Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Doust, Clinical Professorial Research Fellow, Australian Women and Girls’ Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland

Ovarian cancers are often found when they are already advanced and hard to treat.

Researchers have long believed this was because women first experienced symptoms when ovarian cancer was already well-established. Symptoms can also be hard to identify as they’re vague and similar to other conditions.

But a new study shows promising signs ovarian cancer can be detected in its early stages. The study targeted women with four specific symptoms – bloating, abdominal pain, needing to pee frequently, and feeling full quickly – and put them on a fast track to see a specialist.

As a result, even the most aggressive forms of ovarian cancer could be detected in their early stages.

So what did the study find? And what could it mean for detecting – and treating – ovarian cancer more quickly?

Why is ovarian cancer hard to detect early?

Ovarian cancer cannot be detected via cervical cancer screening (which used to be called a pap smear) and pelvic exams aren’t useful as a screening test.

Current Australian guidelines recommend women get tested for ovarian cancer if they have symptoms for more than a month. But many of the symptoms – such as tiredness, constipation and changes in menstruation – are vague and overlap with other common illnesses.

This makes early detection a challenge. But it is crucial – a woman’s chances of surviving ovarian cancer are associated with how advanced the cancer is when she is diagnosed.

If the cancer is still confined to the original site with no spread, the five-year survival rate is 92%. But over half of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer first present when the cancer has already metastatised, meaning it has spread to other parts of the body.

If the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes, the survival rate is reduced to 72%. If the cancer has already metastasised and spread to distant sites at the time of diagnosis, the rate is only 31%.

There are mixed findings on whether detecting ovarian cancer earlier leads to better survival rates. For example, a trial in the UK that screened more than 200,000 women failed to reduce deaths.

That study screened the general public, rather than relying on self-reported symptoms. The new study suggests asking women to look for specific symptoms can lead to earlier diagnosis, meaning treatment can start more quickly.

What did the new study look at?

Between June 2015 and July 2022, the researchers recruited 2,596 women aged between 16 and 90 from 24 hospitals across the UK.

They were asked to monitor for these four symptoms:

• persistent abdominal distension (women often refer to this as bloating)
• feeling full shortly after starting to eat and/or loss of appetite
• pelvic or abdominal pain (which can feel like indigestion)
• needing to urinate urgently or more often.

Women who reported at least one of four symptoms persistently or frequently were put on a fast-track pathway. That means they were sent to see a gynaecologist within two weeks. The fast track pathway has been used in the UK since 2011, but is not specifically part of Australia’s guidelines.

Some 1,741 participants were put on this fast track. First, they did a blood test that measured the cancer antigen 125 (CA125). If a woman’s CA125 level was abnormal, she was sent to do a internal vaginal ultrasound.

What did they find?

The study indicates this process is better at detecting ovarian cancer than general screening of people who don’t have symptoms. Some 12% of women on the fast-track pathway were diagnosed with some kind of ovarian cancer.

A total of 6.8% of fast-tracked patients were diagnosed with high-grade serous ovarian cancer. It is the most aggressive form of cancer and responsible for 90% of ovarian cancer deaths.

Out of those women with the most aggressive form, one in four were diagnosed when the cancer was still in its early stages. That is important because it allowed treatment of the most lethal cancer before it had spread significantly through the body.

There were some promising signs in treating those with this aggressive form. The majority (95%) had surgery and three quarters (77%) had chemotherapy. Complete cytoreduction – meaning all of the cancer appears to have been removed – was achieved in six women out of ten (61%).

It’s a promising sign that there may be ways to “catch” and target ovarian cancer before it is well-established in the body.

What does this mean for detection?

The study’s findings suggest this method of early testing and referral for the symptoms leads to earlier detection of ovarian cancer. This may also improve outcomes, although the study did not track survival rates.

It also points to the importance of public awareness about symptoms.

Clinicians should be able to recognise all of the ways ovarian cancer can present, including vague symptoms like general fatigue.

But empowering members of the general public to recognise a narrower set of four symptoms can help trigger testing, detection and treatment of ovarian cancer earlier than we thought.

This could also save GPs advising every woman who has general tiredness or constipation to undergo an ovarian cancer test, making testing and treatment more targeted and efficient.

Many women remain unaware of the symptoms of ovarian cancer. This study shows recognising them may help early detection and treatment.

Jenny Doust 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. Ovarian cancer is hard to detect. Focusing on these 4 symptoms can help with diagnosis – https://theconversation.com/ovarian-cancer-is-hard-to-detect-focusing-on-these-4-symptoms-can-help-with-diagnosis-236775

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Stevenson, Professor of Urban Transport and Public Health, The University of Melbourne

Melbourne City Council voted to break its contracts with operators of shared e‑scooter schemes this week, citing safety concerns. It seems these concerns have usurped the long-term transport and environmental gains from moving towards sustainable transport. A year ago, the city reported emissions had been cut by 400 tonnes since trials of these e‑scooters began.

Shared e‑scooters only became available to Melburnians in early 2022. But electric scooters have existed for more than a century. They were very popular on public streets in the United States after motorised scooters first appeared in 1915.

However, their use for criminal getaways soon marred their reputation. The opportunity for a lower-emission, more equitable form of transport was lost, until now. It could be lost again because of knee-jerk reactions to concerns about their safety.

In fact, shared e‑scooters have safety features that individually owned ones often lack. Shared e‑escooters cause fewer serious injuries than bicycles or motorcycles, according to New Zealand accident compensation data. In Australia, while there has been a rise in numbers treated in hospitals for e‑scooter injuries, no distinction is made between shared and private e‑scooters.

Private e-scooters greatly outnumber shared ones

Today, an estimated 15,000 shared e‑scooters are in use across Australia and New Zealand. No official figures are available for private e‑scooters, but there are likely to be many more of them.

Segway, a globally dominant maker of e‑scooters, reported it had sold 8.5 million private versus 1.5 million shared e‑scooters by 2022. In the United Kingdom, an estimated 360,000 private e‑scooters were bought in 2020. New Zealand Statistics reports roughly 400,000 e‑scooters were imported from 2018 to 2023.

One can assume, then, that private e‑scooters similarly outnumber shared e‑scooters in Australia. And the distinction between rental and private e‑scooters is an important one in the debate about safety.

Media reports on shared e‑scooters in Melbourne have concentrated on two key subjects: launching trials and safety. Recent coverage refers to significant incidents and injuries. This creates a perception that e‑scooters are much less safe than other transport modes.

Regulated shared e-scooters are safer

The first thing to note is these reports don’t distinguish between shared and private e‑scooters. This matters because the shared e‑scooter market is highly regulated in Australia.

Their operators are required to:

• provide helmets for riders

• apply speed limiters so they don’t exceed safe speeds

• geo-fence e‑scooters to limit where they can travel

• use pedestrian-detection technology.

In contrast, private e‑scooters are not registered. They have different quality specifications and can have larger motors, often exceeding regulated engine outputs that vary from state to state. Importantly, private e‑scooters lack the advanced technologies used on shared e‑scooters to monitor rider use.

There is little to no regulation or quality control over the private e‑scooters Australians can buy. Some models seen on the streets can exceed the legal speed limit. All that’s stopping them speeding is rider responsibility and police oversight.

Hospitals records of e‑scooter injuries do not distinguish between private or shared e‑scooter riders. That’s also true of injury reporting and statistics, due to the way authorities collect crash statistics.

Yet reported injury statistics for New Zealand indicate that the rate of serious injury while using a shared e‑scooter points is lower than for other modes of transport. Far more people suffered soft tissue injuries from rollerskating and skateboarding (5,344) than from riding e‑scooters (1,119), for instance. Nine times as many bike riders incurred a head injury or concussion (681) compared to e‑scooter riders (76).

Better infrastructure is also vital for e‑scooter safety. A 2020 International Transport Federation (ITF) report found 80% of e‑scooter crashes occurred at intersections, and 70% during the day.

The findings are not surprising when scant attention has been paid to delivering safe e‑scooter infrastructure. In Melbourne, for example, some lanes available for e‑scooter riding end abruptly.

E-scooters cut emissions and congestion

The most important issue arising from the City of Melbourne’s ban is the role e‑scooters (and e‑bikes) can play in shrinking cities’ huge carbon footprints. In addition, e‑scooters can:

• reduce traffic congestion

• improve access to public transport

• provide more efficient transport for shorter trips

• remove the need for car parking

• improve air quality.

The City of Melbourne pointed solely at the safety concern to justify its ban. The city instead needs more proactive policies to integrate shared e‑scooters into the its mobility mix. This would have delivered all the public good of this transport mode.

Governance is a neglected issue

Much of the research on e‑scooters in cities focuses on sustainability and safety. Governance (policies, rules and regulations) is largely overlooked.

Operating governance structures are established following a traditional operator licensing pathway. This approach is now being questioned.

What has been lacking is broad engagement with all stakeholders, including the public. The focus should be on balancing the benefits and burdens of shared e‑scooters.

E‑scooters are a particularly valuable form of transport for young people and those on low incomes or with a disability. The social justice they provide has been neglected. Predictably, then, the focus has been on the burdens, including safety.

Another problem is the widely varied approaches around Australia to regulating e‑scooters. There isn’t even a consistent definition of e‑scooters.

It appears governance decisions, which include ending operator licences, aren’t using reliable evidence to avoid knee-jerk reactions.

For widespread sustainable and safe e‑scooter use, there needs to be:

• better governance and rider safety education

• more consistent and specific recording of e‑scooter incident and injury data

• an appreciation that riders are vulnerable road users who deserve safe infrastructure.

A comprehensive, inclusive assessment of benefits and burdens is needed. We may then establish more clearly the sustainability and equity benefits, manage the safety concerns and arrive at more consistent policies and definitions across Australia.

Mark Stevenson receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council.

Ferdinand Balfoort receives funding from Charles Darwin University, Australia.

He is a Senior Researcher at the Mobility Research Partnership Pty Ltd, a not for profit

– ref. Why Melbourne’s e-scooter ban is a wrong turn away from safe, sustainable transport – https://theconversation.com/why-melbournes-e-scooter-ban-is-a-wrong-turn-away-from-safe-sustainable-transport-236781

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew J. Martin, Scientia Professor and Professor of Educational Psychology, UNSW Sydney

Adolescence is often characterised as a time of “storm and stress”.

Young people are dealing with physical and cognitive changes and, as they move from childhood, can become increasingly distant from the adults in their lives.

In academic terms, this time of major hormonal change is also accompanied by a well-known dip in students’ motivation and engagement at school. This often coincides with students’ going to high school.

How can schools better help young people at this time? In a new four-year study we looked at the role of teaching support. We were especially interested to know if teachers’ influence on students’ motivation and engagement grows or fades across the adolescent years.

Read more:
Too many Year 9 students are missing school. What can parents and teachers do to keep them engaged?

Our study

Our study involved 7,769 Year 6 New South Wales government school students who were tracked annually into Year 9. The students were part of the NSW Department of Education’s annual “Tell Them From Me” student survey.

Students were asked questions about the teaching support they received, as well as questions about their motivation and engagement. They were given a 0–4 point rating scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree).

There were three categories of teaching support:

1. emotional support: did teachers support and care for students?

2. instrumental support: did teachers have clear expectations for students and did they make learning content seem relevant?

3. management support: were there clear rules and routines for the class?

Motivation was measured through students’ academic aspirations about the future and how much they valued school (or saw it as important). Engagement was assessed via students’ perseverance, efforts with homework, making school friends and whether they had any behaviour issues.

In our analysis we also accounted for students’ backgrounds, such as gender, socioeconomic status and prior academic achievement.

Our findings

Our findings confirm there is a decline in students’ motivation and engagement from Year 6 to Year 9 (around 18% in total). This is consistent with the known dip in early- to mid-adolescence.

But we also found in each of these four years, teaching support overall (and each of the three teaching support categories) was significantly associated with students’ motivation and engagement.

That is, more teaching support was linked to greater student aspirations, valuing school, perseverance, homework effort, connections with school friends and less misconduct at school.

Of particular note, we found the link between teaching support and students’ motivation and engagement strengthened each year. For example, teaching support was more strongly linked to students’ motivation and engagement in Year 9 than it was in Year 8. Taken together, between Year 6 and Year 9, there was a 40% increase in the role of teaching support in students’ motivation and engagement.

What this means

This is an empowering finding for teachers because adolescence is typically seen as a time when the influence of adults declines. Our results show students remain within their teacher’s orbit as they move further into adolescence.

What can we do?

Previous research suggests ideas for how teachers can provide emotional support, instructional support, and management support to students, including:

• spending time getting to know students

• respecting students’ individuality

• listening to students’ perspectives

• providing emotional encouragement when needed

• ensuring content and tasks are interesting and meaningful to students

• explaining how schoolwork is useful for other schoolwork, or things outside school (for example, world events or paid work)

• having clear, consistent, and logical expectations about classroom behaviour

• encouraging student input as classroom rules are developed.

There are also further practical ideas in a NSW Department of Education guide that accompanies our study.

With thanks to Mary Stephan, Anaïd Flesken, Fiona Halcrow and Brianna McCourt from the Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation, NSW Department of Education. The “Tell Them From Me” survey mentioned in this article is the intellectual property of education resources company, The Learning Bar.

Andrew J. Martin sits on the Advisory Board of Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation in the New South Wales Department of Education. Funding for the research mentioned in this article was provided by the NSW Department of Education.

Rebecca J. Collie receives funding from the New South Wales Department of Education.

– ref. Teenagers’ motivation dips in high school. But research shows supportive teachers can really help – https://theconversation.com/teenagers-motivation-dips-in-high-school-but-research-shows-supportive-teachers-can-really-help-236585

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya Fiedler, Scientia Senior Lecturer (Climate Accounting), UNSW Sydney

What will our climate look like in the future? It is hard to overstate not only the importance of answering this question, but also the challenges involved in doing so.

We know the climate is changing rapidly. But without information about where we are headed, planning – at personal, organisational and societal levels – becomes tricky, to put it mildly.

Because climate risks are also understood as financial risks, many countries around the world – including Australia – are moving to make climate risk reporting mandatory. Accordingly, this need for a plan can no longer be ignored.

But the way we currently communicate climate risk has some serious limitations.

Recent research led by Tanya Fiedler explores these limitations, and proposes that a new approach – incorporating the power of narratives – would be more useful and practical for organisations.

We all struggle with uncertainty

Why is painting a picture of our future climate to help us make decisions so difficult? Part of the answer lies in the way individuals make decisions under uncertainty.

People tend to find it difficult to cope with uncertainty and ambiguity, often struggling when presented with probabilities. This can impact our decisions, leading to undesirable outcomes.

Research has also shown we find it difficult to respond to warnings that fall outside our lived experience.

The other part of the answer lies in the inherent complexity – and uncertainties – involved in developing a useful picture of the future.

The most common way to explore our future climate is to use global or regional climate models – complex mathematical simulations of our climate system. These have proven extraordinarily valuable to simulate how our climate will change due to increases in greenhouse gases.

They can project how temperature, rainfall, winds, fire risk and even hail risk are likely to change in future.

But projections are by definition uncertain, and using different models can provide different visions of the future.

The problem with zooming in

This uncertainty tends to increase both as you zoom in to particular locations and become interested in extremes.

For example, how average winter rainfall is expected to change over southwest Western Australia could be relatively clear, but how extreme rainfall (capable of causing major floods) will change is far less clear.

When looking at the level of a postcode or single address we might not even know whether extreme rainfall will increase or decrease.

That’s a problem for organisations trying to work out how to manage and prepare for such risks, often at the scale of an individual building. Modelling is precise, but not necessarily accurate enough for that sort of localised information.

This doesn’t mean climate models aren’t useful or don’t provide valuable information. It just means organisations may need to enhance the value of that information by combining it with other evidence.

Introducing ‘storylines’

Fortunately, there is a way to address both the behavioural and modelling issues that capitalises on how we most intuitively make sense of the world. This is through “storylines”.

Storylines were developed in the climate sciences to describe uncertain physical climate futures. They do this by employing expert judgement to prioritise an understanding of the “causal networks” that drive changes and extremes.

The valuable information held in climate model projections is combined with other types of evidence relevant to a location, to develop a plausible (and useful) story about what the future might entail.

Flood risk, for example, depends on a wide range of factors. These can include:

• the amount and intensity of rain
• whether heavy rain fell in the recent past
• changes to the catchment such as vegetation, soils and the nature of any upstream developments, including new roads or buildings.

A business only using changes in rainfall drawn from a climate or national-scale flood model for its risk assessment might “hard-wire” a future scenario that turns out to be unreliable at the scale they need.

Under an alternative “storylines” approach, their best course of action to understand flood risk would be to work with experts to develop a narrative that describes changes in rainfall in addition to all other locally relevant factors.

This narrative can then be tested using traditional flood modelling methods to provide more robust and useful insights into how the local catchment will be impacted under conditions of changing rainfall.

The quantitative disciplines like finance, economics and accounting may struggle with the idea that a narrative might provide more decision-useful information than a number. Yet, research has shown that narratives can make an uncertain future more tangible than numbers, and thereby better aid with planning and decision-making.

We need a new toolkit

Answering the question “what will our future climate look like?” challenges us to think differently and to look for solutions outside the toolbox of established financial tools and techniques.

It challenges us to work – through interdisciplinary dialogue – with experts, disciplines and knowledge we might feel uncomfortable with.

Storylines could transform the way organisations understand and report their exposure to climate risk. This is unlikely to be easy, and we recognise taking quantitative information from a commercial provider may seem simpler. But it is a more honest and rigorous way of planning for the future climate.

Andy Pitman receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is also a commissioner on the NSW Net Zero Commission.

Ben Newell receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Michael Grose receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program and the Australian Climate Service.

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

– ref. It’s too hard to make business decisions in the face of climate uncertainty – here’s how ‘storylines’ could help – https://theconversation.com/its-too-hard-to-make-business-decisions-in-the-face-of-climate-uncertainty-heres-how-storylines-could-help-236588

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

Peter Dutton is 100% signed up to the position of Israel in the Middle East conflict. Immigration minister Tony Burke has an electorate with the second largest Muslim community of any seat in the country.

Dutton and Burke this week have faced off in the fractious debate about Palestinians fleeing to Australia – an issue that risks putting another tear in our social cohesion fabric.

In keeping with our current politics, hyper-partisanship and an approaching election mean this argument is piling dangerous fuel onto an already incendiary local divisions the Middle East conflict has generated.

At the core is the balance this country should strike between national security and national compassion.

But there are complex questions involved, given the passions in sections of the community about the war. There are no absolute (let alone easy) answers to precisely where policy should land.

Dutton sees national security as his natural territory for political combat. His default is to cast issues in the starkest terms. He seldom does nuance, which leaves the impression everyone in Gaza is a potential terror risk.

Burke, just installed as immigration minister, has a brief to close down debates where possible. But he’s also acutely tuned into the voices of his seat, amplified by this week’s announcement a Muslim candidate will run against him as an independent.

ASIO chief Mike Burgess, appearing on the ABC at the weekend, said that from a security point of view, if someone from Gaza just gave “rhetorical support [to Hamas], and they don’t have an ideology or support for a violent extremism ideology, then that’s not a problem”. But if they had given material aid, “that can be a problem”. “Obviously we take each case on its merits in the context of the information we have before us.”

The position he spelled out might have surprised some people, but sources with knowledge of ASIO’s checking say this accords with the organisation’s guidelines.

But this is a security definition, rather than a policy about the entry of Gazans. Dutton didn’t want to get into an argument with Burgess, but he doesn’t accept that as the point where policy should land.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson sought to find a path between rejecting the Burgess position without rejecting Burgess. “In my view, supporting a terrorist organisation is a very clear breach of the Migration Act, and in particular, the character provisions of the Migration Act and you should not come to Australia if you do so,” Paterson said. “Now that’s not a criticism of Mike Burgess, he was simply describing the status quo under this government. We’ll have a different approach; we think that the acceptable number of Hamas supporters to bring into this country is zero.”

On Wednesday Dutton said: “I don’t think people should be coming in from that war zone at all at the moment. It is not prudent to do so, and I think it puts our national security at risk.” The words “at the moment” are relevant. Is Dutton advocating a short-term pause, or a long-term ban? It’s a fair bet that if there were a Liberal government, few Gazans would be welcome.

So far, on Burke’s figures, from October 7 (when the Hamas attack on Israel occurred) to August 12, 2922 visas from Gaza have been granted and 7111 rejected (though we don’t have a breakdown of grounds). About half those approved have come to Australia; the rest are still in Gaza or in third countries. Currently people are not able to leave Gaza.

Those who have arrived are on visitor visas; the government soon will have to announce its longer term plan for them.

Burke told parliament on Wednesday that everyone who had received a visa had been checked against ASIO’s watch list. This, however, can be a tick-and-flick unless it triggers a warning.

People coming from a war zone normally go through much more rigorous checks, with information obtained from other countries (such as the United States and Israel), biometric testing, and where possible in-person interviews. It can be a long process.

So what should Australia’s policy be towards the Gazan applicants? Where should that security/compassion interface be struck?

Most obviously, close relatives of Australian citizens or permanent residents should have a strong claim to come or, if they are here now, to stay permanently, subject (if considered necessary) to a recheck on security.

Beyond that, a compassionate Australia would set an intake, as it has in previous conflicts, such as from Syria and Afghanistan, with the proviso that comprehensive security checks might take some time.

This would be the right position on principle, although not necessarily a politically smooth policy. The Jewish and Palestinian communities would both likely have some objections from their opposing viewpoints.

For Burke entry of the Gazans is an early test in his new portfolio. While the issue has the government on the back foot, it knows it would be struggling more if Andrew Giles were still the minister.

This week a Lakemba doctor Ziad Basyouny, who was born in Egypt and came here in 2004, announced he will run against Burke in Watson. He said he would campaign around the issues of the cost-of-living crisis, housing, education, health and Palestine.

“The last year has shown us that Labor won’t listen to its constituents on things like Palestine, housing or the cost of living, and if you stand against the wind you’ll be punished,” he said in an interview with The Guardian.

Basyouny told The Conversation that in his decision to stand, Gaza was “the nail in the coffin”. He said Burke should “push the government as hard as possible [on Gaza], but it doesn’t seem like he’s doing so.” In fact, the differences between Labor and the Liberals on Gaza were “pretty marginal”.

Burke is unlikely to be dislodged from his seat: for one thing it is on a 15% margin and for another the Muslim community won’t be united. But the minister will have to spend more campaign time there than usual, and his immigration portfolio increases the local pressure on him.

In his weekend interview, days after the terrorism level was raised, Burgess appealed for the temperature of debate to be lowered. Instead, inside and outside parliament it just went up, yet again.

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: Peter Dutton inflames debate around visas for Palestinians fleeing Gaza – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-peter-dutton-inflames-debate-around-visas-for-palestinians-fleeing-gaza-236868

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

Cost of living remains at the top of people’s minds as inflation stays sticky. With an election in less than a year, the government has been doing what it can to address some of the pressures. But the Reserve Bank doesn’t envisage an interest rate cut this year, and has suggested spending by governments is keeping inflation higher for longer.

On Thursday, new figures showed employment has surged, but the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%, from 4.1%

Treasurer Jim Chalmers joined the podcast to discuss a range of issues.

Chalmers is optimistic he is close to a deal with the opposition over his long-awaited reforms to the Reserve Bank. The plan is to have two boards rather than one: There would be a new board of experts to take over responsibility for monetary policy.

We’ve had discussions, including relatively recently, about how we come to a bipartisan view about these reforms. I’ve done my best throughout to be as bipartisan as I can because I think the structure of our central bank should be above partisan politics. And I believe [shadow treasurer] Angus Taylor has that view as well.

There are a couple of issues that we’re still working through. […] Hopefully we can progress things quite soon and get it finished so that the changes can come in at the start of next year.

Bank Governor Michele Bullock’s recent comments about strong government spending, and the observation by the bank’s chief economist Sarah Hunter that the economy was running a “bit hotter” than the bank previously expected sparked headlines about the government and the bank being at odds. Chalmers is anxious to stress what they agree on but firmly rejects the suggestion of the economy being hot:

The Reserve Bank governor and I both say in our own way that we’ve got the same objective here, which is to fight inflation, but we’ve got different responsibilities. Governor Bullock acknowledged that in her speech in Armidale. We both want to see inflation moderate, further and faster. I’m an enthusiastic part of that.

I’m not sure that there’s the data or the feedback to sustain an argument that says that the economy’s too hot. There was barely any growth in the most recent national accounts. Household savings came off substantially. Retail has been weak. You know, there are a whole bunch of indications that our economy is quite soft.

On the lacklustre reception of the budget, Chalmers says he keeps his expectations realistic, and he remains confident he’s made the right economic decisions:

I’ve been around long enough to have realistic expectations about all of that.

I think it’s important to acknowledge people are under pressure and when they’re under pressure, they express themselves and the political system.

That’s expected and unsurprising. I genuinely think that if you make the right economic decisions for the right economic reasons, the politics will take care of themselves. If not in the near term, then certainly over the longer term.

On the latest employment figures:

Well, employment’s gone up by more than unemployment. The unemployment rate has ticked up because of participation rates at a record high. The labour market is soft around the edges.

The participation rate is up. The amount of new jobs just in one month, just in July, was almost 60,000 new jobs that are all full time. That’s a really good thing in the context of an economy which is soft and weakening more broadly.

Although real wage growth is sluggish, Chalmers highlights the government’s record on wages especially on the gender pay gap:

We’ve had a particular focus on people on low and middle incomes and a particular focus on women, and one of the most heartening aspects of the labour market data this week has been that the gender pay gap is the narrowest it’s ever been in the history of our country. […] That’s not accidental. That’s deliberate.

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: Jim Chalmers flags deal on Reserve Bank’s new structure is close – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-jim-chalmers-flags-deal-on-reserve-banks-new-structure-is-close-236879

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Sussex, Associate Professor (Adj), Griffith Asia Institute; and Fellow, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University

Ukrainians have long become used to grim news reports from their besieged lands. But that’s suddenly changed. Following its remarkably successful incursion of Russia’s Kursk region, cheerful Ukrainian journalists are now covering the war from captured Russian territory.

Ukraine’s surprise counterpunch, taking the fight into Russia for the first time, shows no signs yet of having reached a high-water mark. Unlike previous pinprick raids by the anti-Putin Freedom of Russia Legion militia group, Ukraine’s armed forces are using some of their most seasoned units.

Having punched through a thinly defended portion of its border near the Russian city of Kursk – itself famous as a scene of one of the Soviet Union’s greatest victories against Germany in the second world war – Ukraine’s forces reportedly have captured up to 70 settlements.

In the process they’ve taken control of a piece of land encompassing some 1,000 square kilometres, up to 30 kilometres deep inside Russia.

What’s Kyiv’s endgame?

There are numerous theories about what Ukraine wants to achieve. One is that it seeks a sizeable foothold in Russia as currency to trade for captured Ukrainian territory in future peace talks. Recent signs that its forces are digging in might support that claim.

Another is that Kyiv’s goals are more modest, including holding onto key towns and road/rail hubs. That complicates Moscow’s logistics efforts and would still give Ukraine territorial chips for the negotiating table.

A third is that its forces will withdraw, having forced Moscow to secure its border by diverting significant military resources away from Ukraine.

On balance, the second two explanations are probably closer to the mark. Holding large swathes of Russian territory will be difficult for Ukraine once the Kremlin’s armed forces eventually overcome their characteristic initial inertia. Attempting to do so would permanently tie up some of Kyiv’s best soldiers, and put them at risk of death or capture.

Of course, Kyiv has other motives, too. Apart from a big morale boost for a war-weary population, Ukraine might seek to recover some of its captured soldiers. Recently, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky observed that Ukraine’s forces were “replenishing the exchange fund”.

Further, he noted, Kyiv’s decision was motivated by the desire to show Russians that the war had consequences for them – not just for Ukrainians.

The incursion is also sending a message to the United States and its NATO allies.

The White House, in particular, has dithered about allowing Ukraine to use long-range American weapons to strike Russian territory, worrying that doing so is a dangerous escalation that also plays into Russian narratives about NATO being a de facto combatant in the war.

By striking into Russian territory, Kyiv is sending a powerful reminder to Washington – deeply distracted by its upcoming presidential election – that its forces can achieve surprising results with the right capabilities.

Will the Kremlin escalate things?

Moscow’s response to the incursion, so far, lends weight to the Ukrainian argument that American escalation fears are overblown.

Regime cronies like former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have made vague threats about vigorous punishments, and Kremlin-friendly propagandists on social media have alleged NATO troops are operating alongside Ukrainian soldiers. But that’s nothing new: Russian officials and commentators have falsely claimed for years that NATO is fighting with Ukrainian forces, and that Ukraine faces annihilation if it does not submit.

Viewed in that light, Kyiv’s move into Russia is a calculated gamble. Ukraine assesses the international, morale and material gains to sufficiently outweigh any anticipated reprisals.

Of course, that’s based on the assumption that any reprisals will be on a similar scale to those previously meted out to Ukraine. The Putin regime has routinely demonstrated it regards the laws and norms of war as inconvenient distractions, preferring instead to use fear and wanton destruction to cow its adversaries into capitulation.

But that’s also nothing Ukrainians haven’t seen before – in the slaughter of civilians at Bucha, the flattening of cities like Mariupol, the indiscriminate attacks against civilian hospitals and the veiled Russian threats about “accidents” at the occupied nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia.

Russia’s rudderless response

Tellingly, Ukraine’s incursion has again revealed the manifest failings of Russia’s armed forces. In particular, it highlights the hubris afflicting its leaders, who mistakenly believed Kyiv could fall in a mere three days. That’s now more than 900 days ago.

Many have justifiably lauded Ukraine’s preparations for its incursion as a masterpiece of operational security. It was certainly no mean feat to garner the resources necessary for a sizeable assault without tipping off either Moscow or Washington, both of which reacted initially with surprise.

However, there have been several reports that Russia’s military leadership dismissed warnings about Ukrainian troops concentrating near the border.

Since the operation began, there have been conflicting reports about who is in charge of Russia’s military response. Notionally, Valery Gerasimov – Russia’s beleaguered chief of the general staff – should be in command. Yet, Putin called the response to Ukraine’s attack a “counter-terrorism operation”, which seemed to put it within the purview of Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). Still others claim Aleksey Dyumin, a Putin favourite sometimes touted as his eventual successor, has been given the responsibility.

The confusion over command has also revealed how weak the forces remaining inside Russia are. A cobbled-together combination of conscripts, Russian naval infantry, FSB troops and Rosgvardia (Putin’s personal national guard) has been unable to dislodge the highly mobile Ukrainian forces.

After securing the town of Sudzha, the Ukrainian troops have also been able to bring in supplies and reinforcements, further complicating the job of repelling them. With the majority of Russia’s regular army tied up in Ukraine, there has even been speculation Moscow will need to relocate troops from its Kaliningrad enclave in northern Europe to help.

Putting the pressure back on Moscow

Politically, Ukraine’s move is deeply embarrassing for Putin, who has already proven himself slow to react when facing similar challenges. Just over a year ago, Moscow’s dithering allowed Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebel Wagner Group convoy to get within 200 kilometres of Moscow before an amnesty deal was brokered.

This time, Putin was forced to interrupt acting governor Alexey Smirnov during a televised meeting of defence officials, as he was delivering bad news about the depth of the Ukrainian incursion. After being curtly instructed to stick to discussing aid and relief efforts, Smirnoff promptly responded that around 180,000 Russians had been internally displaced.

Are these signs of fragility? Certainly, Russian refugees have directed significant anger at regional leaders and security forces in Kursk, some of whom seem to have been the first to flee. There are also reports of looting by Russian soldiers in the conflict zone. And there has also been criticism of Putin himself from Russians in the Kursk area.

In terms of regime stability, there are three potential outcomes.

One is that Ukraine’s incursion into Russian territory – which makes a lie of the Kremlin’s consistent leitmotif about keeping Russians safe – leads to a torrent of public anger that directly endangers Putin’s rule.

Second, Putin could turn the insult of Ukrainians capturing Russian soil into a rallying cry, uniting the population behind him.

The third option, however, might be most likely – the majority of Russians remain apathetic. There is still no real incentive for Kremlin elites to move against Putin, and popular outrage is likely to be confined to Kursk rather than the power centres of Moscow and St Petersburg.

Ultimately, Ukraine’s incursion into Russia goes beyond damaging Putin. It has boosted morale, shown up the Kremlin’s bluster and reminded the West that Ukraine matters. On all three measures, Kyiv has once again proven itself remarkably resourceful.

Matthew Sussex has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Atlantic Council, the Fulbright Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the Lowy Institute and various Australian government departments and agencies.

– ref. Was Ukraine’s incursion of Russia a tactical stroke of genius? It sent a strong message to Putin – and the West – https://theconversation.com/was-ukraines-incursion-of-russia-a-tactical-stroke-of-genius-it-sent-a-strong-message-to-putin-and-the-west-236864

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ross Gordon, Professor of Behaviour & Social Change, University of Technology Sydney

The federal government has been under significant pressure all week as it works to finalise proposed regulation to restrict gambling advertising. Currently, a partial ban is on the table.

This has led to severe criticism from gambling harm researchers, community organisations and some MPs and senators. A partial ban is inconsistent with the recommendations of a recent parliamentary inquiry, which unanimously recommended the need for a total ban.

Gambling is a demonstrably big problem. Australians are the world’s biggest per capita gamblers, losing about $25 billion a year. Nearly half of gamblers are at risk of, or already experience, harms from it. These include financial hardship, relationship breakdown, domestic violence, poor work productivity, criminality, insomnia, depression and suicide.

Why, then, is the government so reluctant to ban gambling advertising entirely? Part of the answer is in the industry’s strategic stakeholder marketing strategies, both publicly and behind closed doors. And they’re strategies we’ve seen before.

Read more:
The gambling industry is pulling out all the stops to prevent an ad ban, but the evidence is against it

Mounting harms

Clever marketing, weak regulation, and technologies such as sports betting apps and online casinos are increasing opportunities to gamble.

In our research, gamblers’ stories of harm are extremely troubling:

The feeling of losing […] I hate even talking about it […] it makes me so upset […] It drives you crazy […] I’ve dropped my phone, smashed the screen […] because I was so upset […] I was out of my mind, it’s horrible.“

The social costs associated with these gambling harms in Australia are estimated to cost more than $10.7 billion each year. The problem is so significant that even banks are taking actions to address gambling harm to their customers.

But the gambling industry is putting up a good fight. The peak body, Responsible Wagering Australia, has denied advertising normalises gambling to children, and warned any bans would send people to illegal offshore operators. There’s evidence contradicting both these points.

It’s part of a broader strategy to prevent further regulation. The tactics at play are very similar to those used by two other industries linked to health and social harms: alcohol and tobacco.

Strategic deja vu

These industries have used the full power of strategic marketing, not just to develop, promote, advertise and endorse their products, but also to influence government.

They do this through tactics such as extensive lobbying, media and public relations and stakeholder marketing. Tobacco companies have been known to funding favourable research or to challenge the findings of studies that have linked their marketing to consumption behaviours and harms.

Spruiking fears of job losses in hospitality, corporate social responsibility efforts such as funding community projects and setting up foundations are other strategic marketing examples used by these industries.

In the case of tobacco, this helped delay legislation banning advertising, introducing plain packaging and prohibiting smoking in public places for many years.

For alcohol, the industry has successfully avoided tighter restrictions on their marketing, despite clear evidence it helps drive harmful consumption.

What is ‘big gambling’ doing?

The gambling industry has learned from and adapted this playbook. Alongside the more visible media advertising, celebrity endorsements, sponsorship activities and a range of other tactics are used.

These include political donations (in the millions of dollars over the past 20 years), hiring lobby firms and even hosting lavish birthday lunches for our politicians.

Similar to big alcohol and tobacco, the gambling industry also funds research. It distorts and contests the findings of studies that link their marketing to health and social harms.

And as we see currently with the debate about what impact a ban on gambling advertising will have on free-to-air media, the alcohol and tobacco industries and media companies aligned their interests to protect revenue.

Read more:
Does free-to-air TV really need gambling ads to survive?

As with the tobacco and alcohol industries before them, this strategic marketing playbook gives the gambling industry in Australia power, access and influence over policymakers. This may help explain why the current federal government seems resistant to a total ban on gambling advertising.

In the case of tobacco, strong regulations were required through the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to restrict marketing and limit the use of these sorts of tactics. Crucially, these tobacco control efforts have been successful in reducing smoking prevalence, improving health outcomes and reducing harm. A similar framework has also been proposed for alcohol.

These rules are best practice recommendations to improve public health, including bans on advertising, reducing availability and use of price controls.

If we wish to effectively reduce gambling harm in Australia, similar robust regulations may be necessary. Such rules could include limits and declarations on political donations, banning gifts to politicians, tighter rules on lobbying and transparency about meetings with government, whether by the gambling industry or others. These efforts could then work alongside advertising bans currently being discussed, limits on sponsorship and controls on product development and availability.

We need an holistic approach to regulation that addresses the gambling industry’s clever use of strategic marketing. This would more effectively protect the Australian public and prevent gambling harm.

Ross Gordon has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, and Suncorp Bank to conduct research on gambling marketing, consumption and harm. He has also received funding from the UK Medical Research Council, the European Commission, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Alcohol Education and Research Council, and Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education to research alcohol marketing, consumption and harm. Ross has served on the World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health since 2020.

– ref. Big alcohol and tobacco are the aces of strategic marketing. The gambling industry has adopted the playbook – https://theconversation.com/big-alcohol-and-tobacco-are-the-aces-of-strategic-marketing-the-gambling-industry-has-adopted-the-playbook-236777

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

This morning, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) announced it was an error to cancel a scheduled concerto performance by British-Australian pianist Jayson Gillham.

Its decision, and the issues leading up to it, raises the issue of what the relationship of classical music to politics is – or, rather, what it should be. For many, the two realms simply should not mix. But it is naive to think classical music – or indeed any art – happens entirely separate from politics.

A musical controversy

The furore started Sunday, when Gillham performed a solo piano recital for the MSO that included the world-premiere of a short piece by composer Conor D’Netto, Witness.

Netto’s website states Witness is “dedicated to the journalists of Gaza”. When he came to perform it, Gillham elaborated on the dedication by drawing the audience’s attention to the more than 100 Palestinian journalists who have been killed in the current conflict.

Gillham’s introduction, however, appears to have elicited complaints to the orchestra’s management. The MSO responded by informing subscribers that Gillham’s appearance tonight, August 15, was to be cancelled.

The email said Gillham’s remarks had been made “without seeking the MSO’s approval or sanction” and were “an intrusion of personal political views on what should have been a morning focused on a program of works for solo piano”.

But if the MSO sought to distance itself from the perception of a partisan position on the Israel-Gaza conflict, or to affirm classical music’s right to be considered to be above politics more generally, it comprehensively failed to do so.

For some it appeared not only to have taken a particular side in this conflict, it had also sought to silence the voice of a musician it employed.

At one level, one can understand how the MSO might have got itself into this difficult position. The repertoire it performs and promotes is not usually connected explicitly to contemporary external events. Music, in any event, cannot present political ideas to us in the more direct ways that art forms like sculpture, painting or poetry can.

Classical music, in particular, seems to invite us to put politics to one side when we engage with it. Rather, we are drawn to contemplate more elusive or elevated qualities or ideas, such as formal beauty, objectivity, nobility or gravitas.

That, however, is also precisely why classical music can still serve political ends – even (or maybe especially) when we think it doesn’t.

The politics of the apolitical

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, first performed in 1824, may well have been composed in part as a response to the repressive political climate of post-Napoleonic Vienna.

It quickly came to be received as a hymn to our common humanity. But this did not stop it from being subsequently appropriated by violent political regimes such as Hitler’s Germany and Mao’s China – as well as by political movements opposed to them.

And today, the Ode to Joy theme from the symphony is the official anthem of the European Union.

The sheer range of the causes this music has been associated with does not mean the work itself must have no political meaning. Rather, that meaning lies precisely in this capacity to convey a notion of universal human value onto the particular cause it is being associated with.

It remains a political work, it’s just we have been conditioned not to hear it as such.

Not just a risk, but also an opportunity

This helps us understand the contradiction behind the MSO’s statement asserting “a concert platform is not an appropriate stage for political comment”. The orchestra has done precisely that on many previous occasion (such as in a fundraising concert for Ukraine it mounted in 2022, or in its expressions of support for the Voice to Parliament last year).

But it also helps us understand why, when a composer or performer (or in the case of Witness, both) seeks actively to reveal the political content in their work, it can still jar, or even upset us.

This power of classical music to elevate but also to obscure our attention and sympathy represents both an ever-present opportunity, and risk, for orchestras and their listeners alike.

It is one I think the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (named after Goethe’s collection of poems of 1819, themselves inspired by the 14th century Persian lyric poet Hafez), sets out explicitly to exploit.

Founded by scholar Edward Said and conductor/pianist Daniel Barenboim in 1999 to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of Goethe’s birth, the orchestra (now based in Spain) is substantially made up of young Arab and Israeli musicians. Through performing orchestra works together, these musicians are enabled to confront presumptions about the “other”.

As Barenboim once observed,

The Israeli kids, for instance, couldn’t imagine that there are actually people in Damascus and Amman and Cairo who can actually play violin and viola.

Here, the medium of Western classical music serves as a platform from which they can begin to imagine new, better, social formations.

While it is understandable the MSO might normally seek to refrain from similarly committing to a particular political cause in the same way, it should also not be adverse to recognising its work will always exist in, and engage with, a broader social and political context.

Like all art forms, classical music can also serve to draw our thoughts to, or circumscribe, who we consider to be worthy of our political attention, and why.

If anything, Gillham and D’Netto have served to affirm the continuing importance and value of the art form the MSO is there, ultimately, to champion.

Peter Tregear has appeared variously as a performer, presenter, or author, for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

– ref. Classical music is not isolated from politics. Melbourne Symphony Orchestra should know this – https://theconversation.com/classical-music-is-not-isolated-from-politics-melbourne-symphony-orchestra-should-know-this-236789

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Grant, Lecturer in Law, University of Canterbury

New Zealand’s space sector has been developing rapidly since the first rocket lifted off in 2017. It now contributes about NZ$1.7 billion in revenue, with plans to grow to $10 billion by 2030.

Last year, New Zealand hosted seven rocket launches, all by the US-listed but local company Rocket Lab. It was in response to Rocket Lab’s initial proposal for a launch site that New Zealand developed a regulatory system from scratch in less than two years to meet obligations under international law.

All launch nations have to register every object they send into space, and continue to supervise those objects to ensure no damage or loss occurs to another country’s objects or activities. They also have a responsibility to compensate for any harm.

As well, countries must prevent contamination of outer space and Earth’s environment, and ensure space activity does not interfere with other countries’ rights to free access and participation.

A 2020 review of New Zealand’s space legislation found the regulatory regime was by and large fit for purpose. But it raised substantive concerns about the regulation of new technologies, including satellite constellations and miniature satellites.

The recommendations prompted broader consultation on New Zealand’s space policy and aerospace strategy. This saw a backlash against the absence of Māori voices on the particular concern of light pollution from space.

The commercialisation of space

A 2019 report found New Zealand’s space industry is driven almost entirely by commercial activity, characterised by a mix of startups and entrepreneur-run, privately-funded companies.

The country’s space legislation is well suited to developing a space industry quickly, in particular the commercial and entrepreneurial sector.

However, awareness is growing of the impact of light pollution on Earth’s environment and ecosystem, human health and astronomy.

While urbanisation and indiscriminate use of artificial light are among the culprits, activities in space are another significant source of light pollution.

With every satellite placed into orbit, its reflective surface increases the ambient glow of the night sky. By 2021, human activity in outer space had resulted in a 10% increase in the brightness of the night sky compared to the illumination by natural sources.

While the space law review was more narrowly focused on satellite constellations and the associated light pollution, all satellites are part of what is a cumulative problem: individual countries, acting independently, collectively contribute to worsening light pollution.

New Zealand’s dark skies

The big concern is that light pollution interferes with the interests of other countries trying to study outer space. Increased pollution is obscuring observational astronomy and littering data with artificial shimmers and streaks of light.

Rising glow in the night sky is of particular concern for Māori and other Indigenous communities whose knowledge systems rely on unaided visual access to the stars.

With 14 astronomical observatories and seven “dark sky sites” recognised by Dark-Sky International, New Zealand has a national interest in addressing regulation and mitigation of light pollution.

The country’s bicultural foundation is protected under Treaty of Waitangi obligations. It recognises the unique relationship Māori have with the night sky and the mātauranga (knoweldge) contained within it.

The rising of Matariki, the cluster of stars also known as Pleiades, has been celebrated as a public holiday since 2022 in recognition of the event’s importance to Māori and the nation.

Regulation must address light pollution

As a launch state, New Zealand must have due regard to the interests of other states to participate in the exploration of outer space, regardless of economic or scientific advancement.

While New Zealand is a relatively new launch nation, it is a desirable destination. How New Zealand approaches the licensing of satellites may help guide binding behaviours developing in international law.

There is a tension between the national interest in maintaining dark skies and the economic value of the space industry. Being over-prescriptive with licensing requirements will inevitably deter potential companies from launching from New Zealand.

The flip side is that without some requirement for companies to address how their satellites are contributing to light pollution, there is no market force driving innovation in this area.

There have been some attempts by private commercial actors to mitigate the impact of their satellites. But these attempts have remained largely underdeveloped. Efforts by SpaceX to reduce the impacts of its mega constellations have proven ineffective.

The nature of the new space age, launched by a 2004 competition to help jump-start private spaceflight, ensures private companies are more motivated to develop technology to reduce costs in the long run. Without a strong shift in the regulatory environment, there is no real drive for investment in technologies to mitigate light pollution.

As New Zealand continues to develop a regulatory framework, the issue of light pollution has to be taken seriously. And Indigenous voices are important, because traditional astronomical knowledge is fundamental to the reclamation and continuation of Indigenous knowledge.

William Grant 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. Satellites are making the night sky brighter – as a launch site, NZ has a duty to combat light pollution – https://theconversation.com/satellites-are-making-the-night-sky-brighter-as-a-launch-site-nz-has-a-duty-to-combat-light-pollution-233784

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Mazza, Director, SPHERE NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health in Primary Care and Professor and Head of the Department of General Practice, Monash University

Donald Trump suggested he was open to revoking access to the abortion pill if he won the presidential race, after being asked by a reporter last Thursday if he would “revoke access” to the drug. The following day, Trump’s campaign office said he didn’t hear the question properly.

Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, has since said abortion policy should be made by the states and the pair want to “make sure that any medicine is safe, that it is prescribed in the right way”. But it’s unclear exactly what this means for American women’s future access to abortion.

The abortion drug they’re talking about is mifepristone, otherwise known as RU486.

Mifepristone is one of the medications used in a medical abortion. It acts by blocking the effect of progesterone, one of the hormones important to the development of a pregnancy.

The second medication involved is misoprostol, which contracts and empties the uterus.

In Australia these two medicines are prescribed in a combination pack called MS-2 Step which is registered for use in women up to nine weeks of pregnancy.

What happens during a medical abortion?

When a woman undergoes a medical abortion, she first swallows the mifepristone tablet. This blocks a hormone called progesterone, which is needed for the pregnancy to continue. This might result in some spotting or bleeding.

Between 36 and 48 hours later, she places the misoprostol in her cheek and lets it dissolve.

Strong cramps and bleeding will start and it will feel like a very heavy period with blood clots and tissue being passed. This is the lining of the uterus and the pregnancy being shed.

Doctors often prescribe anti-nausea pills and pain relief medications to deal with these symptoms.

The whole process is like having a miscarriage and usually lasts between two and six hours.

Once the pregnancy has passed, symptoms start to settle. Women will continue to bleed like a normal period for about five days, and some lighter bleeding may continue for between ten days to a month.

Medical abortion is safe and works more than 98% of the time when carried out early on in a pregnancy. There is only a 0.4% risk of a serious complication such as an infection or haemorrhage requiring hospitalisation or transfusion.

If a woman has very heavy bleeding (passing clots bigger than a small lemon or filling or soaking through two or menstrual pads per hour for more than two hours in a row), she should go to the emergency department because of the small but serious risk of haemorrhage.

If she develops a fever over 38 degrees, she may have developed an infection and should contact her health-care provider.

Women should also do a follow up blood test seven days after taking the MS-2 Step to make sure the abortion was successful.

What are the other options?

While medical abortion is rapidly becoming the most common way to have an abortion early in the pregnancy, it is not the method of choice for all women.

And it’s not suitable for everyone, especially those without support, such as homeless women or those experiencing domestic violence.

For some women, surgical abortion might be their method of choice or a better option. It can be helpful to use a decision aid, which sets out the pros and cons of each method.

When did Australians get access?

Like everywhere else in the world, having medical abortion available in Australia has enabled women to access an abortion when they previously wouldn’t have been able to.

Prior to its introduction in Australia in 2012, abortions were carried out surgically, requiring a one-day stay in a hospital or surgical facility, and an anaesthetic.

Read more:
Arrival of RU486 in Australia a great leap forward for women

Surgical abortions were then – and still are – difficult to access. Unlike surgical procedures such as knee replacements or having your appendix removed, surgical abortions are not always provided in public hospital settings, especially hospitals run by faith-based organisations.

For women living in rural areas, this has been a big problem. Many surgical providers of abortion are located in metropolitan settings and many women have felt judged and stigmatised or had barriers put in their way by doctors who did not believe in a woman’s right to choose.

Now a woman can receive a prescription for MS-2 Step through her local doctor and undergo a medical abortion in the comfort of her own home.

If her local doctor doesn’t provide this service, she can consult a doctor who does via telehealth. Medicare provides rebates for consultations related to sexual and reproductive health issues carried out either over the phone or via online video. Unlike most other telehealth consultations, for sexual and reproductive health issues, you don’t need to have seen the GP face-to-face in the last 12 months to get a rebate.

This means a woman who is living in Western Australia, for example, can have a consultation with a doctor in Queensland and receive a prescription for MS-2 Step via text message or email.

She can then go to her local pharmacy to have the medication dispensed, undergo the medical abortion at home and then have her follow up consultation again via telehealth a couple of weeks later.

What’s the situation in America?

In America, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe Vs Wade in 2022, it removed women’s constitutional right to abortion, allowing many states to introduce bans on abortions. This meant many clinics providing surgical abortions closed down.

The availability of mifepristone has, however, meant that women have been able to bypass these state-based laws and obtain medical abortion pills via telehealth or online through services like Plan C or Women on Web.

If Donald Trump wins the election and restricts access to mifepristone, American women’s options will become even more limited and they may resort to unsafe abortion methods. Restricting access to abortion never stops it, it just drives it underground and makes it less safe.

Danielle Mazza receives funding from the NHMRC and MRFF for research focused on improving access to abortion.

– ref. What is the abortion drug Donald Trump has been talking about? How is it used in Australia? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-abortion-drug-donald-trump-has-been-talking-about-how-is-it-used-in-australia-236594

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By C Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC L3 Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern, after rising cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the potential for further spread.

This now triggers a coordinated international response to an extraordinary event and the mobilisation of resources, such as vaccines and diagnostic testing, to curb the spread of this infectious disease.

But WHO has not declared mpox a pandemic. Rather, the measures it has triggered are designed to prevent it from becoming one.

What triggered this latest alert?

Mpox, once known as monkeypox, is a viral infection closely related to smallpox. Initial symptoms include a fever, headache, swelling of the lymph nodes and muscle ache. A typical rash follows, mainly on the face, hands and feet.

The spread of mpox through certain African countries led the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to declare earlier this week mpox a public health emergency of continental security. This is the first time the organisation has issued such an alert since it was established in 2017.

The situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa has been particularly worrying for more than a year.

There are two types or clades of mpox. Clade II, which originates in west Africa, is less severe. It has a fatality rate of up to 1% (in other words, roughly one in 100 are expected to die from it). But clade I, from central Africa, has a fatality rate of up to 10% (up to one in ten die). This compares to a 0.7% fatality rate for the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is seeing large epidemics of the more deadly clade I mpox.

Mpox is endemic in some parts of central and west Africa, where the virus exists in animals and can spread to humans. Outbreaks have been increasing, with more human-to-human spread, since 2017.

This is partly due to very low levels of immunity to the mpox virus, which is related to the virus that causes smallpox. Mass vaccination against smallpox ceased more than 40 years ago globally, resulting in minimal immunity in populations today against mpox.

The WHO designation announced this week relates to the clade I. Not only does this have a higher fatality rate, it has new mutations that enhance spread between people. These changes, and the global lack of immunity to mpox, makes the world’s population vulnerable to the virus.

There are two different epidemics

In 2022, an epidemic of mpox swept through non-endemic countries, including beyond Africa. This was a variant of clade II originating from Nigeria, called clade IIb. This was sexually transmitted, predominantly affecting men who have sex with men, and had a low fatality rate.

That epidemic peaked in 2022, with vaccines made available to people at risk in high-income countries, but there has been an uptick in 2024.

At the same time, large clade I epidemics were occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but with far less attention.

Vaccines were not available there, even in 2023, when there were 14,626 cases and 654 deaths. Mortality was 4.5%, and higher in children.

In fact, most cases and deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been children. This means most transmission there is non-sexual and is likely to have occurred through close contact or respiratory aerosols.

However, in 2023 an outbreak in a non-endemic part of the country, South Kivu in the east, appeared to be by sexual transmission, indicating more than one epidemic and different transmission modes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

By mid-2024, there were already more cases in the country than all of 2023 – more than 15,600 cases and 537 deaths.

Testing capacity is low in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, most cases are not confirmed by lab testing, and the data we have are from a small sample of genomic sequences from the Kamituga region of South Kivu.

This show mutations to the clade I virus around September 2023, to a variant termed clade Ib, which is more readily transmissible between people. We do not have much data to compare these viruses with the viruses causing cases in the rest of the country.

Mpox is spreading internationally

In the past month, the virus has spread to countries that share a border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo – Rwanda and Burundi. It has also spread to other east African countries, such as Kenya and Uganda. None of these countries have had mpox cases previously.

In an interconnected, mobile world, cases may spread to other continents, as mpox did in 2018 from Nigeria to the United Kingdom and other countries.

A few travel-related cases between 2018 and 2019 may have led to the large multi-country 2022 clade IIb epidemic.

We have vaccines, but not where they are needed

As the mpox virus and smallpox viruses are related (they are both orthopoxviruses), smallpox vaccines offer protection against mpox. These vaccines were used to control the 2022 clade IIb epidemic.

However, most of the world has never been vaccinated, and has no immunity to mpox.

The newer vaccine (called Jynneos in some countries and Imvamune or Imvanex in others) is effective. However, supplies are limited, and vaccine is scarce in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

WHO’s declaration of mpox as a public health emergency of international concern will help mobilise vaccines to where they are needed. The Africa Centres for Disease Control had already begun negotiations to secure 200,000 doses of vaccine, which is a fraction of what is required to control the epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

What happens now?

Ultimately, a serious epidemic anywhere in the world is a concern for all of us, as it can spread globally through travel, as we saw with the COVID pandemic.

Controlling it at the source is the best measure, and WHO’s latest declaration will help mobilise the required resources.

Surveillance for spread of this more serious version of mpox is also essential, bearing in mind that many countries do not have the capacity for widespread testing. So we’ll have to rely on “suspected cases”, based on a clinical definition, to keep track of the epidemic.

Open-source epidemic intelligence – such as using AI to monitor trends in rash and fever illness – can also be used as an early warning system in countries with weak health systems or delayed reporting of cases.

A further complication is that 20-30% of people with mpox may simultaneously have chickenpox, an unrelated infection that also causes a rash. So an initial diagnosis of chickenpox (which is easier to test for) does not rule out mpox.

Effective communication and tackling push-back against public health measures and disinformation is also key. We saw how important this was during the COVID pandemic.

Now, WHO will coordinate the global mpox response, focusing on equity in disease prevention and access to diagnostics and vaccines. It is up to individual countries to do their best to comply with the International Health Regulations, and the protocols for how such a global emergency are managed.

The World Health Organization has more information about mpox, including symptoms and treatment. For information about vaccine access and availability, contact your local health department or doctor, as this varies from country to country.

C Raina MacIntyre currently receives funding from NHMRC, MRFF and Sanofi. She has been on an advisory board for Bavarian Nordic and had funding and in-kind support for a smallpox tabletop exercise in 2019 from Bavarian Nordic, Emergent Biosolutions, Siga and Meridien Medical. Bavarian Nordic and Emergent make smallpox vaccines, and Siga makes the anti-viral TPOXX. She is on the WHO SAGE Smallpox and Monkeypox ad-hoc Working group.

– ref. WHO has declared mpox a global health emergency. What happens next? – https://theconversation.com/who-has-declared-mpox-a-global-health-emergency-what-happens-next-236778

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Giles, Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases, The University of Melbourne

Last week, South Australia announced it would offer pregnant women a vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) from next year for free. It’s the first Australian state or territory to do so.

RSV can be particularly serious for infants, so vaccination during pregnancy is designed to protect the baby.

The vaccine, called Abrysvo, was registered for use in pregnancy by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration in March 2024. It’s also approved for use in adults over 60, who are vulnerable to RSV as well.

However, vaccination against RSV is not funded under the National Immunisation Program. This means people who want a vaccine need to pay for it, unless it’s offered by a state or territory program.

So why is South Australia planning to offer pregnant women this vaccine? And if you’re expecting a baby, is Abrysvo worth considering?

What is RSV?

RSV infects the lungs and the respiratory tract. It’s extremely common, with most children infected by the age of two. In most people, the symptoms are mild, such as a runny nose, dry cough, sore throat, sneezing or headache.

However, in babies under 12 months, and especially under six months, the symptoms can sometimes be severe, causing breathing difficulties requiring admission to hospital. This is because the infection can spread to the lungs, causing pneumonia.

RSV can also cause severe infection in premature babies and those with other medical conditions such as heart disease or a weakened immune system.

There’s no specific treatment against this virus once someone is infected. Antibiotics do not work against RSV infection, so prevention is key.

Fortunately, there is now a vaccine available in Australia that can protect the most vulnerable. This vaccine is also approved in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States

What is the vaccine and how does it work?

The Abrysvo vaccine is a protein subunit vaccine, which means it targets an important protein of the virus called the RSV F protein.

The vaccine, if given to a mother during pregnancy, leads her to make antibodies against RSV. Antibodies are an important part of our immune system that help protect us against infection and severe disease.

These antibodies cross the placenta to the baby, so when it’s born it is ready and able to fight against RSV if it encounters the virus.

This vaccine does not contain any live virus, so you can’t catch RSV from the vaccine.

The vaccine is recommended for pregnant women at 28–36 weeks of pregnancy. Only a single dose is required.

How effective is the vaccine? And is it safe?

In a phase 3 clinical trial, Abryvso was most effective in protecting infants in the first three months of life, and then declined over time. This trial was conducted in 18 countries and included 3,682 pregnant women who received the vaccine and 3,676 pregnant women who received a placebo injection.

The efficacy (how well it protects against severe disease) was 81.8% in the first three months after birth, then dropped to 69.4% at six months. The vaccine was less effective at protecting against moderate infection, with 57.1% efficacy up to three months of age.

It remains unclear how long protection lasts for beyond the first six months of life. However, it is babies in these first few months of life who are at highest risk.

The rate of side effects reported was similar for the women who received the vaccine (13.8% reported an adverse event in the month after vaccination) and the women who received the placebo (13.1% reported an adverse event).

The most common local reaction reported in both the vaccine and placebo groups was pain at the injection site. The most common systemic symptom reported in both groups was fatigue.

The rate of preterm birth was similar for the two groups. There were 28 cases of preterm birth in the group who received the vaccine compared to 23 cases in the group who did not receive vaccine.

Are there other alternatives?

Beyfortus (also known as nirsevimab) is a treatment called a long-acting monoclonal antibody. This can be given to babies from birth. Like the antibodies that cross the placenta after the mother is vaccinated during pregnancy, nirsevimab can also protect the baby during the first six months of life.

However, access to nirsevimab currently varies according to the state you live in. Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales have this year funded their own programs. It’s not yet clear which states, if any, will fund nirsevimab in 2025.

How do you access this vaccine?

In Australia, Abryvso is not currently funded on the National Immunisation Program but can be purchased privately with a prescription from your doctor.

Last week South Australia announced the first funded state program in Australia, starting in 2025. The South Australian government will use a combination approach to prevent RSV disease in newborns. The state will fund Abryvso for pregnant women. For babies with health conditions, babies born prematurely or for babies whose mothers were not vaccinated, the monoclonal antibody will be recommended.

Now that an effective, safe vaccine is available, all pregnant women should discuss this vaccine with their GP or maternity care provider and consider receiving it to protect their newborn against RSV.

Michelle Giles receives funding from the Medical Research Future Fund for her investigator initiated research in maternal immunisation. Michelle Giles is a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI). The views expressed in this article are written in her professional capacity and not in her role as a member of ATAGI.

– ref. South Australia plans to offer pregnant women an RSV vaccine next year. Here’s what you need to know – https://theconversation.com/south-australia-plans-to-offer-pregnant-women-an-rsv-vaccine-next-year-heres-what-you-need-to-know-236333

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben McCann, Associate Professor of French Studies, University of Adelaide

Gena Rowlands, who has died at the age of 94, was a highly respected actor, with a fierce, edgy, often emotionally unstable on screen presence. She often played traumatised mothers or mother figures and her characters were often tinged with a brittle abrasiveness.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1930, Rowlands began her distinguished acting career in 1956, playing opposite Edward G. Robinson in Paddy Chayefsky’s play Middle of the Night on Broadway.

After several television roles, Hollywood quickly came calling, with small roles in The High Cost of Loving (1958) and Lonely Are The Brave (1962).

From that moment on, she rarely stopped working. Along the way, she worked with some of contemporary cinema’s most esteemed figures – Woody Allen, Jim Jarmusch, Terence Davies and Paul Schrader. But her ten collaborations with husband John Cassavetes catapulted her to fame.

Working with John

Cassavetes was the pioneering independent filmmaker who made risky, edgy films and who often accepted Hollywood studio roles to secure funding for his own projects.

He and Rowlands were married in 1954 and he first directed her in the poignant drama A Child is Waiting (1963).

From then until their final collaboration in the highly acclaimed Love Streams (1984), they forged a series of groundbreaking arthouse films that explored complex human relationships and emotionally intense characters.

The American cinema of 1970s is often characterised as pivoting between the blockbusters of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and the adrenaline-fuelled adaptations of The Godfather (1972) and The Exorcist (1973). Cassavetes and Rowlands’ work figures as the third side of that triangle.

Rowlands once remarked that, when she began her career, “almost all of the women’s parts were glamour girls”.

Thanks to Cassavetes’ scripts, she changed the way Hollywood wrote female characters and challenged traditional Hollywood conventions by prioritising artistic freedom and creative control.

Most notable among their shared work were Faces (1968), where Rowlands played a disenchanted wife; Opening Night (1977), in which she portrayed an ageing actress; and Gloria (1980), a mainstream crime comedy drama that earned her a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Rowlands loved the larger-than-life role of Gloria, the crime boss’s moll who goes on the run. Critics noted how it tapped into the way Rowlands often thought about herself: as the sexy but tough woman who didn’t really need a man.

The ‘inside-out’ actress

Rowlands has been described as an “inside out” actress in her approach to performance.

She would start with the script, familiarise herself with the lines, absorbing and reflecting on them. Only once the lines were learned would she start with the character.

The bravado we see on screen was not improvised or spontaneous, but the result of meticulous craft and nuance.

Her counterparts – Jane Fonda, Angie Dickinson and Ellen Burstyn – were never as brave. Rowlands’ performances appeal to us through their raw emotion and deep psychological insight.

This approach, coupled with Cassavetes’ love of gritty realism and no-nonsense approach to characters, created a series of unique naturalistic performances. “You can’t hide anything from film”, Rowlands once admitted.

A masterpiece of raw authenticity

Her first Academy Award nomination came for the tour de force performance in A Woman Under the Influence in 1974. Playing Mabel Longhetti, a woman struggling with mental health issues, Rowlands offers a poignant exploration of human vulnerability and resilience.

Aided by Cassavetes’ unique filmmaking style – naturalistic dialogue, improvised scenes, a wonderful ear for speech patterns – she walks a delicate line between pathos and hysteria.

Rowlands would later confess she had difficulty initially in knowing how to play Mabel, so manic and detached was the character.

But the result is breathtaking. In scene after scene, it barely looks as if she is acting. Small wonder that future generations of actors and filmmakers, from Cate Blanchett to Pedro Almodóvar, regard A Woman Under the Influence as the unforgettable expression of what complex, authentic acting should be.

A return to the spotlight

Though Cassavetes died in 1989, Rowlands continued to work regularly on network television. She won an Emmy in 1987 playing the titular character in The Betty Ford Story and a second for the life-affirming fable The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie in 2003, a performance described by one reviewer as “incandescent”.

Modern audiences remember her most fondly for her appearance in The Notebook (2004), directed by her son Nick Cassavetes, as the older version of Allie Calhoun, played by Rachel McAdams.

Towards the end of the film, Allie, now crippled with dementia, becomes confused and agitated, and starts yelling at her beloved Noah and the health-care workers. It’s a glimpse of Rowlands from three decades earlier, prowling a New York street in A Woman Under the Influence, asking startled passersby what time it is.

She received an Honorary Academy Award in 2015 and told a delightful story about working with Bette Davis, her idol. Davis, like Rowlands, was fiercely independent, and a straight talker.

Back in 1982, the great American playwright Tennessee Williams wrote

Gena possesses a titanic talent. She’s violent yet sweet; manic yet lucid; beautiful yet plain; accessible yet unknowable.

Wise words indeed.

Ben McCann 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. Farewell Gena Rowlands, the formidable actress whose characters always seemed to be tipping into madness – https://theconversation.com/farewell-gena-rowlands-the-formidable-actress-whose-characters-always-seemed-to-be-tipping-into-madness-227369

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharolyn Anderson, Research scientist and Adjunct Associate Professor, University of South Australia

In a world increasingly illuminated by artificial light, the beautiful night skies of a small coastal town in South Australia have attracted international recognition. Carrickalinga on the Fleurieu Peninsula is Australia’s first official Dark Sky Community. The title rewards a dedicated community effort to combat light pollution and preserve the natural environment at night.

The journey began three years ago when I was a PhD candidate at the Australian National University, working on the value of night skies. I was a regular visitor to Carrickalinga, but this time conversations at a picnic one evening turned to the clarity and brilliance of the stars. I was inspired to work with the locals to nominate Carrickalinga as a “Dark Sky Place”.

My recent research suggests restoring dark skies would be worth US$3.4 trillion (A$5.16 trillion) to the world, annually. That’s largely because light pollution is disrupting nocturnal pollinators, altering predator-prey interactions, and changing the behaviours of nocturnal species.

Light pollution has detrimental effects on wildlife, human health, and ecosystem functions and services. But there are simple solutions. By embracing responsible lighting practices, everyone can contribute to a healthier future in which the wonders of the night sky are accessible to all.

Understanding light pollution

Light pollution refers to human alteration of outdoor light levels. Excessive or misdirected artificial light brightens the night sky, diminishing our ability to see stars.

Research shows the problem is getting worse. Light pollution increased by
7–10% a year from 2011 to 2022. More than a third of people on Earth cannot see the Milky Way.

Light pollution not only affects our view of the cosmos, but also wastes energy and money, contributes to climate change and has significant repercussions for both ecological and human health.

Nocturnal animals such as bats and certain birds rely on darkness to navigate and find food. Insects, crucial for pollination and as a food source for other wildlife, are also affected. Artificial light at night is contributing to their decline.

In humans, studies have shown artificial light interferes with circadian rhythms, leading to sleep disorders and other health issues.

The global Dark Sky movement

DarkSky International, formerly known as the International Dark Sky Association, is a global network of volunteers combating light pollution. The non-profit organisation established in 1988 is based in Tuscon, Arizona in the United States. But more than 193,000 people across more than 70 countries are involved, including astronomers, environmental scientists and the public.

The International Dark Sky Places Program was born in 2001 when Flagstaff, Arizona was named the first International Dark Sky City. Now the program certifies five types of Dark Sky Places: sanctuaries, reserves, parks, communities, and urban night sky.

DarkSky says the aim is to “preserve and protect the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies through environmentally responsible outdoor lighting”. It recognises places that demonstrate a commitment to reducing light pollution through public education, policy, and promoting responsible lighting practices.

There are now well over 200 Dark Sky Places across the globe. This covers more than 160,000 square kilometres in 22 countries on six continents.

Australia’s Dark Sky Places

Australia is home to several Dark Sky Places, each recognised for their exceptional night skies and dedication to reducing light pollution. These include:

1. Warrumbungle National Park (2016) – Australia’s first Dark Sky Park, near Coonabarabran in west-central New South Wales.

2. The Jump-Up (2019) – Dark Sky Sanctuary in Winton, western Queensland

3. River Murray (2019) – Dark Sky Reserve, including parts of South Australia’s Riverland

4. Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary (2023) – Dark Sky Sanctuary, northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia

5. Carrickalinga (2024) – Australia’s first Dark Sky Community, Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia

6. Palm Beach Headland (2024) – Australia’s first Urban Night Sky Place, outer Sydney, New South Wales.

Our journey in Carrickalinga

Since 2021, the Carrickalinga community has worked tirelessly towards achieving International Dark Sky Community certification. The journey involved several key initiatives:

• Sky Quality Metering Program: regular measurements of sky brightness to monitor light pollution levels

• Community engagement: presentations to community groups and the district council to raise awareness about light pollution, information stalls at local markets, community consultation process (led by the District Council of Yankalilla)

• Educational materials: printed flyers, video, and a “Star Party” including a presentation on First Nations cosmology

• Policy development: collaboration with the district council to create a lighting policy including public lighting design that complies with both Australian standards and DarkSky requirements.

Carrickalinga is currently upgrading existing public lighting to reduce light pollution. This will involve a new lighting design plan that reduces correlated colour temperature, ensuring shielded downward-facing lights minimise skyglow, glare and light trespass.

Reducing light pollution by upgrading lighting fixtures does not compromise safety. Dark sky does not mean dark ground.

Light pollution has become such a problem because our lights are unnecessarily bright and poorly designed. Fixing the problem simply involves changing the colour from white to amber, shielding and targeting lights so they do not shine upwards and outwards, and reducing wattage where it is surplus to requirements for people’s safety.

How you can help

Achieving and maintaining dark sky status is not difficult but it does require ongoing community effort. Here are the five principles for responsible outdoor lighting, which apply equally to domestic as well as public lighting:

• Useful – use light only if it is needed and has a clear purpose

• Targeted – direct light so it falls only where it is needed

• Low light levels – light should be no brighter than necessary

• Controlled – use light only when it is needed

• Warm colours – use warm coloured lights wherever possible and avoid short-wavelength (blue–violet) light.

An inspirational journey

Achieving International Dark Sky Community status was a significant achievement in preserving the natural night environment and educating the local community about light pollution. This accomplishment demonstrates the power of community action and serves as a model for others.

By protecting our night skies, we safeguard a vital part of our natural and cultural heritage and also promote healthier ecosystems and communities. Carrickalinga’s journey serves as an inspiring example of what can be achieved through collective effort and dedication to preserving our planet’s natural beauty.

I would like to acknowledge the enormous contribution of Carrickalinga Dark Sky Community volunteer Sheryn Pitman, who works for Green Adelaide in the South Australian Department for Environment and Water, and helped write this article.

Sharolyn Anderson 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. The making of Australia’s first Dark Sky Community at Carrickalinga – https://theconversation.com/the-making-of-australias-first-dark-sky-community-at-carrickalinga-228002

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Finnerty, Postdoctoral research fellow in conservation, University of Sydney

Species are disappearing at an alarming rate around the world. But Australia’s extinction crisis is especially severe – since European colonisation, we have lost about 100 species of animals and plants. The loss of 33 mammal species is largely due to canny invasive predators such as foxes and cats as well as destruction of habitat.

To try to stem the losses, many scientists and conservationists are turning to rewilding. This promising approach involves reintroducing species to their former habitats or relocating them to new areas where they have a better chance of survival.

To date, rewilding in Australia has worked best on islands free of foxes and cats and in fenced-off safe havens, which act like islands on the mainland.

But is there a way we could bring back vulnerable native species beyond the fence?

In research published today, we show how the humble mesa has potential to act as a reintroduction site for threatened species. You might associate these flat-topped, steep-sided landforms with American gunslinger westerns. But Australia has plenty of its own mesas.

What’s special about mesas?

By our count, there are now 23 fenced safe havens across Australia, and the number has been growing in recent years.

These sites work. But they require ongoing human input. You have to fence the land, make sure it stays fenced, and control for feral predators. When funding runs out, the havens can fall into disrepair and predators may eventually break back in.

We need supplementary approaches to add to our rewilding toolkit – outside the fences.

The reason we began investigating mesas is their shape. By definition, a mesa is an isolated flat-topped landform, elevated from its surrounding landscape by steep sides. The Spanish word “mesa” translates to “table” in English, reflecting their distinctive shape. But don’t be confused – a mesa is different to a tableland such as the Atherton Tablelands in northern Queensland. A mesa is generally smaller and stands alone.

We theorised the steep, largely vegetation-free sides of a mesa could act as natural barriers, slowing down fox and cat incursions. Better still, the isolation of these landforms might give extra protection to species vulnerable to fire.

Luckily for us, these landforms aren’t reserved for lonely cowboys on horseback and an Ennio Morricone soundtrack. We scoured satellite images and found 91 mesas just in New South Wales, each with a flat top larger than ten hectares.

Sky-islands: putting mesas to the test

To test our theories, we chose Mount Talaterang. This remote mountain in Morton National Park has a flat top of 317 hectares, making it one of the largest mesas we found in New South Wales.

We set up cameras on top of the mesa as well as in the surrounding bushland at the bottom of the steep slopes and gathered four months of data.

The results were exciting. As we had hoped, the top of the mesa was almost entirely free of invasive mammals. There were no foxes or rabbits. Feral cats were present atop the mesa, but in significantly lower numbers than in the lowlands. Better still, we spotted higher numbers of small native mammals such as antechinus species and spotted-tailed quoll atop the mesa than in the bush below.

By contrast, we spotted far more invasive mammals in the bush below the mesa. Specifically, we sighted foxes 633 times, and cats 338 times, whereas no foxes were recorded on the mesa, and we recorded only 5 sightings of cats.

On the mesa, we captured 26 instances of antechinuses and 20 of quolls, but saw zero antechinus and only one quoll in the lowlands.

What’s next?

These findings come from a single mesa, so we should be cautious about drawing wide conclusions. But because the difference is so pronounced, we hope our research spurs greater interest in testing whether mesas such as Mount Talaterang could offer a wilder way of rewilding, where we harness natural landforms for protection.

Mount Talaterang lies within Morton National Park. This park covers part of the historic range of locally threatened or regionally extinct species such as the southern brown bandicoot, long-nosed potoroo, parma wallaby, and the eastern quoll, which may be suitable future rewilding candidates.

To boost the chances of successful rewilding, we need to know more about what life would look like for these threatened species if we release them on a mesa. Would there be enough food? Are there reliable water sources? Will climate change make it harder to survive on top of these landforms?

Mesas crop up around the world, from South Africa to South America and Europe. But the rewilding potential of mesas in these regions has not yet been explored, to our knowledge.

We hope our research triggers new interest in these “sky islands” and other ways of rewilding species which we can use to supplement the proven methods of traditional fenced havens and islands.

Rob Brewster (WWF-Australia), Francesca Roncolato (WWF-Australia), Tom Jameson (University of Cambridge) and Mathew Crowther (University of Sydney) contributed to this research. WWF Australia partly funded this research through its Australian Wildlife and Nature Recovery Fund

Read more:
So you want to cat-proof a bettong: how living with predators could help native species survive

WWF Australia partly funded this research through its Australian Wildlife and Nature Recovery Fund.

Thomas Newsome receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is immediate past-president of the Australasian Wildlife Management Society and Council member of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW.

– ref. Islands in the sky: could steep-sided hilltops offer safe haven to our threatened species? – https://theconversation.com/islands-in-the-sky-could-steep-sided-hilltops-offer-safe-haven-to-our-threatened-species-234925

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia

For a documentary to be successful, it needs to be proficiently made and, more importantly, focus on a subject of interest to the viewer.

Let’s face it: a story about a blind big wave surfer is an awesome subject for a film (surely Hollywood have optioned the rights for the dramatisation?). You’d have to be made of stone not to find something of interest in The Blind Sea, the new documentary from first-time feature film maker Daniel Fenech.

The Blind Sea follows vision-impaired surfer and Paralympic cyclist Matt Formston from Pismo Beach, California, to Narrabeen, New South Wales, as he sets about preparing to surf the notoriously dangerous Nazaré beach break in Portugal.

Footage of Formston assembling the team and doing the requisite training (under the guidance of his mentor, big-wave surfer and board shaper Dylan Longbottom) is peppered with interviews with his family and workmates.

Fenech and team do an exceptional job capturing the excitement of surfing – the opening montage sequence, in which the viewer is situated in the midst of the surf, is one of the best I’ve seen in a doco – and the excellent big wave footage is sure to appeal to the general public as well as waxheads.

That being said, given that Formston doesn’t actually ride the biggest waves we see in the film – because of safety – there is something slightly underwhelming about the climax in which he rides a very big (though not the biggest) wave, carefully surfing the edge of it.

This is not to belittle Formston’s achievement, just to note one of the limitations of the genre. If this were a dramatisation and not a documentary, no doubt the most monstrous wave in the film would be the climactic one.

Elevated beyond the feel good

The lovingly captured details of the characters around Nazaré wonderfully humanise the whole affair. There’s one guy who sits on the headland strumming an acoustic guitar and singing every day, and then there are the surfers who work with Formston, paragons of the laid back surfer dude.

This gets to the crux of what makes the film a far cry from a hero portrait of Formston (though it does appear in this garb), and, I would suggest, elevates it beyond the feel good story we might expect: our central character comes off as so prickly that nothing about the film feels particularly good.

There’s no doubt Formston is a high achiever (and if you did doubt it, I’m sure he’d tell you otherwise), but his spouting of platitude after platitude about overcoming obstacles seems increasingly robotic as the film progresses.

Interviews with his wife Rebecca seem peculiarly forced, carefully “on-script” in managing his brand, and Formston comes across more like a corporation than a person. He works for – and seems to be heavily indebted to – Optus, and parts of the film play like an in-house Optus advertisement regarding their support for people with disability.

See it on the big screen

The guy is definitely impressive, and being blind from five would undoubtedly endow most people with at least a medium-sized wooden plank on the shoulder. But he also seems guarded, and at the same time, for someone who has had to struggle against the odds, extremely egotistical and without any humour or humility.

Without his maniacal drive he probably would not have achieved the remarkable things he’s achieved. But we sense Formston is contemptuous of people who don’t have this drive, as though life is only about crushing goals and climbing mountains.

What about people who are satisfied with living in and enjoying the moment, with pleasure in the day to day? Are they lesser people?

At the same time, there are lots of things people actually can’t do. Often this is tied to resources, but there are also physical limits. Most people will never be Olympic sprinters, regardless of how “goal-oriented” they are. Does this make them failures? One of the ridiculous aspects of the self-help era (tied to the relentless individualism of the neoliberal ethos) is the bogus optimism that suggests that everything is just a matter of attitude.

None of this is a critique of the film itself. In fact, it makes The Blind Sea a more interesting proposition than if it were either a simple hero portrait or a self-conscious interrogation of the limits of heroic myths.

In any case, it is a very well-made documentary, the subject is awesome, and there’s enough energy here to carry its length. It’s definitely worth seeing this one on the big screen.

The Blind Sea is in cinemas from today.

Ari Mattes 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. Following a vision-impaired surfer, The Blind Sea is far from a hero portrait. This is what makes it interesting – https://theconversation.com/following-a-vision-impaired-surfer-the-blind-sea-is-far-from-a-hero-portrait-this-is-what-makes-it-interesting-235104

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wright, Senior Research Fellow, Energy & Circularity, Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University

The race is on to transition to clean energy. Solar and wind farm developers are inundating regional communities in the hope they will host generation and transmission infrastructure. This extra capacity is needed to achieve the federal government target of 82% renewables in Australia by 2030.

The Clean Energy Council has estimated the capacity needed to come on line between 2026 and 2030 to hit this target. It equates to 5,400 megawatts (MW) of wind, 1,500MW of commercial solar farms and 3,600MW of rooftop solar each year.

The scale of this challenge is staggering. It amounts to an annual 240% expansion in added capacity compared to the past three years.

So how do developers entice communities to accept these projects? They typically offer payments to landholders. Community development funds are also popular, with developers helping to fund local needs such as housing and community services.

But these approaches have been inconsistent and lacking in transparency. Developers have been accused of acting opportunistically. There has been confusion and sometimes conflict between neighbours in regional communities.

In short, many regional communities feel left in the dark and short-changed. The energy transition is happening “to them” rather than “with them”. Research indicates these projects are much more likely to succeed when locals feel the project is theirs or includes them and they will share enduring benefits.

How are communities responding?

Some regional communities are taking matters into their own hands to re-balance negotiation with developers.

For example, the Wimmera Southern Mallee Collaboration in Victoria has brought together the community and the 12 energy companies with projects in the region. The state government, NGOs and trusted local consultants are supporting this work to agree a collaboration framework.

This framework will create the structure and commitments needed for energy businesses to collaborate and ensure communities benefit. These benefits include solutions to pressing local needs such as housing, childcare and other infrastructure and services.

Similarly, Hay Shire Council in the NSW Riverina has led consultation to increase community influence. The aim is to make clear to renewable developers what the locals do and don’t want.

State and federal governments as well as organisations such as the Clean Energy Council, The Energy Charter, RE-Alliance and Community Power Agency are also trying to level the playing field. One such initiative, Striking a New Deal, will support and fund one rural or regional body – a local council, association or organisation – to drive better local outcomes from local energy projects.

Yet challenges remain. Renewable energy developers are struggling to build their social licence to operate in regional communities. These challenges threaten to undermine the entire energy transition.

New business models are needed

Creative new business models are slowly emerging in Australia. One example is the community-owned Haystacks Solar Garden in Grong Grong, New South Wales. Another approach is to offer electricity rebates to residents living near wind and solar farms.

Sadly, these approaches tend to be the exception rather than the rule in Australia. Casting our eyes overseas may better inform our approach at home.

In Denmark, for example, the the Danish Renewable Energy Act has required at least 20% local community ownership for all new wind projects since 2009. Wind now generates 54% of Denmark’s electricity.

Similarly, community-owned projects play a big role in Germany’s Energiewende or energy transition. Germany boasts more than 1,700 energy communities, most of them co-operatives (55%) and limited liability companies (37%). Ownership and the ability to shape the local energy system are the key drivers for community participation.

The privately owned Midtfjellet 55 wind farm in Norway is more comparable to Australian approaches. Its owners are investing €1.8 million a year (A$3 million) into local infrastructure and activities for the community of 3,100 residents.

These numbers are played out across Europe. Strong political support and a mature regulatory environment are encouraging investment from households and industry alike.

Involving and informing communities is vital

Closer to home, the Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner’s review of community engagement offers guiding principles of good practice. The Commonwealth-commissioned report was released in February. Its nine recommendations include “keeping communities better informed on energy transition goals, benefits and needs” and “equitably sharing the benefits of the transformation”.

Arron Wood of the Clean Energy Council welcomed the report’s findings, saying:

Community engagement and effective communication are the antidotes to the misinformation that is being used to stir division within some regional communities. Genuine engagement in good faith from all parties is needed to ensure that we get the balance right between managing community expectations and getting on with the job of building the generation, transmission and storage infrastructure that Australia urgently needs.

Importantly, the federal government has accepted all nine recommendations in principle. It recently released long-overdue national guidelines for community engagement and benefits for transmission projects.

States are also working closely with industry bodies and NGOs to provide guidance on community engagement. The NSW, Victoria and Queensland governments are offering payments to landholders for transmission projects.

Balancing regional community concerns with the need to accelerate the energy transition is clearly challenging. Government and industry appear to support a flexible approach to engagement and payments to landholders and communities. It is questionable, though, whether their concerns can be overcome without a more prescriptive, standardised approach to benefit-sharing.

Simon Wright is a supporter of RE-Alliance.

– ref. If we want more solar and wind farms, we need to get locals on board by ensuring they all benefit too – https://theconversation.com/if-we-want-more-solar-and-wind-farms-we-need-to-get-locals-on-board-by-ensuring-they-all-benefit-too-236226

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joellen Riley Munton, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney

You are working long hours, being repeatedly rostered to work weekends and are increasingly anxious and unhappy in your job. Enough’s enough, you decide to quit, but your boss won’t let you.

The ABC’s Four Corners program presented this scenario as part of an investigation called “Don’t Speak” into alleged bullying of staff at the Seven Network, which screened on Monday night.

The woman who reportedly experienced this, told a colleague she felt like “I had a noose around my neck”. She also said she tried to quit, but “they won’t let me go”.

So can an employer reject a resignation and what are your legal rights when it comes to quitting a job?

An employee’s rights

In Australia, employment is a contractual relationship, which means the employee’s rights will generally be governed by the terms of the contract. Every employment contract includes a term allowing employees to resign.

If there is no written term, it will be implied the contract can be terminated by giving “reasonable notice”. What is “reasonable” depends on the nature of the job. Professional jobs often require longer notice than manual jobs.

Often, the employment will be governed by a modern award or enterprise agreement that provides for a certain number of weeks’ notice.

What if you are resigning because you are miserable and can’t tolerate the thought of serving out a notice period? No one can actually make you work.

People cannot be forced to work

The law will not require a person to serve another person, but you might (in theory) be asked to pay damages for any loss you cause your employer by failing to comply with your contract terms.

The fact an employee might be required to pay damages was confirmed in the case of Zuellig v Pulver 2000 NSWSC The case was about whether an employer could stop employees from leaving and going to a competitor, after the employer had already accepted their resignations on short notice.

Damages might include the extra cost of hiring a temporary staff member to cover your notice period. You’ll forfeit any pay you would have earned during the notice period if you choose not to work but you should still receive any accrued annual leave entitlements.

While an employer can’t make you work, they can usually get an injunction stopping you from working elsewhere during your notice period, as long as the time isn’t so long as to constitute an illegal restraint of trade.

Getting an injunction is an expensive process, so an employer is unlikely to do this unless they are particularly aggrieved by your early resignation.

Why an employer might reject a resignation

This brings us to why an employer might reject a resignation. If the employer wants to stop you going somewhere else, they will need to demonstrate that they did not accept your immediate resignation.

It is also possible an employer will be thinking about a possible unfair dismissal claim from an employee who resigned in a state of distress, and regrets it later.

A resignation offered in the heat of the moment may be found legally ineffective, and an employer who accepts it can be found to have unfairly dismissed the worker if they don’t let their employee withdraw their resignation.

A wise employer wants to avoid being sued for constructive dismissal that is, for creating a hostile environment that gives the worker little choice but to quit.

They also don’t want to be accused of taking “adverse action” against an the employee who has made a complaint. The best way to avoid these circumstances is to not accept a resignation made during difficult conversations.

In the end, however, employees who don’t want to remain in their jobs can resign, and can make it clear to the employer that they do not wish to serve out their notice period.

Entitlement to wages will cease as soon as the employee leaves, and so will any further accrual of leave entitlements. An employer might succeed in stopping the employee from taking up another job during the notice period, but they won’t be able to force an employee to come to work.

Joellen Riley Munton is affiliated with the Australian Institute of Employment Rights and the McKell Institute

– ref. “They won’t let me go”. Can your boss stop you from resigning? – https://theconversation.com/they-wont-let-me-go-can-your-boss-stop-you-from-resigning-236783

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Naomi Smith, Lecturer in Sociology, University of the Sunshine Coast

Paris 2024 might go down in history as the most meme-d sporting event ever. Traditionally, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has focused on broadcast media such as free-to-air television as its primary medium, with rights holders paying big bucks.

In Australia, Channel 9 reportedly paid A$305 million to secure the rights to broadcast the next five games, through to Brisbane 2032.

In previous games, the IOC has also taken a strict approach to sharing and resharing content across platforms. However, this is beginning to change, with the committee unveiling a new social media policy for athletes, coaches and other staff ahead of Paris 2024. Importantly, this new strategy allows athletes to post about their sponsors, which helps them build their brand and make money.

All signs point to the IOC leaning into and encouraging viral social media moments – giving viewers a glimpse of the softer side of the Olympics, including behind the scenes action and athlete life.

We first saw this shift in the Tokyo 2020 summer games (which took place in 2021), with athletes creating and sharing content for fans on social media. One such athlete was the popular TikToker Ilona Maher, a member of the US rugby sevens, who has amassed some 2.3 million followers on TikTok and 3.6 million on Instagram.

In the right hands, social media has massive reach – even if you’re not a world-famous athlete like Simone Biles (12.5 million Instagram followers) or Usain Bolt (14.1 million followers on Instagram). Paris 2024 has proven this yet again.

The breakdancer and the muffin man

Perhaps you’ve heard about the muffin man? No, not that muffin man. I mean the Norwegian Olympic swimmer, Henrik Christiansen who went viral for his extensively documented obsession with the chocolate muffins served in the dining hall at the Olympic village.

Other athletes have jumped in with their own variation on the muffin man meme, such as by filming themselves trying or sneaking off with the infamous muffins.

Viewers at home also got in on the action by creating and/or consuming their own muffins.

The muffin man was quickly eclipsed by Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn (aka “Raygun”), whose performance produced what can only be described as a meme storm across social media. Raygun’s breaking performance quickly drew comparisons to scenes from the Simpsons and Kath and Kim.

Raygun herself seems to be in on the joke, filming a video with The Inspired Unemployed to the tune of Snoop Dogg’s Drop It Like It’s Hot.

Memes matter

But why do memes matter for the Olympics?

For starters, the Olympics and Paralympics have been suffering from a bit of an image problem. They are expensive, disruptive and cities are increasingly less likely to bid for them.

The IOC’s strict rules around broadcasting rights also limit the reach of footage from the actual games, which risks disengaging young people – especially Gen Z – who don’t tune into traditional TV and consume much of their media through social media platforms.

Social media allows the human side of the games to shine through and reminds viewers, as corny as it may seem, of the Olympic spirit and the collective joy we can experience through sport. Meme-making is also a creative and participatory process and engages people beyond a traditional audience model.

Even though the IOC might not be directly producing some of these viral moments, they’re definitely creating the conditions for them to occur. And viewing figures from Paris 2024 suggest this strategy is working. The IOC’s primary commercial partner, NBC, recorded 34.6 million viewers across its digital streaming platforms and traditional broadcast – a figure that has eclipsed the Tokyo 2020 games.

In the first week of the games alone, the official Olympic social media channels generated 8.5 billion engagements (that’s before we got to the memes).

It’s the D-O-double-G!

This ratings gold has been further helped by NBC’s focus on celebrities and enlisting Snoop Dogg’s as Team USA’s unofficial mascot.

Snoop appeared at various events, including the equestrian with Martha Stewart – where they both wore equestrian outfits to watch the dressage, fully reported on the official Olympics website. He also inspired many of the Paris 2024 memes – his big name, big personality and expressive face making him the ideal candidate for meme-making younger viewers.

When celebrities such as actor Mariska Hargitay appeared as spectators, the cameras cut to them in the crowd and their interactions with athletes were documented for social media, drawing more eyes to the games.

All these factors have contributed to the impression of a friendlier, more relaxed and engaging competition. It seems the IOC is more aware than ever that allowing people to meme and share footage from the Olympics is good for their broadcast partners and their bottom line.

Athletes benefit, too. Since they aren’t paid for competing in the games, social media is one way athletes can sustain their careers in what is often a difficult funding environment. It offers a way for them to build their brand, gain partnerships and continue to do what they (and we) love – giving it their all on the world stage.

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

– ref. How Paris 2024 became the most meme-d Olympics ever – https://theconversation.com/how-paris-2024-became-the-most-meme-d-olympics-ever-236684

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Clarke, PhD Student in Applied Geology, Curtin University

During the solstices, thousands gather at Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain in England to celebrate the monument’s astronomical alignment. The focal point of these festivities is the Altar Stone – the six-tonne sandstone slab that lies flat at the centre of Stonehenge.

The ancient society that built this monument, from 3,100 to 1,600 BCE, left no written record. But Stonehenge’s building blocks themselves can help us understand it better. These blocks, or megaliths, are divided into two major categories: sarsen stones and bluestones. The Altar Stone is the largest bluestone.

Some bluestones were likely quarried from the Mynydd Preseli in Wales, over 220km away from Stonehenge, while the sarsen stones were locally sourced from the Salisbury Plain.

Meanwhile, the source of the Altar Stone has remained enigmatic. Recent work has raised doubts about the long-held belief that it, too, came from Wales.

So, where is the Altar Stone from? How was it transported to southern England? To answer this, we analysed the Altar Stone’s constituent mineral grains. Our results are now published in the journal Nature – and it looks like the Altar Stone came from Scotland.

The DNA of rocks

At midsummer dawn, the Altar Stone is set ablaze with sunlight. On the shortest day, the setting winter sun casts its dying rays on it. We can imagine a similar scene at Stonehenge in ancient times, when prehistoric Britons used it to welcome the promise of longer spring days and harvests ahead.

However, other than this in-built celestial calendar, how or why the monument was built remains largely unknown.

Humans are made from DNA, which reveals our heritage, ancestors, where our family lived, what we might have eaten, and events we went through.

Much like DNA, the Altar Stone contains a vast array of mineral grains that carry information on their birth (crystallisation) and subsequent history (transport and metamorphism).

In our study, we dated mineral grains called zircon, rutile and apatite in the Altar Stone. As no sampling of the Altar Stone is permitted today, we used thin slices of the stone collected during historical archaeological digs.

Like a DNA test can tell us where our ancestors are from, grains within the Altar Stone have specific ages and chemical characteristics that allow us to pinpoint their source rock. We do this by comparing these details to rocks elsewhere.

Matching characteristics tell us we have found the source of the grains in the Altar Stone: sedimentary rocks within the Orcadian Basin of northeast Scotland provided the closest match.

The Grampian Mountains and the Northern Highlands have shed tiny pieces of rock, or detrital grains, towards the Orcadian Basin since about 400 million years ago. These eroding rocks imparted their unique and traceable “DNA” into the sandstone, which was ultimately selected as the Altar Stone.

The Scottish heart of Stonehenge

Today, northeast Scotland and the Orkney Islands are sparsely populated but this was different in the past. Archaeological sites such as Skara Brae, Maeshowe, and the Ring of Brodgar atop a ritual landscape on Orkney suggest that northeast Scotland was a centre of Neolithic population, culture and trade.

A Scottish origin for the Altar Stone raises fascinating questions about prehistoric Britain’s connectivity and technological capabilities.

A quarried stone tools trade network is found throughout Britain, Ireland and continental Europe. For example, a saddle quern, a large prehistoric stone grinding tool, was discovered in Dorset and determined to be from Normandy, France.

How did the Altar Stone get to Stonehenge?

Although some believe the Welsh bluestones may have been carried by glaciers towards Stonehenge, this transport seems improbable for the Altar Stone.

During past ice ages, vast ice walls moved northwards from the mountains of Scotland towards the Orcadian Basin – transporting rock even farther away from the Salisbury Plain.

But Neolithic Britons were adept seafarers. They had to be, as prehistoric Britain was heavily forested and formidable mountains, valleys and estuaries would have posed major barriers for southward cargo haulage.

Given these obstacles, overland transport would have proved all but impossible to move the Altar Stone from Scotland to Salisbury Plain. We think it’s likely the builders of Stonehenge shipped the Altar Stone by boat.

It wouldn’t be without precedent. The remains of the Hanson Log Boat provide evidence of transporting shaped sandstone blocks by river as far back as 1500 BC.

The unanswerable question is, why did people pick the Altar Stone? Why transport a drab greenish-grey six-tonne sandstone block over 650km from Scotland?

Humans have long sought the perfect stone for construction. This desire continues today.

American socialite Kim Kardashian spent thousands on lavish Calacatta gold marble from Italy for her Los Angeles mansion. For us, this choice is undoubtedly extravagant, perhaps incomprehensible, given that local stone was available.

Maybe the average Neolithic Briton felt the same about the Altar Stone. Or maybe there was a more mundane reason. Perhaps the rock was suitably fractured, allowing easy quarrying and transport via nearby marine shipping routes.

Anthony Clarke receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Chris Kirkland receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Stijn Glorie receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. The Altar Stone of Stonehenge came from an unexpectedly distant place, new study reveals – https://theconversation.com/the-altar-stone-of-stonehenge-came-from-an-unexpectedly-distant-place-new-study-reveals-232391

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Diane Kraal, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Business Law and Taxation Dept, Monash Business School, Monash University

Speaking on ABC’s Q&A on Monday night, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz claimed Australia was “giving away its natural resources”, something he found “mind boggling”.

He said that if Australia made the fossil fuel industry pay for the value of the resources it extracts and its fair share of taxes, “you wouldn’t have the problems that you have today”.

Stiglitz appeared to be referring to our profits-based petroleum resource rent tax, also known as the “gas tax”.

Having formally researched and advised specialist forums on this issue for many years, I agree with him that yes – we are giving away our wealth, both to foreign countries and companies owned overseas.

It’s great to see an international heavyweight like Stiglitz pointing out some of the glaring issues with our system. To fix it, the federal government needs to get rid of its profit-based offshore gas tax altogether and revert to the royalties-based system we used to have.

How do we tax gas?

Australia’s petroleum resource rent tax, or gas tax, is a secondary taxation on offshore gas resources. It’s a tax on profits, that is to say, it’s only collected when gas companies’ incomes exceed their expenditures.

Australia now consistently ranks among the top liquefied natural gas exporters in the world. But our tax take from the industry has long been too low.

So low, in fact, it triggered a federal government review in 2017. Former treasury official Michael Callaghan headed up the review as an independent expert.

I recall being quizzed by Callaghan in early 2017 at my Monash office in Melbourne over my submission to the review, which advocated for major reform of existing gas tax concessions.

But at the same time in Canberra, gas industry executives were lobbying hard, insisting there be no change to gas taxing due to “sovereign risk”.

Callaghan ultimately tendered a report recommending tax design reforms. But the changes later implemented by the government were little more than window-dressing, for as the revenue table below shows, gas tax revenues are still too low.

Figures from 2018 show a sizeable gap between Australia’s gas tax revenue of about A$1.1 billion, and that of our nearest competitors. Qatar collected gas royalties that same year of more than $50 billion, and Norway’s special gas tax netted the country $19.5 billion.

It is obvious, even to dispassionate observers like Stiglitz, that Australia’s lack-lustre gas tax legislation results in a gas industry that doesn’t pay its fair share for community-owned natural resources.

Why did we move away from royalties?

We used to tax the offshore gas industry under a system of federal royalties that were based on the market value of petroleum production.

The profits-based tax concept was developed by economists Ross Garnaut and Anthony Clunies Ross in the 1970s, for the oil industry in the newly independent Papua New Guinea.

Garnaut was economic advisor to the Hawke-Keating Government, and in 1983 advocated the repeal of federal royalties. The profits-based tax that replaced it was first applied to profits on Australian oil production in 1987, where it raised reasonable revenue.

But it was later applied to offshore gas production, which is less profitable than oil due to costly liquefaction, storage infrastructure, and specialised high-pressure gas transport requirements.

This characteristic low profitability of the gas industry delays the triggering of the gas tax. Companies can operate for years without paying it. In other words, Australia is not being paid for much of its “stock” of gas that is mainly sold for export.

A fair share of taxes

A return to federal royalties on offshore gas production would increase government revenues, and provide a fairer outcome for the community.

Some of us may recall the 2014 repeal of mining’s profits-based Minerals Resource Rent Tax, due to its low revenues. The government repealed the profits-based tax in 2019 for onshore gas, and could easily do the same for offshore gas.

Joseph Stiglitz’s observations on the way we tax our natural resources offer another opportunity for us to reflect. We are missing the opportunity to fairly tax things we can only extract once, to the detriment of our community.

Diane Kraal 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. Is Australia ‘giving away’ its natural resources? – https://theconversation.com/is-australia-giving-away-its-natural-resources-236784

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sally Larsen, Senior Lecturer in Education, University of New England

On Wednesday, Australia woke up to a barrage of reports about the latest NAPLAN results. Media coverage described an “epic fail”, “plummeting” performances and a “bleak picture”.

Education experts spoke of “grim reading”, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the results “alarming”.

But many of these analyses are misguided and unhelpful.

Read more:
Are Australian students really falling behind? It depends which test you look at

What were the results?

NAPLAN tests Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students each year in literacy and numeracy. There are four possible achievement bands: “needs additional support,” “developing,” “strong” and “exceeding”.

In 2024 about one in three school students were into the bottom two proficiency bands, with the remaining two thirds were in the top two. About one in ten students were rated as needing additional support.

These are very similar to last year’s results. The number of students identified as needing additional support also mirrors the proportions of students falling into the bottom band in the previous NAPLAN reporting system used from 2008 to 2022. Around 10% of students (or fewer) were categorised as below the national minimum standard in every NAPLAN test year to 2022.

If we look at average results, some 2024 results in some year groups are slightly above those reported in 2023, and others are slightly below. As the national report notes, differences from 2023 are “either not statistically significant or negligible in size”.

None of the differences were more than four points (on a 1,000-point scale), with the exception of Year 7 and Year 9 writing which both improved in 2024 (by 6.5 and 7.3 scale scores respectively).

These results reflect normal population variability and are what you would expect if you administered the same test to different groups of children from year to year, as NAPLAN does.

There’s no long-term decline

As I have written previously, we need to be cautious about narratives that Australian students’ performances in NAPLAN and other standardised tests are getting worse.

My study published earlier this year clearly shows no long-term decline in NAPLAN results from 2008 through to 2022. It even shows some considerable gains. In particular, Year 3 and Year 5 reading showed good progress at the population level over the 14 years of NAPLAN to 2022.

In 2023, some of the processes around NAPLAN changed. This included reporting results in four proficiency levels within each year, rather than the ten bands used from 2008 to 2022.

Because there are fewer categories in the new reporting of proficiency, there are now higher percentages of students in each category. As is clearly evident from the news reporting, categorising students into fewer proficiency levels can be misinterpreted.

What does this mean?

Do the 2024 results mean Australian students’ literacy and numeracy proficiency have precipitously declined in since 2022?

The answer is no – it means the test developers changed the way students are categorised. Importantly, in 2024 the proportions of students falling into the four proficiency levels for each test was no different from those reported for 2023.

There are, of course, enduring differences between different groups of the Australian population, for example students from Indigenous backgrounds and remote areas are much more likely to be in the lower categories on NAPLAN. These, unfortunately, are not new problems.

Fixation on NAPLAN, with the relentless annual reports of crises and catastrophes in our schools, and accompanying criticisms about teacher quality, is not healthy or helpful for our schools.

Of course, improvements can be made to students’ literacy and numeracy achievement and progression. However, this is unlikely to happen in a school system that is inequitably funded and struggling to retain experienced professionals.

If state and federal governments are serious about resolving the problems in Australian schooling, a first step will be to accurately interpret the evidence about students’ literacy and numeracy.

Sally Larsen 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. Are the latest NAPLAN results really an ‘epic fail’? – https://theconversation.com/are-the-latest-naplan-results-really-an-epic-fail-236782

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia

Exercise is excellent for kids.

Kids who exercise are fitter, stronger, and less likely to be overweight or obese. They have better physical and mental health, perform better in the classroom, and are more likely to exercise as an adult.

In short, the more exercise they do now, the better. But what about weight training? If you’ve ever spent much time in the comments section of social media posts featuring kids lifting weights, you’ll know debate rages about whether or not it’s safe for children.

Unfortunately, there are still many myths about weight training and kids. The research evidence suggests it’s safe, as long as a few common sense precautions are followed.

A common misconception

Lifting weights is an example of “resistance training”, which can include bodyweight exercises, weightlifting, jump training, and even sprinting.

A common misconception is that resistance training is bad for kids.

You may have heard it stunts their growth – but this rumour isn’t supported by the scientific evidence.

The concerns around stunting growth come from the potential for kids to experience what is known as a “growth plate injury.” A growth plate is a section of cartilage at the end of bone that allows the bone to grow. These plates turn into bone sometime during puberty when bone growth stops.

A growth plate injury can lead to early bone closure and a shorter limb length – or a stunting of bone growth.

These injuries can occur in kids, but they most often occur during impact related injuries, either during sport or because of a fall.

In fact, there is no evidence a supervised resistance training program stunts kids’ growth or damages growth plates.

The load placed on the body is similar for resistance training as it is for jumping and landing, something all kids do. Moreover, the risk of injury is much lower in resistance training than many other recreational and sport activities.

What are the positives of kids lifting weights?

Resistance training improves children’s physical fitness, including their strength, power, speed, agility, and endurance.

Resistance training may also be beneficial for overweight or obese kids who may be unwilling or unable to do aerobic activities such as running and swimming.

Resistance training can also benefit kids’ physical and mental health. For example, it can improve their metabolic health, help them manage weight, reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, improve self-esteem, and help academically.

How young is too young to lift weights?

While there is no minimum age to start, participants should be able to follow directions and safety rules. Kids who are ready for sport are generally ready for some type of resistance training.

Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Australian government recommend kids aged five to 17 get 60 minutes of physical activity per day. They encourage kids to strengthen their muscles and bones at least three days per week.

Lots of exercises increase muscle and bone strength. These include high intensity sport, outside play like climbing, jumping, and running, and of course, resistance training.

This means kids don’t have to necessarily lift weights. If they are doing these other types of exercise, they’re fine.

However, very few kids are meeting these guidelines.

Australian data show that less than one-quarter (about 23%) of kids aged five to 14 get enough exercise.

That number shrinks to about 6% in older kids aged 15 to 17.

This suggests adding formal exercise to your kid’s routine is a good thing.

How should your kids start resistance exercise?

The key is to start slowly and make it fun.

The goal is to get kids to enjoy resistance training and set them up for lifelong success.

For young kids in early primary school, the focus should be on balance, coordination, agility and endurance.

This means playing games involving running and chasing, and activities that develop muscle endurance (like climbing, carrying and pushing things).

You might also want to introduce bodyweight exercises – such as push-ups, pull-ups, and planks – to teach kids how to move their body.

As they transition into upper primary school, kids can do more targeted training. This might include more bodyweight exercises, jump training like hurdling and skipping, and even light training with weights, like squats and bicep curls.

Finally, as they move into high school, they can try more formal weight training exercises, using moderate weights. They might like to try lunges, deadlifts, presses, and rows.

As they become more confident, they can try lifting heavier weights.

What do parents need to know?

Firstly, resistance training has a relatively low risk of injury when properly supervised.

Proper supervision means adults teach kids proper technique, and ensure children don’t fall into the trap of trying to impress their peers.

Secondly, start light. In beginners, lifting lighter weights for about ten or 15 repetitions (or “reps”) offers similar benefits to lifting heavier weights a few times, and is probably safer.

Lifting lighter weights but doing more reps has another benefit: it allows children to practise and improve their technique.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to get involved. Adults benefit greatly from resistance training, too.

So, why not make the most of it and join in?

Grant R. Tomkinson has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, National Institutes of Health, and Public Health Agency of Canada.

Hunter Bennett and Max Nelson 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. Is it OK for kids to lift weights? At what age and how heavy? Here’s what parents need to know – https://theconversation.com/is-it-ok-for-kids-to-lift-weights-at-what-age-and-how-heavy-heres-what-parents-need-to-know-235963

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By George Taleporos, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Living with Disability Research Centre, La Trobe University

What should or shouldn’t be funded by the National Disability Insurance Scheme?

You might think having a list of things that are “in” or “out” seems like a pragmatic way to contain the costs of the NDIS. But a lengthy government proposed list of exclusions could force people with disability to use more costly services.

It might also exclude people from mainstream services and force them into institutionalised settings such as group homes and respite centres. This is contrary to the intent of the NDIS – to promote the participation and inclusion of people with disability in the community – and Australia’s Disability Strategy.

The government has released draft lists of what NDIS participants can and cannot spend their funding on and opened them for a brief period of public consultation. The interim lists form part of the NDIS reform bill currently before parliament.

While more clarity and guidance on supports may be helpful for NDIS participants, there are risks these lists will lead to worse outcomes. Prescriptive lists can also stymie independence and innovation.

‘Daily living’ items can be better value

Items currently on the “out list” include household appliances, hair salon appointments, rent and utilities. But banning mainstream items and services may lead to poorer outcomes, not just for the person with disability but for the sustainability of the NDIS.

Some of the ruled out items could offer better value for money and better outcomes than those ruled in. As NDIS expert Sam Paior recently told us in the Summer Foundation’s Reasonable & Necessary podcast:

[…] if you’re a participant that can’t wash their own hair but can wash your own body, do you really want a support worker in the shower with you to wash your hair? Why wouldn’t you go to your local hairdresser [where a shampoo might cost as little as $35] instead of having a support worker that costs $70 an hour, in your home looking at you naked in the shower.

There are also times when so-called “daily living” items can reduce downstream costs. For example, subsidising rent in a homeshare arrangement can enable a person to remain in their own home and reduce reliance on paid support.

Just like the government and the general public, most NDIS participants want to see NDIS funding well spent. As an NDIS participant we surveyed as part of our research said:

I had a lot of pressure to get cleaners rather than a robovac to let me do it when I wanted. Same with food prep […] a Thermomix changed my life and made me safe while cooking as the auto function shuts down at the end of each step rather than me forgetting the stovetop is on.

Do the lists tally with the NDIS review?

The NDIS review said the government needs to give clarity to participants about how they can use their funding. It also said operational procedures should be public and the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) accountable by including them in legislation.

But an extensive list of what can and cannot be funded was not recommended. Rather, the review recommended introducing a support needs assessment for a reasonable and necessary budget that could be spent flexibly, with minimal exceptions.

The recently released NDIS Provider and Worker Registration Taskforce advice emphasised the importance of NDIS participants having control over their purchases. This is critical to a human rights-based approach and upholds the rights of people with disabilities to autonomy and self-determination set down by the United Nations.

This advice is consistent with contemporary best practice in disability support, commonly described as “self-directed support” which aims to put people with disability in control of their own lives. It shifts decision-making power from government and service providers to the person with disability.

Read more:
Tiered NDIS provider registration and a say on supports. Are we finally listening to people with disability?

Where the NDIS bill is at and what happens next?

The bill to reform and get the NDIS “back on track” is being debated in the Senate this week and the government has put forward further amendments.

These include a process for participants to seek an exemption to purchase supports that are on the “out list” if they are of equal or lesser cost and can provide better outcomes for the participant.

While this is a step in the right direction, a requirement to seek approval for every purchase is likely to be administratively burdensome for participants and the NDIA. A better approach would be to broadly define what may constitute a disability-related support, and then have an “out” list of supports that are illegal, harmful or not beneficial.

There is a short window of time for the disability community to ensure their concerns are heard, with the public consultation process closing August 18.

The government needs to listen carefully to the disability community about the potential unintended consequences of a rigid approach to NDIS supports, and the potential for these lists to drive up costs for the scheme.

George Taleporos is a Strategic Advisor at the Summer Foundation, Director of the Self Manager Hub and InLife, as well as the Independent Chair of Every Australian Counts. While George is a member of the NDIS Independent Advisory Council, this contribution does not intend to reflect the views of the Council.

Di Winkler is the CEO and founder of the Summer Foundation and an Adjunct Research at La Trobe University. Di is also a volunteer director of Liverty Housing and the Housing Hub.

– ref. Lists of ‘eligible supports’ could be a backwards step for the NDIS and people with disability – https://theconversation.com/lists-of-eligible-supports-could-be-a-backwards-step-for-the-ndis-and-people-with-disability-236578

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ryan Heneghan, Lecturer in Environmental Modelling, Griffith University

The world’s oceans are home to microscopic organisms invisible to the human eye. The tiny creatures, known as “prokaryotes”, comprise 30% of life in the world’s oceans.

These organisms play an important role in keeping the oceans in balance. But new research by myself and colleagues shows this balance is at risk.

We found prokaryotes are remarkably resilient to climate change – and as a result, could increasingly dominate marine environments.

This could reduce the availability of fish humans rely on for food, and hamper the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon emissions.

A fine balance

Prokaryotes include both bacteria and “archaea”, another type of single-celled organism.

These organisms are thought to be the oldest cell-based lifeforms on Earth. They thrive across the entire planet – on land and in water, from the tropics to the poles.

What prokaryotes lack in size they make up in sheer abundance. Globally, about two tonnes of marine prokaryotes exist for every human on the planet.

They play a crucial role in the world’s food chains, helping support the nutrient needs of fish humans catch and eat.

Marine prokaryotes grow extremely fast – a process that emits a lot of carbon. In fact, prokaryotes to an ocean depth of 200 metres produce about 20 billion tonnes of carbon a year: double that of humans.

This massive carbon output is balanced by phytoplankton – another type of microscopic organism which turns sunlight and carbon dioxide into energy, through photosynthesis.

Phytoplankton and other ocean processes also absorb up to one-third of the carbon humans release into the atmosphere each year. This helps limit the pace of global warming.

How prokaryotes respond to warming is key to understanding how the fine balance of the world’s oceans may change in a warmer world. This was the focus of our research.

What we found

We wanted to predict how climate change would affect the “biomass”, or total global weight, of marine prokaryotes. We also wanted to examine how it would affect their carbon output.

To do this, we built computer models that integrated decades of observations from dozens of scientific surveys across the world’s oceans.

So what did we find? Prokaryotes are likely to be climate change winners, relative to other marine life.

For each degree of ocean warming, their biomass will decline by about 1.5%. This is less than half the projected 3–5% decline we predicted for larger plankton, fish and mammals.

It means future marine ecosystems will have lower overall biomass, and will increasingly be dominated by prokaryotes. This could divert a greater share of available nutrients and energy toward prokaryotes and away from fish, reducing the supply of fish humans eat.

We discovered another important change. For every degree of warming, we predict prokaryotes in the top 200 metres of the world’s oceans would produce an additional 800 million tonnes of carbon per year.

This is equivalent to the present-day emissions of the entire European Union (after converting CO₂ to carbon).

What does all this mean?

Due to human-caused climate change, Earth’s oceans are expected to warm by between 1°C and 3°C by the end of this century, unless humanity changes course.

If the amount of carbon produced by prokaryotes does increase as predicted, it could reduce the potential of oceans to absorb human emissions. This means achieving global net-zero emissions will become even more difficult.

What’s more, present projections of declines in global fish stocks under climate change generally do not consider how warming may restructure marine food webs by favouring prokaryotes. This means the predicted declines are likely to be underestimated.

Declines in fish populations present a major problem for global food supply, because the oceans are a major source of protein for about 3 billion people.

What should happen now

Our analysis is an important step in uncovering the changing role of marine prokaryotes. But significant uncertainties remain.

Our analysis is built with existing observations. Climate change is already changing conditions in marine ecosystems in ways our models may not have captured.

We also don’t know how quickly prokaryotes will adapt and evolve to new environments. But existing research shows that in a matter of weeks, bacteria can develop new traits that make it easier for them to survive.

Clearly, scientists must continue to improve their understanding of prokaryotes, and how they may be affected by climate change.

Ryan Heneghan 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. Earth’s oldest, tiniest creatures are poised to be climate change winners – and the repercussions could be huge – https://theconversation.com/earths-oldest-tiniest-creatures-are-poised-to-be-climate-change-winners-and-the-repercussions-could-be-huge-235115

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rita Matulionyte, Senior Lecturer in Law, Macquarie University

Around the world, governments are grappling with how best to manage the increasingly unruly beast that is artificial intelligence (AI).

This fast-growing technology promises to boost national economies and make completing menial tasks easier. But it also poses serious risks, such as AI-enabled crime and fraud, increased spread of misinformation and disinformation, increased public surveillance and further discrimination of already disadvantaged groups.

The European Union has taken a world-leading role in addressing these risks. In recent weeks, its Artificial Intelligence Act came into force.

This is the first law internationally designed to comprehensively manage AI risks – and Australia and other countries can learn much from it as they too try to ensure AI is safe and beneficial for everyone.

AI: a double edged sword

AI is already widespread in human society. It is the basis of the algorithms that recommend music, films and television shows on applications such as Spotify or Netflix. It is in cameras that identify people in airports and shopping malls. And it is increasingly used in hiring, education and healthcare services.

But AI is also being used for more troubling purposes. It can create deepfake images and videos, facilitate online scams, fuel massive surveillance and violate our privacy and human rights.

For example, in November 2021 the Australian Information and Privacy Commissioner, Angelene Falk, ruled a facial recognition tool, Clearview AI, breached privacy laws by scraping peoples photographs from social media sites for training purposes. However, a Crikey investigation earlier this year found the company is still collecting photos of Australians for its AI database.

Cases such as this underscore the urgent need for better regulation of AI technologies. Indeed, AI developers have even called for laws to help manage AI risks.

The EU Artificial Intelligence Act

The European Union’s new AI law came into force on August 1.

Crucially, it sets requirements for different AI systems based on the level of risk they pose. The more risk an AI system poses for health, safety or human rights of people, the stronger requirements it has to meet.

The act contains a list of prohibited high-risk systems. This list includes AI systems that use subliminal techniques to manipulate individual decisions. It also includes unrestricted and real-life facial recognition systems used by by law enforcement authorities, similar to those currently used in China.

Other AI systems, such as those used by government authorities or in education and healthcare, are also considered high risk. Although these aren’t prohibited, they must comply with many requirements.

For example, these systems must have their own risk management plan, be trained on quality data, meet accuracy, robustness and cybersecurity requirements and ensure a certain level of human oversight.

Lower risk AI systems, such as various chatbots, need to comply with only certain transparency requirements. For example, individuals must be told they are interacting with an AI bot and not an actual person. AI-generated images and text also need to contain an explanation they are generated by AI, and not by a human.

Designated EU and national authorities will monitor whether AI systems used in the EU market comply with these requirements and will issue fines for non-compliance.

Other countries are following suit

The EU is not alone in taking action to tame the AI revolution.

Earlier this year the Council of Europe, an international human rights organisation with 46 member states, adopted the first international treaty requiring AI to respect human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

Canada is also discussing the AI and Data Bill. Like the EU laws, this will set rules to various AI systems, depending on their risks.

Instead of a single law, the US government recently proposed a number of different laws addressing different AI systems in various sectors.

Australia can learn – and lead

In Australia, people are deeply concerned about AI, and steps are being taken to put necessary guardrails on the new technology.

Last year, the federal government ran a public consultation on safe and responsible AI in Australia. It then established an AI expert group which is currently working on the first proposed legislation on AI.

The government also plans to reform laws to address AI challenges in healthcare, consumer protection and creative industries.

The risk-based approach to AI regulation, used by the EU and other countries, is a good start when thinking about how to regulate diverse AI technologies.

However, a single law on AI will never be able to address the complexities of the technology in specific industries. For example, AI use in healthcare will raise complex ethical and legal issues that will need to be addressed in specialised healthcare laws. A generic AI Act will not suffice.

Regulating diverse AI applications in various sectors is not an easy task, and there is still a long way to go before all countries have comprehensive and enforceable laws in place. Policymakers will have to join forces with industry and communities around Australia to ensure AI brings the promised benefits to the Australian society – without the harms.

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

– ref. A world-first law in Europe is targeting artificial intelligence. Other countries can learn from it – https://theconversation.com/a-world-first-law-in-europe-is-targeting-artificial-intelligence-other-countries-can-learn-from-it-236587

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Schumaker, Senior Lecturer in American Studies, University of Sydney

In late July, former President Donald Trump told a room of Black journalists that Vice President Kamala Harris, his rival in the 2024 presidential election, “happened to turn Black” recently.

“She was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn […] she became a Black person,” Trump said, prompting surprised laughter from the audience. When asked about Trump’s comments, Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance demurred, saying Harris is a “fundamentally fake person”.

Trump’s comments implied that Harris, who is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, is a racial impostor who adapted her racial identity to score political points with Black voters.

While Trump seemed to think he made a novel jab, he inadvertently invoked the long history of how racial classifications have been used to control the lives of people of colour in the United States.

Indeed, the power to police racial classifications was foundational to white supremacy, and the refusal to acknowledge bi- or multiracial identities is a legacy of this history.

Racial identity in the era of slavery

Early laws defining race in the US focused on interracial sex and its relationship to slavery.

For example, a 1662 Virginia law seeking to resolve concerns about whether “children got by any Englishman upon a Negro woman should be slave or free” decreed that such children would follow “the condition of the mother”.

This meant children born to enslaved Black mothers and free English fathers would be enslaved. This also determined the child’s race: only Black people could be enslaved.

After emancipation, more states adopted laws prohibiting interracial marriage, and these laws defined race for all other legal purposes.

In 1890, for example, delegates to the Mississippi constitutional convention forbade a white person from marrying “a negro or mulatto” (an archaic and offensive term for persons of mixed white and Black ancestry) or any person having “one eighth or more” blood quantum of African ancestry.

In other words, a person with seven white grandparents and one Black grandparent was Black, regardless of his or her skin colour – or how that person identified themselves.

Nonetheless, some people challenged these racial classifications.

Homer Plessy, for example, was a member of the free people of colour in New Orleans. These were people of mixed descent whose ancestors were not enslaved and who held a status in Louisiana society that was elevated above that of formerly enslaved Black people.

He was arrested in 1890 for boarding a whites-only train car. In its infamous 1896 decision upholding segregation laws, Plessy v Ferguson, the US Supreme Court brushed away claims that Plessy’s heritage entitled him to special status. Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote:

It is claimed by the plaintiff in error that, in any mixed community, the reputation of belonging to the dominant race, in this instance the white race, is ‘property’.

In other words, Plessy’s African ancestry made him “coloured”. The state need not accommodate any other identities.

Racial identity defined by law

As immigration from Asia increased in the 19th century, many states also discriminated against people of Asian descent, reserving the full suite of civil and political rights for white people alone.

Central to segregation law was the concept that race was determined by others: policemen, judges, juries, county clerks and even bus drivers held the power to determine a person’s race, not the person him or herself.

Other rights were also determined following this legal concept:

• whether a person could register and vote
• which school their child could attend
• whom they could marry
• where they could sit on a bus.

The power to determine a person’s racial classification was therefore placed in the hands of authorities, almost always a white person. And this authority could define a person’s place in society.

These laws made people of mixed ancestry invisible, even as they did not always avoid acknowledging them.

The US census counted “mulattoes” for many decades, even though such people were subject to the same discriminatory Jim Crow laws as other Black people.

It was not until 1960 that the census allowed individuals to choose their own racial identity. And the census did not offer Americans the option to identify as multiracial until 2000.

A rebuke to this history

As segregation laws were repealed or declared invalid by a series of legislative and judicial acts in the 1960s, Americans finally had the power to publicly determine their own racial identities.

In its 1967 decision, Loving v Virginia, the Supreme Court declared laws prohibiting interracial marriage unconstitutional, leading to more intermarriages.

These legal transformations not only made it possible for interracial couples like Harris’s parents to marry, but they also allowed the children of such unions to embrace and articulate openly their own sense of identity.

More than 33 million Americans now identify as bi- or multiracial – something that white supremacists long sought to deny to anyone.

How such individuals identify is not only their prerogative, it is also a rebuke to the long history of white people policing race in the service of white supremacy.

Kathryn Schumaker works for the University of Sydney. She received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

– ref. ‘Happened to turn Black’: how Donald Trump evoked a history of white authorities using their power to define race – https://theconversation.com/happened-to-turn-black-how-donald-trump-evoked-a-history-of-white-authorities-using-their-power-to-define-race-236497