Page 46

NZ’s gas shortage was not caused by the offshore exploration ban – but it was still a flawed policy

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Dempsey, Associate Professor in Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury

Getty Images

Historically, gas in New Zealand traded below NZ$10 per gigajoule. When prices hit $50 per gigajoule in August this year, anyone with gas to sell could have made a lot of money.

But there clearly wasn’t much gas around. In the end, the big generators Genesis and Contact had to buy gas off Methanex to keep the lights on.

How did this happen? It’s tempting to blame the previous government’s ban on offshore oil and gas exploration. The current government has indeed listed the gas shortage as a reason for its plan to reverse the ban.

But diving into gas statistics held by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) suggests this probably wasn’t the case.

Although the ban was introduced in 2018, companies had already halted most offshore exploration two years prior. And even if a new discovery had been made around 2018, it would probably have taken too long to develop to be ready for 2024.

Why New Zealand ran low on gas

When the 2018 ban was announced, only one offshore permit had been granted during each of the previous two years. As MBIE statistics show, this was quite a drop compared to the period between 2012 and 2016, with an average of six permits per year.

Exploration drilling was down, too. During 2013 and 2014, 40 wells were drilled, but only five between 2015 and 2018. Had any major gas fields turned up, those companies would have been entitled to develop them regardless of the ban – but that didn’t happen.

Past experience in New Zealand shows offshore developments take a long time. The fastest was Pohokura, a major field in North Taranaki, which took six years from discovery to gas flowing. If exploration permits had been obtained in 2018 and successful discoveries made during a subsequent drilling campaign, it most likely wouldn’t have translated to available gas in 2024.

Bright yellow gas pipes connecting transmission networks
Exploration and development of offshore gas fields takes a long time.
Getty Images

In January 2024, MBIE estimated New Zealand had about 8.5 years worth of gas reserves (1,300 petajoules) at 2023 rates of consumption. There’s certainly gas left, but it can’t all be accessed when needed.

Gas fields are like ATMs – you can only take out so much each day regardless of how much you have in the bank. The flow of gas has been squeezed in recent years by poor production at Pohokura and was compounded in mid-2024 by higher demand from electricity generators when hydro lakes were running low.

If New Zealand had another large offshore gas field, this arguably wouldn’t have happened. But it’s not at all obvious we would have had that capacity in 2024 even without the exploration ban.

Risky investment

Nevertheless, the ban did have some major impacts on New Zealand.

It broadcast a message of urgency and intent to tackle emissions from the fossil fuel industry. Denmark followed suit with their own ban in 2020 and Ireland in 2021. France has been more reticent, proposing a future ban from 2040 but allowing new exploration until then.

The ban also sent signals to large multinational energy companies that New Zealand is a risky place to invest. The fossil fuel industry is rightly uncertain about its future role in New Zealand. Some will see this as a good outcome in pursuit of climate goals. But how far does the uncertainty spread and what might it mean?

The spectre of political intervention creates an investment risk for companies. This is because the large capital works these companies undertake are often debt-funded over a decade or more. Hence, companies need to be confident in their future freedom to operate.

Emissions Trading Scheme distortions

In 2021, the Climate Change Commission released draft advice implying that, due to its high emissions, the Far North’s Ngāwhā geothermal power station would need to close.

The suggested closure was removed in the final advice, and Ngāwhā emissions have since been eliminated. In 2022, in the face of high carbon charges under New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), engineers worked out how to capture and inject carbon dioxide back underground.

The case of Ngāwhā is an ETS success story. Economic pressure was applied to a large emitter and, faced with going out of business, it changed its practices.

A feature of the ETS is its general ambivalence about where emissions come from. One tonne of carbon dioxide produced using natural gas to generate electricity in winter is charged the same as one tonne of carbon dioxide produced when driving freight across the country.

In theory, the market decides which activities can afford to continue and which should die out. In reality, however, the ETS is distorted because it grants free allocations to high-emmiting industries which would otherwise face trade disadvantages. Last week, the government also removed agricultural emissions from the ETS.

This is not to say that other policies aren’t useful in shoring up the deficiencies of emission pricing. But the effectiveness of the exploration ban is debatable. Offshore interest seemed to have already largely subsided and its lack of cross-party support ensured it was shortlived.

On the other hand, the political message it broadcast to major energy players may ultimately ensure its enduring legacy, by dissuading future gas investment.

Structurally, the challenges of 2024 remain. Declining gas reserves must be divided between electricity generators and exporter industries, and the hydro system is vulnerable to similar climate fluctuations.

On a more positive note, utility solar and grid-scale batteries continue their relentless expansion. Of the 22 renewable projects applying for fast-track consent, ten are solar farms.

The Conversation

David Dempsey receives funding from MBIE to research underground hydrogen storage and atmospheric carbon dioxide removal.

ref. NZ’s gas shortage was not caused by the offshore exploration ban – but it was still a flawed policy – https://theconversation.com/nzs-gas-shortage-was-not-caused-by-the-offshore-exploration-ban-but-it-was-still-a-flawed-policy-242013

A $13 billion, 30-year flop: landmark study reveals stark failure to halt Murray-Darling River decline

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jamie Pittock, Professor, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University

Shutterstock

Some A$13 billion in taxpayer dollars and 30 years of policy reform have failed to arrest the devastating decline in the health of Australia’s most important river system, the Murray-Darling Basin, new research shows.

The four-year study released today involved 12 scientists from Australia’s leading universities, and draws on data from 1980 to 2023. It is the most comprehensive report card to date on government policies to protect the Murray-Darling.

We found expensive and contentious reforms, including the once-vaunted Murray-Darling Basin Plan, have mostly failed to improve outcomes for people and nature along the river system.

The result is deeply alarming for a natural asset so fundamental to Australia’s environmental, cultural and economic wellbeing. Here, we outline our findings, and present a plan to turn this situation around.

Darling River at sunset
The findings are alarming for a natural asset so fundamental to Australia.
Shutterstock

A river system in peril

The Murray-Darling river system starts in southern Queensland, winds through New South Wales and Victoria and reaches the sea near Adelaide in South Australia.

Historically, state governments have allowed too much water to be taken from the system, primarily to irrigate crops. This has caused extensive environmental damage such as toxic blue-green algae blooms, dramatic falls in bird and fish populations and undrinkable town water supplies, to name just a few.

The damage has been exacerbated by invasive species, climate change, dams that block water flows, and bush clearing which makes water running into rivers more salty.

What’s more, colonisation dispossessed the nearly 50 Indigenous nations in the basin. They now collectively have rights over less than 0.2% of surface water in the river system.

Government reform to improve the health of the basin dates back more than three decades. In 1994, Australian governments agreed to cap further licenses to extract water from the Murray-Darling. In 2008, Prime Minister John Howard’s “once and for all” reform, known as the Water Act, became law. It aimed to reallocate water from irrigation to the environment.

The reform is largely being implemented through the $13 billion Murray Darling Basin Plan enacted in 2012. The historic deal between state and federal governments was supposed to rein in the water extracted by farmers and make sure the environment got the water it needed.

Almost $8 billion was spent implementing the plan to June 2023. But has this massive taxpayer investment delivered the promised benefits for people and nature? Our new findings suggest the answer is largely no.

man overlooks river bend
Despite massive taxpayer funds, the basin reforms have not delivered.
Shutterstock

Applying expert eyes

When the basin plan was adopted, governments cut funding to the independent audit which monitored the river system’s environmental health. It was replaced with far less effective monitoring systems.

The new systems did not set clear targets to be achieved, or assess real-world outcomes for people and the environment. For example, a government might measure the timing and frequency of water flowing at specific river locations, rather than the numbers of threatened fish species across the basin.

The indicators are also complex
and monitored by government agencies and their consultants, so the results are not independent.

For this study, we developed our own monitoring system. It involved 27 indicators of success across the themes of Indigenous, environmental and social wellbeing, economic performance and compliance with water laws. We used publicly available data spanning more than 40 years.

The study released today reports our essential findings.

aerial view of river
Scientists were concerned about inadequate monitoring of the basin plan.
Shutterstock

What we found

Troublingly, we found that after more than a decade of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, 74% of success indicators were not met. This means there was either no improvement or worsening conditions.

In particular, only two of 12 environmental indicators were met.

Among our findings were:

  • flows required to achieve environmental outcomes were not met at 65% of river gauge sites assessed

  • water returned to rivers is not effectively used to restore the environment. For example, 79% of Commonwealth environmental water releases from 2014–19 stayed in river channels rather than spilling out to rejuvenate floodplain wetlands

  • the abundance of waterbirds is declining and the incidence of very large fish-kill events is increasing, as witnessed at Menindee Lakes, NSW, twice in the past decade

  • Indigenous rights over water are declining as a percentage of surface water, and water flows to Indigenous-controlled wetlands has not increased. This grossly inadequate situation prevents Indigenous Peoples from managing water on Country, harming their health and wellbeing

  • the basic human right to access adequate, safe drinking water is not being met in many towns, including predominantly Indigenous communities such as Wilcannia, NSW.

The findings are not all negative. We found irrigation communities are not necessarily suffering economically from federal government buy-backs of water entitlements. For example, the period of most water buybacks coincided with marked increases in profits for irrigated farms.

The finding is contrary to claims in several studies, including one commissioned by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority.

Two environmental indicators show an upward trend. Populations of large-bodied freshwater fish are improving, coinciding with the end of commercial fishing. Pleasingly, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in the Murray River have fallen.

A video outlining the importance of the Barka, or Darling River, to Indigenous people.

What does all this mean?

So what can we learn from these failures to ensure the Murray-Darling river system is brought back to health?

In 2023, the federal Labor government enacted the “Restoring Our Rivers” laws, to increase the return of water to the environment. This was a very important step, but there’s a long way to go.

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is due for review in 2026. Clearly, monitoring to date has been inadequate. Our paper outlines ways to fix this, so real outcomes are achieved.

Among our suggestions, river ecosystems could be mapped to ensure Australia meets its international obligation this decade to restore 30% of inland water ecosystems and include 30% of these ecosystems in protected areas.

And those responsible for implementing the basin plan, primarily state and federal government agencies, should be held accountable when targets are not met.

Urgent reform is needed to ensure Australian taxpayers get a return on their investment. We must ensure the Murray-Darling basin and the communities that rely on it can prosper in the decades ahead.

The Conversation

Jamie Pittock is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. He has roles on a number of government advisory committees and non-governmental environmental organisations involved in natural resources management.
This article is based on an academic paper led by Dr Matt Colloff and involving 10 other co-authors.

ref. A $13 billion, 30-year flop: landmark study reveals stark failure to halt Murray-Darling River decline – https://theconversation.com/a-13-billion-30-year-flop-landmark-study-reveals-stark-failure-to-halt-murray-darling-river-decline-244296

‘I felt lost’: immigrant parents want more support to help their children go to uni

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rayan Merkbawi, Lecturer, UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney

One of the Albanese government’s top priorities in education is to see more Australians graduating from university.

It has set a target of 80% of the workforce having a university degree or TAFE qualification by 2050, up from 60% today.

A key part of this will be raising participation rates for people from underrepresented backgrounds. Australians from low socioeconomic backgrounds make up 25% of the population, but only represent 17% undergraduate enrolments in higher education.

Immigrant families often face socioeconomic disadvantages that can effect their children’s opportunities in education. As well as lower incomes, they can have fewer resources and supports.

In our project, we looked at Punchbowl Boys’ High School in Sydney’s western suburbs, where 98% of students come from a non-English speaking background.

We interviewed parents to better understand the challenges they face and how to help them. This is because research tells us families are an important source of motivation and support for young people making post-school plans.

Our research

We interviewed parents from 23 families with immigrant backgrounds. They all had students in years 9 to 12. Most of the parents supported the idea of their children going on to further study. As one parent told us:

I push education for my kids because I want them to get somewhere.

But they also reported many obstacles when supporting their children to go to university.

‘If they could explain’

More than 50% of Australians were either born overseas or have a parent born overseas.

This means they may not have first-hand knowledge or experience of the final years of school, or the options for study and training post-school.

Some parents in our study said they were not familiar with how the higher education system works. They were also unsure about alternative pathways to enrol in university. Many parents told us they would like more specific guidance on the application process.

If they [teachers at the school] could explain how our children are going to finish school, and when we can expect they’re going to receive these emails then they would know when to accept or decline.

Others wanted more guidance on student loans, possible challenges and the “avenues [students] can go down”.

The language barrier

Language was also a “big barrier” mentioned by parents. This made it hard for parents to engage with the school and ask for help. One told us:

when I go to schools, and I want to talk to the schools, I don’t have the strong language ability to confront the school with whatever is concerning me.

Another parent talked about the difficulty of going to parent–teacher interviews:

I went to the parents’ meeting with the teacher, each teacher, one by one, and just reading his mark, not asking or not suggesting a way to improve himself. Okay, I didn’t ask them to be honest, but I felt, like, lost. Like, what should I do?

‘Strugging a lot’

Parents talked about how they often lacked help and security in their lives as they were trying to support their children:

We’re renting, we’re moving, moving too much in one year, we lived in three houses, and that was painful.

They also talked about a lack of family support:

we don’t have a lot of family around here.

Financial challenges also meant there were limited resources to help pave the way to university. They talked about not being able to afford “more tutoring” or other families they knew having to cut back on tutoring.

Some families relied on the children working after school instead of studying, noting if they were “struggling a lot,” then they “need that child to work”.

There was also an overwhelming concern about the eventual cost of a university education. Some interviewees said their child going would depend on getting a scholarship, while others worried about the eventual HELP debt:

we see university as something like that’s going to become a debt for a child later on.

‘A cultural gap’

Parents reported on how cultural differences could make it difficult to engage with their children over education and their aspirations in life. As one parent said:

It’s bit of cultural gap, I think, because the culture of this country and concern in our country is different […] the children, they feel that they are free to do whatever they like, whatever they want, and that the parents cannot stop them.

Parents also raised generational differences – they felt young people lack aspiration and are distracted by technology. As one parent said:

they’re simply controlled by it, and they’re just consumed by it, and they lose interest in other parts of life.

What can we do differently?

Previous research suggests students from migrant families can give up on further study if they don’t have support from their families. This support relies on their families understanding the complexities of the school and university systems – and all the options available to young people.

Our study suggests schools, universities and governments can do several things differently to encourage more students from migrant backgrounds to study at university. These include:

  • education programs for parents: these could teach immigrant parents about Year 12 exams, ATARs, university pathways and the long-term benefits of higher education. This could be done through information sessions at school or online resources distributed by the school.

  • more school-university partnerships: collaborations between schools and universities can provide early exposure and support, through campus visits and mentoring programs. This can help demystify higher education for students and their families.

  • language support: enhancing language support programs already offered by education department trained staff – and making sure they start from the early years of school – is crucial to better involve parents in their children’s schooling.

  • financial support: to ease financial pressures on migrant families, universities could expand their equity scholarships to specifically target students from these communities. Financial literacy programs could help families understand and access existing supports, provide guidance on government assistance and long-term financial planning for education.

The Conversation

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. ‘I felt lost’: immigrant parents want more support to help their children go to uni – https://theconversation.com/i-felt-lost-immigrant-parents-want-more-support-to-help-their-children-go-to-uni-244817

Aussie drag, career vampires and a bloody game of hide and seek: what we’re watching in December

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stuart Richards, Senior Lecturer in Screen Studies, University of South Australia

The so-called silliest time of the year is here. But for many it can also be a stressful time. Whether you’re frantically planning for Christmas and/or New Year celebrations – or steeling yourself ahead of some longer-than-ideal interactions with the relatives – you’re going to want to let off some steam.

We can help on that front. This month’s pickings include an unashamedly gory horror flick, a captivating limited series starring Cate Blanchett, and a colourful new season of Drag Race exploring drag culture down under. Sit back and enjoy!

The Diplomat, season two

Netflix

The Diplomat is clearly a show for those of us who like political drama untroubled by reality. Its basic premise – that a scrappy career officer can be plucked out of the field, named US ambassador to London, and arrive there within 24 hours – sets the scene for a thriller that James Bond himself could have concocted.

Not only is Kate (Keri Russell) an odd choice as the ambassador, she comes with a husband (Rufus Sewell) who is himself a former ambassador and determined to advance them both. As Kate wants both a divorce and hot sex with her husband, this provides a subplot that wouldn’t be out of place in Bridgerton.

The story revolves around an attack on a British ship in the Persian Gulf, and over the two seasons a growing list of suspects are revealed – each one pared back to reveal yet more improbable events. But it allows the wonderful Alison Janney (from West Wing) to appear as Vice President, with apparently the sort of clout Dick Cheney exercised for George W Bush.

Even Australia gets a cameo role, with references to the submarine deal and the delight of the Anglosphere leaders in pissing off the French. And in Trump’s America, Kate is probably overqualified for her role.

– Dennis Altman

What We Do In The Shadows, season 6

Binge

Celebrated mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows has always had a degree of circularity. Across five seasons, the Staten Island vampires – Nadja, Laszlo, Nandor the Relentless and energy vampire Colin Robinson – have bounced in and out of different hobbies and odd fascinations. Meanwhile, put-upon, low-status “familiar” Guillermo unsuccessfully explored various ways to advance his life. In season five he briefly fulfils his dreams of becoming a vampire proper: a disappointing experience.

In the sixth and final season, all are looking for purpose. Guillermo has quit and is looking to break his codependent relationship with Nandor, and the vampires are reevaluating their choices after realising how little they’ve achieved, given their failure to conquer anything beyond their street and half of Ashley Street.

This dissatisfaction prompts Laszlo to revisit his ambitions as a mad scientist, while pushing the remaining characters out into the workforce. Guillermo moves up the ladder quickly at a consultancy, perhaps finding a new master–familiar relationship with his obnoxious finance bro boss, both helped and hindered by the others. It’s an inspired and funny conceit that refreshes and expands the show’s world, while challenging the characters, their relationships and their worst excesses in unexpected ways.

This season also foregrounds the absurd, disruptive presence of the mockumentary camera crew to great and hilarious effect. After a strong run, the show successfully bows out on its own terms – a rare feat.

– Erin Harrington

Disclaimer

Apple TV

Disclaimer is television at its very best. Based on Renée Knight’s 2015 novel, and directed by five-time Academy Award winning Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, it stars Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

A famous journalist, Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett), discovers she is the character of a novel anonymously sent to her. It reveals her darkest secret and has devastating and life-changing consequences when it emerges.

Billed as a thriller, this seven-part limited series is structured with voiceover, adding depth, character conflict and motivation. Cuarón has used this technique distinctively and evocatively before in other productions such as his acclaimed film Y Tu Mamá También (2001).

Apple TV released episodes weekly so the show couldn’t be binged – which suits its complex production. The first episode unwinds slowly to reveal the background from different viewpoints. There is an ominous atmosphere of flashbacks – even in the highly explicit sex scenes between Jonathan (Louis Partridge) and the young Catherine (played by Leila George).

It’s a high-quality production photographed in an evocative filmic style by Cuarón’s frequent collaborator, three-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki.

– Lisa French

RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, season four

Stan

RuPaul’s Drag Race is a global phenomenon. There have been 16 seasons of the US series, several all-star spin-offs and numerous international versions.

Now, Drag Race Down Under has returned for a fourth season and there are some refreshing changes to the format. RuPaul hasn’t returned as host, with Michelle Visage instead taking the lead. Her rapport with the queens feels genuine and her status as the primary judge is a milestone for cisgender women in drag culture.

Rhys Nicholson has returned as a judge and it’s fantastic to have an Australian comedian who captures the “down under” sense of humour. Other fantastic additions to the rotating judging panel this year are former Drag Race Down Under winners Isis Avis Loren, Spankie Jackzon and Kita Mean – which means local drag knowledge is always featured on the judging panel.

In fact, the cast of this season is perhaps the strongest Down Under has seen. Lazy Susan, Vybe, Mandy Moobs, Max Drag Queen and Brenda Bressed have all demonstrated a strong presence on the show and their performances are consistently impressive.

Lazy Susan’s runways have been particularly strong. In one runway, her use of an electric headdress that projected futurist faces saw her go viral. It’s wonderful to see Australian drag humour being celebrated by the Drag Race juggernaut.

– Stuart Richards




Read more:
Michelle Visage is now hosting Drag Race Down Under. It’s a milestone for cis women in drag


Ready or Not

Netflix

(Spoiler alert)

The 2019 American horror film Ready or Not, recently released on Netflix, is an occasionally amusing satire about the predatory super-rich, and all the metaphorical and literal backstabbing that goes on behind manor doors.

Girl-power protagonist Grace (Samara Weaving) looks and sounds like a privileged, blonde supermodel. But we’re led to believe she is a former foster child from the wrong side of the tracks, about to marry into the sinister Le Domas family dynasty and fortune.

The early scenes offer the slow-build, viewing pleasures of a lavish poolside wedding, followed by a deliciously dysfunctional family dinner with sneaky, old-money eccentrics. Finally, Grace realises it is she who is about to be served up and sacrificed for the amusement of her new family.

It’s downhill from there, however. The plot collapses into a predictable hunt-and-slash horror (think Scream with more upmarket interiors). The film tries too hard to be clever and progressive in a way that comes across as campy and derivative.

An ending in which the demonic in-laws implode as the Sun rises (expect buckets of blood) is so ridiculous it tips over into horror comedy. And the final scene of a dishevelled Grace smoking on the steps while the terrible place burns up behind her reminded me a lot of Heathers (1988) – another, better satire.

– Susan Hopkins

The Conversation

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. Aussie drag, career vampires and a bloody game of hide and seek: what we’re watching in December – https://theconversation.com/aussie-drag-career-vampires-and-a-bloody-game-of-hide-and-seek-what-were-watching-in-december-244643

‘Everything is Country’: these 4 projects blend First Nations knowledge and science to rewrite our understanding of the past

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sally Hurst, Adjunct Fellow – Faculty of Science and Engineering, Macquarie University

Anaiwan Elder and cultural knowledge holder Uncle Les Ahoy at Bulagaranda near Armidale, NSW. From the Rola[STONE] documentary, 2022. Marissa Betts and Mike Terry

A lot of things scientists study are part of Country – the lands, waters and skies to which First Nations peoples are connected. In Australia, there has to date been little respect for the significance or value of cultural knowledge in scientific practice.

Here is how one of us (Steve Ahoy, Anaiwan Elder and cultural knowledge holder) puts his perspective:

Everything is Country. To Aboriginal people, fossils are artefacts. We don’t see or distinguish between our artefacts and a fossil. Our artefacts come from Mother Earth; a fossil comes from Mother Earth. I come from the Earth. I walk the Earth. I die, I go back to the Earth. The Earth can continue without us. We can’t continue without the Earth.

In our new research, we explored four grassroots initiatives promoting First Nations cultural knowledge alongside Western scientific knowledge. These initiatives show these two perspectives can complement one another and together create a rich tapestry of knowledge about the past.

Institutional distrust

In Australia, especially on land that does not have exclusive Native Title claim, it is not common practice for Earth scientists to consult with local First Nations communities to seek permission before extracting materials such as fossils, rocks or minerals. Archaeologists are required to consult with First Nations communities, but the developers they advise often have no obligation to change their actions in response to the consultation.

Museums have traditionally been warehouses for both natural and cultural heritage collections. However, a history of colonial collecting practices has led to deep-rooted distrust in these institutions among First Nations communities.

As Ahoy puts it:

In my experience, I have never seen a museum freely engage with our community and say ‘Hey, we’ve got your stuff, do you want it back?’ It’s always us having to go through the authorities to […] force the return of our cultural heritage.

Grassroots initiatives represent more trusted ways to protect and communicate about heritage.

1. Found a Fossil project

Fossils and First Nations artefacts are different in their formation, preservation and significance. However, both can be found across the vast Australian landscape, and members of the general public often uncover these objects.

Legislation surrounding the protection of fossils and First Nations artefacts varies across land types and differs in each state and territory in Australia. Information about these rules can be vague, confusing and difficult to find (if it exists at all).

This situation has led to many serious misunderstandings, especially propagation of myths about land reclamation – the idea that if you find Aboriginal cultural heritage on your property, your land could be taken away. (Ironically, removal from their land was exactly what many First Nations communities have historically faced.)

Screenshot of a website
The Found a Fossil website provides guidelines for heritage finds created in collaboration with First Nations community members, archaeologists, paleontologists and science communicators.
Found A Fossil

In 2021, one of us (Sally Hurst) started a project called Found a Fossil to understand what members of the Australian public might do if they discovered something, and to raise awareness of heritage protection in an accessible way.

The project surveyed members of the public about their knowledge and created a guide for what to do it if you find a fossil or artefact, in consultation with First Nations peoples, palaeontologists and archaeologists.

The project is the first of its kind in Australia. It acknowledges and promotes the deep connection between natural and cultural heritage, and the need to protect it into the future.

2. Museum of Stone Tools

The Museum of Stone Tools is a digital, open-access collection of 3D models of artefacts. As an online repository, the museum allows in-depth exploration and knowledge sharing, without issues associated with managing physical collections.

The platform has allowed universities and physical museums, students, archaeologists and First Nations groups to use these digital objects for cultural training, education and managing heritage, even when an object has been returned to Country.

Website screenshot showing a stone tool and information
The Museum of Stone Tools interface, showing a 3D model of an Aboriginal stone tool from the traditional Country of the Widi people.
Museum of Stone Tools

3. Broome dinosaur trackways

In Western Australia, on what former premier Colin Barnett once called “an unremarkable beach” near Broome in the state’s north, thousands of dinosaur footprints are preserved in rocks exposed by shifting sands.

The tracks have been a part of Dreaming stories of the peoples of the West Coast Saltwater Sun Down law and cultural group, traditionally known as Goolarabooloo, for thousands of years. Some of the tracks left by three-toed feet, for example, are associated with a creator-being known as Marala, or the “Emu-man”.

Photo of an Aboriginal man sitting on a large rock that carries the impression of a huge three-toed foot.
Goolarabooloo Maja (Law Boss) Richard Hunter alongside dinosaur tracks subsequently named Walmadanyichnus hunteri (Hunter’s mark of Walmadany).
Steven Salisbury

In 2015, after several years of collaborative research between palaeontologists from the University of Queensland and Goolarabooloo traditional custodians, the Dinosaur Coast Management Group was established. This is a not-for-profit collective comprising knowledge holders and other members of the Indigenous community along with professional, Western-trained palaeontologists and local dinosaur track enthusiasts.

The main purpose of the group is to inform the public about the significance of the coastline and its dinosaur tracks. The group also works with local interest groups to devise strategies to protect the area from impacts associated with greater numbers of visitors and coastal development. At the same time, the group works to create job opportunities for people in Broome, through educational activities and guided tours for visitors.

4. Rola[STONE] documentary

The documentary Rola[STONE] explores the connections between geology, landscape and cultural knowledge on Anaiwan Country around Armidale, New South Wales. One of us (geoscientist Marissa Betts), in collaboration with Anaiwan Elders, directed the film. It shows how the landscape can be read through a scientific lens and through the Dreaming stories of those who have deep connections to Country.

Rola[Stone] was filmed on Anaiwan Country, NSW, and won an award at the Earth Futures Film Festival in 2022.

Valuing layers of knowledge

These case studies show the potential of positive engagement with First Nations peoples, communities and knowledge. They show there are myriad ways to dovetail multiple and different perspectives to promote mutual, two-way benefits.

In Ahoy’s words:

We want people to work with us, instead of us being forced to work with them. Building transparent, educational partnerships is the only way we can guarantee the free two-way flow of information.

Scientists and others working in Western institutions have the opportunity to create meaningful collaborations with First Nations peoples to promote their voices, and share cultural knowledge for the benefit of both parties. In this way we can weave together not just a rich story of the past, but of our future.

The Conversation

Sally Hurst created and works for the Found a Fossil project.

Marissa Betts directed the documentary Rola[STONE] discussed in this article.

Steve Ahoy featured in the documentary Rola[STONE] discussed in this article.

ref. ‘Everything is Country’: these 4 projects blend First Nations knowledge and science to rewrite our understanding of the past – https://theconversation.com/everything-is-country-these-4-projects-blend-first-nations-knowledge-and-science-to-rewrite-our-understanding-of-the-past-243578

Australia has long aligned with the US on sanctions. With Trump’s return, this is an increasingly dangerous approach

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Dehm, Senior Lecturer, International Migration and Refugee Law, University of Technology Sydney

Last month, US Republican lawmakers renewed calls to sanction officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in retaliation for the arrest warrants it issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

In contrast, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong reiterated the need to respect the “independence of the ICC and its important role in upholding international law”.

These divergent responses highlight a core problem with Australia’s current approach to sanctions, which is the topic of an ongoing Senate inquiry.

Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Birmingham initiated the review to seek ways to better align Australia’s sanctions with those of allies like the US.

Instead, the review should be an opportunity to reset this flawed principle of alignment in favour of an approach grounded in core principles of international law.

Australia’s history of sanctions

Sanctions are official measures that prohibit trade and economic relations with particular states or individuals for a range of reasons. These can include to pressure a state to change its behaviour, enforce international norms or isolate individuals for unlawful behaviour.

Australia’s sanctions regime is made up of two categories:

  • sanctions that implement decisions of the UN Security Council

  • “autonomous” sanctions that Australia applies unilaterally.

Historically, Australian sanctions have at times preceded Security Council action. In the mid-1960s, Australia followed the United Kingdom in sanctioning the white supremacist rule in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) before the council adopted sanctions.

Australia also sanctioned apartheid-era South Africa in the mid-1980s in the absence of Security Council action – and in the face of initial opposition from the UK and US.

Since 2011, Australian legislation grants the foreign minister broad discretionary powers to impose unilateral sanctions on other countries. This system has recently been expanded to include sanctions of individuals engaged in corruption and serious abuses of human rights.

Australia now imposes a range of sanctions autonomously, including travel bans and freezing of financial assets. This includes sanctions on the political and military leaders of Myanmar, Zimbabwe and Russia.

In practice, Australia has a policy of aligning its nominally “autonomous” sanctions decision-making with its so-called like-minded partners, such as the US.

For example, Australia has so far decided not to unilaterally impose sanctions on Israel’s political and military leadership. This is despite sustained civil society pressure and a historic ruling of the International Court of Justice.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong defended the decision on the basis that “going it alone gets us nowhere”.

When Australia applies sanctions, we coordinate with partners. That’s what makes them effective.

Dangers of a ‘like-minded partners’ approach

Yet, this rhetorical appeal to alignment with “like-minded partners” fails to recognise the dangers of such an approach.

For one, it risks drawing Australia further into the geostrategic competition between the US and China, in which sanctions are fast becoming a central tool. The US is increasingly using sanctions to punish China (and other adversaries) or stymie their development, while blocking attempts to sanction its friends, notably Israel.

The US is overwhelmingly the world’s biggest user of unilateral sanctions. Between 2001-21, it increased its sanctions designations by a stunning 933%.

The proliferation of US sanctions has only intensified since then. In 2023, the US added a total of 2,500 entities and individuals to its “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons” list. This is a significant increase from its annual average of 815 people in previous years.

Australia lacks the resources to adequately investigate this volume of sanctions designations. In practice, alignment often amounts to simply copying sanctions from the US, UK or European Union.

The commitment to aligning sanctions with those of allies also puts Australia at odds with some of our neighbours. Many Asian countries view US unilateral sanctions as unlawful coercion that infringes on their sovereign rights.

In April, diplomats from 32 states, including China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, supported a motion in the UN Human Rights Council that urged states to refrain from imposing unilateral sanctions in ways that are not consistent with international law. It said:

they are contrary to the [UN] Charter and norms and principles governing peaceful relations among states.

The UN General Assembly has also passed numerous resolutions criticising the imposition of certain unilateral sanctions. This shows the US reliance on sanctions is the global outlier.

This is perhaps clearest regarding the US embargo of Cuba, in place since 1960. Last month, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution renewing its long-standing call for the US to lift the embargo. It got near-unanimous support, with 187 states, including Australia, voting in favour. Only two states, the US and Israel, voted against. One abstained (Moldova).

What Trump is likely to do

While Trump has recently claimed he would like to use sanctions “as little as possible”, this is doubtful given his previous record.

The first Trump administration made economic sanctions its “foreign-policy weapon of choice”.

In addition to imposing sanctions against China, Iran and Venezuela (among others), the administration also sanctioned ICC officials for investigating US military personnel for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.

Trump’s pick to be his new secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is a sanctions hawk. Following the Biden administration’s ending of ICC sanctions, he co-sponsored a bill in Congress to impose new sanctions on ICC employees and their families if they investigated the US or Israel.

Rubio has also made clear his opposition to sanctioning Israeli nationals. When the Biden administration sanctioned an Israeli entity and individual for “extremist settler violence” in the occupied West Bank, Rubio accused Secretary of State Antony Blinken of acting “to undercut our ally, Israel”.

Given this, we can assume the new Trump administration will revoke these sanctions against Israelis. We can also anticipate there will be pressure on Australia to remove the already limited sanctions it has imposed on a handful of Israeli settlers, to realign Australia’s approach with that of the new US administration.

A new approach

We recently co-authored a submission to the Senate inquiry that recalled Australia’s history of supporting anti-apartheid sanctions.

And we recommended that Australian sanctions law and decision-making be reoriented towards recognising core principles of international law, including the right of all people to self-determination.

This could be done through “a trigger mechanism” that automatically implements sanctions in accordance with decisions of the International Court of Justice concerning serious violations and abuses of human rights.

As the Trump administration potentially gears up to strengthen sanctions against perceived enemies while exempting friends, Australia should consider a different path.

Sara Dehm receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Jessica Whyte receives funding from the Australian Research Council

ref. Australia has long aligned with the US on sanctions. With Trump’s return, this is an increasingly dangerous approach – https://theconversation.com/australia-has-long-aligned-with-the-us-on-sanctions-with-trumps-return-this-is-an-increasingly-dangerous-approach-244632

Moana 2: The magic is missing in this half-baked Pacific sequel

REVIEW: By Sam Rillstone, RNZ News

Disney has returned to Motunui with Moana 2, a sequel to the 2016 hit Moana. But have they been able to recapture the magic?

This time, the story sees Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho) setting out from her home island once again to try reconnect with the lost people of the ocean.

With the help of an unlikely crew and demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), she must reckon with an angry god and find a way to free a cursed island.

The first film was co-directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, two legendary writer directors from such fame as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet and The Princess and the Frog.

They haven’t returned for the sequel, which is co-directed by David Derrick Jr, Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller.

Moana 2 actually began as a Disney+ series before being retooled into a film earlier this year. While it moves the story of the world and the characters forward, the film feels like a slapstick and half-baked reworked TV show.

Moana 2.     RNZ Reviews

Thankfully, Auli’i Cravalho is still great as Moana; the vibrance and expression of her voice is wonderful. And it really is a movie centred mostly around her, which is a strength.

Two-dimensional crew
However, that also means that Moana’s little crew of friends are two-dimensional and not needed other than for a little inspiration here and there. Even Dwayne Johnson’s Maui feels a little less colourful this time around and a bit more of a plot device than actual character.

There is also a half-baked villain plot, with the character not really present and another who feels undercooked. It’s not until a small mid-credits scene where we get something of a hint, as well as what’s to come in a potential sequel film or series.

While Cravalho’s singing is lovely, unfortunately the songs of Moana 2 are not as memorable or catchy. And it certainly doesn’t help that Dwayne Johnson cannot sing or rap to save himself.

It’s wonderful to have a Pacific Island-centric story, and it’s got some great cultural representation, but Moana 2 could have been so much better.

While I’m obviously not the target audience, I really enjoyed the first one and I believe kids deserve good, smart movies. If there’s going to be another one, I hope they make it worth it.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

West Papua: Once was Papuan Independence Day, now facing ‘ecocide’, transmigration

On Papuan Independence Day, the focus is on discussing protests against Indonesia’s transmigration programme, environmental destruction, militarisation, and the struggle for self-determination. Te Aniwaniwa Paterson reports.

By Te Aniwaniwa Paterson of Te Ao Māori News

On 1 December 1961, West Papua’s national flag, known as the Morning Star, was raised for the first time as a declaration of West Papua’s independence from the Netherlands.

Sixty-three years later, West Papua is claimed by and occupied by Indonesia, which has banned the flag, which still carries aspirations for self-determination and liberation.

The flag continues to be raised globally on December 1 each year on what is still called “Papuan Independence Day”.

Region-wide protests
Protests have been building in West Papua since the new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto announced the revival of the Transmigration Programme to West Papua.

This was declared a day after he came to power on October 21 and confirmed fears from West Papuans about Prabowo’s rise to power.

This is because Prabowo is a former general known for a trail of allegations of war crimes and human rights abuses in West Papua and East Timor to his name.

Transmigration’s role
The transmigration programme began before Indonesia gained independence from the Dutch colonial government, intended to reduce “overcrowding” in Java and to provide a workforce for plantations in Sumatra.

After independence ended and under Indonesian rule, the programme expanded and in 1969 transmigration to West Papua was started.

This was also the year of the controversial “Act of Free Choice” where a small group of Papuans were coerced by Indonesia into a unanimous vote against their independence.

In 2001 the state-backed transmigration programme ended but, by then, over three-quarters of a million Indonesians had been relocated to West Papua. Although the official transmigration stopped, migration of Indonesians continued via agriculture and development projects.

Indonesia has also said transmigration helps with cultural exchange to unite the West Papuans so they are one nation — “Indonesian”.

West Papuan human rights activist Rosa Moiwend said in the 1980s that Indonesians used the language of “humanising West Papuans” through erasing their indigenous identity.

“It’s a racist kind of thing because they think West Papuans were not fully human,” Moiwend said.

Pathway to environmental destruction
Papuans believe this was to dilute the Indigenous Melanesian population, and to secure the control of their natural resources, to conduct mining, oil and gas extraction and deforestation.

This is because in the past the transmigration programme was tied to agricultural settlements where, following the deforestation of conservation forests, Indonesian migrants worked on agricultural projects such as rice fields and palm oil plantations.

Octo Mote is the vice-president of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP). Earlier this year Te Ao Māori News interviewed Mote on the “ecocide and genocide” and the history of how Indonesia gained power over West Papua.

The ecology in West Papua was being damaged by mining, deforestation, and oil and gas extraction, he said. Mote said Indonesia wanted to “wipe them from the land and control their natural resources”.

He emphasised that defending West Papua meant defending the world, because New Guinea had the third-largest rainforest after the Amazon and Congo and was crucial for climate change mitigation as they sequester and store carbon.

Concerns grow over militarisation
Moiwend said the other concern right now was the National Strategic Project which developed projects to focus on Indonesian self-sufficiency in food and energy.

Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) started in 2011, so isn’t a new project, but it has failed to deliver many times and was described by Global Atlas of Environmental Justice as a “textbook land grab”.

The mega-project includes the deforestation of a million hectares for rice fields and an additional 600,000 hectares for sugar cane plantations that will be used to make bioethanol.

The project is managed by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Agriculture, and the private company, Jhonlin Group, owned by Haji Andi Syamsuddin Arsyad. Ironically, given the project has been promoted to address climate issues, Arsyad is a coal magnate, a primary industry responsible for man-made climate change.

Recently, the Indonesian government announced the deployment of five military battalions to the project site.

Conservation news website Mongabay reported that the villages in the project site had a population of 3000 people whereas a battalion consisted of usually 1000 soldiers, which meant there would be more soldiers than locals and the villagers said it felt as if their home would be turned into a “war zone”.

Merauke is where Moiwend’s village is and many of her cousins and family are protesting and, although there haven’t been any incidents yet, with increased militarisation she feared for the lives of her family as the Indonesian military had killed civilians in the past.

Destruction of spiritual ancestors
The destruction of the environment was also the killing of their dema (spiritual ancestors), she said.

The dema represented and protected different components of nature, with a dema for fish, the sago palm, and the coconut tree.

Traditionally when planting taro, kumara or yam, they chanted and sang for the dema of those plants to ensure an abundant harvest.

Moiwend said they connected to their identity through calling on the name of the dema that was their totem.

She said her totem was the coconut and when she needed healing she would find a coconut tree, drink coconut water, and call to the dema for help.

There were places where the dema lived that humans were not meant to enter but many sacred forests had been deforested.

She said the Indonesians had destroyed their food sources, their connection to their spirituality as well destroying their humanity.

“Anim Ha means the great human being,” she said, “to become a great human being you have to have a certain quality of life, and one quality of life is the connection to your dema, your spiritual realm.”

Te Aniwaniwa Paterson is a digital producer for Te Ao Māori News. Republished with permission.

Raising the West Papuan Morning Star flag in Tāmaki Makaurau in 2023. Image: Te Ao Māori News

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Tjibaou’s party unveils plan for New Caledonia’s future ‘independence’

By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

New Caledonia’s largest pro-independence party, the Union Calédonienne (UC), has unveiled the main outcome of its congress last weekend, including its plans for the French Pacific territory’s political future.

Speaking at a news conference on Thursday in Nouméa, the party’s newly-elected executive bureau, now headed by Emmanuel Tjibaou, debriefed the media about the main resolutions made during its congress.

One of the motions was specifically concerning a timeframe for New Caledonia’s road to independence.

Tjibaou said UC now envisaged that one of the milestones on this road to sovereignty would be the signing of a “Kanaky Agreement”, at the latest on 24 September 2025 — a highly symbolic date as this was the day of France’s annexation of New Caledonia in 1853.

‘Kanaky Agreement’ by 24 September 2025?
This, he said, would mark the beginning of a five-year “transition period” from “2025 to 2030” that would be concluded by New Caledonia becoming fully sovereign under a status yet to be defined.

Several wordings have recently been advanced by stakeholders from around the political spectrum.

Depending on the pro-independence and pro-France sympathies, these have varied from “shared sovereignty”, “independence in partnership”, “independence-association” and, more recently, from the also divided pro-France loyalists camp, an “internal federalism” (Le Rassemblement-LR party) or a “territorial federation” (Les Loyalistes).

Charismatic pro-independence leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou, Emmanuel’s father who was assassinated in 1989, was known for being an advocate of a relativist approach to the term “independence”, to which he usually preferred to adjunct the pragmatic term “inter-dependence”.

Founding FLNKS leader Jean Marie Tjibaou in Kanaky New Caledonia in 1985 . . . assassinated four years later. Image: David Robie/Café Pacific

Negotiations between all political parties and the French State are expected to begin in the next few weeks.

The talks (between pro-independence, anti-independence parties and the French State) are scheduled in such a way that all parties manage to reach a comprehensive and inclusive political agreement no later than March 2025.

The talks had completely stalled after the pro-indeoendence riots broke out on 13 May 2024.

Over the past three years, following three referendums (2018, 2020, 2021, the latter being strongly challenged by the pro-independence side) on the question of independence (all yielding a majority in favour of New Caledonia remaining part of France), there had been several attempts to hold inclusive talks in order to discuss New Caledonia’s political future.

But UC and other parties (including pro-France and pro-independence) did not manage to sit at the same table.

Speaking to journalists, Emmanuel Tjibaou confirmed that under its new leadership, UC was now willing to return to the negotiating table.

He said “May 13 has stopped our advances in those exchanges” but “now is the time to build the road to full sovereignty”.

Back to the negotiating table
In the footsteps of those expected negotiations, heavy campaigning will follow to prepare for crucial provincial elections to be held no later than November 2025.

The five years of “transition” (2025-2030), would be used to transfer the remaining “regal” powers from France as well as putting in place “a political, financial and international” framework, accompanied by the French State, Tjibaou elaborated.

And after the transitional period, UC’s president said a new phase of talks could start to put in place what he terms “interdependence conventions on some of the ‘regal’ — main — powers” (defence, law and order, foreign affairs, currency).

Tjibaou said this project could resemble a sort of independence in partnership, a “shared sovereignty”, a concept that was strongly suggested early November 2024 by visiting French Senate President Gérard Larcher.

But Tjibaou said there was a difference in the sense that those discussions on sharing would only take place once all the powers have been transferred from France.

“You can only share sovereignty if you have obtained it first”, he told local media.

One of the other resolutions from its congress held last weekend in the small village of Mia (Canala) was to reiterate its call to liberate Christian Téin, appointed president of the FLNKS (Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front) in absentia late August, even though he is currently imprisoned in Mulhouse (north-east of France) pending his trial.

Allegations over May riots
He is alleged to have been involved in the organisation of the demonstrations that degenerated into the May 13 riots, arson, looting and a deadly toll of 13 people, several hundred injured and material damage estimated at some 2.2 billion euros (NZ$3.9 billion).

Tjibaou also said that within a currently divided pro-independence movement, he hoped that a reunification process and “clarification” would be possible with other components of FLNKS, namely the Progressist Union in Melanesia (UPM) and the Kanak Liberation Party (PALIKA).

Since August 2024, both UPM and PALIKA have de facto withdrawn with FLNKS’s political bureau, saying they no longer recognised themselves in the way the movement had radicalised.

In 1988, after half a decade of a quasi civil war, Jean-Marie Tjibaou signed the Matignon-Oudinot agreements with New Caledonia’s pro-France and anti-independence leader Jacques Lafleur.

The third signatory was the French State.

One year later, in 1989, Tjibaou was shot dead by a hard-line pro-independence militant.

His son Emmanuel was aged 13 at the time.

‘Common destiny’
In 1998, a new agreement, the Nouméa Accord, was signed, with a focus on increased autonomy, the notions of “common destiny” and a local “citizenship” and a gradual transfer of powers from France.

After the three referendums held between 2018 and 2021, the Nouméa Accord prescribed that if there had been three referendums rejecting independence, then political stakeholders should “meet to examine the situation thus generated”.

On Thursday, Union Calédonienne also stressed that the Nouméa Accord remained the founding document of all future political discussions.

“We are sticking to the Nouméa Accord because it is this document that brings us to the elements of accession to sovereignty”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Protesters condemn Fiji ‘complicity, silence’ over Israel’s Gaza genocide

Asia Pacific Report

A Fiji solidarity group for the Palestinians has accused the Rabuka-led coalition government of “complicity” in Israel’s genocide and relentless war in Gaza that has killed more than 44,000 people — mostly women and children — over the past year.

The Fijians4Palestine have called on the Fiji government to “uphold the principles of peace, justice, and human rights that our nation cherishes”.

“We urge our leaders to use their diplomatic channels to advocate for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, to support international efforts in providing humanitarian aid to the affected regions, and to publicly express solidarity with the Palestinian people, reflecting the sentiments of many Fijians,” the movement said in a statement  marking the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

The group said it was “ashamed that the Fiji government continues to vote for the genocide and occupation of Palestinians”.

It said that it expected the Fiji government to enforce arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

The Fijians4Palestine group’s statement said:

It has been over one year since Israel began its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Over the past year, Israeli attacks have killed more than 44,000 Palestinians living in Gaza, equal to 1 out of every 55 people living there.

At least 16,756 children have been killed, the highest number of children recorded in a single year of conflict over the past two decades. More than 17,000 children have lost one or both parents.

At least 97,303 people are injured in Gaza — equal to one in 23 people.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, every day 10 children lose one or both legs, with operations and amputations conducted with little or no anaesthesia due to Israel’s ongoing siege.

In addition to the killed and injured, more than 10,000 people are feared buried under the rubble.

A Fiji protester with a “Your silence kills” placard rebuking the Fiji government for its stance on Israeli’s war on Gaza. Image: FWCC

With few tools to remove rubble and rescue those trapped beneath concrete, volunteers and civil defence workers rely on their bare hands.

We, the #Fijians4Palestine Solidarity Network join the global voices demanding a permanent ceasefire and an end to the violence. We express our unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The Palestinian struggle is not just a regional issue; it is a testament to the resilience of a people who, despite facing impossible odds, continue to fight for their right to exist, freedom, and dignity. Their struggle resonates with all who believe in justice, equality, and the fundamental rights of every human being.

Families torn apart
The images of destruction, the stories of families torn apart, and the cries of children caught in the crossfire are heart-wrenching. These are not mere statistics or distant news stories; these are real people with hopes, dreams, and aspirations, much like us.

As Fijians, we have always prided ourselves on our commitment to peace, unity, and humanity. Our rich cultural heritage and shared values teach us the importance of standing up for what is right, even when it is not popular or convenient.

Today, we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, not out of political allegiance but out of a shared belief in humanity, justice, and the inalienable human rights of every individual.

We unequivocally condemn the State of Israel for its actions that amount to war crimes, genocide, and apartheid against the Palestinian people. The deliberate targeting of civilians, the disproportionate use of force, and the destruction of essential infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, are in clear violation of international humanitarian law.

The intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group is evident. The continuous displacement of Palestinians, the destruction of their homes, and the systematic erasure of their history and culture are indicative of genocidal intent.

The State of Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, characterised by racial segregation, discrimination, and domination, amount to apartheid as defined under international law.

Oppressive regime
The construction of settlements, the separation wall, and the system of checkpoints are manifestations of this oppressive regime. Palestinians are subjected to different laws, regulations, and treatments based on their ethnicity, clearly violating the principle of equality.

We call upon the Fiji government to uphold the principles of peace, justice, and human rights that our nation cherishes. We urge our leaders to use their diplomatic channels to advocate for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, to support international efforts in providing humanitarian aid to the affected regions, and to publicly express solidarity with the Palestinian people, reflecting the sentiments of many Fijians.

We are ashamed that the Fiji government continues to vote for the genocide and occupation of Palestinians. We expect our government to enforce arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

The silence of the Fiji government is complicity, and history will not forgive their inaction.

Our solidarity with the Palestinian people is a testament to our shared humanity. We believe in a world where diversity, is treated with dignity and respect. We dream of a future where children in Gaza can play without fear, where families can live without the shadow of war, and where the Palestinian people can finally enjoy the peace and freedom they so rightly deserve.

There can be no peace without justice, and we stand in unity with all people and territories struggling for self-determination and freedom from occupation.

The Pacific cannot be an Ocean of Peace without freedom and self determination in Palestine, West Papua, Kanaky and all oppressed territories.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Australian printmaker Ruth Faerber has died aged 102. She never stopped making art

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanna Mendelssohn, Honorary Senior Fellow, School of Culture and Communication. Editor in chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne

In 1974, when a local Sydney newspaper wrote on the success of two local artists, they were introduced using their husband’s names. Ruth Faerber, who has died aged 102, was named as “Mrs Hans (Ruth) Faerber of Castle Cove”.

This was later expanded to indicate the “housewife, mother of two is the wife of Hans Faerber, a design engineer”, before describing her prizewinning work and noting she was also the art critic of the Jewish Times.

Ever polite, always elegant, Faerber never vocally contested such categorisations. However, from girlhood until her extreme old age, she was first and foremost an artist.

A young interest in art

Ruth Levy was born in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra, on October 9 1922. After a less than pleasant experience at Sydney Girls High with an art teacher she later described as an “absolute whacko”, she became a boarding student at Ravenswood.

Here, she was inspired by her teacher Gladys Gibbons and introduced to printmaking as an art. When Ruth told her father she wanted to leave school and be an artist, he agreed on the condition that “you’ve got to be able earn your own living”.

She enrolled at Peter Dodd’s Commercial Art School. Dodd’s friends included the radical modernists Frank and Margel Hinder, recently arrived from the United States, giving the students a surprisingly radical art education.

Two years later, as the impact of World War II led to young women being encouraged to take the jobs of departed men, the 17-year-old worked as a junior commercial artist.

At the Market Printery she was introduced to photogravure printing and made her first experimental etching.

Ruth continued her studies at East Sydney Technical College. In 1944 she enrolled in Desiderius Orban’s Rowe Street Studio. The refugee Hungarian artist taught that rules were to be broken, that artists must experiment, and to have faith in her creativity.

These were lessons she never forgot.

Making a life as an artist

In 1946, Ruth married Hans Faerber, a young design engineer who had escaped from Germany in 1938.

Despite postwar cultural pressures prescribing that women should solely devote themselves to their families, Ruth continued to paint, turning the garage into her studio and running children’s art classes from home. She wanted to learn printmaking but in Sydney this was not possible: the only lithography course was limited to printing apprentices, and only men were eligible to apply.

In 1961 Joy Ewart donated her lithography press to create Sydney’s first public access print workshop at the Willoughby Arts Centre. Faerber became one of its most active participants.

In 1963, the year of her first solo exhibition, the family moved to a house on Sydney’s north shore. Her new studio was built into the base of the cliff. To provide safe access without the bother of planning permission, Hans removed the floor of the broom cupboard and placed a ladder down to the studio.

Faerber’s ability to disappear into a cupboard straight after dinner did sometimes disconcert her children and visitors, but it gave her time to make art as she worked through the night.

Continual experiments

By 1968 her prints had been acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of NSW, but she knew she needed to learn more.

She received a scholarship for New York City’s Pratt Center. In New York, she saw Rauschenberg’s Experiments in Art & Technology and remembered Orban’s dictum to constantly experiment. She started to use spray paint as a medium and to incorporate photographic images in her work. One print includes a newspaper photograph of Leonard Cohen, made after she saw him perform.

Her return to Australia saw continual experiments. She also began to write, becoming the art critic for the Australian Jewish News. Her reviews were characterised by a generosity of spirit, especially noticing artists at the beginning of their careers. Women and printmakers were favoured subjects.

One of the most significant costs for printmakers is the cost of imported handmade paper. In 1980, Faerber was invited to attend the first hand paper-making workshop at the Tasmanian School of Art’s Jabberwock Mill.

There she realised the possibilities of paper as a medium rather than as a surface.

She abandoned standard shapes. Her experiments with paper became irregular, then sculptural. Paper began to be made with different materials, including tapioca flour and cold tea. She found if she sprayed a paper sculpture with the kind of aerosol paint designed for cars, she could simulate an impression of aged stone.

While she kept a close eye on the latest technical developments, her best tools of trade were sometimes found in the home. Electric frying pans, food processors and a microwave oven were repurposed to make art. An ironing board with a mesh base was used as a press for making paper. She had a long fascination with archaeological sites, realising how fragile civilisations and human life may be.

As she became physically frail, Faerber changed her practice towards making digital prints, seeing how far she could stretch the new media to her ends.

The Conversation

Joanna Mendelssohn has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council

ref. Australian printmaker Ruth Faerber has died aged 102. She never stopped making art – https://theconversation.com/australian-printmaker-ruth-faerber-has-died-aged-102-she-never-stopped-making-art-230119

COP29: Pacific takes stock of ‘baby steps’ global climate summit

By Sera Sefeti in Baku, Azerbaijan

As the curtain fell at the UN climate summit in Baku last Sunday, frustration and disappointment engulfed Pacific delegations after another meeting under-delivered.

Two weeks of intensive negotiations at COP29, hosted by Azerbaijan and attended by 55,000 delegates, resulted in a consensus decision among nearly 200 nations.

Climate finance was tripled to US $300 billion a year in grant and loan funding from developed nations, far short of the more than US $1 trillion sought by Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States.

COP29 BAKU, 11-22 November 2024

“We travelled thousands of kilometres, it is a long way to travel back without good news,” Niue’s Minister of Natural Resources Mona Ainu’u told BenarNews.

Three-hundred Pacific delegates came to COP29 with the key demands to stay within the 1.5-degree C warming goal, make funds available and accessible for small island states, and cut ambiguous language from agreements.

Their aim was to make major emitters pay Pacific nations — who are facing the worst effects of climate change despite being the lowest contributors — to help with transition, adaptation and mitigation.

“If we lose out on the 1.5 degrees C, then it really means nothing for us being here, understanding the fact that we need money in order for us to respond to the climate crisis,” Tuvalu’s Minister for Climate Change Maina Talia told BenarNews at the start of talks.

PNG withdrew
Papua New Guinea withdrew from attending just days before COP29, with Prime Minister James Marape warning: “The pledges made by major polluters amount to nothing more than empty talk.”

Miss Kiribati 2024 Kimberly Tokanang Aromata gives the “1.5 to stay alive” gesture while attending COP29 as a youth delegate earlier this month. Image: SPC/BenarNews

Fiji’s lead negotiator Dr Sivendra Michael told BenarNews that climate finance cut across many of the committee negotiations running in parallel, with parties all trying to strategically position themselves.

“We had a really challenging time in the adaptation committee room, where groups of negotiators from the African region had done a complete block on any progress on (climate) tax,” said Dr Michael, adding the Fiji team was called to order on every intervention they made.

He said it’s the fourth consecutive year adaptation talks were left hanging, despite agreement among the majority of nations, because there was “no consensus among the like-minded developing countries, which includes China, as well as the African group.”

Pacific delegates told BenarNews at COP they battled misinformation, obstruction and subversion by developed and high-emitting nations, including again negotiating on commitments agreed at COP28 last year.

Pushback began early on with long sessions on the Global Stock Take, an assessment of what progress nations and stakeholders had made to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C.

“If we cannot talk about 1.5, then we have a very weak language around mitigation,” Tuvalu’s Talia said. “Progress on finance was nothing more than ‘baby steps’.”

Pacific faced resistance
Pacific negotiators faced resistance to their call for U.S.$39 billion for Small Island Developing States and U.S.$220 billion for Least Developed Countries.

“We expected pushbacks, but the lack of ambition was deeply frustrating,” Talia said.

Fiji’s Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Lenora Qereqeretabua addresses the COP29 summit in Baku this month. Image: SPREP/BenarNews

Greenpeace Pacific lead Shiva Gounden accused developed countries of deliberately stalling talks — of which Australia co-chaired the finance discussions — including by padding texts with unnecessary wording.

“Hours passed without any substance out of it, and then when they got into the substance of the text, there simply was not enough time,” he told BenarNews.

In the final week of COP29, the intense days negotiating continued late into the nights, sometimes ending the next morning.

“Nothing is moving as it should, and climate finance is a black hole,” Pacific Climate Action Network senior adviser Sindra Sharma told BenarNews during talks.

“There are lots of rumours and misinformation floating around, people saying that SIDS are dropping things — this is a complete lie.”

Pacific delegates and negotiators meet in the final week of intensive talks at COP29 in Baku this month. Image: SPREP/BenarNews

COP29 presidency influence
Sharma said the significant influence of the COP presidency — held by Azerbaijan — came to bear as talks on the final outcome dragged past the Friday night deadline.

The Azeri presidency faced criticism for not pushing strongly enough for incorporation of the “transition away from fossil fuels” — agreed to at COP28 — in draft texts.

“What we got in the end on Saturday was a text that didn’t have the priorities that smaller island states and least developed countries had reflected,” Sharma said.

COP29’s outcome was finally announced on Sunday at 5.30am.

“For me it was heartbreaking, how developed countries just blocked their way to fulfilling their responsibilities, their historical responsibilities, and pretty much offloaded that to developing countries,” Gounden from Greenpeace Pacific said.

Some retained faith
Amid the Pacific delegates’ disappointment, some retained their faith in the summits and look forward to COP30 in Brazil next year.

“We are tired, but we are here to hold the line on hope; we have no choice but to,” 350.org Pacific managing director Joseph Zane Sikulu told BenarNews.

“We can very easily spend time talking about who is missing, who is not here, and the impact that it will have on negotiation, or we can focus on the ones who came, who won’t give up,” he said at the end of summit.

Fiji’s lead negotiator Dr Michael said the outcome was “very disappointing” but not a total loss.

“COP is a very diplomatic process, so when people come to me and say that COP has failed, I am in complete disagreement, because no COP is a failure,” he told BenarNews at the end of talks.

“If we don’t agree this year, then it goes to next year; the important thing is to ensure that Pacific voices are present,” he said.

Republished from BenarNews with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Gallery: Palestinian musicians, poets and solidarity partners in vibrant celebration

Asia Pacific Report

Palestinian diaspora poets, singers and musicians gathered today with solidarity partners from Aotearoa New Zealand, African nations — including South Africa — in a vibrant celebration.

The celebration marked the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and similar events have been happening around New Zealand today, across the world and over the weekend.

Images by David Robie of Asia Pacific Report.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Cool water from the deep could protect pockets of the Great Barrier Reef into the 2080s

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chaojiao Sun, Research Group Leader, physical oceanographer, CSIRO

marcobrivio.gallery/Shutterstock

For coral reefs, climate change is an existential threat. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has endured seven mass bleaching events over the past 25 years. Five have occurred in the past eight years.

But amid the story of decline, something curious is happening. Surveys from the air and on water show a few reef groups, such as the Ribbon Reefs in the far north and the Swains and Pompey reefs in the south, are consistently escaping severe bleaching while their neighbouring reefs suffer.

But how? In our new research, we found their survival is due to cold water. That is, most of these reefs are periodically bathed in cooler water even as other parts of the reef bake in marine heatwaves. This stems from the phenomenon called upwelling, where cooler waters from the deep mix with warm surface waters. These reefs are likely to be buffered from the worst of climate change.

While the world’s oceans are heating up steadily, the deeper waters remain cooler than surface waters. Our modelling suggests cold currents could protect these vital refuges at least into the 2080s, even if continued high emissions lead to sea surface temperatures 2-3°C hotter than now. Safeguarding these refuges offers the best chance to preserve some of the reef’s rich array of species and – potentially – to allow corals to adapt to new heat regimes and eventually repopulate degraded reefs.

These figures show where upwellings of cooler water are protecting some reefs among the thousands making up the Great Barrier Reef. These refuges are visible as areas of cooler water (dark blue patches) relative to the average sea surface temperatures over January to March.
Author provided, CC BY-NC-ND

Where are these refuges from heat?

Coral reefs are very sensitive to heat. When marine heatwaves strike, heat stress can make coral polyps bleach by expelling their symbiotic algae. These colourful “zooxanthellae” algae provide coral energy and nutrition from photosynthesis in exchange for shelter. Bleached coral can recover if given a reprieve. But if the heat stress continues, it can die.

Climate change is loading the dice for more heat, more often. This is why we are now seeing parts of the Great Barrier Reef record the worst coral loss in 39 years.

In our research, we looked at why some reefs are less affected by heat. We found upwellings of cool water are protecting them. The reefs are climate refuges – areas where local conditions allow species to survive while other areas become unlivable.

We define these cooler refuges as areas where average summer sea surface temperatures are at least 1°C cooler than nearby regions. These safer zones lie along the ends of the northern and southern Great Barrier Reef and run over 200 kilometres along the continental shelf, where coral reefs are densely packed.

Off northern Australia in the eastern Torres Strait lie the Ribbon Reefs. These climate refuges are located near a steep continental slope with deep channels.

The Ribbon Reefs are acting as a climate refuge in the far north of the reef. In this satellite image of Cape York and the Torres Strait, these reefs are the long, narrow reefs to the right.
AIMS/NASA, CC BY-SA

On the southern reefs, a key refuge is the Swains and Pompeys reef complex, 135 km offshore from Mackay. These reefs lie right on the continental drop off where the East Australian Current raises cold water closer to the surface.

When strong tidal currents flood through narrow reef channels, cooler water from the deep can be drawn up over the continental shelf and mixed with warm surface water, acting like a cold bath for the fringing reefs and giving relief to coral.

These effects can last up to a week or more, if conditions are right, and can occur several times over a summer. Currents can trap these cooler waters behind a long, skinny ribbon reef, giving sustained relief.

Pompey Reefs, the southern refuge. These reefs lie offshore from the Whitsundays (Whitsunday Island is pictured near top left). This is a cropped NASA image taken by satellite in 2000.
NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, CC BY-NC-ND

Will these refuges vanish?

To detect these refuges, we looked for unusually cool water in satellite temperature maps and ocean models. Then we ran these models forward in time, to see if these life-sustaining cool flows would persist in the 2050s under a high emissions scenario, and again in the 2080s. The good news: currents of cool water will continue at least to 2080.

This is because even as surface waters warm and marine heatwaves arrive more often, the currents carrying cooler water to the surface in these refuge reefs will continue. But if climate change continues unchecked, even deeper waters will warm to a level that coral cannot tolerate.

What about changes in ocean currents? At present, the South Equatorial Current carries warm water westward toward the Barrier Reef but then splits into the north-flowing Gulf of Papua Current and the south-flowing East Australian Current.

Our research found the location of the split is steadily moving southward. This could change where current-dependent larvae of coral and coral-eating crown of thorns starfish end up. But our modelling shows these changes won’t greatly affect upwellings over our time period.

Protecting these refuges is vital

If we keep these refuge reefs as intact as possible, we may be able to preserve more of the reef’s staggering biodiversity. If these corals find ways of adapting to the new heat regimes, it might be possible to use them to replenish harder hit reefs. Scientists in the collaborative Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program are already exploring ways to make coral better able to tolerate heat.

Overfishing, damage from shipping and crown of thorns outbreaks also pose threats to these remote reefs. We should protect them as best we can. That’s not to say we should give up on tackling threats to the reef more broadly – only that these reefs are particularly valuable.

Climate change poses the largest threat to coral. Every living thing has temperature limits and adaptation can only go so far. The corals of the Red Sea evolved to tolerate hotter water. But they had thousands of years to do so, while today’s climate is changing far faster. Other researchers have found coral refuges would break down when warming goes past 3°C.

Could coral on these more protected reefs adapt fast enough to take advantage of cool upwellings? If so, could heat-adapted coral larvae repopulate worse-hit areas? We don’t know yet. If they could, some version of the Great Barrier Reef might survive.

But if global warming continues unchecked, these reefs, too, could feel the heat. Sharply reducing emissions is our best option to control global warming and help the Great Barrier Reef endure into the next century.

Chaojiao Sun receives funding from CSIRO and the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program.

Craig Steinberg receives funding from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the Integrated Marine Observing System, National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy and National Environmental Science Program.

ref. Cool water from the deep could protect pockets of the Great Barrier Reef into the 2080s – https://theconversation.com/cool-water-from-the-deep-could-protect-pockets-of-the-great-barrier-reef-into-the-2080s-217911

Open letter plea by NZ community broadcaster for end to Israel’s ‘sadistic cruelty’ in Gaza

Pacific Media Watch

A community broadcaster in Aotearoa New Zealand has appealed for an end to the “sadistic cruelty” and the “out in the open genocide” by Israel in Gaza and the occupied Palestine territories.

In an open letter, Lois Griffiths, co-presenter of the environmental, social justice and current affairs programme Earthwise on Plains FM, has criticised the “injustices imposed by colonialism” and has cited Bethlehem Lutheran pastor Munther Isaac in saying “Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world”.

Her letter is published by Asia Pacific Report to mark the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

The open letter by Griffiths says:

K Gurunathan’s article “Sparks fly as political tinder of Māori anger builds” (The Press and The Post, November 25) argues that the injustices imposed by colonialism, including the “systematic confiscation of Māori land”, leading to poverty and cultural alienation are factors behind the anger expressed by the recent Hīkoi.

We need to learn Aotearoa New Zealand history.

One needs to learn history in order to understand the present.

But we need to learn world history too.

Coincidentally, I am in the middle of reading Israeli journalist Gideon Levy’s most recent book The Killing of Gaza: reports on a catastrophe.

Levy has been there many times, reporting first hand about the sadistic cruelty imposed on its people, a cruelty that began in 1948.

He explains that Hamas promotes armed resistance as a last resort. Any other approach has been ignored

The Israeli regime is being accused now of war crimes. But war crimes have been going on for decades.

But it sickens me to even think of what is happening now. It is genocide, genocide out in the open.

In the words of Bethlehem Lutheran pastor Munther Isaac: “Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The government agrees Australia’s secrecy laws need to change. Now comes the hard part – taking action

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism and Communications, Macquarie University

Earlier this year, the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor (INSLM), Jake Blight, compared the sheer volume of Australia’s secrecy laws to works of literature.

“You’d be looking at about 3,000-plus pages. That’s about the same as the complete works of William Shakespeare, War and Peace, and the three volumes of the Lord of the Rings – added together,” he told the ABC.

Of course, secrecy laws are necessary in an increasingly dangerous world. And since the September 11 2001 attacks, Australia has passed more than any other country on Earth – more than 90 by a 2021 count (though the number is now closer to 100).

But as Blight went on to point out, when these laws also smother the transparency that legitimate whistleblowing and investigative journalism bring to a democracy, they can wind up damaging the very system they are designed to protect.

That is why Attorney General Mark Dreyfus’ announcement this week that he has accepted six of the INSLM’s 15 recommendations to reform Australia’s secrecy laws in full, and six others in part, is an important break from the direction of travel.

When classified information causes harm

In Blight’s review of the secrecy offences in the Criminal Code, some of those making submissions (including my own organisation, the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom) argued that many of the laws are inconsistent with the rule of law and human rights principles.

Critics also argue the laws unnecessarily penalise legitimate whistleblowing and criminalise the very journalists, lawyers and activist groups that are essential to the effective functioning of our democracy.

As it stands, the law makes it an offence to “deal with” classified information – a phrase so broad that a journalist or lawyer cannot open an envelope containing a classified document without risking prison. The government has agreed that merely receiving information should not be an offence alone.

The law also assumes that if a document is stamped “classified”, it would be harmful if it were released. It is what the law describes as “deemed” harm.

Instead, the government has agreed that what matters is the actual harm that might be caused if a document is released, rather than the stamp at the top of it.

In his review, Blight agreed the current system of classifying documents depended on secret policies and anonymous public servants rather than the courts. He said, however, that should not form the basis for criminal prosecutions that could send people to prison for years.

He told journalists on Wednesday:

My concern is in taking a policy document and trying to enshrine it in the criminal law. Criminal laws need much more precision than a policy like that can provide.

‘The most extreme secrets’

Dreyfus also agreed to invite the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to revise the policy to consider press freedom when the office is dealing with journalists or publishers in cases involving classified documents.

But the government did not go as far as Blight had asked, particularly with regard to narrowing the scope of what is considered harmful information about intelligence agencies.

Currently, it is an offence to publish any information from an intelligence agency. Blight had recommended it be restricted to information about the data they handle, their operations, capabilities, technologies, methods and sources.

While Dreyfus agreed the scope of protected information is broad, he said Blight’s recommendation would “remove protections from categories of information which would cause harm if disclosed”.

Blight called that decision “unfortunate”.

Many of our intelligence agencies now do important work, but actually isn’t intelligence work, and I think our laws need to be tailored to that. Extreme secrecy should be focused only on the most extreme secrets.

Government lacking action

Broadly, though, Blight and other groups, including the Human Rights Law Centre and the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, have welcomed the government’s response as an important step towards improving transparency and press freedom.

But accepting the recommendations is not the same as implementing them. The government has a record of promising improvements in transparency, but falling short in terms of passing legislation.

In 2020, the parliament’s intelligence and security committee published a report into the impact of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies on the freedom of the press.

The report included 16 recommendations, and both the government and the opposition accepted 15 of them. Dreyfus, who was the shadow attorney general at the time, went even further. He described the recommendations as “the bare minimum”.

So far, five years on, only one has been implemented.

The Conversation

Peter Greste is Professor of Journalism at Macquarie University and the Executive Director for the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom. The AJF made both written and oral submissions to the INSLM inquiry into secrecy laws. He was also a researcher on a University of Queensland project between 2018 and 2021 that studied the intersection of press freedom and national security.

ref. The government agrees Australia’s secrecy laws need to change. Now comes the hard part – taking action – https://theconversation.com/the-government-agrees-australias-secrecy-laws-need-to-change-now-comes-the-hard-part-taking-action-244823

At ACMI’s The Future & Other Fictions, artists challenge us to imagine a more optimistic world

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa French, Professor & Dean, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University

Eugene Hyland/ACMI

The Future & Other Fictions, ACMI’s flagship summer exhibition, explores where storytelling imagines and rethinks the future.

It is an original show co-curated by ACMI’s Amanda Haskard (Gunai/Kurnai) and Chelsey O’Brien, in collaboration with director, featured artist and futurist Liam Young.

Featuring the work of 19 creatives, it brings together an impressive 180 works, showcasing film, videogames, screen-based art, costumes, paraphernalia from movies, video essays, textiles, fashion activism and new commissioned works.

The future, according to Young, “rushes over us like water”. It doesn’t just “happen to us” – “we can all be active participants in shaping and defining it”.

At the opening he described the exhibition as a “call to arms”, challenging visitors to imagine or be empowered to shape a more optimistic world. Young’s analogy with water is present throughout the exhibition.

Moving through the maze

The first part of the exhibition has a video essay that offers a provocative history of future worlds as seen on screen. As you explore, you encounter popular items from Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) to a miniature from Blade Runner 2049 (2017).

A man looks at a costume.
The Future Other Fictions features costumes from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022).
Eugene Hyland/ACMI

As visitors move through, the set design wraps around us, directing us – a bit like a maze drawing one forward.

Birth of Dawn, by Queensland-based artist Hannah Brontë, uses the pregnant form and water to represent the embodiment of her Country.

This work is mesmerising and tranquil. The experience includes the smell of an earthy blue gum scent, which I identified as suggesting the earth sweating. The exhibition label for this work observes “there is nothing more science fiction than nature itself”.

Another commission, After the End, is designed and directed by Young and written and narrated by Ngarrindjeri, Narungga, Kaurna and Noongar actor Natasha Wanganeen.

It is described in the publicity as reimagining “a world in which fossil fuel production has ceased, and communities return to rebuild the landscape”.

Much of the work evokes the sensation of floating in water. I found it utterly hypnotic. Viewers can recline on bean bags and let the experience gently wash over them.

People sit on beanbags in front of red screens.
After the End, designed and directed by Liam Young and written and narrated by Natasha Wanganeen.
Eugene Hyland/ACMI

Other works have this same imagining of speculative (hypothetical) futures, resistance and rebellion, including the idea Indigenous people reclaim sovereignty and Country.

Nigerian-born United States artist Olalekan Jeyifous’s Shanty Megastructures imagines “Anarchonauts”: an advanced and empowered African identity who turn neglected spaces into innovation and sustainability centres.

These works remind the viewer of Mad Max films, initially conjuring up dystopian ideas of society having gone wrong.

But Jeyifous’ vision feels utopian. We observe harmony realised by calm expressions, an image of a mother, child and technology (the latter creatively made wearable). The beaming face of a smiling child tells us that these shanty towns, usually places of extreme poverty, might be optimistic places of social ingenuity.

It flips the Max Max narrative. This society is resilient and thriving.

A grey building, black and white photos and video.
A model from Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and Olalekan Jeyifous’ Shanty Megastructures.
Eugene Hyland/ACMI

Screen culture and the future

Screen culture (which is everything a screen community does, from production, to this article, and to exhibitions) has always engaged in futurism, from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) through to the new commissions described above.

As the exhibition’s introductory wall text offers, many of the innovations of today, from “driverless cars, smart phones, virtual reality – first appeared on screen”.

Gif: a leaping figure.
Bjork’s The Gate, Music video by Andrew Thomas Huang.
ACMI

From this perspective, this exhibition showcases a vision of the transformative power of screen culture for shaping the future. Throughout the exhibition, we are shown how screen productions of the past imagined the future, juxtaposed against contemporary creators speculating about futures they want to live in.

The environment and Indigenous cultures

Many of the works in the exhibition come from the Asia Pacific.

The fashion activist collective the Pacific Sisters celebrate Indigenous identities and mana wāhine (a concept from Māori culture in Aotearoa New Zealand that refers to the power, authority and prestige of women).

A black costume.
K; Tauleolevai: Keeper of the Water (Tuna) from The Pacific Sisters.
Lisa French

Their aim is to preserve culture through costume design and speculative storytelling.

Artwork that dramatically represents their sustainable approach is seen in Kaitiaki with a K; Tauleolevai: Keeper of the Water (Tuna).

There are three imposing fashion artworks, one made from VHS video tape. Due to a lack of materials, they recycled the tape, removing it from cassettes and plaiting it using a technique usually applied to palm leaves for making kikau brooms.

Videotape has its own qualities, shimmering in the light as if it were alive. This is a metaphor; VHS is considered obsolete but, as the wall text reminds us, in Māori and Pacific cultures, “the past lives in the present”.

Interactivity

The exhibition is mentally and physically interactive. It poses thought-provoking questions about our future selves, exploring how artificial intelligence will reshape cinema and whether screen culture predicts the future or merely reflects the fantasies and social realities of the era in which it is created.

It also has lots of interactive features from making posters to using the barcode on the entry ticket to capture things and take them home.

A woman leans over a table.
There are interactive experiences throughout the exhibition.
Eugene Hyland/ACMI

Visitors who’ve ever wondered what sci-fi renegades, afrofuturists, fashion activists, anarchonauts, Indigenous futurism, cyberpunks and screen culture have in common will be enlightened by the end of the show.

Each of these are woven into the story of the exhibition which has a positive message about how screen culture and environmental care can imagine and potentially create a future where human and nature thrive together.

It has something for audiences of all ages and will be a welcome cultural addition to the hot days of Melbourne’s forthcoming summer.

The Future & Other Fictions is at ACMI until April 27 2025.

The Conversation

RMIT is ACMI’s major research partner.

ref. At ACMI’s The Future & Other Fictions, artists challenge us to imagine a more optimistic world – https://theconversation.com/at-acmis-the-future-and-other-fictions-artists-challenge-us-to-imagine-a-more-optimistic-world-243911

You’re hot? I’m cold! Why our office temperature preferences can be vastly different to our colleagues’

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Moro, Associate Professor of Science & Medicine, Bond University

Kampus Productions/Pexels

As the weather warms up, offices are cranking up the air conditioning. But with such varying temperature preferences, where should you set the thermostat?

It may be an impossible task to find an optimal temperature that suits everyone. So why do we have such different temperature preferences? And does it affect more than our level of comfort?

Women tend to prefer a slightly warmer office

While there are always more similarities than differences between the sexes, women tend to feel the cold more than men.

A 2021 study of more than 38,000 participants found 38% of respondents were dissatisfied with the temperature of their office. Of those dissatisfied, women accounted for nearly two-thirds.

When asked, in other studies, the less satisfied women said they preferred warmer temperatures, while the less satisfied men would prefer a cooler office environment.

Although specifics vary, the optimal office temperature for women is often around 1°C higher than for men. One study reported the optimal temperature was 24.0°C for women and 23.2°C for men.

Can temperature affect your ability to work?

The room’s temperature can impact productivity. In warmer environments (above 25°C), men have been found to perform worse on maths and verbal tasks, while women performed worse on these tasks at cooler temperatures (below 25°C).

But on other tasks, temperature doesn’t appear to have an influence. Researchers found no difference to either gender’s performance on a number of cognitive tasks, such as cognitive reflection tests (where the questions are such that the intuitive answer is the wrong answer), or cognitive load tasks (where working memory is overloaded).

It is often proposed that concentration can be impacted by temperature, but this is not always the case.

When subjects (men and women) underwent a series of cognitive tasks, performance was not affected between 22°C (considered cold) and 25°C (considered hot) environments.

These researchers argued that maintaining a warmer temperature was optimal due to the environmental benefits and energy savings.

What’s behind gender temperature differences?

Hormones play a key role in our temperature preferences.

Testosterone causes more muscle development around the shoulders. Muscle generates heat, making men more likely to have warmer necks than women. This area is particularly sensitive to cool temperatures.

Oestrogen promotes and maintains different fat distributions in women, who tend to carry slightly more fat between the skin and muscles in a number of areas. This makes the skin feel cooler and drives a preference for slightly warmer temperatures.

Women also tend to have a lower metabolic rate (or slower metabolism) than men. This means women produce less heat and their bodies are more prone to feeling cold in cooler temperatures.

Women’s preferences can change from week to week

The menstrual cycle has a considerable influence on temperature preferences. After ovulation, the ovaries release more progesterone. This causes the body’s core temperature to warm by around 0.3–0.6°C. This means women will perceive the outside temperature as cooler than men, due to the larger thermal drop compared to their core temperatures.

Progesterone also helps conserve heat, diverting blood from the skin and into the organs. This means women’s hands, ears and feet may be up to 1-2°C colder than men’s. It’s harder to feel warm in a cool environment when your hands and feet are very cold.

At other times of the month, the opposite may be true. Oestrogen causes blood to flow to the skin, resulting in greater heat dissipation, and potential hot flushes.

During pregnancy and menopause, hormones change again, and can flow in different directions. This can cause a feeling of cold, but also hot flushes and transient increases in the sensation of warmth, where a cooler environment is far preferred.

This means some women may prefer a cooler temperature one week, then a warmer temperature the following.

What else impacts temperature preferences?

Overall, body size and composition has a strong influence on temperature preferences. As muscle generates heat, the more muscle mass we have the more heat we tend to generate, keeping us warmer.

The perception of temperature can also be impacted by many individual factors such as age, height and weight. Overweight body sizes are associated with a higher preference for a cooler environment.

Age can also affect thermoregulatory mechanisms, such as our body’s ability to sweat as well as noticing changes in the temperature. Children are also less likely to notice the cold than adults.

Of course, the sort of job a person does has an impact as well. The more you move around, the more heat you generate.

The dress code for the office also has an impact. If heavy business suits or formal attire is expected, a cooler environment may be more appropriate.

Ethnicity may also have an impact. When directly compared in one study, Asian participants reported being more comfortable in environments that were 5°C warmer than participants with European origins.

And lastly, we can’t overlook individual preference. Some people may have grown up in cool environments and simply be more used to the cold, and vice versa.

What about the environmental impact?

Heating and cooling can account for 20–50% of energy use in households and 40–70% of energy use in office buildings.

In summer, warmer office temperatures don’t use as much energy. In fact, energy use increases by 5–10% for each 1°C the temperature is lowered.

You don’t want to shut them down too much, though. Air conditioning systems also reduce humidity by removing moisture from the air, an important measure to prevent indoor mould growth.

With hormones that influence temperature preferences changing during the month, health status, body composition, individual experiences and age all playing a part, there may never be a one-size-fits-all approach to setting the office thermostat.

As such, it is recommended that staff are encouraged to have open conversations about the temperature, and for managers to listen to each member’s needs and be willing to change the thermostat where appropriate.

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. You’re hot? I’m cold! Why our office temperature preferences can be vastly different to our colleagues’ – https://theconversation.com/youre-hot-im-cold-why-our-office-temperature-preferences-can-be-vastly-different-to-our-colleagues-244184

3 reasons why kids stick Lego up their nose

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Girardi, Lecturer in Speech Pathology and Researcher at the Centre for Health Research, University of Southern Queensland

riekephotos/Shutterstock

Children, especially toddlers and preschoolers, have an uncanny ability to surprise adults. And one of the more alarming discoveries parents can make is their child has stuck a small object, such as a Lego piece, up their nose.

Queensland Children’s Hospital recently reported more than 1,650 children with foreign objects up their nose had presented to its emergency department over the past decade. Lego, beads, balls, batteries, buttons and crayons were among the most common objects.

With the Christmas season approaching, it’s likely more of these small objects will be brought into our homes as toys, gifts or novelty items.

But why do children stick things like these up their nose? Here’s how natural curiosity, developing motor skills, and a limited understanding of risk can be a dangerous combination.

1. Kids are curious creatures

Toddlers are naturally curious creatures. During the toddler and preschool years, children explore their environment by using their senses. They touch, taste, smell, listen to and look at everything around them. It’s a natural part of their development and a big part of how they learn about the world.

Researchers call this “curiosity-based learning”. They say children are more likely to explore unfamiliar objects or when they don’t completely understand how they work. This may explain why toddlers tend to gravitate towards new or unfamiliar objects at home.

Unfortunately, this healthy developmental curiosity sometimes leads to them putting things in places they shouldn’t, such as their nose.

2. Kids are great mimics

Young children often mimic what they see. Studies that tracked the same group of children over time confirm imitation plays a vital role in a child’s development. This activates certain critical neural pathways in the brain. Imitation is particularly important when learning to use and understand language and when learning motor skills such as walking, clapping, catching a ball, waving and writing.

Put simply, when a child imitates, it strengthens brain connections and helps them learn new skills faster. Anecdotally, parents of toddlers will relate to seeing their younger children copying older siblings’ phrases or gestures.

Inserting items into their nose is no different. Toddlers see older children and adults placing items near their face – when they blow their nose, put on makeup or eat – and decide to try it themselves.

Toddler holding a small bead
Kids see you placing items near your face, so they copy you in sometimes dangerous ways.
MDV Edwards/Shutterstock

3. Kids don’t yet understand risk

Toddlers might be curious. But they don’t have the cognitive capacity or reasoning ability to comprehend the consequences of placing items in their nose or mouth. This can be a dangerous combination. So supervising your toddler is essential.

Small, bright-coloured objects, items with interesting textures, or items that resemble food are especially tempting for little ones.

What can I do?

Sometimes, it’s obvious when a child has put something up their nose, but not always. Your child might have pain or itchiness around the nose, discharge or bleeding from the nose, and be upset or uncomfortable.

If your child has difficulty breathing or you suspect your child has inserted a sharp object or button battery seek immediate medical care. Button batteries can burn and damage tissues in as little as 15 minutes, which can lead to infection and injury.

If your child inserts an object where they shouldn’t:

  • stay calm: your child will react to your emotions, so try to remain calm and reassuring

  • assess the situation: can you see the object? Is your child in distress?

  • encourage your child to blow their nose gently. This may help dislodge the object

  • take your child outside in the Sun: brief exposure for a minute or two might prompt a “Sun sneeze”, which may dislodge the object. But avoid sniffing, which may cause the object to travel further in the airways and into the lungs

  • never try to remove the object yourself using tweezers, cotton swabs or other tools. This can push the object further into the nose, causing more damage.

If these methods don’t dislodge the item, your child is not distressed and you don’t suspect a sharp object or button battery, go to your GP. They may be able to see and remove the item.

Prevention is better

Preventing these incidents starts with keeping small, shiny, tempting objects out of reach of children, and teaching them not to place objects in their noses or mouths.

Supervision is key. Parents and caregivers can also be stringent about what they bring into their home. If there’s an alternative item, for example, a similar product that doesn’t need a button battery, consider buying that instead.

Curiosity is a hallmark of children and a key learning process in the early years. However, this curiosity, combined with a limited ability to identify danger, can be a risky combination. With awareness of the dangers, supervision, and appropriate action when incidents happen, parents can keep their children safe, while they explore the world.

The Conversation

Anna Girardi works for Ramsay Health Care and Food Solutions Diet Consultants as a speech pathologist. She is affiliated with Speech Pathology Australia.

ref. 3 reasons why kids stick Lego up their nose – https://theconversation.com/3-reasons-why-kids-stick-lego-up-their-nose-244729

The COVID inquiry report is an excellent guide to preparing for the next pandemic – health cuts put that at risk

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Baker, Professor of Public Health, University of Otago

Getty Images

The rising threat of epidemics and pandemics adds urgency for the government to act on the recommendations of the long-awaited inquiry into New Zealand’s COVID response.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 report found New Zealand – like most other countries – was not well prepared for a pandemic of COVID’s scale and duration.

To prepare for the next inevitable pandemic, the report says New Zealand must build public health capacity to increase the range of response options and tools available to decision makers.

The big question is when and how the government will implement these recommendations, particularly in the context of job cuts and downsizing of public health capacity.

Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ is set to cut 1,500 more jobs (on top of more than 500 voluntary redundancies), including positions in the national public health service and its digital and data teams.

These capabilities are critical for any future pandemic response, so there is a strong argument to halt the cuts while New Zealand is implementing the recommendations of the COVID inquiry.

Strategy is key

The report concludes that New Zealand’s adoption of an elimination strategy was highly successful, but had wide-ranging impacts on all aspects of life.

The strategy required early use of border controls, lockdowns and other restrictions which helped prevent widespread infection until most of the population was vaccinated. This response gave New Zealand one of the lowest COVID mortality rates globally.

The report also found that as the pandemic progressed into late 2021, the negative impacts increased. Controlling the pandemic was focused on mandates, including restrictions on public gatherings, quarantine and isolation, contact tracing, masking and vaccination requirements.

The effects included declining trust in government within some communities and loss of social cohesion. Vaccine hesitancy emerged as a growing challenge to the vaccine rollout, fed by exposure to misinformation and disinformation.

The prolonged pandemic and lack of a clear exit strategy from elimination added to the difficulties, according to the commission’s report.

Negative impacts: as the pandemic wore on the response became more challenging.
Getty Images

A road map for pandemic planning

The report identifies how COVID expanded international understanding of pandemic pathogens, which require a different kind of response from most other emergencies because of their scale and duration.

This challenge benefits from clear strategic leadership coupled with strong social cohesion and trust. Pandemics require anticipatory governance, and long-term planning and investment. This conclusion is consistent with those of the first published module from the UK’s COVID inquiry.

The report’s 39 recommendations provide a welcome and needed road map for future pandemic planning. It calls for a central agency function to coordinate all-of-government preparation and response planning for pandemics and other national threats, supported by strengthened scenario planning and modelling.

This planning would integrate sector-specific plans. The Ministry of Health would be responsible for the most substantial sector planning linked with the all-of-government plan.

This greatly expanded pandemic plan would set out a range of public health strategies (such as elimination, suppression and mitigation) and associated public health and social measures, as well as guidance on how they might be deployed.

The plan would cover quarantine and isolation measures, contact tracing, testing, vaccination, infection prevention and control, and information and data capability to deliver a pandemic response.

The recommendations also include improving the way public sector agencies work alongside iwi during a pandemic to support the Crown in its relationship with Māori under te Tiriti o Waitangi.

However, the report doesn’t say much about reducing the long-term effects of COVID infection, notably the large burden of long COVID. The pandemic is still continuing and ongoing vaccination and efforts to reduce infections remain important. This is an area where Australia’s COVID inquiry report had a stronger focus.

Challenges of implementation

The report’s final recommendation is critical. It calls for assigning a government minister to lead the implementation process, and for six-monthly reporting on progress to be made publicly available. This is where we need a clear response from the coalition government.

Implementation should begin immediately, the report proposes. However, it’s possible action could be delayed until the first half of 2026 while we wait for an additional phase 2 of the inquiry. This will review aspects of our COVID-19 response in greater detail.

But the major logistical barrier to implementation is the downsizing of key government agencies needed to do this work. The situation in New Zealand is in stark contrast with Australia where the release of their report coincided with an announcement of a A$251 million investment in establishing a national centre for disease control.

Building New Zealand’s pandemic capabilities would also help control the current pertussis epidemic and prevent a likely national measles epidemic.

Meanwhile, the risk of future pandemics is increasing. Modelling suggests an 18-26% chance of another COVID-magnitude pandemic within the next decade.

There is a long and growing list of infectious agents with pandemic potential. High on that list is influenza, with the risk from bird flu (influenza H5N1) increasing as it adapts to new mammalian hosts like cattle, and now humans in North America.

We have the plan, now all we need is a rapid government response, proactive leadership and anticipatory decision-making to give New Zealand the pandemic preparedness it urgently needs.

The Conversation

Michael Baker’s employer, the University of Otago, has received funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the New Zealand Ministry of Health for research he has carried out on COVID-19 epidemiology, prevention and control.

Amanda Kvalsvig’s employer, the University of Otago, has received funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the New Zealand Ministry of Health for research she has carried out on COVID-19 epidemiology, prevention and control..

Collin Tukuitonga and Nick Wilson 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 COVID inquiry report is an excellent guide to preparing for the next pandemic – health cuts put that at risk – https://theconversation.com/the-covid-inquiry-report-is-an-excellent-guide-to-preparing-for-the-next-pandemic-health-cuts-put-that-at-risk-244820

Politics with Michelle Grattan: Climate Change Authority head Matt Kean says ‘put more solar panels on commercial rooftops’

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

The just-ended COP-29 in Baku, and the election of Donald Trump, have put the global response to climate change in the spotlight. Meanwhile back home, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen this week reported Australia is on track to meet its 2030 target to reduce emissions as part of the Paris Climate Agreement.

But the government won’t say whether it will reveal its 2035 target before the election. It points out it is awaiting advice from the Climate Change Authority. The head of that authority, former New South Wales Liberal treasurer Matt Kean, joins the podcast to talk about COP, Australia’s energy transition, and the challenge of preparing that advice on the 2035 target.

Kean says COP left him more encouraged than he’d expected:

I arrived at COP incredibly pessimistic. It was on the back of Trump’s election victory where he basically called climate change a hoax. He said his energy policy was going to be “drill, baby, drill”. And it was clear that there was going to be an absence of American leadership in the climate discussion over the next four years. So, I arrived with not high hopes.

But I left optimistic and positive, and the reason for that is that this is the world’s most important climate conference. It’s the world’s biggest climate conference. It brings together people from all over the globe, be it governments at the national level or sub-national level, businesses, private enterprise, NGOs. And the message that I received from all those actors is, yes, there is a setback, but the effort required and the determination to continue the trajectory that we were on was very, very clear.

It’s an opportunity to collaborate and come up with new ways to solve this challenge. I mean, the world coming together in a global effort to limit global warming by 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels is one of the great challenges of our times. No country alone is going to solve it, and my message to your listeners is this: the fight for a cleaner, safer and better planet by tackling dangerous climate change is bigger than one election cycle in one country at one point in time.

Australia had hoped to get the nod during COP to host (together with Pacific countries) the 2026 COP but a decision has been deferred until June. Kean describes where things are up to and why it’s an important event not just for Australia’s reputation but also for its economy:

I was led to believe that there was a strong indication that other countries might pull out of the race. But clearly that didn’t happen. We arrived in Baku to hear the president of Turkey making a strong and forceful argument as to why Turkey should be the host of that COP. And I think that caught a few people by surprise, to be honest.

But […] hopefully, Australia will be chosen as the country that can host this world-class huge event which will bring lots of economic benefits.

Over 70,000 people descended on Baku. So, regardless of the importance of bringing people together to collaborate and try and solve this challenge, it is a huge economic boon for the city and the country that hosts it. I mean, I can’t think of many events that could attract 70,000 people to Australian shores.

On the Climate Change Authority’s progress report, released this week, Kean highlights a key opportunity for new renewable energy capacity:

Take, for example, one of the recommendations around using more business rooftops to meet our energy needs. Australia has the potential for an extra 28GW of solar capacity using the commercial and industrial rooftops of Australia. That’s bigger than the size of the New South Wales energy system alone.

[The Australian Energy Market Operator] predicts only 5% of the commercial and industrial customer demand will be met by rooftop solar and batteries and that’s compared to 50% for households. So we’ve got a huge opportunity to install more capacity into the grid, ensure that our system is more reliable and able to manage the exit of these unreliable coal fired power stations without adding a huge cost to consumers.

On when Australians will learn about our 2035 targets, and his authority’s advice on them, Kean says Australia will need to submit its targets before next year’s COP, but is coy about when the authority’s advice will be coming:

Let me firstly say what matters most is the quality of the target and the strength of the evidence and analysis that underpin it. So we want to give the Australian people confidence that Australia’s next target is ambitious, achievable and in our national interest.

As far as we’re aware, all countries intend to submit their next targets before the next climate conference in 2025. We will provide our advice in plenty of time for Australia to submit before then.

I’m not going to be rushed by domestic political timetables. I’m an independent voice in this process and as I said, what matters most is the quality of the target and the strength of the evidence and analysis that underpin it.

The Conversation

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

ref. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Climate Change Authority head Matt Kean says ‘put more solar panels on commercial rooftops’ – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-climate-change-authority-head-matt-kean-says-put-more-solar-panels-on-commercial-rooftops-244827

Drawing lines in the South China Sea: what Beijing’s new claims over a disputed coral reef mean

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yucong Wang, Lecturer, University of Newcastle

Earlier this month, China declared new “baselines” around Scarborough Reef, a large coral atoll topped by a handful of rocks barely above sea level in the South China Sea.

By doing so, China reaffirmed its sovereignty claim over what has become a global flashpoint in the disputed waters.

This was a pre-calculated response to the Philippines’ enactment of new maritime laws two days earlier that aimed to safeguard its own claims over the reef and other contested parts of the sea.

This legal tit-for-tat is a continuation of the ongoing sovereignty and maritime dispute between China and the Philippines (and others) in a vital ocean area through which one-third of global trade travels.

The Philippines rejected China’s declaration as a violation of its “long-established sovereignty over the shoal”. Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said:

What we see is an increasing demand by Beijing for us to concede our sovereign rights in the area.

As the tensions continue to worsen over these claims, there is an ever-increasing risk of an at-sea conflict between the two countries.

What is the Scarborough Reef?

Scarborough Reef is called Huangyan Dao in Chinese and Bajo de Masinloc by the Philippines. It is located in the northeast of the South China Sea, about 116 nautical miles (215km) west of the Philippine island of Luzon and 448 nautical miles (830km) south of the Chinese mainland.

Disputed claims in the South China Sea.
Author provided

At high tide it is reduced to a few tiny islets, the tallest of which is just 3 metres above the water. However, at low tide, it is the largest coral atoll in the South China Sea.

China asserts sovereignty over all of the waters, islands, rocks and other features in the South China Sea, as well as unspecified “historic rights” within its claimed nine-dash line. This includes Scarborough Reef.

In recent years, the reef has been the scene of repeated clashes between China and the Philippines. Since 2012, China has blocked Filipino fishing vessels from accessing the valuable lagoon here. This prompted the Philippines to take China to international arbitration under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 2013.

Three years later, an arbitration tribunal ruled that China has no historic rights to maritime areas where this would conflict with UNCLOS. The tribunal also concluded China had “unlawfully prevented Filipino fishermen from engaging in traditional fishing at Scarborough Shoal.”

China refused to participate in the arbitration case and has strongly rejected its ruling as being “null and void” and having “no binding force”.

What did China do this month?

China declared the exact location of the base points of its territorial claim around Scarborough Reef with geographical coordinates (longitude and latitude), joined up by straight lines.

China’s new baselines claims at the Scarborough Reef.
Author provided

The declaration of so-called “baselines” is standard practice for countries that want to claim maritime zones along their coasts. Baselines provide the starting point for measuring these zones.

A country’s “territorial sea” is measured from this baseline outward to as far as 12 nautical miles (22km). Under the UNCLOS treaty, a country then has full sovereignty rights over this zone, covering the seabed, water, airspace and any resources located there.

Countries want their baselines to be as far out to sea as possible so they can maximise the ocean areas over which they can reap economic benefits and enforce their own laws.

China is no exception. Along with other countries (especially in Asia), it draws the most generous baselines of all – straight baselines. These can connect distant headlands or other coastal outcrops with a simple straight line, or even enclose nearshore islands.

China is especially fond of straight baselines. In 1996, it drew them along most of its mainland coast and around the Paracel Islands, a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. China defined additional straight baselines this March in the Gulf of Tonkin up to its land border with Vietnam.

China says these actions comply with UNCLOS. However, its use of straight baselines around Scarborough Reef conflicts with international law. This is because UNCLOS provides a specific rule for baselines around reefs, which China did not follow.

Based on our review of satellite imagery, however, China has only advanced the outer limit of its territorial sea by a few hundred metres in two directions. This is because its straight baselines largely hug the edge of the reef.

These new baselines around Scarborough Reef are therefore fairly conservative and enclose a dramatically smaller area than the US had feared.

China’s declaration signals that it may have abandoned its much larger “offshore archipelago” claim to what it calls the Zhongsha Islands.

China has long asserted that Scarborough Reef is part of this larger island group, which includes the Macclesfield Bank, a totally underwater feature 180 nautical miles (333 km) to the west. This led to concern that Beijing might draw a baseline around this entire island group, claiming all the waters within exclusively for its use.

The South China Sea arbitration tribunal ruled that international law prohibits such claims. There will be a collective sigh of relief among many countries that China decided to make a much smaller claim over Scarborough Reef.

Significance and future steps?

However, China’s clarification of its baselines around the reef signals it may be more assertive in its law enforcement here.

The China Coast Guard has said it will step up patrols in the South China Sea to “firmly uphold order, protect the local ecosystem and biological resources and safeguard national territorial sovereignty and maritime rights”.

Given the long history of clashes related to fishing access around Scarborough Reef, this sets the scene for more confrontation.

And what about the biggest prize of all in the South China Sea – the Spratly Islands?

We can now expect China will continue its long straight baselines march to this island group to the south. The Spratlys are an archipelago of more than 150 small islands, reefs and atolls spread out over around 240,000 square kilometres of lucrative fishing grounds. They are claimed by China, as well as the Philippines and several other countries.

These countries can be expected to protest any attempted encirclement of the Spratly Islands by new Chinese baselines.

The Conversation

Clive Schofield served as an independent expert witness appointed by the Philippines in the South China Sea arbitration case.

Warwick Gullett and Yucong Wang 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. Drawing lines in the South China Sea: what Beijing’s new claims over a disputed coral reef mean – https://theconversation.com/drawing-lines-in-the-south-china-sea-what-beijings-new-claims-over-a-disputed-coral-reef-mean-244197

The Reserve Bank will now have a separate board just to set interest rates. Here’s why that’s significant

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

On Thursday night, after a whirlwind day in Canberra, the Senate finally passed the federal government’s long-delayed amendments to the Reserve Bank Act.

The reforms will create two separate boards for the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) – one will be focused on monetary policy, the other on governance.

The idea of having two boards emerged from a landmark independent review of the Reserve Bank, which reported back in March last year.

But only a couple of months ago, such reforms were feared “dead” after the government had failed to strike a deal with either the Coalition or the Greens.

The government’s stunning recent turnaround – which required it to make some concessions – will have important implications for the way the Reserve Bank operates.

Whether it will ultimately translate to different kinds of monetary policy decisions is less clear.




Read more:
Grattan on Friday: Albanese gets down and dirty in deal making and breaking as Senate rushes to Christmas finish


What will the new board look like?

Under the reforms, the current functions of the Reserve Bank board will be split across two new boards.

The first will be a specialist monetary policy board, dedicated to setting the “target for the cash rate”. This is the interest rate on overnight loans between banks.

Controlling this rate is how the Reserve Bank affects the interest rates charged by banks to households and businesses, and how it exerts its influence on the economy.

Like the current board, the new monetary policy board would have nine members. These would include a governor, deputy governor, treasury secretary and six external members.

Creating this board was a key recommendation of the 2023 review. It would bring the RBA into line with some other central banks, such as the Bank of England.

There is no evidence, however, that having a separate board has led to a superior performance.

Monetary policy experts

Monetary policy board members are likely to be selected for being monetary policy experts, rather than corporate executives and other non-economists.

The six external members will not be RBA staff, public servants or bankers. But they will be expected to spend the equivalent of a day a week on monetary policy considerations.

This is a significant time commitment, meaning it may be difficult to find qualified outsiders who are willing to perform the role.

That’s led some commentators, including former Reserve Bank board member John Edwards, to suggest the board risks becoming dominated by academics.

The other board will concentrate on governance and operational issues, such as staffing decisions, premises, IT and so on. It will be more like the board of a company.

Splitting off monetary policy decisions from this board may mean governance matters get more attention.

Why create a separate board?

It’s important to understand why the government had been pursuing these reforms in the first place.

One key argument that emerged from the independent review of the Reserve Bank was the board wasn’t challenging the governor enough on interest rate decisions – that it was simply “rubber-stamping” decisions.

That would be a problem if true, because providing quality scrutiny is supposed to be one of the board’s key roles.

According to the review’s final report, the board had:

not voted against a recommendation of the RBA executive in at least the last decade.

It said the board was “not always fully involved in decisions” and there was a need to “shift the nature of the board from what is in effect an advisory body to one that proactively shapes policy decisions”.

Differing views

That assertion was soon challenged, however, by then-Governor Philip Lowe, who said in April 2023:

The idea that the board members sit there meekly and accept the recommendation that I put to them is very far from the reality that I’ve lived as the governor.

Recent board member Mark Barnaba echoed Lowe’s sentiment, reflecting:

In my experience, the way this board operates is diametrically opposed to a simple rubber-stamping.

It is difficult to be definitive on this. We have not been in the room during the board’s deliberations – but neither had the review panel members.

It is therefore hard to know just how much the proposed changes will reduce the influence of the RBA governor and staff.

Under the current system, there have not been formal votes on the RBA board. But this does not necessarily mean the governor always gets their way. They may just not bring to the table a recommendation likely to be rejected.

Would a separate board have made a difference earlier?

Australia’s target cash rate has now been held at 4.35% for over a year, its highest level since 2011. That begs the question: if we’d had a separate specialist board of experts earlier on, would we have a different cash rate?

One way of assessing how much difference a panel of monetary policy specialists might have made is to look at the record of the nine-person “RBA shadow board”.

This was established by the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis. Since 2011, it has been asked to report on what it thinks that the RBA should do. This is distinct from market economists, who concentrate on predicting what it will do.

In 105 out of 130 instances, it has made the same recommendation as that adopted by the actual board.

The average difference between the cash rate target set by the RBA and that suggested by the economists on the shadow board was less than 0.05%.

This would support the conjecture by academics Ross Garnaut and David Vines and journalist John Kehoe that had the separate boards been in place, recent policy settings would not have been very different.

Employment and inflation outcomes would likely to have been similar, too.

What had to be dropped?

To get the legislation through the Senate, the government had to drop two suggestions from the review. One was a proposal to remove the ability of the treasurer to overrule the RBA.

It is important to note this veto has existed in central bank legislation since 1945. It was introduced by a Labor government and retained by the subsequent Coalition government.

But it has never been used, despite having been considered on some occasions. In each case, one side backed off or a compromise was reached between the government and the Reserve Bank.

Actually exercising it would likely come at a large political cost to the government of the day. But that doesn’t automatically mean it shouldn’t be available.

There is a democratic principle around whether a central bank should be able to exercise total “unelected power”.

Back in the 1930s, the chair (this was before the governor became the ex officio chair) of the Commonwealth Bank (the Reserve Bank’s predecessor), arguably exacerbated the Great Depression by refusing to help the Scullin Labor government fund public works.

Another abandoned recommendation was to a plan to remove the Reserve Bank’s power to direct lending policies of banks.

This power has not been used for decades and is highly unlikely to be revived for monetary policy purposes.

Some other changes suggested by the review did not require legislation and have already been implemented.

The Conversation

John Hawkins was formerly a senior economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Selwyn Cornish is the Official Historian, Reserve Bank of Australia.

ref. The Reserve Bank will now have a separate board just to set interest rates. Here’s why that’s significant – https://theconversation.com/the-reserve-bank-will-now-have-a-separate-board-just-to-set-interest-rates-heres-why-thats-significant-244833

A new model accurately predicts the migration of humpback whales – and may help them survive climate change

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jasper de Bie, Research Fellow, Coastal and Marine Research Centre, Griffith University

A humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). SasinTipchai/Shutterstock

This year’s humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) season in Australia has almost come to an end. The beloved mammals are on their way to Antarctica for a summer of feeding. Next year from April onwards, millions of people will again witness their movements and acrobatic displays – either from the coast or by joining one of the hundreds of whale-watch boat operators.

But as much as we like to watch humpback whales, we still know very little about them. They are notoriously difficult to study in the field. While they are known for their surface activities, they spend most of their time underwater and outside the range of direct observations.

One of the biggest mysteries of all is how these animals make decisions to determine what they do and where they go.

This is where our new research, published in Marine Mammal Science today, comes in. We developed a model which effectively captures key humpback whale behaviours and their resulting southward migratory movements in east Australia. It can help anticipate challenges whales may face in the future. In turn, it may aid efforts to better conserve these majestic animals.

A comeback

Following the end of commercial whaling, the worldwide recovery of humpback whale populations has been very successful. In Australia, the species was removed from the threatened species list in 2022.

However, scientists fear the effects of climate change may now be the biggest threat to their survival.

Our previous research examined which environmental factors matter in humpback whale ecology. For instance, while water temperature may have little impact in the cold Antarctic waters, breeding grounds further north that are too warm could drive humpback whales to seek better conditions elsewhere.

Currently we rely on satellite tags to inform us of their large-scale whereabouts. But unfortunately, this provides little information on humpback whale activities on a smaller scale, such as how they socialise, hunt, or react to specific conditions.

Humpback whales migrate throughout the year between Antarctica and northern Australia.
NPWS/DPIE

Movements through space and time

To address this, we turned to computer models, as these can deal with scarce or inconsistently collected data. In particular, “agent-based” models are designed to capture the behavioural response of an agent (in this case, a pod consisting of a humpback whale mother and one calf) to the environmental conditions they encounter. Based on this information, the models then project movements through space and time.

We developed the first such model to simulate migratory movements of humpback whale mother and calf pods between the Great Barrier Reef and the Gold Coast bay. Along this route is Hervey Bay, an important resting area due to its calm and sheltered waters, where the pairs may stay for up to a few weeks before continuing migration.

As humpback whales are almost always sighted in waters between 15 and 200 metres deep and below 28°C, we took a simple yet reasonable approach where we assumed they avoided waters too shallow, deep, or warm as they swam southwards.

This “avoidance” response would be similar to us going indoors when it is too hot outside or raining heavily: a simple decision to move away from somewhere we are not comfortable.

The model is designed to capture the movement of a humpback mother and calf pod.
Michael Smith ITWP/Shutterstock

A combo of current and swimming speed

To estimate how fast whales were moving, we combined the speed of the current with an estimate of real-world swimming speeds by migrating mother and calf pairs along the Gold Coast.

Our simulations accurately predict the routes taken by migrating mother and calf pairs but point to a change in direction after Hervey Bay so whales remain close to the coastline.

Other research has shown that this “distance to shore” is an important variable to consider when studying humpback whales.

Results also highlight the importance of water depth when entering Hervey Bay and ensuring the whales avoid getting too close to shore or into the deep ocean.

A tool for conservation

What the model does less well is accurately predict travel time between the Great Barrier Reef and the Gold Coast bay.

There are a few reasons why this may be the case. For example, the aforementioned underwater movements and associated behaviours are difficult to capture and convert into meaningful components of our model. Research has started to reveal detailed dive profiles but is time consuming and expensive.

We also assume that swimming speed remains more or less constant over time regardless of whether it is day or night. However, research into daily activity patterns has, so far, focused primarily on feeding and mating behaviours rather than variations in swimming speed.

Nevertheless, the current version of our model provides a suitable framework for simulating humpback whale migration and can be expanded to investigate a response of this species to future changes in ocean conditions. In theory, it can be applied to other marine species too, as long as relevant behavioural response data is available.

The development of such predictive models is increasingly important to aid conservation efforts and guide effective strategies for protecting vulnerable species affected by climate change.

Jasper de Bie receives funding from from a private charitable trust as part of the Whales & Climate Program at Griffith University

ref. A new model accurately predicts the migration of humpback whales – and may help them survive climate change – https://theconversation.com/a-new-model-accurately-predicts-the-migration-of-humpback-whales-and-may-help-them-survive-climate-change-244396

After the hīkoi, the challenge: the Treaty principles debate and an honest reckoning with history

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Salmond, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Māori Studies, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

Getty Images

After the hīkoi, the haka, the flags and the tumult, what next?

In the absence of obvious answers, a thoughtful and respectful discussion about te Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi would be timely, to help guide us into the future.

How can that be managed, however? Like any debate, it will be characterised by differences of opinion, within te ao Māori (the Māori world) as well as beyond it.

How those differences are handled will be vital. And that is the challenge facing the Justice Select Commmittee, now calling for submissions (closing January 7) on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill.

Diversity and consensus

Aotearoa New Zealand has always been diverse, from the arrival of the first star navigators from different islands in the Pacific, and the migration of different hapū or kin groups around the country, to the arrival of settlers from Europe and elsewhere.

When te Tiriti was signed in 1840, each rangatira (chief), official or missionary who spoke at Waitangi, Mangungu, Kaitaia or elsewhere had their own views about its virtues and weaknesses, its promises and dangers.

Despite that, in 1840 they were able to reach a consensus, on the speaking grounds and beyond. Most of the rangatira who engaged in the debates in fact signed te Tiriti.

Various settlers, missionaries and officials were also involved in these discussions, although their exchanges among themselves and with Governor William Hobson are less well documented.

In 1840, the population was small, perhaps 80,000 tangata māori (indigenous inhabitants) and about 2,050 settlers. It was highly cosmopolitan, with many people (including tangata māori) coming and going to and from other parts of the world.

It was also diverse because not all settlers came from the United Kingdom. By 1840, people from many different parts of the world were living in New Zealand.

No mention of ‘race’ in te Tiriti

The key parties to te Tiriti o Waitangi were the queen of England and her representative, the kāwana or governor, the settlers, the rangatira with their hapū, and ngā tangata māori o Nu Tirani (the indigenous inhabitants of New Zealand).

(In Te Tiriti, the term “māori” is used throughout as an adjective, meaning normal, everyday or, in this context, indigenous. Those who came from England were “ngā tangata o Ingarani”.)

In 1840, the relationships among the various rangatira, hapū and indigenous inhabitants were defined by kinship, not “race” – a colonial concept with no scientific validity and a terrible history, associated with slavery, genocide and other atrocities.

Whānau (extended families) and hapū were highly flexible, with membership being limited by practical commitment as well as descent from a shared ancestor.

These kin groups included those who married in, so long as they contributed to the life of the group. By 1840, some of those who had married in had arrived from outside New Zealand.

Some new arrivals later became the founders of kin groups that were named after them, although their different countries of origin were also remembered – the Manueras, the O’Regans and the Jacksons, for example.

In addition to their kin groups, individuals were identified by their papa kāinga or places of origin, as marked by ancestral mountains and rivers.

The queen was also identified in this same way, by her country of origin, as “Te Kuini o Ingarani” – the Queen of England. This is the idea of “tangata whenua” in action – person and place intertwined. Again, there is no mention of “race” anywhere in te Tiriti.

Many voices, many views: reconstruction of the Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi by Marcus King, 1939.
Archives New Zealand, CC BY-SA

What the Treaty articles say

In te Tiriti o Waitangi, each of the parties – queen, kāwana, settlers, each of the rangatira with their hapū, and ngā tangata māori o Nu Tirani – had their own mana.

In the Preamble and Ture/Article 1 of te Tiriti, the rangatira gave the queen, absolutely and forever, the right to appoint a kāwana as a “kai whakarite” (literally, one who makes things equal) to introduce kāwanatanga (governance) and ture (laws) to bring about peace and tranquil living across their lands.

In Ture/Article 2, the queen promised each of the rangatira with their hapū and members that she will uphold the tino rangatiranga (independence) of their lands, dwelling places and all of their ancestral treasures.

This was not a gift, but a recognition of their preexisting rights and duties as tangata whenua (literally, land people) in their own territories.

In Ture/Article 3, in return for the gift of kāwanatanga, the queen promised to protect ngā tangata māori of New Zealand, and give to them “ngā tikanga rite tahi” – absolute equality as persons – with her subjects, the inhabitants of England.

This is a multilateral, rather than a bilateral agreement. In the process of signing te Tiriti, each rangatira and hapū (and their members) retained their tino rangatiratanga, qualified only by their agreement to the exercise of the kāwanatanga of the queen.

They have done so ever since, in the Northern War and the Land Wars, for instance, when some hapū fought for and some against the settler government, and in the modern Treaty settlement process.

Breaking an agreement

So, what does this mean in the 21st century? How can these relationships best be reflected in contemporary constitutional arrangements?

How can we achieve a way forward that weaves us together as New Zealanders, rather than divides us? What kind of process would be wise and fair?

Unfortunately, the Treaty Principles bill starts the debate off on the wrong foot.

Most New Zealanders, I think, would agree that if one party to any agreement – the sale of a house, an employment contract or a divorce settlement, for example – is allowed to alter its terms without reference to the other party or parties, that would be fundamentally unfair.

That is exactly what has happened in the bill, however. Its terms have been drawn up by one party, the Crown – and in reality, by ACT, a small political party with only 8.6% of the vote at the last election – and without the backing of the rest of the coalition government.

The other parties to te Tiriti, the various rangatira and their hapū whose tino rangatiratanga is at stake, and whose members with their tikanga were promised absolute equality with the incoming settlers, have been excluded from having any say about the terms of the bill, and how these change the terms of the original agreement.

Most New Zealanders, if they’d signed an agreement in good faith, would be furious to find the other party was trying to unilaterally change its terms in their own favour. In most situations, that would not only be unfair, it would also be illegal.

If in the process, they were accused of seeking special treatment for themselves, when they were simply trying to uphold the terms of the original agreement, they’d be bitterly angry and upset.

As for individuals, so for groups. As we can see from other countries where different groups are set against each other in this kind of way, whether by “race”, ethnicity or religion, this is dangerous, and the outcomes are generally catastrophic.

Terms and conditions: the hīkoi to protest the Treaty principles bill arrives at parliament, November 19.
Getty Images

Seeking consensus

Rather than letting ourselves be polarised into hostile camps, it would be wiser for New Zealanders to regard diversity as a strength, to think of what’s fair for others as well as ourselves, and to weave ourselves together.

To do this, there are a few questions we might ask ourselves.

For instance, what is the debate over te Tiriti really about? Is it really about democracy and the rights of ordinary New Zealanders? Or is it, as has been argued elsewhere, about removing impediments to the privatisation of public assets and projects that might be subject to Treaty claims?

If in Te Tiriti the queen of England solemnly promised each of the rangatira and their hapū and its members te tino rangatiratanga (independence) of their lands, dwelling places and ancestral treasures, and in return they agreed to her kāwanatanga (governance), is it wise, fair or even legal to unilaterally try to redefine that agreement?

If each of the rangatira and their hapū have a measure of autonomy under te Tiriti, how might that work? What might the relationship between tino rangatiratanga and kāwanatanga look like in the 21st century?

How can a consensus fairly be sought on these questions?

If the queen of England promised ngā tangata māori “ngā tikanga rite tahi” (absolute equality) with her subjects, the incoming settlers, has that promise been kept?

If the answer is yes, how can one explain all the negative statistics for Māori in health, education, justice and the economy that demonstrate fundamental inequities at present?

If the answer is no, and the queen’s promise has been broken, how can this situation best be remedied?

Do the promises of tino rangatiratanga and ngā tikanga rite tahi suggest the rangatira, hapū and ngā tangata māori should have a significant say about what approaches are most likely to be effective?

Above all, perhaps, if roles were reversed and the descendants of settlers were the descendants of the rangatira and their hapū – or vice versa – how would they like to be treated?

Perhaps the select committee, under National MP James Meager’s leadership, can help answer these questions.

That will only happen, however, if its members can rise above party politics, attend to the evidence, and work together to promote peace (rongo), tranquil living (ata noho) and the absolute equality (nga tikanga rite tahi) Queen Victoria promised in 1840.

Anne Salmond 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. After the hīkoi, the challenge: the Treaty principles debate and an honest reckoning with history – https://theconversation.com/after-the-hikoi-the-challenge-the-treaty-principles-debate-and-an-honest-reckoning-with-history-244806

Upsurge of post-riots violence against women in New Caledonia, says advocate

By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

Figures for violence against women in New Caledonia have increased due to the post-riots crisis, according to local NGO SOS Violences president Anne-Marie Mestre.

Mestre has told local news media that the recent upsurge was mainly due to the riots over independence that broke out on May 13, which resulted in a rising number of jobless people due to the destruction by arson and looting of more 600 businesses.

She stressed that all ethnic communities in New Caledonia were affected by domestic violence and that the trend existed even before the riots-triggered crisis.

New Caledonia’s domestic violence statistics are 2.5 times higher than in mainland France.

In 2023, 3012 cases were reported in the French Pacific territory, a staggering increase of some 91 percent compared to 2019, the French Auditor-General’s office reported in its latest survey published in April 2024.

New Caledonia’s curfew extended to December 2
Meanwhile, New Caledonia’s curfew introduced after the rioting remains in place until December 2, according to the latest advisory from the French High Commission.

The restrictions still include the curfew per se from midnight to 5am, and most notably the ban on transportation, possession and sale of firearms and ammunition.

Public meetings remain banned in the Greater Nouméa Area and will be maintained until December 20, when the ban will be re-assessed with a possible relaxation just before Christmas.

Although opening hours for the sale of alcohol have now returned to normal, the authorised quantity per person per day remains controlled — up to four litres of beer (under 10 percent alcohol), or two litres of wine (10 to 22 percent), or one litre of spirits (above 22 percent).

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Trans youth are already among Australia’s most marginalised people. The social media ban could make this worse

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Hickey-Moody, Professor of Intersectional Humanities, Maynooth, National University of Ireland, RMIT University

Shutterstock

I’m not sure if you remember Kaitlyn and Leah […] they are social media famous and they’re a couple. That was the first time I’d seen representation in a positive way, ‘cause of my dad being so conservative about it […] And then I just saw a happy couple together. And I was like this actually doesn’t seem like the terrible thing that I am taught it is, you know.
– Sam

This quote is taken from a recent interview one of us (Anna) conducted with a trans teen living in Melbourne. It was the beginning of what turned out to be a detailed learning journey highlighting the role of internet access in trans youths’ education – and the importance of Instagram in creating safe spaces for them.

The Albanese government has passed a bill that will introduce a minimum age of 16 for most social media platforms, in a bid to protect children from social harm.

But our research has found social media platforms can play a very specific and much-needed role in the lives of Australia’s transgender youth, who face significantly higher rates of suicide and mental health challenges compared with their cisgender peers.

Transgender youth have symptoms of depression at nearly ten times the rate of the general young population, and anxiety disorders at ten to 13 times the average rate. A 2021 study also found nearly half of Australia’s transgender individuals had attempted suicide at some point in their lives.

Poor mental health is not inherent to trans people; it is caused by experiences of societal hostility, stigma, discrimination and a lack of support. Their wellbeing can be significant improved through supportive environments and access to appropriate resources.

Social media can be a lifeline for trans youth

Sam is a university student who lives at home with mum and dad. They have been brought up in a highly conservative Christian environment and speak a lot about their father campaigning against the gay marriage plebiscite.

Sam grew up being told – and believing – that being gay was a sin. They also had no formal education about being transgender. Like so many other young people, they learned about being trans through peer networks and online exploration. As Sam explains:

After somebody had told me their [gender/pronoun] label, I was like what is a label? So I googled it, and I was like what are all these labels? And that’s how I learnt it. And then I also tried to memorise it. I kind of know a lot of them off by heart by now. That’s how the internet has kind of guided me to it.

Sam’s choice to memorise the various gender identities beyond male and female goes some way to explain how important this information was to them.

While exploring their most positive life experiences, Sam focused almost entirely on Instagram accounts. They explained how various pages helped them learn about gender and sexuality and how the transgender accounts they followed helped boost their confidence.

Instagram is Sam’s safe and happy place of belonging. In contrast, Sam struggled – even with significant encouragement – to list happy “offline” places.

Sam’s story is just one of several examples that emerged from our research on how online platforms function as vital safe spaces for trans youth growing up in conservative religious households — which are often hostile to their identities.

Through virtual communities, many young people can navigate their faith while also exploring their gender identity. Online, they can find support networks and access mental health resources that would otherwise be unavailable.

A host of challenges

The government’s legislation will prevent people under 16 from creating accounts on sites such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. But social media experts have raised concerns that this may cause more harm than good.

Many have raised questions about what platforms will be included in the ban, and how “high-risk” platforms will be differentiated from exempt “low-risk” ones.

The ban’s feasibility has also been challenged, as young people may find workarounds to continue accessing banned platforms. Some experts have even said the ban may be unconstitutional.

While these legislative moves to regulate social media seem well-intentioned, they risk cutting off a vital lifeline for trans youth. These young people need nuanced policies that will support them, rather than isolate them.

For the trans youth we speak to, social media sites can be healthy and life-giving spaces – and they ought to be kept available.

The Conversation

Anna Hickey-Moody receives funding from the Australian Research Council. This article arises from research that is funded through Discovery Project DP220100159 ‘Youth, religion and sexuality: digital media, school cultures, exemptions’.

Lizzie Maughan 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. Trans youth are already among Australia’s most marginalised people. The social media ban could make this worse – https://theconversation.com/trans-youth-are-already-among-australias-most-marginalised-people-the-social-media-ban-could-make-this-worse-244657

How sharing stories about river restoration can inspire others to take care of waterways

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katharina Doehring, Freshwater Scientist, Cawthron Institute

Blair Reid, CC BY-SA

Water is the lifeblood of our planet. But in Aotearoa New Zealand, a staggering two-thirds of the rivers monitored for water quality are classified as unswimmable. Only 2% of large lakes are deemed to be in “good health”.

Unfortunately, this decline is due to the human impacts of urbanisation, intensive agriculture and poor land management. Many communities that depend on freshwater sources have witnessed this deterioration firsthand.

To address this critical issue, numerous catchment care groups have emerged over the past decade, championing sustainable land management to enhance the health of New Zealand’s rivers, lakes, aquifers and wetlands.

These groups engage in activities such as planting native vegetation along waterways, erecting fences to keep livestock at bay and altering farming practices to be more environmentally friendly. Many people care deeply about the land and water, and their intricate, collective knowledge is a powerful force for change.

Collective storytelling as a tool for freshwater restoration

Over the past few years, we have been listening to these communities and exploring a tool that might elevate their efforts and empower those who haven’t yet started on their river restoration journey. It’s a simple and ancient tool rooted deeply in human history and embedded in our social identities today: collective storytelling by trusted storytellers.

Rural communities, including food producers, identify with trusted peers. When they share their experiences, others can learn from them. We saw that this kind of trust motivates people to get involved in caring for waterways, for the benefit of generations to come. It is independent of changing governments and policies, and grows stronger when passionate people come together, united by their shared sense of place.

Our research highlighted an absence of collective storytelling in national freshwater restoration efforts and pioneered a way to develop this at scale.

Stream running through a paddock
Storytelling can help restoration projects of rivers, lakes, wetlands and aquifers.
Blair Reid, CC BY-SA

To this end, we have been working with the Land Air Water Aotearoa (LAWA) environmental reporting platform. Communities can now share their restoration knowledge as “Actions for Healthy Waterways” in the form of stories. Beyond reporting facts and figures alone, stories represent more meaningful narratives that others striving for healthy waterways can relate to.

We interviewed 23 land managers and met with five catchment care groups across Aotearoa New Zealand. We discussed why knowledge sharing is important, how knowledge should be shared and who may be best placed as knowledge brokers.

Based on those conversations, we highlight three guiding principles of collective storytelling that can enhance the restoration of rivers, lakes, wetlands and aquifers.

1. Respected storytellers

Trust is crucial. It influences who is believed and who inspires action. When peers share their experiences, particularly farmers discussing restoration efforts, collective responsibility is created and drives others to participate.

One food producer encapsulated this sentiment, noting:

If you start creating that collective responsibility, then you can go, ‘Oh yeah, you’ve put a hundred [trees in] – we’ll do a hundred, too.

Catchment champions – locally respected individuals who are driving restoration activities and encouraging others – are immensely important in amplifying these stories. We found authentic storytellers could be individuals or an entire catchment group, as long as they held this trust.

In the New Zealand context we would say they had the mana (authority, prestige, status, charisma). One participant shared:

I’m a newcomer, so I was learning what’s gone well and what works. I don’t want to make someone else’s mistake, I can’t afford to already, so if I go “Oh this works well”, I will do that, too.

2. Authenticity in storytelling

The content of stories is as vital as the tellers. It needs to be genuine and honest.

Catchment care groups emphasised that restoration stories need to include failures as well as successes. Celebrating successes, like the return of a fish species, while also acknowledging challenges, such as vegetation die-off, creates a more genuine narrative. This unconditional storytelling fosters connection through shared experiences.

As one participant highlighted:

It is important to share what we know about land management and restoration: the things that worked and the things that didn’t work.

A young child standing among newly planted trees on farmland
Many farmers want to leave a better environment for their children.
Blair Reid, CC BY-SA

3. Future generations motivate action

The motivation behind restoration efforts is a crucial aspect of knowledge sharing.

Our research shows that rural communities expressed a profound responsibility to act triggered by a concern for future generations.

Farmers frequently voiced a desire to leave rivers in better condition for their children and grandchildren, saying:

We acknowledge that we are only passing through, so that whatever we do now should have long lasting impacts for our children.

This inter-generational perspective fosters a long-term commitment to restoration. While our study participants were Pākehā (New Zealanders of European ancestry), this view aligns well with kaitiakitanga, the integral Māori principle of environmental stewardship. It illustrates a shared deep sense of responsibility for future generations.

Given that reversing damage to freshwater systems will require sustained effort over time, collective storytelling that emphasises inter-generational goals helps cultivate patience and resilience within communities. It also possibly avoids disappointment when improvements are not seen as quickly as hoped.

We advocate for the broader integration of collective storytelling as a valuable strategic tool in restoring the health of waterways globally. At the same time, we emphasise that restoration is only one part of improving freshwater health.

Substantial changes in land use will also be needed in New Zealand and elsewhere to prevent further degradation. Authentic, local and collective storytelling can help both the transition in land use and restoration.

The Conversation

Katharina Doehring receives funding from MBIE, MFE and MPI. She is affiliated with the Motueka Catchment Collective (Steering Group member), Wai Connection (Governance Group member), New Zealand Advisory Group for Freshwater Citizen Science (member), Freshwater Champions Awards (Judge).

Cathy Cole is affiliated with the Graduate School of the Environment, at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales. She is a former Lecturer in Science Communication at the University of Otago in New Zealand.

Nancy Longnecker receives funding from MBIE, Marsden, Health Research Council, and Lotteries Environmental Heritage. She is a member of the Green Party. Before her work as a practicing and academic science communicator, she conducted research on nutrient efficiency in agriculture.

ref. How sharing stories about river restoration can inspire others to take care of waterways – https://theconversation.com/how-sharing-stories-about-river-restoration-can-inspire-others-to-take-care-of-waterways-241359

A tax on new plastic would slash waste – if built into the global treaty on plastics

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amelia Leavesley, Research Fellow in Urban Sustainability, The University of Melbourne

Mohamed Abdulraheem/Shutterstock

Earlier this week, the mining magnate Andrew Forrest made headlines calling for a global “polymer premium” – or plastic tax – to be placed on every tonne of newly manufactured plastics. A tax like this could form part of the Global Plastic Treaty being hammered out right now in Busan, South Korea. In fact, a treaty aimed at stopping plastic waste will have to have strong measures such as a plastic tax or a cap on plastic production to shift the status quo.

In economics, taxing things you don’t want should mean fewer get made. What Forrest is pitching is a way to curb the seemingly unstoppable rise in plastic production and tackle the plastic waste crisis at its source. While we may think recycling is all we need to solve the plastic waste problem, it’s nowhere near enough. Plastic is steadily choking seas and rivers, while toxic microplastics damage our health.

Forrest isn’t the first. Environmental groups and think tanks are also calling for a global tax on plastic producers and importers.

Many plastic products are designed to last for a long time. But manufacturers are increasingly churning out cheap plastics such as single-use items and food packaging which almost inevitably become waste.

Introducing a tax would add an additional cost to making virgin (new) plastic, to deter manufacturers from producing and selling as much non-recyclable and non-reuseable products as possible. If introduced, they would go some way to cut the overproduction of plastic.

What would a plastic treaty do?

Over this week and next, negotiators from more than 170 United Nations member states are working towards a Global Plastic Treaty at the fifth and final set of talks.

Work on this treaty has progressed rapidly. It was only in 2022 that 175 nations voted to adopt a historic resolution to negotiate a legally binding international treaty to end plastic pollution. In recognition of the danger posed by unchecked plastic production, nations set an accelerated timeline. If a treaty is agreed, it could come into effect as soon as 2025.

It would operate much like the legally-binding Paris Agreement on climate change, which requires nations to regularly report their greenhouse gas emissions and efforts to cut them. A Global Plastics Treaty would include binding measures requiring signatories to commit to action on plastic pollution. But exactly what will be covered and how is yet to be decided.

Nations have already agreed on measures to improve waste management and recycling as well as new design standards for plastic products.

While positive, the hardest part is yet to come.

These final negotiations wraps up on Sunday. Still to come is a decision on the most contentious issue: whether to introduce limits on how much plastic a company can produce. Plastic industry lobbyists are arguing strongly against any cap to plastic production.

single use food plastics
Production of single-use plastics is expanding.
Matveev Aleksandr/Shutterstock

Recycling isn’t enough

Plastic pollution has been a problem for decades. But to date, our efforts to respond have hardly made a dint. Today, there are about 7 billion tonnes of plastic waste in the world. So far, just 9% has been recycled.

The rest ends up burned in incinerators, in landfills, or in rivers, seas and forests. Plastics can also damage our health in many different ways.

Plastic production doubled between 2000 and 2019, reaching 460 million tonnes a year. By 2060, production is projected to almost triple that figure, to 1.2 billion tonnes a year.

An increasing proportion of plastic production is single-use packaging, which is cheap to make and almost impossible to recycle.

Researchers have found recycling and waste management will only cut plastic pollution by 7% in the long term. These tools won’t be enough.

Plastic taxes are not new

In 2021, the European Union introduced a levy on non-recycled plastic packaging waste created by its member states. Set at €0.80 (A$1.30) per kilo, the cost is borne by national governments, who in turn can pass the cost on to producers. The levy is expected to generate A$11.3 billion per year when fully implemented.

Nations in Europe have already begun to pass on the cost. Last year, Spain imposed a tax on producers and importers of single use plastic packaging, while Hungary expanded an existing scheme to include plastic products. Earlier this year, Bulgaria, Portugal and the United Kingdom introduced their own fees for single-use plastics.

Because these taxes are new, it’s difficult to fully assess their impact. But over time, these incentives should reduce plastic pollution and boost government revenue, which can be used to drive better recycling and resource recovery.

Australia’s government is consulting on new standards for packaging in a bid to phase out dangerous chemicals and boost use of recycled plastics, while some state and territory governments have introduced bans on single-use plastics. But plastic waste researchers and environmental advocates argue that stronger measures are needed to curb plastic waste.

Taxing single-use plastic packaging in Australia could raise $1.5 billion, according to one study. These funds could be used to accelerate progress on plastic pollution.

A global treaty needs teeth

Over the last 70 years, plastics have become ubiquitous. But the convenience of cheap plastics comes at a cost to our health and the health of the natural world.

Tackling plastic pollution will take concerted effort and financing to reduce plastic production.

As Andrew Forrest and others point out, taxing virgin plastic could discourage overproduction of plastics and encourage more investment in recyclable and reusable plastic products.

But for plastic taxes to work, they need to be widely adopted. That could be as part of the Global Plastic Treaty, or done on a national level. Plastic taxes could work as an alternative to capping plastic production, if negotiators can’t reach agreement in Busan.

Plastic taxes are not a silver bullet. We would still need a suite of measures addressing plastics throughout their lifecycle, from design and production to recycling and disposal. But putting a price on plastic would help.

The Conversation

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

ref. A tax on new plastic would slash waste – if built into the global treaty on plastics – https://theconversation.com/a-tax-on-new-plastic-would-slash-waste-if-built-into-the-global-treaty-on-plastics-244517

‘I am exhausted’: Australian teachers speak about how compassion fatigue is harming them and their work

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Glenys Oberg, PhD candidate in education and trauma, The University of Queensland

DGL Images/ Shutterstock

Teachers’ jobs involve more than just teaching the required curriculum. A significant part of their role includes providing emotional support to their students

And with many students facing mental health challenges and experiencing trauma, meeting these emotional needs has become increasingly difficult.

My research investigates compassion fatigue among Australian teachers. This condition — which involves a reduced ability to empathise with others — can develop when people face ongoing emotional and psychological strain.

How is compassion fatigue impacting our teachers? And what can be done to address it?

What is compassion fatigue?

Compassion fatigue is a term for the physical, emotional and psychological impact of helping others who are under stress or experiencing trauma.

While this condition is commonly associated with healthcare workers, first responders and psychologists, teachers are also at risk.

Compassion fatigue involves two related conditions: burnout and secondary traumatic stress.

Burnout is characterised by emotional exhaustion, de-personalisation and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment.

Secondary traumatic stress mirrors symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It occurs when teachers hear about or witness their students’ trauma and begin to experience symptoms like emotional numbing, intrusive thoughts or avoidance behaviours.

What is happening in Australian schools?

Children with trauma and poor mental health make up a significant part of Australian classrooms.

A 2023 Australian Bureau of Statistics study found 38.8% of 16-to-24-year-olds had experienced a mental disorder within the last 12 months, an increase on previous studies.

That same year, a Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne survey revealed one in three children between eight and 13 experienced symptoms of a mental health problem.

The Australian Child Maltreatment Study also found 40% of young Australians aged 16–24 had experienced more than one type of abuse, such as physical violence or neglect. Other research shows during 2019 and 2020 about 3% of Australian children received child protection services.

Managing outbursts and trauma

This means teachers are regularly managing emotional and behavioural crises in classrooms. This might include student meltdowns, violent outbursts or other disruptive behaviours.

Teachers are also exposed to their students’ traumatic experiences while trying to provide support. Research shows these interactions significantly contribute to stress and anxiety among educators.

Australian research has highlighted how compassion fatigue, burnout and secondary traumatic stress are significant factors pushing teachers out of the profession.

These issues don’t just impact teachers they also affect students. When teachers are highly stressed, research shows students are more likely to behave poorly in the classroom and record lower academic performance.

My research

In early 2023, I surveyed 1,612 Australian teachers to understand how compassion fatigue affects their emotional wellbeing. I also conducted interviews with 57 teachers later in the year to gain deeper insights in a study, which is yet to be published.

Teachers in my study worked across the country, though most were from Queensland primary schools. More than 93% of respondents were women.

I found 73.9% of respondents had moderate-to-high levels of burnout when compared to the general population, while 71.5% were exhibiting signs of secondary traumatic stress. These results align with findings from other research. For example, a 2024 study on Victorian teachers reported similar rates.

While additional research is needed to fully understand the scope of this problem in different types of schools and different locations, these findings suggest compassion fatigue and related issues are affecting a significant proportion of Australian teachers.

‘Extreme and very real’

Teachers who had compassion fatigue, spoke about how their emotional state was deeply influenced by the emotional needs and behaviours of their students. As one teacher told us:

The students that I am caring for at the moment are a very hard cohort. My compassion fatigue is extreme and very real at the moment. I am exhausted.

Another teacher noted how they could gauge how the day would go, based on the mood of their students.

When they’re struggling, I find it hard to keep my own emotions in check.

One teacher explained the difficulty of managing student behaviour while dealing with emotional exhaustion:

When behaviour blows up, which it does several times a day, I just don’t know if I have the energy to respond compassionately.

A woman sits next to an indoor plant. Her head is in her hand.
Teachers in the study described exhaustion and emotional problems due to their compassion fatigue.
Liza Summer/ Pexels, CC BY

‘It’s frustrating’

Teachers described a tension between providing emotional support to students and needing to teach the required curriculum and meet administrative responsibilities.

It’s frustrating knowing what the students need emotionally, but the curriculum and administrative demands don’t leave room for that kind of support.

This also reflects a broader issue for teachers – who increasingly note how the pressure to constantly provide data about what they are doing limits their ability to focus on their students in general.

Impossible to switch off

Because of the intensity of the issues they encounter, teachers find it difficult to leave their work at work. As one interviewee told us:

The emotional load from school often follows me home. I find it hard to stop thinking about my students, even when I’m supposed to be relaxing.

Some teachers also feel like they should not be relaxing (out-of-hours) when their students need help.

It’s hard to focus on self-care when I know my students are struggling. I feel guilty taking time for myself when I should be helping them.

What can we do?

Supporting teachers who experience compassion fatigue requires a combination of three things.

1. Trauma-informed training: this can equip teachers with strategies to address trauma in their classrooms while also protecting their own mental health. Studies have shown trauma-informed approaches can improve teacher resilience and reduce burnout.

2. Mental health support: teachers should have access to counselling services and peer networks where they can share their experiences and receive guidance. Programs like “reflective circles”, which offer structured opportunities to process emotional challenges have been shown to be particularly effective in reducing stress and improving wellbeing for teachers.

3. Systemic changes: schools can reduce workloads, offer better administrative support and recognise the emotional labour involved in teaching. Research shows these changes help teachers manage their stress and enhance “compassion satisfaction”. This is the opposite of compassion fatigue and is the rewarding feeling of making a difference in students’ lives.

Understanding the toll of compassion fatigue and supporting teachers’ wellbeing ensures they can continue providing essential care and guidance to students.

The Conversation

Glenys Oberg 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. ‘I am exhausted’: Australian teachers speak about how compassion fatigue is harming them and their work – https://theconversation.com/i-am-exhausted-australian-teachers-speak-about-how-compassion-fatigue-is-harming-them-and-their-work-244519

What’s a trade war?

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Toohey, Professor of Law, UNSW Sydney

Philip Lange/Shutterstock

This article is part of The Conversation’s “Business Basics” series where we ask experts to discuss key concepts in business, economics and finance.


Thanks to US President-elect Donald Trump, the term “trade war” is back in the headlines. Trump campaigned successfully on a platform of aggressive trade policies, and since being elected, has only doubled down on this posture.

On Tuesday, he threatened Mexico and Canada with new 25% tariffs on all goods, and a separate “additional” 10% tariff on China “above any additional tariffs”.

While the term might conjure up dramatic images of battlefield tactics, the real economic impact of any looming trade war is likely to hit much closer to home – both for Americans and the rest of the world.

Global supply chains are deeply interlinked. That means a major trade war initiated by the US could push up the prices of all kinds of goods – from new cars to Australian-inspired avocado on toast.

To understand where we might be headed, it’s worth unpacking the metaphor. What exactly is a trade war? What are the “weapons” countries use? Perhaps most importantly – can either side win?

The weapons of war

There are many “weapons” available to a country in a trade war, but tariffs are often a popular choice. This is simply an extra tax put on a product as it crosses a border as an import.

For example, all else equal, Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on goods from Canada would bump the price of a $32,000 Canadian-built car up to $40,000.

An aerial view of new cars parked at a car factory
Tariffs are charged by the government of an importing country, and paid by the importer.
The Bold Bureau/Shutterstock

Tariffs are usually paid by whoever is importing the product and paid to the government of the importing country.

That means the extra cost is almost always passed on to consumers.

Why would any government want to force prices up like that? Because it gives locally produced goods without the tariff a cost advantage.

That might seem like a reasonable way to protect local industries, but tariffs can backfire in unexpected ways. Consider how many foreign parts go into “American-made” products.

When a car rolls off a US assembly line, it’s built from thousands of components – many of which have to be imported from other countries. If those parts face tariffs, manufacturing costs rise for domestic producers, and prices rise further for domestic consumers.




Read more:
What are tariffs?


Limiting what comes in

There are other trade restrictions, too, referred to as non-tariff measures.
Quotas are one example. These place limits on how many units of something can be imported during a specific time period.

Returning to our earlier example, the US could choose to set an import quota on that same Canadian-made car of one million per year. Once that limit had been reached, no more Canadian cars could enter the country, even if consumers wanted to buy them.

This artificial scarcity can drive up prices because demand stays the same while supply is restricted. Like tariffs, the theory is that those higher prices for imports will cause consumers to favour locally manufactured goods.

More covert weapons

Some other trade restrictions are more covert – arguably easier to conceal and deny.

Imagine your export permit was cancelled without explanation or your shipment of lychees was left rotting in a foreign port for reasons that seem to be political.

Or your country suddenly disappears from another country’s electronic export system, meaning that you now cannot export anything there at all (this happened to Lithuania, which was removed from China’s customs database).

These are the sorts of trade war tactics that my research team and I have been studying in our Weaponised Trade Project.

We have collected nearly 100 examples of coercive trade weapons over the past decade, used by a wide range of countries against their competitors.

Today’s tariff is tomorrow’s trade war

Once deployed, trade weapons can cause political tensions to escalate rapidly. Other countries often retaliate with their own tit-for-tat measures. From there, they can escalate into full-blown trade wars.

The new president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has already warned this may happen, in response to Trump’s threats earlier this week.

One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses.

We’ve had some nasty trade wars before. One of the most notorious examples from history were the “beggar-thy-neighbour” tariffs and other protectionist policies of the interwar years, which deepened the Great Depression.

You might remember this from the classic movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off:

The Smoot-Hawley tariffs of the 1930s were the subject of a now-famous movie scene.

When countries restrict trade, prices typically rise for consumers, jobs can be lost in industries dependent on foreign materials, and trade and economic growth slow on both sides.

Politicians might claim victory when their foreign competitors make concessions, but economists generally agree that trade wars create more losers than winners.

The Conversation

Lisa Toohey receives funding from the Australian Government for a research project on Weaponised Trade, funded under the Defence Strategic Research Grants Program.

ref. What’s a trade war? – https://theconversation.com/whats-a-trade-war-244750

Long COVID appears to be driven by ‘long infection’. Here’s what the science says

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Crabb, Director and CEO, Burnet Institute

Alexander Grey/Unsplash

Around 5–10% of people with COVID infections go on to experience long COVID, with symptoms lasting three months or more.

Researchers have proposed several biological mechanisms to explain long COVID. However, in a perspective article published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia, we argue that much, if not all, long COVID appears to be driven by the virus itself persisting in the body.

Since relatively early in the pandemic, there has been a recognition that in some people, SARS-CoV-2 – or at least remnants of the virus – could stay in various tissues and organs for extended periods. This theory is known as “viral persistence”.

While the long-term presence of residual viral fragments in some people’s bodies is now well established, what remains less certain is whether live virus itself, not just old bits of virus, is lingering – and if so, whether this is what causes long COVID. This distinction is crucial because live virus can be targeted by specific antiviral approaches in ways that “dead” viral fragments cannot.

Viral persistence has two significant implications:

  1. when it occurs in some highly immunocompromised people, it is thought to be the source of new and substantially different-looking variants, such as JN.1

  2. it has the potential to continue to cause symptoms in many people in the wider population long beyond the acute illness. In other words, long COVID could be caused by a long infection.

What does the research say?

While there remains no single study that confirms that persistent virus is the cause of long COVID, collectively several recent key papers make a compelling case.

In February, a study in Nature found a high number of people with mild COVID symptoms had extended periods of shedding the genetic material of the virus, so-called viral RNA, from their respiratory tract. Those with persistent shedding of this viral RNA – which almost certainly represents the presence of live virus – were at higher risk of long COVID.

Other key papers detected replicating viral RNA and proteins in blood fluid of patients years after their initial infection, a sign that the virus is likely replicating for long periods in some hidden reservoirs in the body, perhaps including blood cells.

The virus could be hiding out, causing symptoms of long COVID.
tonecgi/Shutterstock

Another study detected viral RNA in ten different tissue sites and blood samples 1–4 months after acute infection. This study found the risk of long COVID (measured four months following infection) was higher in those with persistently positive viral RNA.

The same study also gave clues about where in the body the persisting virus resides. The gastrointestinal tract is one site of considerable interest as a long-term viral hideout.

Earlier this week, further evidence of persistent virus increasing likelihood of long COVID has been published as part of the RECOVER initiative, a collaborative research project that aims to address the impacts of long COVID.

However, formal proof that virus capable of replicating can last for years in the body remains elusive. This is because isolating the live virus from reservoirs inside the body where the virus “hides” is technically challenging.

In its absence, we and other scientists argue the cumulative evidence is now sufficiently compelling to galvanise action.

What needs to happen next?

The obvious response to this is to fast-track trials of known antivirals for prevention and cure of long COVID.

This should include more left-field therapies such as the diabetes drug metformin. This has possible dual benefits in the context of long COVID:

  • its antiviral properties, which have demonstrated surprising efficacy against long COVID

  • as a potential therapeutic in treating impairments related to fatigue.

Some existing medicines could be repurposed to treat long COVID.
PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock

However, another major thrust should be the development of new drugs and the establishment of clinical trial platforms for rapid testing.

Science has uncovered exciting therapeutic options. But translating these into forms usable in the clinic is a large hurdle that requires support and investment from governments.

Demystify and preventing long COVID

The notion of “long infection” as a contributor or even the driver of long COVID is a powerful message. It could help demystify the condition in the eyes of the wider community and increase awareness among the general public as well as medical professionals.

It should help raise awareness in the community of the importance of reducing rates of re-infection. It is not just your first infection, but each subsequent COVID infection carries a risk of long COVID.

Long COVID is common and isn’t restricted to those at high risk of severe acute disease but affects all age groups. In one study, the highest impact was in those aged 30 to 49 years.

So, for now, we all need to reduce our exposure to the virus with the tools available, a combination of:

  • clean indoor air approaches. In its simplest form, this means being conscious of the importance of well-ventilated indoor spaces, opening the windows and improving airflow as COVID spreads through air. More sophisticated ways of ensuring indoor air is safe involve monitoring quality and filtering air in spaces that cannot be easily naturally ventilated

  • using high-quality masks (that are well-fitting and don’t let air in easily, such as N95-type masks) in settings where you don’t have confidence of the quality of the indoor air and/or that are crowded

  • testing, so you know when you’re positive. Then, if you’re eligible, you can get treatment. And you can be vigilant about protecting those around you with masks, staying at home where possible, and ventilating spaces

  • staying up to date with COVID booster doses. Vaccines reduce long COVID and other post-COVID complications.

Hopefully one day there will be better treatments and even a cure for long COVID. But in the meantime, increased awareness of the biomedical basis of long COVID should prompt clinicians to take patients more seriously as they attempt to access the treatments and services that already exist.




Read more:
The latest COVID booster will soon be available. Should I get one? Am I eligible?


Brendan Crabb and the Institute he leads receives research grant funding from the National Health & Medical Research Council of Australia, the Medical Research Future Fund, DFAT’s Centre for Health Security and other Australian federal and Victorian State Government bodies. He is the Chair of The Australian Global Health Alliance and the Pacific Friends of Global Health, both in an honorary capacity. And he serves on the Board of the Kids Research Institute Australia, on advisory committees of mRNA Victoria, the Sanger Institute (UK), The Brain Cancer Centre (Australia), and is a member of OzSAGE and The John Snow Project, all honorary positions.

Gabriela Khoury receives funding from the Medical Research Future Fund.

Michelle Scoullar receives funding from the Medical Research Future Fund. She is affiliated with Clinic Nineteen, a clinic that specialises in long COVID.

ref. Long COVID appears to be driven by ‘long infection’. Here’s what the science says – https://theconversation.com/long-covid-appears-to-be-driven-by-long-infection-heres-what-the-science-says-244635

Welcome to Babel: new documentary charts the creation of painter Jiawei Shen’s three-storey magnum opus

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanna Mendelssohn, Honorary Senior Fellow, School of Culture and Communication. Editor in chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne

Greg Weight/Bonsai Films

When Jiawei Shen first came to Australia, he bought a copy of that great western ideological text, the Bible. The doctrine that had shaped his life until then had come from the writings of the great Marxist thinkers – Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and of course, Mao Zedong.

It made sense, therefore, to study the source of the ideology that supposedly shaped this strange new world. Right near the beginning, in Genesis chapter 11, he found the intriguing story of the Tower of Babel, a myth on the origin of linguistic and cultural confusion.

It tells of a time when all people spoke the same language, and out of pride, they built a tower to the heavens so it would be seen from wherever they went. God realised if they continued to collaborate, nothing could stop them:

If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.

The tower was abandoned – and the people scattered across the earth, with many different languages.

Many years later, when Shen contemplated the way his life and his wife’s life had been shaped by ideology and circumstance, he remembered the lesson of the Tower of Babel

Settling in Bob Hawke’s Australia

In June 1989, when student demonstrations in Beijing resulted in the Tiananmen Square massacre, Jiawei Shen was in Australia. As all affected Chinese citizens were granted asylum by then Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, he was able to settle in Sydney.

He was soon joined by his wife, fellow artist Lan Wang, and their baby daughter, Xini. While Lan Wang worked as a cleaner, Jiawei Shen started his Australian career by drawing portraits for tourists at Circular Quay. Most art competitions are by invitation only, but in 1993 when he entered the open-entry Archibald Prize with a portrait of Professor John Clarke, his work was hung.

He soon became an Archibald favourite. The smooth, almost photographic finish that characterised his style made him a popular artist for portrait commissions. In 1995, he was awarded the Mary MacKillop Art Award. His interpretation of the future saint pleased the conservative hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1997, Shen and Wang bought a small fisherman’s cottage at Bundeena on the edge of the Royal National Park. After the changing political climate in China saw his art (which had been out of favour) come into fashion once more, Jiawei Shen considered the nature and impact of ideology.

Jiawei Shen and Lan Wang (pictured) both lived through the Great Chinese Famine, yet their experiences of it were starkly different.
Bonsai Films

He thought again of the story of Babel – and how it could be seen as a metaphor for what had happened to the original ideals of Communism.

On October 30 2017, exactly 100 years after the Bolshevik Revolution, Shen began to paint his magnum opus, The Tower of Babel. The painting is so large it fills the walls of the three storey house that was built to contain it.

James Bradley’s documentary, Welcome to Babel, records both the painstaking process of making the painting – as well as the contradictions and commonalities of Jiawei Shen and Lan Wang’s lives in both China and Australia.

The documentary played at the Sydney Film Festival earlier this year.
Bonsai Films/Peter Solness

A vision to build the communist mansion

The painting itself (which remains in Shen’s possession) is divided into four parts, one for each wall: Utopia, Internationale, Gulag and Saturnus.

The images are drawn from both historic documents and copies of works of art made by artists identifying with Communism. Utopia, the first painting, starts with Lenin and the ideals of the Bolshevik revolution, which evolved into the tyranny of Stalin and, in China, Mao.

Utopia is one of four murals that make up Shen’s colossal painting.
Bonsai Films/James Bradley

Portraits of the great men evolve into images based on the propaganda they spread about the new society they were creating. As their ideas spread around the world, they influenced many artists – such as Picasso, Matisse, Léger, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera – who came to admire the idealism of this brave new world.

Shen was a child of Mao’s revolution. Born in Shanghai in 1948, he was the son of loyal party members. In his childhood he knew “we were building the Communist mansion”. He still honours the idealism of the those thinkers who imagined a world where all can flourish.

His childhood within the Party is contrasted with Lan Wang’s experience of childhood as a daughter of a despised “Rightist”. Throughout the film, her sometimes tart observations give essential leavening to her husband’s heroic narrative.

The third wall, “Gulag”, shows the cost of unthinking ideology. He remembers being hungry in Mao’s Great Famine, when overeager Party figures falsified production numbers to please their leader and people starved. Wang remembers seeing the dead.

The third wall, Gulag, captures a darker side of unchecked ideology.
Bonsai Films/Greg Weight

As with other students, they were both sent to work in the country alongside peasant farmers. But while Shen remembers this as “the happiest time in my life”, Wang was sent to a remote northern province where it was cold and people starved.

‘He didn’t experience the suffering’

Jiawei Shen’s career as an artist came from his time in the country when his painting, Standing Guard for our Great Motherland, attracted the attention of Madam Mao.

Jiawei Shen’s painting Standing Guard for Our Great Motherland caught the eye of Madam Mao.
Bonsai Films

His status as a heroic worker artist ended after Mao’s death, and he became an art student. The same event also freed “children of the dogs” like Lan Wang, to be educated, and so she become an artist. Her painting is whimsical and decorative, with a sense of fantasy that is absent from her husband’s work.

Lan Wang photographed in China during her youth.
Bonsai Films

Wang’s experiences, as well as Shen’s own time spent out of favour, colour the wall he calls Saturnus – the dark side of the revolution. The great art featured here is Goya’s Saturn devouring his son. Shen argues China’s Cultural Revolution and the French Revolution have a great deal in common, wherein “good intentions bring about the most evil results”.

The success of Welcome to Babel largely comes from the contrast between Jiawei Shen and Lan Wang’s approach to their new life. He is the showman, turning his memories, and those of others, into a giant collage – a painting that will be his legacy “for the people of China”.

Wang grows a small garden behind the imposing new house. “He is able to create this work because he didn’t experience the suffering,” she says.

Joanna Mendelssohn has in the past received funding from the ARC

ref. Welcome to Babel: new documentary charts the creation of painter Jiawei Shen’s three-storey magnum opus – https://theconversation.com/welcome-to-babel-new-documentary-charts-the-creation-of-painter-jiawei-shens-three-storey-magnum-opus-242395

How our public spaces can be safer and more welcoming for children

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anahita Shadkam, Sessional Instructor, School of Urban and Regional Planning,, Toronto Metropolitan University

A Georgia mother was recently arrested for reckless endangerment after her 10-year-old son was seen walking outside alone. The warrant for her arrest claimed she “willingly and knowingly” endangered her son’s safety.

The boy had walked less than one mile into town to visit the local dollar store. Despite the boy’s evident ability to navigate public spaces independently, a passerby perceived his presence on the street as alarming and called the police.

This incident illustrates the damaging effects of “safetyism,” a societal anxiety that wrongly assumes children should not be out on their own. Such perceptions not only curtail children’s independence but also perpetuate unnecessary interventions that undermine the ability of parents to make decisions for their own family.

A focus on safetyism ignores the absence of child-friendly infrastructure in many of our towns and cities. For example, many suburban neighbourhoods in North America lack sidewalks and other pedestrian infrastructure. In the Georgia incident, the road the boy walked along did not have a sidewalk, meaning he had to walk on the shoulder. This lack of space exacerbates fears of children being in public spaces alone.

How did we reach a point where parents now risk arrest if their children are seen outside alone?

Rise of safetyism

My research focuses on how public spaces can be better designed for children. As societies change, their understanding of childhood changes. The way children were treated 50 years ago differs from what they are experiencing now. Likewise, perceptions of what is safe to do and what is not have also changed over time.

Spontaneous outdoor play is a vital way for children to explore, grow and understand their environment. Yet, urban and suburban design often stifles this natural inclination. These environments usually confine children’s play to parks and playgrounds while leaving broader public spaces off-limits.

Historically, attitudes toward children in public spaces have been shaped by industrialization, rapid urbanization and the growth of suburbs. Early playgrounds emerged during the child-saving movement of the 1980s, aiming to protect children from street dangers.

A group of children playing jump rope in a park
Spontaneous outdoor play is a vital way for children to explore, grow and understand their environment.
(Shutterstock)

However, these heavily supervised, segregated spaces reflected societal biases, dividing children by race, gender and class. Activities prepared boys for leadership, girls for motherhood, and marginalized children for labour.

Architects and planners like Aldo van Eyck have challenged these restrictive notions, advocating for adventure playgrounds and child-friendly urban spaces. Their work emphasizes unstructured play that promotes children’s agency.

Despite these efforts, the rise of safetyism in recent decades has eroded children’s independence. Fears of busy traffic and stranger dangers have led caregivers to limit children’s exposure to the outdoors. This “bubble-wrapped generation,” as education professor Karen Malone describes, experiences childhood within narrowly defined boundaries, chauffeured between organized activities.

This overprotection deprives children of opportunities to develop resilience. Car-dependence also contributes to the very risks it seeks to prevent. For instance, traffic congestion caused by parental drop-offs near schools increases accident risks. Meanwhile, children shielded from navigating public spaces may lack the skills to handle unexpected situations, such as how to seek help when lost.

The Georgia incident starkly illustrates how societal attitudes perpetuate these cycles. The passerby’s decision to involve the police reflects a broader societal discomfort with children’s presence in public spaces. Addressing this issue requires both cultural and infrastructural change.

A boy and girl carrying backpacks hold hands as they walk along a crosswalk
Improving walkability is a great way to make public spaces more child-friendly.
(Shutterstock)

Child-friendly cities

It is time for a new child-saving movement. Cities like Barcelona and Copenhagen offer inspiring examples of child-friendly design that challenge these anxieties. The walkability of these cities contributes to children’s overall skill development.

Integrating playful elements along walkable pathways further advances opportunities to explore and develop a sense of safety and belonging. These opportunities normalize children being in public spaces, countering the harmful perceptions that fuel safetyism.

Implementing traffic-calming measures is another way to foster safer pedestrian movements around the neighbourhood. Among these measures are lowering speed limits around the residential buildings, adding more intersections with signals and mid-block crosswalks especially along the longer and curved streets.

Walkability can also be improved by implementing soft edges along pathways. As opposed to hard physical boundaries such as fences, incorporating soft edges, such as green buffers ensure the safety of children and pedestrians while still enabling them to freely navigate space and engage in playful activities.

Moreover, the creation of intergenerational public spaces must be prioritized over creating age-specific spaces, such as the common fenced playgrounds. First, being in these spaces encourages a sense of shared responsibility, thus improving children’s agency. Second, they foster a sense of community among all, which eventually improves parental perceptions of safety. Third, intergenerational spaces allow caregivers to socialize while children play. This opportunity is an important time-out for the caregivers, while still being able to supervise their kids.

Children’s well-being is a barometer for the health of our societies and cities. To create inclusive, sustainable communities, we must challenge the restrictive boundaries that confine children’s experiences and see their independence as a threat. By designing child-friendly public spaces we can nurture future generations who are better equipped to navigate our world.

The Conversation

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

ref. How our public spaces can be safer and more welcoming for children – https://theconversation.com/how-our-public-spaces-can-be-safer-and-more-welcoming-for-children-244478

Australia’s social media ban for kids under 16 just became law. How it will work remains a mystery

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa M. Given, Professor of Information Sciences & Director, Social Change Enabling Impact Platform, RMIT University

Kampus Production/Pexels

The federal parliament has passed legislation to ban people under 16 from having an account with some social media platforms.

In doing so, it has ignored advice from a chorus of expertsand from the Australian Human Rights Commission, which said the government rushed the legislation through parliament “without taking the time to get the details right. Or even knowing how the ban will work in practice.”

The ban is, however, backed by 77% of Australians, according to a new poll. It won’t take effect for at least 12 months.

So what will happen before then?

What’s in the final bill?

The legislation amends the current Online Safety Act 2021 and defines an “age-restricted user” as a person under age 16. However, it does not name specific platforms that will be subject to the ban.

Instead, the legislation defines an “age-restricted social media platform” as including services where:

  1. the “sole purpose, or a significant purpose” is to enable “online social interaction” between people
  2. people can “link to, or interact with” others on the service
  3. people can “post material”, or
  4. it falls under other conditions as set out in the legislation.

The legislation does note that some services are “excluded”, but does not name specific platforms. For example, while services providing “online social interaction” would be included in the ban, this would not include “online business interaction”.

While it remains unclear exactly which social media platforms will be subject to the ban, those that are will face fines of up to A$50 million if they don’t take “reasonable steps” to stop under 16s from having accounts.

While there are reports YouTube will be exempt, the government has not explicitly confirmed this. What is clear at the moment is that people under 16 will still be able to view the content of many platforms online – just without an account.

The legislation does not mention messaging apps (such as WhatsApp and Messenger) or gaming platforms (such as Minecraft), specifically. However, news reports have quoted the government as saying these would be excluded, along with “services with the primary purpose of supporting the health and education of end-users”. It is unclear what platforms would be excluded in these cases.

In passing the final legislation, the government included additional amendments to its original proposal. For example, tech companies cannot collect government-issued identification such as passports and drivers licenses “as the only means” of confirming someone’s age. They can, however, collect government-issued identification “if other alternative age assurance methods have been provided to users”.

There must also be an “independent review” after two years to consider the “adequacy” of privacy protections and other issues.

What now for the tech companies?

As well as having to verify the age of people wanting to create an account, tech companies will also need to verify the age of existing account holders – regardless of their age. This will be a significant logistical challenge. Will there be a single day when every Australian with a social media account has to sign in and prove their age?

An even bigger concern is how tech companies will be able to verify a user’s age. The legislation provides little clarity about this.

There are a few options social media platforms might pursue.

One option might be for them to check someone’s age using credit cards as a proxy linked to a person’s app store account. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said previously that this strategy would be included in the age verification trials that are currently underway. YouTube, for example, has previously enabled users to gain access to age-restricted content using a credit card.

However, this approach would exclude access for people who meet the age requirement of being over 16, but do not hold credit cards.

Another option is to use facial recognition technology. This technology is among the various strategies being trialled for the government to restrict age for both social media platforms (for ages under 16) and online pornography (for ages under 18). The trial is being run by a consortium led by Age Check Certification Scheme, based in the United Kingdom. The results won’t be known until mid-2025.

However, there is already evidence that facial recognition systems contain significant biases and inaccuracies.

For example, commercially available facial recognition systems have an error rate of 0.8% for light-skinned men, compared to nearly 35% for dark-skinned women. Even some of the best performing systems in use currently, such as Yoti (which Meta currently offers to Australian users ahead of a global rollout) has an average error of almost two years for people aged 13 to 16 years old.

What about the digital duty of care?

Earlier this month the government promised to impose a “digital duty of care” on tech companies.

This would require the companies to regularly conduct thorough risk assessments of the content on their platforms. And, companies would need to respond to consumer complaints, resulting in the removal of potentially harmful content.

This duty of care is backed by experts – including myself – and by the Human Rights Law Centre. A parliamentary inquiry into the social media ban legislation also recommended the government legislate this.

It remains unclear exactly when the government will fulfil its promise to do just that.

But even if the duty of care is legislated, that doesn’t preclude the need for more investment in digital literacy. Parents, teachers and children need support to understand how to navigate social media platforms safely.

In the end, social media platforms should be safe spaces for all users. They provide valuable information and community engagement opportunities to people of all ages. The onus is now on the tech companies to restrict access for youth under 16.

However, the work needed to keep all of us safe, and to hold the tech companies accountable for the content they provide, is only just beginning.

The Conversation

Lisa M. Given receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and a Fellow of the Association for Information Science and Technology.

ref. Australia’s social media ban for kids under 16 just became law. How it will work remains a mystery – https://theconversation.com/australias-social-media-ban-for-kids-under-16-just-became-law-how-it-will-work-remains-a-mystery-244736

Grattan on Friday: Albanese gets down and dirty in deal making and breaking as Senate rushes to Christmas finish

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

In the chaotic dying days of 2024’s final parliamentary sitting, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reverted to a role he played in Julia Gillard’s government.

He personally intervened in the wrangling and deal-making as the government battled to get as much as possible of Labor’s legislation passed.

The end of a parliamentary year is usually a mess. But 2024’s finale was beyond bad. A prime minister who likes to claim he runs an orderly government found himself presiding over a shambles, in which process was thrown to the winds and quick fixes and expedient capitulations became the order of the day.

Senators might have anticipated Wednesday’s suspension of the volcanic Lidia Thorpe, the Indigenous independent who last year defected from the Greens, would remove one distraction in a head-spinning week. Instead, it added a wild element to Thursday, when Thorpe shouted into the chamber from the press gallery: “Free, free Palestine. From the river to the sea”. Extra security guards were deployed to prevent a repeat.

Amid the rush, senators did take time out on Thursday to pay generous tributes to popular Senate opposition leader Simon Birmingham, after his surprise announcement he’ll leave politics at the election for the commercial world.

The week’s political mayhem delivered a big and unexpected win for Treasurer Jim Chalmers, but a major defeat for Special Minister of State Don Farrell.

After the Liberals in September refused to support legislation to split the Reserve Bank board and establish a special board to set interest rates, the plan appeared dead. But a late deal with the Greens has done the trick. Chalmers gets his restructured bank, after giving in to the Greens’ insistence the treasurer retain the current (never used) right to override the bank on rates.

Earlier in the week the Greens had agreed (without securing any concessions) to support Labor’s housing bills. It seems the minor party is putting on some pragmatic clothes ahead of the election.

Farrell unveiled his sweeping electoral reforms, designed to curb “big money”, just before the fortnight sitting.

The man they call the “godfather” thought, as late as Wednesday morning, that he would finally land what seems to have been only an in-principle understanding with the Liberals.

Then on Wednesday afternoon Opposition Leader Peter Dutton sat down with Farrell in the minister’s office. The Liberals wanted higher disclosure and donation limits. There was also argy bargy over the treatment of peak bodies such as the ACTU and the Business Council. Despite Farrell’s willingness to be flexible, the prospective agreement imploded.

On Thursday morning the government had to announce Farrell would continue discussions – which have been going on much of the parliamentary term – over the summer, with the hope of passing the legislation in February.

That’s assuming parliament comes back in February – Albanese said on Thursday night “we fully expect to be sitting in February” – and that the proposals’ critics don’t consolidate an upper hand. Reform of the electoral donations and spending regime has been a major Labor commitment. In the end the legislative push was left too late. A lot will have to go right for the measures (not due to start until mid next term) to be passed before the election.

The bill to ban children under 16 from accessing a range of social media sites, though passed, was also mismanaged. While many people will believe it’s good to have the legislation through, the process was appalling.

The ban is very controversial, with many experts highly critical. That made it all the more necessary for the legislation to have proper parliamentary scrutiny. More than 15,000 submissions were received by the Senate committee that looked at the bill. The committee took just one morning’s evidence on Monday, and on Tuesday tabled its report.

On Thursday, as it tried to accelerate dozens of bills through the Senate, Labor needed to use the guillotine to curb debate. But that plan was initially voted down.

Enter Albanese. In an extraordinary day of wheeling and dealing, Santa came early.

The support of ACT independent David Pocock for the quick passage of bills was secured with various bits and pieces including, the senator said in a press release, two “significant measures that will be announced in coming days”.

The Greens’ mood was lifted at the cost of $500 million for social housing upgrades. There was also an undertaking of “no coal, oil and gas funding in Future Made in Australia”.

Albanese was personally involved in the negotiations with Pocock and the Greens.

Some interpreted the government’s freneticism as indicating a likely March election. But that is an over-reading, even accepting the PM has left himself wriggle room. Clearing the decks (albeit partially) is useful if the PM wanted to call an election for March, but it doesn’t mean he will do so.

A March poll would involve the awkward problem of overlapping with the Western Australian election campaign.

Anything concerning WA is a trigger point for Albanese, who won a batch of seats there in 2022 and can’t afford too many losses in the state next year.

On Monday Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and the Greens reached a deal, reportedly agreed to by the PM, to establish a new environmental watchdog to oversee compliance with environmental laws. On Tuesday Albanese killed the deal.

WA premier Roger Cook – who earlier this month revealed his talk with the prime minister about election dates – explained at a news conference on Wednesday how he’d ensured the bill wouldn’t proceed.

Cook said he’d had a conversation on Tuesday “at the highest level of the federal government”. He had reiterated the WA view that the Nature Positive legislation in the current form should not go ahead. He’d been assured it would not progress this week.

Albanese had his own version on the ABC on Thursday night. The “legislation remains stuck in the Senate”, he said. “We didn’t have the majority for it.”

He added, “I was the negotiator.”

Once again Albanese has delivered a blow to Plibersek, whom he installed in the environment portfolio when she had expected to receive the education post, for which she had been shadow minister. For Plibersek this has been a character-building parliamentary term.

The Conversation

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

ref. Grattan on Friday: Albanese gets down and dirty in deal making and breaking as Senate rushes to Christmas finish – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-albanese-gets-down-and-dirty-in-deal-making-and-breaking-as-senate-rushes-to-christmas-finish-244826

Minerals in hot springs performed a key chemical reaction for early life on Earth, new study confirms

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Quoc Phuong Tran, PhD Candidate in Prebiotic Chemistry, UNSW Sydney

Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Luca Micheli/Shutterstock

One of the biggest scientific mysteries is where life on Earth started.

Research has often focused on the role of deep-sea hydrothermal vents – those towering structures on the ocean floor constantly pumping out a melange of organic and inorganic material. Within these plumes are minerals called iron sulfides, which scientists believe could have helped trigger early chemical reactions that created life.

These same minerals are also found in hot springs today, such as the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Hot springs are bodies of groundwater heated by volcanic activity beneath Earth’s surface.

Our new research adds to a small but growing body of evidence that ancient versions of these hot springs could have played a pivotal role in the emergence of life on Earth. This helps bridge the gap between competing hypotheses regarding where life could have emerged.

Geochemistry to biology

Carbon fixation is the process by which living organisms convert carbon dioxide, in the air and dissolved in water, into organic molecules.

Many life forms, including plants, bacteria and microorganisms known as archaea, have different pathways for achieving this. Photosynthesis is one example.

Each of these pathways contains a cascade of enzymes and proteins, some of which contain cores made of iron and sulfur.

We can find proteins with these iron-sulfur clusters in all forms of life. In fact, researchers propose they date back to the Last Universal Common Ancestor – an ancient ancestral cell from which scientists propose life as we know it evolved and diversified.

Iron sulfides are minerals that form when dissolved iron reacts with hydrogen sulfide – the volcanic gas that makes hot springs smell like rotten eggs.

If you look closely at the structure of these iron sulfides, you will find that some of them look incredibly similar to iron-sulfur clusters.

This connection between iron sulfides and carbon fixation has led some researchers to propose that these minerals played a crucial role in the transition from early Earth geochemistry to biology.

Our newly published research expands on this knowledge by investigating the chemical activity of iron sulfides in ancient land-based hot springs which have similar geochemistry to deep-sea vents.

Custom-built chamber

We custom-built a small chamber that would allow us to simulate hot spring environments on early Earth.

Then we spread synthesised iron sulfide samples through the chamber. Some were pure. Others were dosed with other metals commonly found in hot springs. A lamp above these samples simulated sunlight on the early Earth’s surface. Different lamps were used to mimic lighting with different amounts of ultraviolet radiation.

Carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas were constantly pumped through the chamber. These gases have been shown to be important for carbon fixation in deep-sea vent experiments.

We found that all of the iron sulfide samples synthesised were capable of producing methanol, a product of carbon fixation, to varying extents. These results showed that iron sulfides can facilitate carbon fixation not only in deep-sea hydrothermal vents but land-based hot springs too.

Methanol production also increased with visible light irradiation and at higher temperatures.

Experiments with varying temperatures, lighting and water-vapour content demonstrated that iron sulfides likely facilitated carbon fixation in land-based hot springs on early Earth.

An underwater mount covered in worms and lobsters, releasing a plume of black smoke.
Hot springs have similar chemistry as deep-sea hyrdothermal vents, such as this one on the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the coast of North America.
University of Washington; NOAA/OAR/OER, CC BY-NC-ND

An ancient pathway

Additional experiments and theoretical calculations revealed that the production of methanol occurred through a mechanism called a reverse water-gas shift.

We see a similar reaction in the pathway some bacteria and archaea use to turn carbon dioxide into food. This pathway is called the “acetyl-CoA” or “Wood-Ljungdahl” pathway. It is proposed to be the earliest form of carbon fixation that emerged in early life.

This similarity between the two processes is interesting because the former happens on dry land, at the edge of hot springs, while the latter takes place in the wet environment inside cells.

Our study demonstrates methanol production in a wide range of conditions that could have been found in early Earth’s hot springs.

Our findings expand the range of conditions where iron sulfides can facilitate carbon fixation. They show it can happen both in the deep sea and on land – albeit via different mechanisms.

As such, we believe these results support the current scientific consensus suggesting that iron-sulfur clusters and the acetyl-CoA pathway are ancient and likely played an important role in the emergence of life – regardless of whether it happened on land or at the bottom of the sea.

The Conversation

Quoc Phuong Tran 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. Minerals in hot springs performed a key chemical reaction for early life on Earth, new study confirms – https://theconversation.com/minerals-in-hot-springs-performed-a-key-chemical-reaction-for-early-life-on-earth-new-study-confirms-243586

Build to Rent will produce more homes for tenants, but not for those most in need

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Pawson, Professor of Housing Research and Policy, and Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney

Part two of the government’s stalled housing legislation finally passed federal parliament on Thursday. The Build to Rent tax reform bill aims to boost investment in apartment blocks designed and constructed for rental occupancy and retained in single ownership.

Other than as purpose-built student accommodation, this form of development remains rare in Australia.

Instead, our private rental market continues to be dominated by small-scale “mum and dad investors”. Only since around 2017 have Build to Rent projects begun to appear in some Australian capital cities.

By mid-2024, just 5,000 had been completed with 11,000 under construction.

Australian governments now see expanding this form of housing as appealing. In the long term, that might bring Australia more into line with countries such as the United States and Canada, where large-scale institutional investment in rental housing is long-established.

How does the bill work?

Under the new bill, the 30% withholding tax rate for foreign funders of residential Build to Rent developments is equalised with that for commercial and industrial property, at 15%.

At the same time, the Build to Rent capital works tax deduction rate is increased from 2.5% to 4%. This allows expenses to be depreciated for tax over a 25-year span, rather than 40 years as at present. This brings Build to Rent into line with the Australia Tax Office’s treatment of serviced apartments, making projects more viable.

In attempting to step up Build to Rent development, high significance is attached to enabling overseas investment.

Because they already invest at scale in Build to Rent development in other countries, many large international players are already familiar with this type of development. Pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds are attracted by its low risk and reliable returns.

More housing that’s more secure

As argued in a recent official report, Build to Rent housing could help fulfil several significant housing policy objectives.

First, when developers can diversify away from solely focusing on building to sell, there could be an overall increase in housing supply.

Second, homes are likely to be more secure for tenants. This is because the prime motivation of Build to Rent investors is often long-term rental income.

Small landlords, on the other hand, are usually motivated by capital gain that can be realised only through sale.

Third, multi-unit buildings commissioned to be kept by a single owner should incentivise utility, durability and energy efficiency in design and construction.

Finally, Build to Rent could be relatively resistant to housing market downturns. This benefits both the development industry and the national economy.

It’s not that simple

At the same time, Build to Rent does not inherently contribute to affordable housing.

At least in its initial form in Australia, it is typically a “premium product”, mainly in well-connected locations and targeted at moderate to high income earners.

In early 2024, for example, two bedroom apartments were advertised in Sydney and Melbourne at weekly rents in the $800-$950 range, according to my own survey at that time.

The bill will apply retrospectively, bringing thousands of tenancies to the market.
Shutterstock

But eligibility for the new (and lower) rate of withholding tax offered in the Build to Rent bill is conditional on a proportion of apartments in qualifying projects being made available as “affordable prices” – that is, a rent discounted from the market rate.

While appealing in principle, the detailed proposal sparked controversy around the proposed definition of “affordable housing”, the projects that would be covered and the way that designated “affordable” units would be managed.

As amended in the Senate, qualifying developments will need to include 10% affordable tenancies, with rents set at 74.9% of market value or no more than 30% of household income, whichever is the lower.

Affordable units (including a minimum proportion rented to low income earners) will be managed by community housing providers for at least 15 years.

Given the Property Council’s estimate that the new framework could yield a total of “over 80,000” Build to Rent apartments over the next decade, this could generate 8,000 good quality units affordable to moderate income earners.

The government also agreed to the retrospective application of the new tax regime for projects already under construction or recently completed.

But this is not a free gift. It’s similarly conditional on 10% of the units being designated as affordable. These will form an “advanced package” of around 1,200 sub-market price tenancies coming online over the next 12 months.

Last-minute negotiations also saw the addition of the pledge that all units – affordable and market price – will come with five-year tenancies and a ban on no grounds evictions.

More could be done

Like the Help to Buy initiative, when viewed within the context of the wider housing crisis, this scheme is another micro-measure.

It has little or no relevance to headline concerns around home ownership affordability, low-income rental stress and homelessness.

But, in combination with significant state tax changes enacted in recent years, it should help in establishing a new component in our rental market. One that – at least for moderate to high income tenants – will widen choice and improve quality.

And, if proponent boasts are valid, could be a more customer-centric form of market rental than the traditional Australian norm.

However, the requirement for including affordable units in this new and, as yet, financially marginal form of development raises other possibilities. Why don’t such obligations exist for the vast bulk of housing constructed as build to sell? A proposal for just such a framework, sometimes known as “mandatory inclusionary zoning”, is in development.

Even if imposed at an extremely low rate (like 5%) on homes built in high land value areas (Sydney and Melbourne, for example) this could generate a vastly greater affordable housing gain.

Hal Pawson receives funding from the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Fund, the Australian Research Council, the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, and Crisis UK. He is affiliated with Senator David Pocock as a part time (unpaid) policy advisor. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Community Housing Canberra.

ref. Build to Rent will produce more homes for tenants, but not for those most in need – https://theconversation.com/build-to-rent-will-produce-more-homes-for-tenants-but-not-for-those-most-in-need-244655

Climate protests to continue despite 170 charged in Newcastle ‘protestival’

Despite Australia’s draconian anti-protest laws, the world’s biggest coal port was closed for four hours at the weekend with 170 protesters being charged — but climate demonstrations will continue. Twenty further arrests were made at a protest at the Federal Parliament yesterday.

SPECIAL REPORT: By Wendy Bacon

Newcastle port, the world’s biggest coal port, was closed for four hours on Sunday when hundreds of Rising Tide protesters in kayaks refused to leave its shipping channel.

Over two days of protest at the Australian port, 170 protesters have been charged. Some others who entered the channel were arrested but released without charge. Hundreds more took to the water in support.

Thousands on the beach chanted, danced and created a huge human sign demanding “no new coal and gas” projects.

Rising Tide is campaigning for a 78 percent tax on fossil fuel profits to be used for a “just transition” for workers and communities, including in the Hunter Valley, where the Albanese government has approved three massive new coal mine extensions since 2022.

Protest size triples to 7000
The NSW Labor government made two court attempts to block the protest from going ahead. But the 10-day Rising Tide protest tripled in size from 2023 with 7000 people participating so far and more people arrested in civil disobedience actions than last year.

The “protestival” continued in Newcastle on Monday, and a new wave started in Canberra at the Australian Parliament yesterday with more than 20 arrests. Rising Tide staged an overnight occupation of the lawn outside Parliament House and a demonstration at which they demanded to meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

News of the “protestival” has spread around the world, with campaigners in Rotterdam in The Netherlands blocking a coal train in solidarity with this year’s Rising Tide protest.

Of those arrested, 138 have been charged under S214A of the NSW Crimes Act for disrupting a major facility, which carries up to two years in prison and $22,000 maximum fines. This section is part of the NSW government regime of “anti-protest” laws designed to deter movements such as Rising Tide.

The rest of the protesters have been charged under the Marine Safety Act which police used against 109 protesters arrested last year.

Even if found guilty, these people are likely to only receive minor penalties.Those arrested in 2023 mostly received small fines, good behaviour bonds and had no conviction recorded.

Executive gives the bird to judiciary
The use of the Crimes Act will focus more attention on the anti-protest laws which the NSW government has been extending and strengthening in recent weeks. The NSW Supreme Court has already found the laws to be partly unconstitutional but despite huge opposition from civil society and human rights organisations, the NSW government has not reformed them.

Two protesters were targeted for special treatment: Naomi Hodgson, a key Rising Tide organiser, and Andrew George, who has previous protest convictions.

George was led into court in handcuffs on Monday morning but was released on bail on condition that he not return to the port area. Hodgson also has a record of peaceful protest. She is one of the Rising Tide leaders who have always stressed the importance of safe and peaceful action.

The police prosecutor argued that she should remain in custody. The magistrate released her with the extraordinary requirement that she report to police daily and not go nearer than 2 km from the port.

Planning for this year’s protest has been underway for 12 months, with groups forming in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra Sydney and the Northern Rivers, as well as Newcastle. There was an intensive programme of meetings and briefings of potential participants on the motivation for protesting, principles of civil disobedience and the experience of being arrested.

Those who attended last year recruited a whole new cohort of protesters.

Last year, the NSW police authorised a protest involved a 48-hour blockade which protesters extended by two hours. Earlier this year, a similar application was made by Rising Tide.

The first indication that the police would refuse to authorise a protest came earlier this month when the NSW police successfully applied to the NSW Supreme Court for the protest to be declared “an unauthorised protest.”

But Justice Desmond Fagan also made it clear that Rising Tide had a “responsible approach to on-water safety” and that he was not giving a direction that the protest should be terminated. Newcastle Council agreed that Rising Tide could camp at Horseshoe Bay.

Minns’ bid to crush protest
The Minns government showed that its goal was to crush the protest altogether when the Minister for Transport Jo Haylen declared a blanket 97-hour exclusion zone making it unlawful to enter the Hunter River mouth and beaches under the Marine Safety Act last week.

On Friday, Rising Tide organiser and 2020 Newcastle Young Citizen of the year, Alexa Stuart took successful action in the Supreme Court to have the exclusion zone declared an invalid use of power.

An hour before the exclusion zone was due to come into effect at 5 pm, the Rising Tide flotilla had been launched off Horseshoe Bay. At 4 pm, Supreme Court Justice Sarah McNaughton quashed the exclusion zone notice, declaring that it was an invalid use of power under the Marine Safety Act because the object of the Act is to facilitate events, not to stop them from happening altogether.

When news of the judge’s decision reached the beach, a big cheer erupted. The drama-packed weekend was off to a good start.

Friday morning began with a First Nations welcome and speeches and a SchoolStrike4Climate protest. Kayakers held their position on the harbour with an overnight vigil on Friday night.

On Saturday, Midnight Oil front singer Peter Garrett, who served as Environment Minister in a previous Labor government, performed in support of Rising Tide protest. He expressed his concern about government overreach in policing protests, especially in the light of all the evidence of the impacts of climate change.

Ships continued to go through the channel, protected by the NSW police. When kayakers entered the channel while it was empty, nine were arrested.

84-year-old great-gran arrested, not charged
By late Saturday, three had been charged, and the other six were towed back to the beach. This included June Norman, an 84-year-old great-grandmother from Queensland, who entered the shipping channel at least six times over the weekend in peaceful acts of civil disobedience.

The 84-year-old protester Jane Norman . . . entered the shipping channel at least six times over the weekend in peaceful acts of civil disobedience. Image: Wendy Bacon/MWM

She told MWM that she felt a duty to act to protect her own grandchildren and all other children due to a failure by the Albanese and other governments to take action on climate change. The police repeatedly declined to charge her.   

On Sunday morning a decision was made for kayakers “to take the channel”. At about 10.15, a coal boat, turned away before entering the port.

Port closed, job done
Although the period of stoppage was shorter than last year, civil disobedience had now achieved what the authorised protest achieved last year. The port was officially closed and remained so for four hours.

By now, 60 people had been charged and far more police resources expended than in 2023, including hours of police helicopters and drones.

On Sunday afternoon, hundreds of kayakers again occupied the channel. A ship was due. Now in a massive display of force involving scores of police in black rubber zodiacs, police on jet skis, and a huge police launch, kayakers were either arrested or herded back from the channel.

When the channel was clear, a huge ship then came through the channel, signalling the reopening of the port.

On Monday night, ABC National News reported that protesters were within metres of the ship. MWM closely observed the events. When the ship began to move towards the harbour, all kayaks were inside the buoys marking the channel. Police occupied the area between the protesters and the ship. No kayaker moved forward.

A powerful visual message had been sent that the forces of the NSW state would be used to defend the interests of the big coal companies such as Whitehaven and Glencore rather than the NSW public.

By now police on horses were on the beach and watched as small squads of police marched through the crowd grabbing paddles. A little later this reporter was carrying a paddle through a car park well off the beach when a constable roughly seized it without warning from my hand.

When asked, Constable Pacey explained that I had breached the peace by being on water. I had not entered the water over the weekend.

Kids arrested too, in mass civil disobedience
Those charged included 14 people under 18. After being released, they marched chanting back into the camp. A 16-year-old Newcastle student, Niamh Cush, told a crowd of fellow protesters before her arrest that as a young person, she would rather not be arrested but that the betrayal of the Albanese government left her with no choice.

“I’m here to voice the anger of my generation. The Albanese government claims they’re taking climate change seriously but they are completely and utterly failing us by approving polluting new coal and gas mines. See you out on the water today to block the coal ships!”

Each of those who chose to get arrested has their own story. They include environmental scientists, engineers, TAFE teachers, students, nurses and doctors, hospitality and retail workers, designers and media workers, activists who have retired, unionists, a mediator and a coal miner.

They came from across Australia — more than 200 came from Adelaide alone — and from many different backgrounds.

Behind those arrested stand volunteer groups of legal observers, arrestee support, lawyers, community care workers and a media team. Beside them stand hundreds of other volunteers who have cleaned portaloos, prepared three meals a day, washed dishes, welcomed and registered participants, organised camping spots and acted as marshals at pedestrian crossings.

Each and every one of them is playing an essential role in this campaign of mass civil disobedience.

Many participants said this huge collaborative effort is what inspired them and gave them hope, as much as did the protest itself.

Threat to democracy
Today, the president of NSW Civil Liberties, Tim Roberts, said, “Paddling a kayak in the Port of Newcastle is not an offence, people do it every day safely without hundreds of police officers.

“A decision was made to protect the safe passage of the vessels over the protection of people exercising their democratic rights to protest.

“We are living in extraordinary times. Our democracy will not irrevocably be damaged in one fell swoop — it will be a slow bleed, a death by a thousand tranches of repressive legislation, and by thousands of arrests of people standing up in defence of their civil liberties.”

Australian Institute research shows that most Australians agree with the Council for Civil Liberties — with 71 percent polled, including a majority of all parties, believing that the right to protest should be enshrined in Federal legislation. It also included a majority across all ages and political parties.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that it is a fear of accelerating mass civil disobedience in the face of a climate crisis that frightens both the Federal and State governments and the police.

As temperatures rise
Many of those protesting have already been directly affected by climbing temperatures in sweltering suburbs, raging bushfires and intense smoke, roaring floods and a loss of housing that has not been replaced, devastated forests, polluting coal mines and gas fields or rising seas in the Torres Strait in Northern Australia and Pacific Island countries.

Others have become profoundly concerned as they come to grips with climate science predictions and public health warnings.

In these circumstances, and as long as governments continue to enable the fossil fuel industry by approving more coal and gas projects that will add to the climate crisis, the number of people who decide they are morally obliged to take civil disobedience action will grow.

Rather than being impressed by politicians who cast them as disrupters, they will heed the call of Pacific leaders who this week declared the COP29 talks to be a “catastrophic failure” exposing their people to “escalating risks”.

Wendy Bacon is an investigative journalist who was the professor of journalism at University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She worked for Fairfax, Channel Nine and SBS and has published in The Guardian, New Matilda, City Hub and Overland. She has a long history in promoting independent and alternative journalism. She is a Rising Tide supporter, and is a long-term supporter of a peaceful BDS and the Greens.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Opposition Senate leader Simon Birmingham announces surprise retirement at election

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

Opposition leader in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, has announced he will retire from parliament at the election, to take up a “new, commercially oriented” career.

Birmingham, 50, the most senior Liberal moderate and the shadow foreign minister, leaves a hole in the Coalition team only months out from the election.

He has represented South Australia in the Senate since 2007, and served in a number of portfolios including finance, education and trade in the Coalition governments. In 2020 he replaced Mathias Cormann as Senate leader. In elections he often had an important role as campaign spokesperson.

Telling the Senate he had turned 50 this year, he said: “Now is the right time for me, for my family, and for new career pathways”.

“It is always better to go when there are some wishing you to stay, and none of us is irreplaceable.”

He was not specific about what job he will take up, saying just “I’m excited that next year I will step into a new commercially-oriented direction”.

But he gave the assurance: “You can all be relieved to know that it has nothing to do with lobbying, government relations or commentary”.

Senate leader Penny Wong said Birmingham was a “thoroughly decent person” and thanked him for his “constructive engagement”. She referred to how he had shown kindness to her after Labor’s election loss in 2019.

In his speech Birmingham said he was proud of “my small role in securing marriage equality in Australia, having been the first Coalition frontbencher to publicly back marriage reform”.

He also said he did not accept “the perceptions peddled by some in this building of it being a universally toxic workplace. There are many staff and members of parliament of all political persuasions who not only work hard and achieve much but they actually enjoy their time here too”.

He told the Senate he was troubled by “the global rise of populism and divisive tribalism peddled by ideological extremes.

“It risks social cohesion in countries like ours and jeopardises the economic wellbeing of countries like ours. I am confident that Australia is a country whose values sit at the centre and the parties of government forget that at their peril.”

His speech was followed by long applause, reflecting his popularity across the chamber.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said: “Birmo has a young family, and I know he’s going to be looking forward to spending more time with them, and he’s given an enormous amount to our country”.

Birmingham’s place as opposition leader in the Senate will be taken by his deputy Michaelia Cash.

The Conversation

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. Opposition Senate leader Simon Birmingham announces surprise retirement at election – https://theconversation.com/opposition-senate-leader-simon-birmingham-announces-surprise-retirement-at-election-244834

- ADVERT -

MIL PODCASTS
Bookmark
| Follow | Subscribe Listen on Apple Podcasts

Foreign policy + Intel + Security

Subscribe | Follow | Bookmark
and join Buchanan & Manning LIVE Thursdays @ midday

MIL Public Webcast Service


- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -