.

These six “addiction components” outline some of the signs you might be developing an unhealthy relationship with dating apps:

1. salience (dating app use dominates your thoughts)
2. mood modification (dating apps change your mood)
3. tolerance (your use of dating apps increases over time)
4. withdrawals (distress when dating app use is interrupted for a period of time)
5. conflict (use of dating apps negatively affects your reality)
6. relapse (you return to a previous pattern of dating app use after some interruption)

Oh no, I think I’m hooked on an app!

So, what can you do if you find yourself swiping through those matches more than you’d prefer?

Consider taking a break from the apps for a period of time. Depending on how hooked you feel, stopping completely for a while will help you reset your reliance on them.

Consider what is driving you to spend time swiping: are you feeling bored, sad or lonely? What other ways can you find to soothe these emotional experiences instead of turning to the app?

Make a list of the practical or emotional consequences of swiping, as a reminder of why you want to reduce your use. Perhaps the apps give you a brief rush, but in the long run don’t align with how you want to be spending your time, or don’t make you feel particularly good about yourself.

If you really do feel hooked, it will feel uncomfortable to take a break. Strategies such as mindfulness can help us sit with the discomfort. Consider seeking out professional help from a psychologist if you’re struggling to take time from dating apps.

Lastly, remember that apps, while great for meeting people, are not the be-all and end-all of dating.

In-person events and opportunities to mingle still exist. So, step away from the screen and embrace the excitement, unpredictability and dopamine hit you can get from face-to-face encounters too.

Read more:
Online dating fatigue – why some people are turning to face-to-face apps first

Dr Anastasia Hronis 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. Dating apps are accused of being ‘addictive’. What makes us keep swiping? – https://theconversation.com/dating-apps-are-accused-of-being-addictive-what-makes-us-keep-swiping-224068

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shane Rogers, Lecturer in Psychology, Edith Cowan University

“Outrage culture” is pervasive in the digital age. It refers to our collective tendency to react, often with intense negativity, to developments around us.

Usually this ire is directed at perceived transgressions. The internet wasted no time in raging at Taylor Swift when she received Album of The Year at the Grammys, seemingly frustrated by her lack of acknowledgement of Celine Dion, who presented the award.

Whether or not Swift’s behaviour could be considered rude isn’t the point. The point is the backlash arguably wasn’t proportionate to the crime. This so-called “snub” incident is, therefore, a good example of how quickly and easily people will jump on the online hate train.

Modern outrage culture, which is also known as call-out culture and is linked to cancel culture, often devolves into a toxic spiral. People wanting clout compete to produce the meanest and most over-the-top commentary, stifling open dialogue and demonising those who make mistakes.

Read more:
How news sites’ online comments helped build our hateful electorate

A tale as old as time

Collective outrage isn’t a new phenomenon – nor is it necessarily bad. Humans have adapted to become highly sensitive to the threat of social exclusion. Being called out hurts our feelings, which motivates us to change. We learn how this feels for us and we learn how to use it to influence others.

In pre-digital societies, expressing outrage to shame someone as a group served crucial social functions. It reinforced group norms, deterred potential rule-breakers, and fostered a sense of order and accountability within communities.

Expressing outrage can also challenge norms in a way that leads to positive societal change. The women’s liberation movement in the latter part of the 19th century is a good example of this.

The technological innovations of the internet, smartphones and social media have now enabled communal outrage on a global scale. Multiple societies can be affected at once, as witnessed with the #MeToo movement.

When outrage spirals

We’ve all seen it play out. Someone says or does something “controversial”, some posts draw attention to it and soon enough a whirlwind of comments appears, echoing over and over the person in question is fundamentally bad.

The Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial is an example where, regardless of how you feel about the case, it’s hard to deny the discourse turned toxic.

The collective moral outrage that drives such negativity spirals has parallels with people brandishing their pitchforks during the 1690s Salem witch trials. Sharing similar beliefs helps us feel like we’re part of the group.

Beyond that, the conviction we witness in others’ comments and behaviour on an issue can stir up our own emotions, in what’s called “emotional contagion”. With our own emotions heightened and our convictions strengthened, we may feel compelled to join the choir of negative discourse.

The overall tone and style of language used by others can also influence how we act and feel. Social modelling dictates that if many others are piling on with negative comments, it can make it seem okay for us to do so, too.

And the more exposed we are to one-sided discourse, the more likely we are to resist alternative viewpoints. This is called “groupthink”.

Social media algorithms are also generally set up to feed us more of what we’ve previously clicked on, which further contributes to the one-sidedness of our online experience.

Scholars have suggested algorithms can prioritise certain posts in a way that shapes the overall nature of commentary, essentially fuelling the flames of negativity.

Read more:
Feed me: 4 ways to take control of social media algorithms and get the content you actually want

Two sides of speaking up

Unlike Salem in the late 1690s, today’s outrage culture is multiplied in intensity and scale due to changing cultural norms around “speaking up”. Combined with the anonymity and global reach afforded by the internet, the culture of speaking up has likely fuelled the kind of vocalisation we see online.

For example, in the past two decades there has been growing societal recognition that it’s good to speak up against bullying. This can be associated with more education on bullying in schools. There’s also a growing trend of encouraging a speak-up culture in workplaces. So it’s not surprising many people now report feeling confident in voicing their opinions online.

It’s also easier to express negative opinions online since we can remain anonymous. We don’t directly witness the emotional pain inflicted upon our target. Nor do we have to worry about the potential threat to our personal safety that would be associated with saying the same horrible thing to a person’s face. As summed up by Taylor Swift herself in You Need to Calm Down:

Say it in the street, that’s a knock-out. But you say it in a tweet, that’s a cop-out.

How can we combat negativity?

Navigating the pitfalls of outrage culture requires us to adopt a more reflective approach before participating in public condemnation. Consider also that outrage culture runs counter to the moral ideals most of us admire, such as:

• everyone makes mistakes
• people are worth more than their worst actions
• people are capable of growth and change, and deserve second chances
• it’s okay to have different opinions to others
• the punishment should fit the crime.

Research suggests positive comments can be a productive counter-influence on negativity spirals. So it’s worth speaking up if you do witness matters getting out of hand online. Before clicking the send button, consider asking yourself:

• do I really believe what I’m about to say or am I going along with the group?
• how might this comment affect the person receiving it, and am I okay with that?
• would I communicate like this if it was a face-to-face situation?

By encouraging reflection, empathy and open dialogue, we can avoid toxic outrage culture – and instead use our collective outrage as a force for positive change.

Read more:
We cannot deny the violence of White supremacy any more

Shane Rogers 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. Outrage culture is a big, toxic problem. Why do we take part? And how can we stop? – https://theconversation.com/outrage-culture-is-a-big-toxic-problem-why-do-we-take-part-and-how-can-we-stop-223645

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michaela Estelle Okninski, Lecturer of Law, University of Adelaide

Voluntary assisted dying is now lawful in every Australian state and will soon begin in the Australian Capital Territory.

However, it’s illegal to discuss it via telehealth. That means people who live in rural and remote areas, or those who can’t physically go to see a doctor, may not be able to access the scheme.

A federal private members bill, introduced to parliament last week, aims to change this. So what’s proposed and why is it needed?

What’s wrong with the current laws?

Voluntary assisted dying doesn’t meet the definition of suicide under state laws.

But the Commonwealth Criminal Code prohibits the discussion or dissemination of suicide-related material electronically.

This opens doctors to the risk of criminal prosecution if they discuss voluntary assisted dying via telehealth.

Successive Commonwealth attorneys-general have failed to address the conflict between federal and state laws, despite persistent calls from state attorneys-general for necessary clarity.

This eventually led to voluntary assistant dying doctor Nicholas Carr calling on the Federal Court of Australia to resolve this conflict. Carr sought a declaration to exclude voluntary assisted dying from the definition of suicide under the Criminal Code.

Read more:
Voluntary assisted dying will begin in WA this week. But one Commonwealth law could get in the way

In November, the court declared voluntary assisted dying was considered suicide for the purpose of the Criminal Code. This meant doctors across Australia were prohibited from using telehealth services for voluntary assisted dying consultations.

Last week, independent federal MP Kate Chaney introduced a private members bill to create an exemption for voluntary assisted dying by excluding it as suicide for the purpose of the Criminal Code. Here’s why it’s needed.

Not all patients can physically see a doctor

Defining voluntary assisted dying as suicide in the Criminal Code disproportionately impacts people living in regional and remote areas. People in the country rely on the use of “carriage services”, such as phone and video consultations, to avoid travelling long distances to consult their doctor.

Other people with terminal illnesses, whether in regional or urban areas, may be suffering intolerably and unable to physically attend appointments with doctors.

The prohibition against telehealth goes against the principles of voluntary assisted dying, which are to minimise suffering, maximise quality of life and promote autonomy.

Doctors don’t want to be involved in ‘suicide’

Equating voluntary assisted dying with suicide has a direct impact on doctors, who fear criminal prosecution due to the prohibition against using telehealth.

Some doctors may decide not to help patients who choose voluntary assisted dying, leaving patients in a state of limbo.

The number of doctors actively participating in voluntary assisted dying is already low. The majority of doctors are located in metropolitan areas or major regional centres, leaving some locations with very few doctors participating in voluntary assisted dying.

Read more:
Voluntary assisted dying is legal in Victoria, but you may not be able to access it

It misclassifies deaths

In state law, people dying under voluntary assisted dying have the cause of their death registered as “the disease, illness or medical condition that was the grounds for a person to access voluntary assisted dying”, while the manner of dying is recorded as voluntary assisted dying.

In contrast, only coroners in each state and territory can make a finding of suicide as a cause of death.

In 2017, voluntary assisted dying was defined in the Coroners Act 2008 (Vic) as not a reportable death, and thus not suicide.

The language of suicide is inappropriate for explaining how people make a decision to die with dignity under the lawful practice of voluntary assisted dying.

There is ongoing taboo and stigma attached to suicide. People who opt for and are lawfully eligible to access voluntary assisted dying should not be tainted with the taboo that currently surrounds suicide.

So what is the solution?

The only way to remedy this problem is for the federal government to create an exemption in the Criminal Code to allow telehealth appointments to discuss voluntary assisted dying.

Chaney’s private member’s bill is yet to be debated in federal parliament.

If it’s unsuccessful, the Commonwealth attorney-general should pass regulations to exempt voluntary assisted dying as suicide.

A cooperative approach to resolve this conflict of laws is necessary to ensure doctors don’t risk prosecution for assisting eligible people to access voluntary assisted dying, regional and remote patients have access to voluntary assisted dying, families don’t suffer consequences for the erroneous classification of voluntary assisted dying as suicide, and people accessing voluntary assisted dying are not shrouded with the taboo of suicide when accessing a lawful practice to die with dignity.

Failure to change this will cause unnecessary suffering for patients and doctors alike.

Michaela Estelle Okninski is affiliated with Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law.

Marc Trabsky’s research for this article received funding from an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE220100064).

Neera Bhatia receives funding from UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council for an unrelated project.

– ref. Voluntary assisted dying is different to suicide. But federal laws conflate them and restrict access to telehealth – https://theconversation.com/voluntary-assisted-dying-is-different-to-suicide-but-federal-laws-conflate-them-and-restrict-access-to-telehealth-223863

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tobias Loetscher, Associate Professor, University of South Australia

People in palliative care are dealing with serious, non-curable illness. Every day can be filled with severe physical, psychological and emotional pain.

Palliative care staff work hard to help make patients as comfortable as possible and provide strong emotional support. Meaningful activities can help but patients often aren’t well enough to do the things they really love, such as travel. We wondered whether virtual reality (VR) could help.

To find out, we supported 16 palliative care patients in an acute ward to do three 20-minute VR sessions, and asked them how they felt before and after each one.

Our study, published this week in the journal BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, found more than 50% of patients experienced clinically meaningful reductions in symptoms such as pain and depression immediately after a 20-minute VR session.

Importantly, though, some also told us it didn’t help or that they felt unwell after using it. This shows taking a nuanced approach to using VR in palliative care is crucial.

What we did

VR involves using a headset to create an immersive experience that feels 3D, often accompanied by music or realistic sound effects. This computer-generated environment can feel incredibly close to reality.

Previous research has looked at VR use in palliative care but we were especially interested in finding out if personalised VR sessions were associated with meaningful changes in pain and depression symptoms.

Personalised VR means each person experiences content that is meaningful to that individual. So rather than asking patients to choose, for example, between a rainforest and a beach VR experience, we interviewed the patients before their sessions to gauge their interests and create a VR session tailored to them.

For example, one person said they wanted a VR experience that allowed them to explore Paris again. Others had migrated to Australia from the UK so they asked for VR experiences that brought them back to the country where they were born. One person was a big fan of Star Wars, so we provided a VR Star Wars game.

For our study, we asked 16 palliative care patients from an acute ward in a South Australian hospital to participate in three VR sessions using a headset that is now known as Meta Quest 2. The participants, who ranged in age from 48 to 87 years old, used the headset for around 20 minutes per session. The primary VR applications we used were Wander and YouTube VR.

We asked each participant about their emotional and physical symptoms before and after each session.

What we found

We found just 20 minutes of VR immersion could immediately reduce the participants’ subjective feelings of both physical pain and emotional pain (such as depression). At least half of the participants reported significant relief after a single session. After one session, two out of three participants reported relief.

One person told us:

When the service is finished you feel like you’re floating. [It takes a] weight off your shoulders.

Another said:

Well, I’d rather lie here thinking about a fish swimming [or] a Willy Nelson concert than be dying […] I enjoyed it.

One participant told us:

Oh, it’s just amazing, it was nothing like I expected […] it takes you from this world into another beautiful world.

A different person said:

[…] by the time you get to where I am, there’s things you think of, ‘I wish I’d done this, I wish I’d had the chance to have been able to do that’ and then this offers you that experience to have just about feel like you’ve been there.

While the benefits of VR were profound for some, they were not universal.

Some participants reported feeling worse after the VR sessions.

One person said the headset felt too heavy on their cheekbone, another said they experienced nausea after using the VR.

Where to from here?

We and others have now collected good evidence VR can be a helpful palliative care therapy for some patients – but not all. It is not a universal remedy.

More research is needed to better understand which patients will benefit the most from VR and how we can best use it. It’s also worth remembering skilled staff need to be on hand to support a patient to use VR; it’s no good just buying a VR set and expecting patients to use it on their own.

Our study, while limited, shows VR therapy may in some cases have a role to play to help palliative care patients experience moments of joy and comfort despite the seriousness of their illness.

Tobias Loetscher received funding from the Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation for this project.

Gregory Crawford has received funding from the NHMRC, the MRFF and Cancer Australia.

– ref. We gave palliative care patients VR therapy. More than 50% said it helped reduce pain and depression symptoms – https://theconversation.com/we-gave-palliative-care-patients-vr-therapy-more-than-50-said-it-helped-reduce-pain-and-depression-symptoms-223186

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Poulton, Senior Lecturer, Brain Mind Centre Nepean, University of Sydney

Imagine you or your child has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and after several weeks, or even months, you’ve found a dose of medication you’re happy with.

The problems you previously experienced with ADHD have improved significantly. You’re no longer constantly being distracted by your phone, or procrastinating for long periods instead of getting started on a piece of work. Perhaps your child is focusing better at school.

But always in the back of your mind is a worry: what would happen if you or your child ran out of medication? What if your doctor is ill and cannot prescribe it for you? Or what if your medication is no longer available at the pharmacy?

Many Australians with ADHD who take Vyvanse, a drug commonly prescribed to treat the condition, are facing this medication crisis at the moment. The drug has been in short supply in Australia for the past few months.

Getting the dose right

If you have ADHD and are taking medication, it’s likely you have reached your current dose by a careful process of medication optimisation in consultation with your specialist.

You may have started off with dexamfetamine or methylphenidate tablets, short-acting stimulants that take effect quickly and last for about four hours. During a process called titration, the dose is gradually increased, looking for the dose that works best for you, with the least side effects.

You may have tried modified stimulant formulations – capsules that release the medication more slowly. These include Ritalin LA (long-acting) and Concerta, which both contain methylphenidate and are designed to last either six to eight hours (Ritalin LA) or eight to 12 hours (Concerta).

Or you may have gone straight onto lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse), a “prodrug” of dexamfetamine. Vyvanse has a protein molecule (lysine) attached which makes it inactive until it has been broken down in the body and releases dexamfetamine. This means a single dose of Vyvanse, like Concerta, may be effective for the entire day.

Although both of these once-daily formulations have similar effects and side effects, you might feel better on one than the other. You might have to try both to find the one which suits you best. Then the dose would be carefully worked out with your specialist.

Read more:
How do stimulants actually work to reduce ADHD symptoms?

Shortages have affected different doses

In August 2023 the first shortages occurred in Australia, affecting the 20mg and 30mg strengths.

Then these lower strengths came back and the 50mg was unavailable. Most recently, since December 2023, most pharmacies have only been able to obtain the 20mg and 70mg capsules.

Splitting the dose (for example prescribing 40g to a patient who takes 20g) can be done by mixing the contents of a capsule in water, and reserving half. But this is not recommended by the manufacturer, who will not guarantee the effectiveness of the half dose kept overnight.

Combining doses if available (say 20g and 30g for a patient who normally takes 50g) would require two new prescriptions. These strengths might not be available at the pharmacy the following month, and writing new prescriptions for each patient month by month is not sustainable.

Stimulant prescribing is heavily regulated, with pharmacies allowed to dispense only one month’s supply at a time. Prescriptions, which last for up to six months, are retained at the patient’s nominated pharmacy and cannot be released to be used elsewhere.

Of course, Vyvanse is not the only ADHD medication. Some people may have been taking Concerta or Ritalin prior to starting Vyvanse, and could revert to their previous dose. Changing medication is not normally a problem, but it might be for someone who responds better to Vyvanse.

Another alternative would be going back to multiple doses of short-acting dexamfetamine. Unfortunately the correct dose of dexamfetamine tablets cannot be calculated from a patient’s Vyvanse dose because of the differences in pharmacokinetics – how long it takes for the drug to start working balanced against how quickly it’s cleared from the body.

So changing to dexamfetamine would have to involve some flexibility to adjust the dose up or down as needed. This may also have a positive side, because the process depends on the person developing a good understanding of their response to each dose of medication.

Read more:
ADHD medication – can you take it long term? What are the risks and do benefits continue?

There’s no ideal solution to this problem. Leaving patients unmedicated is perhaps the worst option because the functional improvement they have come to depend on is withdrawn and the problems associated with untreated ADHD recur. This can leave people in crisis and seeking unproven alternative treatments.

How long will the shortage last?

In Australia, Vyvanse is only available from one company, Takeda, that manufactures it in the United States.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration anticipates the shortages in Australia will last until March or April, depending on the dose.

It can be extremely stressful when your ADHD medication is suddenly unavailable. If you are in this situation and wondering how to manage, remember Vyvanse is not the only formulation available. It’s worth getting in touch with your specialist to find out about the alternatives. This could involve an initial period of dose adjustment, but it might be a great deal better than going without.

Alison Poulton is a director of the Australasian ADHD Professionals Association. She has previously taken part in an advisory panel and received personal fees and non-financial support from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures ADHD medications including some mentioned in this article. She has received book royalties from Disruptive Publishing (ADHD Made Simple).

– ref. ADHD drug shortages: what to expect if you take Vyvanse and can’t access your usual dose – https://theconversation.com/adhd-drug-shortages-what-to-expect-if-you-take-vyvanse-and-cant-access-your-usual-dose-223430

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robin Smit, Adjunct Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney

Australian passenger vehicles are emitting 50% more carbon dioxide (CO₂) than the average of the world’s major markets. And the real-world situation is even worse than official figures show. That’s the finding of a new study comparing the CO₂ emissions performance of cars, SUVs and light commercial vehicles in Australia and overseas.

The comparison suggests Australia will probably fall well short of the economy-wide 2050 net-zero emission target for road transport. To hit the target, policies to cut vehicle emissions have to be intensified and supported by a range of other policies.

This month, the Australian government announced options for a New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) – not to be confused with the National Electric Vehicle Strategy (NEVS). Each option would set a national limit on grams of CO₂ that can be emitted for each kilometre driven, averaged across all new cars sold.

Mandatory CO₂ emission or fuel-efficiency standards are internationally recognised as a fundamental building block to cut transport emissions. To provide further context and input to the development of an Australian standard, Australia-based Transport Energy/Emission Research (TER) and the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) collaborated on a newly published briefing paper.

The independent analysis shows the urgent need for Australia to adopt a stringent, well-designed and mandatory fuel-efficiency standard. This standard and additional policies are essential to keep up with technological advances and decarbonisation in other developed countries.

Read more:
Labor’s fuel-efficiency standards may settle the ute dispute – but there are still hazards on the road

How did we fall so far behind?

Both fuel efficiency and emission standards aim for roughly the same thing: cutting fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In doing so, they also cut fuel costs for consumers and improve energy security.

About 85% of the global light vehicle market has adopted these standards over time, in some cases decades ago. The United States, European Union, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, China, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, Chile and India all have them. Australia and Russia are the two exceptions in the developed world.

Australia has a long history of debate about making such standards mandatory for passenger and light commercial vehicles. The federal government has released six public consultation documents since 2008, without achieving mandatory standards. This is about to change.

Australia has had voluntary standards since 1978. These targets have not always been met due to lack of enforcement. They have been criticised for lacking both ambition and effectiveness in reducing real-world emissions.

It appears the government’s current proposal will be more ambitious. It potentially aims to converge with US targets in 2027 – though falling short of what is being done in Europe. The Australian standard’s effectiveness in achieving genuine emission reductions and net zero emissions in 2050 will still need to be examined once the design and details are clearer.

Read more:
Why electric trucks are our best bet to cut road transport emissions

How does Australia compare using official figures?

The new study compared the officially reported CO₂ emissions performance of passenger and light commercial vehicles in Australia, China, the EU, Japan and the US. We found CO₂ emissions from the Australian passenger vehicles were 53% higher than the average of these major markets in 2021.

Importantly, without effective action, this performance gap is expected to grow in future years. That’s because these other markets are moving to aggressively adopt standards that drive the transition to a low-or-zero-emissions vehicle fleet.

Read more:
Too big, too heavy and too slow to change: road transport is way off track for net zero

How does Australia compare in reality?

The official Australian figures are based on a test protocol called the New European Drive Cycle (NEDC). It was developed in the early 1970s.

The main problem is that the difference between NEDC test results and actual on-road emissions has steadily increased. Actual on-road emissions were estimated to be about 10% higher in 2007, growing to over 45% in 2021.

Indeed, the EU no longer uses the outdated NEDC protocol. It has adopted a more realistic test procedure, the Worldwide Harmonised Light-Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP).

The briefing paper used previous research into Australian and international real-world emissions performance to create a more accurate comparison. Whereas the official figures suggest newly sold Australian passenger vehicles have relatively high emissions, at least they appear to have improved each year. The picture is very different when we look at on-road emissions.

Our estimates suggest emissions from newly sold Australian passenger vehicles have actually been rising since 2015. This trend is a result of increasing vehicle size and weight, a shift towards more four-wheel-drive SUVs and large utes, and a lack of mandatory standards or targets.

The Australian real-world emissions performance is also much worse than in the four major markets. Before 2016 the average difference was around 20% higher on average. By 2021, Australian emissions were almost 50% higher for passenger vehicles.

Read more:
The road to new fuel efficiency rules is filled with potholes. Here’s how Australia can avoid them

What does this mean for policy?

Our analysis shows both officially reported and actual on-road CO₂ emissions from new Australian light-duty vehicles are much higher than in other developed nations. The available evidence suggests this poor performance will get worse without stringent mandatory standards in place.

The good news is that the government is acting on the lack of an effective standard. Mandatory standards will likely be adopted this year. The New Vehicle Efficiency Standard is due to take effect in 2025.

However, the standard must be carefully designed to achieve genuine emission reductions for new vehicles.

For instance, the official Australian test protocol (NEDC) is outdated and increasingly underestimates on-road emissions. It provides an unrealistic and skewed picture, undermining effective emission reduction. The government says it intends to adopt a more realistic test protocol.

The standards should also include on-board monitoring of fuel consumption – as the EU is now doing. It’s vital to measure real-world fuel efficiency and emissions of new vehicles and to make this information public to ensure standards are achieving their goals. But the latest government report didn’t mention it.

A mandatory fuel-efficiency standard is long overdue in Australia. It can help close the performance gap between Australia and the rest of the world. So we’d better make sure it works.

Robin Smit is the Founder of and Director at Transport Energy/Emission Research (TER), which collaborated on the briefing paper discussed in this article.

– ref. Australian passenger vehicle emission rates are 50% higher than the rest of the world – and it’s getting worse – https://theconversation.com/australian-passenger-vehicle-emission-rates-are-50-higher-than-the-rest-of-the-world-and-its-getting-worse-222398

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne

They can recover from fire. Grow back from a bare stump. Shrug aside bark loss that would kill a lesser tree. Endure drought and floods.

Eucalypts are not interested in dying. They’re survivors. The world’s 800-plus species are almost all found in Australia, a continent with old, degraded soils and frequent fires and droughts.

In the fossil record, they first appear about 34 million years ago. As the Australian continent dried out, eucalypts gradually emerged as the dominant trees in all but the most arid and tropical areas.

But what is it about eucalypts that makes them survivors? It’s a combination. Leathery leaves. Fire-resistant bark. Dormant buds under bark, waiting for fire. Mallee roots (lignotubers) at ground level to let them regrow. Roots which put out special chemicals to unlock scarce nutrients. And gumnuts which use fire to germinate and get a head-start on any rivals.

In a difficult place to survive, they thrive. Here’s how they do it.

Read more:
New research reveals how forests reduce their own bushfire risk, if they’re left alone

Leaves

Many gum species have leaves which hang vertically. These adaptations are about water. Water in Australia is often scarce, and it makes sense for trees to hold onto it when they have it. Vertical leaves means less direct sun, which means less evaporation. Their dry, leathery leaves also keep the water inside. It also improves their tolerance to bushfire.

Bark

Stringybark, ironbark, candlebark – the bark of eucalypts is used to identify them. But it’s also one of their great adaptations. The bark is often an excellent insulator against hot, dry summers as well as a protective barrier against fire.

Stringy bark is so fibrous that despite singeing and looking black on the surface, it often doesn’t burn, meaning buds beneath it are protected from damage.

Buds

Underneath the bark of a normal-looking eucalypt lie thousands of dormant buds. These invisible “epicormic” buds are a remarkable adaptation, letting the tree rapidly regrow after bushfires, severe insect and animal grazing, storms, droughts or floods.

You can spot epicormic shoots sprouting up and down the trunks of gum trees after a fire, making them look like “toothbrush trees”.

Epicormic shoots can grow 27cm in a single day, or up to 6 metres in a year. When epicormic buds touch soil, they can sometimes develop as roots. This allows fallen trees or even large branches to re-establish and anchor after storms and floods.

You can sometimes see hundreds of woody spines on the trunks of old dead trees. These are a pointy reminder of how many undeveloped epicormic buds lurk under the bark.

Mallee roots (lignotubers)

As remarkable as epicormic buds are, they’re not the recovery mechanism of last resort. That job falls to the bulge at the bottom of many eucalypt trunks, which we often call “mallee roots”.

These are lignotubers, remarkable adaptations possessed by most eucalypts.

To appreciate the complexity and biological beauty of a lignotuber, imagine the trunk of a eucalypt with all its epicormic buds scrunched into a ball at the base of the trunk. The buds have direct access to a large root system able to supply water, nutrients and carbohydrates.

This is a gum tree’s emergency reboot option. Even when the tree above is falling apart, the lignotuber can rapidly regrow the tree at a rate of 6 metres or more in a year.

Roots

The roots of species such as river red gums drive deep into the soil along water courses, searching for subterranean water supplies as a backup in case the river dries up.

For other species, the solution to limited water is to send roots far and wide, often many times further than the tree’s height. In many species, the lignotuber and roots are buried under an insulating layer of soil. This acts as protection against fire.

That’s not all. Many eucalypt species produce “exudates” from their roots – chemicals which leach into the soil and free any locked-up nutrients in poor soils.

Still other exudates seep out to help feed mycorrhizal fungi in the soil. The gum trees do this as part of a wonderful symbiosis, allowing both tree and fungus to thrive. The gum gives sugar, the fungi give water and nutrients.

This underground exchange greatly improves soil quality and lets other species grow in difficult conditions.

Gumnuts

Gumnuts – woody fruits of eucalypts – are familiar to many of us from May Gibbs’ famous Snugglepot and Cuddlepie stories.

These capsules protect the tiny seeds inside from desiccation and fire. After a fire, eucalyptus fruit may be damaged or dry out. This frees the fine seeds, which sprinkle over the soil like pepper over dinner.

Some eucalypts rely not on lignotubers or epicormic buds but on the seeds contained and protected in those woody gumnuts. The seeds fall to the ground and germinate when conditions are right renewing the forest.

Survivors – but not immortal

In the years ahead, we’ll see natural disasters occurring more often and with greater ferocity as the climate changes. And in the aftermath, we will also see the spectacular and rapid responses of eucalypts – one of the world’s great families of survivors.

But we will also see dead forests. Gum trees do perish, despite their abilities to regenerate. Some species such as mountain ash are not coping with pressures such as logging and climate change, while thin-barked snow gums are struggling to cope with new fire regimes. Every living thing has limits.

Read more:
Yes, the Australian bush is recovering from bushfires – but it may never be the same

Gregory Moore 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. Hard to kill: here’s why eucalypts are survival experts – https://theconversation.com/hard-to-kill-heres-why-eucalypts-are-survival-experts-222743

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leonora Risse, Associate Professor in Economics, University of Canberra

More of us have been in paid work this past year than ever before. A big part of that is because more of us have been able to work from home than ever before.

The proportion of Australians in paid work climbed above 64% in May last year, and has stayed there since. At the same time, unemployment has hovered around a half-century low of 4%.

In April last year, female unemployment fell to what is almost certainly an all-time low of 3.3%.

It’s working from home – actually, working from anywhere – that has been the game-changer, as the most enduring change to the way we work to have come out of the pandemic.

The jump in working from home

Before the pandemic, in 2019, the share of the workforce who usually work at least partly from home was 25%. Three years on in 2022, it was 36%.

These numbers from the latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey show there’s also been a shift in who’s working from home.

Before the pandemic, a greater share of men than women worked from home. Now it’s a greater share of women.

Among both women and men, the biggest jump has been among parents with young children.

The proportion of mothers with children under five working at least partly from home has leapt from 31% to 43%.

The working-from-home rate for fathers with children under five has jumped from 29% to 39%.

Read more:
Fancy an e-change? How people are escaping city congestion and living costs by working remotely

Which workers, which jobs?

Before the pandemic, managers and professionals were the workers most likely to work from home. They still are, with up to 60% dialling in from the home office for at least part of their work week.

But it’s clerical and administrative workers – occupations that are about three-quarters female – who had the biggest jump in working from home. Their pre-pandemic rate of 18% has soared to 42%.

In terms of industries, finance and insurance led the pack before the pandemic and still do, with rates doubling to 85%.

Working from home is now also the norm in information media and telecommunications (74%) and public administration and safety (72%).

In the traditionally male industry of construction, women’s working-from-home rates have soared from 34% to 45%.

It’s well above the men’s rate of 24%, which is largely unchanged.

While this reflects the different types of jobs that men and women do in construction, it also suggests working from home is a way to boost women’s involvement, even in this industry.

More workers, better-matched

The benefit of working from home for the economy has been fewer obstacles getting in the way of matching jobseekers to employers. Distance and location are no longer the deal-breakers they were.

Better job-matching means less unemployment, and the heightened prospect of finding a good job match encourages jobseekers who in earlier times might have given up.

In finance and insurance – the industry with the biggest and fastest-growing rate of working from home – the proportion of jobs that were vacant fell from 2.5% before the pandemic to just 1.7% by the end of 2023.

Return-to-office mandates would set us back

Making workers return to the office for jobs that can be effectively done from home would unravel the economic benefits that have been achieved.

Fewer people, especially women and parents with young children, would put themselves forward for work. The pool of skills that employers are looking for would shrink. And job-matching in the labour market becomes less efficient.

The result would be more Australians unemployed, and more Australians dropping out of the paid workforce, than if we had continued to embrace working from home.

Read more:
Can employers stop you working from home? Here’s what the law says

Working from home still comes with challenges. Workers who are less visible in the office are more likely to be overlooked.

But it has a wider economic benefit we have a chance to hold on to.

The extraordinary transformation of our labour market means it shouldn’t be seen as a “favour” to workers, but as a favour to us all.

Leonora Risse receives research funding from the Trawalla Foundation and the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia. She is a member of the Economic Society of Australia and the Women’s in Economics Network. She declares that she works partly from home, for family care-giving reasons.

– ref. Working from home is producing economic benefits return-to-office rules would quash – https://theconversation.com/working-from-home-is-producing-economic-benefits-return-to-office-rules-would-quash-223091

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay will be one of three deputy chairs (alongside ministers from Panama and Cameroon) at the 13th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Abu Dhabi next week.

Whether this proves to be an honour or a poison chalice for McClay will depend on who defines “success” and how.

The bar for the conference – known as MC13 – will be set very low. It may be judged simply by whether the ministers reach an agreed declaration, and what fallout there might be, given the power politics at play.

Nearly half the WTO ministerial conferences since its creation in 1995 have not produced a substantive outcome document. But despite the low expectations, the stakes are very high.

A body in crisis

The WTO faces an ongoing existential crisis, with all three of its core functions in various states of collapse.

The dispute and enforcement mechanism has been paralysed since late 2019, because both US Republican and Democrat administrations have vetoed new appointments to the WTO’s Appellate Body.

The Doha Development Round of multilateral trade negotiations, launched in 2001, has never concluded. Instead, smaller groups of mainly developed countries, including New Zealand, are conducting unmandated plurilateral negotiations.

These centre on topics such as electronic commerce and how all kinds of services are regulated domestically. These are priorities for developed countries, but leave the different priorities of developing countries behind.

And the notification mechanism to monitor compliance with trade agreements is breached more often than honoured, as developing countries struggle to cope with their obligations.

Read more:
World Trade Organization steps back from the brink of irrelevance – but it’s not fixed yet

Deferred decisions

The previous ministerial conference in Geneva in 2022 was proclaimed a “success” because it produced a partial agreement on unsustainable fisheries subsidies.

But the hard question of restricting harmful subsidies paid to large international fishing fleets was deferred to this year’s meeting and remains unresolved.

Solving the impasse over the Appellate Body was given until 2024, which the US now insists means the end of the year. Whichever party wins the presidential election, the US will continue its veto. Donald Trump may go further if he returns to the White House and revive threats to quit the WTO entirely.

Read more:
Governments spend US$22 billion a year helping the fishing industry empty our oceans. This injustice must end

Several member countries that want to protect their pharmaceutical industries continue to block a proposal by South Africa and India to waive patent rights for coronavirus therapeutics and tests.

These patent rights are guaranteed under the Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS) and there is still no agreement on a “TRIPS waiver”. Its opponents want the issue declared dead.

Also dating back to 2001 is a permanent resolution on the public stockpiling of food grains, which India insists is essential for food security. This is something the Cairns Group of agricultural exporters, including New Zealand, vehemently opposes as distorting free trade.

With an election pending, and protests from Indian farmers demanding the country withdraw from the WTO, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government continues to demand an outcome.

‘Reform by doing’

Agreement on these big issues seems a long way off, just days out from the Abu Dhabi conference. And a prolonged WTO General Council meeting last week failed to resolve almost anything.

Big power politics is driving the process, and not just by the US and EU. China is exerting enormous pressure on developing country governments to endorse an unmandated agreement on “investment facilitation”.

This would create rules to streamline foreign investment, but would be onerous for developing countries to implement. It needs consensus to become a WTO agreement.

South Africa and India have resolutely challenged the systemic consequences of these plurilateral negotiations as undermining the multilateral system and sidelining developing countries’ priorities.

Read more:
Intellectual property waiver for COVID vaccines should be expanded to include treatments and tests

They were stridently attacked for this by China at last week’s General Council, as well as by WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

But the plurilateral approach continues an agenda dubbed “reform by doing” by Okonjo-Iweala, a former managing director of the World Bank who holds dual Nigerian and US citizenship.

Essentially, it means bypassing the WTO’s constitutional rules and formal bodies to redesign the WTO along the lines demanded by its powerful members and approved by the director-general.

Claims of bias were reinforced by the WTO’s (now deleted) pro-patent Valentine’s Day tweet this year, just days after the TRIPS waiver talks had broken down: “Your love is like a patent, so rare and true / A work of art that only I can view / And just like some IP rights, it can never expire / Our love is like a never-ending fire.”

Read more:
New Zealand is overdue for an open and honest debate about 21st-century trade relations

Exclusionary and manipulative

Developing countries have heavily criticised Okonjo-Iweala for what they see as the exclusionary and manipulative practices used to secure an outcome at MC12. She reportedly pushed back against such complaints.

MC13 is shaping up to repeat these patterns, with negotiations on crucial issues scheduled simultaneously for small rooms that can accommodate only a subset of members, whom the director-general will choose.

New Zealand can use its privileged position as deputy chair to ensure the conference is conducted ethically, according to the WTO’s mandate: multilateral, member-driven, rules-based, non-discriminatory, transparent, with meaningful participation in consensus-based decisions.

If not, it will share the responsibility for enabling power politics to further destabilise the WTO.

Jane Kelsey is attending the WTO ministerial as a representative of the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), and as an invited Guest of the Chair. She advises a number of developing country governments on these issues. She is not paid by, and this is not written on behalf of, any of them.

– ref. Privilege or poisoned chalice? As deputy chair at next week’s WTO meeting, NZ confronts an organisation in crisis – https://theconversation.com/privilege-or-poisoned-chalice-as-deputy-chair-at-next-weeks-wto-meeting-nz-confronts-an-organisation-in-crisis-223849

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon Richardson, Visiting Fellow, Centre for European Studies, Australian National University

As its two-year anniversary approaches, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been pushed into the background of public attention by the war in Gaza.

The intense focus on Gaza has prompted comparisons between the two conflicts that tend to obscure or minimise the scale of destruction in Ukraine. “Ukraine fatigue” has also deepened around the world, as the fighting drags on along relatively static front lines.

This is why, on the anniversary of the invasion, it’s important to take stock of the damage done to Ukraine and its people over the past two years. To do this, I’ve drawn on extensive reports from United Nations agencies, non-governmental organisations and international, Ukrainian and Russian media.

The overall scale of the destruction, as well as the repression of Ukrainian people and erasure of Ukrainian identity in territories annexed by Russia, lend support to the accusations that Russia has committed acts of genocide. It’s vital the world not forget this.

Read more:
An inside look at the dangerous, painstaking work of collecting evidence of suspected war crimes in Ukraine

Civilian deaths in the tens of thousands

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has been widely reported since the war began – it currently stands at more than 28,000. The civilian death toll in Ukraine is far less certain, or discussed.

As of the end of November, the United Nations had verified the deaths of at least 10,000 civilians in Ukraine.

However, this is likely to be a gross underestimate, “just the tip of the iceberg”, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. This is because Russia has blocked UN efforts to investigate in the Russian-controlled areas of southern and eastern Ukraine where most civilian deaths have likely occurred.

The most notorious case is Mariupol, once a city of 450,000, which suffered a devastating bombardment and blockade for almost three months in 2022. Estimates of civilian deaths there range from 22,000 to as high as 87,000.

Mystyslav Chernov, the Associated Press videographer whose documentary of the siege, 20 Days in Mariupol, has been nominated for an Academy Award, estimates between 70,000 and 80,000 people have likely died. Another AP report provides a similar estimate, based on interviews with workers documenting the collection of bodies from the streets.

Unlike Gazan authorities, the Ukrainian government has been reluctant to make estimates of civilian deaths, perhaps for reasons of morale. Ukraine’s war crimes prosecutor did say in February 2023 the total number of Ukrainian civilians killed could be higher than 100,000. Given the destruction in Mariupol and other cities, this seems plausible.

Half a million military casualties

Beyond the loss of civilian lives, one cannot ignore the needless waste of soldiers’ lives on both sides.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine has been forthcoming about their battlefield losses. US estimates last August put Russian soldier deaths at around 100,000 to 120,000 and Ukrainian soldier deaths at 70,000. The US estimated perhaps 500,000 total battlefield casualties (those killed and wounded) on both sides.

The UK Defence Ministry has provided figures in the same ballpark. This also tallies with a joint investigation by the BBC Russian service and independent Russian news site Mediazona, drawing on Russian media and social media. It estimated around 107,000 Russian soldier deaths and 321,000 wounded by late last year.

Most of the Ukrainian losses are young people who enlisted to defend their country from an unprovoked invasion. The stories of the dead have been recounted at length – medics, poets and other creatives, steelworkers, transport managers, students, beekeepers, to name a few.

About 60,000 women have also served in the armed forces, with more than 100 killed in action.

Among the casualties are amputees – perhaps as many as 50,000. By comparison, an estimated 41,000 Britons underwent amputations during the first world war.

International organisations report more than 6.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the war began, while 3.5 million have been displaced inside the country. This is about a quarter of the total pre-2022 population of 41 million.

In addition, about 17.6 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, more than a quarter of whom are considered to be at a “catastrophic” level.

Devastated national infrastructure

The destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure from thousands of missile and drone attacks has been equally horrific. According to the World Bank and UN agencies, this includes:

• 10% of Ukraine’s housing stock

• 8,400 kilometres of roads

• 13% of Ukraine’s education infrastructure, including nearly 3,600 schools, kindergartens and universities

• more than 1,500 attacks on healthcare facilities

• nearly 4,800 sites in the cultural, heritage and tourism sector

• and extensive environmental devastation, such as the blowing up of the Kakhovka Dam, which flooded hundreds of square kilometres of land and caused some 1 million people to lose drinking water.

Ukraine’s economy shrank by 30% in the first year of the war. The World Bank estimated this month the total cost of rebuilding the country at US$486 billion (A$742 billion) over ten years, which is nearly three times Ukraine’s GDP in 2023.

Violent repression and coerced integration

Russia now occupies about 18% of Ukraine’s territory – an area about the size of South Korea. It officially “annexed” four regions in late 2022, following Crimea’s annexation in 2014. Russia has since embarked on an ambitious program to change these regions’ ethnic composition, erase their Ukrainian identity and potential resistance, and integrate them into the Russian Federation.

As David Lewis of Exeter University explains, the Kremlin hopes to create a new reality on the ground that will be difficult to challenge in future. He reports an army of technocrats is overseeing a comprehensive absorption of the occupied territories, aligning their laws, regulations and tax and banking systems with Russia.

In another study of the Russification of occupied Ukraine, Karolina Hird notes locals are being coerced into getting Russian passports to obtain services such as health care. Similarly, occupation officials use the issuing of birth certificates, pensions, state payrolls and maternity payments to force residents to become reliant on the new government administrations.

The occupiers use violence to cement their control, as well. A special UN commission has documented killings, torture, sexual violence, arbitrary arrests, deportations and rapes.

The Danish Institute Against Torture documented at least 100 torture centres in prisons and police stations in south-eastern Ukraine. They employed such methods as electric shocks, beatings, suffocation, sleep deprivation, mock executions, threats and humiliation:

Our findings suggest that establishing torture chambers and torturing people in them was a routine practice in all places occupied by the Russian forces.

The UN special rapporteur on torture also describes these Russian torture practices across Ukraine as “state war policy”.

In a recent case, human rights groups reported the torture and murder of Ukrainian priest Stepan Podolchak in the Kherson region on February 13. Podolchak had held services in Ukrainian and was under pressure from the Russian security police to change his allegiance to the Russian Orthodox Church.

According to a BBC investigation, thousands of Ukrainians are being held on mostly spurious charges in prison colonies and detention centres inside Russia, with some disappearing or dying.

Mass deportations of children and cultural erasure

A year ago, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, in relation to the forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia. Russian officials had openly boasted of their role in the deportations, which they claimed were in the children’s interests.

Ukraine’s government has confirmed the deportations of more than 19,500 children. Some of the few children who have returned from Russia were told in school they would never leave Russia, that Ukraine didn’t exist and had never existed, and they were all really Russians.

As Latvia’s president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, put it recently:

Russia is actively erasing their Ukrainian identity and inflicting unbelievable emotional and psychological damage.

Hundreds of thousands of Russian settlers have simultaneously moved to the occupied regions. Crimean Tatar leaders estimate between 850,000 and 1 million Russians have migrated to Crimea alone since 2014.

This is a direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which obliges an occupying power not to transfer parts of its own population into a territory it occupies.

The occupation regime is also erasing Ukrainian language and culture. This is consistent with Russian nationalist ideology portraying Ukrainian as a mere dialect of Russian and the Ukrainian nation as a fiction. Putin and others on Russian state television have constantly expounded these myths.

Read more:
Are Russian transfers of Ukrainian children to re-education and adoption facilities a form of genocide?

A Russian curriculum has been introduced in more than 900 schools in occupied regions, replacing previous instruction in Ukrainian in some. Hundreds of teachers are believed to have been relocated from Russia.

Amnesty International reports that people risk reprisals for seeking to continue Ukrainian education. Some parents choose to hide their children to avoid them being taken to “re-education” institutions or for adoption in Russia.

At one school in Kherson, Amnesty reported, security officials ordered a mother to send her 15-year-old son back to school or “a bus will come next week and take [him] to an orphanage in Russia”. A school librarian said she secretly arranged meetings with students to give them Ukrainian books to avoid Russian patrols conducting arbitrary searches.

In addition, many Ukrainian streets and towns have been given new Russian names. For example, in Melitopol, a street named after a Ukrainian political theorist now bears the name of Pavel Sudoplatov, an infamous Stalinist secret agent who later boasted of organising Leon Trotsky’s assassination in Mexico.

To many observers, the erasure of Ukrainian nationhood in the occupied territories and frequent denial of Ukraine’s right to exist is evidence the Russian invasion is genocidal in nature. Some 30 genocide scholars, the Genocide Watch organisation and several national parliaments have supported this assertion.

Whether or not the threshold of genocide has been reached, the invasion constitutes the most egregious land grab of a recognised state’s territory since the second world war, as I have argued elsewhere.

It remains a mystery why some people think the Ukrainians, or the international community, would or should accept this land and its people being traded away in negotiations at the point of a gun.

Jon Richardson 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. Unmarked graves, violent repression and cultural erasure: the devastating human toll of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – https://theconversation.com/unmarked-graves-violent-repression-and-cultural-erasure-the-devastating-human-toll-of-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-223337

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Naomi Smith, Lecturer in Sociology, University of the Sunshine Coast

With Taylor Swift pulling in over half-a-million audience members on her Australian tour, we’ve been thinking a lot about fans. In this series, our academics dive into fan cultures: how they developed, how they operate, and how they shape the world today.

For years, people have claimed Elvis Presley is alive and well. Theories that his death was faked to escape the pressures of fame were even stoked by his record label, who, two years after his death, debuted a performer who sounded like and resembled Presley, but performed wearing a mask.

Of course, it was all a publicity stunt.

In the digital age, conspiracy theorising does not require media or record label boosting. Social media acts as a platform and amplifier of fan-led conspiracy theorising.

Have you heard that the Canadian singer Avril Lavigne is dead and has been replaced by a body double called Melissa Vandella? Perhaps you’ve seen TikTok’s theorising that American actor Lea Michelle can’t read?

For years, people who claimed Britney Spears was being held in her conservatorship against her will were considered fringe conspiracy theorists. However, legal events demonstrated this was substantially true. In recent years, Taylor Swift has famously mobilised cryptic clues to tip off fans to upcoming album and tour announcements and so, in a sense, encouraging fans to make conspiracy theories about what she’s doing next.

This leads us to one of the more satisfying aspects of conspiracy theorising: sometimes, they might just be right.

Read more:
Shame, intimacy, and community: fangirls are mocked, but it is more complex than you might think

Decoding Taylor Swift

When we think of conspiracy theories we tend to think of theories that have resulted in societal harms, such as QAnon or COVID-related conspiracies. However, conspiracy theories increasingly include many of the everyday practices of celebrity and fan culture.

Examining Swift’s engagement with her fans reveals that fans are not always “delulu” – a phrase popularised by fans to playfully reference their “delusion” when it comes to conspiracy theorising. The release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was predicted by fans across social media through the meticulous interpretation of clues including colour-coded tour outfits, significant dates and social media traces left by the singer.

Another popular conspiracy theory within the Swift fandom is the “missing album”.

Prior to the release of 2017’s Reputation, Swift had been operating a clockwork schedule of album releases: one every two years. But there were a little over three years between 1989 and Reputation. The excess space between these release dates led to the theory about a “missing” album called Karma.

In one scene in her music video for her 2019 song The Man, the word “karma” is written in orange graffiti on a wall alongside Swift’s other albums, with adjacent text that says “MISSING: IF FOUND RETURN TO TAYLOR SWIFT”.

Swift’s albums are colour coded, and orange is the colour fans have chosen to associate with the missing album. At the end of her Era’s tour show, Swift sings Karma, a song from her most recent album Midnights, and exits through an orange door.

The clues are all there, the fans say, that Karma is the missing album, and maybe, just maybe, Swift is telling her watchful fans that they were right all along: Karma is coming next.

Read more:
From Deadheads on bulletin boards to Taylor Swift ‘stans’: a short history of how fandoms shaped the internet

An internet archive

Fan conspiracy theorising allows a sense of intimacy at scale. Swift frequently jokes about “seeing everything” fans do and say online, creating a sense of a real dialogue: a call and response between fan theorising and Swift’s output.

Social media has substantially changed our relationship with celebrity, as expectations around access to and intimacy with celebrities has been transformed.

The social media presence of celebrities – necessary to sell themselves in a crowded marketplace – provides fans with access to more digital traces and data points of celebrity behaviour to analyse and dissect. The internet functions as a vast, collective archive, storing and producing a seemingly endless amount of “evidence”.

But there is a trade off. Intense public discourse about Swift’s private life recently prompted her camp to push back against the “invasive, untrue and inappropriate” speculation around her sexuality.

Read more:
‘Shipping’, ‘slash fic’ and ‘Gaylors’: fans can find community through ‘queering’ idols – but is it ethical?

Community building

Platforms create opportunities for fans to collectively analyse evidence, share their theories and gain recognition within the fandom for their “expertise”. The pleasures of feeling like an expert have long been part of fandom, be that arts or sports.

Conspiracy theorising can activate many of the collective pleasures of fandom, such as insider expertise, community building and a sense of discovery through close reading of key texts.

In understanding the pleasures of conspiracy theorising about celebrities, we can gain insight into the pull of more harmful conspiracies. While there is a world of difference between QAnon and celebrity conspiracy theorists, participants in both are seeking community, the satisfaction of “putting the pieces together” and a sense of expertise.

We know from research that conspiracies are almost infinitely flexible. If one aspect is disproven, or fails, the boundaries shift and change to encompass and explain the incongruous.

Fans failed to predict the announcement of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) many more times than they succeeded. Each failure meant a return to the clues, to re-read and reinterpret the signs. Even though fans eventually successfully “predicted” the announcement, in the absence of success, failure is simply folded into the expanding horizon of speculation.

Read more:
From Harry Potter to Taylor Swift: how millennial women grew up with fandoms, and became a force

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

– ref. The power and pleasure – and occasional backlash – of celebrity conspiracy theories – https://theconversation.com/the-power-and-pleasure-and-occasional-backlash-of-celebrity-conspiracy-theories-221754

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

Anthony Albanese has said there will be an early budget next year, ruling out a premature election while lamenting the brevity of federal parliamentary terms.

The Prime Minister on Wednesday responded to speculation in some sections of the media about a possible election later this year, after a leaked memo from his chief of staff, Tim Gartrell, referred to going into election year. The memo was announcing the appointment of David Epstein – who has worked in multiple positions for Labor as well as in the private sector – to a senior role in the PM’s office.

Albanese described the speculation as “a bit of a beat up”.

“We expect to have a budget next year in March […] and the term ends in May next year,” he said on the ABC.

He was “absolutely” committed to serving a full term.

Pressed on whether he would wait until May, the final time for the election, Albanese said, “Well, I’ve said that three-year terms are too short, in my view.

“Part of the problem in this country, I think, is that you have the first year after an election and then you have that middle year and then you’re in an election year, which is what we will be in.”

He favoured four-year terms but “it’s been tried twice at referendums and we know that referendums are difficult to carry in this country”.

There was “misinformation”, with people saying “oh, it’ll be terrible, politicians will be here for even longer and it’s a grab for power”. But “it’s actually common sense. Every state and territory has four-year terms, but we don’t federally.”

Epstein will be principal private secretary in the Albanese office.

“It’s a senior person on high level matters,” the Gartrell memo said.
“They identify emerging issues and focus on how they are best managed.

“This is an important role as we enter the election year and David is well-qualified for the role, having worked for Labor in a range of senior roles over five successive governments and opposition.”

The Coalition brought forward the budget before its last two May elections – 2019 and 2022 – as well as using a May budget as a launch pad for the 2016 mid-year election.

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. Anthony Albanese rules out early election – and wishes federal terms were longer – https://theconversation.com/anthony-albanese-rules-out-early-election-and-wishes-federal-terms-were-longer-224080