Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ryan Day, Senior research fellow, University of Tasmania

Woodside Energy this week announced it would start seismic testing for its Scarborough gas project off Australia’s west coast, before reversing the decision in the face of a legal challenge from Traditional Owners.

Seismic testing is highly controversial in marine environments. The federal regulator (the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority) is currently examining a proposal for seismic testing in the Otway Basin in Bass Strait, which conservationists say has attracted more than 30,000 public submissions.

Seismic testing is also mooted as part of the “PEP11” (Petroleum Exploration Permit 11) off the coast of New South Wales, from Manly to Newcastle.

As marine biologists with research expertise in this field, here we give a roundup of the latest evidence on the effects of seismic surveys. It shows there are many potential harms to marine life, and many unanswered questions.

Read more:
Underwater noise is a threat to marine life

What are seismic surveys?

Marine seismic surveys are used to search for oil and gas, places to stash greenhouse gases, and potential locations for wind farms.

The surveys use air guns to generate sound signals. These sound signals are intense (loud, at high decibel levels) and “impulsive” (sharp, like a balloon popping). In the open ocean, sound waves can be detected thousands of kilometres from the source.

The sound can penetrate more than ten kilometres into the earth beneath the seafloor. The way the signals reflect off different layers of the seabed can identify geological structures, including those that contain mineral deposits such as oil and gas. The sound signals bounce back to acoustic receivers (hydrophones) towed behind the survey vessel on cables known as streamers.

During a survey, sound signals are generated every four to ten seconds, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Surveys can last for weeks or months, and cover thousands of square kilometres of ocean. The proposal to study the Otway Basin, for example, covers 45,000 square km.

Seismic surveys and marine life

The ability to fully examine the effects of seismic surveys in mammals is limited, because invasive methods are not logistically possible or ethically acceptable.

But there is a long history of research on whales and dolphins, given their reliance on sound to communicate, find food and navigate.

Observations of marine mammals show intense sound signals such as those from seismic surveys can affect hearing ability, either temporarily or permanently, depending on the intensity, range and duration of exposure.

Noise pollution can mask communications, causing whales either to sing more loudly or to stop singing altogether, which can affect social structure and interaction. Seismic surveys can also alter the presence and abundance of marine mammal prey.

What about fish?

Fish also show a range of responses to seismic testing. Some fish exhibit physical damage to hearing organs and signs of stress.

Fish behaviour may also change. Some leave regular feeding or breeding areas, which raises concerns over effects to fishing grounds or impacts on important prey species. It’s also uncertain whether the fish will be able to find suitable alternative habitats if they are displaced in the long term.

Others may “habituate” or become accustomed to exposure, raising the risk of more extensive damage by spending more time in the survey area.

Scallops, lobsters and plankton

Despite invertebrates making up around 92% of marine species, the impact of marine noise on these creatures has only recently been studied. This has shown a potential for harm.

In the valuable southern rock lobster fishery, off the coasts of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, seismic air gun exposure damaged the sensory organ that provides a sense of gravity and balance, similar to the human inner ear. Affected lobsters also had impaired ability to right themselves when placed upside down, a reflex that underpins important behaviours such as escaping predators.

Scallops showed more severe impacts, with up to four times higher death rates and a range of other sub-lethal effects including altered behaviour, impaired physiology and a disrupted immune system. As this animal already suffers high levels of mortality naturally and due to fishery activity, this extra pressure could be of considerable concern.

Invertebrates also make up a large proportion of the zooplankton community, a broad group of very small animals carried by ocean currents. They are food for a wide range of marine life, from other zooplankton to small fish and whales.

In the first experimental exposure to a seismic air gun, a large proportion of zooplankton died. Overall abundance decreased significantly, at distances up to 1.2km from the air gun.

Confirming this result, another recent study of zooplankton found exposure to seismic air guns 50 metres away resulted in increased mortality immediately after exposure. The plankton continued to die off or suffer impaired development for several days. These effects, particularly in the case of exposure that is repeated over the course of months within a single area, have the potential to severely impact the plankton populations that underpin marine food webs.

Read more:
Australian humpback whales are singing less and fighting more. Should we be worried?

Difficulties in predicting impacts

While the handful of available studies shows exposure to seismic surveys can harm animals, our ability to understand or predict what happens in the wild is still very limited.

Part of the problem is conflicting results. For example, in one case, seismic survey exposure had no impact on the types of fish found in an area or their behaviour. And a separate study of scallops found no mortality after seismic exposure. These studies conflict with the results we described earlier, which happens commonly in science and highlights the need for ever more detailed research.

Only a few animal species have so far been investigated, making it hard to tell how other animals might be affected by seismic testing. There are also limitations to the methods of studies that reduce our ability to understand the real-world impacts, such as housing animals in captivity after exposure.

Sound behaves very differently in water than in air. Water is more dense, allowing sound to travel faster, farther and with less of a drop in intensity. Comparisons between the “loudness” of sounds in air and water are not straightforward.

While mounting evidence shows seismic surveys can harm a range of marine animals, there is so much still to learn.

Read more:
Australia has introduced a new bill that will allow us to ship carbon emissions overseas. Here’s why that’s not a great idea

Ryan Day has received funding and/or research contributions from the Australian Government through the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, Beach Energy, CGG, ConocoPhillips, Origin Energy, the CarbonNet Project, the Victorian Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources.

Jayson Semmens has received funding and/or research contributions from the Australian Government through the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, Beach Energy, CGG, ConocoPhillips, Origin Energy, the CarbonNet Project, the Victorian Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources.

Robert McCauley receives funding from industry and Government to study impacts of seismic on marine fauna, which over his career includes: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC); Beach Energy; CGG; University of Tasmania; Australian Institute of Marine Science; Australian Petroleum Production Exploration Association (APPEA); Bureau Offshore Energy and Minerals (BOEM, USA); Joint Industry Program (JIP); Woodside Energy; Origin Energy; Santos; Apache Energy (now Quadrant); and Roc Oil.

– ref. Whales stop singing and rock lobsters lose their balance: how seismic surveys can harm marine life – https://theconversation.com/whales-stop-singing-and-rock-lobsters-lose-their-balance-how-seismic-surveys-can-harm-marine-life-211207

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alyssa Clare Milton, Senior Research Fellow, University of Sydney

Outside school hours care – also known as “school-aged care”, “OOSH” or “afters” – is booming.

As of 2020, it was the fastest-growing childcare sector in Australia. As of 2022, it catered to 486,310 primary school children.

Enrolments have surged by 111% over the past 20 years, as more mothers have worked as they raise their children.

However, there is a lack of consistency in quality. About 14% of services fall short of the national quality standards for these services, and only 11% are exceeding them.

Our new research shows how designing activities with children and their communities can help improve the quality of these services.

What is outside school hours care?

School hours tend to be between about 8.45am and 3.15pm, meaning many families need extra care for their children. For many, outside school hours care is an essential service.

Services run before school, after school and during school holidays. Often they are located on school grounds.

There are nearly 5,000 such services around Australia, each with individual working hours and fees. The average cost as of 2021 was A$7.85 per hour, and many families qualify for government childcare subsidies to reduce this rate.

Children are usually given food, and choose between planned and spontaneous activities such as games, crafts, reading and self-directed play. But it can also involve extracurricular activities in STEM (such as work with LEGO or computing), dance, drama, music and sport.

Read more:
As fees keep climbing, this is why competition isn’t enough to deliver cheaper childcare

Why quality is important

Services are usually delivered by not-for-profit organisations and private companies, but can also be run by parents via a school’s P&C committee.

All providers must be approved by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority. High-quality services see staff reflecting on how to improve what they do and having meaningful engagement with families and the wider community.

Since students can potentially spend more than 10,000 hours in outside school hours care throughout their primary years, this is a big opportunity to support Australian children.

A 2021 Griffith University report for the New South Wales Department of Education emphasised how these services should be “more than just convenient care”. They have potential to be a significant part of children’s education and development beyond formal schooling.

Our program

Since 2016, the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre and not-for-profit service provider Uniting NSW/ACT have been researching how children’s wellbeing can be supported through outside school hours care.

Together with children and their communities, we have co-designed the “Connect Promote and Protect Program”. This encourages children, their educators and volunteers to create activities that broaden their experiences, promote social connections, and enhance their wellbeing.

Involving children in this way is not a new idea. The United Nations has long viewed children as competent humans with the right to contribute to decisions that affect their lives. The national framework for school-age care also notes the importance of listening to children.

In our program, children are given opportunities to generate ideas via voting, surveys, small group workshops and conversations. Then they decide on an activity and can help run it.

The activities have ranged from a robotics program, to knitting beanies for people experiencing homelessness, drama sessions to build confidence in acting and public speaking, and lawn bowls at a local club to improve coordination skills and community connections.

Services are provided with training and resources, and typically run the program one day a week for two terms. It is designed so there are no extra costs for families.

Read more:
Fewer than 1 in 5 students who are behind in Year 3 catch up and stay caught up

Our new study

Our new study evaluated our program in five services in public and private primary schools across Sydney.

For example, one service chose a “woodwork cafe” to develop woodworking skills. Trained volunteers from the local community supported children in building their own chicken coop at the after-school site.

A volunteer brought a chicken for an initial visit so children could interact with and learn about chickens before baby chickens arrived. Another family provided two baby chickens and an incubator for hatchlings.

The process was documented with updates and photos, enhancing children’s and their family’s engagement and excitement. This also included information on how pets can promote wellbeing, and links to community resources about children’s wellbeing.

As one child told us:

when you do this activity everyone is running to do it.

An increase in kindness

Four services in our study collected quantitative data. After the program – which required group work and cooperation – we found children across these four services showed an increase in kindness, and there was a reduction in problems such as bullying.

This was measured by the standard “strengths and difficulties questionnaire” used by psychologists and educators. For example, at the start of the program, 55.6% of children had the highest possible score for prosocial behaviours (doing something to benefit someone else), which increased to 71.6% after the program.

Educators told us about children working together and helping each other. One parent observed children “being patient to hear each one out as well”. Another educator explained how they saw children taking ownership and “really speaking up”. They added:

We’ve really seen that change in dynamic of that communication now [of children saying] ‘Hey, this is my [service]. This is the program that I want to do’.

The also spoke of seeing better engagement from children who did not usually participate in activities. One service manager said high-quality after-school programs could “capture” children who were facing issues with regular school:

we can create a space in an [after-school service] that supports […] and engages those children. It gives them a sense of belonging [so] they know that they matter.

Educator benefits

Educators also reported a greater sense of community and wellbeing at work. This is important, as staff satisfaction and wellbeing is a crucial element of a high-quality program. We know staff turnover and churn in the sector is high.

Educators in our study spoke of how the process of co-design with children helped them develop new ways of engaging with children. As one educator educator reported:

I really connected in a different way for the first time.

Beyond babysitting

Our research underscores the need to ensure services are more than just a convenience or a place to babysit children while their parents finish work.

Government and policymakers need to invest more heavily in these services, so training and programs can be delivered to promote the wellbeing of children, educators and their wider communities — ultimately enhancing the quality of these essential services.

The Connect, Promote, and Protect Program has an executed intellectual property agreement between the University of Sydney (Alyssa Milton and Ian Hickie) and Uniting NSW.ACT.

Ian Hickie is the Co-Director, Health and Policy at the Brain and Mind Centre (BMC) University of Sydney. He is the Chief Scientific Advisor to, and a 3.2% equity shareholder in, InnoWell Pty Ltd. that pursues transformation of mental health services internationally through the use of innovative technologies.

Karen Thorpe receives funding from the Australian Research Council as a chief investigator in the ARC centre of Excellence for children and Families across the life course and as an ARC Laureate Fellow. She is affiliated with the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth as a board member and Beyond Blue as a member off the National Advisory Council for Be You.

Tom McClean is Head of Research and Social Policy at Uniting NSW/ACT.

– ref. Nearly 500,000 Australian kids go to after school care – it needs to be more than a babysitting service – https://theconversation.com/nearly-500-000-australian-kids-go-to-after-school-care-it-needs-to-be-more-than-a-babysitting-service-212195

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Iain White, Professor of Environmental Planning, University of Waikato

He was, said George Bernard Shaw, “one of those heroic simpletons who do big things whilst our prominent worldlings are explaining why they are Utopian and impossible”.

The celebrated playwright was referring to the ideas of Ebenezer Howard, the creative force behind the idea of “garden cities” in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; new urban centres that Howard argued would have the best of town and country, but without the problems.

There’s a reminder of that somewhat backhanded compliment in the recent news of a Silicon Valley consortium named Flannery Associates buying land with a view to creating a new city in northern California’s Solano County. The controversial project is named after the investment vehicle’s parent company, California Forever.

The parallels between contemporary utopian thinking and Howard’s ideas from more than a century ago are readily apparent. The notion of something like California Forever may appear cutting edge, but it is part of the historical foundations of current planning systems.

Indeed, the science-fiction writer H.G. Wells – a futurist whose own ideas would resonate with many in Silicon Valley – was so attracted to Howard’s ideas that he joined the Garden City Association to support their creation.

Garden city visions

Any kind of new city model tends to reflect the politics of its founders. The vision and plans stretch beyond the built form to picture a preferred lifestyle, and interactions with nature and each other.

The artist’s renderings accompanying the California Forever project depict an attractive, harmonious landscape familiar to utopian thinking: plentiful parks, open spaces and sustainable energy.

Read more:
What is a garden city – and why is money being spent on building them?

It encapsulates a politics of urban living that also emphasises the need to recast our relationships with nature. As such, these ideas also involve a large dose of social engineering. They are not just about creating a new built environment, they envision a new kind of society that’s better than the current one.

But the garden cities that were eventually developed were a far cry from Howard’s initial vision. In fact, his ideas from over a hundred years ago make those from Silicon Valley look distinctly dated.

For Howard, it was as much about social reform and organisation as city planning. He advocated for local production and relatively self-contained settlements to reduce the need to travel, as well as innovative ways of treating waste that echo current circular economy thinking.

Planning and profit

Even less like the investment logic behind California Forever, Howard also imagined a city that could challenge some of the precepts of capitalism.

Given the significant deprivation and social divide between haves and have-nots, he advocated that land in garden cities could be organised cooperatively to share wealth and reduce poverty.

Read more:
How should we design cities to make the most of urban ecosystems?

The need to attract investors was one of the reasons Howard’s ambitious politics eroded. To purchase land on that scale requires significant capital, and the providers of that capital would no doubt be looking for a return.

Should California Forever materialise, history would caution us that there may be a similar gap between rhetoric and reality. While Howard’s ideas were partially implemented in places like Letchworth, the focus was more on the built environment than social justice or sustainability.

Howard moved into the new city, but his influence was marginalised by the need to accommodate shareholder interests.

While we don’t know how California Forever has been pitched to investors, it’s a fair assumption it is also shaped by the profit motive: buying cheaper agricultural land, rezoning for housing and development, drawing in state funding for infrastructure, and seeing the land rise in value.

While the images appear sustainable, long-distance commuting may be a problem given the nature of the labour market in California, as might expectations of genuine community involvement in the project. Utopian schemes have long been critiqued for their tendency towards authoritarianism – a charge not unfamiliar to the tech sector in recent times.

Read more:
How do we get urban density ‘just right’? The Goldilocks quest for the ‘missing middle’

Howard’s ideas were also criticised as anti-urban. Shouldn’t we seek to improve existing cities rather than abandon and start anew, possibly to create a gentrified enclave?

For the tech sector, too, there is a recurring utopian trend that seeks to escape – whether to moon colonies or new cities – rather than use its vast wealth and influence to address current urban problems.

Progress and planning

But, ultimately, it’s encouraging to see groups like the Silicon Valley investors advocate for the benefits of good urban planning and what it can provide future generations. The bigger problem is that current planning systems aren’t anything like as progressive.

In many countries, similarly powerful investors routinely criticise urban planning as creating “red tape”, increasing the costs of development, or stopping markets from acting “efficiently”.

Yet the kind of city building represented by California Forever requires greater regulatory power and the kind of political ambition that was more common a century ago. And it raises the question of whether projects like this should be left to the private sector.

At the very least, perhaps, such initiatives provide an opportunity to reassess the potential of urban planning and cast a light on current societal problems. Howard’s utopian vision was designed to solve the problems of his time: exploitative landlords, slums, polluted cities and extreme disparities of wealth.

Whether or not California Forever is built, the reasons behind the idea demonstrate that while history may not repeat, it does sometimes rhyme.

Iain White receives funding from the National Science Challenge: Resilience to Nature’s Challenges – Kia manawaroa – Ngā Ākina o Te Ao Tūroa. He also receives funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Endeavour Fund to research issues connected to flood risk mapping and better decision making, and from Toka Tū Ake Natural Hazards Commission to research how to better incorporate risk into future settlement planning.

– ref. Silicon Valley investors want to create a new city – is ‘California Forever’ a utopian dream or just smart business? – https://theconversation.com/silicon-valley-investors-want-to-create-a-new-city-is-california-forever-a-utopian-dream-or-just-smart-business-213062

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

A few days ago, the furore over the government’s rejection of Qatar Airways’ bid for more flights into major cities was all about cheaper tickets and additional seats.

Now the issue has doubled back to become, apparently, at least in part about the mistreatment of the Australian women who were hauled off a flight in 2020 and subjected to invasive body searches, after a newborn was found abandoned in Doha Airport.

Five of the women have a legal case on foot. It is back in the Federal Court on Friday for the 21st time.

Transport Minister Catherine King, in yet another attempt to explain, or dodge explaining, her rejection of the Qatar application, said on radio on Thursday morning that the 2020 incident “wasn’t a factor in the decision, but it was certainly context for the decision”.

This is as baffling as most of the other explanations King and other government members have given. Isn’t “context” a “factor”?

Well yes, it seems. Only an hour or so earlier, at a crack-of-dawn news conference at Canberra airport, where she released a green paper on aviation policy, King suggested the 2020 incident was a factor, although “there was no one factor that influenced my decision in relation to the national interest”. She argued: “I don’t think it’s helpful for me to point to any one factor.”

On Thursday night on the ABC, she did spell out some factors – what was happening in the aviation market, capacity coming back into the market, jobs.

While initially it was thought the 2020 incident might have been a reason behind the decision, King had subsequently indicated that it was not, finally settling on this nebulous concept of the “national interest” to justify the government’s stance.

But the 2020 incident has hung there in the background of the controversy. On July 10, the day she made the decision, King wrote to the five women, who had contacted her strongly opposing the additional access, to assure them Qatar was not being considered for more flights.

In their letter the women had said the airline was “not fit to carry passengers around the globe let alone to major Australian airports”.

“When you are considering Qatar Airways’ bid for extra landing rights, we beg you to consider its insensitive and irresponsible treatment of us,” they wrote. “We implore you to instead consider an airline that will uphold human rights.”

On Monday this week, Foreign Minister Penny Wong had a phone conversation with the prime minister of Qatar.

Wong has said that in the call, which she initiated, they discussed bilateral matters, as well as multilateral issues ahead of the United Nations UN General Assembly meeting later in the month. They did discuss the 2020 incident; they did not canvass the flights matter. That seems extraordinary. After all, the Qatar government owns Qatar Airways and flights involve country-to-country agreements.

Could this resurrection of the 2020 incident be one way of seeking to neutralise an issue that has been debated – to the Albanese government’s detriment – in terms of limiting competition?

King insists she made the decision herself. She says she consulted colleagues, whom she doesn’t name. She has fudged when probed about what her department recommended. She said she told Anthony Albanese of the decision before it became public later in July, but stonewalled when pressed in parliament for the date on which she informed the prime minister.

Before the attention focused on King, Albanese was copping the heat, because the decision was seen to be in line with his perceived closeness to former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce (who quit prematurely this week, as part of that airline’s attempt to quell public anger at it).

King, from the left, is one of the longest-serving House of Representative members, having won the Victorian seat of Ballarat in 2001 from the Coalition. She was briefly in the ministry in 2013, at the tail end of the former Labor government.

Transport wouldn’t have been King’s first choice of portfolio. She was shadow health minister (she had a background in health policy) for two terms under Bill Shorten, and looked forward to being health minister after the election Labor thought it would win in 2019. The unexpected loss meant major changes in the frontbench under Albanese, which saw King moved to infrastructure, transport and regional development.

King will survive this imbroglio, but the affair is salutary for the Albanese government.

Much of the trouble over the Qatar decision comes from public anger about Qantas and its poor service and arrogant attitude. The rejection of the Qatar flights, which benefited Qantas, became a lightning rod. The government failed to pick up on the strength of feeling about Qantas – if it had, Albanese might not have appeared with Joyce at the airline’s recent event to back the Voice, including with travel assistance for “yes” campaigners.

The Qatar matter shows the government can’t just expect to fob off questions by invoking generalities such as the “national interest”. It also reaffirms the point that while parliament’s question time is mostly useless, it can on occasion expose the weaknesses of a minister under pressure.

Finally, there is a lesson here about the role of cabinet. King might argue such decisions are “routine” and say she consulted (unspecified) colleagues, but the matter would have been better taken to cabinet. A cabinet discussion can tease out competing arguments for and against a decision, and reinforce a government’s case. In her defence in parliament, King tried to make a virtue of ministerial autonomy, but it doesn’t always serve a government.

Thanks to its own bungling, the government on Tuesday facilitated the Senate setting up an inquiry this week that will do a deep dive into its mishandling of the Qatar affair.

Nationals senate leader Bridget McKenzie proposed the inquiry. The government got the Greens onside to vote against it, by accommodating their push for another inquiry – into the Middle Arm export facility in the Northern Territory.

But it neglected to attempt to peel off other crossbenchers until the very last moment. McKenzie had already done the rounds. On Thursday, the government did manage to tweak the terms of reference to look back into some of the Coalition’s years.

Courtesy of the inquiry, a good deal more is expected to emerge about this imbroglio.

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

– ref. Grattan on Friday: Transport Minister Catherine King struggles to find a landing strip amid Qatar turbulence – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-transport-minister-catherine-king-struggles-to-find-a-landing-strip-amid-qatar-turbulence-213076

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Tiller, Ethical, Legal & Social Adviser – Public Health Genomics, Monash University

Genetic tests can provide life-saving information. They can help diagnose disease, enable access to preventive care, prompt early screening and treatment, and guide patients’ therapeutic options.

In Australia, life insurance companies can legally use the results of genetic tests to discriminate. They can decline to provide life insurance coverage, increase the cost of premiums, or place exclusions on an individual’s cover. This is known as “genetic discrimination”.

This week, a number of federal parliamentarians argued for a ban on genetic discrimination by life insurance companies. This follows recommendations from our research team for legislative reform so Australians don’t forego important genetic tests for fear of this discrimination.

Read more:
Australians need more protection against genetic discrimination: health experts

Why would you have a genetic test?

We don’t choose our genetic risk factors. They exist from birth, can’t be changed, and are often passed down from parents to children, causing generations of disease.

Genetic testing can, in some cases, stop the generational curse of genetic disease through prevention and early intervention.

One of the most well-known examples is testing for changes in the BRCA1 gene – which significantly increases risks of breast, ovarian and prostate cancer.

Angelina Jolie, who carries the BRCA1 gene mutation, famously wrote in the New York Times in 2013 about her decision to have surgeries to drastically reduce her chance of developing cancer.

How is this discrimination currently allowed?

The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) prohibits discrimination on a number of different bases, including genetic risk factors.

However, there is a specific carve-out in the Act that allows life insurers to discriminate in ways other entities are prohibited from doing.

This means companies providing insurance for death, income protection, and disability can discriminate on the basis of genetic risk of disease. Other companies that provide risk-rated insurance (where insurers assess an individual’s risk factors and change coverage or premiums based on this risk) can also use genetic test results to discriminate. This includes travel insurance.

Health insurance, however, is not risk-rated. This means a health insurer is not allowed to decline cover or change the cost of premiums based on any risk factors, including genetic risk factors.

Protections are needed

Fears of insurance discrimination deter many people from having genetic testing or participating in genetic research. For this reason, numerous other countries have banned the use of genetic results by insurance companies.

Canada did so in 2017. Its Act prohibits entities (including insurance companies) from collecting or using genetic results to discriminate against individuals.

Insurance industry bodies frequently raise claims that banning the use of genetic results will increase the cost of premiums, making them unaffordable.

Before the Canadian Act was introduced, its Privacy Commissioner commissioned an actuarial expert and economic analyst to consider what impact this ban might have on the Canadian insurance industry.

Both experts concluded the impact of Canada’s ban would be negligible in the medium term, and the Privacy Commissioner welcomed the Act as an “important step for privacy and human rights”.

Genetic testing is likely to expand

At the moment, only people with a strong personal or family history of certain diseases are eligible for publicly funded genetic testing.

However, research projects such as the DNA Screen study are piloting the offer of DNA screening to the whole population.

Read more:
Should I get my DNA tested? We asked five experts

DNA Screen is offering testing to 10,000 young Australians (18-40 year olds) for genetic risk factors for cancer and heart disease, which can be prevented or treated early.

However, we have to tell people when they sign up about potential life insurance discrimination, and many of them change their minds about being part of our study.

As genetic testing offers may expand to the whole population in the future, every person being offered genetic testing will have to consider the implications for their life insurance.

The long road to legislating protections

Following parliamentary recommendations to ban the use of genetic results by life insurers in 2018, the life insurance industry introduced a partial, self-regulated moratorium on using genetic results in 2019.

We had concerns about its terms and the fact that it was self-regulated, with no government oversight. So we gathered views from health professionals, consumers, researchers and financial advisers.

We found the the industry moratorium did not meet the expectations of the parliamentary recommendations. Overwhelmingly, patients, the general public, health professionals and genetic researchers believed legislation on this issue was required. Our final report, released in June, recommends the Australian government introduce a legislative prohibition on the use of genetic test results in insurance underwriting.

This week, federal MP Josh Burns, Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, took the first step by introducing a motion, for the parliament to consider policy reform on this issue.

This was supported by five other federal MPs, including from the coalition and independents. As Labor MP Louise Miller-Frost explained:

Australians should be able to make these decisions based on their health needs, not financial ones, and we have the opportunity to make that a reality… self-regulation is clearly not sufficient to protect our interests. I believe legislation is required.

Separate speeches by MP Dr Daniel Mulino and Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing Ged Kearney this week also supported the motion.

Ms Kearney spoke about several constituents who have shared their concerns about this issue, and also called for policy changes. She noted the benefits for life insurance companies if people can get genetic testing and are able to take preventive action, to become “better risks”.

The Treasury Department, and Stephen Jones MP (Assistant Treasurer and Financial Services Minister) are now considering the appropriate policy solution, together with the Department of Health and Ageing and the Attorney-General’s Department. There is no timeline for this legislation to be introduced, but this urgent policy change must be prioritised by the current government.

Read more:
Population DNA testing for disease risk is coming. Here are five things to know

Jane Tiller received funding from the Commonwealth Government’s Genomic Health Futures Fund to complete this research

Paul Lacaze received funding from the Commonwealth Government’s Genomic Health Futures Fund to complete this research.

– ref. Life insurers can charge more or decline cover based on your genetic test results. New laws must change this – https://theconversation.com/life-insurers-can-charge-more-or-decline-cover-based-on-your-genetic-test-results-new-laws-must-change-this-212183

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

Over recent months, support for the Voice has fallen from a clear majority to a minority. With polling day set for October 14, the “yes” and “no” camps are battling it out to capture those still undecided.

In this podcast, Redbridge Group’s Kosmos Samaras joins The Conversation to dig into the research on voters’ attitudes. Redbridge, consultants on political communications, has been doing both quantitative polling on the Voice and focus group research (it is not working for any of the players in the referendum).

“It’s looking pretty grim for the ‘yes’ campaign,” Samaras says, with the drivers behind the public’s hesitation to the Voice “complex and diverse across the country”.

Cost of living pressures and financial pressures in people’s homes are a factor. It makes people less willing to pay attention to issues that are not of direct concern to them.

Australians with a university degree are more likely to be vote “yes”. Australians who speak another language at home other than English are more likely to vote “yes”, and age, of course. Those over the age of 34 are the largest supporters of the “yes” proposition. The other side of that coin is individuals who are older and don’t have a university degree. They’re generally in the outer suburbs and regions of this country [and intend to] vote “no”.

Samaras strongly believes that Yes23 made a “critical” error of judgement when it partnered up with embattled Qantas to promote the Voice, saying that currently Australians’ trust in major brands is at an all-time low.

It goes a long way to explaining how the yes proposition has lost its political authenticity amongst those voters that we’ve been talking about, mainly in outer suburban regions. They are very sceptical of the successful end of Australia, that is corporates, the likes of Qantas.

Australians overwhelmingly have this enormous mistrust of energy retailers, banks, they think they’re getting fleeced when it comes to the cost of living at the supermarket. All of that is mixing in a pot and the “yes” campaign made a number of critical errors by basically partnering up with the corporate end of our society.

It’s something that the corporate world needs to work on and rebuild that social licence with Australians. But at the moment it’s probably one of the lowest I’ve seen in a long time.

Samaras is adamant a majority of those voting “no” are in favour of Constitutional recognition, just hesitant about the executive government clause in the question being put to voters.

There’s a lot of empathy and compassion there [for Indigenous people], and it doesn’t matter which age groups, which part of Australia that we are sitting in and talking to people. It’s heartening as a researcher to actually say that sort of feedback.

However, the confusion has been a very significant player when it comes to creating that doubt, that cynicism. And as I said before, with the loss of political authenticity for the referendum.

Samaras issues a stark warning to all sides of politics ahead of the referendum.

There’s an important point there because there is some danger there for the Albanese government amongst what I would define as progressive young people, that if this goes down and they are strong supporters of Aboriginal people in this country, they will have a view that all this trauma has occurred for nothing and they’ll be looking for someone to blame.

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

– ref. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Redbridge’s Kosmos Samaras on what the public are saying about the Voice – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-redbridges-kosmos-samaras-on-what-the-public-are-saying-about-the-voice-213074

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanessa Barolsky, Research Associate, Deakin University

This article mentions ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and contains references that feature antiquated language.

Truth-telling is a key demand in the Uluru Statement and is seen as a vital step for both the Voice to Parliament and a Treaty. However, there has been ongoing debate as to whether historical injustices against First Nations peoples need to be addressed today.

Wiradjuri and Wailwan lawyer Teela Reid posed a question in a 2020 essay, is Australia ready to Gari Yala (speak truth) and reckon with its past?

We recently conducted a study to investigate this question by looking at First Nations community truth-telling practices. Our study found these communities have shown significant leadership in truth-telling, often without resources or support. Importantly, they have invited non-Indigenous people to also take part in truth-telling.

Truth-telling can take the form of memorial and commemorative events, repatriation of remains and cultural artefacts, the renaming of places, and the creation of public artworks and healing sites. A recent example is the Yoorrook Justice Commission’s truth-telling commission. Yoorrook released the truth-telling report this week, providing 46 recommendations for reforms into Victoria’s justice and child protection systems.

We found when non-Indigenous people participated in truth-telling with First Nations communities, it helped build a deeper shared understanding of the past and the achievements of First Nations peoples. This is why truth-telling is a collective social responsibility and non-Indigenous Australians are crucial participants.

But there is still much work to do. Many important historical events and First Nations achievements remain largely unrecognised. Sustained funding and support and the recognition of Australia’s difficult historical truths are crucial.

Read more:
First Nations people have made a plea for ‘truth-telling’. By reckoning with its past, Australia can finally help improve our future

Our research findings

Our research focused on documenting community truth-telling that reclaimed First Nations sovereignty and self-determination, as well as recognising colonial violence. We did in-depth investigations through 25 case studies, including ten in which we held yarning interviews with community organisers. These interviews helped shed new light on rich and diverse ways to engage with the truths of colonial history.

In the MacArthur region of New South Wales, reconciliation group Winga Myamly worked to make sure the 1816 Appin massacre on Dharawal Country is recognised and commemorated annually.

In the massacre, at least 14 (likely more) Aboriginal men, women and children were killed by members of a British Army regiment. The regiment chased the group to nearby cliffs at Cataract Gorge where many jumped to their deaths.

The 2019 commemoration brought together Dharawal Elder Aunty Glenda Chalker, a descendent of Giribunger, one of the survivors of the massacre, and Sandy Hamilton, descended from Stephen Partridge, who served with the regiment that carried out the attack.

In Portland, Victoria, a towering gum leaf sculpture, Mayapa Weeyn (meaning “make fire”) was erected near the site of the Convincing Ground massacre. This is where between 20 and 200 members of the Kilcarer Gunditj clan were killed by British whalers.

The sculpture recognises all 59 Gunditjmara clans, many of whom were killed during the Eumeralla Wars that followed the Convincing Ground massacre. Gunditjmara Elder Walter Saunders, who designed the sculpture, spent two years building it and talking with local residents in an informal process of truth-telling.

In Tasmania, the Mannalargenna Day Festival commemorates Pairrebeenne/Trawlwoolway leader Mannalargenna. Mannalargenna tried to negotiate to save the lives of Aboriginal people in Tasmania who had been devastated by the Black War during the 1830s.

Our study found truth-telling is more effective when it occurs through immersive experiences. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural practices, such as smoking ceremonies, walking on Country, storytelling and personal engagements with survivors, contributed to healing, dialogue and a deeper shared understanding of history.

Through these events Indigenous people deepened their connections to community, history and Country and non-Indigenous people learned about these connections from them. The increasing attendance at events such as the Appin massacre memorial, the Mannalargenna Day Festival and similar commemorations is evidence of the impact of this type of truth-telling.

Read more:
‘Why didn’t we know?’ is no excuse. Non-Indigenous Australians must listen to the difficult historical truths told by First Nations people

Why is truth-telling important?

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have long called for Australia’s history to be told truthfully. The local truth-telling activities we have documented are examples of how communities have responded to this desire. They emphasise the importance of supporting communities to tell their stories, rather than government directing how truth-telling occurs.

While truth-telling does not guarantee reconciliation, the participants in our study stressed that meaningful reconciliation cannot occur without it. They emphasised the importance of reconciliation between First Nations and non-Indigenous communities because for some people these relationships have never existed, or are in need of repair.

Truth-telling is also crucial for political and social transformation. For example, the Queensland government is using truth-telling to help inform the path to Treaty. In Victoria, the Yoorrook Justice Commission is investigating historic and ongoing injustices experienced by First Nations peoples, alongside ongoing Treaty negotiations.

Read more:
What is NAIDOC week? How did it start and what does it celebrate?

Community truth-telling can demonstrate the power of Indigenous identity and self-determination. It can also counter past attempts to erase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from Australian history.

Truth-telling highlights the crucial roles and contributions of First Nations peoples. Their acts of bravery and sacrifice, resistance against colonialism and contributions to communities.

Although some local governments have played a key role in supporting truth-telling, more support for local initiatives is required. National proposals, such as a national recognition of Mabo Day and a formal remembrance for frontier conflicts, have the potential to create a better environment for truth-telling.

Vanessa Barolsky received funding to conduct research on community truth-telling from Reconciliation Australia, Deakin University and the Centre for Inclusive and Resilient Societies.

Yin Paradies receives funding to conduct research on community truth-telling from Reconciliation Australia, Deakin University and the Centre for Inclusive and Resilient Societies.

– ref. Why is truth-telling so important? Our research shows meaningful reconciliation cannot occur without it – https://theconversation.com/why-is-truth-telling-so-important-our-research-shows-meaningful-reconciliation-cannot-occur-without-it-197685

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deren Pillay, Researcher and Advanced Trainee in Public Health Medicine, Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania

Australia is holding its collective breath ahead of a bushfire season that may bring a return of the smoke linked to 400 deaths and 4,500 hospitalisations and emergency department visits during the 2019–20 Black Summer fires.

Air pollution is the world’s single greatest environmental cause of preventable disease and premature death. In Australia, it’s linked to more than 3,200 deaths a year at an estimated cost of A$6.2 billion.

These impacts are increasing due to climate change and an ageing population, among other factors. Scientists at the Centre for Safe Air (an NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence) have launched a report today on the many benefits of safer air for Australians, to mark the United Nations’ International Day of Clean Air.

The report summarises the extensive evidence on the health impacts of air pollution for Australians. This pollution consists of both airborne particles (also called particulate matter) and gases such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide. The report also explains why co-ordinated national leadership is needed to make our air safer.

Read more:
Air pollution: most national limits are unsafe for human health – new WHO guidelines

Why invest in clean air?

Here are ten reasons Australia should invest in safer air.

1. Air pollution increases non-communicable diseases

Heart disease, stroke, dementia, type 2 diabetes, lung diseases and cancer are all leading causes of illness and death for Australians. Air pollution increases the risk of all these conditions in the community.

2. Air pollution makes communicable diseases worse

Air pollution increases the risk of respiratory infections such as influenza and COVID-19, and may increase their severity.

Read more:
Air pollution can increase the risk of COVID infection and severe disease – a roundup of what we know

3. Air quality affects our health throughout life

Air pollution can affect the growth, development and overall health of unborn babies. Later in life it adds to the risk of developing non-communicable diseases.

4. It adds to health inequities

Action on air pollution represents a powerful opportunity to reduce health inequities in Australia. Some of the most vulnerable people in our society are at higher risk of worse health outcomes from air pollution exposure. They include older adults, pregnant people and unborn babies, children, people with pre-existing chronic conditions, socially disadvantaged populations and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Lessening air pollution reduces inequity.

5. Climate change and pollution make each other worse

Climate change is leading to more frequent and severe bushfires. In turn, severe bushfires are influencing the global climate and weather systems. Reducing air pollution is vital for mitigating climate change because they share common drivers such as fuel combustion.

Read more:
Wildfire smoke and dirty air are also climate change problems: Solutions for a world on fire

6. Clean-air policies have many co-benefits

Policies to reduce air pollution from burning fossil fuels have many health, environmental and social benefits. Measures range from decarbonising our energy and transport systems, greening our cities and improving urban and housing design to bushfire prevention strategies. Reducing air pollution improves social, environmental and economic wellbeing.

7. The impacts are increasing

Population growth and ageing, urbanisation and increasing transport and energy demands add to the risks for air quality, climate change and population health. This is why timely interventions are needed.

8. Economic costs are high and underestimated

Australian estimates to date have placed annual mortality costs of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution at A$6.2 billion. However, existing economic analyses of air pollution largely fail to account for the costs of other air pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide from vehicle traffic, and non-health costs like labour, productivity, welfare and other societal impacts.

Read more:
Air quality near busy Australian roads up to 10 times worse than official figures

9. Return on investment is high

Every dollar spent generates returns in the forms of lower health costs, healthier people and longer lives. Soon-to-be-published research at the Centre for Safe Air has found reducing the average population exposure to fine airborne particles (PM2.5) by a modest and highly achievable 5% could save more than 360 lives and A$1.6 billion a year.

10. Small improvements produce large gains

The rate of increase of many air-pollution-related health outcomes is steeper at lower concentrations, tapering off at higher levels of pollution. For Australia, this means any small improvements, even to levels below current national air quality standards, will deliver measurable health and economic benefits.

Read more:
Imagine the outcry if factories killed as many people as wood heaters

All of us have a right to clean air

Air pollution and its adverse health effects are linked to how we generate energy, how we heat our homes, our transport systems and our climate. No single policy will adequately tackle the problem of air pollution. Therefore, effective policy measures and regulation must take into account the diverse sources, settings and populations that are more at risk from air pollution.

Currently, responsibility for air pollution policy falls between the health and environment portfolios. Policies are often needed in the environment, planning and transport sectors where health expertise and input are limited, whereas air pollution impacts and public health responses reside in the health sector.

Safe air is a shared resource and a fundamental human right. Air pollution affects everyone – co-ordinated national leadership on safe air will benefit all Australians.

Bin Jalaludin receives funding from the NHMRC and the ARC.

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

– ref. 3,200 deaths a year: 1 of many reasons air pollution in Australia demands urgent national action – https://theconversation.com/3-200-deaths-a-year-1-of-many-reasons-air-pollution-in-australia-demands-urgent-national-action-212973

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa M. Given, Professor of Information Sciences & Director, Social Change Enabling Impact Platform, RMIT University

As artificial intelligence becomes mainstream, its infiltration into children’s lives is causing tremendous anxiety. The global panic around AI’s co-option of children’s play and cultures has manifested unpredictably.

Earlier this year, a Swiss comedian created a film trailer for an imagined remake of the beloved children’s story Heidi using the AI tool Gen-2.

Heidi’s more than 25 film and television retellings (including the most famous 1937 version starring Shirley Temple) are key to cultural archetypes of childhood innocence. The viral AI-generated version sparked headlines for being a godless abyss, nightmare fuel and absolutely soulless and detached from humanity.

This isn’t the first time AI has been used to re-imagine representations of childhood through the creation of cultural artefacts. Researchers trained a deep learning algorithm using children’s books by Dr Seuss, Maurice Sendak and others, with the resulting storybook images described as an apocalyptic nightmare and visions from hell.

When a technology worker used ChatGPT and Midjourney to create a children’s book, he received death threats.

M3GAN and AI dolls

One of the most successful horror films of 2022, M3GAN, depicts the disturbing results of a grieving girl’s friendship with an ultra-lifelike AI-powered doll.

A clip of M3GAN dancing (her face expressionless as her body emulates moves from youth dance trends on social media) went viral to an extent the director called “unbelievable.” M3GAN strikes a cultural chord, embodying our discomfort with how AI co-opts and twists children’s culture.

The Artifice Girl (2022) depicts an AI-generated nine-year-old designed to lure predators online, highlighting debates about AI ethics. Reviewer Sheila O’Malley compared this to Blade Runner (1982), asking:

If a memory is implanted into an android’s brain, a ‘personal’ memory of a childhood that never happened, then isn’t that memory a real thing to the android? The android can’t tell the difference. It feels real. At a certain point, what is or is not ‘real’ is irrelevant. This is when things get unsettling, and The Artifice Girl sits in that very unsettling place.

AI tools sit uncomfortably with our imaginings of childhood. The constellation of play, games, stories and toys that constitutes children’s social worlds is symbolic of innocence, naivety and freedom from the darkest burdens of adult life.

Childhood studies link mythologies of freedom and innocence to faith in humanity. When AI tools pervert children’s culture, they spark our deepest fears about AI’s inhuman modes of intelligence.

AI’s ability to mimic human creators, while hallucinating and twisting reality, gives us reason to worry.

The long history of childhood techno-phobia

Cultural anxieties about AI’s infiltration of children’s culture continue a long history of pop cultural preoccupations with dangerous interactions between children and technologies that cannot be trusted.

With Poltergeist (1982), the world was enthralled by five-year-old Carol Anne’s haunting statement, “They’re here…” She was listening to poltergeists through the family’s television.

This resonated with parents concerned with children’s screen time, as well as video games, Dungeons and Dragons and Satanic ritual abuse. Carol Anne’s television fixation reflects the terrifying potential of technology to unsettle family life.

Read more:
M3gan review: an animatronic doll is out to destroy the nuclear family – much to fans’ delight

Mary Shelley’s 1818 classic Frankenstein, like M3GAN, depicts a young girl dangerously entranced by embodied technology. In its 1931 film adaptation, we see Frankenstein’s monster meeting seven-year-old Maria, who overcomes her initial shock, asks him to play and meets an untimely end.

Come Play (2020) depicts young Oliver who befriends a monster through an app, with deadly screen-time results. Where Poltergeist imagines consequences from too much television, Come Play echoes parents’ fears of losing their children to smartphones and gaming, such as Minecraft.

AI is a lightning rod for fear

M3GAN’s embodied AI reflects the current wave of concern. In May, AI companies made headlines when they linked AI to potential human extinction. While experts dismissed these claims, perceptions of AI as a significant threat echoes the horrors of AI depicted in film.

One example is 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), in which HAL 9000 takes control of the spaceship to protect the mission. Many other films depict out-of-control AI, including WestWorld (1973), Tron (1982), Terminator (1984), The Matrix (1999), I.Robot (2004), Moon (2009), Ex Machina (2014) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). These films resonate today, as AI seems poised to replace human workers.

The idea we can create autonomous technologies that may eradicate humanity prompts what researchers call “moral panic”. This is contagious fear, amplified by the media, and fixated on looming threats to social stability. New media often give voice to youth, challenging norms and exacerbating generational divides, further contributing to recurring moral panics.

While filmmakers highlight AI’s potential threats, today’s tools struggle to generate coherent knitting patterns or recipes that aren’t poisonous. AI’s real threats to children include its ability to present misinformation in convincing ways and replicate social biases. The climate change impacts of AI are troubling, as is the lack of transparency and privacy concerns.

While we shouldn’t be swept up by moral panics, children’s use and understanding of AI should be addressed. UNICEF is embedding children’s rights into global AI policy and the World Economic Forum has released an AI for children toolkit.

While horror stories shed light on our anxieties about children’s technology use, and our imaginings of children’s play and culture, we don’t need to recoil in fear.

Lisa M. Given receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology.

Jessica Balanzategui receives funding from the Australian Children’s Television Foundation.

Sarah Polkinghorne receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Is AI coming for our kids? Why the latest wave of pop-cultural tech anxiety should come as no surprise – https://theconversation.com/is-ai-coming-for-our-kids-why-the-latest-wave-of-pop-cultural-tech-anxiety-should-come-as-no-surprise-212869

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoffrey Roberts, Graduate Researcher, La Trobe University

For more than three decades, China has struggled to contain criticism of its human rights record. It faced a storm of outrage over the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and condemnation of its mass incarceration of Muslim Uyghurs in recent years. Each time, the Chinese government has had to deal with the diplomatic fallout of its own repression.

To deflect this criticism, Chinese diplomats and propagandists have promulgated a series of different claims.

On the one hand, they have tried to rally developing countries behind the idea that the “right to subsistence” trumps concerns over other human rights.

Other times, the government has justified its dictatorship as an expression of traditional Chinese “Confucian values”. These emphasise the importance of duty and social harmony over individual rights.

Now, however, the government has formed a coherent ideological strategy in response to this criticism. China is seeking not merely to resist but to dismantle a foundational idea of the post-Cold War international order – the universality of human rights.

Read more:
Explainer: who are the Uyghurs and why is the Chinese government detaining them?

A new approach cloaked in ‘democratic’ values

The government’s new strategy is called the “Global Civilisation Initiative”. And it’s become a major weapon in the Chinese party-state’s foreign propaganda arsenal.

The initiative was first announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in March. It complements two previously announced (and similarly named) diplomatic tools: the Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative.

Together, these intentionally vague concepts are designed to expand China’s influence over international institutions and norms. They also advance Xi’s plan for the “great renewal of the Chinese nation”.

In announcing the Global Civilisation Initiative, Xi put forth lofty ideals about creating a “global network for inter-civilisational dialogue and cooperation” based on “common values of humanity”, such as “justice, democracy and freedom.”

Since then, these themes have been widely echoed by China’s media outlets and its foreign propagandists.

The truth, however, is the initiative represents a kind of modern-day tribute system in which an all-powerful China sits atop a hierarchy of like-minded states from the Global South.

In exchange for kowtowing to Beijing, the Chinese government offers developing countries lucrative trade and investment opportunities and the ability to emulate its authoritarian political model.

A selective approach to human rights

China’s new initiative could have significant repercussions for human rights.

First, in contrast to the respect for universal human rights in the liberal international order, China’s strategy calls for a cultural relativist approach based on each country’s “national conditions and unique features.”

In other words, there shouldn’t be a universal standard of human rights at all.

Instead, each country should develop human rights protections according to its own culture and traditions. As China’s former foreign minister, Qin Gang, said earlier this year:

There is no one-size-fits-all model in the protection of human rights.

This approach is problematic because it allows governments to apply international human rights standards selectively. It also offers a smokescreen for China’s own human rights violations.

A network of despots with similar views

A second way the Global Civilisation Initiative threatens human rights is by promoting greater collaboration between illiberal and authoritarian regimes.

In announcing the initiative, Xi made the point of differentiation between China and Western democracies clear:

The [Chinese Communist Party] will continue to safeguard international fairness and justice and promote world peace and stability. In advancing modernisation, China will neither tread the old path of colonisation and plunder, nor the crooked path taken by some countries to seek hegemony once they grow strong.

To promote this new strategy, Chinese officials have also been using benign-sounding language, such as “dialogue”, “cooperation” and “common prosperity”.

The Chinese state media even leaned on the ancient Silk Road as proof China has long “embodied the spirit of cooperation, mutual learning and mutual benefit”.

The aim is to build a broad coalition of countries seeking an alternative to the Western-led international order. In this new Chinese-led model, countries refrain from imposing their own values on one another. Interference in internal affairs is also strictly prohibited.

Read more:
How China is remaking the world in its vision

Again, this strategy can provide a smokescreen for China. It creates a global network of like-minded regimes whose diplomats can shield Beijing’s human rights abuses from scrutiny and criticism in international forums. They can also vote in support of Beijing’s resolutions at the United Nations.

In return, adhering to the Global Civilisation Initiative can provide greater space for illiberal governments to pursue their own goals and punish political opponents without fear of condemnation.

As a self-serving instrument for the projection of China’s power and influence, the success of the Global Civilisation Initiative will depend on its level of buy-in from developing states. In a world in which democracy and human rights are in decline and authoritarianism is on the rise, this may be readily forthcoming.

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

– ref. China’s concerning new strategy on human rights: unite the world behind a ‘selective’ approach – https://theconversation.com/chinas-concerning-new-strategy-on-human-rights-unite-the-world-behind-a-selective-approach-212007

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arjuna Dibley, Head of Sustainable Finance Hub, The University of Melbourne

Last month, a significant victory for climate change was won behind closed doors. In 2020, Katta O’Donnell, then a 23-year-old student at the University of Melbourne, launched a world-leading class action lawsuit against the Commonwealth government.

O’Donnell alleged that she and other investors in Australian-issued bonds had been misled because the government failed to disclose how climate change might impact their investments.

Sovereign bonds allow governments to borrow money, from which, on top of taxes, they can fund expenditures and programs. Historically, investors consider sovereign bonds issued by stable economies such as Australia a safe bet.

Because our economy is large and our economic, political and legal institutions stable and mostly free from corruption, investors can be fairly certain that Australian governments will repay their debts.

This has created steady demand for Australian sovereign bonds, making them a reliable way for our governments to fund policy programs and respond to economic shocks. But O’Donnell’s lawsuit broadly questioned whether sovereign bonds were really safe for investors once the economic impacts of climate change were taken into account.

Her lawyers argued that the Commonwealth government should disclose the way climate change posed both “physical” and “transition” risks to the economy.

The first are financial risks that climate scientists say will impact Australia’s economy due to changes to the climate and the rise in extreme weather events. The second kind of risk emerges from changes in global demand for our fossil fuel exports.

Read more:
‘A wake-up call’: why this student is suing the government over the financial risks of climate change

O’Donnell’s lawyers also suggest that investors increasingly expect governments to try to manage their climate risks.

They point to the 2019 decision by Sweden’s Central Bank, Sveriges Rijksbank, to divest its holdings in Queensland and Western Australian bonds, because they are “not known for good climate work”, as an example of investors taking these risks seriously.

In March 2021 the Commonwealth sought to have the claim struck out, alleging it was not clear what risks should be disclosed.

At that time, few government bond prospectuses issued around the world referred to climate risks. However, Justice Murphy of the Federal Court decided to keep the legal action on foot because he saw an “informational asymmetry” between the government and investors regarding the nature of climate risks.

Following the election of the Albanese government, the Commonwealth decided not to contest the case in court, but to seek mediation.

Under the terms of the settlement, agreed on August 7 and to be approved by the court next month, the government will likely acknowledge on the Treasury website that climate change presents a risk to the country’s “economy, regions, industries, and communities”, and that there is uncertainty around the global transition to net zero emissions.

The government’s decision to disclose climate risks is no surprise. It is already taking steps to better understand and report on how climate change will affect the economy. Beyond taking policy measures to support the transition to a “net zero” economy, it has tasked Treasury with developing a national sustainable finance strategy.

It has also asked some large listed companies to analyse and disclose their climate-risk exposure, and is developing a legal framework – called a “taxonomy” – to better regulate sustainable finance.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s new governor, Michele Bullock, also said in a recent speech that the economic implications of climate change could affect the stability of the financial system.

The settlement is significant because, for the first time, an AAA-rated government will recognise climate change as a systemic risk that can affect the value of its bonds. Large sovereign investors and credit-rating agencies are already focusing on how climate change impacts a country’s ability to repay, and pricing this information into its loans.

All this is creating pressure for governments like ours to better understand and disclose climate risks when they borrow money.

But climate risk disclosure in sovereign bonds is not enough. Governments are qualitatively different entities to companies, from which these disclosure practices evolved.

Companies are more able than governments to rid themselves quickly of polluting assets, acquire new clean resources, or change the location of their operations. Investors can engage with companies on climate change through annual general meetings, but they struggle to influence governments on climate change (although some are trying to develop strategies for doing so).

Read more:
Better than net zero? Making the promised 1.2 million homes climate-friendly would transform construction in Australia

So while the recent case is a reminder for government issuers to consider how climate change will impact government bond repayment obligations, their challenge isn’t solved by better disclosure practices.

Nevertheless, Australian governments should continue their plans to better understand and disclose climate risks.

Moreover, under instruments such as Sustainability Linked Sovereign Bonds, governments can set climate-related performance targets, such as lowering carbon emissions by 10% by 2025. A government that does not meet these predetermined targets could be subject to an increase in its interest rate, or another penalty.

These instruments create an incentive for governments to achieve real emission reductions, which is the only activity that will ultimately address climate risk in the economy.

Arjuna Dibley is a Fellow at the Centre for Policy Development, a Board Member of Environmental Justice Australia and a Board Member of Carbon Plan.

– ref. How one student forced the government to admit the economic risks of climate change – https://theconversation.com/how-one-student-forced-the-government-to-admit-the-economic-risks-of-climate-change-212856

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meg Elkins, Senior Lecturer with School of Economics, Finance and Marketing and Behavioural Business Lab Member, RMIT University

Are you spending more and more time at work doing paperwork and filling in forms rather than the thing you were trained and hired for? Does this busy work often seem to resist rational purpose or questioning? Does it kill your productivity, initiative, motivation and, frankly, your self-worth and sanity?

If any of this sounds familiar, you are experiencing a classic dilemma of the 21st-century workplace. The unique and irreplaceable human qualities for which workers are increasingly hired tend to clash badly with the rules designed to reign in their worst excesses.

This insight is part of recent research that applies behavioural science to bureaucracy. But more than that, the research also suggests how to design rules for employees in a way that suits human psychology.

Although stories of creeping bureaucracy abound in many industries, evidence – and our own experience – suggests nowhere has the problem of red tape exploded as much as it has in universities.

Staff complain the time they have for teaching and research is being eaten up by filling in forms and writing reports of questionable value. But this gripe goes beyond the inefficiency of bureaucratic excess. Some rules demotivate because they are interpreted as patronising.

Read more:
Reform Australian universities by cutting their bureaucracies

Red tape in the academy

Academic bureaucracy is proliferating. At Yale University, for example, the number of managerial and professional staff has risen three times faster than the number of undergraduates since 2003. In Australia, leading research universities say the cost of complying with “unnecessary, redundant and duplicative regulation” has doubled since 2013.

Factors contributing to this, as identified by a 2022 UK government inquiry, include external demands for assurance that research is being done according to funding terms and conditions; risk-averse cultures leading to unnecessary hierarchies of approval; and growth in organisational size leading to more layers of management.

But while universities may be the most chronic examples, red tape is increasing in most workplaces. In the United States, the number of managers, supervisors and support staff has grown at more than twice the rate of other jobs since the 1980s – and the shift to hybrid and remote work is likely to compound this trend, as managers institute procedures to keep workers accountable.

As management experts Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini wrote in their 2020 book Humanocracy:

bureaucracy has been growing, not shrinking – a fact that is correlated, we believe, with the worrying slowdown in global productivity growth, a phenomenon that bodes for living standards and economic opportunity.

How did it come to this? And how can organisations with bloated bureaucracies go about cutting their red tape?

The perils of scientific management

While all organisations need processes to run, increasing bureaucracy has led to a proliferation of what economic anthropologist David Graeber pithily termed “bullshit jobs”:

Huge swathes of people, in Europe and North America in particular, spend their entire working lives performing tasks they secretly believe do not really need to be performed. The moral and spiritual damage that comes from this situation is profound. It is a scar across our collective soul.

This helps explain why productivity is slowing and worker engagement is declining, with so many dissatisfied with their jobs.

One problem is many managers are trained in “scientific management,” which aims to improve efficiency by encouraging individuals not to problem-solve but to focus instead on performing simple, repetitive tasks as effectively as possible.

But people aren’t cogs in machines. Rather, they relate to their organisations on a personal level. Bureaucracy undermines that relationship.

Unnecessary bureaucracy signals to workers that they are not to be trusted. This suggests an uncaring and low-quality relationship, to which the natural human response is to want to quit the relationship – either overtly, by resigning, or quietly, by simply making less effort.

Beating the bureaucratic urge

The good news is there are ways to turn the tide of red tape.

“Defenders of the status quo will tell you that bureaucracy is the inevitable correlate of complexity,” write Hamel and Zanini, “but our evidence suggests otherwise.”

We know many examples of good practice from our own experience. Some universities have lean teams tasked with cutting red tape. In others, senior managers regularly visit the proverbial campfires. Some vice-chancellors retain teaching duties to stay in touch with changing demands. Leaders can glean much about the impact their middle managers’ rules have by engaging with the rank and file.

Canadian tech firm Shopify has created a meeting calculator to quantify the true cost of meetings. It also eliminated all reoccurring meetings with three or more people. As a result, the average Shopify employee now spends 14% less time meetings compared with this time last year. It serves as a reminder that time is money and there may be other ways to get things done.

Read more:
What is red tape and why is it a problem for small firms?

For any manager who is nervous about the prospect of giving workers more autonomy and fewer forms to fill in, here are some words of reassurance from Google’s former human resources chief, Lazlo Bock:

Give people slightly more trust, freedom, and authority than you are comfortable giving them. If you’re not nervous, you haven’t given them enough.

Research suggests managers who trust their employees elicit higher engagement and performance, and less burnout among their staff.

As Christian Hunt, former head of behavioural science at investment bank UBS, explains:

If we hire people because they’re smart, then it’s probably not a good idea to treat them in a manner that suggests we think the opposite.

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

– ref. Red tape can strangle your key asset as an employee: your motivation – https://theconversation.com/red-tape-can-strangle-your-key-asset-as-an-employee-your-motivation-209320

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joseph Lizier, Associate Professor of Complex Systems, University of Sydney

Getting in sync can be exhilarating when you’re dancing in rhythm with other people or clapping along in an audience. Fireflies too know the joy of synchronisation, timing their flashes together to create a larger display to attract mates.

Synchronisation is important at a more basic level in our bodies, too. Our heart cells all beat together (at least when things are going well), and synchronised electrical waves can help coordinate brain regions – but too much synchronisation of brain cells is what happens in an epileptic seizure.

Sync most often emerges spontaneously rather than through following the lead of some central timekeeper. How does this happen? What is it about a system that determines whether sync will emerge, and how strong it will be?

In new research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we show how the strength of synchronisation in a network depends on the structure of the connections between its members – whether they be brain cells, fireflies, or groups of dancers.

The science of sync

Scientists originally became interested in sync to understand the inner workings of natural systems. We have also become interested in designing sync as a desired behaviour in human-made systems such as power grids (to keep them in phase).

Mathematicians can analyse sync by treating the individuals in the system as “coupled oscillators”. An oscillator is something that periodically repeats the same pattern of activity, like the sequence of steps in a repetitive dance, and coupled oscillators are ones that can influence each other’s behaviour.

It can be useful to measure whether a system of oscillators can synchronise their actions, and how strong that synchronisation would be. Strength of synchronisation means how well the sync can recover from disturbances.

Take a group dance, for example. A disturbance might be one person starting to get some steps wrong. The person might quickly recover by watching their friends, they might throw their friends off for a few steps before everyone recovers, or in the worst case it might just cause chaos.

Synced systems are strong but hard to unravel

Two factors make it difficult to determine how strong the synchronisation in a set of coupled oscillators could be.

First, it’s rare for a single oscillator to be in charge and telling everyone else what to do. In our dance example, that means there’s neither music nor lead dancers to set the tempo.

And second, usually each oscillator is only connected to a few others in the system. So each dancer can only see and react to a few others, and everyone is taking their cues from a completely different set of dancers.

This is the case in the brain, for example, where there is a complex network structure of connections between different regions.

Real complex systems like this, where there is no central guiding signal and oscillators are connected in a complex network, are very robust to damage and adaptable to change, and can more easily scale to different sizes.

Read more:
Electricity flow in the human brain can be predicted using the simple maths of networks, new study reveals

Stronger sync comes from more wandering walks

One drawback of such complicated systems is for scientists, as they are mathematically difficult to come to grips with. However, our new research has made a significant advance on this front.

We have shown how the network structure connecting a set of oscillators controls how well they can synchronise. The quality of sync depends on “walks” on a network, which are sequences of hops between connected oscillators or nodes.

Our maths examines what are called “paired walks”. If you start at one node and take two walks with randomly chosen next hops for a specific number of hops, the two walks might end up at the same node (these are convergent walks) or at different nodes (divergent walks).

We found that the more often paired walks on a network were convergent rather than divergent, the worse the synchronisation on the network would be.

When more paired walks are convergent, disturbances tend to be reinforced.

In our dancing example, one person making the wrong steps might lead some neighbours astray, who may then lead some of their neighbours astray and so on.

These chains of potential disturbances are like walks on the network. When those disturbances propagate through multiple neighbours and then converge on one person, that person is going to be much more likely to copy the out-of-sync moves than if only one of their neighbours was offbeat.

Social networks, power grids and beyond

So networks with many convergent walks are prone to poorer synchronisation. This is good news for the brain avoiding epilepsy, as its highly modular structure brings a high proportion of convergent walks.

We can see this reflected in the echo chamber phenomenon in social media. Tightly coupled subgroups reinforcing their own messages can synchronise themselves well, but may fall far out of step with the wider population.

Our results bring a new understanding to how synchronisation functions in different natural network structures. It opens new opportunities in terms of designing network structures or interventions on networks, either to aid synchronisation (in power grids, say) or to avoid synchronisation (say in the brain).

More widely, it represents a major step forward in our understanding of how the structure of complex networks affects their behaviour and capabilities.

Read more:
Synchrony with chaos – blinking lights of a firefly swarm embody in nature what mathematics predicted

Joseph Lizier received funding from the Australian Research Council which partially funded this research.

– ref. Fireflies, brain cells, dancers: new synchronisation research shows nature’s perfect timing is all about connections – https://theconversation.com/fireflies-brain-cells-dancers-new-synchronisation-research-shows-natures-perfect-timing-is-all-about-connections-212708

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Carlson, Professor, Indigenous Studies and Director of The Centre for Global Indigenous Futures, Macquarie University

On October 14, the voting public will be asked to vote “yes” or “no” on a proposed First Nations Voice to Parliament.

While the “yes” campaign has largely coalesced behind a single message, the “no” campaign is not a singular cohort. There are two sides to the “no” camp and they are very different.

Here’s what they are arguing and the different approaches they’ve taken when it comes to style and tone.

Read more:
For a lot of First Nations peoples, debates around the Voice to Parliament are not about a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’

The conservative ‘no’ campaign

One side of the “no” campaign comes from the right of politics, including prominent members of the Coalition. With the catch phrase, “If you don’t know, vote no”, this camp hopes to impel voters who are unsure about what it all means to just vote no instead of finding the information required.

Also in this camp are a number of Australians who believe Indigenous people are beneficiaries of special privileges. Some claim the referendum is about introducing “racial privilege” by establishing a system of government that gives Indigenous people influence over decisions made by the government.

“No” proponents have cited former Prime Minster Bob Hawke to make their case that we should all just be considered Australian and Indigenous people should not have a moral or legal right of recognition or special land rights. Hawke said in 1988:

In Australia, there is no hierarchy of descent […] there must be no privilege of origin. The commitment is all. The commitment to Australia is the one thing needful to be a true Australian.

One of the drivers behind this “no” campaign is Fair Australia, an arm of the lobbying group Advance Australia. Advance counts former Prime Minister Tony Abbott as an advisory member and is backed by wealthy donors.

These groups are harnessing social media to push their arguments, which mainly revolve around two themes: “dividing” the nation, and the lack of detail masking a hidden agenda.

This side of the “no” camp has faced many accusations of spreading misinformation.

Senior Indigenous politician Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is the Liberal party’s spokesperson against the Voice and the main Indigenous voice in the conservative “no” camp. Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton recently appointed Price as the new shadow minister for Indigenous Australians.

The Blak Sovereign ‘no’ campaign

The other side of the “no” campaign is completely different in that it professes to have the best interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at its core.

This camp is often framed as the progressive side of the “no” campaign, with independent Senator Lidia Thorpe its most prominent voice. Thorpe has referred to the Voice as a “powerless advisory body” that will do little to change the life circumstances of most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Instead, Thorpe supports other measures such as truth-telling and treaty.

Thorpe has said the Voice is just an easy way to fake any real progress for Indigenous people without any actual change.

She also points to the harm and divisiveness the Voice debate has caused, referring to it as a “destructive distraction”. The Voice debates have resulted in a significant rise of racism and hate speech targeting Indigenous people online.

While both sides are supporting a “no” vote, they are distinct in that one’s aim is for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to have more rights of self-determination, while one advocates for the status quo.

Where does this leave Indigenous people?

Voice proponents believe it will bring the promise of a new and enlightened Australia. But in reality, the government will be able to disregard the advice it brings to the parliament.

Arrernte writer Celeste Liddle captures how many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are feeling about the referendum:

I feel stuck with a choice between systems I do not trust and the fear of giving in to rabid racists.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are tired of dealing with the misinformation, lies, hatred and racism the referendum debate is fuelling in society. I was asked by a non-Indigenous person if it is true Aboriginal people will get double Centrelink payments and be “given” land for free.

These falsehoods are repeatedly being spread because they hit at the heart of the racism we see in Australia – that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will be entitled to something other Australians are not, and we are undeserving.

Many have questioned Australia’s ability to engage in a debate over the Voice without descending into racist stereotypes and contempt for Indigenous people.

My own research has pointed to high levels of ongoing racism online and in workplaces.

Australians need to be fully informed and not swayed by misinformation fuelled by racism. We are told there is much at stake, but we do not yet know if the Voice will bring any substantial change for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This campaign will, however, tell us who we are as a people, and what we value.

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

– ref. There are two sides to the ‘no’ campaign on the Voice. Who are they and why are they opposed to it? – https://theconversation.com/there-are-two-sides-to-the-no-campaign-on-the-voice-who-are-they-and-why-are-they-opposed-to-it-212362

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Reema Harrison, Associate Professor, Macquarie University

Australians are living longer than ever. But these extra years of life come with higher rates of long-term and complex conditions and greater health care needs.

The government wants to improve Australians’ access to primary care services. These services would usually be delivered by a GP. But as part of this change, a new review is exploring how other health professionals could expand their current scope of work to meet growing needs.

Nurses make up more than 50% of the health workforce and have untapped and under-used skills that would ease the skills gap in our health system. Within this group, nurse practitioners have advanced training and the potential to deliver more services than they’re currently allowed – without the oversight of a GP.

How will access to primary care change?

One of the big changes is that from October 2023, some patients will be able to register with one GP or general practice under the MyMedicare scheme. Those who are registered will start to have access to extra funded services like longer telehealth appointments.

The first patients who will get access to these benefits are people with multiple health conditions and/or additional social needs. Having one doctor who knows them, and their history, can connect them more seamlessly with all of the different health professionals and services. This saves patients and carers time, money and effort.

Read more:
Should you register with a GP? What is MyMedicare and how might it change the care you get?

For MyMedicare to work, Australia will need more health professionals with the right skills available in cities, regional towns and in rural and remote locations.

Currently, Australia is set to have a shortfall of 10,600 GPs by 2032. This represents a serious problem. While steps are being taken to grow the GP workforce, this takes time. And with a worldwide health workforce shortage, it will not be easy.

Australia will need to find other solutions. One option is to look to nurses to take on tasks for which they are suitably skilled but have historically been undertaken by doctors.

How nurses can help

In the United Kingdom, the United States, The Netherlands and Canada, advanced nursing – where nurses have postgraduate education and training to take on more specialised tasks and roles – has been relied on for years.

At the most advanced level of nursing, a nurse practitioner is a trained registered nurse who provides advanced nursing care either independently and autonomously, or with a doctor. Nurse practitioners can assess and diagnose health problems, order and interpret diagnostic tests, prescribe medicines, refer patients to other health professionals and even admit them to hospitals.

Nurse practitioners have been practising in Australia since 2000, starting in emergency care, with more than 1,400 practising in total in Australia by 2019. However, unlike other countries, Australian nurse practitioners must work in collaboration with a doctor. If they were to practise more independently, nurse practitioners could expand health-care access for thousands of Australians, including those living in rural and remote areas.

A recent NSW Health report presented a framework for specialised rural nurse practitioners that shows how care might be provided to focus on local community needs. For people living with a disability, or chronic and complex conditions, nurse practitioners can provide services in their communities, such as diagnosis, treatment plans, dialysis and make referrals to a specialist, including via telehealth. This could reduce the need for long-distance travel or a long wait time to access a GP.

Don’t we have a shortage of nurses?

It is true, nurses are leaving the workforce in the thousands. One fifth of nurses in Australia intend to leave nursing in the next 12 months. Keeping them requires better working conditions.

But it’s not just about reducing burnout, stress and workloads. Nurses want career development, the opportunity to extend their scope of practice with advanced training, and for these complex care skills to be recognised and used.

Access to opportunities for career development and progression is a key driver of nurse retention.

Read more:
How do you fix general practice? More GPs won’t be enough. Here’s what to do

Why haven’t nurse practitioners already solved the workforce crisis?

Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who have additional postgraduate education and clinical training in their speciality area.

Nurse practitioners are currently required to work in collaboration with a doctor to deliver care, which limits the extent to which they can resolve the workforce gaps we face. A nurse practitioner can prescribe medications, for example, but must do so with oversight via a sign-off from a doctor.

The federal government’s nurse practitioner workforce plan aims to remove barriers to patients accessing a nurse practitioner. The plan is looking at whether nurse practitioners should provide Medicare-funded services, create additional nurse-led care items and remove the requirement for them to collaborate with doctors in delivering care.

The federal government’s current proposals may therefore see nurse practitioners working completely independently, in a similar way to that overseas.

But despite evidence showing nurse practitioners provide safe health care, the proposal has been met with concern from some doctors that increased independence may risk patient safety and lead to more fragmented care. They also argue it would be unfair for patients who can’t see a doctor and who must see a nurse practitioner instead.

What should happen next?

Delivering better quality primary health care in Australia ultimately means we need to make better use of our health services and align it with our changing population needs.

To achieve this, we will need to grow our nurse practitioner workforce and use them more effectively. Enabling nurse practitioners to use all their skills independently might also help to stem the loss of nursing workforce.

But expanding the scope of any profession must be done in a way that improves collaboration, team-based working and patient-centred care. Health care is safest and most effective when health professionals work together – and with patients – to make decisions about care. So it’s important for the plan to include incentives that make collaboration more likely between nurse practitioners and doctors.

Read more:
Pharmacists should be able to work with GPs to prescribe medicines for long-term conditions

Reema Harrison receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council, Medical Research Futures Fund, Cancer Institute NSW, Australian Research Council, Medibank Better Health Fund, and NSW Health.

Laurel Mimmo works for a NSW Health organisation and is a member of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, the Health Services Union and the Australian College of Nursing. She does not currently receive funding from any organisation.

– ref. It can be tough getting a GP appointment. Nurse practitioners could take some of the load – https://theconversation.com/it-can-be-tough-getting-a-gp-appointment-nurse-practitioners-could-take-some-of-the-load-212620

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trivess Moore, Senior Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University

Climate change and energy costs mean we need to rethink how we design and build our homes. The updated National Construction Code has lifted the required energy performance of new housing from 6 stars to 7 stars (10 stars being the best). Windows are an obvious focus for improving the energy efficiency of Australian homes.

On hot days, most of the heat that gets into our homes is through the windows. On cold days, windows account for almost half the heat loss. High-performance insulating windows have been installed in Australian homes at a fraction of the rates for New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom.

In our newly published report, we found the local window industry can produce the high-performance windows we need for thermally efficient homes. These homes will cost less to heat and cool, with lower greenhouse gas emissions.

But the industry is complex, with several obstacles to greater uptake of these windows. We identified a range of government policies and industry actions that could help drive change.

Read more:
7-star housing is a step towards zero carbon – but there’s much more to do, starting with existing homes

How much difference do windows make?

Single-glazed windows are common in Australian housing. Heat travels easily through these windows so they are a thermal weak spot.

In Australian homes, up to 87% of heat gain in summer and 40% of heat loss in winter is through the windows. This makes it harder to maintain a comfortable temperature inside.

Around 40% of household energy use in the average Australian home is for heating and cooling. The result is high power bills.

High-performance windows can solve this problem

Better windows are available. Double-glazed and triple-glazed windows offer much better performance, reducing the need to use energy for heating and cooling. In some climate zones, they’re one of the most cost-effective investments in energy efficiency you can make.

These windows have insulating layer(s) of air between the glass panes. Other elements can also improve performance. These include thermal breaks (an insulating barrier that reduces heat flow through the window frame) and films that can be applied to the panes.

These approaches can be used in new window units, or with retrofit options such as secondary glazing, which can be cheaper than replacing the whole window unit. It involves installing a glazed panel in a frame inside an existing window. This can be a great solution for apartments as it might not require owners corporation approval.

Read more:
Keen to retrofit your home to lower its carbon footprint and save energy? Consider these 3 things

High-performance windows offer many benefits beyond greater thermal comfort. These include better physical and mental health as a result of homes no longer being too hot or too cold, improved control of ventilation and natural light, and reduced noise from outdoors.

Australia is trailing far behind other countries in installing high-performance windows. Just over 10% of windows in new housing in Australia are high-performance – versus around 80% in the United Kingdom, the United States and New Zealand.

Read more:
We need a ‘lemon law’ to make all the homes we buy and rent more energy-efficient

Scaling up use of high-performance windows

We explored the window and residential building industry in Victoria on behalf of Sustainability Victoria. Our aim was to understand the industry and its readiness to scale up the manufacture, sale and installation of high-performance windows. We also wanted to understand what support might be needed to achieve this transition.

The people we spoke to, drawn from across the sector, said they are ready to scale up once demand is there. They clearly said there isn’t any technological barrier to doing this.

The time from ordering to receiving windows has increased in recent years as part of wider supply-chain issues. We were told this was almost resolved. However, a rapid scaling up of demand for high-performance windows could create short-term supply challenges.

The builders we spoke to identified some issues around understanding the various window products, such as the relative benefits of different frame materials. For example, uPVC and timber frames typically conduct less heat than aluminium. However, a thermal break can greatly improve aluminium frame performance.

They also noted that high-performance windows cost more. This can be a challenge in an industry already struggling to provide housing at affordable prices.

In addition, high-performance windows are heavier. Extra equipment could be needed to install them.

Read more:
Will 7-star housing really cost more? It depends, but you can keep costs down in a few simple ways

How can policy help improve uptake?

We found the industry is complex. A range of measures will likely be needed to encourage the uptake and delivery of more high-performance windows. Our research proposes the following interventions:

• regulation – further improve regulations to nudge use of high-performance windows, which could include setting minimum performance requirements for windows as New Zealand has done

• education – better educate builders and consumers with easy-to-understand, transparent information to bust myths about high-performance windows and encourage people to consider their wider benefits

• finance – there is a need to reduce capital costs (economies of scale will help) and improve access to government support, which could include rebates for home owners, similar to those for rooftop solar systems

• quality assurance – the range of high-performance window options means we need to ensure key intermediaries like energy assessors provide well-informed advice. Support tools such as the Window Energy Rating Scheme can help with decision-making. There is also a need to ensure quality installation practices.

Read more:
Better than net zero? Making the promised 1.2 million homes climate-friendly would transform construction in Australia

Windows for the future

Given the key role of windows in housing quality, performance and emissions, installing high-performance windows needs to become business as usual. In many other countries, double-or-triple-glazed windows are now standard. If we don’t do the same, we will lock households into lower-quality, poorly performing housing for decades.

Making high-performance windows standard building practice in Australia is achievable. However, some support for the window industry, builders and households will be needed.

Trivess Moore has received funding from various organisations including the Australian Research Council, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Victorian Government and various industry partners. He is a trustee of the Fuel Poverty Research Network. This article derives from research funded through a contract between Sustainability Victoria and RMIT University.

Lisa de Kleyn has worked on projects that received funding from various organisations including the Australian Research Council and Victorian Government. This article derives from research funded through a contract between Sustainability Victoria and RMIT University.

Tom Simko has worked on projects that received funding from the Victorian Government. This article derives from research funded through a contract between Sustainability Victoria and RMIT University.

– ref. On hot days, up to 87% of heat gain in our homes is through windows. On cold days, it’s 40% of heat loss. Here’s how we can fix that – https://theconversation.com/on-hot-days-up-to-87-of-heat-gain-in-our-homes-is-through-windows-on-cold-days-its-40-of-heat-loss-heres-how-we-can-fix-that-212117

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Gilmore, Lecturer in Engineering Design, UNSW Sydney

Farmers often pride themselves on their self-reliance. When you live far from the cities, it makes sense to do as much as possible yourself. Australia’s sheer size has meant many remote farms have long been off grid as it’s often simply too expensive to get a power connection. But for those still on the grid, there are now new options.

As solar gets cheaper, more and more farms are aiming to become self-reliant in power. But until now, getting fully off the grid has had a sticking point – solar intermittency. Solar power might be cheaper than ever, but if you don’t have storage or backup, you’re still reliant on the grid when the sun doesn’t shine.

Batteries are a compelling solution. But they might not offer a full day’s backup and come with concerns about fire risk and waste.

Generators offer reliable backup. But they too have downsides – they have to be resupplied and produce harmful emissions.

For farmers, there’s now another option: connect one of your dams to a river – or link two dams together – to create a small pumped hydro plant to store electricity from solar to use at night. The water in your dams could offer yet another form of self-reliance.

Our new research has identified over 30,000 rural sites where micro pumped hydro could work. A typical site could produce two kilowatts of power and store 30 kilowatt hours of energy – enough to run a typical home in South Australia for 40 hours.

Massive to micro? Yes, pumped hydro can work on farms

Pumped hydro is essentially turning hydroelectric power into a battery as well.

Take two reservoirs, where one is higher than the other. When you have extra solar power, you store it. How? By using the energy to pump water uphill to the top reservoir. When you need power later on, you release water down to the lower reservoir and produce electricity with a turbine.

At large scale, these plants are an established and efficient way to store energy, though they can suffer from cost blowouts, as in the Snowy 2.0 scheme. Queensland’s government is planning massive pumped hydro schemes to act as batteries.

Until recently, small-scale pumped hydro hasn’t made much economic sense.

But the steadily falling cost of solar means the numbers have changed. It’s now more cost effective to get larger arrays. And that opens up opportunities to find ways to store surplus electricity generated in daytime.

For farmers, another opportunity is the ability to use existing dams and reduce pumped hydro construction costs.

If it’s cheaper, it’s much more viable. Early research on solar-powered irrigation systems using pumped hydro suggests the payback period for this kind of energy storage could be up to four times shorter than for batteries.

What’s the catch? As you might have guessed, this solution depends on the size of existing farm dams and rivers, and topography of the land.

Read more:
Despairing about climate change? These 4 charts on the unstoppable growth of solar may change your mind

The steeper the slope between the two water bodies, the more useful the system will be as energy storage. To get the most out of these systems means finding the sites with the most potential value. And it’s likely the solution won’t work for farms on flat ground – you need a drop of at least 20 metres.

You’re probably wondering how this stacks up financially. We compared a micro pumped hydro system with 42.6kWh capacity and able to discharge 3.6kW to a commercial lithium-ion battery, the Tesla Powerwall, able to store 13.5kWh and discharge 5.0kW.

We found micro pumped hydro storage was 30% cheaper than a battery if locally generated solar was regularly needed overnight – such as to power a 24/7 irrigation system.

Australia has thousands of potential sites

Our research is the first continent-wide assessment of potential pumped hydro farm dam sites.

How did we figure out how many sites would suit micro pumped hydro? The magic of maths. We used algorithms from graph theory, as these are used to model networks, and set them loose on a 2021 survey of 1.7 million Australian farm dams. We didn’t want to raise people’s hopes if their dams weren’t suitable, so we set the minimum capacity at 24kWh (similar to a typical home battery after efficiency losses) and with a minimum slope of 17%, to make it price competitive with a battery.

That’s how we came up with our figure of 30,000 promising sites, including dam-to-dam and dam-to-river sites. Dam-to-river sites are a good option if you have a dam at a reasonable elevation above a river – you can pump water uphill from the river and return it later to make power.

What’s next for this approach?

You can make this approach more efficient by using new all-in-one hardware, such as combined turbines and water pumps, as well as integrating it with smart irrigation management.

To be clear, this solution won’t work for every landholder. If you’re farming wheat on flat plains, you’re unlikely to have the slope needed to make it work.

If you’re considering getting storage to go off grid, it’s essential to consider the pros and cons of each technology and how it would suit your local conditions.

For instance, if you’re in a drought-prone area with limited groundwater, it may not make sense to install pumped hydro. During a drought, you may well need the water on the farm. Our research assumes 70% of the water in the dams is available for use, which does not account for droughts or irrigation needs.

But for some landholders, this may be the missing part of the puzzle. Wind and solar installation is skyrocketing [around the world]. This, in turn, is boosting demand for cost-effective energy storage. Given there are 30,000 suitable farm dams in Australia alone, it’s likely this technology could play a valuable role around the world – especially for farmers in remote areas or where grid connection is too expensive.

Read more:
Batteries of gravity and water: we found 1,500 new pumped hydro sites next to existing reservoirs

Study co-author Martino E. Malerba is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (project ID DE220100752).

Martino Malerba is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (project ID DE220100752)

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

– ref. Farmers are famously self-reliant. Why not use farm dams as mini-hydro plants? – https://theconversation.com/farmers-are-famously-self-reliant-why-not-use-farm-dams-as-mini-hydro-plants-212374

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Volodymyr Bilotkach, Associate Professor, Purdue University

Fining Qantas A$600 million if it is found to have knowingly sold so-called “ghost flights” would be fair, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

The commission this week launched action in the Federal Court alleging Qantas engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by selling tickets on flights that had already been cancelled, and not informing passengers of cancellations in a timely manner.

The regulator’s charges against the airline, which last month reported a record $2.47 billion profit, have precipitated the early exit of longtime chief executive Alan Joyce, who quit this week two months ahead of schedule. This court challenge will certainly add to the workload of his successor, Vanessa Hudson.

Read more:
Qantas chief Alan Joyce quits early, amid customer fury at the airline

Qantas has acknowledged that service standards might have slipped as the airline was struggling to recover after the pandemic.

The nature of the oversights that led to the airline’s errors will determine the airline’s liability – both to the consumer regulator and to individual claims for compensation.

Importantly, the case also points to the need for greater regulatory protection of the airline’s passengers, in line with other jurisdictions.

How did Qantas get in this mess?

The short answer, most likely, is that the carrier did not handle flight cancellations promptly due to the sheer volume of work and labour shortages as it sought to resume operations following the end of pandemic restrictions.

The consumer regulator’s allegations relate specifically to May and June 2022. Australia lifted many of its COVID-related travel restrictions in March, and travellers entering the country after July 6 were not required to show proof of vaccination. The airline was trying to bring its planes back into service and hire or retrain its employees, and generally was struggling to get back to more or less normal operations.

In its statement, the competition watchdog noted the carrier cancelled nearly one in four flights scheduled during that period; and for two out of three cancelled flights it either continued selling tickets or failed to inform the passengers –sometimes for extended periods of time – or both.

Flight cancellations are a normal part of an airline’s operations. However, the “usual” cancellation rate is less than 2%, less than a tenth of what Qantas experienced in May and June 2022. What is unusual is that Qantas did not immediately remove cancelled flights from its booking system. This is something I have never heard of.

One also suspects the airline has had enough “practice” with schedule adjustment during the pandemic to know better. There are clearly gaps in the carrier’s management. It has lessons to learn from this debacle.

Read more:
Qantas can’t charge these prices forever: the challenge ahead for new chief Vanessa Hudson

What is Qantas’ liability?

The question of the extent of the airline’s liability is not straightforward. Obviously, a business willingly selling a product or service it has no intention to deliver is at fault, and has to face consequences.

At the same time, a business selling a product that has defects it is unaware of, despite doing its best to prevent such defects from occurring, will face certain costs (such as those associated with a product recall) but may be spared sanctions.

The onus will be on Qantas to demonstrate it made an honest mistake rather than a lapse of judgement. But considering the scale of the problem, the airline faces a very difficult task here.

Individual claims pending

As well as a potential fine, Qantas should brace for a flood of claims from individual passengers who bought a ticket for an already cancelled flight or were not informed in a timely manner.

Timing will be of the essence here. If a passenger incurred expenses assuming the flight was operating when it had already been cancelled, such as making a non-refundable hotel reservation, there is a case to request compensation for such expenses.

Otherwise, the standard policy will apply: the airline is not usually responsible for any non-refundable and uninsured expenses a passenger incurs prior to the flight cancellation.

Closing the regulatory gap

The regulator should, however, also take a closer look at the existing air passenger rights in Australia.

Currently, the consumer is entitled to replacement or refund if an airline does not provide services “in a reasonable time” – that is, in the event of a lengthy delay or a flight cancellation. However, the definition of “reasonable time” and the specifics of the compensation policies are left to the airlines.

Read more:
Will it be greener pastures for Qantas as Alan Joyce takes off?

In other parts of the world, actions have been or are being taken to strengthen customer protection. For instance, in the European Union, lengthy delays that are the airlines’ fault lead to the carriers paying out cash compensation as well as the cost of accommodation and meals.

Similar regulations were proposed in the United States earlier this year.

Perhaps, if stronger consumer protection rules had been in place in Australia in 2022, Qantas would have managed the aftermath of flight cancellations more diligently.

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

– ref. Booking customers on flights that were cancelled – how could Qantas do that? – https://theconversation.com/booking-customers-on-flights-that-were-cancelled-how-could-qantas-do-that-212793

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Laurenceson, Director and Professor, Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI), University of Technology Sydney

There are few more reliable narratives in the business and financial press than, “If China sneezes, Australia will catch a cold”.

Such simple stories are likely part of the explanation why polling by the Australia-China Relations Institute finds three-quarters of Australians think our economy is “too reliant on China”.

In the middle of last year, indicators emerged that China’s large, and iron-ore-hungry, property construction sector was struggling. This meant, according to an analysis published by News.com.au, that “disaster loomed” for the local economy.

Late in 2022, there were hopes the Chinese economy more broadly might get a much-needed bounce after Beijing abandoned its harsh COVID-19 lockdown measures.

À lire aussi :
Australians’ feelings towards China are thawing but suspicion remains high: Lowy 2023 poll

But with that recovery beginning to splutter in the second quarter of this year, we are now again being warned that a recession in China “could easily spark a recession in Australia”.

Last month, Treasurer Jim Chalmers appeared to add his official imprimatur to such assessments, calling China’s slowdown one of the “biggest challenges” facing the Australian economy.

He repeated this again on Tuesday when asked on ABC Radio National whether he thought there would be more interest rate rises:

… We already know that the combination of those two things, China and interest rates, is slowing our economy quite considerably.

Yet what most reporting and commentary misses is the basic fact there has never been a straightforward, one-to-one relationship between the ups and downs of economic activity in China and those in Australia.

Rarely mentioned amid the current doom and gloom about China’s economy is that in the year to June, Australia’s goods exports there hit a record high of A$192 billion. Since the end of last year, China’s share of Australia’s goods exports has jumped from 30.2% to 39.4%.

Might the coming year be different?

Perhaps. But there is little hard evidence suggesting it will be.

Resources giant BHP says the impact on China’s demand for iron ore from weak housing construction is being offset by “solid demand from infrastructure, power machinery, autos and shipping”. Independent commodity analysts concur.

Not surprisingly, then, iron ore future contracts put the price in September next year at more or less the same level as now.

Meanwhile, China’s slowing economy hasn’t stopped massive new areas of trade opening. In the seven months to July, China imported nearly US$10 billion worth of Australian unprocessed lithium. During the same period in 2020, it was just US$327 million.

Post-pandemic, Australia-China services trade is also roaring back.

Visitor numbers start to climb

In June, there were 37,330 short-term visitor arrivals from China. That’s still well down on 80,680 in pre-pandemic June 2019, but quadruple the flow before Beijing relaxed its border controls last December.

In July, visa applications from would-be Chinese international students in Australia’s higher education sector stood at 8,379. This exceeded the 7,660 submitted in the same month in 2019.

À lire aussi :
China’s population is now inexorably shrinking, bringing forward the day the planet’s population turns down

The present resilience in bilateral trade is not unusual.

China’s growth rate has been grinding down since 2018. Yet between 2018 and 2022, Australia’s exports there rose by more than one-third.

Going back even further, China’s growth rate suddenly halved when it was hit by the effects of the Global Financial Crisis. Chinese demand for Australian commodity exports, however, surged.

The perception is not necessarily the reality

While all this data might appear at odds with common perceptions, it’s not news to those who haven’t resorted to lazy analysis.

The University of Western Australia’s Nic Groenewold modelled the effect of a permanent three percentage-point fall in Chinese GDP growth. He found this would reduce Australia’s GDP growth rate by between 0.15 and 0.57 percentage points depending on the time frame, summarising that:

While not trivial, given Australia’s current growth rate, these estimates are hardly enough to justify prophecies of doom.

Using a different modelling technique, the Reserve Bank of Australia estimated the implications of a sudden four percentage-point fall in Chinese growth.

In the most plausible scenario, it found greater short-run effects, albeit still unlikely to be recession-inducing. And after three years, Australia’s GDP was just 0.3% lower than if the shock had not occurred.

À lire aussi :
China’s demand for coal is set to drop fast. Australia should take note

Aside from bilateral trade resilience, there are other factors that limit spillovers from China to Australia too.

An economic slump in the United States spills over to hurt Australia mostly via investment connections. In 2022, Australia’s stock of investment in the US stood at A$1.1 trillion. This channel is much weaker in the case of China, where Australia’s investment stock is only $62.5 billion.

Australia’s safety net

The Australian economy also has inbuilt “automatic stabilisers”. If there ever was a collapse in Chinese demand for Australian iron ore, the Australian dollar would immediately depreciate, improving export competitiveness across the board.

There would still be some painful costs, of course, such as households having to pay more for imported goods, and government revenues taking a hit.

Finally, some perspective is in order. It’s certainly true that China is, by far, Australia’s most important export market. Still, the value of these exports amount to around 7.5% of GDP. Compare that with domestic sources of demand such as household consumption that stand at 50% of GDP.

The key takeaway? If China sneezes, whatever the headlines might blare, don’t be surprised if Australia only gets a mild case of the sniffles.

James Laurenceson ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. Australia’s not likely to catch a cold, just a sniffle from China’s economic downturn – https://theconversation.com/australias-not-likely-to-catch-a-cold-just-a-sniffle-from-chinas-economic-downturn-212777

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Warwick Frost, Professor of Tourism, Heritage and the Media, La Trobe University

This year’s Burning Man Festival in Nevada has been washed out and 70,000 attendees are stuck in the mud. Summer rains have hit its desert location and, as we regularly find in the Australian Outback, when fine and dusty desert soils get wet, they are like glue. Transport becomes near impossible.

A large number of people are temporarily stuck at Burning Man and there are issues with emergency vehicle access. While it’s been reported a man has died at the festival, organisers say it was “unrelated to the weather”. However, the problem is not flooding, but rather mud and not being able to move.

This has created a media storm – but it is not a natural disaster of the severity of the recent fires in Hawaii and Greece, or the floods in Spain.

What is Burning Man?

Burning Man has been held at the same time of year in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert since 1991. It has generally been at a hot and dry period, perfect for an outdoor festival. Normally the venue is uninhabited, but for just over a week, up to 70,000 people come for this anarchic alternative arts and self-expression festival, forming a temporary camping city.

The culmination of the festival is the burning of a giant effigy of a man, a highlight based on a romanticised view of what our ancestors did in pre-historic times. A great experience, unless it rains.

Rain stops play

There is a long history of outdoor festivals being hit by summer rains. It rained at Woodstock in 1969 and images of hippies playing in the mud are part of the legend of that iconic counterculture festival.

It rained at Melbourne’s Sunbury Festival in 1975 and the lower-than-anticipated ticket sales almost sent its organisers broke. In 2022, rain also led to the cancellation of the Splendour in the Grass Festival at Byron Bay.

Going back to 1839, the Eglinton Tournament in Scotland, a medieval re-enactment event, was cancelled due to rain, with its grandstand collapsing and a reported 100,000 spectators stranded. For much of the 19th century, Eglinton was a byword for an event disaster.

Summer rain is a problem due to its unpredictability, intensity and the rapid runoff from baked soils. Festival organisers can make contingency plans to mitigate its effects, though they cannot avoid it and they cannot just wish it away. Outdoor festivals work well in natural or rural areas, but these need to be chosen and planned carefully, with the potential for storms taken into account.

Burning Man is situated on a playa (or dried lake), which provides an excellent flat surface for transport, motorhomes, displays and performances.

Global warming will lead to more frequent and more intense summer storms. The potential for weather chaos is only getting greater.

Other problems for festivals

The major problem for most festivals is not external shocks like rain, but rather deficiencies in management. The limited research we have indicates that many festivals have a short life-span and there is a high rate of failure.

Running annually for over 30 years, Burning Man is an exception. It is far more common to see short runs of a few years, one-offs, announced festivals that do not occur, re-branding of troubled events or changed venues and even cities.

For example, White Night in Melbourne drew enormous crowds, but only ran from 2013 to 2019. Paradoxically, the festival was too successful and overcrowding put too much of a strain on the city.

Common issues when events go wrong are unreal expectations, contradictory objectives, overzealous financial predictions, poor planning, lack of experience and the hubris of organisers. Staging an anarchic and edgy festival should not mean chaotic organisation, but it sometimes does.

Fyre Festival, held in the Bahamas in 2017, is perhaps the most infamous example, popularised by a Netflix documentary series.

Promoted as an up-market music festival through influencers on social media, attendees complained that the promised luxury accommodation and gourmet cuisine were not up to standard and most of the announced performers pulled out. In the end, legal action was successfully taken against the organisers.

Similar examples, albeit on a smaller scale, have occurred in Australia and throughout the world.

The nature of events

It is perhaps not widely appreciated that events like festivals have a very different nature to other forms of economic activity. Manufacturing, for instance, involves a focus on standardisation and testing. The products – whether cars or chocolate bars – have to conform to the same specifications and perform or taste the same. There is a need for certainty. This output is produced and checked and then sold and consumed at a later date.

Read more:
Not burning, drowning: why outdoor festivals like Burning Man are reeling from extreme weather

In contrast, festivals are produced and consumed at the same time. Standardisation may be aimed for, but it cannot be guaranteed.

There are many “wildcard” factors that occur at the same time as production and consumption. These include the weather, the behaviour and attitude of the crowd, the variable quality of the performers and the staff, volunteers and other inputs in the production process. When it all comes together successfully, it makes for a magical festival.

Good management can help in this process and organisers need to be ready for contingencies. Rain at Burning Man was not a “freak” weather event – it needed to be planned for.

Warwick Frost is Adjunct Professor of Tourism, Heritage and the Media at La Trobe University, Melbourne and Visiting Professor at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He is Co-Editor of the Journal of Heritage Tourism and Foundation Co-Editor of the Routledge Advances in Events Research book series.

– ref. From Burning Man to Woodstock to Fyre Festival: what turns a festival into a disaster? – https://theconversation.com/from-burning-man-to-woodstock-to-fyre-festival-what-turns-a-festival-into-a-disaster-212859

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

As well as her interviews with politicians and experts, Politics with Michelle Grattan includes “Word from The Hill”, where she discusses the news with members of The Conversation’s politics team.

In this podcast Michelle and politics + society editor Amanda Dunn discuss the latest national accounts and Jim Chalmers’ announcement that Grattan Institute CEO Danielle Wood will take over as head of the Productivity Commission. The appointment came as a surprise, after Chris Barrett, chosen for the position only recently, decided he had a better offer – he will become head of the Victorian Treasury.

They also canvass the QANTAS saga, which has seen its now former CEO Alan Joyce step down earlier than scheduled. The news came amid public anger over its poor customer service, and after the national carrier was taken to court by the consumer watchdog for selling more than 8000 tickets on flights already cancelled.

And finally, they discuss Anthony Albanese’s trip to Indonesia for the ASEAN summit, followed by a visit to the Philippines, before he attends the G20 meeting in India.

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

– ref. Word from The Hill: Danielle Wood to head Productivity Commission, Alan Joyce bows to public anger, PM jets off again – https://theconversation.com/word-from-the-hill-danielle-wood-to-head-productivity-commission-alan-joyce-bows-to-public-anger-pm-jets-off-again-212980

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Annette Greenhow, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Bond University

A Senate committee has tabled a long-awaited, 187-page report on the growing problem of concussions in sport, with 13 recommendations for action.

Senator Janet Rice, the committee chair, urged the government to take the report very seriously and quickly move to implement the recommendations. She said now is the time for the “Commonwealth to step up”.

In the past few years, we’ve heard countless heartbreaking stories about Australian sports figures who have struggled with their mental health after suffering head injuries on the field.

Some have posthumously been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a form of dementia.

Our sports leagues have begun paying greater attention to the risks associated with concussions and mild traumatic brain injuries. The primary focus has been on the elite level, with some recent action at the community level.

It has been nearly 30 years since the National Health and Medical Research Council, the government’s public health agency, called for precautionary action on this issue. However, governments have been slow to act on repeated calls for a national strategy to what is fundamentally a public health concern.

So, will the government follow through now by implementing the Senate committee’s recommendations? And how will our sports leagues respond?

Conflicting approaches to concussions

The Senate committee received 92 submissions and heard from 84 witnesses from a wide range of backgrounds, including athletes, families, medical experts, the leaders of sports organisations and other experts. (I also presented evidence, based on my expertise in this field.)

Two conflicting narratives emerged from the evidence. On the one hand, athletes, families, health care professionals and other public interest groups expressed concern that the current approach on concussions and player safety was inadequate. They argued there are too many gaps in the system and, in some cases, that sports organisations are putting self interest above player health.

On the other hand, the Australian Institute of Sport and other sports-affiliated parties argued the current approach, which allows sports organisations to self-regulate when it comes to handling head injuries, is fit for purpose. They also said player health and wellbeing was a primary concern.

Read more:
Concussion risks aren’t limited to the AFL. We need urgent action to make sure our kids are safe, too

In some respects, the report carefully toed the line between the two sides. Several recommendations set out a greater role for the Commonwealth government to play, but did not provide the level of specificity some might have expected for such an urgent and pressing public health concern.

Lack of reliable data on head injuries

One of the main concerns in the report was the lack of reliable and accurate data on the prevalence of concussions in sport and our general level of understanding on the health risks.

To address the data issue, the inquiry recommended the government establish a national sports injury database as a matter of urgency. This is greatly needed not only to enact better injury prevention policies and programs, but also so families can make decisions on sports for their children.

Read more:
Australian researchers confirm world’s first case of dementia linked to repetitive brain trauma in a female athlete

The report further recommends requiring professional sporting codes to collect this data on concussions and share it with the new database. Currently, only some sporting codes share this information publicly.

On the research front, the report recommended the government establish a new independent body (or an entity within an existing body) that would be dedicated to research into the short- and long-term effects of concussions and repeated head trauma in sport, including CTE.

Many of those submitting evidence cited concerns over the lack of coordination and direction in the current approach to research. As the committee pointedly said,

There is clear evidence of a causal link between repeated head trauma and
concussions and subsequent neurodegenerative diseases such as CTE. While
important research questions remain regarding the degree of causation and the
nature of long-term impacts, these questions should not be used to undermine
the fundamental nature of that link.

‘High level of confusion’ on return-to-play rules

Other recommendations focus on how sporting codes should change their rules or policies to mitigate the risks of head injuries.

Here, the committee also called for a greater role by government and medical experts in developing return-to-play protocols (as in, the amount of time a player should sit out after a head injury before returning to the field), which could be adapted for use across sports.

Read more:
New study highlights the brain trauma risks for young athletes

This is an important point. The report cited concern over the “high level of confusion” over how much time a player should sit out, which comes from the disparate rules across sporting codes.

And the committee noted that even with return-to-play policies in effect, compliance and enforcement remained a problem. The report again cited a greater role for government in overseeing these protocols, though it doesn’t specify how.

If the goal is to achieve uniformity and compliance, then a practical issue to consider is whether the sports and their networks have the required resources and capabilities to achieve this. And is legislation required to empower government to monitor compliance?

Inadequate support for athletes

The final sections of the report deal with the current lack of financial support for players who suffer concussions, including:

• the exclusion of athletes from workers’ compensation schemes

• the absence of a national injury insurance scheme

• inadequate support provided by sporting organisations

• inadequate private insurance, and

• barriers to legal remedies for concussion and head trauma-related claims.

The report made clear much more could be done by sporting organisations to improve their duty of care to athletes. As a baseline, it “encourages” professional sports organisations to ensure their athletes have insurance coverage for head trauma and the removal of the exclusion of athletes from workers’ compensation regimes.

The goal here is to address the inequities in access to adequate support for professional athletes. But without crunching the numbers and doing a cost-benefit analysis across the various compensation options, it’s difficult to know whether athletes will be better off.

The lack of detail and concrete timeframes in the report make it difficult to predict what lies ahead. With sports revenue streams likely to be impacted due to the ban on sports gambling advertising, the sports organisations will be paying close attention to the costs of these recommendations.

Let’s hope the government adheres to its role as “neutral umpire” when it comes to the resistance it could now face in implementing the recommendations.

If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Annette Greenhow receives funding from the Government of Canada Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and previously received funding from Australian Catholic University and the City of Gold Coast Ambassador Program. She is affiliated with the Australia and New Zealand Sports Law Association as a board member (views are her own). Annette provided a submission and evidence at the Senate Inquiry. Her PhD findings on the topic of regulating concussion in Australian sport form the basis of a forthcoming book on the topic due for publication in the coming months.

– ref. We are finally moving towards a national strategy on concussions in sport. Will the government and sports bodies now act? – https://theconversation.com/we-are-finally-moving-towards-a-national-strategy-on-concussions-in-sport-will-the-government-and-sports-bodies-now-act-212701

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jaana Dielenberg, University Fellow, Charles Darwin University

This week’s landmark report on the impact of invasive alien species revealed costs to the global economy exceeded US$423 billion (A$654 billion) a year in 2019. Costs have at least quadrupled every decade since 1970 and that trend is set to continue.

Prevention is better than a cure. Stopping pests and diseases arriving and establishing in Australia is not only better for the environment, it’s much cheaper too.

The biosecurity system is our front line against invasion. Species that pose a significant risk to agriculture have historically received more attention, but we also need to defend our borders against threats to nature.

Here we take a closer look at some pests and diseases we need to keep out at all costs, to protect our biodiversity.

Read more:
The true damage of invasive alien species was just revealed in a landmark report. Here’s how we must act

One of the biggest threats to biodiversity

Alien species are those deliberately or accidentally introduced to areas where they are not native. If they cause problems, we call them invasive.

Invasive alien species include weeds, feral animals, exotic pests and diseases.

Those that have already arrived have taken a huge toll. Introduced predators were largely responsible for most of Australia’s mammal extinctions. And introduced diseases have decimated our frogs.

Invasive species are pushing most (82%) of Australia’s 1,914 nationally listed threatened species closer to extinction.

Imagine if those invasive species had been kept out of Australia. Here are eight of the pests and diseases we really need to keep out.

Read more:
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1. Giant African land snail

Giant African snails have a ferocious appetite. They feed on more than 500 species of plants including agricultural crops and eucalyptus trees. The shells of these giants can be 20cm long and females typically lay 1,200 eggs a year. Adult snails could sneak into shipping containers or machinery and their eggs could be transported in soil or goods. They are now present on Christmas Island.

2. Avian influenza

Avian influenza or bird-flu is a viral disease found in birds. Some strains can kill farmed poultry and susceptible wild birds. Such highly pathogenic strains are thought to have killed millions of wild birds globally in the past few years. The virus can also jump across to mammals, recently knocking off 3,500 sea lions Peru.

Migratory birds could bring the virus here but it could also be carried in imported birds and poultry products, including contaminated eggs, feathers, poultry feed and equipment. Our biosecurity system is responsible for surveillance and early detection, preparedness and management to protect our vulnerable wildlife. In California, preparation includes vaccinating endangered condors.

Read more:
Migrating birds could bring lethal avian flu to Australia’s vulnerable birds

3. New tramp ants

We’re already battling some species of tramp ants, but there’s more where that came from – there are at least 16 different species. So far six species including red imported fire ants have been detected, with efforts underway to contain or eradicate them at their incursion points. On Christmas Island, another tramp ant species (yellow crazy ants) formed “super colonies”, killing every animal in their path, including tens of millions of the island’s iconic red and robber crabs. Ants are easily transported to new areas in dirt, plants and cargo. Tramp ants threaten Australian ecosystems, agriculture and human health.

4. Bat white nose syndrome

White nose syndrome is a bat disease caused by a fungus. In less than 20 years it has killed more than five million bats across North America, causing local extinctions and reducing the beneficial services performed by bats such as eating harmful insects. The fungus could be introduced to Australian caves on the shoes, clothing and equipment of people who had previously visited caves in Europe or North America.

5. Crayfish plague

A highly infectious fungal disease, crayfish plague is the main cause of crayfish declines across Europe. It has the potential to devastate Australian freshwater crayfish populations. North American crayfish can be carriers of the disease and the illegal trade of crayfish, such as the dwarf Cajun crayfish for aquariums, also threatens to introduce the disease.

6. New myrtle rust strains

When a strain of myrtle rust arrived in Australia in 2010, it spread quickly along the east coast, infecting 358 different native plant species including eucalypts, bottle brushes and lilly pillies. It has caused major declines and local extinctions of many species. Other exotic myrtle rust strains occur outside Australia. These present serious threats to Australia’s natural environment and to commercial native forest plantations. Importing infected plant material is the main risk of introduction.

7. Savannah cats

Savannah cats are two to three times the size of domestic cats. In 2008 the federal government banned the importation of savannah cats. A scientific assessment found pet savannah cats had the potential to establish and roam across 97% of the country if they escaped or were released. They can take down prey twice as large as feral cats, so 90% of Australia’s native land mammals would be at risk. Demand for the species from the pet trade raises the risk of smuggling or illegal trade.

8. Black spined toad

The black spined toad is potentially more damaging than the cane toad because it could survive across a bigger region including in the colder parts of Australia. It would prey on native frogs and other small animals, be toxic to larger animals, and probably carry exotic parasites or disease. It is a common stowaway in shipping cargo.

Read more:
97% of Australians want more action to stop extinctions and 72% want extra spending on the environment

Prioritising nature

Australia’s biosecurity system has generally served our country well, but it is under constant and growing strain. Historically, the environment has also been the poor cousin of agriculture at the biosecurity table.

Preparedness and responses for environmental threats remain chronically underfunded, especially when compared to those developed for industry.

A well-resourced independent body focused on the prevention and early elimination of new environmental pests and diseases would be a major step toward achieving our global commitments to end extinction.

Read more:
Hear me out – we could use the varroa mite to wipe out feral honey bees, and help Australia’s environment

Jaana Dielenberg is based at The University of Melbourne and works for the Biodiversity Council. She is a member of Invertebrates Australia and the Ecological Society of Australia. She previously worked for the now ended Threatened Species Recovery Hub of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program. She thanks James Trezise for his contribution to this article.

Patrick O’Connor receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Australian and State Governments. He is a councilor on the Biodiversity Council and affiliated with the Nature Conservation Society of South Australia and the Australian Landcare movement.

– ref. Australia’s least wanted – 8 alien species and diseases we must keep out of our island home – https://theconversation.com/australias-least-wanted-8-alien-species-and-diseases-we-must-keep-out-of-our-island-home-212850

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Isaac Gross, Lecturer in Economics, Monash University

Australia’s economy grew a mere 0.4% in the June quarter according to figures released by the Bureau of Statistics today, a performance Treasurer Jim Chalmers describes as “steady in the face of unrelenting pressure”.

The lacklustre growth follows growth of 0.4% the previous quarter, and is a step down from the growth of 0.7% in the quarters that preceded it, presenting a stark reminder of the economic challenges caused by rising interest rates as the Reserve Bank attempts to reign in inflation.

If growth continued at that pace for another two quarters, the annual growth rate would barely reach 1.6%, an alarmingly low figure that. For many Australians it probably feels like a recession, because all of the growth was accounted for by population growth, meaning gross domestic product (GDP) per person fell by 0.3% in both March and the June quarters, in a so-called “per capita recession”.

The driving force behind this tepid growth is primarily weak household consumption which grew by only 0.1% in the quarter – far less than Australia’s population.

Households, grappling with the increased cost of essential expenses such as fuel and rent, have resorted to cutting down on savings.

In the three months to June Australia’s household saving ratio plummeted to 3.2%, its lowest rate in 15 years.

How is it possible to have both weak spending and weak saving at the same time?

The answer is that disposable (post tax) income fell by even more.

Real per capita disposable income fell by 2.1% in the June quarter.

Outside of pandemic lockdown years of 2020 and 2021, this was the biggest fall in disposable income per Australian since the 2009 global financial crisis.

The Bureau of Statistics says mortgage interest expenses have almost doubled over the past year as home building (“dwelling investment”) has slid by 0.2% in the quarter and 1.1% over the year.

In better news, business investment has shown resilience, climbing 0.6% in the quarter, and 3.4% over the year driven, driven in part by a rush of tradies attempting to upgrade their cars before a cut in the instant asset write-off limit came into effect on July 1.

Exports climbed 4.3% in the quarter, driven by “education exports” as international students returned.

Read more:
You don’t have to be an economist to know Australia is in a cost of living crisis. What are the signs and what needs to change?

Gross operating surpluses, a measure of company profits, fell by 8.6% in the quarter driven by a fall in commodity prices which drove down mining profits.

Pressing on profits were higher wage bills – which surged 9.9% outside of mining, reflecting both wage growth and employment growth, outstripping the 5.1% uptick in non-mining profits.

Lower commodity prices also drove another decline in Australia’s terms of trade which fell by 7.9%. The terms of trade measure the price of Australian’s exports relative to the price of imports, meaning that Australia is getting fewer imports for its exports – something that will inevitably feed into our standard of living.

This subdued economic growth is the primary reason the Reserve Bank decided to hold interest rates constant at its board meeting yesterday.

The bank is expecting economic growth to decelerate to an annual rate of only 0.9% by the end of the year, in large measure because of the series of 12 interest rate rises it has imposed since May last year.

One of the bank’s biggest concerns, and one of the government’s biggest concerns, is labour productivity (GDP per hour worked) which slid a further 2% in the quarter to be down 3.6% over the year.

The bank’s outgoing governor Philip Lowe says falling or weak productivity growth makes wage increases more likely to feed inflation, limiting his freedom to cut interest rates, a point he might address in his final speech as governor on Thursday, to be entitled Some Closing Remarks.

Boosting productivity – how much we produce for each hour we work – is important. Our standard of living and the pain we need to inflict to fight inflation will depend on it.

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

– ref. We’re in a per capita recession as Chalmers says GDP ‘steady in the face of pressure’ – https://theconversation.com/were-in-a-per-capita-recession-as-chalmers-says-gdp-steady-in-the-face-of-pressure-212642

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Arrow, Professor of History, Macquarie University

The Whitlam government has a mythical status in the Australian popular imagination. While it lasted less than two full terms between December 1972 and November 1975, it has had an outsized cultural presence ever since.

This is not just because of Gough Whitlam’s transformative social democratic agenda, but because of the way his government ended: the dismissal remains one of the most shocking events in Australian political history.

Each year since, we have marked the anniversary with new stories, new angles, new details. The story has all the ingredients of high drama – indeed, the story was told in a rather ponderous television mini-series in 1983.

So almost 50 years on, what to make of a comedic musical retelling of these tumultuous events?

The Dismissal’s talented creators (Jay James-Moody, Blake Erickson and Laura Murphy) are neither Boomers who watched the dismissal from ringside seats or dewy-eyed Gen-Xers, but younger still.

For their generation, forged in a neoliberal world much harsher than the one that lifted up their parents and grandparents, the Whitlam policy agenda of free education, free healthcare and social democracy for all might seem like a distant, unattainable dream.

Crucially, the authors also don’t see the dismissal as a unique event. In their program notes, they argue the show is

the story of our political culture writ in bold, sung in harmony and danced in formation. Over, and over again.

So this show is not just a dramatisation of the events of 1975, it is also an attempt to understand our maddening political culture.

Read more:
Australian politics explainer: Gough Whitlam’s dismissal as prime minister

Self-referential and extremely funny

Norman Gunston (a superb Matthew Whittet) guides the audience through the story and sets the tone for the show. We begin with the famous moment on the Parliament House steps. Playing Gough, Justin Smith both sounds and looks like him – no mean feat.

The Dismissal is least effective when it is striving for sincerity: the early number Maintain your Rage left me concerned the show might be too earnest to be genuinely funny.

However, my anxieties were assuaged by a very clever romp through the post-war years of Liberal rule (from Menzies to Holt to Gorton to McMahon), sung by suburban housewives and their lawn-mowing husbands. It is self-referential and extremely funny and sets a high bar for the rest of the show. Murphy’s lyrics are wonderful throughout, but they are especially brilliant here.

After Whitlam’s election, his policy achievements are dealt with in a rapid-fire slideshow, which moves things along but lowers the stakes in what follows. The real subject of the drama is the unravelling of the Whitlam government from within, thanks to the shenanigans of Jim Cairns, Rex Connor and the loans affair, and the role played by Sir John Kerr, Malcolm Fraser and Sir Garfield Barwick in undermining him from the outside.

The cast are uniformly excellent. Peter Carroll is uproarious as a Mephistophelian Sir Garfield Barwick. Octavia Barron Martin manages to invest Sir John Kerr with a touch of pathos. Monique Sallé is a showstopping Tirath Khemlani, a befuddled Billy Snedden and her Queen Elizabeth II has more than a touch of Rocky Horror about her. Joe Kosky’s Jim Cairns is both pompous and ponderous, with brilliant comic timing.

Andrew Cutcliffe’s Malcolm Fraser is stiletto-sharp and a little bit kinky. His Private School Boys is a bump-and-grind showstopper that recalls Alexander Downer’s Freaky from Casey Benetto’s 2005 musical Keating!

The song is reprised later by Lady Anne Kerr, whose purring refrain that “you’re not a match for private school girls” is a reminder that this is a story of class, mobility and social striving.

Sharp, funny and astute

The show’s gender-inclusive casting draws our attention to the almost all-male world of politics in the 1970s and gives many of the female performers the opportunity to behave disgracefully (Georgie Bolton as Rex Connor is spectacularly, hilariously crude).

Margaret Whitlam (Brittanie Shipway) and Junie Morosi (Shannen Alyce Quan) are voices of reason and resolve. While both are terrific, their roles in the narrative constrain their range: Margaret’s number Crash Through or Crash is an example of the ways the sincere songs don’t have the power to hold an audience in the ways that the satirical numbers do. Stacey Thomsett has much more fun with the role of Lady Kerr, who she depicts as Lady Macbeth in a Carla Zampatti suit.

It’s all great fun, witty and sharply observed. Yet perhaps the weakest part of the show is the ending. While we all know how this story ended, the creators didn’t seem to know how to draw their story to a close.

But overall, The Dismissal is sharp, funny and astute. It’s also a rare thing: an accomplished new Australian musical. I think Gough himself, with his love of Australian arts and culture, would have quite enjoyed it.

The Dismissal: An Extremely Serious Musical Comedy is at the Seymour Centre, Sydney, until October 21.

Read more:
Where are the new Australian musicals? Waiting in the wings

Michelle Arrow receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is currently a Fellow at the Whitlam Institute.

– ref. ‘An extremely serious musical comedy’ about Whitlam? Yes. The Dismissal is great fun, witty and sharply observed – https://theconversation.com/an-extremely-serious-musical-comedy-about-whitlam-yes-the-dismissal-is-great-fun-witty-and-sharply-observed-212965

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron Gilbert, Professor of Finance, Auckland University of Technology

There are few stores without an Afterpay logo displayed on the door, or that don’t offer Laybuy at their online checkout. And these schemes are particularly popular with younger consumers.

But what price might these buyers be paying for the conveniences of buy now, pay later? Our new research investigated how young New Zealand adults use debt. What we found suggests greater regulation of delayed payment schemes is needed.

The rapid growth of “buy now, pay later” in New Zealand over the past decade has been meteoric. These delayed payment options are expected to make up an estimated NZ$1.2 billion of retail purchases in 2023.

Relatively new, these delayed payment schemes allow a consumer to purchase a product then pay it off in equal instalments over a short period of time, typically six to eight weeks. If repayments are made on time, there is no cost to the consumer.

Importantly, these delayed payment options are not currently subject to the same credit checks or affordability criteria as other consumer debt.

Read more:
Buying gifts? Why ‘buy now, pay later’ could be a dangerous option for many holiday shoppers

And herein lies the problem. While people are essentially borrowing to pay for items, the delayed payment option is viewed differently from other debts by both users and under the law.

Through the course of our research, we surveyed 705 New Zealanders aged 18 to 34 and found one in five do not identify buy now, pay later as debt, with a further one in five not sure. And one in four were constantly repaying debt from delayed payment purchases.

Delayed payment is a problem for 1 in 5 young adults

Since its inception, buy now, pay later has been particularly popular with the 18-34-year-old age group. Young adults tend to have low or unstable incomes, putting them at higher risk of over-indebtedness – not being able to meet their essential living expenses and debt repayments.

More than 70% of our sample had tried delayed payment options. While nearly half our sample (43%) were using it wisely (rarely missing repayments and incurring fees or delaying use of their own cash), 20% were using it poorly.

Specifically, these users were:

• incurring late fees frequently, making delayed payment schemes an expensive form of debt

• prioritising their repayments above other essential spending, such as food or medical expenses

• and using other borrowing to repay their delayed payment purchases.

The final point is particularly concerning, as borrowing to repay debt is a balancing act at best, and a debt spiral at worst.

Read more:
Buy now pay later: how to protect consumers without regulating it out of existence

We also measured respondents’ general over-indebtedness. On average, those with a current delayed payment debt were more indebted than those without. We found those using these payment schemes badly were significantly more likely to have a higher over-indebtedness score.

Delayed payments appeared to be putting people under increased financial strain and compromised their overall financial wellbeing.

At the same time, credit cards and hire purchases didn’t significantly increase over-indebtedness. While both are similar to delayed payment options, these older forms of borrowing are subject to consumer finance law, suggesting protective regulation reduces their impact on problem debt.

Regulating delayed payment schemes

In New Zealand, consumers are protected from unsafe lending by the Credit Contract and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA). This requires lenders to ensure their product is suitable for the borrower and that borrowers are able to meet the debt repayments without substantial hardship.

This affordability requirement prevents lenders from giving loans to people who, after necessary expenses, wouldn’t be able to meet the repayments. Until recently, delayed payment schemes fell outside our definition of “debt”.

Despite bearing all the characteristics of borrowing, providers have been able to present themselves as being better than traditional forms of lending.

Regardless of how these payment schemes have presented themselves, there has been bipartisan support to bring buy now, pay later schemes under the rules of the CCCFA.

New rules are coming

From September 2024, delayed payment lenders will need to do a credit check on users. But these lenders will remain exempt from the affordability and suitability assessments that exist on other types of borrowing.

Consumer advocates argue that requiring credit checks is necessary to prevent people getting into financial trouble.

At the same time, these groups acknowledge the accessibility of delayed payment schemes enables people currently locked out of low-cost consumer finance (often due to poor past credit histories) to borrow at no cost.

Read more:
‘Similar to ordering a pizza’: how buy now, pay later apps influence young people’s spending

Unlike credit cards, where balances incur ongoing interest costs, delayed payment schemes are limited to smaller sums and the total late repayment fee is capped. Afterpay, for example, has a $2,000 limit and caps fees at $68 or 25% of the original purchase price, whichever is lower.

Time will tell whether these limits will be enough to protect New Zealanders from getting into financial strife. But the path to financial wellbeing for young New Zealand adults is increasingly more difficult and treacherous.

And the consequences of poor financial decisions are severe, limiting future opportunities like home ownership and savings.

Our findings suggest delayed payment schemes are increasing the over-indebtedness of younger users in a way that other forms of similar consumer debt do not. These payment schemes should be regulated in the same way as credit cards and hire purchases – if it looks like debt, it should be treated as debt.

Ayesha Scott has collaborated with Good Shepherd NZ and BNZ, and has consulted for KiwiSaver providers as an independent expert reviewer.

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

– ref. If it looks like debt, let’s treat it like debt – ‘buy now, pay later’ schemes need firmer regulation in NZ – https://theconversation.com/if-it-looks-like-debt-lets-treat-it-like-debt-buy-now-pay-later-schemes-need-firmer-regulation-in-nz-211820

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shasha Wang, Senior lecturer, Queensland University of Technology

If you spend much time online you’ve probably seen one of Temu’s colourful ads – punctuated by its catchy tagline: “shopping like a billionaire”.

Temu specialises in selling various everyday items, including clothing, toys and household goods, for extremely low prices. Shanghai-based company PDD Holdings launched the online marketplace late last year (initially in the United States) to cater to overseas customers.

Since then, Temu’s reach has skyrocketed. The total value of products sold went from US$3 million in September last year, to US$400 million in April. At the time of publishing this article, Temu was the most popular free iPhone app in the US, United Kingdom, Australia and Germany.

Why has Temu been such a massive success? It’s safe to say the platform has some winning strategies that keep consumers coming back. But beyond that, similar to other e-commerce platforms, using it isn’t entirely risk- or guilt-free. Here are some things to consider if you’re thinking of giving it a shot.

What are Temu’s secrets to success?

1. Value

Many Australians might associate “made in China” with cheap price tags and low quality. However, Temu’s consumers are beginning to view it as offering affordable products that do not necessarily compromise on quality. In some cases, 10-20 products will only set you back US$20-30.

Temu claims it can offer these prices as a result of cutting out the middlemen in the supply chain. While the manufacturers provide the product details and the products themselves, Temu handles everything else – from customs processing to international shipping. This streamlining helps reduce unit costs.

Nonetheless, achieving such value doesn’t come without a cost. Concerns are rising that Temu and its suppliers may be operating at a loss. However, it’s common for startups to experience negative cash flow in their initial years due to heavy marketing investments, including offers of competitive prices and marketing campaigns – all of which is done to build brand awareness and gain acceptance.

This is especially true in the fast-paced e-commerce sector, where success and failure happen swiftly. Temu and its suppliers, who are mainly from Temu’s sister e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, are likely aware of this dynamic.

2. An effective marketing strategy

Unlike other e-commerce platforms that focus on functional benefits such as saving money, Temu caters to consumers’ emotional needs. It overlays the shopping experience with the idea of “shopping like a billionaire” – which also aligns with its value-based strategy.

Temu entered the market at a time when consumers were grappling with global inflation, leading them to seek “value”. In the first month after its launch in the US, Temu invested some US$200 million in advertising and planned a US$2 billion budget for the year.

Given China’s leadership in live-streaming influencer marketing, Temu is now recruiting social media influencers, suggesting it might leverage its Chinese expertise to explore a social-commerce strategy. Social commerce harnesses a sense of “friendship” conveyed by influencers, making the online shopping experience more engaging and product recommendations more convincing. It also works especially well with sales promotions.

Sales promotion tactics

While Temu employs common sales tactics seen on other e-commerce platforms, it uses what is arguably the broadest array of these techniques. Here are just some examples:

• Gamified experiences. Gamified advertising hinges on two core elements: challenge and reward. Interacting with Temu’s spinning wheel is a minor challenge, but the substantial discount offered is a major reward. Such “games” create the illusion of getting lucky, and therefore generate positive emotions in consumers – while the reward gives them an incentive to engage more seriously with their browsing, increasing the likelihood of spending.

• Lightning deals and limited-time offers. One commonly used promotion tactic involves creating the illusion of scarcity through supposedly “exclusive” offers that are time-sensitive and won’t come by again. This can trigger a fear of missing out in consumers.

• Discounts and free shipping Offering simple price reductions and very affordable sales is a time-honoured way of securing a loyal customer base. In addition, Temu has the allure of offering free shipping on orders with a very low minimum spend.

• Loyalty program. Consumers can opt in to Temu’s marketing emails in exchange for receiving more promotional content, including email-only promotions. E-commerce companies often have access to your personal information (such as your name, address, age and phone number) and behavioural data (such as from your search history and online sessions). With this data, the company can build your user profile and target you with personalised promotions and content to encourage spending.

• Search engine marketing. Many consumers will see Temu ads at the top of their search results on Google (in the form of “sponsored” posts) when they search for a product.

• An AI-powered promotional strategy. Temu’s sister company operating in China, Pinduoduo, is renowned for its AI-driven recommendation system. It’s likely Temu uses similar AI algorithms, drawing on users’ browsing and purchase history to provide personalised recommendations (a practice Amazon also partakes in).

Defending against manipulation

Temu’s greatest benefit to consumers lies in its offer of value. It may still have lower-quality items, but this is common among all e-commerce platforms.

Also, Temu’s business model is built around emphasising top-selling products, which helps filter out low-quality products. Its 90-day free return policy further acts as a buffer for unsatisfactory purchases.

Nonetheless, Temu’s value-oriented approach may not be a good thing for consumers on all fronts. Exposed to such a wide array of marketing tactics, users might become more prone to overconsumption – which leads to environmental waste and post-purchase regret.

It’s worth considering your actual needs before using an e-commerce platform such as Temu. You should also familiarise yourself with the sales promotion tactics being used. Research suggests understanding these tactics, as well as advertisers’ intentions, can even empower young children to be sceptical and form a cognitive defence against them.

Also, in light of Temu’s gamified advertising strategy, consumers ought to temper their enthusiasm for rewards. Moving forward, one useful approach may be for schools and governments to introduce educational programs or social marketing campaigns that teach advertising tactics, and recommend coping strategies.

Temu didn’t respond to The Conversation’s request for comment.

Read more:
Blind bags: how toy makers are making a fortune with child gambling

Xiaoling Guo receives funding from Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship.

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

– ref. Temu: China’s answer to Amazon is already Australia’s most popular free app. What makes it so addictive? – https://theconversation.com/temu-chinas-answer-to-amazon-is-already-australias-most-popular-free-app-what-makes-it-so-addictive-212463

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) has announced it will expand its “crackdown” on the cosmetic surgery industry. As the agency responsible for registering, accrediting and disciplining health practitioners, AHPRA is well placed to reshape conduct in what sociologists once called the appearance industry.

It plans to develop stricter guidelines for non-surgical cosmetic procedures – especially advertising practices, consent procedures and pre-procedure suitability screening.

The regulator’s primary targets are health practitioners authorised to prescribe restricted drugs (schedule 4 medicines) to patients for aesthetic enhancement. The compounds are regulated differently across each state and territory, but they are generally restricted to medical and nursing practitioners or people directly supervised by them.

But how does the regulator propose to make aesthetic medicine safer for patients, and what problems might lie beyond its reach?

Safe and effective … in skilled hands

AHPRA’s statement sets out a range of treatments it hopes to make safer for patients. Among them is the most common cosmetic procedure in the world: botulinum toxin type A, commonly known as Botox.

Widely used to reduce wrinkles, Botox is also the most potent neurotoxin ever discovered and was first proposed as a chemical weapon. It’s also injected to treat eyelid spasms, excessive sweating, some bladder disorders and migraine.

Botox functions only at extremely low doses and has been approved for market supply since the early 2000s. Research demonstrates it is safe and effective for cosmetic purposes. But a comprehensive study from the United Kingdom found about 16% of patients reported adverse events including bruising, headache and paresis (muscle weakness or paralysis).

One critical aspect of its safety is the injector’s skill. The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia recently updated its position statement on cosmetic injections, underlining the skills expected.

The other injectables to be reviewed – dermal fillers, such as the widely used hyaluronic acid and fat-dissolving agents like deoxycholic acid – present their own safety issues. The death of a patient given fillers in Sydney in 2017 drew attention to the risks of these treatments and the importance of oversight.

Read more:
COVID or COVID vaccination can cause dermal fillers to swell up

Body image: a hidden source of harm

As AHPRA acknowledges, a different kind of risk is presented by the connection between Botox and body image disorders. One recent study found recipients of Botox reported fewer body dysmorphic symptoms than a control group. Others have shown patients with histories of body image distress tend to express dissatisfaction with cosmetic procedures and their mental health may worsen after treatment.

But the prospect of a patient with body dysmorphia also raises important legal questions for the law of medical consent and the practitioner’s duty to warn a patient of relevant harms.

The Australian legal standard of medical consent, established in 1991, requires a practitioner to warn the patient of all “material” risks – those that the specific patient does or would consider significant – posed by the treatment or procedure. The same principle was adopted by the English courts in 2015.

For patients with mental health issues, a practitioner would usually identify the likelihood of increased mental distress as a material risk. Valid consent would therefore entail discussion of the psychological risks of treatment.

The review will also home in on the risks of “thread lifting”, where barbed absorbable sutures are threaded under the skin to pull it into a certain position, and intense pulsed light (IPL) treatments for scar resurfacing and hair removal.

Read more:
What’s the connection between cosmetic procedures and mental health?

Vulnerable patients and the media

Manipulative media environments can exacerbate patients’ vulnerability.

While some doctors may seek to capitalise on insecurity, other promotions might normalise interventions and understate the risks.

COVID lockdowns and the closure of clinics reportedly increased stress for patients seeking cosmetic procedures. Others expressed increased concern about their facial appearance due to the apparently unflattering light of teleconferencing.

A recent study of Tiktok videos tagged with #dermalfillers found most videos, many of which were promotions, lacked any reference to the risks of treatments.

AHPRA proposes to address these issues by reformulating the guidelines for advertising, introducing stricter rules to control “before and after” images, social media influencing and reinforcing the ban on testimonials for health services.

Read more:
Linda Evangelista says fat freezing made her a recluse. Cryolipolysis can do the opposite to what’s promised

A long time coming

Almost exactly a year ago, AHPRA published an independent report into doctors who performed cosmetic surgery. The report followed widely reported cases of poor cosmetic surgery practices resulting in terrible patient outcomes.

As a result, the medical regulator created new advertising guidelines and a cosmetic surgery hub for complaints.

At the same time, an agreement was reached between Australia’s health ministers that the title “cosmetic surgeon” – virtually unregulated for 20 years – would become restricted. The amendment Bill is expected to pass and will mean no medical practitioner can call themselves a surgeon without meeting a new accreditation standard.

Yet GPs said the reforms had neglected non-surgical procedures.

Read more:
Doctors may soon get official ‘endorsements’ to practise cosmetic surgery – but will that protect patients?

Regulating modern cosmetics: it’s complicated

There are multiple centres of regulatory enforcement for cosmetic procedures.

While AHPRA and its national boards regulate health practitioners and the advertising of health services, other agencies co-regulate.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) reviews and approves all injectable products for market supply. While it has approved many products for cosmetic injection, the TGA identifies such interventions as serious medical procedures.

And while AHPRA deals with the advertising of health services, the TGA will prosecute some advertising breaches while Australian Consumer Law will control others.

Mind the gaps

Because AHPRA has no real authority to regulate the actions of those who are not health practitioners, the reforms are unlikely to affect those operating outside a medical setting, such as self-injectors or people who go to so-called “Botox parties”.

Still, state laws will make the unauthorised use of schedule 4 drugs an offence in each jurisdiction.

While it is too early to tell if the proposed reforms will improve patient outcomes dramatically, reforms like this play a critical role in setting standards and clarifying patient expectations.

Christopher Rudge has received research funding from the Commonwealth Medical Research Future Fund for a project about improving patients’ decision-making for stem cell therapies.

– ref. Botox and fillers to come under greater scrutiny by the medical regulator. Will it be too little too late? – https://theconversation.com/botox-and-fillers-to-come-under-greater-scrutiny-by-the-medical-regulator-will-it-be-too-little-too-late-212866

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Partlett, Associate Professor, The University of Melbourne

The “no” campaign’s primary argument in the current referendum debate focuses on the dangerous consequences of a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament.

This argument is relevant to the parliamentary debate about how a constitutional Voice to Parliament will be set up through legislation. But it has no bearing on the referendum debate.

This debate involves a different, moral question: do you support the idea of recognising First Australians in the Constitution by giving them a voice on matters that affect them?

What exactly is the ‘no’ campaign arguing?

Although the “no” campaign opposes a constitutionally enshrined Voice, some of its key leaders are not against the general idea of a Voice institution itself. Instead, many “no” campaigners, including Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, support legislated Voice institutions at the regional level.

The “no” side also does not oppose constitutional recognition for First Australians. Dutton has recently promised that if the Voice referendum fails, the Coalition would hold another referendum on First Nations constitutional recognition if it is returned to power.

The “no” side’s main argument, therefore, is a very specific one. It focuses on what it claims are the dangerous consequences of recognising First Australians by placing a Voice institution in the Australian Constitution.

Read more:
Why can’t we just establish the Voice to Parliament through legislation? A constitutional law expert explains

In its official campaign pamphlet, the “no” side claims that doing this will:

• be “legally risky” and lead to litigation

• “risk delay and dysfunction” in government

• be a “costly and bureaucratic” institution with “no issue beyond its scope”.

Finally, the “no” side claims the Albanese government has not put forth any details on how this Voice body would function, and it would be a “permanent” change that will open the door for “activists”.

The nature of constitutions

These concerns, however, fundamentally misunderstand how constitutions work.

Constitutions are not detailed documents that anticipate every possible circumstance. On the contrary, they are by nature short and incomplete documents. They inherently contain large gaps.

In Australia, the evolution of constitutional institutions has been primarily shaped by parliament through legislation.

Take the constitutional provision creating the High Court as an example. The Constitution contains very little detail on how the High Court operates. It does not even specify how many justices will be on the court. It merely says:

The High Court shall consist of a Chief Justice, and so many other Justices, not less than two, as the Parliament prescribes.

Indeed, it was left to parliament to establish the jurisdiction and powers of the High Court in the Judiciary Act in 1903. And since then, parliament has passed numerous amendments that continue to shape the operation of the court, ensuring it continues to develop in line with the needs of contemporary Australian society.

For instance, the court has increased in size from three to seven justices in order to handle its increasing case load, which many in the early 20th century thought would be very light.

The Voice to Parliament proposal

The proposed Voice body will operate in the same way. The proposal is typical of other clauses already in the Constitution – it contains little detail other than there “shall be a body” called the “Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islanders Voice” that will make “representations” to parliament.
Details on how the body is selected and how it will operate are explicitly left to parliament.

The final section of the proposed Voice provision states:

the parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.

If the October referendum vote is successful, it will be up to the current parliament to pass the foundational legislation setting up the Voice body. But this law will always be subject to change by subsequent parliaments. If there are problems with the way it functions, future parliaments can fix those issues through amending legislation (just as the functioning of the High Court has changed over time).

The proposed constitutional Voice will, therefore, operate in much the same way as a legislated Voice would. In the end, both would be controlled by parliament.

The various concerns of the “no” side are best suited to this legislative debate. For instance, it will be important to ensure the legislation creating the Voice does not lead to dysfunctional government or become a costly or ineffective bureaucracy.

But the “no” side’s concerns have no bearing on the constitutional question we all must answer in the referendum.

Read more:
The Voice to Parliament explained

A moral question

Instead, we face a clearer, moral question on October 14: do we support the idea of recognising First Australians in the Constitution by giving them a voice in matters that affect them?

In answering this question, it is worth considering the findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody from more than 30 years ago.

The commission linked the shocking number of First Australians dying in state custody to the historical fact that Aboriginal people have faced “deliberate and systematic disempowerment” for more than a century. It said:

Decisions were made about them and for them and imposed upon them.

Only First Nations empowerment, the report concluded, would overcome this disadvantage.

This empowerment process began with a series of First Nations regional dialogues that ultimately called for a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament in 2017. This empowerment is not real, however, until we heed this call.

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

– ref. No, the Voice proposal will not be ‘legally risky’. This misunderstands how constitutions work – https://theconversation.com/no-the-voice-proposal-will-not-be-legally-risky-this-misunderstands-how-constitutions-work-212696

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shasha Wang, Senior lecturer, Queensland University of Technology

If you spend much time online you’ve probably seen one of Temu’s colourful ads – punctuated by its catchy tagline: “shopping like a billionaire”.

Temu specialises in selling various everyday items, including clothing, toys and household goods, for extremely low prices. Shanghai-based company PDD Holdings launched the online marketplace late last year (initially in the United States) to cater to overseas customers.

Since then, Temu’s reach has skyrocketed. The total value of products sold went from US$3 million in September last year, to US$400 million in April. At the time of publishing this article, Temu was the most popular free iPhone app in the US, United Kingdom, Australia and Germany.

Why has Temu been such a massive success? It’s safe to say the platform has some winning strategies that keep consumers coming back. But beyond that, similar to other e-commerce platforms, using it isn’t entirely risk- or guilt-free. Here are some things to consider if you’re thinking of giving it a shot.

What are Temu’s secrets to success?

1. Value

Many Australians might associate “made in China” with cheap price tags and low quality. However, Temu’s consumers are beginning to view it as offering affordable products that do not necessarily compromise on quality. In some cases, 10-20 products will only set you back US$20-30.

Temu claims it can offer these prices as a result of cutting out the middlemen in the supply chain. While the manufacturers provide the product details and the products themselves, Temu handles everything else – from customs processing to international shipping. This streamlining helps reduce unit costs.

Nonetheless, achieving such value doesn’t come without a cost. Concerns are rising that Temu and its suppliers may be operating at a loss. However, it’s common for startups to experience negative cash flow in their initial years due to heavy marketing investments, including offers of competitive prices and marketing campaigns – all of which is done to build brand awareness and gain acceptance.

This is especially true in the fast-paced e-commerce sector, where success and failure happen swiftly. Temu and its suppliers, who are mainly from Temu’s sister e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, are likely aware of this dynamic.

2. An effective marketing strategy

Unlike other e-commerce platforms that focus on functional benefits such as saving money, Temu caters to consumers’ emotional needs. It overlays the shopping experience with the idea of “shopping like a billionaire” – which also aligns with its value-based strategy.

Temu entered the market at a time when consumers were grappling with global inflation, leading them to seek “value”. In the first month after its launch in the US, Temu invested some US$200 million in advertising and planned a US$2 billion budget for the year.

Given China’s leadership in live-streaming influencer marketing, Temu is now recruiting social media influencers, suggesting it might leverage its Chinese expertise to explore a social-commerce strategy. Social commerce harnesses a sense of “friendship” conveyed by influencers, making the online shopping experience more engaging and product recommendations more convincing. It also works especially well with sales promotions.

Sales promotion tactics

While Temu employs common sales tactics seen on other e-commerce platforms, it uses what is arguably the broadest array of these techniques. Here are just some examples:

• Gamified experiences. Gamified advertising hinges on two core elements: challenge and reward. Interacting with Temu’s spinning wheel is a minor challenge, but the substantial discount offered is a major reward. Such “games” create the illusion of getting lucky, and therefore generate positive emotions in consumers – while the reward gives them an incentive to engage more seriously with their browsing, increasing the likelihood of spending.

• Lightning deals and limited-time offers. One commonly used promotion tactic involves creating the illusion of scarcity through supposedly “exclusive” offers that are time-sensitive and won’t come by again. This can trigger a fear of missing out in consumers.

• Discounts and free shipping Offering simple price reductions and very affordable sales is a time-honoured way of securing a loyal customer base. In addition, Temu has the allure of offering free shipping on orders with a very low minimum spend.

• Loyalty program. Consumers can opt in to Temu’s marketing emails in exchange for receiving more promotional content, including email-only promotions. E-commerce companies often have access to your personal information (such as your name, address, age and phone number) and behavioural data (such as from your search history and online sessions). With this data, the company can build your user profile and target you with personalised promotions and content to encourage spending.

• Search engine marketing. Many consumers will see Temu ads at the top of their search results on Google (in the form of “sponsored” posts) when they search for a product.

• An AI-powered promotional strategy. Temu’s sister company operating in China, Pinduoduo, is renowned for its AI-driven recommendation system. It’s likely Temu uses similar AI algorithms, drawing on users’ browsing and purchase history to provide personalised recommendations (a practice Amazon also partakes in).

Defending against manipulation

Temu’s greatest benefit to consumers lies in its offer of value. It may still have lower-quality items, but this is common among all e-commerce platforms.

Also, Temu’s business model is built around emphasising top-selling products, which helps filter out low-quality products. Its 90-day free return policy further acts as a buffer for unsatisfactory purchases.

Nonetheless, Temu’s value-oriented approach may not be a good thing for consumers on all fronts. Exposed to such a wide array of marketing tactics, users might become more prone to overconsumption – which leads to environmental waste and post-purchase regret.

It’s worth considering your actual needs before using an e-commerce platform such as Temu. You should also familiarise yourself with the sales promotion tactics being used. Research suggests understanding these tactics, as well as advertisers’ intentions, can even empower young children to be sceptical and form a cognitive defence against them.

Also, in light of Temu’s gamified advertising strategy, consumers ought to temper their enthusiasm for rewards. Moving forward, one useful approach may be for schools and governments to introduce educational programs or social marketing campaigns that teach advertising tactics, and recommend coping strategies.

Temu didn’t respond to The Conversation’s request for comment.

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Xiaoling Guo receives funding from Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship.

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

– ref. New Chinese shopping app Temu is set to overtake Amazon. What makes it so addictive? – https://theconversation.com/new-chinese-shopping-app-temu-is-set-to-overtake-amazon-what-makes-it-so-addictive-212463

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Phoebe Holdenson Kimura, Lecturer and GP, University of Sydney

Heavy menstrual bleeding or heavy periods affect up to a quarter of women and people who menstruate, and can impact quality of life. Women who have had heavy periods for a long time often consider this normal, or something to be simply put up with.

Diagnosing heavy periods has traditionally been based on the nature of bleeding. Women might describe bleeding through clothing, having to change pads and tampons every two hours or sooner, or passing clots larger than a 50 cent coin. Doctors consider a woman to have heavy periods if she regularly loses more than 80 millilitres of blood during one menstrual period. That’s four Australian tablespoons’ worth. Women diagnosed with heavy bleeding should follow up with their doctor to establish the cause of their bleeding and guide treatment.

But estimating blood loss and getting a sense of when it’s outside the normal range can be difficult. Recent research on how best to manage menstrual blood could help.

Read more:
Heavy periods are common. What can you do, and when should you seek help?

More period options than ever

There are now a variety of menstrual products for women to choose from.

These include disposable pads and tampons, as well as reusable products such as menstrual cups and discs, washable pads and period underwear. There are multiple factors which influence choice of menstrual product, including comfort, cost, capacity, environmental benefits and potential health risks.

A 2022 French survey of over 1,100 women showed traditional sanitary protection was still the most widely used there (81% used disposable pads and 46% used tampons) but 16% of respondents were using alternative products. A recent study in Victoria indicated many young people are choosing reusable products, with environmental impacts an important motivator.

Another benefit of reusable menstrual cups and menstrual discs is they can remain in the vagina for up to 12 hours. A menstrual cup sits in the vagina below the cervix and extends into the canal. A menstrual disc, on the other hand, fits back into the vaginal fornix, which is where your vaginal canal meets your cervix. Discs are usually wider and shallower than cups and can be worn during sex. There are now reusable and disposable options for menstrual discs.

Read more:
Does anyone have a pad? TV is finally dismantling the period taboo

What holds the most blood?

There has been very limited research into the maximum capacity of different menstrual products. Manufacturers can report collection capacity of their products using liquids such as water.

A recent research study from the United States aimed to more accurately measure the capacity of menstrual products in the laboratory using expired donated human blood, which is more similar to menstrual blood.

Some 21 different menstrual products were tested in the study. Menstrual discs showed the greatest capacity (61ml on average) and period underwear held the least (2ml on average).

Tampons, pads, and menstrual cups held similar amounts of blood (approximately 20–50mL). The authors noted it is difficult to accurately approximate capacity for patients with heavy menstrual bleeding due to “flooding” (high-velocity flow) and passing clots.

The comparison shows period underwear, despite its advertised capacity, may actually only absorb a small amount of blood and very slowly. Women with heavy periods tend to use period underwear as “back up” for another method.

We need a standardised scale for menstrual bleeding

Currently, the ways to determine whether someone is having heavy menstrual bleeding is through asking detailed questions and using the Pictorial Blood Loss Assessment Chart, which relates to the saturation of menstrual pads and tampons.

The overall impact of the heaviness of menstrual bleeding on a woman’s quality of life is also important.

Even with pads and tampons, there is significant variability in terms of capacity. The introduction of newer products potentially introduces more confusion, with both users and clinicians uncertain about the storage capacity of each category of product, and specific brands within these categories.

With heavy menstrual bleeding often underdiagnosed and undertreated, clinicians need to ask specifically about the menstrual products used and how they are used to better understand a person’s bleeding patterns. The fresh US research could help women and their doctors better assess the heaviness of their periods.

Read more:
Health Check: are painful periods normal?

3 tips for managing heavy flow

• 1. Experiment with period products. It may be good to try out different types of products (and even different products in the same category) to find the ones that suit you best. The advertised capacity of each product may not ring true with your own experience, due to the nature of your flow (particularly if it is heavy or “gushes”).

• 2. Monitor the heaviness of your period. The capacity of different menstrual products varies widely. Menstrual discs have very high storage capacity in comparison to other products. That can actually lead to an underestimation of menstrual loss. Looking up the storage capacity of each product can help you work out whether you are having heavy periods or not, even though we know this may be based on liquids like water. This information can be found on the product website or the new study.

• 3. When to seek medical advice. If you think you might be having heavy periods, feel tired or dizzy during your period, or you feel your periods are interfering with your life, talk to your GP or other healthcare professional. It can help to track the heaviness of your periods and how often you are changing your period product and to bring this record to your appointment. Your GP can talk to you about treatment with medications (both hormonal and non-hormonal) and other management options.

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

– ref. How much period blood is ‘normal’? And which sanitary product holds the most blood? – https://theconversation.com/how-much-period-blood-is-normal-and-which-sanitary-product-holds-the-most-blood-211418

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Treena Clark, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Indigenous Research Fellow, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people. This story also contains examples of outdated language

During the campaign for the 1967 First Nations referendum, which would go on to receive a 90.77% “yes” vote, the late human rights campaigner Faith Bandler believed fashion and clothing could play a key role in encouraging voters.

A South Sea Islander/Scottish Indian woman, Bandler played a lead role in the 1967 referendum campaign. She described wearing white day gloves when campaigning and speaking to non-Indigenous audiences:

I used to wear short white gloves. They were acceptable to the white community I came in contact with when I was campaigning for black women’s rights. I wore them from 1956 until the mid-1960s. During that period I only ever addressed white audiences. I only had to convince them.

The fashion during the 1967 referendum was conservative. Speakers such as Bandler featured subtle accessories and respectable clothing, occasionally accented by a badge that modestly communicated their message.

It is a far cry from the overt – and often casual – ways fashion is being used in the 2023 referendum campaign.

Read more:
Vale Faith Bandler: anti-racist intellectual and activist

Subtle style

First Nations women, and particularly older women were often the voice of the 1967 referendum, and appearances were important.

Campaigners emphasised respectability and etiquette by wearing structured and formal outfits. Older women wore their Sunday best: dresses with hats, skirts with jacket sets or casual pencil skirts with dressy turtlenecks, and small and subtle jewellery.

The older men wore suits, short-sleeved shirts (with or without structured jackets and slacks) and knitted vests.

In reflecting the changing times and optimism, younger men often wore smart and structured t-shirts with trousers.

Young women chose headbands over hats, knitted jumpers and sweaters over suit sets and large earrings over delicate adornment.

The iconic badges

In an iconic photo of the campaign efforts, Ngarrindjeri and Boandik campaigner Shirley Peisley wore a white dress with peter pan collar. Ever so subtly, a 1967 referendum badge is displayed on her lapel. With her hair perfectly coiffed, her only jewellery was a bracelet and wedding ring.

Badges were instrumental in the campaign. They were striking, temporary and expressed an articulate campaign.

Jackie Huggins (Bidjara and Birri Gubba Juru) remembers, as an 11-year-old, handing out badges to promote the campaign.

If I was asked to make one more toffee or lamington for a fundraising drive (or do the hula) or stand on another street corner handing out badges …

Badges have long been used for First Nations political and social statements. In the late 1800s, some First Nations people wore temperance badges as a pledge of abstinence from alcohol.

Returned & Services League and Mothers Mourners badges were significant for First Nations people who served or lost family members in war. These badges were a source of pride of service and mateship.

For the 1962 Commonwealth Electoral Act, which granted First Nations people the right to vote in Federal elections, tin badges declared “Our Vote = Our Future”. Other badges worn by the 1960s First Nations rights groups featured boomerang shapes and circular Aboriginal rights designs.

Unlike today, t-shirts were not a part of the 1967 referendum campaign. First Nations slogan t-shirts were first worn in the 1970s.

Read more:
‘Right wrongs, write Yes’: what was the 1967 referendum all about?

Referendum fashion today

Fashion is again playing a role in the 2023 referendum.

Today, clothes are brighter and more casual. Concepts of “etiquette” have almost entirely broken down.

First Nations designers and artists have shaped textiles and fashion over the decades. Youth and street styles, which often pair text with clothing and make cheeky or ironic gestures, are worn by many.

At a Blak Sovereign Movement press conference, Senator Lidia Thorpe (Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung) wore an outfit representing cultural pride. Her jacket, pants, and shoes represented the Aboriginal flag colours of black, yellow, and red. Her Treaty t-shirt and Aboriginal flag earrings were strong with symbolism.

Fellow “no” campaigner from the opposite end of the political spectrum, Senator Jacinta Yangapi Nampijinpa Price (Warlpiri/Celtic), chooses a t-shirt with the slogan “Vote No to the voice of division”, often with a conservative blazer.

Mutthi Mutthi and Wamba Wamba woman and Senator Jana Stewart wore a ball gown designed by First Nations label Clothing the Gaps to the Midwinter Ball.

The white silk dress featured the Uluru Statement from the Heart written in black and of different sizes and red embroidered yeses.

The “yes” campaign merchandise of t-shirts, jumpers and badges highlight bright or natural colours as a cheerful and optimistic response to the movement. These are being worn by official campaigners and casual voters alike.

The fashions of the 2023 referendum are very different from 1967. The act of protest incorporated in everyday street wear and evening dresses would have shocked the general public in the 1960s. It would have amazed people to see campaigners wearing outfits that overtly described the campaign movement.

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Treena Clark has received funding through the University of Technology Sydney Chancellor’s Indigenous Research Fellowship scheme.

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

– ref. From badges to ball gowns: how fashion took centre-stage in the 1967 and 2023 referendums – https://theconversation.com/from-badges-to-ball-gowns-how-fashion-took-centre-stage-in-the-1967-and-2023-referendums-212693