As protests in Iran drag on into their fourth week over the violent death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, there are two central questions.
The first is whether these protests involving women and girls across Iran are different from upheavals in the past, or will simply end the same way with the regime stifling a popular uprising.
The second question is what can, and should, the outside world do about extraordinarily brave demonstrations against an ageing and ruthless regime that has shown itself to be unwilling, and possibly unable, to allow greater freedoms?
The symbolic issue for Iran’s protest movement is a requirement, imposed by morality police, that women and girls wear the hijab, or headscarf. In reality, these protests are the result of a much wider revolt against discrimination and prejudice.
Put simply, women are fed up with a regime that has sought to impose rigid rules on what is, and is not, permissible for women in a theocratic society whose guidelines are little changed since the overthrow of the Shah in 1979.
Women are serving multi-year jail sentences for simply refusing to wear the hijab.
Two other issues are also at play. One is the economic deprivation suffered by Iranians under the weight of persistent sanctions, rampant inflation and the continuing catastrophic decline in the value of the Iranian riyal.
The other issue is the fact Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old whose death sparked the protests, was a Kurd.
The Kurds, who constitute about 10 percent of Iran’s 84 million population, feel themselves to be a persecuted minority. Tensions between the central government in Tehran and Kurds in their homeland on the boundaries of Iraq, Syria and Turkey are endemic.
A BBC report on the Mahsa Amini protests.
Another important question is where all this leaves negotiations on the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The JCPOA had been aimed at freezing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions.
Former President Donald Trump recklessly abandoned the 2015 agreement in 2018.
The Biden administration, along with its United Nations Security Council partners plus Germany, had been making progress in those negotiations, but those efforts are now stalled, if not frozen.
The spectacle of Iranian security forces violently putting down demonstrations in cities, towns and villages across Iran will make it virtually impossible in the short term for the US and its negotiating partners to negotiate a revised JCPOA with Tehran.
How will the US and its allies respond? So will the US and its allies continue to tighten Iranian sanctions? And to what extent will the West seek to encourage and support protesters on the ground in Iran?
One initiative that is already underway is helping the protest movement to circumvent regime attempts to shut down electronic communications.
Elon Musk has announced he is activating his Starlink satellites to provide a vehicle for social media communications in Iran. Musk did the same thing in Ukraine to get around Russian attempts to shut down Ukrainian communications by taking out a European satellite system.
However, amid the spectacle of women and girls being shot and tear-gassed on Iranian streets, the moral dilemma for the outside world is this: how far the West is prepared to go in its backing for the protesters.
Since the Iranian protests began there have also been pro-government rallies in response. Image: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA/AAP
It is one thing to express sympathy; it is another to take concrete steps to support the widespread agitation. This was also the conundrum during the Arab Spring of 2010 that brought down regimes in US-friendly countries like Egypt and Tunisia.
It should not be forgotten, in light of contemporary events, that Iran and Russia propped up Syria’s Assad regime during the Arab Spring, saving it from a near certain end.
In this latest period, the Middle East may not be on fire, as it was a decade or so ago, but it remains highly unstable. Iran’s neighbour, Iraq, is effectively without a government after months of violent agitation.
The war in Yemen is threatening to spark up again, adding to uncertainties in the Gulf.
In a geopolitical sense, Washington has to reckon with inroads Moscow has been making in relations with Gulf States, including, notably Saudi Arabia.
The recent OPEC Plus decision to limit oil production constituted a slap to the US ahead of the mid-term elections in which fuel prices will be a potent issue.
In other words, Washington’s ability to influence events in the Middle East is eroding, partly as a consequence of a disastrous attempt to remake the region by going to war in Iraq in 2003.
The US’s ability to influence the Middle East is much weaker than before it went to war in Iraq in 2003. Image: Susan Walsh/AP/AAP
A volatile region Among the consequences of that misjudgement is the empowerment of Iran in conjunction with a Shia majority in Iraq. This should have been foreseen.
So quite apart from the waves of protest in Iran, the region is a tinderbox with multiple unresolved conflicts.
In Afghanistan, on the fringes of the Middle East, women protesters have taken the lead in recent days from their Iranian sisters and have been protesting against conservative dress codes and limitations on access to education under the Taliban.
This returns us to the moral issue of the extent to which the outside world should support the protests. In this, the experience of the “green” rebellion of 2009 on Iran’s streets is relevant.
Then, the Obama administration, after initially giving encouragement to the demonstrations, pulled back on the grounds it did not wish to jeopardise negotiations on a nuclear deal with Iran or undermine the protests by attaching US support.
Officials involved in the administration, who are now back in the Biden White House, believe that approach was a mistake. However, that begs the question as to what practically the US and its allies can do to stop Iran’s assault on its own women and girls.
What if, as a consequence of Western encouragement to the demonstrators, many hundreds more die or are incarcerated?
What is the end result, beyond indulging in the usual rhetorical exercises such as expressing “concern” and threatening to ramp up sanctions that hurt individual Iranians more than the regime itself?
The bottom line is that irrespective of what might be the desired outcome, Iran’s regime is unlikely to crumble.
It might be shaken, it might entertain concerns that its own revolution that replaced the Shah is in danger of being replicated, but it would be naïve to believe that a rotting 43-year-old edifice would be anything but utterly ruthless in putting an end to the demonstrations.
This includes unrest in the oil industry, in which workers are expressing solidarity with the demonstrators. The oil worker protest will be concerning the regime, given the centrality of oil production to Iran’s economy.
However, a powerful women’s movement has been unleashed in Iran. Over time, this movement may well force a theocratic regime to loosen restrictions on women and their participation in the political life of the country. That is the hope, but as history has shown, a ruthless regime will stop at little to re-assert its control.
From October 16 to 27, United Nations will pay a special visit to look at some of the hidden corners of Australian society.
A UN torture prevention subcommittee will be making unannounced visits to various places of detention. These could include adult prisons, youth detention facilities, immigration detention centres, police cells, mental health institutions, and secure welfare facilities.
It will be looking for opportunities to prevent abuse and improve conditions of detention.
The visit will place international pressure on Australia to finally move forward with its commitments under the UN anti-torture protocol, on which the country has been dragging its feet.
It’s also a unique opportunity for Australians to see what’s happening behind closed doors and to demand better transparency, accountability, and treatment of vulnerable citizens.
Preventing harm
The subcommittee is a new treaty body that supports UN member states to prevent torture and mistreatment.
It has a right to unannounced visits to examine the treatment of people in prisons and other places of detention in countries that have signed the anti-torture protocol.
The anti-torture protocol signifies a commitment to establish independent monitoring bodies, called “national preventive mechanisms”. The bodies can freely access all places of detention, make recommendations, and engage in constructive dialogue to facilitate changes that prevent harm, mistreatment, and human rights abuses. Each state and territory, as well as the federal government, is expected to have its own monitoring body.
Like the subcommittee, the Australian monitoring bodies can show up completely unannounced so they can see what conditions are like when facilities haven’t been given advance notice.
These kinds of inspections are a powerful tool for transparency and accountability within sectors that typically operate behind closed doors.
Unfortunately, Australia has not upheld its commitment.
Australia first signed the anti-torture protocol in 2009 and ratified it in 2017, joining 91 other countries.
After postponing the 2018 deadline to establish monitoring bodies and missing the latest deadline in January 2022, the UN reluctantly granted Australia another one-year extension.
So far, the federal government and the governments of Western Australia, Tasmania and the ACT have identified who will comprise their monitoring bodies. But New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria have resisted until federal funding is confirmed.
By January 23 2023, all states and territories are required to have a monitoring body that’s fully compliant with the requirements laid out by the anti-torture protocol.
The apparent reason for the delay is a funding stalemate between the federal government and state and territory governments. The latter are responsible for nominating and coordinating their own jurisdictional monitoring bodies.
It’s hoped the subcommittee visit will speed up the implementation of the anti-torture protocol.
People deprived of liberty are vulnerable
Australia’s delay in establishing a monitoring body has been described as an international shame.
Australia has an abysmal reputation when it comes to protecting the health and human rights of those in detention. A few examples of the conditions people may be subjected to include:
Despite recommendations from the 2017 Royal Commission into the Detention and Protection of Children in the Northern Territory, the following are still commonly reported in youth detention across Australia:
Australia has a dark past when it comes to human rights in places of detention. Our future can, and must, be better.
The subcommittee’s visit should be a catalyst for establishing routine, independent monitoring that Australia has committed to under the anti-torture protocol.
It signals change towards collaborative, open discussion about the prevention of harm, mistreatment, and human rights abuses in all places where people are deprived of their liberty.
The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following people who provided input on this article: Daphne Arapakis of Koorie Youth Council, Tiffany Overall of YouthLaw, and Fergus Peace of Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.
Stuart Kinner receives funding from the NHMRC for research on the health of people in contact with the justice system. He is a technical advisor on the WHO Health in Prisons Programme.
Lindsay A. Pearce 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.
In July, a puzzling new image of a distant extreme star system surrounded by surreal concentric geometric rungs had even astronomers scratching their heads. The picture, which looks like a kind of “cosmic thumbprint”, came from the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s newest flagship observatory.
The internet immediately lit up with theories and speculation. Some on the wild fringe even claimed it as evidence for “alien megastructures” of unknown origin.
Luckily, our team at the University of Sydney had already been studying this very star, known as WR140, for more than 20 years – so we were in prime position to use physics to interpret what we were seeing.
WR140 is what’s called a Wolf-Rayet star. These are among the most extreme stars known. In a rare but beautiful display, they can sometimes emit a plume of dust into space stretching hundreds of times the size of our entire Solar System.
The radiation field around Wolf-Rayets is so intense, dust and wind are swept outwards at thousands of kilometres per second, or about 1% the speed of light. While all stars have stellar winds, these overachievers drive something more like a stellar hurricane.
Critically, this wind contains elements such as carbon that stream out to form dust.
WR140 is one of a few dusty Wolf-Rayet stars found in a binary system. It is in orbit with another star, which is itself a massive blue supergiant with a ferocious wind of its own.
The binary stars of the WR140 system. Amanda Smith / IoA / University of Cambridge, Author provided
Only a handful of systems like WR140 are known in our whole galaxy, yet these select few deliver the most unexpected and beautiful gift to astronomers. Dust doesn’t simply stream out from the star to form a hazy ball as might be expected; instead it forms only in a cone-shaped area where the winds from the two stars collide.
Because the binary star is in constant orbital motion, this shock front must also rotate. The sooty plume then naturally gets wrapped into a spiral, in the same way as the jet from a rotating garden sprinkler.
WR140, however, has a few more tricks up its sleeve layering more rich complexity into its showy display. The two stars are not on circular but elliptical orbits, and furthermore dust production turns on and off episodically as the binary nears and departs the point of closest approach.
Whenever WR140 and its binary companion star are close enough together, a pulse of dust streams into space.
An almost perfect model
By modelling all these effects into the three-dimensional geometry of the dust plume, our team tracked the location of dust features in three-dimensional space.
By carefully tagging images of the expanding flow taken at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, one of the world’s largest optical telescopes, we found our model of the expanding flow fit the data almost perfectly.
Except for one niggle. Close in right near the star, the dust was not where it was supposed to be. Chasing that minor misfit turned out to lead us right to a phenomenon never before caught on camera.
The power of light
We know that light carries momentum, which means it can exert a push on matter known as radiation pressure. The outcome of this phenomenon, in the form of matter coasting at high speed around the cosmos, is evident everywhere.
But it has been a remarkably difficult process to catch in the act. The force fades quickly with distance, so to see material being accelerated you need to track very accurately the movement of matter in a strong radiation field.
This acceleration turned out to be the one missing element in the models for WR140. Our data did not fit because the expansion speed wasn’t constant: the dust was getting a boost from radiation pressure.
Catching that for the first time on camera was something new. In each orbit, it is as if the star unfurls a giant sail made of dust. When it catches the intense radiation streaming from the star, like a yacht catching a gust, the dusty sail makes a sudden leap forward.
Smoke rings in space
The final outcome of all this physics is arrestingly beautiful. Like a clockwork toy, WR140 puffs out precisely sculpted smoke rings with every eight-year orbit.
Each ring is engraved with all this wonderful physics written in the detail of its form. All we have to do is wait and the expanding wind inflates the dust shell like a balloon until it is big enough for our telescopes to image.
In each eight-year orbit, a new ring of dust forms around WR140. Yinuo Han / University of Cambridge, Author provided
Then, eight years later, the binary returns in its orbit and another shell appears identical to the one before, growing inside the bubble of its predecessor. Shells keep accumulating like a ghostly set of giant nesting dolls.
However, the true extent to which we had hit on the right geometry to explain this intriguing star system was not brought home to us until the new Webb image arrived in June.
The image from the James Webb Space Telescope (left) confirmed in detail the predictions of the model (right). Yinhuo Han / Peter Tuthill / Ryan Lau, Author provided
Here were not one or two, but more than 17 exquisitely sculpted shells, each one a nearly exact replica nested within the one preceding it. That means the oldest, outermost shell visible in the Webb image must have been launched about 150 years before the newest shell, which is still in its infancy and accelerating away from the luminous pair of stars driving the physics at the heart of the system.
With their spectacular plumes and wild fireworks, the Wolf-Rayets have delivered one of the most intriguing and intricately patterned images to have been released by the new Webb telescope.
This was one of the first images taken by Webb. Astronomers are all on the edge of our seats, waiting for what new wonders this observatory will beam down to us.
Peter Tuthill receives funding from The Australian Research Council.
The “Women, Life, Freedom” movement that has taken hold in Iran in recent weeks is not new. Young Iranian women have been involved in small but consistent evolutionary actions during the entire 44 years of the Islamic Republic of Iran, particularly in the past two decades.
The initial movement goes back to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the year radical Islamic groups took power. Street protests, the so-called “evolution toward revolution”, have accelerated since 2017.
In all these movements, women have been courageous and bold. Key demonstrations include:
protest about the irregularities in the presidential election (2009)
protest against the government’s economic policies (2017-2018)
Bloody November (2019)/Bloody Aban (2020) protests, caused by the significant increase in fuel prices.
Iranians protest fuel price hikes with their cars in Tehran, November 2019. Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA/AAP
Young Iranian women position themselves as agents of social change. They are not, as they are often represented outside Iran, powerless victims. They have always been at the forefront of breaking down social boundaries and taboos.
They have been fighting to enhance their social status through education and career development.
They believe in evolution (small yet strong and consistent change), rather than sudden revolution (temporary and unsustainable change). The idea is that incremental change can lead to another unsuccessful revolution, such as in 1979.
In our research, we spoke to 391 women aged 18-35 from Shiraz, one of the biggest cities in Iran. We found that their evolutionary actions can be captured by key themes: they may seem ordinary, but they represent what young Iranian women are fighting for. They are not looking for something extraordinary. They only want to exercise some level of control over their basic rights.
1. Developing multiple identities. Young Iranian women must manage multiple identities due to the oppressive system. They feel their values, behaviour and actions are not aligned – and not truly free – because of the contradictory expectations their society places on them. They feel they are not always free to be their true selves.
They have used the creation of multiple identities as a coping strategy to be accepted by their society in different stages of their lives, from childhood to university, marriage and working life. As one young woman in our research observed:
Iranian women always should jump from a barrier [to achieve the most obvious rights they have], the barrier of traditional families, the barrier of (morality) police, the barrier of culture.
Another participant said:
My fake identity has been the dominant identity and I have not had a chance to be the real me.
2. Building digital freedom. Iranian women use social media to engage in national and international online social protest groups, exchange information and generate ideas on how to tackle social challenges in their society. Despite the government’s active crackdown on international social media platforms, young Iranians still find innovative ways of accessing them.
Social media have increased social, cultural and political awareness among the young generation, and this appears to be increasing the gap between younger and older generations of the country. One woman told us:
Although satellite TV and some of the social networks [such as Facebook] are banned in Iran, young generations try to have access, using different anti-filters.
3. Creating a unique style of dressing. Research has found that most young Iranians are against mandatory hijab. It is not a cultural issue in Iran, but rather a very restrictive and radical Islamic law, which is one of the key foundations of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The regime assumes that if the rules around mandatory hijab break down, other pillars of the Islamic Republic will be in danger. So protests against hijab – as we are seeing in Iran – challenge the legitimacy of the regime.
Young Iranian women have a high level of education and awareness, respecting different cultures, beliefs, religions and dress codes. They only want to have freedom of choice. As one woman told us: “Islamic leaders want us to hide our beauty.”
The current protests in Iran were triggered by the death in custody of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. Hawre Khalid/AP/AAP
A recent study found the majority of Iranians (58%) did not believe in the practice of wearing hijab. Only 23% agreed with the compulsory hijab, which is respected by the rest of the population: people do not want hijab abolished, they just want freedom of choice.
4. Creating hidden leisure opportunities. Young Iranian women try to create more opportunities to express the enjoyable yet hidden parts of their life. As one woman said:
We prefer to stay at home and have our gatherings and parties in private places, as we find indoor activities more interesting because we don’t have the limitations of dressing, drinking, female-male interactions.
5. Changing social and sexual relationships. Our research found Iranian women believe the limitations on social and sexual relationships can result in psychological and social health issues. In addition, they believe limitations on relationships before marriage can result in unsuccessful marriages.
Young Iranian women use different strategies to keep their relationships. One specific example is the creation of “white marriage” – where a man and a woman live together without passing the Islamic process of marriage in Iran.
In many of these movements, Iranian women also find support from men (despite the general perception), particularly in the young generations, who equate a push for gender equality and women’s rights with a more democratic society.
They know that fighting for gender equality is everyone’s job, to enhance awareness and bring about change. There can be no democracy without first respecting women’s rights and restoring their dignity and freedom.
This study was funded by Griffith University and supported by both Griffith University and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.
This week, Todd Sampson’s documentary Mirror Mirror: Love & Hate screened on Channel Ten. The documentary focuses on harms that occur through social media and online platforms.
It raises important points about the need for awareness and regulation, but these are often crowded out by alarmist tropes that don’t reflect what we know from decades of research into digital technologies. Left unchallenged, they can prompt unnecessary worry and distract us from having important conversations about how to make technology better.
As digital media researchers, here are some of the claims we think people should approach with caution.
Digital technology and ADHD
While it’s sensible to avoid letting young children spend all day on digital devices, the documentary’s suggestion that using digital devices causes attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children is questionable.
The neuroscientist interviewed about this notes that studies have found “correlations” between digital device use and ADHD diagnoses, but the documentary never explains to viewers that correlation doesn’t equal causation. It may be that having ADHD makes children more likely to use digital devices, rather than digital devices causing ADHD.
Even more importantly, longitudinal studies have looked for evidence that device use causes ADHD in children and haven’t found any.
There are other reasons why the science here is much less conclusive than the documentary suggests. Studies that find these correlations often use parents’ estimates of their children’s “screen time” to measure technology use.
This method is now regarded by some experts as an almost meaningless measure of technology use. Parent estimates are usually inaccurate, and “screen time” combines many different technologies into one concept while failing to account for the content being watched or the context of use.
Parents’ tracking of their children’s screen time is not always a reliable measure. Steve Heap/Shutterstock
The trope of pseudo-connections
Another key focus in the documentary is the idea that online interactions and relationships are not real and have no value. There are claims about “pseudo-connections” leading to poor mental health and increased loneliness.
Overall, the documentary suggests online communication is fake and harmful while in-person interaction is real and beneficial.
It’s especially important to recognise that online friendships and interactions can be crucial for LGBTIQ+ young people. These young people suffer disproportionate rates of suicide and mental illness. However, studies have repeatedly shown digital communication tools such as social media provide them with valuable sources of emotional support, friendships and informal learning, and are ultimately linked to improved mental health.
Mirror Mirror pays a lot of attention to the dangers of children interacting with strangers online. Its most alarmist claim on this topic is that today, the majority of children’s friends are strangers on the internet.
However, research has consistently shown young people mostly use social media to connect with people they already know. However, other kinds of online spaces, like gaming platforms, are also accessed by children and do encourage interactions between strangers. Serious harms can come from these kinds of interactions, although it’s important to remember this is less common than you might think.
A world-leading European Union study of children’s internet use provides a more balanced picture. It found most children are not interacting with strangers online and when children meet friends from the internet in person, it’s usually a happy experience.
The study emphasises that while it’s important to talk to children about managing risks, meeting new people online can have benefits, such as finding friends with similar interests or practising a foreign language.
In the show’s second episode, Sampson states anonymity is “perhaps the biggest killer of empathy” in internet communication. The documentary never defines anonymity and frames it as almost exclusively negative.
While anonymity can be a part of the way people inflict harms online, forcing people to use their real names doesn’t automatically make them behave better.
Research has also shown online anonymity is used for many different purposes, including positive ones. It can reduce online harms such as doxxing and enable consensual sexual interactions. It can also ensure that people who experience marginalisation feel comfortable using the internet without fear of retribution.
Mirror Mirror is too quick to frame anonymity as the cause of online abuse rather than as one of many contributing factors. It’s important we don’t lose sight of these other factors, especially the social contexts of misogyny and racism in which online abuse occurs.
The real issues
The documentary includes some heartbreaking accounts from parents, young people and women who have experienced devastating harm online. These are real issues and, as Sampson notes, responsibility for fixing them lies with tech platforms, regulators and educators.
We wholeheartedly agree and welcome discussions about regulating big tech and developing awareness and education campaigns.
But we would like to see more practical discussion of how platforms need to change, and fewer sensationalist claims and implicit critiques of individual users.
Kate Mannell is a Research Fellow in the Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, which is funded by the Australian Research Council.
Caitlin McGrane is the Manager, Policy and Online Safety, at Gender Equity Victoria. Gender Equity Victoria has received State and Federal Government to investigate experiences and solutions to gendered online harassment.
Former Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters.
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards.
Political Roundup: Can NZ First once again fill the vacuum at the centre of politics?
Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards.
They don’t get much media coverage at the moment, but the New Zealand First party could be central to the next year in politics, and determine the shape of the next government.
The latest opinion survey out yesterday – leaked from Labour-aligned pollsters Talbot-Mills – has New Zealand First on 4.4 per cent. The party has been edging up in the polls all year. The last few Kantar-1News polls have had the party on 3 per cent.
This level of support is actually relatively high for the party which tends to do poorly between election years and then have a surge of support during campaigns. So, it’s certainly not out of the question that Winston Peters’ party could soon register 5 per cent and suddenly become a real force in next year’s election.
This would change everything.
The re-emergence of a 5 per cent NZ First party would suddenly mean the drag race that we are seeing between the left bloc and right bloc would be over-taken by a centre party once again holding the pivot vote. A re-elected NZ First party would be the King or Queen maker again as neither the National-Act bloc nor the Labour-Greens-Te Pāti Māori bloc would be likely to have a majority in the House.
The possibility of both Christopher Luxon and Jacinda Ardern needing the votes of Winston Peters in the house to form the next government should be taken very seriously.
Filling a vacuum at the centre of politics
There is a sense of a growing vacuum at the centre of the left-right spectrum in New Zealand politics at the moment. There is no party in Parliament that can credibly position itself as being between the two blocs of left and right. The old centre parties such as United Future are gone, and few see Te Pāti Māori as genuinely playing that pivot role between Labour and National. And the prospect of The Opportunities Party breaking into Parliament is still unlikely.
NZ First is now well positioned to fill the vacuum that has developed in the centre of politics. Winston Peters is putting his party forward as the only “true centre option”.
As Matthew Hooton writes today in the Herald, the two blocs in Parliament are currently playing right into the hands of Peters by appearing as extreme, allowing NZ First a plausible new pitch for votes: “Vote for the Labour-Green-Te Pāti Māori (TPM) bloc, they argue, and you’ll get ever-more insufferable Grey Lynn wokeism, world-first climate taxes on provincial New Zealand solely designed to bolster Jacinda Ardern’s international brand, radical separatism and ultimately some kind of ‘Tiriti-ocracy’. But vote for the National-Act axis, they say, and a hapless and policy-less Christopher Luxon will be pushed far right by a much better organised and ideologically committed David Seymour.”
NZ First now has a strong catchcry of being the “handbrake” on the excesses of Labour and National extremism.
This weekend’s “Renewal” conference
Winston Peters is now 77 years old, and sometimes appears like a spent force. Certainly, at the last election it was apparent that both he and his party had lost touch with the Zeitgeist and had run out of steam. The party’s thinking was stale, and they were overshadowed by their coalition partner Labour, which surfed the Covid waves to win 50 per cent of the vote.
So, can Winston Peters and his sidekick Shane Jones show that they are re-energised? They will get the chance to do that this weekend, when the party holds its annual conference in Christchurch. The public will get to see if the party has anything new to show, and whether it still possesses the sort of dynamism required to stage a comeback next year. The conference is being billed as the party’s “Renewal” conference.
According to Hooton, at tomorrow’s meeting Peters will “rant” about being the victim of the Serious Fraud Office investigation, which resulted in a “not guilty” verdict in the High Court earlier this year. But there will be other areas of more effective campaigning: “Peters and Shane Jones will find more fertile ground talking about law and order including ram raids, Ardern’s climate-change posturing, and the plutocracy in government departments and big business in downtown Wellington and Auckland.”
The conference will also give a sense of whether the party is still a going concern or has hollowed out, with many former MPs, activists and members drifting away from involvement. Peters is reported today as saying that most of his former caucus are still involved in the party. According to Jo Moir: “Shane Jones, Fletcher Tabuteau, Darroch Ball, Mark Patterson and Jenny Marcroft are all still contributing to NZ First. Marcroft, with Tracey Martin, had initially walked away from the party after the 2020 loss, but according to Peters, Marcroft has come back into the fold.”
Marcroft herself is quoted, explaining her return to NZ First: “There have been some big shifts internally that would allow me to return to the party in some capacity, including more women on the board and electing a gay Māori president”.
The health of the party’s finances might also be an issue at the conference. After all the party’s fundraising schemes have been clearly under intense scrutiny and condemnation in the High Court. But recently, the party declared a $35,000 donation from Troy Bowker, a Wellington private equity investor and donor to the Act Party.
Guest speakers at the AGM tomorrow include Sir Graham Lowe and economist Cameron Bagrie.
Stoking the culture wars
Expect to see Peters and Jones push hard on culture war issues. This is probably the party’s best bet for differentiating itself from Labour and picking up on the anger with the Government. It’s also a fertile area of politics because most politicians have been reluctant to campaign strongly on this (with the obvious exception of David Seymour).
Issues of culture and race remain potent areas of populist electoral politics everywhere in the world at the moment. And Peters is still well positioned to push very hard against things like Three Waters, Māori co-governance, and the Labour Government’s He Puapua report.
As Andrea Vance has argued this year, “His ancestry gives him the freedom to exploit the issue and whip up fears of ‘Māorification’ without being labelled a racist. A strong stance on the issue of Māori sovereignty would also endear him to some older, provincial voters in National’s base who are yet to forgive him for handing power to Ardern in 2017.”
More recently, Richard Harman says that Peters and Jones “both possess strong credentials to question the current Government’s Maori policies. Both are obviously Maori; Jones is fluent in Te Reo, and Peters is a former Minister of Maori Affairs.”
Peters has already signalled that the price for working with Labour again in 2023 would be that they drop their co-governance agenda. And he’s explained that he had previously been a handbrake on these issues: “We were in government for three years. There were matters which were clearly not disclosed to me or my party – He Puapua and going to Ihumatao… Since the [2020] election you have seen the emergence of what are clearly race-based policies and a pathway to apartheid – there’s no other word for it.”
National and Act won’t escape Peters’ critiques on this. Recently he has pointed out that the decision to go with Labour in 2017 was partly because of National’s support of The UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights. He’s said: “I was up against a National Party with nine years coupling with the Maori party and the Act Party that had approved the UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights and changed the foreshore seabed legislation and every other stupid thing that’s unleashing racism and separatism in this country”.
Peters has also said that “separatism” is going to be “a massive issue” during the 2023 election campaign.
No doubt, he will also focus on free speech and climate change. In terms of the latter, Peters has been one of the most scathing critics of the impact of the He Waka Eke Noa proposals for pricing farming emissions. Recently he declared: “It’s all this woke virtue signalling, without real understanding of the industry you’re trying to serve”.
Don’t expect Peters’ usual xenophobic campaigns on immigration, however. As the Herald’s Audrey Young writes today, “given the dire need for immigrants to fill labour shortages, it is unlikely that attacking immigration will feature strongly in Winston Peters’ bid to return to politics next year.”
A focus on the Labour Government letting down the poor
Peters is currently focusing his energies on condemning the core policies of the Labour Government. He has said this week that the local election results, in which Labour-backed or left-candidates for mayoralties mostly did very poorly, were a reaction to Government policies: “it was a serious rejection of some of the central government oversight and imposition on local government, and the desire for people to be in control of their own lives.”
As well as stoking the culture wars, however, Peters is likely to paint a picture of the current government being focused on cultural issues while the material needs of people for housing, health and income go unmet. Recently he made this critique of the Government: “People are up against the cost of living and for a lot of people who would be in that wealthy or middle incomes, many of them are struggling and people at the bottom, sadly despite all the problems, the fundamental costs of rates, insurance, cost of living, food, everything is going the wrong way and they’ve done nothing about it.”
And Peters will position himself as the defender of the majority of Māori who are bearing the brunt of government policies and recession. In contrast, Peters argues Labour politicians are only concerned with more elite, cultural issues: “The sad thing is that while politicians like Willie Jackson push their pet project for a certain Maori elite, Maori housing, health, education, and incomes remain on the scrap heap of their political concerns.”
And, of course, there’s always some new Peters-esque phrasing to make his campaigning media-friendly or memorable. Look out this weekend for some new version of “woke” or other critiques of the elite. One word that Peters has started using recently is “Hypersociology”.
Of course, much of this type of language and campaigning will bring ridicule and condemnation, especially from Twitter, the media, and other politicians. But this just works in Peters’ favour. As Hooton has argued, “Winston Peters needs only one in 20 voters – the remaining 19 voters and the mainstream media can loathe and belittle him as much as they like… If anything, the scorn of the 19 and the media helps.”
New Zealand First still have a long way to go in returning to Parliament – and there are plenty of reasons for voters to distrust them. But it’s probably time to start taking a Winston Peters comeback seriously.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney
The northern Murray-Darling Basin produces 93% of Australia’s cotton. Cotton is one of Australia’s biggest agricultural industries – worth about A$2 billion each year – and a steady supply of water is crucial for production.
Our recently published research reveals that since the 1990s, average April-May rainfall in the northern basin has decreased significantly. The decrease coincides with accelerated climate change.
Our research also found average or below-average rainfall in the remaining cool season months June to September. Without substantial spring or summer rain, this leads to less rainfall runoff in dams – and less water to irrigate cotton and other crops.
Climate change will bring more frequent droughts, as well as more frequent flooding. These two future extremes in rainfall both have the potential to damage Australia’s lucrative cotton industry.
New research suggests more frequent drought will wreak further havoc on Australia’s cotton industry. Danny Casey/AAP
A vital river system
The northern Murray-Darling Basin spans northeast New South Wales and southeast Queensland. It comprises floodplains of streams or small rivers that feed into the Darling River.
Cotton in the basin is mostly grown on clay soils on floodplains next to rivers. When rivers flood after heavy rain, the soil stores water for later plant growth.
Water stored in the cooler months ensures an adequate supply of water in summer, when cotton crops require the most water. Insufficient rain in the cooler months means dam water will be needed in summer. But highly variable summer rain means this water is not always available.
Maintaining water flow through the northern Murray-Darling Basin is crucial. Many farms and communities rely on river water for human consumption and to irrigate cotton and other crops. And a sustainable water supply is vital for the ecological health of wetlands, waterholes and floodplains.
The Darling River is the heart of the northern Murray-Darling Basin. Dean Lewins/AAP
What we found
Our research examined annual April-May rainfall in the northern Murray-Darling Basin from 1911 to 2019. Other research has concentrated on autumn rainfall for southeast Australia but not specifically on this part of the basin.
We already knew 94% of water gauges in the northern Murray-Darling Basin showed declining trends in water flow since records began in 1970. Our previous research had also found a declining rainfall trend in April-May in the southern Murray-Darling Basin. So we wanted to see if the trend was similar in the north.
For the drought from 2017 to 2019, almost all the northern parts of the basin experienced their driest ever period or close to it.
But the consecutive La Niñas of 2020-21 and 2021-22 brought heavy rain to the northern Murray-Darling Basin – filling dams and leading to flooding.
Rain is generated by short-term events such as thunderstorms, as well as large-scale systems. In eastern Australia, these include climate drivers such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, Southern Annular Mode and Indian Ocean Dipole.
These climate drivers influence weather over months and seasons. In the northern Murray-Darling Basin, they’re responsible for highly variable seasonal and annual rainfall. Specifically, we found:
the El Niño-Southern Oscillation influences spring/summer rainfall
the Southern Annular Mode affects summer rainfall
the Indian Ocean Dipole is important for late winter/spring rainfall.
Significantly, global warming was a prominent contributor to extremes of rainfall in all seasons, both individually and in combination with other climate drivers.
Global warming was a prominent contributor to extremes of rainfall in all seasons. Dean Lewins/AAP
North vs south
Typically, it rains more in the northern Murray-Darling Basin during the warmer season, and more in the south in the late cool season. Both receive significantly decreased rainfall in April and May.
So in the north, reduced April-May rainfall, coupled with the usual lower rainfall late in the cool season, can mean dams are not full heading into the warmer season where irrigation water is crucial for cotton crops.
A compounding factor is that the northern dams have about one-third the capacity of the south. What’s more, rising temperatures since the 1990s have increased evaporation lost from vegetation across the basin – and during 2018-2019, the evaporation was higher in the north.
So what does all this mean? The results suggest global warming will both increase temperatures and rainfall extremes in the northern Murray-Darling Basin, bringing more frequent droughts and floods. The associated impact on yields will likely threaten the future of cotton farming – by far the basin’s most important crop.
Climate change likely threatens the future of cotton farming. Dave Hunt/AAP
Looking ahead
About 90% of Australia’s cotton crop is irrigated. This changes each year depending on how much natural rainfall is received across the cotton-growing catchments.
Our research confirms rainfall extremes in the northern Murray-Darling Basin are increasing. The subsequent longer and more frequent droughts and floods are likely to lead to lower cotton yields, which may affect the livelihood of the communities dependent on cotton farming.
River flows are affected by both rainfall and human management of rivers, such as the allocation of water for irrigation and other uses. More accurate rainfall models are needed to help state and local water authorities make crucial management decisions. These models should predict the climate drivers identified in our study.
Joshua Hartigan receives funding from the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.
Lance M Leslie and Milton Speer 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.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Naomi Joy Godden, VIce-Chancellor’s Research Fellow, Centre for People, Place and Planet, Edith Cowan University
Shutterstock
All around us, climate change is worsening existing disadvantage. In Australia, we need only look to low-income households hit harder by rising energy and fuel prices, and flood responses in northern New South Wales overlooking the needs of people with disability.
These are examples of “climate injustice”. In our research on climate change and social justice in Australia, we have found again and again that people already experiencing marginalisation are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
But importantly, these are often the groups leading social movements to demand that equity and fairness for current and future generations are at the heart of climate action.
Sadly, climate justice is still not central to current climate deliberations, as shown in Labor’s recent refusal to rule out new coal and gas projects – despite the huge impact on emissions. These complex injustices will require transformative policy responses to ensure no one is left behind.
Climate change makes existing inequalities worse
Over the past decade, we have conducted feminist and participatory research projects about climate justice, in partnership with grassroots communities.
We have found climate change acts to reinforce existing systems of oppression and inequality. People who already experience marginalisation and disadvantage in our community are worse placed to weather climate extremes. If you are living in low quality housing and struggling to pay the bills, you will not have spare cash to cool your home during a heatwave.
Many other researchers have come to similar conclusions. We know climate change is already forcing some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to leave their traditional homelands.
We also know violence can increase against women and children during and after extreme weather events – as it did after the enormous 2009 Black Saturday fires.
There has been discrimination against LGBTQIA+ peoples in disaster recovery. And low income earners face increased costs of living to cope with unbearable heat or cold.
When we think about climate action, we tend to think of solar panels, electrified transport and wind turbines. That’s because climate policies focus on technology-based answers.
For instance, in Western Australia’s 2020 climate policy, “hydrogen” is mentioned 58 times while the word “people” is only used once. This focus on “techno-fixes” promotes climate solutions while overlooking entrenched systems of disadvantage and injustice.
Living on Country is becoming harder
Australia’s remote Indigenous communities already face real challenges in living on Country as global heating intensifies.
As Wardaman woman and Central Land Council policy director Josie Douglas told The Guardian,
without action to stop climate change, people will be forced to leave their country and leave behind much of what makes them Aboriginal.
The way the Aboriginal Health Council of WA describes climate change is telling: it is “a disease that […] affects and impacts on every living thing”.
Issues such as poor-quality housing make it increasingly difficult for First Nations peoples to live on Country. Cheaply built cement houses become sweltering hotboxes.
Importantly, this is a story of strength and resilience. Many First Nations peoples are highly active in responding to the threat, campaigning for climate justice through better protection of Country. First Nations peoples are also developing community-owned renewable energy so they can live and work on Country with greater energy independence.
And a group of Torres Strait Islanders took their human rights complaint against the federal government to the United Nations over the government’s inaction on climate change. They won.
Over the Black Summer of 2019–20, forests up and down the east coast burned much more land than usual. The dense smoke from these fires led to the death of an estimated 445 people, the bushfire royal commission heard.
This is the starkest example of how climate change can worsen health. But it can also operate in insidious ways.
Two years ago, Western Australia released the findings of the world’s first public inquiry on how climate change affects health. It found children and youth, farming communities, people with disabilities, low income earners and older people at particular risk.
Climate change also worsens gender inequality and social justice issues such as poverty, homelessness, and unemployment. For instance, as climate change upends traditional farming and fishing livelihoods, some women are forced to shoulder more unpaid labour caring for family and community health and wellbeing.
Australia’s overstretched (and highly feminised) social services workforce is now increasingly having to respond to the fallout from climate change.
Young people told us of their growing grief and distress. As one teenage respondent said,
climate change can be sad and overwhelming for young people, particularly due to our powerlessness to fix the issue.
Communities are adapting, building resilience, and working to stem climate change. They demandjust climate solutions upholding the rights of people and the planet and address the structural drivers of disadvantage, like colonialism.
The worldwide school strike movement has galvanised a generation, confronted world leaders and shifted the views of powerful institutions. Climate activism is also a proven way of countering a sense of powerlessness and eco-anxiety.
Naomi Joy Godden has received research funding from Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre, Plan International Australia, Climate Justice Union WA, and Oxfam Australia. She is the Chair of Just Home Margaret River Inc. and a member of the Australian Greens.
Kavita Naidu is a Council Member of Progressive International.
Dr Keely Boom has received funding from the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Edith Cowan University, and the Climate Justice Union for work on climate justice. She is the Executive Officer of the Climate Justice Programme. She teaches Climate Law at the Australian National University.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew M. Baker, Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Environmental Science, Queensland University of Technology
Life on Earth is undergoing a period of mass extinction – the sixth in history, and the first caused by humans. As species disappear at an alarming rate, we have learned that we understand only a fraction of Earth’s variety of life.
The task of describing this biodiversity before it is lost relies on the discipline of taxonomy, the scientific practice of classifying and naming organisms.
But taxonomy is far more than just naming things. It underpins an enormous range of human activities, including biology (via health and conservation management), the economy (via agriculture and biosecurity) and many other areas of endeavour.
Unfortunately, taxonomy is suffering globally from reduced support and funding. This is an area of ongoing concern recognised in Australia’s State of the Environment report released in July this year. The workforce of taxonomists has declined when it is needed most.
Taxonomists unite
So, what is being done?
Communities of taxonomists in Australia and the world over are making a concerted effort to face the challenge of naming and understanding Earth’s unknown species.
Australian taxonomists are garnering support to achieve the goal of documenting all Australian species by 2050.
This ambitious plan requires not just government and other external support but also co-ordination of our taxonomists. Success will mean bringing together those who study lesser-known groups, such as insects, spiders and fungi, with those who work on more familiar groups such as vertebrates, including mammals.
Mammals are also among the most threatened animal groups globally. And because it has contributed the most species to the list, Australia has the worst modern mammal extinction record of any country, along with one of the most distinctive mammal faunas on Earth: about 90% of our terrestrial mammals live nowhere else.
The Bramble Cay melomys is believed to be the first mammal made extinct at least in part by human-caused climate change. Ian Bell / EHP / Queensland, CC BY
In the face of an avalanche of human-mediated threats, including climate warming, land-use change and introduction of pest species, are the host of hidden mammal species destined for extinction before they are even discovered, described and known to humanity?
The consortium aims to promote stability and consensus, provide advice and guidance, and promote the cause and importance of Australasian mammal taxonomy to both scientists and the broader public.
We have recently introduced the aspirations and aims of our group in a review paper and published our first list of species, covering Australian mammals.
Not just koalas and kangaroos: the Australasian Mammal Taxonomy Consortium currently recognises 404 species of Australian mammals. EcoPrint / Shutterstock
We recognise 404 Australian mammal species, including 2 monotremes (platypus and short-beaked echidna), 175 marsupials (such as the Tasmanian devil, the numbat, the koala, kangaroos and so on) and 227 placentals (such as rodents, bats, seals, whales and dolphins). The list includes 11 species, and numerous subspecies, that have only been discovered and formally named in the past decade.
A suite of other recognised variable forms, new species-in-waiting, need study and description.
The Australian mammal species list will be updated annually to incorporate new species names. In the future, working with research groups throughout the region, we will produce lists of mammal species found elsewhere in Australasia.
A new launching point
We hope this will standardise the use of mammal species names, highlight groups where further taxonomic work is required, and provide a launching point for this work.
We hope the Australasian Mammal Taxonomy Consortium can do its part to help grow and focus an interest to better understand and conserve our precious Australasian mammals before it is too late.
The authors comprise a steering committee representing the broader Australasian Mammal Taxonomy Consortium working group, which includes more than 30 members.
Andrew Baker receives funding from the Australian Biological Resources Study program.
Diana Fisher has received funding including species discovery from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund and the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund
Greta Frankham receives funding from the Australian Museum Foundation, NSW Department of Planning and Environment, NSW Department of Transport
Kenny Travouillon receives funding from the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS).
Linette Umbrello receives funding from the Australian Biological Resources Study program.
Mark Eldridge receives funding from the Australian Research Council, NSW Department of Planning and Environment and the Australian Museum Foundation.
Sally Potter receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Stephen Jackson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Pawson, Professor of Housing Research and Policy, and Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
The federal Labor government has promised to craft a national housing and homelessness plan and to fund new social housing, returning Canberra to a field it all but abandoned for a decade. A new Productivity Commission report is scathing about current arrangements and calls for far-reaching change.
Yet some of the report’s key recommendations rest on faulty assumptions and outdated economic thinking. It relies on a misplaced belief that the market will respond to low-income households’ need for affordable housing. Its faith in deregulation as a cure-all is misguided.
The experience of recent decades and a wealth of research evidence instead point to the need to increase government investment in public and community housing.
The National Housing and Homelessness Agreement provides $1.6 billion a year in federal funding to the states and territories. It’s meant to improve Australians’ access to affordable and secure housing.
However, in its review of the agreement, the commission judges it ineffective and in need of a major shake-up.
With rents rising and vacancies falling, low-income private renters “are spending more on housing than they used to”. Some “have little income left after paying their rent”. Almost one in four have less than $36 a day for other essentials.
More people are seeking emergency housing support from homelessness services. And, as the report acknowledges, more are being turned away.
The commission declares “homelessness is a result of not being able to afford housing” and governments must “address the structural factors that lead to housing unaffordability”. As experts in housing policy, economics and urban planning, we agree. Far-reaching reform is long overdue.
The report concludes, for example, that first home-buyer grants and stamp duty concessions are counterproductive and push up prices. It advocates spending these billions on preventing homelessness instead.
The report endorses a “housing first” approach to tackling homelessness – this means housing people unconditionally as the first priority before dealing with their other needs. The report also calls for early intervention programs for “at risk” cohorts, such as people leaving hospitals, prisons or out-of-home care.
So what’s wrong with the report?
The review’s terms of reference, set by the previous government in 2021, meant the commission did not consider how easy credit, negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount drive real estate speculation, inflate prices and lead to inefficient use of housing and land. Coupled with the commission’s embedded faith in market forces, these omissions skew its recommendations, especially on social housing.
Instead of more public investment to provide more social housing, the commission urges Canberra to convert its $1.4 billion-a-year support for social housing running costs through the national agreement into Commonwealth Rent Assistance. It wants to up-end the current system by replacing income-based rents with market rents across social housing.
But most of these renters would be much worse off unless there is a large rent assistance increase across the board. Recognising this, the commission advocates a top-up payment “to ensure housing is affordable and tenancies can be sustained”. Without estimating the cost, it optimistically suggests the states should pick up the tab.
The commission argues this approach would be more equitable for social and private renters. The implicit subsidy from capping social housing tenants’ rents at 25% of income typically exceeds the rent assistance paid to private tenants. Yet reducing social housing tenants to the same level of precarity as private renters seems an odd way to eliminate unfairness.
Enabling low-income Australians to secure decent private rental homes would require a dramatic rise in rent assistance payments, perhaps even to a level equating to the implicit subsidy social housing tenants receive.
Broader benefits of social housing overlooked
The commission has neglected the broader benefits of social housing investment that delivers good-quality, well-managed homes that low-income earners can afford.
Decades of mounting rent assistance expenditure have failed to fill the gap created by the lack of a sustained national program of social housing construction since the 1990s. Research shows the shortfall in private dwellings affordable to low-income renters ballooned from 48,000 in 1996 to 212,00 in 2016.
Simple comparisons between the costs of rent assistance and building affordable homes also ignore the wider community benefits of social housing. SGS Economics recently found the return on social housing investment is “comparable to, or better than” major infrastructure projects. And economics professor Andi Nygaard estimates the “large, but avoidable, annual social and economic costs” of the affordable housing shortage will top $1 billion a year by 2036.
Why planning reform is no panacea
Underlying much of the commission’s thinking is the idea that the main cause of unaffordable housing is outdated land-use planning rules that restrict new housing supply.
This contention ignores two decades of state planning reforms, including higher-density housing near transport and town centres, simplified rules and accelerated decision-making.
The commission estimates a 1% increase in overall housing supply (implicitly achievable through planning deregulation) could deflate rents by 2.5%. But what makes this scenario implausible is the development industry’s time-honoured – but entirely rational – practice of drip-feeding new housing supply to keep prices buoyant. Even if planning relaxation could enable ramped-up construction, it’s hard to imagine that being sustained in the face of any resulting market cooling.
However, the commission argues all private real estate development, regardless of cost, will eventually trickle through to those in need. As properties are traded over time, pricier homes will “filter down” through the market at progressively lower rents.
This view defies evidence that many factors other than planning have profound impacts on housing costs and supply. New Australian research strongly suggests “filtering” alone will not make homes affordable for lower-income earners.
None of this is to deny that the planning system could be improved. But if solving housing unaffordability were simply a case of “unleashing planning reforms”, other countries would have managed it long ago.
Australians struggling to pay the rent, or even find a home, deserve a much better response from Australia’s premier economic policy agency, and one that actually reflects the dynamics of the housing system.
Hal Pawson receives funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, the Australian Research Council, Launch Housing, Queensland Council of Social Service and Crisis UK.
Bill Randolph currently receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Chris Leishman receives funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), the Economic and Social Research Council (UK-ESRC), Australian and UK state government departments, the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC). He is affiliated with Housing Choices Australia Ltd, as a non-executive director, and the Urban Studies Journal (for which he is an editor).
Nicole Gurran receives funding from the Australian Housing & Research Institute and the Australian Research Council.
Peter Phibbs receives funding from Shelter Tasmania
Vivienne Milligan receives funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Ltd. She is affiliated with Community Housing Industry Association of Australia.
Peter Mares 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.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karin Hammarberg, Senior Research Fellow, Global and Women’s Health, School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University
Shutterstock
For the first time, IVF clinics in Australia and New Zealand have reported data about the scale and range of male fertility problems in couples who have IVF. New data released by the Australia and New Zealand Assisted Reproduction Database (ANZARD) today reveal about one-third of all IVF cycles performed in 2020 included a diagnosis of male infertility.
Although most male fertility problems can’t be prevented, there are things men can do to improve sperm quality and the chance of natural conception.
Most male infertility is due to the testes failing to make any or enough normal sperm to allow conception. A low sperm count, sperm not moving normally, or a high proportion of abnormally shaped sperm reduce capacity to fertilise eggs.
In most cases, the cause of male infertility is unexplained. A specific cause can only be pinpointed in about 40% of infertile men. They include genetic abnormalities, past infection, trauma to the testicles, and damage to sperm production – for example from cancer treatment. Some men have no sperm in their ejaculate (a condition called azoospermia). This can be due to blocked sperm tubes, which may be a birth defect, or follow vasectomy or other damage.
In most cases the cause of male infertility is unexplained. Shutterstock
In a minority of cases, infrequent or poorly timed intercourse, or sexual problems such as erectile dysfunction or ejaculation failure cause the infertility.
The least common problem is deficiency of hormonal signals from the pituitary gland (a gland on the brain which makes, stores and releases hormones). This can be genetic or follow issues such as a pituitary tumour. Treatment with hormone injections aims to restore natural fertility.
Chronic diseases such as obesity or diabetes, environmental exposures (such as chemicals in the workplace) and lifestyle factors (such as smoking and recreational drug use) can contribute to or exacerbate poor sperm quality.
Male infertility and chance of IVF success
For couples with male factor infertility, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is needed to fertilise the eggs and give them a chance of having a baby. ICSI follows the same process as IVF, except ICSI involves the direct injection of a single sperm into each egg using technically advanced equipment, as opposed to IVF, where thousands of sperm are added to each egg in the hope one will fertilise it.
The just released ANZARD report shows the chance of a baby for men with male infertility is comparable with other infertility diagnoses. However, studies show that for couples who don’t have male factor infertility, ICSI offers no advantage over IVF in terms of the chance of having a baby.
Five tips for sperm health
Although most male infertility is not preventable, there are some things men can do to keep their sperm healthy. It takes about three months for sperm to mature, so making healthy changes at least three months before trying for a baby gives the best chance of conception and having a healthy baby. Here are five things you can do to look after your sperm.
1. Quit smoking
Cigarette smoke contains thousands of harmful chemicals that cause damage to all parts of the body, including sperm. Heavy smokers make fewer sperm than non-smokers. Smoking can increase the number of abnormally shaped sperm and affect the sperm’s swimming ability, making it harder for sperm to reach and fertilise the egg.
Smoking also damages the DNA in sperm, which is transferred to the baby. This can increase the risk of miscarriage and birth defects in a child. One study found heavy smoking (more than 20 cigarettes a day) by fathers at the time of conception increases the child’s risk of childhood leukemia.
Smoking affects sperm quantity, shape and motility. ravi sharma/unsplash, CC BY
There is no safe limit for smoking – the only way to protect yourself and your unborn baby from harm is to quit. The good news is the effects of smoking on sperm and fertility are reversible, and quitting will increase the chance of conceiving and having a healthy baby.
2. Try to be a healthy weight
On average, men who are overweight or obese have lower sperm quality than men who are a healthy weight. Carrying too much weight can also reduce your interest in sex and lead to erection problems.
The good news is, even losing a few kilos can improve sperm quality. Getting support, setting realistic goals and giving yourself enough time to achieve them, learning about nutrition and healthy eating, and exercising regularly increase your chance of losing weight and keeping it off.
3. Back off drugs and alcohol
Taking androgenic steroids for bodybuilding or competitive sports causes testes to shrink and affects sperm production. And it can have a lasting impact. It takes about two years for sperm to return to normal after stopping steroids.
A man’s fertility can also be harmed by other drugs like cannabis, cocaine and heroin, as they reduce testosterone levels and sex drive (libido).
Alcohol is OK in small amounts, but heavy drinking and binge drinking can reduce sperm count and quality.
4. Don’t leave it too late
We’ve all heard about men in their 80s and 90s fathering children, but this is rare and risky.
Although men continue to produce sperm throughout life, which means they can potentially reproduce into old age, men under 40 have a better chance of conceiving than older men.
It takes longer for partners of older men to conceive, and sperm quality declines with age and this increases the risk of miscarriage and health problems for the baby.
So, if you have a choice about when to try for a baby, sooner is better than later.
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), especially untreated gonorrhoea and chlamydia, can reduce sperm quality and cause blockages in the sperm tubes. This means sperm can’t move on from the testicles (where they are produced) into the semen to then be ejaculated.
Practising safe sex by using condoms is the only thing that can stop STIs from being passed to or from a partner. Using condoms hugely reduces your risk of tube blockages and damage to your fertility. If you think you have an STI, see a doctor and get treatment straight away. The quicker you get treatment, the lower the risk of fertility problems in the future.
Karin Hammarberg works for the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority (VARTA).
Professor Georgina Chambers is an employee of the University of New South Wales, Sydney (UNSW). UNSW receives funding from the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) to produce the Australian and New Zealand Assisted Reproductive Technology (ANZARD) annual reports. UNSW has received a research grant from the MRFF on behalf of Prof Georgina Chambers to undertake research into male infertility.
Professional Robert McLachlan owns shares in the Monash IVF Group
Past NHMRC grants and one current MRFF grants in male reproductive health
We often hear about the negative impacts of social media on our wellbeing, but we don’t usually think of it the other way round – whereby how we feel may impact how we use social media.
In a recent study, my colleagues and I investigated the relationship between social media use and wellbeing in more than 7,000 adults across four years, using survey responses from the longitudinal New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study.
We found social media use and wellbeing impact each other. Poorer wellbeing – specifically higher psychological distress and lower life satisfaction – predicted higher social media use one year later, and higher social media use predicted poorer wellbeing one year later.
A vicious cycle
Interestingly, wellbeing impacted social media use more than the other way round.
Going from having “no distress” to being distressed “some of the time”, or “some of the time” to “most of the time”, was associated with an extra 27 minutes of daily social media use one year later. These findings were the same for men and women across all age groups.
This suggests people who have poor wellbeing might be turning to social media more, perhaps as a coping mechanism – but this doesn’t seem to be helping. Unfortunately, and paradoxically, turning to social media may worsen the very feelings and symptoms someone is hoping to escape.
Our study found higher social media use results in poorer wellbeing, which in turn increases social media use, exacerbating the existing negative feelings, and so on. This creates a vicious cycle in which people seem to get trapped.
If you think this might describe your relationship with social media, there are some strategies you can use to try to get out of this vicious cycle.
Reflect on how and why you use social media
Social media aren’t inherently bad, but how and why we use them is really important – even more than how much time we spend on social media. For example, using social media to interact with others or for entertainment has been linked to improved wellbeing, whereas engaging in comparisons on social media can be detrimental to wellbeing.
So chat to your friends and watch funny dog videos to your heart’s content, but just watch out for those comparisons.
What we look at online is important too. One experimental study found just ten minutes of exposure to “fitspiration” images (such as slim/toned people posing in exercise clothing or engaging in fitness) led to significantly poorer mood and body image in women than exposure to travel images.
And mindless scrolling can also be harmful. Research suggests this passive use of social media is more damaging to wellbeing than active use (such as talking or interacting with friends).
Mindless scrolling can be damaging to your wellbeing. Shutterstock
So be mindful about how and why you use social media, and how it makes you feel! If most of your use falls under the “harmful” category, that’s a sign to change or cut down your use, or even take a break. One 2015 experiment with more than 1,000 participants found taking a break from Facebook for just one week increased life satisfaction.
Life is all about balance, so make sure you’re still doing important activities away from your phone that support your wellbeing. Research suggests time spent outdoors, on hobbies or crafts, and engaging in physical activity can help improve your wellbeing.
So put your phone down and organise a picnic with friends, join a new class, or find an enjoyable way to move your body.
Address your poor wellbeing
According to our findings, it may be useful to think of your own habitual social media use as a symptom of how you’re feeling. If your use suggests you aren’t in a good place, perhaps you need to identify and address what’s getting you down.
The first, very crucial step is getting help. A great place to start is talking to a health professional such as your general practitioner or a therapist. You can also reach out to organisations like Beyond Blue and Headspace for evidence-based support.
Hannah Jarman 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.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kyllie Cripps, Scientia Associate Professor, School of Law, Society & Criminology, Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney, UNSW Sydney
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names of deceased people and mentions domestic violence and murder.
Public hearings have officially commenced into the Senate Committee Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Children. The inquiry has found “Murder rates for Indigenous women are eight times higher than for their non-Indigenous counterparts”. This came as no surprise to many of us who have worked in this field for a long time.
In fact, these numbers are likely to be higher when they include manslaughter rates. The rate at which women are murdered in Australia over time (2005-06 to 2019-20) have been declining. But according to the Homocide Report Australia 2019 -20, report, this sadly is not the case for Indigenous women.
When women are murdered in Australia, there is understandable outrage, displays of grief and moments of reflection in our parliament.
However, there is often silence in the media and in public discussion about the violence Indigenous women experience, as Indigenous studies Professor Bronwyn Carlson has discussed.
This inquiry has the potential to provide voice to the Indigenous women and children we have lost and continue to lose to violence, as well as ending the silence that follows.
In November 2021, First Nations Greens senators Dorinda Cox and Lidia Thorpe called for a Senate inquiry into the high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women and children in Australia. Through measures including hearing testimony from survivors of violence and examining police responses, this will be an opportunity to investigate what can be changed to better address violence against Indigenous women and children in Australia.
Available data tell us Indigenous women represent up to 10% of unsolved missing persons cases in Australia, many of whom are presumed dead. Indigenous women are also 30 times more likely to be hospitalised for assault-related injuries. As part of its public hearings, the inquiry is examining these damning statistics.
However, the inquiry is also delving deeper, asking more about the women’s stories, with the intention to go beyond statistics and hear how people are affected by their experiences with family violence.
Police and domestic violence services are not helping
My research has found violence against Indigenous women is significantly under-reported and perpetrators regularly go unpunished. This is not to say Indigenous women are not crying out for support: they are and have been. However, they are often confronted with a dilemma of who is safe to turn to, and what the consequences of reporting might be.
For First Nations women, there are significant risks to consider when reporting violence to police or seeking assistance from domestic violence services. These risks include their children being taken from them by child protection services, the women themselves being arrested for unrelated criminal matters, and the risk of being misidentified as the perpetrator.
Criminology and law researcher Emma Buxton-Namisnyk’s study of domestic violence policing of First Nations women in Australia found “there were very few examples of police interventions that did not produce some identifiable harm”. Buxton-Namisnyk found this harm was through police inaction and non-enforcement of domestic violence laws. Some instances involved police action resulting in “eroding victim’s agency” through criminalising victims and increasing police surveillance over their families.
In June 2022, Acting Coroner Elisabeth Armitage handed down damning findings against the Northern Territory Police in the death of Roberta, an Aboriginal woman from the Katherine region. Armitage said the police “did nothing to help her”. In fact, the fatal assault was the seventh time Roberta’s partner had abused her in less than two weeks. It was five days after Roberta had been told by police to “stop calling us”.
Armitage summed up this case as one in which police failed to follow any of their procedures concerning domestic violence complaints. She also found their manner towards Roberta was rude and dismissive.
These actions and failures were not confined to the actions of police. The triple-zero call operator incorrectly classified Roberta’s calls for help, and the parole officer tasked with supervising Roberta’s partner was oblivious to his breaches of parole conditions. The breakdown in communication across these services and the lack of support available to Roberta created the conditions that led to her death.
This case also speaks to a broader issue of bystanders who fail to act on our women’s cries for help. The Northern Territory is a unique jurisdiction in that it is mandatory for all adults to report domestic violence “when the life or safety of another person is under serious or imminent threat” or be liable for a fine up to $20,000.
Despite this, Armitage explained there were witnesses to the violence Roberta endured, who did not report. To my knowledge, no one has been held accountable for failing to report.
During this Senate inquiry, politicians need to consider the stories behind the statistics, such as Roberta’s. It is these stories that demonstrate the need for domestic and family violence death reviews in all of our states and territories. They provide the opportunity to understand the victim’s story and how it is affected by services and systems currently in place.
But it’s also critical Indigenous people are included in the process of reviews and the analysis of what keeps going wrong with services that are meant to save lives.
In addition to this, there needs to be an extensive review of cases over time to understand trends in missing and murdered Indigenous women and children. We need to find out whether systemic problems or issues in practice are responsible for failing these women.
As the United Nations’ violence against Indigenous women and girls report states, Indigenous women already have to navigate violence in the form of racial discrimination and system inequities. Our calls for help need to be met with a culturally safe person who can hear our stories and respond with care and respect to help us navigate our way to safety.
Kyllie Cripps with colleagues from UNSW receives funding from the Australian Research Council – her UNSW profile provides further detail as to the projects this relates too.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Kavanagh, Professor of Disability and Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne
Mandatory isolation rules for people with COVID end today. Pandemic leave disaster payments will also cease for all workers except casual workers employed in aged care, disability, hospitals, Indigenous health services and hospitals.
These changes signal the end of most legislated COVID safeguards. Rules to enforce mask-wearing on public transport, vaccination for entry to public spaces, and isolation of close contacts have been dropped by state and territory governments in recent months.
Many places have also discontinued vaccine mandates for workers in sectors such as aged care, disability, and health.
Despite the clear benefits of good indoor ventilation to reduce COVID transmission risk, many schools, workplaces, and public spaces are poorly ventilated.
The withdrawal of active protections plus the failure to ensure safe indoor air puts people with disability at greater risk than the rest of the population. Action is needed to protect this group.
International studies show disabled people are at higher risk of dying from COVID than their age-matched peers. People with intellectual and psychosocial disability (such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and social anxiety disorders) are at the highest risk – three to nine times that of the general population.
In England between Jane 2020 and March 2022, 60% of people who died from COVID were disabled.
To date, comparable data has still not been reported for Australians with disability. But there is no reason to believe the risk for disabled Australians is any different than overseas.
Some people with disability are clinically vulnerable because they are immunocompromised due to medications for conditions such as for rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis. This group also has a higher prevalence of conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular and respiratory disease. These are associated with serious disease and death from COVID.
Many disabled Australians also have difficulties accessing health care because of physical inaccessibility and lack of knowledge and expertise of health care providers about disability. This means they may not receive anti-viral COVID treatments, even if they are eligible.
Many people with disability continue to isolate at home to avoid infection and are effectively shut out of society as online options for participation dry up.
For people who rely on paid support, isolation is not an option. Their workers are still circulating in the community. Some disabled people live and work in congregate environments with other people with disability – settings associated with higher rates of COVID infection and death.
A significant minority of people with disability have not had the recommended COVID vaccinations and boosters.
Almost one quarter of participants in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) aged 16 and over have not had three COVID vaccine doses; less than one-third have had four doses. A third of NDIS participants aged 12 to 15 have not had two COVID vaccine doses. The vaccination rates of the 88% people with disability who are not on the NDIS are not reported.
A forgotten workforce
Disability support workers we spoke to in 2020 told us they felt forgotten by government without access to personal protective equipment and tailored information about how to protect themselves and people they supported.
Workers we surveyed in 2021 reported higher levels of vaccine hesitancy than the general population and expressed concerns about vaccine safety and efficacy.
Concern about what’s next
Without isolation periods in place, people with disability are deeply concerned about what will happen when new immune-evasive variants of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) arrive.
Throughout the pandemic, disability advocates and supporters and academics have drawn attention to the risks of COVID for disabled people.
Governments around the world have reassured the public COVID is more dangerous for the chronically ill, elderly and disabled. This has the effect of suggesting their/our lives matter less.
Public health measures – or decisions to end them – signal what our society is prepared to do to care for people at risk. Some advocates have labelled the relaxation of COVID protections as ableist, even eugenicist. Others say it will guarantee the societal exclusion of the clinically vulnerable.
With evidence long COVID can affect one in 20 of those infected, including previously healthy people, the proportion of disabled people in our community will likely swell in coming years.
5 COVID protections needed for people with disability
Strategies to minimise the COVID risk for people with disability should include:
concerted government campaigns to increase uptake of third and fourth doses among people with disability
continued access to free rapid antigen tests (RATs) for people with disability and support workers
advice about ventilation of indoor spaces, particularly in congregate settings with access to air quality monitors and purifiers if needed
free access to respirator (P2/N95) masks for use indoors
outreach to ensure people with disability who are eligible for antiviral treatment can access it promptly.
Governments need to work with services and workers to make sure they understand the risks to people with disability if they have symptoms of COVID or other respiratory infections.
Workers who test positive for COVID should be blocked from face-to-face support of people with disability for at least seven days and pending a negative RAT. Access to paid isolation leave for disability workers is critical, so they don’t have to choose between exposing the people with disability they support to illness and paying the rent.
Finally, when new COVID variants and waves inevitably emerge, governments will need to remain open to reintroducing measures including isolation of positive cases and mask-wearing indoors. This could avoid devastating outcomes for people with disability and other Australians at increased risk of serious disease and death.
Anne Kavanagh receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council and Australian Research Council. She has received funding from Victorian and Commonwealth governments and the National Disability Agency. She is a member of the COVID-19 Disability Advisory Committee and Commonwealth Disability Health Sector Consultative Commitee.
Helen Dickinson receives funding from ARC, NMHRC, Commonwealth government and CYDA.
The School Nancy Baxter leads receives research grant funding from the National Health & Medical Research Council of Australia, Australian Research Council, and other Australian federal and Victorian State Government bodies. She serves on the Advisory Board of The Australian Global Health Alliance and on the Board of the Nossal Institute. She has been an unpaid participant in an Advisory Board meeting for MSD Australia.
Coffee may be a major casualty of a hotter planet. Even if currently declared commitments to reduce emissions are met, our new research suggests coffee production will still rapidly decline in countries accounting for 75% of the world’s Arabica coffee supply.
Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) is one of two main plant species we harvest coffee beans from. The plant evolved in the high-altitude tropics of Ethiopia, and is hypersensitive to changes in the climate.
Our research shows there are global warming thresholds beyond which Arabica coffee production plummets. This isn’t just bad news for coffee lovers – coffee is a multi-billion dollar industry supporting millions of farmers, most in developing countries.
If we manage to keep global warming below 2℃ this century, then producers responsible for most global Arabica supply will have more time to adapt. If we don’t, we could see crashes in Arabica productivity, interruptions to supply, and price hikes on our daily cup.
Where our coffee comes from
Most of our Arabica is grown in the tropics, throughout Latin America, Central and East Africa and parts of Asia. Brazil, Colombia and Ethiopia are the world’s top three producers of Arabica, and the crop has crucial social and economic importance elsewhere, too.
Millions of farmers, mostly in the developing world, depend on productive Arabica for their livelihood. If coffee productivity declines, the economic consequences for farmers, some of which do not earn a living income as it is, are dire.
Arabica coffee is typically most productive in cool high elevation tropical areas with a local annual temperature of 18-23℃.
Higher temperatures and drier conditions invariably lead to declines in yield.
Last year, for example, one of the worst droughts in Brazil’s history saw coffee production there drop by around one-third, with global coffee prices spiking as a result.
What we found
Previous research has focused on how changes in temperature and rainfall affect coffee yields. While important, temperature and rainfall aren’t the best indicators of global Arabica coffee productivity. Instead, we found that it’s more effective to measure how dry and hot the air is, which we can do using “Vapour Pressure Deficit”.
Vapour pressure deficit tells us how much water gets sucked out of a plant. Think of when you walk outside on a hot, dry day and your lips dry and crack – the moisture is being sucked out of you because outside, the vapour pressure deficit is high. It’s the same for plants.
We built scientific models based on climate data that was linked to decades of coffee productivity data across the most important Arabica producing countries. We found once vapour pressure deficit gets to a critical point, then Arabica coffee yields fall sharply.
Coffee crops have crucial social and economic importance. Yanapi Senaud/Unsplash, CC BY
This critical point, we found, is 0.82 kilopascals (a unit of pressure, calculated from temperature and humidity). After this point, Arabica yields start falling fast – a loss of around 400 kilograms per hectare, which is 50% lower than the long-term global average.
Vapour pressure deficit thresholds have already been exceeded in Kenya, Mexico and Tanzania.
Unabated global warming will see the world’s coffee producing powerhouses at risk. If global warming temperatures increase from 2℃ to 3℃, then
Peru, Honduras, Venezuela, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Colombia and Brazil –
together accounting for 81% of global supply – are much more likely to pass the vapour pressure deficit threshold.
What can we do about it?
While there are ways farmers and the coffee industry can adapt, the viability of applying these on a global scale is highly uncertain.
For example, irrigating coffee crops could be an option, but this costs money – money many coffee farmers in developing countries don’t have. What’s more, it may not always be effective as high vapour pressure deficits can still inflict damage, even in well-watered conditions.
Another option could be switching to other coffee species. But again, this is fraught. For example, robusta coffee (Coffea canephora) – the other main species of production coffee – is also sensitive to temperature rises. Others, such as Coffea stenophylla and Coffea liberica could be tested, but their production viability at large scales under climate change is unknown.
There is only so much adapting we can do. Our research provides further impetus, if we needed any, to cut net global greenhouse gas emissions.
Limiting global warming in accordance with the Paris Agreement is our best option to ensure we can all keep enjoying coffee. More importantly, keeping global warming below 2℃ is the best way to ensure the millions of vulnerable farmers who grow coffee globally have a livelihood that supports them and their families well into the future.
Jarrod Kath receives funding from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety—International Climate Initiative (IKI).
Scott Power receives funding from DFAT as a climate science advisor to the Australia Pacific Climate Partnership, from DAFF as a technical adviser on DR.SAT and Climate Services for Agriculture, and from the Australian Water Partnership, and he manages Climate Services International.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology
Josh Applegate/Unsplash
Developmental language disorder or DLD is a lifelong disorder that affects language comprehension and expression. People with DLD find it more difficult to say what they mean and to understand others.
About two students in every classroom of 30 will have DLD, so it is about as common as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and much more common than autism.
In fact, DLD has been described as the most common disorder that most people “have never heard of”.
We are researchers in inclusive education, who specialise in how schools can best support students who experience language difficulties. We work with a lot of these students and know how easily these difficulties are either missed or misinterpreted.
How does this happen?
In a new study, our team at QUT’s Centre for Inclusive Education surveyed more than 260 Australian teachers in both primary and secondary schools.
We asked them to rate how good they were at identifying students with DLD, from 1 = “poor” to 5 =“excellent”. The average response was 2.77 (or just below “reasonable”).
Participants were then provided with a list of ten characteristics and asked to identify those reflecting difficulties with speech (how we say sounds and words), those reflecting difficulties with language (how we share ideas), and those reflecting difficulties with both. It is important teachers can distinguish between the two to provide the right support.
Their overall accuracy was 48%, suggesting teachers need to know more about DLD than they think they do. Worryingly, discrepancies between teachers’ perceived and actual knowledge could work to prevent them from seeking the professional learning they need.
Under the radar
DLD flies under the radar because its characteristics are subtle and easily misinterpreted. But the implications are serious if teachers don’t know about DLD or how to support these students.
Students with DLD struggle academically and socially because language is how friendships are made and the school curriculum is taught. Students with DLD often perform well below their classmates.
Children with DLD can find it hard to make and maintain friendships. Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash
Without support, students with DLD can begin to feel ashamed, frustrated, and misunderstood, which can lead to behavioural problems, suspension, leaving school early and unemployment.
What should parents and teachers look for?
DLD has been described as “hiding in plain sight” because it is mistaken for other things, such as poor behaviour or lack of interest in school.
But there are some indicators which should prompt further investigation by a qualified speech pathologist. These include:
difficulties learning to read, followed by avoidance of reading
difficulties with writing, often characterised by mistakes when it comes to sequencing in a story (explaining what happened and when)
difficulty following instructions or directions. Problems in this area are particularly noticeable when the child is provided with multiple instructions but misses key steps or becomes muddled without seeking help from peers
appearing chatty, but having a relatively limited vocabulary for their age. A child may use a lot of “filler” words like, “things” or “stuff” in place of words that they either don’t know or can’t recall
using substitutes that sound similar but do not have the same meaning. For example, “sufficient” instead of “efficient”, or “pacific” rather than “specific”
using made up words or incorrect word combinations, such as “tooken” or “racehorsing”, beyond the early years of school when errors like this are not uncommon.
These indicators are often not noticed by teachers and parents/carers who act as interpreters and guess what the child really means without even being aware that they are doing it.
Although well-intentioned, this can mean that the child’s difficulties with language remain undetected.
What helps students with DLD?
Because DLD is not as well-known as ADHD or autism, some misperceptions exist. One is it can be “cured” through speech-language therapy. As many as four in five (81.7%) Australian teachers in the QUT study believed this to be the case.
While speech pathology support is important, particularly in the early years, it will not address ongoing comprehension challenges faced by children with DLD, especially in the classroom.
Here, teachers can make a difference. In another study published this year, we asked 50 students in years 7 to 10 with language and behavioural difficulties, “what makes an excellent teacher?”. They said excellent teachers made themselves easy to understand by:
reducing the number of instructions and the “wordiness” of explanations, as well as the speed and complexity of what they say
building in pauses to allow students’ time to process instructions
providing written instructions as well as simple visual supports
emphasising and reiterating key points
introducing and explaining new or tricky words
making sure they have students’ full attention before teaching
regularly maintaining that attention through cues, gestures and routines.
These simple practices are critical for students with DLD, but they also benefit all students. This is because we all learn and process language in the same way. If teachers are very clear with students, it reduces the likelihood a student will get overwhelmed or misunderstand a lesson.
Where to go next
Parents who are worried about language development should talk to their child’s teacher, who can follow up with the school’s learning support team.
Parents and teachers can also access more information about DLD from the Raising Awareness of DLD website, listen to this federal government-supported podcast or this QUT presentation on supporting students with DLD in the classroom.
Most importantly, they need to know and remember that with the right support, students with DLD can succeed socially and academically.
Jaedene Glasby was the lead author of the first study described in this article.
Linda J. Graham receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Queensland Government.
Haley Tancredi receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Queensland Government.
The Bureau of Statistics has just released a new set of data from the 2021 census. The first set – released in June 2022 – covered topics including age, sex, religion, unpaid work and country of birth.
The second set, released on Wednesday, provides insights into the kinds of jobs Australians have (and if they have a job), how Australians travel to work (and if they still do), and their educational qualifications.
There is plenty to digest. I’ll focus on a couple of interesting outcomes:
differences in the types of jobs held by men and women,
differences in the educational qualifications of men and women.
The most male and female jobs
Men accounted for around 99% of Australia’s bricklayers and stonemasons, plumbers, sheetmetal trades workers, carpenters and joiners, roof tilers and concreters in 2021.
Women accounted for 97% or more of Australia’s midwives, early childhood teachers, dental assistants, personal assistants and beauty therapists.
But the segregation is becoming weaker over time.
One common measure is the Duncan index of dissimilarity. It records the proportion of female workers who would have to change their occupations in order for female representation to be even across all occupations.
I have calculated this measure using census data from 1966 up to 2021, updating work I completed with Jeff Borland up to 2011.
The encouraging news is that segregation is declining, and declined further in the past two censuses. Having said that, the occupational differences are still large.
Back in 1966, nearly two-thirds of women would have had to change occupations in order to be spread across occupations as men are. By 2021, the proportion had fallen to close to half.
As women joined the workforce in greater numbers from 1966 to 2021, the proportion of women in most broad occupational groups grew.
But the growth has differed by the type of job. The proportion of women in managerial occupations grew from around 18% in 1966 to nearly 40% in 2021.
The proportion in professional occupations grew from 35 to 56%. In technical and trades occupations, it only grew from 8 to 17%.
Some recent increases (from 2006 to 2021) in the proportion of women in specific manager and professional occupations stand out. These include vets (from 46% to 66%), dentists (31% to 47%), barristers (22% to 38%), school principals (50% to 65%) and internal medical specialists (32% to 47%).
But some professional occupations have gone the other way. The proportion of women working as financial dealers fell from 41% to 31%. The proportion of women working as physiotherapists fell from 71% to 64%.
Highly educated young women
The increasing shares of women in professional occupations is matched by increasing education attainment.
The proportion of females aged in their 30s with a bachelor’s degree or higher qualification was one half in 2021. This is strikingly higher than both the proportion of males in that age group with a bachelor’s degree or higher (about 38%) and the proportion of older females with degrees, which was 11% for females over 75.
This difference indicates how rapidly female university education has grown.
Female university graduates now outnumber male university graduates in every age group below 70.
But the proportion of males with certificates and diplomas is higher than the proportion of females across all age groups from 20 up.
This is reflected in the still-low proportion of females in technical and trades occupations.
More to explore
Gender differences in jobs and education are just two of the many ways the census can help us understand Australia.
Every five years it presents researchers and the curious with a lot to explore, including changes over time.
A few years back the five-yearly census was facing the axe. It would be great if it continued to provide these insights for decades to come.
The Right Stuff is a new conservative dating app, recently launched in the US. Not yet available in Australia, the app was apparently created “for conservatives to connect in authentic and meaningful ways.”
It offers to bring people together with shared values and similar passions, ensuring users “view profiles without pronouns” and are able to “connect with people who aren’t offended by everything”.
As you might anticipate, the app has drawn immediate, and controversial attention, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, and importantly, there appears to be an absence of female-users. Problematic, given the app only caters for an heterosexual audience.
Secondly, the app was co-founded by former Trump aide John McEntee. Ryann McEnany, the sister of the former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, is the app’s spokesperson. Finally, the app is financially backed by right-wing billionaire and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
The ads for the app have also attracted a level of derision from audiences. Featuring an all-female cast, women are asked “What they’re looking for in a man?”
They respond they are looking for an “alpha male vibe”, an independent man, a man who is family-orientated.
When women in the video were asked what their “biggest red flag” in their potential partners was. They all replied they couldn’t be with a Democrat.
This isn’t the first dating app to intersect tech, dating, intimacy and politics.
In 2016, Bumble launched its political digital “bumper stickers”, which featured Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz and, of course, Trump. These were later updated, replaced by iterations reflecting the political times.
In America, the app currently allows you to share whether or not you have voted in the mid-term elections. Whitey Wolfe Herd, creator and CEO of Bumble, has said:
Political views are more than just current topics, sometimes entire value sets can be tied to political views. It tells you a lot about a person.
In 2020, OkCupid launched its “Voters Make Better Lovers” campaign in advance of the presidential election.
In a press release, the company said “practising your right to vote is the biggest turn-on to OkCupid singles today”.
Speaking to the Slow Love podcast in 2020, OkCupid’s then chief marketing officer, Melissa Hobley, said users on the app were increasingly making match-decisions based on shared values, with political inclinations and climate philosophies ranking highly in the mix.
In my research into dating apps and intimacy, I have found women would quickly ghost matches who made racist, sexist or overly sexualised statements in chat or on their profile.
Women quickly ghost matches who made racist, sexist or overly sexualised statements. Dane Deaner/Unsplash
User reviews and media reports have overwhelmingly indicated a lack of women on The Right Stuff. (This has not yet been corroborated by the Right Stuff spokespeople.)
These days, it’s hard to find a woman who values my patriotism. My faith. And so after being ghosted by every match on Tinder, I decided to give this app a try. […] But the weird thing was, I couldn’t find any women on it. I don’t know, maybe the app is bugged?
Dating apps are not merely a platform for personal relationships. As Lik Sam Chan, assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, explores in his research, apps are an emerging arena for gender and politics. These spaces can provide opportunities for women’s empowerment and men’s performances of masculinity.
Similarly, Australian academic Martin Nakata argues online spaces – such as dating apps – can be understood as digitally mediated “sites of struggle over the meaning of [our] experience”.
Dating apps constitute relatively new sites of culturally and politically mediated encounter. They are emerging as the new digital interface for gender and political negotiation.
Certainly, the launch of the Right Stuff tends to suggest the importance of political orientation for women looking to date – and reveals that right wing values are indeed viewed as “the wrong stuff” for many American women.
Lisa Portolan 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.
A human rights advocate appealed tonight for people in Aotearoa New Zealand to take personal responsibility in the fight against disinformation and to upskill their critical thinking skills.
Anjum Rahman, project lead of the Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono, said this meant taking responsibility for verifying the accuracy and source of information before passing it on and not fuelling hate and misunderstanding.
“Our democracy is very fragile,” she warned while delivering the annual David Wakim Memorial Lecture 2022 with the theme “Protecting Democracy in an Online World” at Parnell’s Jubilee Building.
She said communities were facing challenging and rapidly changing times with climate change, conflicts, inflation and the ongoing pandemic.
“If our democracy fails, all those other things fail as well,” she said.
“And for those of us who are more vulnerable it is a matter of life and death.
“Who most stand to lose their freedom if democracy fails? Who will be on the frontline to be exterminated?”
Rahman is co-chair of the Christchurch Call Advisory Network and a member of the Independent Advisory Committee of the Global Internet Forum for Countering Terrorism.
Argued strongly for diversity As an advocate, she has argued strongly for many years in support of diversity and inclusion and in 2019 was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
On the third anniversary of the 15 March 2019 mosque massacre, she wrote in a column for The SpinOff that “we don’t need any more empty platitudes of sorrow . . . we need firm action and strong resolve. Across the board.”
The David Wakim Memorial Lecture 2022. Video: Billy Hania
The recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry were more critical now than ever, and absolutely urgent, she wrote.
“In a world that feels chaotic, with war, rising prices, anger and hate expressed in protests across the world, our hearts seek a certainty that isn’t there.
“We need more urgency, and in many areas. I’m still disappointed with the Counter-Terrorism legislation passed last year, granting greater powers without evidence of any benefit. Hate speech legislation has been delayed, and we await a full review and overhaul of the national security system.”
A founding member of the Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand, Rahman gave a wide-ranging address tonight on the online challenges for democracy, and answered a host of questions from the audience of about 100.
“I’m really worried about trolls,” said one. “They affect government, they influence voters, they have an impact on all sorts of decision making – what can be done about it?”
Rahman replied that it was very difficult question – “I wish there was a simple answer.”
The audience at tonight’s Pax Christi-hosted David Wakim Memorial Lecture 2022 at Parnell’s Jubilee Building. Image: David Robie/APR
Removing troll incentives She said there needed to be more education and greater awareness of the activities of trolls and the sort of social media platforms they operated on.
One problem was that the more attention paid trolls got, it often meant the more money they were getting.
A challenge was to remove the incentive being given to them.
Award-winning cartoonist Malcolm Evans asked Rahman what her response was to the global situation “right now” with the invasion of Ukraine where people were “under intense pressure to vilify the Russians . . . treating them as ‘evil’.”
He added that “we live in a time that is probably the most dangerous that I have experienced in my lifetime … we are facing an Armageddon and I blame the media for that.
“It’s a disgrace.”
This led to a discussion by Pax Christi Aotearoa’s Janfrie Wakim about how Evans lost his job as a cartoonist on The New Zealand Herald in 2003 for “naming Israeli apartheid” over the repression of Palestinians to the loud applause of the audience.
‘Quality journalism’ paywalls In a discussion about media, Rahman said she was disturbed by the failures of the media business model that meant increasingly “quality journalism” was being placed behind paywalls while the public that could not afford paywalls were being served “poor quality” information.
Introducing Anjum Rahman, Pax Christi’s Susan Healy said how “especially delighted the Wakim whanau were” that she had agreed to give the lecture.
David Wakim was the inaugural president of Pax Christi Aotearoa, an independent section of Pax Christi International, a Catholic organisation founded in France at the end of World War Two committed to working “to transform a world shaken by violence, terrorism, deepening inequalities, and global insecurity”.
Growing up in a Sydney Catholic family, Wakim was an advocate of interfaith dialogue. His travels in Muslim countries strengthened his links with the three faiths of Abraham – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
He helped establish the Council of Christians and Muslims in Auckland, but was especially committed to Palestinian rights.
Wakim died in 2005 and the annual lecture honours his and Pax Christi’s mahi for Tiriti o Waitangi, interfaith dialogue, peace education, human rights and restorative justice.
Anjum Rahman addressing the Pax Christi-hosted David Wakim Memorial Lecture 2022 tonight. Image: Billy Hania video screenshot/APR
Senior ministers this week have dramatically raised the stakes in the Albanese government’s face-off with gas producers, amid escalating energy prices and dire warnings of worse to come. The question now is how does the government follow through with effective action to match the rhetoric?
Bringing gas prices down in the eastern part of the country is vital in reducing the cost pressures many businesses and households are confronting. Coal and gas prices are the main drivers of soaring electricity bills.
Dealing with gas prices is also important for reinvigorating Australian manufacturing, one of Anthony Albanese’s promises at the election.
And, despite the opposition to gas from some environmental critics, it has a necessary role in the transition to a clean energy future and thus to the government being able to deliver on its ambitious climate policy.
Shaping up as an outspoken protagonist in the current “gas wars”, Industry Minister Ed Husic this week launched a barrage of criticism at the producers.
Husic accused the companies of acting in a way that “would make a locust swarm proud”, bent on an “absolutely rabid pursuit of profit above all else”.
They are “sucking up an Australian resource and selling it at phenomenal prices overseas and doing so in such a way that is putting pressure on manufacturers and households in this country,” he told Sky.
Husic is one of four federal ministers in the front line of trying to bring down local prices.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers highlighted the issue when he told a Tuesday news conference power prices were expected to play “a bigger and bigger part” in Australia’s inflation problem in coming months.
Chalmers said he, Husic, Resources Minister Madeleine King and Energy Minister Chris Bowen were working on what could be done to get gas prices down, declaring action would be taken.
But to what extent all four are on the same page is a moot point.
Traditionally, resources ministers are more sympathetic to producers and industry ministers speak up for the users.
Thus Martin Ferguson, when resources minister in the Rudd government, opposed a Queensland plan for a gas “reservation” scheme. (Ferguson, who went into the industry after retiring from parliament, later changed his mind.)
Such a scheme already operated in Western Australia. The WA policy requires LNG producers to reserve a certain proportion (15%) of their production for domestic use. The state is not part of the eastern states’ national energy market and has some of the lowest gas prices in the OECD.
One wrinkle in the present ministerial mix is that King is from WA. She is charged with trying to deal with a problem that her home state, thanks to its policy setting, doesn’t have.
King recently negotiated a new so-called “heads of agreement” with the gas producers. It was a light-touch deal.
The companies undertook to provide enough gas in the domestic market to avoid any supply problem.
But the rub is that the price at which they supply it won’t be lower than the international price. And that foreign price is very high and rising, driven by the energy crisis in Europe. The international parity price has risen from about $10 a gigajoule a year ago to about $60 for 2023.
The national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, Daniel Walton, this week was scathing about King’s “dud” agreement.
The government had a choice, Walton said. “Defend the insane super profits gas exporters are making from the Ukraine war or defend the future of Australian manufacturing and the hundreds of thousands of jobs it supports.”
The government has declined to pull the “trigger” that the Turnbull administration set up to give some potential control over gas supplies in the event of export demands leaving the local market short. The trigger has never been used.
This trigger allows a government to order the companies to set aside a certain amount of gas for domestic use. But it does not go to price, which is at the heart of the present problem.
The government’s challenge is how to separate the domestic market from the international price. But the options available to it are limited, and some involve hurdles too high to surmount.
It has a review of the trigger under way. The mechanism could be made more flexible and fit-for-purpose by removing the long lead time required to activate it and by extending it to include price.
Another course is to strengthen the “code of conduct” that regulates standards in the marketing of gas to industrial customers. Husic said the government would examine having price factored into that code.
The government has ultimate power in that it controls export licences, but to even contemplate using that threat against recalcitrants would send the worst of messages to investors.
A bold option that many experts and others advocate is introducing a super profits tax on the companies. An alternative would be to change the existing petroleum resource rent tax.
But they run into the same brick wall that suggestions of recalibrating the stage 3 tax cuts did – an election undertaking. The then opposition’s pre-election economic plan said “Labor is not proposing tax reforms beyond multinationals”. In recent days, Chalmers has firmly ruled out a super profits tax.
An amended code of conduct and an amended trigger would seem the easiest options. Whatever is done needs to be quick and effective, but there are difficulties and no guarantees. The issue also poses a test for maintaining discipline within the government, giving the contending ministerial views.
Husic said: “We cannot be more clear: if these gas companies think that this is the end of the story and the heads of agreement is all done and dusted, they’ve got another [think] coming”.
Strong words. It would be interesting to know what the companies will be saying to King and what King and Husic will be saying to each other as the government grapples with its next step.
Michelle Grattan has shares in the resources sector.
Those who get dermal fillers injected into their face have the possibility of an additional complication: swelling and discomfort if they get COVID or a dose of a COVID vaccine. So should they take extra precautions, or time their treatments?
What are dermal fillers?
Fillers are now one of the most common non-surgical cosmetic procedures. Adding fillers to the face can address facial drooping; injections into the high cheekbone area lift the face.
Today’s patients might receive soft fillers in the lips and mouth areas, combined with botulinum toxins (botox) in overactive facial muscles, and lasers and light sources on the skin.
Dermal fillers are used to address facial asymmetry, which can cause functional, psychological/social, and reduced quality-of-life issues. Cosmetically, dermal fillers may give an immediate confidence boost.
Soft tissue fillers are usually hyaluronic acid products. Some other formulations that stimulate tissues are also used.
Fillers can only be prescribed by a registered medical practitioner.
Although soft tissue fillers are considered safe, several studies have shown complications occur with all filler types. Delayed inflammatory reactions – such as red and/or firm lumps possibly with swelling – are among the most common. The cause of these reactions is unknown, so treatments will vary.
From 2020 to August 2021 there were around 19 reports in the medical literature of late inflammatory reactions post COVID or post vaccine occurring between weeks and years after filler treatment. This equates to an incidence range of 0.01% to 4.25% of soft tissue filler procedures. Not all cases are reported.
The reason for such reactions is not fully understood. There are many theories on how they can occur including immune reactions to filler triggered by infection, trauma or vaccination.
So, it is not surprising that in the current COVID pandemic, late inflammatory reactions have been reported after infection with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) and vaccination to protect against it.
The first results of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the Moderna vaccine showed adverse events in three patients with soft tissue fillers. Such complications can occur between 15 days and six months after filler injections. And they can occur three to four weeks after COVID infection. Filler complications can begin quickly after receiving a mRNA COVID vaccination, between 13 hours and three weeks post-injection.
Clinical symptoms are redness, swelling, formation of lumps and discomfort in the filled areas. Some of the patients with reported complications have had a history of spontaneous facial swelling after a filler injection, previous vaccinations, or after other medical treatments.
It is not the first time adverse events after filler treatment have been reported after a viral infection, for example after an influenza-like illnesses.
The condition generally has a good response to oral corticosteroids, while some patients need hyaluronidase injections to dissolve the filler.
It has been suggested treatment with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-1, usually prescribed to manage blood pressure), which plays a crucial role in SARS-CoV-2 binding properties, can reduce swelling in late inflammatory reactions.
Genetic factors are likely to play a role in who gets complications after dermal filler injections generally, with studies pinpointing the genes responsible in those who experience reactions. These individuals might have a lower threshold to infections, vaccines, or other factors that trigger an immune response.
What patients can do
Although small in number, the cases so far show adverse reactions with soft tissue filler occur after COVID infection and vaccination. The relationship between these factors seems likely, as they occur within a few hours or up to several weeks afterwards.
To prevent possible complications, the following recommendations have been suggested for those wishing to proceed with a filler:
ideally, allow a two- to four-week window between filler injections and vaccination in general, and two months longer for immunocompromised patients (those taking immunosuppressive medications, having chemotherapy, or with immune disorders) or after COVID infection
proceed with caution if there is a history of allergies, filler-related adverse events or problems after other types of implants
because vaccination protects against severe COVID, long COVID and death, delay the filler rather than the vaccination
if a reaction does occur, then your doctor can consider starting treatment with oral steroids, provided there is no infection.
Think Victoria and disasters and you’ll think bushfires. But floods can hit – just not as often.
Today is one of those days, with much of the state under a flood watch. Premier Dan Andrews says the floods are likely to be the most significant in years. Evacuations are likely.
Floodwaters are pushing down the Goulburn to the Murray. Major flooding in the Maribyrnong, which runs through towns and Melbourne’s west. Emergency services say evacuations may be necessary. Towns are sandbagging flood-prone areas. Some have been cut off by rising waters.
The state’s largest dam, Dartmouth, is spilling over. So is Lake Eildon’s dam. And the Thomson dam may well spill this weekend, for the first time in decades. This isn’t the last of it – Victoria’s emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp has warned intense rains and floods could last up six to eight weeks.
Even as the rest of the eastern seaboard has faced the brunt of three consecutive La Niña years, Victoria has had little flooding until now. Tasmania, too, is facing rare flooding, while flood-weary New South Wales is bracing for more.
These heavy rains are unusual. Dense cloud bands have crossed the desert, carrying moisture evaporating from seas off north-west Australia. Rain has fallen across almost the entire continent in the last two weeks. Our rain events are usually regional – not national.
Why doesn’t Victoria have as many floods?
Victoria’s claim to fame in disasters is that it’s the most bushfire-prone region in the world (followed by California and Greece).
Fire risk also comes from climate. Victoria’s temperate climate means dry summers and less rain than its northern counterparts – around 520 millimetres of rain a year falls on average in Melbourne, compared to 1175mm a year in Sydney and 1149mm in Brisbane. Up north, rain tends to fall intensely, whereas Victoria’s rain tends to fall more as drizzle.
What’s different this time? September was wetter and colder than usual in Victoria, which meant the ground was already saturated in many areas. Colder weather means less water evaporates. Together, that made the state primed for floods.
For a flood to happen, you need a high rate of run-off, where rain hits saturated soils and flows overland rather than sinking in, as well as intense rains in a short period.
Victoria is more familiar with flash floods. That’s because the stormwater drains in cities and towns can be overwhelmed by sudden dumps of rain, flooding streets. The good news is this flooding is usually over quickly, in contrast to the flooded rivers we see up north.
This situation may be different. With the state’s major dams beyond capacity or very close to it, water is already spilling over. Dams in Australia are often dual-purpose, storing drinking water and allowing us some control over floods. While Brisbane’s dams are designed with gates to permit floodwater release, Victoria’s dams tend to just have dam walls.
When dams overflow, they can add to floods in low-lying areas downstream. There’s also usually a lag time in riverine floods, as it takes hours or sometimes days for rain falling in the headwaters to end up as floodwater downstream.
What floods has Victoria seen before?
The largest was in 1934. More than 140mm of rain fell over two days in Melbourne, and more than double that in Gippsland. The enormous flood that followed was most devastating in Melbourne, where the Yarra broke its banks and formed a lake from the city out to the outer suburbs. Thirty-six people died, and thousands of people were left homeless.
Floods in the capital and in the regions are rare but not unknown. In 1891, floods forced more than 3,000 people from their homes in Richmond, Collingwood and Prahran. In 1909, western Victorian rivers broke their banks, flooding many towns and causing four deaths.
A man rows across Toorak Road in the 1891 floods in Melbourne. State Library Victoria, CC BY
The most recent big floods took place during the previous La Niña cycle from 2010-2012, with western Victoria taking the brunt of the damage.
Flooding in Victoria has also reduced because people have shifted the course of rivers – particularly the Yarra.
In 1879, 2,000 workers began a monster task: removing an entire loop of the Yarra west of the Docklands. One reason? Straight rivers flow faster, meaning floodwaters can discharge more quickly.
Engineer John Coode was responsible for designing the new course for the Yarra, which also had the benefit of a wide new channel to improve access for ships. In the process, his workers created what’s now known as Coode Island.
In 1896, Victoria’s Parliament passed the Yarra Improvement Act in a bid to reduce the damage caused by floods. Workers widened and deepened the river, and removed billabongs near the Botanic Gardens in the process.
In the 1930s, engineers built another channel through an old quarry leading to the creation of Herring Island. These changes were mainly about improving navigation for ships – but they had the double benefit of reducing flooding in the lower reaches. In part, it was about British ideals of what rivers should look like, using highly modified rivers like London’s Thames as a guide.
What’s next?
Changing the course of rivers, raising dams and building levees can make us feel like we’re in control. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple, as Lismore’s residents found.
Flood control measures can actually make the impact of large floods worse by giving us a false sense of security about living on floodplains.
This is unlikely to be the last flood before La Niña finally relents. It’s worth knowing your state’s history of disasters – so you can be better prepared. After all, we can’t control nature.
Margaret Cook 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.
The Philippines Court of Appeals has denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and former Rappler researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. over their cyber libel case.
In a 16-page decision dated October 10, the court’s fourth division denied the appeal.
Associate Justices Roberto Quiroz, Ramon Bato Jr., and Germano Francisco Legaspi signed the ruling. They were the same justices who signed the court decision, which earlier affirmed the conviction of Ressa and Santos.
According to the court, the arguments raised by Ressa and Santos were already resolved.
“A careful and meticulous review of the motion for reconsideration reveals that the matters raised by the accused-appellants had already been exhaustively resolved and discussed in the assailed Decision,” the court said.
The court also claimed Ressa’s and Santos’ conviction is not meant to curtail freedom of speech.
“In conclusion, it [is] worthy and relevant to point out that the conviction of the accused-appellants for the crime of cyberlibel punishable under the Cybercrime Law is not geared towards the curtailment of the freedom of speech, or to produce an unseemingly chilling effect on the users of cyberspace that would possibly hinder free speech.”
‘Safeguard’ for free speech On the contrary, the court said, the purpose of the law is to “safeguard the right of free speech, and to curb, if not totally prevent, the reckless and unlawful use of the computer systems as a means of committing the traditional criminal offences…”
In a statement, Nobel Peace laureate Ressa said she was “disappointed” but not surprised by the ruling.
Rappler’s video report on YouTube.
“The ongoing campaign of harassment and intimidation against me and Rappler continues, and the Philippines legal system is not doing enough to stop it. I am disappointed by today’s ruling but sadly not surprised,” Ressa said.
“This is a reminder of the importance of independent journalism holding power to account. Despite these sustained attacks from all sides, we continue to focus on what we do best — journalism.”
Santos, in a separate statement, said he still believed that the rule of law would prevail.
“The [Appeal Court’s] decision to deny our motion is not surprising, but it’s disheartening nevertheless. As we elevate our case to the SC, our fight against intimidation and suppression of freedom continues. We still believe that the rule of law will prevail.”
Theodore “Ted” Te, Rappler’s lawyer and former Supreme Court spokesperson, said they would now ask the Supreme Court to review and reverse Ressa’s conviction.
“The CA decision denying the MFR [motion for reconsideration] is disappointing. It ignored basic principles of constitutional and criminal law as well as the evidence presented. Maria and Rey will elevate these issues to the SC and we will ask the SC to review the decision and to reverse the decision,” Te said in a statement.
The decision The Appeal Court also explained its findings on the arguments based on:
Applications of the provisions of cyber libel under the cybercrime law
Subject article should have been classified as qualifiedly privileged” in relation to Wilfredo Keng as a public figure
On the validity of the cybercrime law, the court cited a ruling which, according to them, decided the constitutionality of the law.
The court also reiterated that the story in question was republished. The court said the argument that ex-post facto was applied on the theory that the correction of one letter is too unsubstantial and cannot be considered a republication is “unavailing.”
“As settled, the determination of republication is not hinged on whether the corrections made therein were substantial or not, as what matters is that the very exact libelous article was again published on a later date,” the appeals court said.
On the increase of penalty, the CA said the argument that Wilberto Tolentino v. People has no doctrinal value and cannot be used as a binding precedent as it was “an unsigned resolution, is misplaced.”
That case said the “prescriptive period for the crime of cyber libel is 15 years.”
Traditional, online publications The appeals court also highlighted the difference between traditional and online publications: “As it is, in the instance of libel through traditional publication, the libelous article is only released and circulated once – which is on the day when it was published.”
Such was not the case for an online publication, the court said, where “the commission of such offence is continuous since such article remains therein in perpetuity unless taken down from all online platforms where it was published…”
On the argument about Keng, the CA said it was insufficient to consider him a public figure: “As previously settled, the claim that Wilfredo Keng is a renowned businessman, who was connected to several companies, is insufficient to classify him as a public figure.”
The term “public figure” in relation to libel refers more to a celebrity, it said, citing the Ciriaco “Boy” Guingguing v. Honorable Court of Appeals decision. The decision said a public figure is “anyone who has arrived at a position where public attention is focused upon him as a person.”
It also cited the Supreme Court decision on Alfonso Yuchengco v. The Manila Chronicle Publishing Corporation, et al., which resolved the argument whether a businessman can be considered a public figure. The court said that being a known businessman did not make Keng a public figure who had attained a position that gave the public “legitimate interest in his affairs and character.”
There was no proof, too, that “he voluntarily thrusted himself to the forefront of the particular public controversies that were raised in the defamatory article,” the CA added.
In 2020, Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 46 convicted Ressa and Santos over cyber libel charges filed by Keng. The case tested the 8-year-old Philippine cybercrime law.
The Manila court interpreted the cyber libel law as having a 12-year proscription period, as opposed to only a year. The lower court also decided that republication was a separate offence.
Aside from affirming the Manila court’s ruling, the CA also imposed a longer prison sentence on Ressa and Santos, originally set for six months and one day as minimum to six years as maximum.
The appeals court added eight months and 20 days to the maximum imprisonment penalty.
Jairo Bolledo is a Rappler journalist. Republished with permission.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said reaching the milestone was “significant and heartening”.
“Our Parliament will always be better when the diversity of voices in New Zealand are heard in our law making and government.
“The Labour Party in particular has been deeply committed to having equality of representation within our own caucus and we are really excited to welcome Soraya to our team.”
Peke-Mason will also be the first MP sworn in by the new Speaker, her cousin Te Tai Hauāuru MP Adrian Rurawhe, and the first new MP pledging allegiance to the new king, Charles III.
Sworn in with Te Reo Representing the Rangitīkei electorate and supported by kaumātua and whānau from the river and mountain tribes and Rangitīkei, she will be sworn in at 2pm, in Te Reo Māori, and will give her maiden speech at 5.45pm.
“It is an honour and a privilege to be going to Parliament to represent our rohe,” Peke-Mason said.
“Over the last one or two decades my work has taken me across the Whanganui, the Ruapehu and the Rangitīkei districts.
“I’m excited and proud to be able to represent our rohe, and for Te Awa Tupua, for Rangitīkei, for all of us to have another strong voice at a table that makes really important and hard decisions on behalf of Aotearoa.”
It is two years since Peke-Mason missed out at the 2020 election. Her elevation to Parliament was announced in June after news that Kris Faafoi would leave politics and Trevor Mallard would move on to a diplomatic posting.
Peke-Mason, who lives at Rātana south of Whanganui, was Rangitīkei’s first wahine Māori councillor for 12 years until 2019, when she unsuccessfully ran for Horizons Regional Council.
In 2020, she stood in the general election in Rangitīkei against incumbent Ian McKelvie and was ranked No 60 on the Labour list.
‘You just get on with it’ “After the results of the last election, there was a possibility that I could enter Parliament but you just get on with it. You leave that there to the side and you just get on with your mahi at home.”
She was appointed to the Whanganui District Health Board and to its Hauora ā Iwi Relationship Board. She also helped lead the Whanganui Māori Regional Tourism board, was a member of Rangitīkei District Council’s Te Roopu Ahi Kā and held a number of iwi Māori and Māori trust governance roles.
“I’ve had plenty of time to be able to exit the work that I’ve been doing in the rohe, to tidy up those loose ends, to finish up projects properly, look at replacements, and work with Māori authorities that I’ve done work for to ensure there’s an appropriate exit process so that they’re not left in the lurch,” she said.
“And I’ve also been able to exit some of the boards I’ve been on.
“I’ve been lucky to have the time to do that. Not every MP gets that time.”
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.
Misuse of funds, dictatorial leadership and lack of consultation displayed by some Methodist Church leaders in Fiji is “a worrying trend”, says church president Reverend Ili Vunisuwai.
He highlighted this and lifestyle concerns — including the abuse of kava — during the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma’s annual conference yesterday.
Reverend Vunisuwai said leadership without respect and humility would push the congregation to search for other places of worship where their voices could be heard.
“Reports and complaints have been received at the head office regarding the misuse of funds in our churches,” he said.
“This is a serious concern as it can end up in the court of law.
“I hereby plead to uphold our Christian values with respect and humility to move forward in improving the leadership status of our church.”
Reverend Vunisuwai also emphasised the need for church members to be mindful of their lifestyles as many ministers had died prematurely.
“Some have passed on while others have been affected with non-communicable diseases (NCDs),” he said.
“We need to be mindful of our lifestyle, especially our eating habits, excessive consumption of kava, staying up late at night, and not having enough rest.”
He called on the congregation to implement the three pillars of the church’s 10-year strategic plan — physical well-being, good leadership and creating awareness for climate change.
Wata Shawis a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.
By Hiliare Bule, RNZ News correspondent in Port Vila
Forty nine regional and international observers have arrived in Vanuatu to monitor the running of the country’s snap election tomorrow.
The election was triggered after the dissolution of the country’s Parliament on August 19 by President Nikenike Vurobaravu, and on the eve of a motion of no-confidence against the now caretaker prime minister Bob Loughman.
More than 300,000 people are expected to cast their vote in the snap election.
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Edward Kaltamat, has confirmed observers from Australia, China, Fiji, France, Kiribati, Melanesian Spearhead Group Secretariat, New Zealand, Pacific Islands Forum, United Kingdom and the United Nations are in the country.
Kaltamat said their presence will provide confidence to the voters on the transparency and credibility of the election.
The 49 observers have signed their code of conduct to guide them while they are in the field.
Kaltamat said some of them would stay in the capital to monitor the elections in Port Vila and the Efate constituency, and some would be deployed in the islands.
He said the observers will be briefed before being sent to the islands by aircraft.
This is not the first time that international observers have monitored an election in Vanuatu.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Miriam Zarriga, one of Papua New Guinea’s top experienced journalists, has been appointed as the PNG Post-Courier’s new chief-of-staff.
With more than 10 years working with the Post-Courier, Zarriga has extensive experience in political, security and general news reporting.
She replaces Lawrence Fong, a fellow stalwart of the Post-Courier who has held the position of chief-of-staff for the last three years.
Fong welcomed Zarriga’s appointment and issued his unwavering support on behalf of the newsroom as she moves into her new role. He now shifts to become online content editor of the masthead.
Prior to her appointment, Zarriga played a key role in Post-Courier’s 2022 National General Election coverage alongside senior political journalist Gorethy Kenneth.
Her involvement provided extensive election coverage on election-related violence around the country, and in some cases facing the brunt of tribal warfare in daring situations.
‘No walk in the park’ Post-Courier’s editor Matthew Vari congratulated Zarriga on her appointment, saying the role embodied the challenges of running a modern newsroom.
“The chief-of-staff position is no walk in the park,” Vari said. “But I have every confidence in Ms Zarriga’s capabilities in ensuring we produce the best content for our readers.
“Her experience over the many years on the frontline of mainstream media provides Ms Zarriga with a wealth of understanding of what’s needed to be produced for our readers.”
The chief-of-staff role handles the content of the newspaper, and the day-to-day operations of the newsroom and its reporters.
Upon assuming the Philippines presidency on 30 June 2022, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr — the only son and namesake of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos — delivered an inaugural address that did not mention press freedom.
Press freedom also went unmentioned when he delivered his first State of the Nation Address before the joint Senate and House of Representatives on 25 July 2022.
His silence on the issue was notable given that the former press secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles, who stepped down on 4 October 2022 due to health reasons, had stressed that press freedom would be guaranteed under the Marcos Jr administration and that the administration would “work closely” with news media.
But as he pledged to protect press freedom on the campaign trail, certain journalists were pushed for getting too physically close to Marcos Jr.
It also remains to be seen whether his representatives will continue to evade critical questions during press briefings or if Marcos Jr will be more accommodating of interview requests. The normalisation of these practices would be a death knell for press freedom in the Philippines.
Media restrictions and abuse under Marcos Jr evoke memories of the Philippine media’s dark history under former Philippines president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law from 1972–86.
The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility identifies five similarities between the Marcos regime in the 1970s and the current Marcos Jr administration.
Distribution of propaganda These are the distribution of propaganda through government agencies and social media, the ABS–CBN shutdown, attacks and threats against journalists, crony press and media selectivity and propaganda films.
There are chilling similarities between the two administrations despite Marcos Jr’s promise that he would not declare martial law.
For the current administration, “working closely” with journalists means putting them in touch with pro-Marcos Jr vloggers, content creators and influencers. Cruz-Angeles is prioritising the accreditation of pro-regime reporters to cover official functions.
But her claim that accreditation is open to those of all political beliefs rings untrue as pro-Marcos Jr vloggers recently established a new group (upon the suggestion of Cruz-Angeles herself) to help gain government accreditation.
Celebrity vlogger Toni Gonzaga was granted a one-on-one interview with Marcos Jr at the Malacañang Palace in September 2022, showing how the administration accommodates those who ask soft questions. That reminds many Filipinos of Marcos Jr’s non-participation in most presidential debates and interviews during the campaign, opting to accommodate events organised by his supporters.
During the 2022 election campaign, there were times when his handlers did not invite critical journalists, asking those invited to submit questions in advance to control the flow of press briefings.
By accrediting pro-administration, hyper-partisan non-journalists, the Marcos Jr administration gives them legitimacy as “truth seekers” even if there is evidence they proliferate disinformation. It is also a strategy to discredit critical journalists for peddling “fake news”.
Critical journalists harassed Critical journalists and media organisations are harassed and intimidated under the Marcos Jr administration, just as they were under the 2016–2020 Duterte administration. Disinformation remains rampant even after the 2022 elections.
Red-tagging — the blacklisting of journalists and media outlets critical of the government — has continued.
Shortly after Marcos Jr assumed the presidency, the Court of Appeals upheld the “cyber libel” convictions of Nobel Prize laureate Maria Ressa and former Rappler writer Reynaldo Santos Jr.
While these convictions appeared to carry over the selective harassment and intimidation of the vengeful Duterte administration, the chilling effect on the media is real. Those targeted become grim reminders of what can happen if journalists and news media organisations incur the ire of the powers that be.
The date 21 September 2022 marked the 50 years since martial law was imposed. Marcos Jr repeatedly claims martial law was necessary to tackle communist and separatist threats, dismissing accusations that his father was a dictator.
Even the funding for the planned memorial for Martial Law victims was cut by 75 percent in the 2023 National Expenditure Programme.
Marcos Jr intends to rewrite history textbooks to include his family’s version of the truth. By silencing his critics, he can further engage in historical denialism. This is important not just to erase his father’s dictator image but to escape his family’s legal problems like the unpaid estate tax and his mother’s conviction for seven counts of graft.
Media repression ‘normalised’ Media repression continues to be normalised under the Marcos Jr regime. One of his allies in the House of Representatives blocked the return of ABS–CBN, whose franchise bid was denied in 2020. Rappler and its editorial staff, including Ressa, continue to face legal problems as well as the threat of closure.
The National Telecommunications Commission blocked 27 websites accused of having communist links in June 2022. It took a court order for the online publication Bulatlat Multimedia to be unblocked, while journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio remains in detention on questionable charges after being red-tagged and subjected to death threats.
The murder of broadcaster Percy Lapid on 3 October 2022 — the second journalist to be killed under the new administration — also reflects the dire state of press freedom in the Philippines.
That Marcos Jr did not mention press freedom in his inaugural speech and first State of the Nation Address reflects his disregard for critical journalism.
Although it is still early days, his efforts to whitewash the dictatorship’s dark past and continue his predecessor’s media repression indicate that his pre-election promise of a “free press” is long abandoned.
Danilo Arana Arao is associate professor at the Department of Journalism, the University of the Philippines Diliman, special lecturer at the Department of Journalism, the Polytechnic University of the Philippines Santa Mesa, associate editor at Bulatlat Multimedia and editor at Media Asia. This article was first published in East Asia Forum.
Two per cent of all fishing gear used worldwide ends up polluting the oceans, our new research finds. To put that into perspective, the amount of longline fishing gear littering the ocean each year can circle the Earth more than 18 times.
We interviewed 450 fishers from seven of the world’s biggest fishing countries including Peru, Indonesia, Morocco and the United States, to find out just how much gear enters the global ocean. We found at current loss rates, in 65 years there would be enough fishing nets littering the sea to cover the entire planet.
This lost fishing equipment, known as ghost gear, can cause heavy social, economic and environmental damage. Hundreds of thousands of animals are estimated to die each year from unintentional capture in fishing nets. Derelict nets can continue to fish indiscriminately for decades.
Our research findings help highlight where to focus efforts to stem the tide of fishing pollution. It can also help inform fisheries management and policy interventions from local to global scales.
Fishing boats in port near Lima, Peru. CSIRO
14 billion longline hooks litter the sea each year
The data we collected came directly from fishers themselves. They experience this issue firsthand and are best poised to inform our understanding of fishing gear losses.
We surveyed fishers using five major gear types: gillnets, longlines, purse seine nets, trawl nets, and pots and traps.
We asked how much fishing gear they used and lost annually, and what gear and vessel characteristics could be making the problem worse. This included vessel and gear size, whether the gear contacts the seafloor, and the total amount of gear used by the vessel.
We coupled these surveys with information on global fishing effort data from commercial fisheries.
Longlines are deep-sea fishing lines that trail behind a boat, and are made up of many short lines with baited hooks that come off of each ‘long’ line. Vessels may have from 25 to 2,500 hooks or more for each line. Shutterstock
Fishers use different types of nets to catch different types of fish. Our research found the amount of nets littering the ocean each year include:
740,000 kilometres of longline mainlines
nearly 3,000 square kilometres of gill nets
218 square kilometres of trawl nets
75,000 square kilometres of purse seine nets
In addition, fishers lose over 25 million pots and traps and nearly 14 billion longline hooks each year.
At the current pollution rate, fishing nets littering the ocean could cover the entire planet in 65 years. Shutterstock
These estimates cover only commercial fisheries, and don’t include the amount of fishing line and other gear lost by recreational fishers.
We also estimate that between 1.7% and 4.6% of all land-based plastic waste travels into the sea. This amount likely exceeds lost fishing gear.
However, fishing gear is designed to catch animals and so is generally understood as the most environmentally damaging type of plastic pollution in research to date.
Countries (in black) where interviews with fishers occurred. Fishers were surveyed from each of the seven key marine regions/continents of the world, excluding Antarctica. The number of surveys conducted for major gear types/fisheries are listed (bullet points) below each country name.
Harming fishers and marine life
Nearly 700 species of marine life are known to interact with marine debris, many of which are near threatened. Australian and US research in 2016 found fishing gear poses the biggest entanglement threats to marine fauna such as sea turtles, marine mammals, seabirds and whales.
Other marine wildlife including sawfish, dugong, hammerhead sharks and crocodiles are also known to get entangled in fishing gear. Other key problematic items include balloons and plastic bags.
Lost fishing gear is not only an environmental risk, but it also has an economic impact for the fishers themselves. Every metre of lost net or line is a cost to the fisher – not only to replace the gear but also in its potential catch.
Additionally, many fisheries have already gone through significant reforms to reduce their environmental impact and improve the sustainability of their operations.
2% of fishing gear used worldwide gets lost at sea. Denise Hardesty, Author provided
Some losses are attributable to how gear is operated. For instance, bottom trawl nets – which can get caught on reefs – are lost more often that nets that don’t make contact with the sea floor.
The conditions of the ocean can also make a significant difference. For example, fishers commonly reported that bad weather and overcrowding contributes to gear losses. Conflicts between gears coming into contact can also result in gear losses, such as when towed nets cross drifting longlines or gillnets.
Where fish are depleted, fishers must expend more effort, operate in worse conditions or locations, and are more likely to come in contact with others’ gear. All these features increase losses.
Pots/traps such as these are used to catch crabs and lobsters. Shutterstock
What do we do about it?
We actually found lower levels of fishing gear losses in our current study than in a previous review of the historical literature on the topic. Technological improvements, such as better weather forecasts and improved marking and tracking of fishing gear may be reducing loss rates.
Incentives can further reduce losses resulting in ghost gear. This could include buyback programs for end-of-life fishing gear, reduced cost loans for net replacement, and waste receptacles in ports to encourage fishers to return used fishing gear.
Technological improvements and management interventions could also make a difference, such as requirements to mark and track gear, as well as regular gear maintenance and repairs.
Developing effective fishing management systems can improve food security, leave us with a healthier environment, and create more profitable businesses for the fishers who operate in it.
Britta Denise Hardesty receives funding from numerous federal and philanthropic organisations for plastic pollution related work, including on abandoned, lost and derelict fishing gear (ALDFG).
Chris Wilcox receives funding from the CSIRO, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the National Philanthropic Trust. He is affiliated with the Minderoo Foundation.
Joanna Vince receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian National Science Environment Program.
Kelsey Richardson received funding from CSIRO and the University of Tasmania to support this research.
The government has flirted with, and now ruled out, changing the Stage 3 tax cut in the October 25 budget, which appears set to be dominated by some deep spending cuts. In the longer term, however, debate will continue over the need to reform Australia’s tax system, as the calls on revenue to finance big programs increase.
Meanwhile, the government is locked in a battle to get high domestic gas prices down, with its light touch policy towards the gas producers not having much impact.
In this podcast, Michelle Grattan talks with Rod Sims, former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and now a professor at the Australian National University’s Crawford School for Public Policy, on tax, gas and privatisation.
Sims says tax reform should look beyond income tax. “We have plenty of other ways to raise taxation […] we should be altering the existing petroleum resource rent tax because I think it’s flawed and we can get more money out of that pretty well straight away”. This change could raise “billions per year”.
Advocating a more robust taxing of resources, Sims says: “You’ve got high mineral prices, high gas prices all around the world. That’s causing harm in Australia as well as elsewhere. Yet we’re not we’re not getting enough tax from them. I think that’s a really unhealthy situation to be in.”
Sims also criticises the way privatising state assets has been done, and urges changes for the future to ensure competition.
“We should stop privatising assets in ways that see monopolies in private hands without any regulation and often with arrangements to stop them facing competition. I think we’ve got to have tests for making sure we do these things in a competitive way with proper regulation […] if you have three bread shops that you can buy bread from, you get a much better deal than if the only choice you have is one bread shop.”
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Those who get dermal fillers injected into their face have the possibility of an additional complication: swelling and discomfort if they get COVID or a dose of a COVID vaccine. So should they take extra precautions, or time their treatments?
What are dermal fillers?
Fillers are now one of the most common non-surgical cosmetic procedures. Adding fillers to the face can address facial drooping; injections into the high cheekbone area lift the face.
Today’s patients might receive soft fillers in the lips and mouth areas, combined with botulinum toxins (botox) in overactive facial muscles, and lasers and light sources on the skin.
Dermal fillers are used to address facial asymmetry, which can cause functional, psychological/social, and reduced quality-of-life issues. Cosmetically, dermal fillers may give an immediate confidence boost.
Soft tissue fillers are usually hyaluronic acid products. Some other formulations that stimulate tissues are also used.
Fillers can only be prescribed by a registered medical practitioner.
Although soft tissue fillers are considered safe, several studies have shown complications occur with all filler types. Delayed inflammatory reactions – such as red and/or firm lumps possibly with swelling – are among the most common. The cause of these reactions is unknown, so treatments will vary.
From 2020 to August 2021 there were around 19 reports in the medical literature of late inflammatory reactions post COVID or post vaccine occurring between weeks and years after filler treatment. This equates to an incidence range of 0.01% to 4.25% of soft tissue filler procedures. Not all cases are reported.
The reason for such reactions is not fully understood. There are many theories on how they can occur including immune reactions to filler triggered by infection, trauma or vaccination.
So, it is not surprising that in the current COVID pandemic, late inflammatory reactions have been reported after infection with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) and vaccination to protect against it.
The first results of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the Moderna vaccine showed adverse events in three patients with soft tissue fillers. Such complications can occur between 15 days and six months after filler injections. And they can occur three to four weeks after COVID infection. Filler complications can begin quickly after receiving a mRNA COVID vaccination, between 13 hours and three weeks post-injection.
Clinical symptoms are redness, swelling, formation of lumps and discomfort in the filled areas. Some of the patients with reported complications have had a history of spontaneous facial swelling after a filler injection, previous vaccinations, or after other medical treatments.
It is not the first time adverse events after filler treatment have been reported after a viral infection, for example after an influenza-like illnesses.
The condition generally has a good response to oral corticosteroids, while some patients need hyaluronidase injections to dissolve the filler.
It has been suggested treatment with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-1, usually prescribed to manage blood pressure), which plays a crucial role in SARS-CoV-2 binding properties, can reduce swelling in late inflammatory reactions.
Genetic factors are likely to play a role in who gets complications after dermal filler injections generally, with studies pinpointing the genes responsible in those who experience reactions. These individuals might have a lower threshold to infections, vaccines, or other factors that trigger an immune response.
What patients can do
Although small in number, the cases so far show adverse reactions with soft tissue filler occur after COVID infection and vaccination. The relationship between these factors seems likely, as they occur within a few hours or up to several weeks afterwards.
To prevent possible complications, the following recommendations have been suggested for those wishing to proceed with a filler:
ideally, allow a two- to four-week window between filler injections and vaccination in general, and two months longer for immunocompromised patients (those taking immunosuppressive medications, having chemotherapy, or with immune disorders) or after COVID infection
proceed with caution if there is a history of allergies, filler-related adverse events or problems after other types of implants
because vaccination protects against severe COVID, long COVID and death, delay the filler rather than the vaccination
if a reaction does occur, then your doctor can consider starting treatment with oral steroids, provided there is no infection.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra
Shutterstock
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released its first time-use survey in 15 years. The last time it collected such data, in 2006, Apple was yet to release the iPhone and Facebook was a start-up.
So much has changed, though the differences in time use between men and women have not changed as much as many might like.
The new survey suggests we’re spending an average of 4 hours 23 minutes a day watching video, listening to audio or some other activity involving a computer or handheld device.
The average full-time worker spent 8 hours 44 minutes a day on employment-related activities. But we’re getting pretty much the same amount of sleep – about 8½ hours on average for both men and women.
The survey suggests a slight narrowing in gender differences – but with domestic and caring responsibilities still principally undertaken by women.
Caution, however, is needed in interpreting these new results. The data was collected from 2,000 households between November 2020 and July 2021. So the times reported reflect the COVID-19 pandemic, with closed borders, restrictions and lockdowns. These were not ‘normal’ times.
Comparisons with the past data (from 2006, 1997, 1992 and the 1987 pilot study) are further complicated by the bureau warning the new figures “are not fully comparable with previous collections due to changes in methodology”.
With this in mind, let’s take a look.
How we use our time
Our first graph shows how men and women, on average, spend their days.
Necessary activities are things like sleeping, eating and personal care.
Contracted activities are things such as paid work and education. Committed activities cover unpaid domestic chores, child care, adult care and voluntary work. Free time means exactly that.
These times add up to over 24 hours. This is because many people spend part of their day doing two things at once. For example, while at work or driving or having breakfast (what the bureau terms a “primary” activity), they may be listening to the radio (a “secondary” activity).
Nonetheless they provide a useful snapshot – with men spending more time on paid work, and women more time on unpaid work.
When we’re working
Most of us who work do so during standard office or trading hours. But about a tenth of all workers were working between 8 pm and 10 pm at the time of the survey – either because they were shift workers or due to (paid or unpaid) overtime.
Time on domestic chores
On average women spent 3 hours 22 minutes a day on domestic responsibilities, compared with 2 hours 19 minutes for men. (Child-care responsibilities were on top of this – an average of 1 hour 26 minutes for women, 40 minutes for men.)
The time-use survey also reports these activities by participation rate and by average time spent by those who undertake such activities.
The percentage of men reporting doing any domestic activities was 84%, compared with 94% of women. Participation differences were particularly pronounced in housework (72% of women compared with 44% of men) and cooking (77% of women compared with 56% of men).
Among those who reported doing these activities, women spent an average 3 hours 36 minutes compared with an average 2 hours 46 minutes for men.
How we use our leisure time
In its 2006 survey the ABS reported five main categories for how people spent their leisure time: sport and other outdoor activities; games, hobbies, arts and crafts; talking, writing or reading correspondence; using audiovisual media; and “other” activities.
This survey has updated procedures to ensure greater clarity around our burgeoning consumption of various types of media – recording times for listening to music and podcasts; games and puzzles; video games; and general internet and device use.
Feeling under pressure
Perhaps not surprisingly, more women than men reported feeling “rushed or pressed for time”. These stresses were particularly prevalent among parents with children at home.
Are gender differences narrowing?
While comparison with past surveys is complicated for the reasons mentioned, gender differences do appear to have narrowed, with men doing a little more housework.
This is consistent with international studies suggesting “some signs of gender convergence, with a widespread decrease in women’s housework … and increases in men’s housework and childcare”.
However, with comparisons with earlier years being muddied by the pandemic and changes to coding procedures, we will have to wait for the next time-use survey for a clearer picture.
Hopefully it won’t be 15 years.
Michael Walsh worked at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) between 2011 and 2015. Michael has no ongoing employment or financial links with the ABS.
John Hawkins 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.
On September 26, after a nine-month journey through the Solar System, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission impacted an asteroid called Dimorphos.
NASA scored a bullseye, with DART – roughly the size of a vending machine – hitting Dimorphos within 10% of the 160-metre asteroid’s centre. The hit changed the orbit of Dimorphos around its bigger companion asteroid Didymos by more than 30 minutes, far exceeding the original goal.
This is the first time humans have deliberately changed the motion of a significant Solar System object. The test shows it’s plausible to protect Earth from asteroid impacts using similar future missions, if needed.
The Italian Space Agency’s LICIACube spacecraft acquired this image just before its closest approach to the Dimorphos asteroid, after the impact. Didymos, Dimorphos, and the plume of debris ejected from Dimorphos are clearly visible. ASI/NASA
An astonishing feat
The successful mission is an astonishing feat of science and engineering. In the final phases of approach before impact, DART autonomously steered itself to the impact site, processing images onboard the spacecraft and adjusting its trajectory without the intervention of humans.
Many telescopes on Earth, and an Italian spacecraft that tagged along with DART, were able to obtain amazing images of the impact. Even small telescopes captured spectacular views, showing an enormous plume of debris from the impact that developed into a trail now following the asteroid through space.
The DART mission was the first test of planetary defence – the use of a spacecraft to change the trajectory of an asteroid.
In the future, such a technique could protect Earth from asteroid impact, if we detect an asteroid on a collision course with us. By changing the direction of an asteroid when it is far from Earth, a collision could be avoided.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows Dimorphos 285 hours after the impact, with a tail of debris generated by the impact. NASA/ESA/STScI/Hubble
How was DART so successful?
Dimorphos was chosen as the target for DART because it is part of a double asteroid system – it orbits a larger, 780-metre asteroid called Didymos. Before the impact, this orbit was very regular and could be measured by large telescopes from Earth. Measurements showed the period of the orbit was about 11 hours and 55 minutes.
The DART mission goal was to show the orbit of Dimorphos would be changed by the impact, which took place 11 million kilometres from Earth, with the spacecraft travelling at 25,000 kilometres per hour.
A zoomed-in view of the orbit of Dimorphos around Didymos. Astronomers can measure the orbit by detecting dips in the brightness of the light the asteroid pair reflect from the Sun. A small dip occurs when Dimorphos eclipses Didymos, and a bigger dip the other way around. NASA/APL/UMD
Telescopes on Earth measured the orbit before and after the impact. The minimum change to the orbit to declare mission success was 73 seconds.
The data are in and DART changed the orbit of Dimorphos by a whopping 32 minutes (plus or minus 2 minutes).
The change is large, partly because of the resulting debris plume. The act of throwing all that debris off the asteroid generated a recoil, like the recoil of a gun; the bullet is fired in one direction and the gun recoils in the opposite direction. It’s the same with the debris plume and the asteroid.
A side view of the streams of material from the surface of Dimorphos two days after impact. On the right, the material is forming a more than 9,500-kilometre-long comet-like tail, pushed into shape by pressure from the Sun’s radiation. CTIO/NOIRLab/SOAR/NSF/AURA/T. Kareta (Lowell Observatory), M. Knight (US Naval Academy)
Good news for planetary defence
By any measure, DART has therefore been a huge success. DART made a bullseye and showed that missions like this can alter the trajectories of asteroids. The idea has been around for a long time, and has inspired many asteroid movies. Now, engineering and science have caught up.
If, in the future, an asteroid is found to be on a collision path with Earth, and we have enough warning, a next-generation mission based on the DART experience could well save Earth and humanity from significant losses.
DART cost approximately US$324 million, and at this point it looks like money well spent.
As more data on the impact are analysed, planetary defence techniques can be refined. We will also learn a lot about asteroids from the data collected. A European mission is planned to go to the Didymos/Dimorphos system and take a close look at the impact crater, which will provide even more detailed information.
New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.
New Zealand Politics Daily is a collation of the most prominent issues being discussed in New Zealand. It is edited by Dr Bryce Edwards of The Democracy Project.
Fake photography is nothing new. In the 1910s, British author Arthur Conan Doyle was famously deceived by two school-aged sisters who had produced photographs of elegant fairies cavorting in their garden.
The first of the five ‘Cottingley Fairies’ photographs, taken by Elsie Wright in 1917. Wikipedia
Today it is hard to believe these photos could have fooled anybody, but it was not until the 1980s an expert named Geoffrey Crawley had the nerve to directly apply his knowledge of film photography and deduce the obvious.
The photographs were fake, as later admitted by one of the sisters themselves.
In 1982 Geoffrey Crawley deduced the fairy photographs were fake. So is this one. Brendan Murphy, Author provided
Hunting for artefacts and common sense
Digital photography has opened up a wealth of techniques for fakers and detectives alike.
Forensic examination of suspect images nowadays involves hunting for qualities inherent to digital photography, such as examining metadata embedded in the photos, using software such as Adobe Photoshop to correct distortions in images, and searching for telltale signs of manipulation, such as regions being duplicated to obscure original features.
Sometimes digital edits are too subtle to detect, but leap into view when we adjust the way light and dark pixels are distributed. For example, in 2010 NASA released a photo of Saturn’s moons Dione and Titan. It was in no way fake, but had been cleaned up to remove stray artefacts – which got the attention of conspiracy theorists.
Curious, I put the image into Photoshop. The illustration below recreates roughly how this looked.
A simulation showing how editing can be detected when levels of light and dark are adjusted. Brendan Murphy, Author provided
Most digital photographs are in compressed formats such as JPEG, slimmed down by removing much of the information captured by the camera. Standardised algorithms ensure the information removed has minimal visible impact – but it does leave traces.
The compression of any region of an image will depend on what is going on in the image and current camera settings; when a fake image combines multiple sources, it is often possible to detect this by careful analysis of the compression artefacts.
Some forensic methodology has little to do with the format of an image, but is essentially visual detective work. Is everyone in the photograph lit in the same way? Are shadows and reflections making sense? Are ears and hands showing light and shadow in the right places? What is reflected in people’s eyes? Would all the lines and angles of the room add up if we modelled the scene in 3D?
Arthur Conan Doyle may have been fooled by fairy photos, but I think his creation Sherlock Holmes would be right at home in the world of forensic photo analysis.
A new era of artificial intelligence
The current explosion of images created by text-to-image artificial intelligence (AI) tools is in many ways more radical than the shift from film to digital photography.
We can now conjure any image we want, just by typing. These images are not frankenphotos made by cobbling together pre-existing clumps of pixels. They are entirely new images with the content, quality and style specified.
Until recently the complex neural networks used to generate these images have had limited availability to the public. This changed on August 23 2022, with the release to the public of the open-source Stable Diffusion. Now anyone with a gaming-level Nvidia graphics card in their computer can create AI image content without any research lab or business gatekeeping their activities.
Text-to-image AI gets its smarts from training – the analysis of a large number of image/caption pairs. The strengths and weaknesses of each system are in part derived from just what images it has been trained on. Here is an example: this is how Stable Diffusion sees George Clooney doing his ironing.
This is George Clooney doing his ironing… or is it? Brendan Murphy, Author provided
This is far from realistic. All Stable Diffusion has to go on is the information it has learned, and while it is clear it has seen George Clooney and can link that string of letters to the actor’s features, it is not a Clooney expert.
However, it would have seen and digested many more photos of middle-aged men in general, so let’s see what happens when we ask for a generic middle-aged man in the same scenario.
Not-George-Clooney doing his ironing. Brendan Murphy, Author provided
This is a clear improvement, but still not quite realistic. As has always been the case, the tricky geometry of hands and ears are good places to look for signs of fakery – although in this medium we are looking at the spatial geometry rather than the tells of impossible lighting.
There may be other clues. If we carefully reconstructed the room, would the corners be square? Would the shelves make sense? A forensic expert used to examining digital photographs could probably make a call on that.
If we extend a text-to-image system’s knowledge, it can do even better. You can add your own described photographs to supplement existing training. This process is known as textual inversion.
Recently, Google has released Dream Booth, an alternative, more sophisticated method for injecting specific people, objects or even art styles into text-to-image AI systems.
This process requires heavy-duty hardware, but the results are staggering. Some great work has begun to be shared on Reddit. Look at the photos in the post below that show images put into DreamBooth and realistic fake images from Stable Diffusion.
We can no longer believe our eyes, but we may still be able to trust those of forensics experts, at least for now. It is entirely possible that future systems could be deliberately trained to fool them too.
We are rapidly moving into an era where perfect photographic and even video will be common. Time will tell how significant this will be, but in the meantime it is worth remembering the lesson of the Cottingley Fairy photos – sometimes people just want to believe, even in obvious fakes.
Brendan Paul Murphy 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.
Protests following the death of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini have spread to other countries, including Lebanon.Wael Hamzeh/EPA/AAP
As protests in Iran drag on into their fourth week over the violent death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, there are two central questions.
The first is whether these protests involving women and girls across Iran are different from upheavals in the past, or will simply end the same way with the regime stifling a popular uprising.
The second question is what can, and should, the outside world do about extraordinarily brave demonstrations against an ageing and ruthless regime that has shown itself to be unwilling, and possibly unable, to allow greater freedoms?
The symbolic issue for Iran’s protest movement is a requirement, imposed by morality police, that women and girls wear the hijab, or headscarf. In reality, these protests are the result of a much wider revolt against discrimination and prejudice.
Put simply, women are fed up with a regime that has sought to impose rigid rules on what is, and is not, permissible for women in a theocratic society whose guidelines are little changed since the overthrow of the Shah in 1979.
Women are serving multi-year jail sentences for simply refusing to wear the hijab.
Two other issues are also at play. One is the economic deprivation suffered by Iranians under the weight of persistent sanctions, rampant inflation and the continuing catastrophic decline in the value of the Iranian riyal.
The other issue is the fact Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old whose death sparked the protests, was a Kurd.
The Kurds, who constitute about 10% of Iran’s 84 million population, feel themselves to be a persecuted minority. Tensions between the central government in Tehran and Kurds in their homeland on the boundaries of Iraq, Syria and Turkey are endemic.
Another important question is where all this leaves negotiations on the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The JCPOA had been aimed at freezing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. Former President Donald Trump recklessly abandoned the 2015 agreement in 2018.
The Biden administration, along with its United Nations Security Council partners plus Germany, had been making progress in those negotiations, but those efforts are now stalled, if not frozen.
The spectacle of Iranian security forces violently putting down demonstrations in cities, towns and villages across Iran will make it virtually impossible in the short term for the US and its negotiating partners to negotiate a revised JCPOA with Tehran.
So will the US and its allies continue to tighten Iranian sanctions? And to what extent will the West seek to encourage and support protesters on the ground in Iran?
One initiative that is already underway is helping the protest movement to circumvent regime attempts to shut down electronic communications.
Elon Musk has announced he is activating his Starlink satellites to provide a vehicle for social media communications in Iran. Musk did the same thing in Ukraine to get around Russian attempts to shut down Ukrainian communications by taking out a European satellite system.
However, amid the spectacle of women and girls being shot and tear-gassed on Iranian streets, the moral dilemma for the outside world is this: how far the West is prepared to go in its backing for the protesters.
Since the Iranian protests began there have also been pro-government rallies in response. Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA/AAP
It is one thing to express sympathy; it is another to take concrete steps to support the widespread agitation. This was also the conundrum during the Arab Spring of 2010 that brought down regimes in US-friendly countries like Egypt and Tunisia.
It should not be forgotten, in light of contemporary events, that Iran and Russia propped up Syria’s Assad regime during the Arab Spring, saving it from a near certain end.
In this latest period, the Middle East may not be on fire, as it was a decade or so ago, but it remains highly unstable. Iran’s neighbour, Iraq, is effectively without a government after months of violent agitation. The war in Yemen is threatening to spark up again, adding to uncertainties in the Gulf.
In a geopolitical sense, Washington has to reckon with inroads Moscow has been making in relations with Gulf States, including, notably, Saudi Arabia.
The recent OPEC Plus decision to limit oil production constituted a slap to the US ahead of the mid-term elections in which fuel prices will be a potent issue.
In other words, Washington’s ability to influence events in the Middle East is eroding, partly as a consequence of a disastrous attempt to remake the region by going to war in Iraq in 2003.
The US’s ability to influence the Middle East is much weaker than before it went to war in Iraq in 2003. Susan Walsh/AP/AAP
A volatile region
Among the consequences of that misjudgement is the empowerment of Iran in conjunction with a Shia majority in Iraq. This should have been foreseen.
So quite apart from the waves of protest in Iran, the region is a tinderbox with multiple unresolved conflicts.
In Afghanistan, on the fringes of the Middle East, women protesters have taken the lead in recent days from their Iranian sisters and have been protesting against conservative dress codes and limitations on access to education under the Taliban.
This returns us to the moral issue of the extent to which the outside world should support the protests. In this, the experience of the “green” rebellion of 2009 on Iran’s streets is relevant.
Then, the Obama administration, after initially giving encouragement to the demonstrations, pulled back on the grounds it did not wish to jeopardise negotiations on a nuclear deal with Iran or undermine the protests by attaching US support.
Officials involved in the administration, who are now back in the Biden White House, believe that approach was a mistake. However, that begs the question as to what practically the US and its allies can do to stop Iran’s assault on its own women and girls.
What if, as a consequence of Western encouragement to the demonstrators, many hundreds more die or are incarcerated? What is the end result, beyond indulging in the usual rhetorical exercises such as expressing “concern” and threatening to ramp up sanctions that hurt individual Iranians more than the regime itself?
The bottom line is that irrespective of what might be the desired outcome, Iran’s regime is unlikely to crumble. It might be shaken, it might entertain concerns that its own revolution that replaced the Shah is in danger of being replicated, but it would be naïve to believe that a rotting 43-year-old edifice would be anything but utterly ruthless in putting an end to the demonstrations.
This includes unrest in the oil industry, in which workers are expressing solidarity with the demonstrators. The oil worker protest will be concerning the regime, given the centrality of oil production to Iran’s economy.
However, a powerful women’s movement has been unleashed in Iran. Over time, this movement may well force a theocratic regime to loosen restrictions on women and their participation in the political life of the country. That is the hope, but as history has shown, a ruthless regime will stop at little to re-assert its control.
Tony Walker is a board member of The Conversation.
The How to Thrive documentary, which screens in cinemas from today, follows seven people as they learn to not only survive, but thrive.
The documentary aligns with “positive psychology”, which aims to provide people with the skills and resources to proactively support their mental health and wellbeing.
I research positive psychology and was as an expert advisor for the documentary, assessing the participants’ progress over 18 months.
My analysis shows the evidence-based strategies in the documentary supported participants to thrive, leading most of them to feel and function well across multiple aspects of their lives.
There are lessons here for everyone. Here’s what we learned from the intensive film-making process that you can apply to better your life.
Filming began just before the start of the pandemic. Twelve people from diverse backgrounds – all with varying degrees of mental illness – took part. A two-day retreat introduced everyone to each other, and the journey ahead.
Each person had their own psychiatric supports as a requirement for being part of the program. There was also a clinical psychologist overseeing the process.
Then lockdown began.
Participants connected through Zoom, creating a sense of community and developing a sense of belonging. They were introduced to evidence-based strategies to improve their lives, and filmed their progress on their phones.
All participants learned about their character strengths (the positive parts of your personality that make you feel authentic and engaged), created a vision board of their best possible future self, practised self-compassion, and identified what went well in their life and why.
They also received individual coaching sessions, and were given activities specific to their needs.
Of the original 12 participants, seven were included in the final cut of the film, based on which stories allowed the producers to talk about a range of approaches and diversity of mental health conditions.
How to Thrive, due for release in cinemas October 13.
How I assessed their progress
I collected data documenting participants’ experiences, mental illness and wellbeing.
Over eight months, participants made major changes in their lives and saw the benefits. Benefits continuing over the subsequent ten months.
Let’s take a scale from -10 (to indicate high mental distress) to +10 (completely thriving).
On average, participants went from -3.2 (mild-to-moderate distress) to +5.4. Even a 2-point improvement would be statistically significant. But we saw a difference of more than 8 points, clearly showing participants were thriving, and demonstrating clinically significant improvements.
The greatest changes occurred from March to April 2020, during the documentary’s main intervention period. But improvements continued over the next 17 months.
On average, participants felt more satisfied with their lives, more hopeful, more engaged, and more connected. Participants improved their physical health, and felt less lonely and distressed.
Participants felt like they were struggling less. They felt more supported by others and gave more support to others. They increased their skills, resources, and motivation to live well.
The results support studies suggesting happiness does not just happen – it’s a skill that can be learned and developed, with the right aims and supports in place.
While seven participants were included in the final cut, all the original 12 took part in the assessments across the first 12 months. Almost all demonstrating significant increases in their mental health and wellbeing across the intervention period and beyond.
One participant, who did not engage in many of the intervention activities and remained distant from the group, did not see these improvements.
It’s possible the benefits arose from the psychiatric supports participants had in place as part of the documentary. However, each
participant had years of experience with psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health supports, yet continued to deeply struggle.
This suggests the intervention provided added benefits to usual mental health care.
Studiessuggest that positive psychology interventions can increase wellbeing and reduce the symptoms of depression.
However, we don’t know how positive psychology interventions alone compare with usual mental health care. We also don’t have evidence for adding positive psychology to usual mental care.
Positive psychology interventions have mostly been used with people without moderate-to-severe mental illness. Indeed, one of the extraordinary parts of this experiment was adding positive psychology to typical care for people with moderate-to-severe mental illness.
What can we learn?
The documentary suggests several key ways to support mental health and wellbeing.
1. Find your tribe
Throughout the documentary, participants developed a community. Humans have a natural need for belonging. In contrast, loneliness relates to mental and physical illness, and even early death. Find people that you can belong with and connect at a deep level, beyond superficial “friends”.
2. Engage in meaningful activities
Studies suggest engagement in life is an important marker of healthy ageing. This means not simply gliding through life, but sucking the marrow out of life. It involves finding and committing to activities that fill you up and give you a sense of life, rather than those that drain the life from you.
3. Be compassionate
Be compassionate towards yourself and others. We are often our own worst critics. We are doing the best we can. Be kind to yourself, and extend that kindness to others.
4. Be optimistic
Be optimistic and hopeful for the future. Things won’t always work out, but if we are biased towards seeing the possibility of what could be, the results might surprise us.
5. Nurture yourself
Nurture your physical, mental, social and spiritual wellbeing. Eat and rest well, engage in moderate physical activity, and actively engage in activities that make you feel and function well.
But be careful
Positive psychology interventions are far from a panacea. As part of the documentary, they only worked for those who actively took part in the interventions and connected well with others.
Each participant was dealing with one or more mental illnesses. So positive psychology was not a replacement for conventional psychiatric support. They went hand-in-hand.
While the documentary presents a hopeful story of recovery, if you are struggling with mental illness, it’s important to connect with additional forms of support, including your GP, psychologist or psychiatrist.
If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Peggy Kern has served as a voluntary content advisor for the How to Thrive project and reports here on her professional experience with the documentary.
This is an enhanced satellite image of Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. Yellow sand dunes cover the upper right, red splotches indicate burned areas, and other colours show different types of surface geology. USGS/Unsplash, CC BY
Environmental scientists see flora, fauna and phenomena the rest of us rarely do. In this series, we’ve invited them to share their unique photos from the field.
There’s something to be said for a job that pays you to stroll over the Scottish Highlands, scoot around a Greek Island, or go on an expedition to Antarctica – all in the name of geoscience, the study of the Earth.
But during COVID travel restrictions, many geologists had to mine the collection of samples and data they already had. Other geologists used satellite and other images to make geological interpretations.
This field of geology is called remote sensing, which is the process of using, for instance, satellites or aeroplanes to observe the physical features of an area at a distance. It’s often easier to see how geology shapes our landscapes by taking this birds-eye view.
In terrific news for remote sensing geologists, armchair geology enthusiasts and lovers of stunning landscapes, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has a vast collection of satellite images of the Earth’s surface, capturing breathtaking geological features from space.
Remote sensing geologists use many techniques which make features of interest more distinct. This enhances or alters colours, which you can see in a few of my picks of USGS’s eight most fascinating images. Here’s what they reveal about the planet.
Volcanoes are usually pretty distinctive when you see them from the ground, whether it’s the iconic Mount Fuji, the lava fields of Iceland, or the hundreds of volcanoes that pockmark the fields of western Victoria in Australia.
From above, they can look a little different. In the first image below of Mount Elgon on the border of Uganda and Kenya, you can spot the “caldera” – a bowl-shaped depression in the centre of the volcano where the rock has collapsed after the magma chamber empties.
In the second image of New Zealand’s Mount Taranaki, you can spot the crater, which is also a depression, but forms when the volcano explodes and rocks are ejected.
Mount Elgon, Uganda and Kenya. United States Geological Survey/Unsplash Mount Taranaki in Egmont National Park, New Zealand. United States Geological Survey/Unsplash
The products of volcanoes may also be obvious in satellite images. You can see the lava flow from the Haruj volcano in Libya in the third image below. It is a black stain of basalt on the surrounding white and yellow sand, to envy even the finest Rorschach inkblots.
This field of lava is about 185 kilometres wide, a huge distance that’s possible because the chemical composition of the lava made it runny and able to flow a long distance from the eruption site.
The Haruj Volcanic Field, Libya. United States Geological Survey/Unsplash
Some magma-related features have stumped geologists for years. Only by combining remote sensing with observations on the ground have they been able to solve these geological puzzles. The Richat Structure in Mauritania’s Maur Adrar Desert, shown below, is one such feature.
It looks like a meteorite impact crater or, perhaps, a bullseye for intergalactic visitors. But in recent years, researchers determined – after much debate – that it formed when a series of magmas from deep below the surface intruded into the existing sediments.
The Richat Structure, Mauritania. United States Geological Survey/Unsplash
Some of these magmas formed concentric circles, known as ring dikes, which is the main feature we see in satellite imagery. These ring dike magmas never reached the surface and are only exposed now because the overlying rocks eroded away over time.
But other magmas in the series did make it to the surface to erupt as lava. You can see the small volcano formed by these surface eruptions on the USGS image where it appears as a white-grey smudge interrupting the southwestern part of the innermost ring dike.
The landscapes of Iran’s Zagros Mountains and China’s Keping Shan thrust range have two major things in common.
First, they both look spectacular from above. Second, they were both formed at the bottom of oceans and were then uplifted and deformed by geological forces to form the ridges and valleys which dominate these two regions today.
Zagros Mountains, Iran. United States Geological Survey/Unsplash Keping Shan thrust belt, China. United States Geological Survey/Unsplash
Both mountain belts were created when land masses collided, and the pressure from these collisions caused the rocks to fold over themselves. In some places, the rocks broke apart completely.
These breaks, known as faults, brought up deeper, older rocks to sit on top of younger rocks. These faults form the layered ridges seen in the satellite image of Keping Shan.
Unlike Keping Shan, the ridges in the Zagros Mountains were formed when softer rocks, such as silt and mudstone, were eroded away over time. This erosion formed valleys beside the more resistant rocks of limestone and dolomite, which comprise the arch-shaped folded domes.
Unravelling rivers
Rivers make huge changes to our landscapes. Over many years they can find and exploit weaknesses in rocks to carve their way through any terrain. Rivers look and behave differently depending on factors such as flow rate, how much sediment they carry, and the gradient of the slope they’re on.
Rivers can consist of one narrow and winding stream (called a meandering river) such as the Beni River in Bolivia, or a wide channel made up of many branches braided together between bars of sediment (called a braided river), such as the portion of Brazil’s Rio Negro in the last image below.
Beni River, Bolivia. United States Geological Survey/Unsplash, CC BY Rio Negro, Brazil. United States Geological Survey/Unsplash, CC BY
Looking at the meandering Beni River from above, you can see how the twists and turns of the river have evolved over time. The u-shaped lakes scattered along the edges of the river are called oxbow lakes.
These oxbow lakes are the former channel of the river which have since been cut off when the river eroded a new, more direct channel to follow. In Australia, oxbow lakes are also known as billabongs.
Unlike the slowly meandering Beni River, the wide channel of the Rio Negro is created by fast flows and the deposition of coarse sediment. These characteristics form the mosaic of small islands between the branching flow of water. The islands become submerged during Brazil’s wet season when the volume and flow of the water is higher.
Armed with this new knowledge, book a window seat next time you fly and see what geological wonders you can spy from above.
Last week, the Productivity Commission released a major report on how to improve Australia’s school and university sectors. “Education is ripe for disruption”, deputy chair Alex Robson said.
The commission suggests longer schooldays, online classes taught by qualified teachers, and streaming students into ability groups to improve Australia’s educational performance.
But while these ideas may work well for some students, they won’t necessarily work for all.
If Australia is serious about improving its education system, we need to look at improving the whole system, for all students. This means we need a clear definition of what equity means for schools.
Why we need to focus on equity
About three years ago, all state and territory governments made a commitment to promote “excellence” and “equity” in Australian education in the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Declaration. This sets out a “vision for a world class education system” and is supposed to guide education policy-making and related education reforms in states, territories, and the whole country.
The “excellence” component is easy to understand. It normally refers to the quality of measured student learning outcomes in school. But “equity” remains poorly defined and inadequately included and monitored in current education policies.
Educational equity is often described using terms such as fairness, inclusion, social justice, non-discrimination, and equal opportunity. These are worthy principles but do not provide a guide for what equity means in practice, how it should be monitored, and how progress should be measured.
Without a commonly shared definition of educational equity it is impossible to make progress. It allows governments to scapegoat schools for widening achievement gaps and growing learning inequalities, while nobody else is held accountable for improving equity.
The next national school reform agreement
Australian states and territories are about to begin negotiations for the next national school reform agreement, which sets out how to lift student outcomes and improve education systems performance from 2024.
As part of this process, the Productivity Commission’s review of the existing agreement was published in September.
This interim report (the final report is due in December) correctly states equity is one of four major policy challenges facing Australia’s school system. But when trying to explain what equity means, it does not clearly address what equity targets would look like and how they would be monitored.
The interim report claims equity is already defined in the 2008 Melbourne Declaration on Education and its successor, the Mparntwe Declaration. But there is no clear, useful definition written in any of these declarations. Instead, the report says equity “can be thought of as recognising that some students may have different educational needs and desired outcomes”. These are hardly insightful or practical guides to education policy, let alone school improvement.
Without a definition, the next agreement will not be able to make Australian school education more equitable.
How should we define equity
Our submission to the Productivity Commissions’s school agreement inquiry proposes a clear definition of educational equity.
We argue equity has two dimensions: individual and social. That is, equity should involve a minimum level educational attainment for all students, and similar education outcomes for different social groups.
An individual dimension of equity in education means that all children receive an education that enables them to fully participate in adult society in a way of their choosing.
Today in Australia and other OECD countries, this requires that all children should complete Year 12 or its equivalent amount of education (for example TAFE). We are far from that goal. The Year 7/8 to Year 12 full-time apparent retention rates in 2021 were 83% for all students, and 59% for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. The existing schools agreement says 96% of students should complete year 12 by 2031.
A social dimension of equity in education means students from different social groups achieve similar average outcomes, and a similar distribution range of these outcomes.
The benchmark for educational equity is the achievement and attainment of the most successful social group of students. The OECD’s PISA (international student assessment) results, our own NAPLAN data, and Year 12 examination results show this benchmark is students from high socio-economic status (SES) families.
For example, the PISA 2018 results showed 15-year-old Australian students from the highest SES quartile were nearly three years ahead of students from the lowest SES quartile in reading, and four years ahead of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. An analysis published last weekend by former principal and author Chris Bonnor found 60% of the highest achieving students in Year 12 in NSW’s HSC exams are concentrated in the most advantaged schools.
Equitable education would set up the expectation Indigenous, socio-economically disadvantaged, rural and remote students achieve similar education outcomes to affluent students. There is no reason to consider, for example, that some groups of students are innately less intelligent than their peers from well-off privileged families.
Why we need equity
Equity in education is fundamental to an egalitarian, democratic nation.
Inability to define equity in education clearly will ensure we will continue to make little or no progress in keeping the promise of equitable education for every child.
So, defining equity well is the first step towards achieving it. The existing inequities in education are also a measure of the potential to increase productivity and economic prosperity. Investing in reducing inequity promises a way to overcome the current shortage of workforce skills and prepare the nation for uncertainty.
Pasi Sahlberg 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.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Clarke, Senior Lecturer in History specialising in architectural heritage and material culture, University of the Sunshine Coast
Souvenirs are an almost unavoidable feature of holidays. Tourist thoroughfares are lined with shops and stalls selling postcards, clothing and knick-knacks of all kinds.
Shopping while on vacation – including for souvenirs – is a multi-million dollar pastime. Tourists spend around one-third of their travel budget on retail purchases.
Souvenirs use recognisable images to remind us of the location they represent. The particular images promoted can also reveal a great deal about the cultures that produce and sell them, as well as the tourists who buy them.
But questions have begun to be raised about the viability of souvenirs. They are often made from cheap, unsustainable materials. It can be difficult to find items made by locals. And, perhaps most acutely, younger generations of travellers seem to be replacing physical souvenirs with digital ones shared on social media.
When we think of souvenirs we think of teaspoons, keychains, t-shirts and hats, but these are only the most recent types of items brought home by travellers.
The word “souvenir” is French in origin, and loosely translates as “recollection” or “memory”. It entered English around the end of the 18th century, and for the past few centuries the word has been used to refer to objects that remind us of a certain place or time.
But people have been collecting items far longer than this. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans brought home rare artefacts and products from their expeditions in foreign lands.
Following the crucifixion of Jesus, it was common for pilgrims to collect dirt and pebbles from Holy Land sites, believing these physical remnants held miracle-giving powers.
By the medieval period, Christian pilgrimages throughout Europe and the Middle East sparked an early souvenir industry. Pilgrims could purchase small bottles filled with sacred water or oil, or metal badges commonly decorated with the images of local saints.
As recently as the 18th century, well-known tourist attractions were falling victim to souvenir-seeking. Visitors would chip away pieces of important buildings and objects, hoping to capture a little bit of the “magic” for themselves.
While visiting Stratford-upon-Avon in 1786, American presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson allegedly carved off pieces of a wooden chair believed to have belonged to William Shakespeare.
Industrialisation and the rapid development of mass manufacturing drastically altered the souvenir industry. By the late 19th century, tourists were able to purchase teaspoons, plates, postcards and even snow globes commemorating locations and historic events.
Travel for leisure remained a luxury until after the second world war. In the second half of the 20th century, long-haul flights and increasing car ownership made tourism a pastime of the masses.
With this change came a hunger for cheap, easily portable objects that could be gifted to family and friends back home, or placed on mantelpieces and sideboards as reminders of journeys taken and spectacles witnessed.
Despite being a common aspect of travelling for more than two millennia, souvenirs are facing an uncertain future in the 21st century.
As awareness grows of the potential environmental harm caused by cheap, mass-produced and non-biodegradable items, travellers are starting to turn towards more sustainable options.
Following numerous reports of damage to reefs, beaches and other natural environments, many governments have begun imposing harsh penalties on tourists caught in possession of coral, shells and botanical samples taken as souvenirs.
Increased attention is also being paid to the authenticity of handcrafted items. A recent study found two-thirds of “Aboriginal” souvenirs are not made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This means First Nations Australians are not gaining the full benefit of tourist interest in such objects.
Two-thirds of ‘Aboriginal’ souvenirs aren’t made by First Nations people. Shutterstock
Then there is perhaps the greatest challenge to the future of souvenirs: social media.
Before the digital era, people purchased souvenirs to remind themselves of where they had been and what they had seen, and to serve as evidence of these travels to those who stayed home.
These desires can now be satisfied instantly with a post to Instagram or TikTok, and perhaps more effectively, too. More people are likely to see your posts about holidaying in Greece than will have the opportunity to examine the miniature model of the Acropolis gathering dust on your bookshelf.
While posts, reels, stories and videos shared online may replace the purchasing of physical souvenirs for many people, it seems unlikely knick-knacks and mementos will disappear altogether.
The roaring trade in souvenirs commemorating Queen Elizabeth II shows people still feel the need to mark momentous occasions by purchasing t-shirts, mugs, postcards and other memorabilia.
While such items may have a practical use in the kitchen or as everyday clothing, there are many who value these objects as modern day relics, and who treat them as priceless artefacts to be seen but not touched.
Amy Clarke 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.
