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

David Pocock, the progressive independent who broke the Liberals’ stranglehold on one of the two ACT Senate seats, wouldn’t have expected to find himself allied with Pauline Hanson before even being sworn in.

But, as they say, politics makes strange bedfellows and the two have already discussed trying to get Anthony Albanese to compromise on his decision to slash crossbench staff numbers.

The staff cut will just be the start of Labor’s search for general savings, culminating in the October budget. Some of those will have the public much more agitated than will trimming politicians’ entitlements.

But Albanese’s action, without prior consultation, has come as a rude shock to the “teal” independents who, together with other new members, arrived at Parliament House this week for their orientation.

The teals have been feted in the media and seen by many voters as part of a new breed of politician. They probably didn’t expect such rough treatment, delivered in a letter from the new PM.

Existing crossbenchers, with years of experience of how politics works, may have been less surprised, but they were also dismayed.

In the last parliament crossbenchers had four extra staff, above those allocated to government and opposition backbenchers. With a much-expanded crossbench, Albanese has brought that back to one extra (two for those in larger electorates).

Apart from expense, he’s arguing fairness with other backbenchers. He’s also saying plans to beef up the parliamentary library will provide more resources for crossbenchers.

The crossbenchers say they don’t have the backup a major party gives its own MPs, and that the library can’t provide the sort of tailored advice a staffer does, let alone be as fast with assistance, or available around the clock.

Crossbench senators make a further case. In a chamber where the government is in a minority, their votes matter more than those of crossbenchers in the lower house, where Labor will have the numbers.

This applies particularly to someone like Pocock who, with the Greens, is expected to assure the government of its majority on various pieces of legislation. (The Greens, treated as a party, haven’t had their staff reduced but the same number will service a total party room that has increased from 10 to 16.)

Read more:
Cutting crossbench MPs’ staffing would be a setback for democracy

When he returns from overseas, Albanese will address the complaints. His choice is staying tough (the public wouldn’t care) or buying some crossbench goodwill with a conciliatory gesture.

The staffing dispute has provided immediate controversy but in this new parliament, which first meets July 26, there’ll be more fundamental issues around the crossbenchers.

The crossbench is, of course, diverse. In the lower house, there are Greens, the new teals (obviously individuals in their own right) and other independents, as well as the idiosyncratic Bob Katter, from the deep north.

In the Senate, the crossbench ranges from Greens to the two Hansonites and Ralph Babet, elected from Victoria for the UAP.

The teals have a lot to live up to, after their high-profile campaigns. They are different from many other MPs. They haven’t been political staffers or come up through the rugged internals of parties (although a couple hail from well-known political families). They talk about doing politics differently. But without the balance of power in the House of Representatives, will they be able to drive meaningful changes in how things are done?

And what of policy substance can the lower house teals achieve? They need to demonstrate they’re relevant.

Lacking hard power, they can only operate through influence and advocacy. This is possible, though difficult. For example, in the last parliament independent Helen Haines’ release of a private member’s bill for an integrity commission added to the public pressure. She (and others) will be anxious to have a voice on the issue as the government presses ahead with its legislation.

One problem for the teals is that the Albanese government will address core issues they campaigned on, notably climate change and integrity. It was easy enough for them to rail against the Coalition before the election, but things are more challenging when they are (essentially) aligned with the government on these matters.

They can say Labor should go further (although there mightn’t be mileage in that), and there will be some scope for suggesting amendments to legislation.

Read more:
Word from The Hill: Parliamentary ‘newbies’ inspect their workplace, with some complaints

Recent history indicates once crossbenchers are elected they dig in, but they aren’t invulnerable (as Kerryn Phelps found in Wentworth). The teals will have to show over the next three years they represent what we might describe as “value for votes”. And if the government delivers on climate, integrity and women’s issues, the teals will need to refresh their own agendas for the 2025 election.

The government has some interest in teals surviving, because they provide a firewall. They keep seats Labor can’t itself win out of Liberal hands. So it may look to give them a few modest policy wins.

The Greens-Labor relationship will be more potent and scratchy. The two parties are fierce competitors and there’s no love lost.

But Labor will require the Greens (plus one more vote) to get contested legislation through the Senate. The Greens will push for changes. It will likely often be a game of bluff and counter bluff.

The Greens party room is politically diverse – witness the radicalism of Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe who questions the legitimacy of parliament itself – so there could be some robust internal battles.

The Greens say their position on Labor’s climate legislation will be to improve, not to block. The first test will come early, when the government presents a bill to put into law its emissions reduction targets.

Given the Greens can’t get a more ambitious position they would, if they follow their own maxim, support the legislation.

Lastly, Pocock’s position is interesting. He won’t be the only go-to person for the government to obtain that additional Senate vote. Jacqui Lambie and her newly elected Senate colleague would be candidates.

But Pocock will be often in the spotlight. For his part, while reflecting his progressive views, he’ll need to remember he’s sitting in a traditionally Liberal seat. He won largely because the former incumbent, the deeply conservative Zed Seselja, was so unpopular. So if he wants to hold onto his place in the longer term, Pocock might have to perform a balancing act.

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: Election delivered bonanza of crossbenchers but what impact will they make? – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-election-delivered-bonanza-of-crossbenchers-but-what-impact-will-they-make-186134

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis B Desmond, Lecturer, Cyberintelligence and Cybercrime Investigations, University of the Sunshine Coast

The art of concealing or misrepresenting one’s identity in the physical world has long been practised by spies engaged in espionage. In response, intelligence agencies designed techniques and technologies to identify people attempting to hide behind aliases.

Now, following the US Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v Wade, women in the United States seeking assistance with unwanted pregnancies have joined the ranks of spies.

The ruling has resulted in several trigger laws coming into effect in conservative states to outlaw abortions in those states. These laws, coupled with groups targeting women’s reproductive rights protests, have raised fear among women of all ages about their data being used against them.

Thousands have engaged with online posts calling on women to delete their period tracking apps, on the premise that data fed to these apps could be used to prosecute them in states where abortion is illegal. At the same time, abortion clinics in New Mexico (where abortion remains legal) are reportedly bracing for an influx of women from US states.

As someone who has served as a special agent for the United States Army and Federal Bureau of Investigation, and as a Senior Intelligence Officer with the US Defense Intelligence Agency, I can tell you deleting period tracking apps may not be enough for vulnerable women now.

But there are some tools women can use to conceal their identities, should this be necessary – the same tools once reserved for professional spies.

The privacy myth

Apart from espionage, the emergence of the internet created a new impetus for widespread data collection by data aggregators and marketers. The modern surveillance economy grew out of a desire to target products and services to us as effectively as possible.

Today, massive swathes of personal information are extracted from users, 24/7 – making it increasingly difficult to remain unmasked.

Data aggregation is used to assess our purchasing habits, track our movements, find our favourite locations and obtain detailed demographic information about us, our families, our co-workers and friends.

Read more:
Post Roe, women in America are right to be concerned about digital surveillance – and it’s not just period-tracking apps

Recent events have demonstrated how tenuous our privacy is. Protests in Hong Kong have seen Chinese authorities use cameras to identify and arrest protesters, while police in the US deployed various technologies to identify Black Lives Matter protesters.

Articles appeared in Australian media outlets with advice on how to avoid being surveilled. And people were directed to websites, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, dedicated to informing readers about how to avoid surveillance and personal data collection.

What we’ve learned from both spy history and more recent events is that data collection is not always overt and obvious; it’s often unseen and opaque. Surveillance may come in the form of cameras, drones, automated number plate readers (ANPR/ALPR), toll payment devices, acoustic collectors and of course any internet-connected device.

In some cases when your fellow protesters upload images or videos, crowd-sourced intelligence becomes your enemy.

Data deleted, not destroyed

Recently, a lot of the focus has been on phones and apps. But deleting mobile apps will not prevent the identification of an individual, nor will turning off location services.

Law enforcement and even commercial companies have the ability to access or track certain metrics including:

• international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), which is related to a user’s mobile number and connected to their SIM card
• international mobile equipment identity (IMEI), which is directly related to their device itself.

Ad servers may also exploit device locations. Private companies can create advertisements targeting devices that are specific to a location, such as a women’s health clinic. And such “geofenced” ad servers can identify a user’s location regardless of whether their location settings are disabled.

Further, anonymised phone track data (like call signals pinging off nearby towers) can be purchased from telecommunications providers and de-anonymised.

Law enforcement can use this data to trace paths from, say, a fertility clinic to a person’s home or “bed down” location (the spy term for someone’s residence).

The bottom line is your phone is a marker for you. A temporary cell phone with an overseas SIM card has been the choice for some people wishing to avoid such tracking.

Adding to that, we recently saw headlines about facial recognition technology being used in Australian retail stores – and America is no different. For anyone trying to evade detection, it’s better to swap bank cards for cash, stored value cards or gift cards when making purchases.

Read more:
Bunnings, Kmart and The Good Guys say they use facial recognition for ‘loss prevention’. An expert explains what it might mean for you

And rather than using a personal vehicle, or even a rental, using public transport paid with cash or a ride-share service provides better anonymity.

In the spy world, paying attention to one’s dress is critical. Spies change up their appearance, using what they call “polish”, with the help of reversible clothing, hats, different styles of glasses, scarves and even masks (which are ideally not that conspicuous these days). In extreme cases, they may even use “appliances” to alter their facial characteristics.

Then again, while these measures help in the physical world, they do little to stop online detection.

Digital stealth

Online, the use of a virtual private network (VPN) and/or the onion browser, Tor, will help improve anonymity, including from internet service providers.

Online you can create and use multiple personas, each with a different email address and “personal data” linked to it. Aliases can be further coupled with software that removes cookies and browser history, which will help conceal one’s online identity.

One example is CCleaner. This program removes privacy-violating cookies and internet history from your device, while improving your device’s privacy.

There are also plenty of online applications that allow the use of temporary email addresses and phone numbers, and even temporary accommodation addresses for package deliveries.

To some, these may seem like extreme privacy measures. However, given the widespread collection of identity data by commercial companies and governments – and the resultant collaboration between the two – there’s reason to be concerned for anyone wanting to fly under the radar.

And for women seeking abortions in the US, these measures may be necessary to avoid prosecution.

Dennis B Desmond received funding from the US government and the Australian government

– ref. After Roe v Wade, here’s how women could adopt ‘spycraft’ to avoid tracking and prosecution – https://theconversation.com/after-roe-v-wade-heres-how-women-could-adopt-spycraft-to-avoid-tracking-and-prosecution-186046

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Homeowners will face mortgage rates near 5.5% in a little over a year, according to a survey of 22 leading Australian economists.

The Conversation’s 2022-23 forecasting survey predicts an increase in the Reserve Bank’s cash rate from its present 0.85% to a peak of 3.1% by next August.

If fully passed on, the series of rate hikes would lift the cost of payments on a variable $500,000 mortgage by about $600 per month and the cost of payments on a $800,000 mortgage by about $1,000 per month.

Sydney and Melbourne home prices would slide 6-7%.

The panel believes the Reserve Bank will push its cash rate to its highest point since the 2010-2012 resources boom in an effort to contain inflation, which it expects to jump from its present 5.1% to a peak of 7.1% before the end of the year.

Panel members put the risk of an overreaction by authorities bringing on a recession at a 40% chance in the United States, and a lower 20% probability in Australia.

Now in its fourth year, The Conversation’s survey draws on the expertise of leading forecasters in 20 Australian universities and financial institutions, among them economic modellers, former Treasury, International Monetary Fund and Reserve Bank officials, and a former member of the Reserve Bank board.

Inflation

The panel expects the next inflation figure to be released later this month to show prices climbed 6.7% in the year to June – the most since the early 1990s.

Panelist Saul Eslake says it hard to be confident about when inflation will peak without being confident about when and how the conflict in Ukraine will end, although he says it is difficult to see energy prices climbing higher, and there is some evidence COVID-related supply disruptions are beginning to ease.

On balance the panel expects inflation to peak at 7.1% towards the end of this year before declining next year.

Interest rate rises

The panel expects the equivalent of five 0.25 point increases in the Reserve Bank’s cash rate in the next six months, and just short of another two 0.25 point increases in the six months that follow.

On balance, the panel expects the cash rate to stop climbing when it gets to 3.1% next August, but some members expect much steeper increases.

Warwick Mckibbin, a former member of the Reserve Bank board, expects a cash rate of 4.5% (implying mortgage rates of 6.75%) by March, and he says that is less than required.

He says the cash rate needs to climb above the 3.5% that would normally be thought of as neutral, and stay there for a sustained period to bring inflation back to the Reserve Bank’s target.

Read more:
RBA Governor Philip Lowe is hiking interest rates. It’ll add hundreds per month to mortgage payments

Former Commonwealth Treasury and financial markets economist Warren Hogan sees rates climbing for as many as five years, although his forecast is for four.

RBC Capital Markets head of economics Su-Lin Ong believes that won’t be needed to cool the economy, as the expiry of the ultra-cheap three-year fixed rate mortgages taken out during COVID will deliver a “market-induced tightening”.

Recession risk in the US and Australia

The panel believes the United States is at a much greater risk than Australia of a miscalculation in which rates are pushed so high to contain inflation that they bring on a recession.

The US economy has already turned down in the first three months of this year, and the panel expects it to finish the year just 2.2% larger than when the year began. The panel expects unusually low economic growth of 2.6% in China.

In the United States, the task of defining the start and end of recessions is assigned to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s business cycle dating committee.

The panel believes there is a 40% chance it will call a recession in the next two years, with the most likely start being March 2023.

The panel assigns a lower 20% probability to a recession in Australia (commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth) and believes the most likely start date is August 2023.

Economic growth

Absent recession, the panel expects economic growth to decline in line with forecasts in the March budget from year-on-year growth of 4.25% in 2021-22 to 2.5% over the coming five years.

Living standards

The substantial increase in wage growth the panel expects from 2.4% in the year to March to 3.6% by June next year will be nowhere near enough to prevent real wages sliding.

Even with inflation down to 4.8% by then as forecast, real wages would go backwards by a further 1.2%.

Weighing on further increases in wages growth will be a forecast nudge up in the rate of unemployment, from 3.9% to 4.2%.

ANZ chief economist Richard Yetsenga says while reopening Australia to skilled migrants, temporary visa holders, students and backpackers will add to the supply of workers, it should also boost already very strong consumer spending, limiting any increase in unemployment.

The panel expects outsized real growth in household spending of 4.5% in 2022-23 boosted by what Barrenjoey Capital’s chief economist Jo Masters describes as elevated household savings, combined with continuing fixed rate mortgages and the low and middle income tax offset payments due to hit accounts from July.

The broadest measure of living standards, real net disposable income per capita, should continue to advance, although modestly.

Home prices

The panel expects mortgage rate driven falls in home prices to reach 6-7% in Sydney and Melbourne over the coming year.

Julie Toth of Swinburne University and Nous Group expects the biggest impact in low and medium income suburbs, where buyers are more vulnerable to mortgage increases.

Markets

The panel nonetheless expects solid growth in non-mining business investment of 6.4% (and mining investment of 7.6%), and an iron ore price above US$100 an ounce but sliding down from its present US$130 to US$108.

It expects the Australian share market to end the financial year 2% lower.

After a year in which the 10-year bond rate that determines the government’s cost of borrowing soared from 1.5% to 3.7%, panelists expect only a small further increase in 2022-23, to 3.9%.

After sliding from 75 US cents to 69 US cents, they expect the Australian dollar to climb modestly to 72 cents during 2022-23, putting some downward pressure on inflation.

The Conversation Economic Panel

Click on economist to see full profile.

Download the 2022-23 economic survey

Peter Martin 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. Sky-high mortgages, 7.1% inflation, and a 20% chance of recession. How the Conversation’s panel sees the year ahead – https://theconversation.com/sky-high-mortgages-7-1-inflation-and-a-20-chance-of-recession-how-the-conversations-panel-sees-the-year-ahead-185411

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mona Nikidehaghani, Lecturer in Accounting, University of Wollongong

From Monday July 4 2022, Australian job seekers face a new social security system to police eligibility for support payments.

It replaces the “Jobactive” system that required the “mutual obligation” of applying for 20 jobs a month for payments to continue.

You must now instead earn 100 points a month through a variety of activities, including applying for jobs, attending courses and even working.

This “point-based activation system” was designed under the Morrison government, with some alterations made by the Albanese government. It reflects recommendations made in 2019 by a Senate select committee inquiry that found the existing “jobactive” program to be punitive and “not fit for purpose”.

The inquiry recommended a broader range of activities should count towards mutual obligation requirements, and that those activities better promote work readiness.

The new system – now called Workforce Australia – does this with a list of more than 30 tasks or activities.

Making a job plan

When you apply for income support, you will need to create a “job plan”, recording everything you must do to meet your mutual obligations requirements.

An assessment will be made of how well you can self-manage this job plan. You will be assigned to either an “online employment service” or to a service provider for personal assistance.

Providers have the power to customise plans by reducing the number of points a job seeker needs each month, or increasing the value of points for activities.

How to get to 100 points

A job application (or what the system calls a “job search”) earns five points. You are generally expected to do at least five job searches a month (with some exceptions, such as if you are attending an adult migrant English course).

The balance of the activities involve looking for work, training courses to improve skills, or activities that contribute to your employability. The following tables summarises these activities and their point values.

A full breakdown of the points system can be found here.

What if you don’t earn 100 points?

If you fail to reach 100 points without a good reason, you will receive a demerit point – a formal warning. This will move you from the “green zone” to the “warning zone”.

Each demerit points expires after six months.

If you accrue three demerit points at any one time, you will be required to attend a “capabilities interview” – an “informal” interview with your service provider to review if your job plan is right for you.

If you accrue five demerit points, you must attend a “capabilities assessment” – a formal interview with Centrelink. This meeting will have direct implications on payments. For examples, if it is decided your job plan is not fit for purpose, you return to the green zone with a new plan. If not, you will be moved to the “penalty zone” – putting you at risk of losing payments.

If you fail to comply with any part of your job plan while in the “penalty zone”, you will be penalised one week’s payment. If it happens again, you will lose two week’s payment. If it happens a third time, your payments will be cancelled, and you will have to wait four weeks before you can reapply.

Essentially, three strikes in the penalty zone and you are out.

What if you earn more than 100 points?

A beneficial feature of the new system is the ability to bank excess points. So if you accrue more than 100 points in one month, you can use those extra points (up to a total of 50 points) the next month.

Is this system better?

Welfare advocates are worried the system could prove just as punitive as the the old system.

There are certainly anomalies, such as the differing time commitments per point values. The greater discretion given to employment service providers over job plans could also contribute to inequalities, particularly for those who cannot advocate for themselves.

But in most respects the points-based activation system is an improvement over what it replaces. It provides greater flexibility and emphasises activities that contributes to employability, not just activity involving applying for jobs.

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

– ref. JobSeeker eligibility changes: what you must do under the new ‘points-based activation’ system – https://theconversation.com/jobseeker-eligibility-changes-what-you-must-do-under-the-new-points-based-activation-system-185759

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn Gulliver, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of Queensland

A man who drove through a climate protest blocking the Harbour Tunnel this week has copped a A$469 fine, while multiple members of the activist group were arrested. The protest was among a series of peak hour rallies in Sydney by Blockade Australia, in an effort to stop “the cogs in the machine that is destroying life on earth”.

Disruptive protests like these make an impact. They form the iconic images of social movements that have delivered many of the rights and freedoms we enjoy today.

They attract extensive media coverage that propel issues onto the national agenda. And, despite media coverage to the contrary, research suggests they don’t reduce public support for climate action.

But disruptive protest also consistently generates one negative response: attempts to criminalise it.

Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales have all recently proposed or introduced anti-protest bills targeting environmental and climate activists. This wave of anti-protest legislation has been described as draconian and undemocratic.

Let’s take a look at how these laws suppress environmental protesters – and whether criminalisation actually works.

How do governments criminalise protest?

The criminalisation of environmental protest in Australia isn’t new.

Tasmania provides a compelling example. The Tasmania Workplaces (Protection from Protestors) Act 2014 sought to fine demonstrators up to $10,000 if they “prevent, hinder, or obstruct the carrying out of a business activity”. Described as a breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, it was subsequently voted down by the Tasmanian Legislative Council.

The bill was resurrected in 2019, but also voted down, an outcome described by the Human Rights Law Centre as a “win for democracy”.

Read more:
‘Disappointment and disbelief’ after Morrison government vetoes research into student climate activism’

But yet again in 2022, the freedom to protest in Tasmania is under threat. The Police Offences Amendment (Workplace Protection) Bill 2022 proposes fines of up to $21,625 and 18 months jail for peaceful protest.

Activities such as handing out flyers, holding a placard or sharing a petition could fall within the offences.

Tasmania is not an outlier. After the Port of Botany and Sydney climate blockades in March this year, NSW passed the Roads and Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill 2022.

Almost 40 civil society groups called to scrap the bill, which used vague and broad wording to expand offences with up to two years in jail and a $22,000 fine.

Similarly, the Andrews government in Victoria is introducing the Sustainable Forests Timber Amendment (Timber Harvesting Safety Zones) Bill 2022, which raises penalties on anti-logging protest offences to $21,000 or 12 months imprisonment.

Other ways Australia criminalise protest

Legislation isn’t the only tool in the toolbox of protest criminalisation. The expansion of police and government discretionary powers is also often used. Examples include:

• “move-on” orders restricting protesters’ access to public spaces or engagement in particular behaviours

• on-the-spot fines, such as for the use of specific lock-on devices defined in Queensland legislation

• surveillance, pre-emptive arrests and infiltration of landowners and anti-coal groups, including Blockade Australia

• onerous bail conditions, such as restricting travel to CBD areas, banning journalists from mine sites, and unprecedented non-association orders preventing interaction with family

• persistent attempts to silence environmental NGOs engaging in advocacy.

Corporations also use discretionary powers. Adani/Bravus coal mining company reportedly used private investigators to restrict Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners’ access to their ceremonial camp.

It also reportedly bankrupted senior spokesperson Adrian Burragubba in 2019, sued one climate activist for intimidation, conspiracy and breaches of contract, surveilled his family, and is pursuing him for $600 million (now reduced to $17m) in damages.

In statements to the ABC and the Guardian, Adani says it is exercising its rights under the law to be protected from individuals and groups who act “unlawfully”.

Read more:
How Australia’s expanding environmental movement is breaking the climate action deadlock in politics

Another tool for suppressing protest is the use of “othering” language. This language seeks to stigmatise activists, de-legitimise their concerns and frame them as threats to national security or the economy.

We see it frequently after disruptive protest. For example, ministers have recently described Blockade Australia protesters as “bloody idiots”, who should “get a real job”.

The Queensland Premier has described protesters as “extremists”, who were “dangerous, reckless, irresponsible, selfish and stupid”.

Why do governments feel the need to implement harsher penalties?

Some politicians have argued that anti-protest laws act as a “deterrent” to disruptive protest. Critics have also argued that government powers are used as a shield to protect corporate interests.

In its new report, for example, the Australian Democracy Network shows how corporations can manipulate government powers to harass and punish opponents through a process called “state capture”.

Non-profit organisations have also demonstrated the powerful influence of the fossil fuel industry, particularly in weakening Australian environmentalists’ protest rights.

But it’s not only civil sector groups and protesters sounding the alarm. Increased repression of our rights to engage in non-violent protest have also been voiced by lawyers, scholars and observers such as the United Nations Special Rapporteur.

Does criminalisation reduce protest?

Numerous organisations have highlighted how criminalising protest and silencing charities threaten democratic freedoms that are fundamental to a vibrant, inclusive and innovative society.

But more than that, these strategies don’t appear to work.

Courts have used anti-protest legislation to instead highlight the importance of peaceful protest as a legitimate form of political communication. They have struck down legislation, released activists from remand, overturned unreasonable bail conditions and reduced excessive fines.

Police, too, have refused to remove cultural custodians from their ceremonial grounds.

Read more:
When native title fails: First Nations people are turning to human rights law to keep access to cultural sites

And in general, research shows the public does not support repressive protest policing.

Indeed, rates of disruptive protest are escalating, while protesters vow to continue despite the risk.

The majority of Australians support more ambitious climate action. Many agree with Blockade Australia’s statement that “urgent broad-scale change” is necessary to address the climate crisis.

Politicians may be better served by focusing their efforts on this message, rather than attacking the messengers.

Robyn Gulliver is affiliated with The Commons Social Change Library.

– ref. ‘Draconian and undemocratic’: why criminalising climate protesters in Australia doesn’t actually work – https://theconversation.com/draconian-and-undemocratic-why-criminalising-climate-protesters-in-australia-doesnt-actually-work-185961

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ritesh Chugh, Associate Professor – Information and Communications Technology, CQUniversity Australia

While manufacturers have successfully increased the water-repelling nature of smartphones, they are still far from “waterproof”. A water-resistant product can usually resist water penetration to some extent, but a waterproof product is (meant to be) totally impervious to water.

Last week, Samsung Australia was fined A$14 million by the Australian Federal Court over false representations in ads of the water resistance of its Galaxy phones. The tech giant admitted that submerging Galaxy phones in pool or sea water could corrode the charging ports and stop the phones from working, if charged while still wet.

Similarly, in 2020, Apple was fined €10 million (about A$15.3 million) in Italy for misleading claims about the water resistance of iPhones.

It’s very common for phones to become damaged as a result of being dropped in water. In a 2018 survey in the US, 39% of respondents said they’d dropped their phones in water. Other surveys have had similar results.

So why is it in 2022 – a time where technological marvels surround us – we still don’t have waterproof phones?

Waterproof vs water-resistant

There’s a rating system used to measure devices’ resistance against solids (such as dust) and liquids (namely water). It’s called the Ingress Protection (IP) rating.

An IP rating will have two numbers. In a rating of IP68, the 6 refers to protection against solids on a scale of 0 (no protection) to 6 (high protection), and 8 refers to protection against water on a scale of 0 (no protection) to 9 (high protection).

Interestingly, the benchmark for the water-resistance rating varies between manufacturers. For example, Samsung’s IP68-certified phones are water-resistant to a maximum depth of 1.5m in freshwater for up to 30 minutes, and the company cautions against beach or pool use. Some of Apple’s iPhones with an IP68 rating can be used at a maximum depth of 6m for up to 30 minutes.

Yet both Samsung and Apple are unlikely to consider repairing your water-damaged phone under their warranties.

Moreover, IP rating testing is done under controlled laboratory conditions. In real-life scenarios such as boating, swimming or snorkelling, factors including speed, movement, water pressure and alkalinity all vary. So, gauging a phone’s level of water resistance becomes complicated.

How are phones made water-resistant?

Making a phone water-resistant requires several components and techniques. Typically, the first point of protection is to form a physical barrier around all ingress (entry) points where dust or water could enter. These include the buttons and switches, speakers and microphone outlets, the camera, flash, screen, phone enclosure, USB port and SIM card tray.

These points are covered and sealed using glue, adhesive strips and tapes, silicone seals, rubber rings, gaskets, plastic and metal meshes and water-resistant membranes. After this, a layer of ultra-thin polymer nanocoating is applied to the phone’s circuit board to help repel water.

Nevertheless, a phone’s water resistance will still decrease with time as components age and deteriorate. Apple admits water- and dust-resistance are not permanent features of its phones.

Cameras are not entirely impervious to water, but some can tolerate submersion a lot better than smartphones. Often that’s because they’re relatively simpler devices.

A smartphone has much more functionality, which means internal components are more sensitive, fragile, and must be built into a smaller casing. All of these factors make it doubly difficult to afford phones a similar level of water resistance.

Adding water resistance to phones also increases their price for consumers (by 20% to 30%, according to Xiaomi’s co-founder). This is a major consideration for manufacturers – especially since even a small crack can render any waterproofing void.

Keeping devices dry

Apart from nanocoating on the internal circuit boards, applying water-repellent coating to the exterior of a phone could boost protection. Some companies are working on this technology for manufacturers.

Future phones might also have circuitry that’s fabricated directly onto (waterproof) silicone material using laser writing techniques, and further coated with water-repellant technologies.

For now, however, there’s no such thing as a waterproof phone. If your phone does find itself at the bottom of a pool or toilet and isn’t turning on, make sure you take the best steps to ensure it dries out properly (and isn’t further damaged).

You can also buy a waterproof case or dry pouch if you want to completely waterproof your phone for water activities.

Read more:
Phone wet and won’t turn on? Here’s how to deal with water damage (hint: soaking it in rice won’t work)

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

– ref. It’s 2022. Why do we still not have waterproof phones? – https://theconversation.com/its-2022-why-do-we-still-not-have-waterproof-phones-185775

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suze Wilson, Senior Lecturer, School of Management, Massey University

The US Supreme Court’s recent ruling to throw out Roe v Wade is an issue of relevance to political leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The decision was met with enthusiasm by those opposed to abortion here, including opposition National MP for Tāmaki Simon O’Connor.

Pro-choice groups such as Abortion Rights Aotearoa (ALRANZ) expressed alarm, not only for American women but for what this might signal for our country.

This has left Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon with a dilemma. He found himself caught up in questions that put a spotlight on his pro-life values, politics and integrity.

Luxon’s anti-abortion beliefs are not news. In the days following his election as party leader late last year, when asked to confirm if, from his point of view, abortion was tantamount to murder, he clarified “that’s what a pro-life position is”.

Yet, in recent days, Luxon has repeatedly and emphatically sought to reassure voters National would not pursue a change to this country’s abortion laws should it win government.

Abortion is legal in Aotearoa, decriminalised in 2020 within the framework of the Abortion Legislation Act. It’s clear Luxon hopes his assurances will appease those of a pro-choice view, the position of most New Zealanders according to polling in 2019.

Read more:
The end of Roe v. Wade would likely embolden global anti-abortion activists and politicians

Principle and pragmatism in leadership

It has long been argued good leadership is underpinned by strength of character, a clear moral compass and integrity – in other words, consistency between one’s words and actions.

Whether a leader possesses the prudence to gauge what is a practically wise course of action in a given situation that upholds important values, or simply panders to what is politically safe and expedient, offers insights into their character.

Over time, we can discern if they lean more strongly toward being values-based or if they tend to align with what Machiavelli controversially advised: that to retain power a leader must appear to look good but be willing to do whatever it takes to maintain their position.

Of course both considerations have some role to play as no one is perfect. We should look for a matter of degree or emphasis. A more strongly Machiavellian orientation is associated with toxic leadership.

Read more:
Roe v Wade overturned: what abortion access and reproductive rights look like around the world

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has characterised herself as a “pragmatic idealist”. Her track record indicates a willingness to accept considerable political heat in defence of key values. This is seen, for example, in her sustained advocacy of COVID-related health measures such as vaccine mandates and managed isolation, even when doing so was not the politically expedient path to follow.

Luxon’s leadership track record in the public domain is far less extensive. Much remains unknown or untested as to what kind of leader he is. Being leader of the opposition is, of course, a very different role to that of prime minister.

However, in his maiden speech Luxon described his Christian faith as something that anchors him and shapes his values, while also arguing politicians should not seek to force their beliefs on others.

His response to this week’s controversy proves he is willing to set aside his personal values for what is politically expedient. This suggests he is less of an idealist and more a pragmatist.

This may be a relief to the pro-choice lobby, given his anti-abortion beliefs. But if the political calculus changes, what might then happen?

The matter is not settled

New Zealand’s constitutional and legal systems differ from those of the US, but the Supreme Court decision proves it’s possible to wind back access to abortion.

Even if Luxon’s current assurance is sincerely intended, it may not sustain should the broader political acceptability of his personal beliefs change. And on that front, there are grounds for concern.

The National Council of Women’s 2021 gender attitudes survey revealed a clear increase in more conservative, anti-egalitarian attitudes. Researchers at the disinformation project also found sexist and misogynistic themes feature strongly in the conspiracy-laden disinformation gaining influence in New Zealand.

If these kinds of shifts in public opinion continue to gather steam, it may become more politically tenable for Luxon to shift gear regarding New Zealand’s abortion laws.

In such a situation, the right to abortion may not be the only one imperilled. A 2019 survey in the US showed a strong connection between an anti-abortion or “pro-life” stance and more general anti-egalitarian views.

It’s clear Luxon is aiming to reassure the public he has no intentions to advance changes to our abortion laws. But his seeming readiness to set aside personal beliefs in favour of what is politically viable also suggests that, if the political landscape changes, so too might his stance.

A broader question arises from this: if a leader is prepared to give up a presumably sincerely held conviction to secure more votes, what other values that matter to voters might they be willing to abandon in pursuit of political power?

Suze Wilson 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. Luxon’s dilemma: when politics and morals don’t match in response to the overturning of Roe v Wade – https://theconversation.com/luxons-dilemma-when-politics-and-morals-dont-match-in-response-to-the-overturning-of-roe-v-wade-186032

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Price, Team Leader / Senior Research Officer, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

Most new parents and caregivers will know the phrase “put your baby down when drowsy but awake”. But some parents may find this just doesn’t work for them. As soon as the baby goes into the cot, they start screaming!

Talking with other parents about how to get a baby to sleep can be as divisive as talking religion or politics. It can feel as though there is only one “right” way of doing things.

But as researchers and clinicians supporting families with child and baby sleep, we can reassure you no one way suits all babies or families.

A baby’s natural temperament, age and feeding pattern are among many factors that influence its sleep. Babies often change their sleep patterns as they get older, and it can take time for them to learn how to settle into sleep.

A baby’s environment also influences how it sleeps – siblings, noise, what the family did that day and stress may all play a role. In turn, family circumstances can affect how a baby’s sleep is perceived.

Read more:
1 in 3 new mums struggle to get their baby to sleep, but some women have a tougher time

Understanding normal baby sleep

Sleep happens in cycles. We start out awake, then fall into light sleep and then deep sleep, before moving into wakefulness and so on. For adults, one of these cycles lasts around 90 minutes. For babies and children, it is around half this time.

Every time we go into a light sleep cycle, we may wake briefly. A baby must learn to link sleep cycles to sleep longer. If a baby learns to self-settle, they can link their sleep cycles on their own. If not, they may need help after every light sleep cycle.

Before about six months of age, babies typically wake regularly during the night to feed and get enough nutrients to grow.

After the first few months of life, falling asleep will involve associations – things that are familiar to us – and these associations are learned. If a baby’s sleep associations are with feeding or being in a carer’s arms, they may need this association to fall back to sleep.

It’s the same for us as grown-ups; if we wake, it can be hard for some of us to get back to sleep if we are missing our usual pillow or blanket, or if a light gets turned on or we can hear a noise.

When thinking about babies and sleep, it’s important to differentiate between the first and the second half of the first year of life. The reason is a key milestone in the baby’s development sometime beyond around four months of age: the understanding of object permanence.

Read more:
Controlled crying is helpful, not harmful

This is when the baby knows a caregiver is still around even when they are not visible or in the room with them. This means that if the baby wakes up at the end of a light sleep cycle and cannot go back to sleep by themselves, they will cry or call out.

Does the ‘drowsy but awake’ advice work?

Some babies will find it harder to self-settle than other babies. The “drowsy but awake” technique is often recommended as a way to help babies develop self-settling techniques.

The idea is to get them used to feeling drowsy when in bed to set up the association between bed and sleep.

Parents can use responsive settling techniques (such as holding or patting) to help their babies and children get ready for sleep.

While the “drowsy but awake” technique hasn’t been rigorously studied on its own, it has been well studied in the context of sleep training.

So what’s the evidence for sleep training?

Sleep training methods that reduce the level of support (incorporating the “drowsy but awake” technique) can help babies build independence in self-settling. The evidence is based on healthy babies, who are typically six months and older.

One of the most widely known sleep training methods is called “controlled comforting” (also known as “controlled crying”). Parents put their baby to bed tired but awake, and leave them to settle for short, increasing periods of time, even if they cry. Parents choose which time intervals are best for their family – for example, two minutes, then four minutes, six minutes, then eight minutes; or two, five, ten minutes; or two, five, five, five minutes.

A more gradual method is called “camping out”. A caregiver lies on a camp bed or sits in a chair next to their baby’s cot to settle the baby when they cry. Over a couple of weeks, the caregiver gradually moves the chair or bed away from the cot and out the door, until the baby is falling asleep without the parent in the room.

Studies show these techniques help parents with their child’s sleep and their own well-being. However, the research is lacking when it comes to cross-cultural context, understanding the perspective of fathers, in children below six months of age, and in families experiencing higher social and economic adversity.

Not every technique works for every baby or every family. If caregivers want to try a new sleep approach, it’s important to have a plan A and plan B. Try plan A with the “ideal” situation but escalate to plan B quickly if plan A doesn’t work. Parents can decide whether to try again another time.

What can I do to establish healthy sleep habits?

Babies and children thrive on routines. Positive bedtime routines can help children get ready for sleep. This means doing the same things every time before bed, so the baby knows it is sleep time. These may include things that help the baby calm down, like a warm bath or reading a story while keeping the environment calm and soothing to promote sleep.

Learning new routines is often easier for babies and children when they have more energy (typically earlier in the day) and harder when they are more tired.

Read more:
Should I roll my baby back over if she rolls onto her stomach in her sleep?

For more information about children’s sleep and how to manage it:

• the Raising Children Network website gives all the current evidence on children’s development and sleep by age group and is government-funded and non-profit

• the Sleep with Kip website offers a range of clinically validated, evidence-informed resources to help understand and support families with sleep. It includes a 90-second “sleep quiz”, which once completed will provide recommendations for simple, actionable sleep strategies to support your child’s sleep, plus information on sleep cycles and the science of normal sleep.

Billy Garvey receives funding from the NHMRC.

Nothing to disclose.

Anna Price, Ashikin Mohd Nordin, and Valerie Sung do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Why are parents told to put their baby to bed ‘drowsy but awake’? Does it work? – https://theconversation.com/why-are-parents-told-to-put-their-baby-to-bed-drowsy-but-awake-does-it-work-183368

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Stavrou, English Language Instructor, University of Cyprus, and PhD Graduate, Charles Sturt University

Traditional approaches to adult language teaching often use resources such as textbooks and generic learning materials that are less than inspiring for learners. New research shows using popular song, as well as films and TV series, for language learning can help connect with people’s interests and motivate them. Based on this research, we have developed six tips for using popular songs to learn a language.

Learning a second language can be challenging at the best of times. It takes time and effort to learn a language.

Read more:
Australian students say they understand global issues, but few are learning another language compared to the OECD average

Better ways to promote enjoyment of long-term learning are needed. Enjoyment helps sustain engagement with a language, which in turn can help improve learners’ confidence in their skills.

This is where songs come into play. Songs are a common source of daily inspiration and relaxation, and they also have many qualities that aid learning. The lyrics repeat words, are simple, “conversation-like” and generate personal associations.

It’s important for both learners and teachers to be able to relate to their language-learning resources. Different people will have different backgrounds, interests and cultural contexts. Adult learners in particular often require greater choice in how they engage with language learning prompts.

What did the research find?

Newly released doctoral research on university students shows the benefits of using popular songs, films and TV series as prompts for learning a language. In online surveys, weekly diary entries and focus groups, these young adults unanimously reported they paid greater attention to the language and themes of popular songs beyond their scheduled classes.

Read more:
Want to learn a language? Try TikTok

Students preferred popular songs due to their real-world authenticity, the personalised choices available in streaming libraries, and relatable topics embedded within them. Learners were likely to encounter these songs outside the classroom, increasing their engagement with their studies.

One student noted in her diary:

Using songs really helps me to participate more in class because it is something more familiar to me, because I listen to songs every day.

A focus group participant said:

Especially in recent years, with technology, a film, a series or a song are much closer to us. We use them much more than a text or a book. After so many years with texts and books, this is much more interesting.

One class task used Rudimental’s These Days, a song well known to students. They enjoyed this exercise in comprehension, making inferences as well as identifying tone and central themes of this song about a relationship break-up.

Towards the end of the semester, another student noted in their diary:

It is the most fun way of learning and generally the most entertaining way of learning a foreign language.

Another benefit relates to the mental health challenges young people are facing, especially during the pandemic. There is evidence to suggest the use of song can help reduce anxiety about learning.

6 tips for using songs to learn a language

The new research resulted in the SMILLE Model shown below, as well as six recommendations to guide teachers on using popular song in the classroom.

1. Ensure teachers and learners (including learning groups) can self-select the songs and other media when designing learning tasks and for cross-cultural activities.

2. Bridge language learning tasks and songs, ensuring selections match the learning objectives.

3. Encourage the use of popular song and media outside the classroom to extend learning beyond school.

4. Avoid using textbooks or sources that don’t interest learners or they are less able to relate to.

5. Discuss with the learners how they relate to the popular song, film or TV series. Use these discussions as a springboard for learning tasks in and out of class.

6. Have a range of prompts prepared to help teachers determine students’ understanding of what is going on, the level of involvement, why the event is happening, the topics and messages being portrayed, cultural similarities or differences, and why the source was chosen.

How do music and songs help with learning?

Research shows music stimulates higher-level thinking and helps learners with both right-brain strengths and hearing abilities. Music has also been shown to strengthen connections to language.

Read more:
Music can help lift our kids out of the literacy rut, but schools in some states are still missing out

In literature classes, music has been used as an emotional “hook” to engage students’ interest in the works being studied.

Learning resources linked to popular culture also help motivate students who see textbook-type resources as uninteresting or less relevant to their lives outside the classroom.

Evidence of the benefits from around the world

Research has shown embedding songs in language lessons has benefited younger learners across the world:

• in the United States, it improved kindergarten students’ motivation, excitement and enthusiasm about learning, increasing their desire to attend kinder

• in China, kindergarten students’ vocabulary increased as a result of repeating targeted words in song lyrics

• in Singapore, reserved and shy students became more confident and comfortable when attempting English pronunciations and were better able to recall difficult language instructions

• in Germany, students improved their ability to form and identify plurals and vowels for unknown words in songs

• in Scotland, students in a singing-learning group showed greater improvements in a second language than a non-singing group

• in England, students were able to learn targeted phrases better in song-focused lessons than those who didn’t use song.

Read more:
‘Just as important as English or maths’: how mentoring is bringing music alive for primary school students

Previous studies of university students have also shown the benefits of using songs for adult language learning:

• Finnish students improved their writing fluency

• in Colombia, students’ listening skills, motivation and engagement in discussions all improved

• in Bangladesh, using songs as audio prompts generated richer content in students’ writing and more positive and pleasant learning experiences

• Spanish students’ recall of text improved.

Our research adds to the evidence that popular songs and media are strong resources to kick-start and sustain adult motivation when learning a second language.

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

– ref. Struggling to learn a language? 6 tips on how pop songs can help – https://theconversation.com/struggling-to-learn-a-language-6-tips-on-how-pop-songs-can-help-184642

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Director, Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre; Associate Professor of Criminology, Faculty of Arts, Monash University

In 2020 the killing of Hannah Clarke and her three children – Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3 – by her former partner Rowan Baxter, horrified the nation. It prompted significant calls for urgent action on violence against women and improved recognition of coercive control as a leading precursor to intimate partner femicide.

Advocates, including Hannah Clarke’s parents, have campaigned for the introduction of coercive control as a stand-alone criminal offence.

Yesterday, the findings of the coronial inquest into these deaths were released. They are a clear reminder that men’s violence against women is a national crisis and system reform is urgent.

Here’s what the inquest found, and what systemic changes are needed.

We must not accept the killing of women as inevitable

Describing Baxter (who subsequently killed himself) as “a master of manipulation”, Deputy State Coroner Jane Bentley said:

I find it unlikely that any further actions taken by police officers, service providers, friends or family members could have stopped Baxter from ultimately executing his murderous plans.

This endorses a key message from recent inquiries at state and national levels of the need to increase perpetrator accountability at all points of the system.

However, we cannot accept as inevitable the status quo that one woman in Australia is killed every nine days by a current or former partner.

Violence against women is preventable. Baxter’s actions reaffirm the well evidenced fact that men who commit intimate partner femicide rarely do so “out of the blue”.

Rowan Baxter had a history of violence. The inquest findings document how, in the period prior to his “final act of cowardice”, Baxter:

• had been the subject of a domestic violence order application

• had breached the conditions of a domestic violence order, an act for which he was not charged

• had been the subject of an assault complaint

• had a history of coercive controlling behaviours, details of which were provided by a friend of Hannah’s in an affidavit to Queensland police prior to her death.

The inquest also revealed that in his relationship with Hannah, Baxter had used reproductive coercion, technology-facilitated and image-based abuse among other forms of intimate partner violence.

Numerous Australian death reviews have found the period of relationship separation, histories of coercive and controlling behaviours, and interactions with the family court system are well recognised precursors to intimate partner femicide.

Victim survivor advocates have repeatedly said they are best placed to assess their risk.

The inquest showed Hannah Baxter had been in contact with police and had expressed her concerns to family and friends.

It exposed a system not built to effectively deal with men’s violence against women, or to contextualise every system interaction in a broader pattern in order to reveal the real risk to women and children.

Read more:
‘All these people with lived experience are not being heard’: what family violence survivors want policy makers to know

The need for whole of system reform

The coroner made recommendations to improve policing, child safety, and service system responses, including:

• a trial of a specialist domestic violence police station

• increased training for all specialist domestic violence police officers

• increased funding for men’s behaviour change programs both in prisons and in the community.

The recommendations stress the importance of multidisciplinary responses and show working in silos is ineffective.

There has been considerable recent reform in Queensland and across other states and territories.

This includes legislation designed to enhance domestic violence risk assessment and management practices, and to introduce information-sharing schemes essential to a whole-of-system response to domestic violence.

Victoria’s information-sharing system seeks to ensure risks are kept in full view across all parts of the system.

This aims to ensure that when women interact with various agencies, their experiences of an abuser’s violence are shared among professionals tasked with assessing and managing risk.

The inquest findings provide a clear reminder as to why effective risk assessment and information sharing are essential components of an effective whole-of-system response to domestic violence.

Read more:
There’s $1.3 billion for women’s safety in the budget and it’s nowhere near enough

We must recognise children as victim-survivors in their own right

The inquest found:

there was no real assessment of risk of harm to the children by QPS [Queensland Police Service] or Child Safety Officers – the only assessment was that Hannah was able to care for them.

This finding is critical.

Children frequently remain invisible at different points of the family violence system.

Yet in Australia, one child is killed almost every fortnight by a parent.

While children are typically treated as an extension of their primary carer, the risks children face must be identified and addressed in their own right.

Victoria is presently developing a child and young person-specific risk assessment and management framework, as part of reforms stemming from the Victorian royal commission into family violence.

But in most Australian states and territories, the risks specific to children go unaddressed.

Read more:
‘Silent victims’: royal commission recommends better protections for child victims of family violence

An urgent need for sustained national and state action

The inquest findings are a stark reminder of the horrific cost of men’s violence against women in Australia and the need for urgent action.

With a new federal government in place, and the expected imminent release of the next National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children (as the old one is due to expire today), we now need a whole-of-government commitment to addressing all forms of men’s violence.

The draft National Plan (which replaces the one about to end) sets out a commitment to address prevention, intervention, response, and recovery. Encouragingly, this draft plan provided a much-needed commitment to recognising children as victim-survivors in their own right.

As the next National Plan comes into place, we need to focus on delivering the evidence-based recommendations of recent inquiries, commissions and consultations. Critically, we also need a transparent approach to monitoring progress.

As of the end of May, 20 women in Australia had been killed by men in 2022.

We must not wait for the inevitable findings of the next inquest.

A bold national commitment is needed now. We sorely need a new national plan, matched by a resourcing commitment at the state and national level that befits the depth of the crisis.

Kate currently receives funding for family violence related research from the Australian Research Council, Australian Institute of Criminology, Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, the Victorian Government and the Department of Social Services. This piece is written by Kate Fitz-Gibbon in her capacity as Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre and are wholly independent of Kate Fitz-Gibbon’s role as Chair of Respect Victoria.

Marie Segrave receives funding for gender and family violence related research from the Australian Research Council, Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety and Respect Victoria.

Sandra Walklate receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Institute of Criminology for research into violence against women. She is also in receipt of funding from the N8PRP in the UK for police related work on violence against women.

Ellen Reeves 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 Hannah Clarke inquest reveals, yet again, significant system failures. Here’s what’s urgently needed for women’s safety – https://theconversation.com/the-hannah-clarke-inquest-reveals-yet-again-significant-system-failures-heres-whats-urgently-needed-for-womens-safety-186050

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University

The election of the Albanese Labor government brings an opportunity to end one of the most detrimental elements of Australian refugee law and policy in the past decade: the use of temporary visas.

Temporary protection has been the only option available for asylum seekers who arrived by boat a decade ago and were recognised as refugees. Known as the “legacy caseload”, these people are caught in a system of law and policy that keeps them in a state of perpetual limbo.

As the new government committed to end temporary protection, we have just published a policy brief with the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law outlining how this could be achieved.

Our report sets out practical reforms that can be implemented relatively simply, within existing legislative provisions and with only minimal changes to policy and regulations.

The 17 recommendations were produced in consultation with refugees and asylum seekers living on temporary protection visas and bridging visas. We also consulted civil society, including former and current temporary protection visa holders and legal groups working with refugees.

The impact of temporary protection and the fast-track system on refugees and
asylum seekers has left many depressed and suicidal. Expectations from those living on temporary visas and the wider refugee advocates are high and there is significant apprehension about the transition.

The new government understands it will need to approach reforms carefully. Our recommendations are accompanied by a trauma-informed strategy to help reduce mental distress, deterioration and retraumatisation of asylum seekers, while also increasing community engagement.

The current system is damaging

Australia’s temporary protection system is unfair, expensive, impractical and inconsistent with our international human rights obligations.

In 2014, the Coalition government reintroduced a Howard-era three-year Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) and a five-year Safe Haven Enterprise Visa (SHEV) for the more than 30,000 people who arrived by boat between August 13 2012 and January 1 2014.

However, unlike the earlier Howard policy, the temporary visas this time provided no realistic prospect of applying for permanent protection.

The number of people in this “legacy caseload” as of May 2022 is 31,256.

They come from many countries. The largest number are from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The majority – around 19,500 people – have been found to be refugees and have been granted TPV and SHEV.

The 10,000 who have been refused a visa were assessed through a “fast-track” process that has been neither fair nor fast.

People who have been refused have been living in the Australian community for ten years or more while awaiting the outcome of appeals.

Some (such as the Nadeselingham family) are working or have had children in Australia.

There are also many asylum seekers from Afghanistan who have been refused visas but who cannot return due to the reemergence of the Taliban in August 2021.

In other words, some of those refused visas may well be refugees or have other ties to the Australian community. However, the current legal system does not allow them to apply for other visas without going through cumbersome, expensive appeals and ministerial intervention processes.

People who hold TPVs and SHEVs are allowed to work but not to reunite with family or travel freely overseas.

Others live on precarious short-term bridging visas, some without the right to work. Many are without access to income support. In either situation, the uncertainty is damaging people’s mental health and well-being.

Key recommendations

The focus of the policy brief was to set out reforms either within the current legislative and policy framework, or with minimal changes.

This means changes can occur within a relatively short time frame.

Key recommendations include:

• refugees on TPVs and SHEVs should be moved onto permanent visas known as Resolution of Status visas. People who have not yet been assessed or who have previously been refused protection should also be able to apply for a permanent visa that does not require another assessment of their protection claims

• restrictions on travel for TPV and SHEV holders should be removed, pending the grant of a permanent visa and includes specific recommendations in relation to travel documents. Travel is essential for re-establishing links to separated family

• family reunion, particularly partners and children, should be prioritised. Granting people permanent visas allows them to begin the process of family reunion through the family or humanitarian programs

• the government should establish a specialised team in the Department of Home Affairs to work closely with migration agents, lawyers and refugee communities. This group could identify other options for allowing reunification of close relatives and children who, under current law, may not fall within the definition of “member of a family unit”. Families have been separated for at least 10 years; many left children at home who have now reached ages where they will no longer be considered dependent.

In 2014, the new minister for immigration, citizenship and multicultural affairs Andrew Giles said

Labor has a longstanding policy of opposing TPVs, for good reason. They do not provide a sustainable solution for refugees. The uncertainty exacerbates real mental health issues and denies people the capacity to live full lives. As well as significant international law concerns with these provisions, they put people in limbo. There is no deterrence value here, even if you accept that to be a valid policy objective – they only place vulnerable people in a place of uncertainty.

He now has significant power to put those words into action.

Mary Anne Kenny has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council and sitting fees from the Department of Home Affairs.

Ali Reza Yunespour is a Board Member of Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (CRSA) and volunteer Partnership Coordinator with Indigo Foundation Australia.

Carol Grech is a board member of the Rosemary Bryant Research Foundation.

Nicholas Procter has previously received grant funding and sitting fees from from Department of Health and Department of Home Affairs.

– ref. Australia’s temporary visa system is unfair, expensive, impractical and inconsistent. Here’s how the new government could fix it – https://theconversation.com/australias-temporary-visa-system-is-unfair-expensive-impractical-and-inconsistent-heres-how-the-new-government-could-fix-it-185870

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Swift, Educational Experiences team lead (Senior Lecturer), ANU School of Cybernetics, Australian National University

I love writing code to make things: apps, websites, charts, even
music. It’s a skill I’ve worked hard at for
more than 20 years.

So I must confess last week’s news
about the release of a new “AI assistant” coding helper called GitHub Copilot gave me complicated feelings.

Copilot, which spits out code to order based on “plain English” descriptions, is a remarkable tool. But is it about to put coders like me out of a job?

Trained on billions of lines of human code

GitHub (now owned by Microsoft) is a collaboration platform and social network for coders. You can think of it as something like a cross between Dropbox and Instagram, used by everyone from individual hobbyists through to highly paid software engineers at big tech companies.

Over the past decade or so, GitHub’s users have uploaded tens of billions of lines of code for more than 200 million apps. That’s a lot of ifs and fors and
print("hello world") statements.

The Copilot AI works like many other machine learning tools: it was “trained” by scanning through and looking for patterns in those tens of billions of lines of code written and uploaded by members of GitHub’s coder community.

The training can take many months, hundreds of millions of dollars in computing equipment, and enough electricity to run a house for a decade. Once it’s done, though, human coders can then write a description (in plain English) of what they want their code to do, and the Copilot AI helper will write the code for them.

Based on the Codex “language model”, Copilot is the next step in a long line of “intelligent auto-completion” tools. However, these have been far more limited in the past. Copilot is a significant improvement.

A startlingly effective assistant

I was given early “preview” access to Copilot about a year ago, and I’ve been using it on and off. It takes some practice to learn exactly how to frame your requests in English so the Copilot AI gives the most useful code output, but it can be startlingly effective.

However, we’re still a long way from “Hey Siri, make me a million dollar iPhone app”. It’s still necessary to use my software design skills to figure out what the different bits of code should do in my app.

To understand the level Copilot is working at, imagine writing an essay. You can’t just throw the essay question at it and expect it to produce a useful, well-argued piece. But if you figure out the argument and maybe write the topic sentence for each paragraph, it will often do a pretty good job at filling in the rest of each paragraph automatically.

Depending on the type of coding I’m doing, this can sometimes be a huge time- and brainpower-saver.

Biases and bugs

There are some open questions with these sorts of AI coding helper tools. I’m a bit worried they’ll introduce, and reinforce, winner-takes-all dynamics: very few companies have the data (in this case, the billions of lines of code) to build tools like this, so creating a competitor to Copilot will be challenging.

And will Copilot itself be able to suggest new and better ways to write code and build software? We have seen AI systems innovate before. On the other hand, Copilot may be limited to doing things the way we’ve always done them, as AI systems trained on past data are prone to do.

My experiences with Copilot have also made me very aware my expertise is still needed, to check the “suggested” code is actually what I’m looking for.

Sometimes it’s trivial to see that Copilot has misunderstood my input. Those are the easy cases, and the tool makes it easy to ask for a different suggestion.

The trickier cases are where the code looks right, but it may contain a subtle bug. The bug might be because this AI code generation stuff is hard, or it might be because the billions of lines of human-written code that Copilot was trained on contained bugs of their own.

Another concern is potential issues about licensing and ownership of the code Copilot was trained on. GitHub has said it is trying to address these issues, but we will have to wait and see how it turns out.

More output from the same input

At times, using Copilot has made me feel a little wistful. The skill I often think makes me at least a little bit special (my ability to write code and make things with computers) may be in the process of being “automated away”, like many other jobs have been at different times in human history.

However, I’m not selling my laptop and running off to live a simple
life in the bush just yet. The human coder is still a crucial part of the system, but as curator rather than creator.

Of course, you may be thinking “that’s what a coder would say” … and you may be right.

AI tools like Copilot, OpenAI’s text generator GPT-3, and Google’s Imagen text-to-image engine, have seen huge improvements in the past few years.

Read more:
Robots are creating images and telling jokes. 5 things to know about foundation models and the next generation of AI

Many in white-collar “creative industries” which deal in
text and images are starting to wrestle with their fears of being (at least partially) automated away. Copilot shows some of us in the tech industry are in the same boat.

Still, I’m (cautiously) excited. Copilot is a force multiplier in the most optimistic tool-building tradition: it provides more leverage, to increase the useful output for the same amount of input.

These new tools and the new leverage they provide are embedded in wider systems of people, technology and environmental actors, and I’m really fascinated to see how these systems reconfigure themselves in response.

In the meantime, it might help save my brain juice for the hard parts of my coding work, which can only be a good thing.

Read more:
Artificial intelligence is now part of our everyday lives – and its growing power is a double-edged sword

As mentioned in the article, I was given early beta access to the GitHub copilot AI tool.

– ref. So this is how it feels when the robots come for your job: what GitHub’s Copilot ‘AI assistant’ means for coders – https://theconversation.com/so-this-is-how-it-feels-when-the-robots-come-for-your-job-what-githubs-copilot-ai-assistant-means-for-coders-185957

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Miguel Loyola, PhD Candidate on the Implementation of Sustainable Policies, ITLS, University of Sydney

There are clear economic, environmental, safety and health benefits to getting people cycling more, but research shows would-be cyclists are reluctant to start without good cycle paths.

The problem for planners and policymakers is many Australians oppose cycle lanes, believing they’ll only force drivers to drive more slowly and extend travel times.

But our new study, published in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention, suggests not everyone around the world sees cycle lanes this way.

We found people in the United Kingdom and Australia typically misunderstand the impact cycle lanes have on speed limits – wrongly believing the addition of a cycle lane means cars would inevitably need to go more slowly.

To be clear, nobody is suggesting you should hit the accelerator and drive aggressively fast near cyclists. But if there is a safe cycle path that affords good distance between cars and bikes, there’s no reason the addition of a cycle path should necessarily slow down traffic.

Misunderstanding around this issue may be fuelling avoidable opposition to cycling infrastructure.

Read more:
3 in 4 people want to ride a bike but are put off by lack of safe lanes

Speed limits: a matter of perception

Our study involved 1,591 participants in the Netherlands, the UK and Australia. These three countries have similar speed limits in urban areas (50km/h), but the Netherlands has lower speed limits of 30km/h in residential areas.

First, we showed the study participants 15 pictures of streets without cycle lanes and asked them to estimate what the speed limit would be in these streets.

Interestingly, participants from the Netherlands always estimated much lower speeds for these pictures than their UK or Australian counterparts did.

This is important because previous research has shown that the higher speed limits are perceived, the faster drivers intend to drive. And higher speeds are the main contributor to road accidents (even more than drugs and fatigue).

Previous research has also shown 30km/h speed limits on local residential streets could reduce the Australian road death toll by 13%.

So, for our study, it was significant the Dutch participants always estimated the speed limit would be lower than the UK and Australian respondents did. It suggests Dutch drivers already view roads in a way that is safer for other road users (including cyclists).

What about when cycle lanes are added into the picture?

We then showed the participants pictures of the very same streets but after cycle lanes had been built on them (but showed them in a way that meant our participants wouldn’t realise these were the same streets).

In other words, we first showed them the streets without the cycle lanes and then the same street with cycle lanes (some of the cycle lanes were separated lanes, featuring a physical barrier dividing cyclists from cars; others were painted-on bike lanes with no physical barrier).

As we showed these new pictures, we asked the participants again to estimate the speed limit in these streets.

Study participants from Australia and the UK tended to believe cycle lanes would necessitate lower speed limits for drivers. In other words; they saw cycle lanes are a symbol of a slow commute, which would presumably therefore drive down support from drivers.

On the other hand, respondents in the Netherlands (where cycling is more common) perceived cycle lanes would not necessitate lower speed limits for drivers.

In fact, these participants tended to think cycle lanes might even suggest traffic could go faster because the cyclists are in a separate lane (and not mixed in with car traffic).

In short, our research found cycle lanes are usually misinterpreted as meaning “drivers, slow down!” in places where they are not common.

Where to from here?

Lower speed limits and cycle lanes are contested issues. Opposition usually comes from drivers who believe lower speed limits will significantly increase their journey times.

But this isn’t always the case. One 2017 study found “the generic impact of introducing 30km/h in urban residential streets is almost negligible in terms of travel time, ie. 48 seconds for a 27-minute trip, or less than 3%”.

In short, lower speed limits and cycle lanes will not necessarily make your driving time longer. Our study shows that people’s support of cycle lanes is influenced by familiarity with cycle lanes and perceptions of how driver speed limits will be affected by cycling infrastructure.

Australia can learn from other cities. Support for the implementation of lower speed limits and cycle lanes will make travelling safer, faster and more sustainable.

Read more:
Cycle lanes blamed for urban congestion – here’s the reality

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

– ref. When driving near a cycle lane, do you speed up or slow down? Where you’re from may influence your answer – https://theconversation.com/when-driving-near-a-cycle-lane-do-you-speed-up-or-slow-down-where-youre-from-may-influence-your-answer-185402

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Baillie, Professor of Allied Health, University of Sydney

COVID might be the largest mass casualty event in Australian history. And with one in 20 people with COVID still experiencing symptoms three months later, long COVID might even become Australia’s most significant cause of longer-term disability.

Around eight million Australians are estimated to have been infected with COVID during the pandemic, so a prevalence of 5% means 400,000 people could have long COVID. With more than 30,000 new cases of COVID detected each day in Australia, long COVID is becoming increasingly common.

We’ve known for some time that getting vaccinated reduces your chance of long COVID. Now new data suggests getting boosted further reduces your chance of long COVID.

But it’s still possible to get long COVID after being vaccinated – and Australia needs to be better prepared for this.

Read more:
You’re much less likely to get long COVID if you’ve been vaccinated

Remind me, what’s long COVID?

Long COVID is a potentially debilitating condition which follows the acute or early phase of COVID infection.

Affected people have described many symptoms, the most common being shortness of breath, fatigue, fever, headaches and “brain fog”.

While clinicians are familiar with post-viral or post-infective syndromes, long COVID is new. There is no diagnostic test, and it’s likely it’s really a mixture of different conditions with different underlying causes.

Different time-frames are used to define it. According to the Australian Department of Health, a person experiences long COVID when their symptoms remain four weeks after they first had COVID.

The World Health Organization says long COVID is usually three months from infection, lasts at least two months, and cannot be explained by another diagnosis.

What role does vaccination play?

People who are vaccinated are less likely to get COVID, have less severe COVID, and are less likely to pass it on.

People who are vaccinated are also less likely to get long COVID, with lower rates among those who have had their boosters.

Self-reported data from the United Kingdom compared symptoms in people who received two or three doses of vaccine and between the Delta and Omicron (BA1 or BA2) variants of COVID.

Some 9.5% of people who were likely infected with Delta and were double vaccinated reported long COVID symptoms that limited their activities. The rate for those who were triple vaccinated was less than half: 4.4%.

For Omicron, the rate was 6.2% for those likely to have had BA1 and were double vaccinated, and 5.3% with BA1 who were triple vaccinated.

Read more:
Long COVID: vaccination could reduce symptoms, new research suggests

These results are considered indicators only because the data was self-reported. But although we can’t yet be absolutely sure, triple vaccination looks to be associated with lower rates of long COVID.

Putting it all together, we estimate about 5% of people who had COVID in Australia will develop long COVID.

Children and adolescents appear to be less likely to get long COVID than adults and many will recover with time. But still, up to one in 50 children may get long COVID.

While vaccination protects children and young people from COVID, we don’t yet know if those kids who get breakthrough COVID infections after vaccination will be any more or less likely to develop long COVID.

It’s not yet clear whether vaccination improves symptoms and quality of life for people who already have long COVID. A recent UK review of the evidence suggests it might.

People with long COVID need support

People with long COVID have banded together on social media platforms to support each other, to share information, and to advocate for better care.

The Facebook group Australia Long COVID Community has more than 1,400 members. Many describe severe symptoms with significant disability, and difficulty returning to work.

While most people who are infected with COVID will recover without help, the 5% who get long COVID will often need health care to support them to recover. This support can be intensive and take time.

But Australia’s health, welfare, and disability services are under-prepared. We also have very little information about the number of people with long COVID, as health minister Mark Butler acknowledged last week:

So what do governments need to do?

We need to prepare our health, welfare, and disability services to support the growing number of Australians with long COVID. At a national level, we need:

• surveillance for long COVID to track rates, symptoms and impact on work and quality of life over time
• better support and resources for GPs to treat long COVID in primary care
• more specialist long COVID clinics for those with more complex problems
• disability supports for people whose problems become long-lasting
• research to understand long COVID and how to best treat it.

Current recommendations are to see your GP for help with long COVID. But while GPs have experience managing post viral illnesses and there are guidelines for the care of post-COVID conditions, GPs are likely to need additional support and resources to respond.

Specialist long COVID clinics are opening in capital cities and regional centres to provide additional care. While these efforts are encouraging, they are likely to only be able to respond to a small proportion of the people who need help for long COVID.

In the US, President Joe Biden has pushed for people with long COVID to have access to federal disability supports. We need a similar plan in Australia.

Let’s not repeat the mistakes of stigmatising and dismissing earlier post-viral or post-infective syndromes like chronic fatigue syndrome. The devastating impact on those struggling to get a diagnosis, and adequate treatment and supports is still felt.

Read more:
We need to brace for a tsunami of long COVID. But we’re not quite sure the best way to treat it

Andrew Baillie works for The University of Sydney in a position partially funded by Sydney Local Health District. He receives funding from the National health and Medical Research Council. He is affiliated with the Long-COVID Australia Collaboration.

Maree Teesson is Chair of Australia’s Mental Health Think Tank which is funded by the BHP Foundation. She is Director of The Matilda Centre, The University of Sydney. She is chair of the Million Minds Mission. She receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Government, BHP Foundation, Paul Ramsay Foundation and other research organisations. She is co-director of CLIMATESchools PTY LTD a company established in 2015 to distribute evidence resources to education organisations.

Philip Britton receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Medical Research Future Fund, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Commonwealth Department of Health

Tania Sorrell receives funding from NHMRC, ARC, MRFF, NSW Office of Health Medical Research

– ref. Triple vaccination seems to reduce the chance of long COVID – but we still need to prepare for a jump in cases – https://theconversation.com/triple-vaccination-seems-to-reduce-the-chance-of-long-covid-but-we-still-need-to-prepare-for-a-jump-in-cases-183428

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick O’Connor, Associate Professor, University of Adelaide

A tiny parasitic mite that lives on the European honeybee (Apis mellifera) has breached Australia’s border quarantine and been detected in managed bee hives in New South Wales.

This is bad news for Australia’s honey industry, with over 300 hives in Newcastle set to be destroyed and biosecurity zones in place. The potential economic impact to the honey industry is estimated at around A$70 million per year, but the broader impacts to agriculture are not yet known.

This is where much of the dialogue on the impact of varroa mite settling in Australia usually stops. But there’s another way to look at this pest: as an effective biocontrol for feral honeybees in Australia’s natural environment.

Honeybees were introduced to Australia almost 200 years ago and out-compete native pollinators, which may have dire flow-on effects for ecosystems. The varroa mite’s arrival in Australia was only a matter of time – and with better planning, we could benefit from one pest fighting another.

Making trade-offs

The varroa mite infests hives, parasitises the bees, and can spread viruses and other pathogens. They mainly feed and breed on honeybee larvae and pupae, causing malformation. If left unmanaged, heavy mite infestation can cause colony collapse in some circumstances.

The mite has spread across the world to colonise almost every known location of European honeybees. It has been kept out of Australia thanks to stringent border quarantine measures, but this tiny mite can easily hitchhike on imports, then establish and spread when it reaches a honeybee colony.

So would Australia benefit more from treating the varroa mite as a pest, or an environmental biocontrol? More research is needed to resolutely answer this question, but let’s look at a the potential trade-offs of either option.

Read more:
Explainer: Varroa mite, the tiny killer threatening Australia’s bees

Treating the mite as a pest

Treating the mite as a pest would mean chasing down known outbreaks and destroying hives, beefing up border quarantine measures and supporting the beekeeping industry to tide them over the impact and adjustment period.

Beekeepers can stop the mite in its tracks in managed hives with chemical controls, but this comes at a cost, including some loss of productivity. And a loss of productivity in managed hives can have a knock-on effect on the pollination industry, as beekeepers are paid to take their bees to pollinate crops.

Thirty-five agricultural industries in Australia rely entirely or in part on bee pollination, including almonds, apples and cherries. Indeed, the total contribution of honeybees to Australia’s economy is estimated at $14.2 billion.

The potential consequences for industrial beekeeping and agriculture, and increased costs of production, can have unwelcome effects on food prices.

Treating the mite as a biocontrol

Treating the mite as an environmental biocontrol would mean diverting money for eradication and control measures to help industries live with varroa. This could be by, for instance, increasing the use of native pollinators for Australian agriculture.

It could also involve releasing the mite into feral honeybee hives, where we believe a rapid recovery of native pollinators is needed, such as in areas recovering from bushfires. The varroa mite has little impact on native bees because it’s specific to the Apis genus of the introduced bee, though the usual rules for biocontrol release would need to be followed.

Read more:
Buzz off honey industry, our national parks shouldn’t be milked for money

Feral European honeybee populations are recognised as a key threatening process to Australia’s native biodiversity, with impacts felt across the country. Feral bees are abundant and efficient pollinators, and compete with native birds, insects and mammals (such as pygmy possums) for nectar from flowers.

Honeybees avoid, or only partially pollinate, some native plants. This means a high concentration of honeybees could shift the make-up of native vegetation in a region. They also pollinate invasive weeds such as gorse, lantana and scotch broom, which are particularly expensive to control in the wake of bushfires.

When the varroa mite breached New Zealand, feral honeybees declined by about 90% within a few years. However, there’s limited information about the ecological benefits of this, because the data was not collected while the focus was on agricultural industry impact.

It’s also worth noting that knocking down feral honeybees could also be good for the honeybee industry, as feral honeybees are a recognised competitor with commercial ones.

Making the best decision

Questions about trading-off potential agricultural costs for environmental benefits are difficult to answer. This is, in part, because any environmental benefits gained from reducing a widespread threat are usually indirect, such as flow-on effects of increased ecosystem health.

Another reason is because markets are well established for agricultural products and services, but they’re usually missing or only just forming for ecosystem services (such as flood control, water supply and quality, and cultural values).

To calculate the economic benefit of reducing feral honeybees, we first must put a value on the services natural ecosystems provide.

While some steps have been made, progress on implementation has been slow for the last decade. So far, we’ve predominately put values on ecosystem services from discrete natural assets, such as the Great Barrier Reef, which contributed an estimated $6.4 billion in 2015-2016 to Australia’s economy.

Read more:
Pest plants and animals cost Australia around $25 billion a year – and it will get worse

In the case of the varroa mite, we have known the potential for opportunities and costs from a likely invasion for more than a decade. But the focus has been on preventing the invasion to protect agriculture, because we’re mostly concerned about the industry’s direct benefits and impacts.

There have been no estimations of the economic benefits of using the mite as an environmental biocontrol to lower feral honeybee populations, even though our New Zealand friends did suggest, in a paper, we prepare ourselves.

We may successfully eradicate the varroa mite’s recent incursion to the relief of agriculture and beekeepers. But given the near inevitability of the mite establishing in Australia, we must invest in better understanding the holistic economics of keeping a potentially very important biocontrol out of the country.

Patrick O’Connor receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Agrifutures Australia and State Governments.

– ref. Hear me out – we could use the varroa mite to wipe out feral honey bees, and help Australia’s environment – https://theconversation.com/hear-me-out-we-could-use-the-varroa-mite-to-wipe-out-feral-honey-bees-and-help-australias-environment-185959

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Main, Visiting Scholar, Australian National University

The COVID pandemic slowed mining activity across the Pacific. But as economic activity returns, an Australia-based company is poised to pursue what would be the largest mine in Papua New Guinea’s history.

The vast gold and copper project, known as the Frieda River mine, would also include a hydroelectric plant and a dam with a storage capacity for around 4.6 billion tonnes of mine tailings and waste rock.

The project is awaiting approval by the PNG government. However, locals, conservationists and experts say it could cause catastrophic harm to one of the world’s most important river systems and should not proceed as proposed.

Australia is PNG’s largest development partner. As resource extraction expands across the Pacific, the new Labor government is well placed to help our neighbours ensure mining activity doesn’t harm people or the environment.

Remote, unstable terrain

The Frieda River mine is proposed by Brisbane-based, Chinese-owned company Pan Aust.

The project centres on the Frieda River copper-gold deposit located in the tropical mountain ranges of northwest PNG.

The river flows into the Sepik River Basin, one of the world’s great river systems. It’s the largest unpolluted freshwater system in New Guinea and among the largest freshwater basins in the Asia-Pacific.

The Frieda River deposit was discovered in the 1960s. It lies in extremely remote terrain, along the Pacific Ring of Fire which is prone to seismic activity.

The mine would produce tailings (or waste materials) containing sulphide, which turns into sulphuric acid when exposed to oxygen. For this reason, the tailings must be permanently covered by water.

The proposed mine’s location, high in the mountains, means a tailings accident could devastate the entire Sepik River Basin.

About 430,000 people depend on the Sepik River and nearby forests for their livelihood. The proposal has galvanised massive opposition from both locals and others.

Read more:
China’s push into PNG has been surprisingly slow and ineffective. Why has Beijing found the going so tough?

Downplaying the risks

In 2020, ten independent experts including myself, were commissioned by PNG’s Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights to individually review the project’s “environmental impact statement”. The work was undertaken pro bono.

I’m an experienced gold exploration geologist and environmental scientist. In my review, I found the statement downplayed or obscured the proposal’s extraordinary level of risk.

First, it omitted a report by design engineers that analysed the extreme consequences of dam failure.

Second, the main report failed to mention the dam would need an intensive inspection and maintenance regime “in perpetuity”. In other words, a potentially toxic dam in a remote part of a very poor country requires highly skilled and experienced professionals to maintain it – not just for the 33-year life of the mine, but forever.

Our reports prompted a group of UN Special Rapporteurs to write letters of concern to the governments of PNG, Australia, China and Canada, where companies involved in the joint venture have ties.

The letters said the mine’s development appeared to “disregard the human rights of those affected … given the nature of the project it could undermine the rights of Sepik children to life, health, culture, and a healthy environment, including the rights of unborn generations.”

The Conversation contacted Pan Aust for a response to these claims. In a statement, the company said it was “respectfully engaged in the Government of Papua New Guinea’s approvals process” and as such, it was inappropriate to provide a public comment.

Read more:
Destitution on Australia’s hardening border with PNG – and the need for a better aid strategy

New safeguards are needed

Inadequate consideration of a mine’s social and environmental impact is rife cross the Pacific. And PNG provides many examples of the catastrophes that can result.

Tailings from BHP’s ill-fated Ok-Tedi mine, located in the same mountain range as the proposed Frieda River mine, severely damaged nearby rivers.

And environmental damage from the Panguna copper mine was a key factor in community unrest and the Bougainville civil war.

Recent research into governance of mining in PNG found government agencies were under-resourced, leaving “companies as effectively self-regulating”.

Proponents of mining in PNG frequently cite its contribution to economic development. But for the benefits to be realised, resources must be extracted in a way that is environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.

New laws are needed to ensure resource extraction projects in PNG don’t cause long-lasting social and environmental damage. This should include mandatory, transparent and independent reviews of projects.

Australia has extensive experience with environmental regulation of mining projects and can assist in this regard. Such assistance should be delivered in a way that strengthens relations between Australia and PNG, and empowers and equips the smaller nation.

Sustainable development for our Pacific neighbours is in Australia’s strategic interests. Australian companies often benefit significantly from resource extraction in PNG, creating an extra responsibility to ensure better outcomes.

Read more:
A brutal war and rivers poisoned with every rainfall: how one mine destroyed an island

Michael Main was one of ten independent expert reviewers of the Environmental Impact Statement for the Sepik Development Project and advises on resource extraction projects in the Pacific.

– ref. Australia can help ensure the biggest mine in PNG’s history won’t leave a toxic legacy – https://theconversation.com/australia-can-help-ensure-the-biggest-mine-in-pngs-history-wont-leave-a-toxic-legacy-185580

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachele Sloane, Graduate Researcher and Tutor – Master of Education, Student Wellbeing Specialisation (MGSE), The University of Melbourne

New Child Safe Standards come into effect in Victoria this Friday, July 1. The set of 11 standards builds on the original seven. One significant change was made with little fanfare: well-being was included alongside safety as a key responsibility of organisations working with children and young people.

This change acknowledges growing community expectations and the shift toward a wellness-focused culture. Well-being is often discussed as self-evident.

Indeed, the new standards themselves do not provide a clear definition of well-being. Nor are they clear about associated expectations of what good practice looks like in schools and other educational settings.

Read more:
After years of COVID, fires and floods, kids’ well-being now depends on better support

Given these standards will amount to a requirement, organisations will need clear direction on how to meet their obligations in regard to well-being.

Well-being is a complex and multifaceted concept. Some researchers have even characterised it as a wicked problem. To meet this new responsibility to support, develop and provide for children and young people’s well-being, schools and educational settings in particular need to understand what this actually means.

Why have the standards changed?

Victoria’s Child Safe Standards recognise the vulnerability of children and young people and the responsibility of adults to help keep them safe. The standards have been in place since January 2016.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse presented its final report in December 2017. The Victorian government then reviewed the standards and made several recommendations to strengthen the standards and align them more closely with the national principles for child-safe organisations. The primary focus during this time was on safety.

In recent years, interest in the concept of well-being has exploded, particularly with the impacts of COVID-19 on children and young people. Research and debate on well-being have burgeoned.

Read more:
Young people were already struggling before the pandemic. Here are 7 ways to help them navigate a changed world

The Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) assists organisations to adhere to the Child Safe Standards. This has involved developing and embedding in practice the policy and procedures that support children’s safety.

The commission continues to provide guidance on the new standards. However, the concept of well-being has not been explicitly discussed or defined.

So what exactly is well-being?

Well-being is a term that seems simple enough on the surface and yet evades clear definition. It’s often defined as the subjective experience of quality of life. It is frequently linked to mental health, and in education is often conflated with attendance and behaviour.

The World Health Organization speaks about health as being more than merely the absence of illness. Its definition includes holistic well-being across multiple domains of functioning, but stops short of nominating a single definition of well-being itself.

The well-being of children and young people specifically is more complex still. As a concept, their well-being has been discussed simply as relating to mental health through to more complex understandings as an antidote to poor behaviour and as the key ingredient of positive outcomes.

The concept of youth well-being is so complex that there are increasing attempts to formally define it through conceptual framing. This framing is useful in drawing together knowledge from across disciplines and aspects of physical, mental and social health, along with subjective experience of life, behaviour and skills.

The problem remains that this framing doesn’t give us a concise and practical working definition. This may be because well-being itself is understood differently depending on the context and community in which it is being discussed.

Read more:
Students’ well-being must always be the priority. Here are 5 tips to help them through lockdown

What does this mean for education institutions?

This idea of including well-being in education is of course not new. Evidence to support the benefits of including well-being as an educational outcome has grown steadily over the past two decades.

Well-being has been included in Australia’s educational goals in successive policy directives. It’s reflected in growing numbers of focused programs targeted at schools.

Schools are already working to support student well-being through promotion, prevention and intervention. Unfortunately, definitions of well-being vary widely between policies and programs. The complexity and inconsistency of the concept and how to achieve it continue to create significant challenges.

This is reflected in the findings of a recent study of school principals in New South Wales and in the recommendations to come out of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. These difficulties suggest schools are overwhelmed with choice and need greater support to select evidence-based programs that are shown to be effective.

Including well-being in the new Child Safe Standards requires schools to focus on well-being. They must now take on an increased responsibility to care not only for student safety but also their well-being.

Schools will have to revise and develop policy in ways that acknowledge the importance and complexity of well-being. They will need to engage thoughtfully with this concept.

As the standards have not defined the term, schools will need to conceptualise this concept for their context. This means drawing together and making explicit all the aspects that the school community understands as well-being. That’s likely to cover health, skills and capabilities, behaviours and subjective experiences.

Policymakers need to provide greater conceptual clarity to support schools in this important work.

Rachele Sloane receives an Australian Research Training Program Scholarship to support her Doctoral research at The University of Melbourne – Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

Annie Gowing 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. Schools will now be required to support well-being, but the standards aren’t clear on what that means – https://theconversation.com/schools-will-now-be-required-to-support-well-being-but-the-standards-arent-clear-on-what-that-means-185861

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Morag Kobez, Associate lecturer, Queensland University of Technology

When the temperature drops in the southern hemisphere, you might like to stave off the chill with a big steaming pot of mulled wine, and fill your home with the comforting aroma of red wine, citrus and spice.

The mention of mulled wine conjures images of winter-wonderland white-Christmas scenes – no matter where in the world you live.

Although mulled wine is a staple of contemporary Christmas celebrations throughout Europe, and the customs and recipes may differ somewhat, the celebratory nature of the warm, spiced (usually) red wine is common to all – as are the ingredients sugar, cinnamon and cloves.

Its long history incorporates both pagan and Christian lore, traverses old and new worlds and established it as a favourite Christmastime beverage, travellers’ tipple of choice and a tonic of sorts in times of convalescence.

Read more:
Appearance, aroma and mouthfeel: all you need to know to give wine tasting a go

Ancient pagan paradox

Whether for festivity or fortification, mulled wine has been around for at least 2,000 years.

The ancient Greek version of mulled wine, Ypocras or Hippocras, takes its name from Hippocrates, the Greek physician regarded as the father of medicine. (It is also the name of the apothecary’s bag or sieve used to strain this wine.)

Wine played an important role in medicine in Greek antiquity. In the only ancient cookery book surviving to our times, De re coquinaria, we see a few versions of spice wine (conditum paradoxum) and wine with honey and pepper.

The latter, known as conditum melizomum viatorum was recommended for travellers: the honey and spices acted as a preservative, allowing the alcohol to accompany travellers on long journeys.

Conditum paradoxium became a prominent feature of the Saturnalia Festival in ancient Rome: the winter solstice celebration of the passing of the shortest day of the year and the rebirth of the Sun.

By the time of the late-Roman Republic, Saturnalia had grown from a one-day celebration to a week-long festival held each year from December 17 to 23. Consuming the warming wine as part of the celebrations was thought to help ward off winter illness and so became firmly associated with the December celebrations.

Towards the end of the 4th century, this pagan solstice celebration became interwoven with Christianity and the celebration of Christmas Day. By the middle ages, mulled wine had become entrenched as part of the festivities throughout Europe.

Read more:
Pompeii is famous for its ruins and bodies, but what about its wine?

Mulling over the recipe

According to several medieval cookbooks the most common of the sweet, spiced wines in the late middle-ages were still referred to as hippocras, with the term “mulled wine” coming later.

Just as they do today, ingredients varied depending on the region, but key components were hot red wine blended with sugar and ground spices – usually ginger, cinnamon and pepper and sometimes nutmeg and cloves.

Throughout Europe, mulled wine is synonymous with postcard scenes of snow-capped Alps, après-ski shenanigans, the aroma of roasting chestnuts and Christmas markets.

In Sweden, glogg comes sprinkled with almonds and plump raisins, which have soaked up the wine and taken on the flavour of the spices. It is often served with distinctive raisin-studded saffron buns called Lussekatter.

Bischopswijn (Bishop’s Wine) is the Dutch name, in honour of Saint Nicholas, the bishop celebrated during the Feast of Sinterklaas in early December in the Netherlands.

Italians call it vin hrüle (French for “burnt wine”). In Poland it’s called grzane wino and in Germany it is gluhwein, which both directly translate to mulled wine.

So beloved is gluhwein in Germany, that when popular Christmas markets were cancelled in December 2020 due to COVID restrictions, pop-up gluhwein stalls began appearing in parks and street corners in German cities despite the rules.

It sparked a plea in parliament from then German Chancellor Angela Merkel for citizens to forgo their usual Christmastime tipple to help avoid increased numbers of deaths.

Exorcising the winter chill

In France it’s called vin chaud (“hot wine”) and more likely than not to contain star anise. The larger-than-life French writer Colette described vin chaud as “the great exorcist of winter crepuscules [twilight] that fall as early as three o’clock” in an advertisement she wrote for a French wine merchant in the early 20th century.

Rather than a Christmastime tipple, in the first 100 years of Australian settlement, mulled wine was more likely to be administered during times of illness or convalescence rather than times of celebration.

In the 19th and 20th centuries Australian domestic cookbooks commonly included recipes for sick or convalescing patients. Advice about food preparation for “invalids”, “convalescents” or “the sickroom” would commonly take up an entire section of cookbooks. Many of these included recipes for mulled wine.

With nobody under any illusions nowadays that mixing up a large amount of sugar in a hefty pot of red wine is good for anyone’s health, we find other similarly absurd excuses to partake. Christmas in July, anyone?

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

– ref. Mulled wine: how ‘Christmas in a cup’ went from ancient medicine to an Aussie winter warmer – https://theconversation.com/mulled-wine-how-christmas-in-a-cup-went-from-ancient-medicine-to-an-aussie-winter-warmer-184447

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caleb Goods, Senior Lecturer – Management and Organisations, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia

Uber Australia has struck a historic agreement with the Transport Workers’ Union – a statement of principles that re-regulate work in the Australian rideshare and food delivery industry.

This is a major shift to industrial relations in the gig economy.

Uber and its rival platforms have largely treated their workforce as independent contractors, not employees with rights to benefits such as sick leave, minimum wages or union representation.

Now the poster company of the gig economy has agreed with the union that workers on the platform should receive some baseline conditions.

What Uber and the Transport Workers’ Union agree on

First, and most importantly, Uber and the Transport Workers’ Union have agreed to support the creation of an independent umpire, potentially as part of the Fair Work Commission, to apply minimum standards and practices across the industry.

There are four key objectives.

First, an enforceable floor around earnings, to give transparency to drivers and ensure platforms don’t seek to compete by driving down labour costs. Earnings are a critical concern for gig workers.

Second, enhanced and low-cost opportunities for workers to resolve disputes via an independent umpire. Gig workers, as contractors, currently have little recourse to address grievances.

Read more:
Delivery workers are now essential. They deserve the rights of other employees

Third, the right for workers to collectively organise and be represented by a union.

Fourth, the effective enforcement of these and other standards, including occupational health and safety compliance.

Beyond these key principles, Uber and the Transport Workers’ Union have also agreed to have an ongoing conversation about making these principles work in reality, not just on paper.

Why now?

The Uber-Transport Workers’ Union statement of principle follows the union signing a similar joint charter with DoorDash in May.

Given DoorDash has been operating in Australia since 2019, and Uber since 2012, why are they making these voluntary agreements to pursue improved working conditions now?

The answer seems reasonably obvious: the Morrison government, which had little enthusiasm for regulating the gig economy, has been replaced by the Albanese government, which has signalled it will.

The new Labor government’s plans for the gig economy and employee-like work arrangements include giving the Fair Work Commission the power to regulate “employee-like” forms of work.

The exact details and timeline for these reforms have not been announced.

These union-platform agreements suggest that platforms are keen to get in front of, and potentially shape, this regulation agenda.

No more debating classification

Critically, unions and platforms working together may mean the end of the classification debates – employee versus independent contractor – that have been fought out in the Fair Work Commission and the courts over the past five years.

As we have suggested previously, the debates over whether workers treated as independent contractors should actually have been classified as employees have largely been a dead-end. They may have even harmed workers, as platforms have sought to avoid doing anything the Fair Work Commission or a court might interpret as indicative of an employer-employee relationship.

Read more:
Did somebody say workers’ rights? Three big questions about Menulog’s employment plan

This agreement represents a different approach that may produce better outcomes. It should help platforms avoid the cost and reputational damage of ongoing litigation. It also helps the union. Recent High Court rulings have made it harder for the union to recruit, organise and represent gig workers. This agreement implicitly accepts the union’s right to represent those workers.

Setting the agenda

These statements of principles also strongly align with the Albanese government’s proposal to imporve the conditions of “employee-like work.”

Uber and Doordash appear to be embracing self-regulation to help set the agenda around what is (and importantly what is not) included in the new regulations for employee-like work arrangements.

The future of gig work is looking very different from what it did a few months ago.

Caleb Goods is part of a research team that received a University of Sydney Business School Industry Partnership grant. Uber Technologies is a Partner Organisation on this grant and provided a minority financial contribution to the project.

Alex Veen is part of a research team that received a University of Sydney Business School Industry Partnership grant. Uber Technologies is a Partner Organisation on this grant and provided a minority financial contribution to the project. He further receives funding from the Australian Research Council in the form a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) for his project entitled ‘Algorithmic management and the future of work: lessons from the gig economy.’

Tom Barratt is part of a research team that received a University of Sydney Business School Industry Partnership grant. Uber Technologies is a Partner Organisation on this grant and provided a minority financial contribution to the project.

– ref. What’s driving Uber’s historic agreement with the TWU on gig work – https://theconversation.com/whats-driving-ubers-historic-agreement-with-the-twu-on-gig-work-186044

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Grogan, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, The Daffodil Centre, University of Sydney

ABC TV’s Four Corners this week reported how unlawful sale of e-cigarettes in Australia is out of control.

The program highlighted the effects on young people, in particular, including how easy it is for them to buy the products.

How did this slow-moving public health train wreck unfold in broad daylight, almost a decade after the Cancer Council warned it was coming?

The answer is poor or non-existent enforcement of good laws.

A growing problem

The use of all harmful substances in young Australians is declining – except for e-cigarettes and smoking in men aged 18-24.

Lifetime use of e-cigarettes increased by 46% between 2016 and 2019 in non-smokers aged 18-24 – a huge spike in the use of a harmful substance in just three years.

Last week, an updated statement from the National Health and Medical Research Council reflected increasing concerns from public health officials about the growing uptake of e-cigarettes, particularly by young people.

Read more:
A damning review of e-cigarettes shows vaping leads to smoking, the opposite of what supporters claim

But aren’t these illegal?

Anyone using a nicotine e-cigarette without a valid doctor’s prescription has obtained the product unlawfully. Its importation was unlawful, as was its storage, sale and promotion.

Yet, as the Four Corners program showed, this is happening on an industrial scale. Merchants with a profit motive are promoting addictive products, with no regard for the health of young people.

Retailers and online entrepreneurs are clearly not complying with current laws. And these laws are not being enforced.

We need to target importation

E-cigarettes are not manufactured in Australia. If their destination is not a pharmacy or someone with a valid prescription, their importation is unlawful.

But it is clear, from the number of illegal e-cigarettes available in Australia, the federal government is not enforcing its own importation rules.

Attempts to amend regulations to further restrict imports were proposed in 2020. This would have enabled the Australian Border Force to intercept illegal e-cigarette imports.

However, the government assured the community that requiring all
non-tobacco nicotine products to only be available on prescription (schedule 4 of the Poisons Standard) would achieve the same result. It said this would protect young people from e-cigarettes.

It’s almost nine months since this came into effect in October 2021. Yet young people, in increasing numbers, are accessing e-cigarettes.

The scheduling standard and the rules underpinning it are clearly being ignored. The federal government must revisit proposals to allow interception of illegal e-cigarettes at the border or find another mechanism to block them.

We need to target their sale

Retailers and wholesalers are also breaking rules set out in official advice from the Therapeutic Goods Administration and corresponding information on state government websites.

New South Wales Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant has warned that nicotine e-cigarette traders, other than pharmacies, could face prosecution, heavy fines and even jail.

Yet tobacconists, convenience stores and vape shops are still breaking the rules.

State and territory governments must enforce their laws, especially those being broken in plain view. Authorities can impose substantial fines for offenders, which would not only deter unlawful trade, it would fund additional enforcement.

There are also laws for the bulk storage and transport of schedule 4 poisons, such as nicotine. Four Corners showed how readily a film crew could expose breaches of these laws.

If young people can find them, so can the authorities

Young people told Four Corners they can access products without a prescription from online entrepreneurs importing, storing and selling nicotine e-cigarettes.

Seizing illegal imports will eventually dry up their supply, but there will be stockpiles.

If school children can access these suppliers and their products with a quick search on their smartphones, authorities can also find them and put them out of business.

Read more:
Vaping is glamourised on social media, putting youth in harm’s way

What needs to happen next?

E-cigarette use in young Australians is a crisis, but is fixable. The federal government must stop illegal imports, the states and territories must end the unlawful retail, wholesale and interstate trade.

The harms of e-cigarettes are severe and far outweigh any modest benefits; there are laws to protect young people from them.

If the crisis worsens, more people will ask, how did this happen? The answer will be simple: governments made good laws, but they did not enforce them.

Read more:
It’s safest to avoid e-cigarettes altogether – unless vaping is helping you quit smoking

Paul Grogan is employed by the Daffodil Centre, a joint cancer research venture between Cancer Council NSW and the University of Sydney. He is an investigator on a current research project on e-cigarette use in young people jointly funded by the NSW Government and the Minderoo Foundation, with in-kind support from Cancer Council NSW.

– ref. How can we reverse the vaping crisis among young Australians? Enforce the rules – https://theconversation.com/how-can-we-reverse-the-vaping-crisis-among-young-australians-enforce-the-rules-185867

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

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

Michelle and Peter Browne from the Politics + Society team discuss Anthony Albanese’s weighing a Ukraine visit and whether Australia will announce more support for that country and reopen its embassy there.

They also canvass the just-released Lowy Institute’s poll, which found a narrow majority of Australians support increased defence spending, and Defence Minister Richard Marles’ announcement extending the terms of the military’s top brass.

Meanwhile Parliament House has been like the first week of school, with new MPs being briefed on how the place works. Crossbenchers are in a row with the government over Albanese’s plan to cut back the additional staff they will get, above the entitlement of government and opposition backbenchers, from four in the last parliament to just one.

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. Word from The Hill: Parliamentary ‘newbies’ inspect their workplace, with some complaints – https://theconversation.com/word-from-the-hill-parliamentary-newbies-inspect-their-workplace-with-some-complaints-186041

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

“Stagflation” is an ugly word for an ugly situation – the unpleasant combination of economic stagnation and inflation.

The last time the world experienced it was the early 1970s, when oil-exporting countries in the Middle East cut supplies to the United States and other supporters of Israel. The “supply shock” of a four-fold increase in the cost of oil drove up many prices and dampened economic activity globally.

Stagflation was thought left behind. But now there is a real risk of it coming back, warns the central bank for the world’s central banks.

“We may be reaching a tipping point, beyond which an inflationary psychology
spreads and becomes entrenched,” says the Bank for International Settlements BIS in its latest annual economic report.

By “inflationary psychology” it means that expectations of higher prices lead consumers to spend now rather than later, on the assumption waiting will cost more. This increases demand, pushing up prices. Thus expectations of inflation become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The danger of stagflation comes from this inflationary cycle becoming so entrenched that attempts to curb it through higher interest rates push economies into recession.

Global inflation since the 19th century

What’s driving inflation

As well as its own expert staff, the BIS brings together expertise from its member central banks, such as the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and Reserve Bank of Australia. So its views are worth paying attention to.

Its report makes clear its experts, like most forecasters, have been surprised by the extent of the rise in inflation.

This is a global phenomenon, which the report attributes to a combination of an unexpectedly strong economic rebound from the COVID-19 lockdowns, a sustained switch in demand from services to goods, and supply bottlenecks exacerbated by a shift from “just-in-time” to “just-in-case” inventory management.

Then there is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The war’s effect in driving up the price of oil, gas, food, fertilisers and other commodities has been “inherently stagflationary”:

Since commodities are a key production input, an increase in their cost constrains output. At the same time, soaring commodity prices have boosted inflation everywhere, exacerbating a shift that was already well in train before the onset of the war.

The only bright note is that BIS expects these price surges to be less disruptive than the oil supply shock of the 1970s.

This is because the relative impact of the oil supply shock was greater due to economies in the 1970s being more energy-intensive.

There is also much more focus now on containing inflation, with most central banks having a clearly stated inflation target (2% in Europe and the US, 2%-3% in Australia).

What are the biggest dangers?

But the current situation is still very challenging, the report says, because increases in the price of food and energy are particularly conducive to spreading inflationary psychology.

This is because food is bought frequently, so price changes are notable. The same goes for fuel prices, which are prominently displayed on large roadside signs.

There is also the risk in many economies of a wage-price spiral – in which higher prices drive demands for higher wages, which employers then pass on in higher prices.

Read more:
Rising prices: why the global drive to keep food cheap is unsustainable

Central banks face what Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe has called a “narrow path”.

To achieve a “soft landing” they need to raise interest rates enough to bring inflation down. But not enough to cause a recession (and thus stagflation).

How to avoid a ‘hard landing’?

The BIS report cites an analysis of monetary tightening cycles – defined as interest rate rises in at least three consecutive quarters – in 35 countries between 1985 and 2018. A soft landing was achieved in only about half the cases.

A key factor in the hard landings was the extent of financial vulnerabilities, particularly debt. Economies with hard landings on average had double the growth in credit to GDP prior to the interest-rate rises.

This factor contributes to BIS concerns now. As the report notes:

Unlike in the past, stagflation today would occur alongside heightened financial vulnerabilities, including stretched asset prices and high debt levels, which could magnify any growth slowdown.

Furthermore, the slowdown in China’s labour productivity is removing an important boost to global economic growth and restraint on global inflation.

But a key lesson from the 1970s is that the long-term costs of doing nothing outweigh the short-term pain of bringing inflation under control.

Read more:
5 things to know about the Fed’s biggest interest rate increase since 1994 and how it will affect you

This means governments must curb handouts or tax cuts to help people with cost-of-living pressures. Expansionary fiscal policy will only make things worse. Assistance must be strictly targeted to those who most need it.

There is also a need to rebuild monetary and fiscal buffers to cope with future shocks. This will require raising interest rates above inflation targets and returning government budgets (close) to surplus.

John Hawkins was formerly a senior economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Bank for International Settlements.

– ref. 1970s-style stagflation now playing on central bankers’ minds – https://theconversation.com/1970s-style-stagflation-now-playing-on-central-bankers-minds-185868

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ismini Vasileiou, Associate Professor in Information Systems, De Montfort University

Today marks 15 years since Apple released what’s arguably its flagship device: the iPhone. A decade and a half later, there are few products that have managed to reach a similar level of brand recognition.

Announced to an eager audience in 2007, the iPhone has revolutionised how we communicate and even how we live day to day.

The large-screen revolution

The iPhone was released in the United States in June 2007, and in a further six countries in November (but notably not in Australia).

From the launch of Mac computers in the 1970s to the iPod in 2001, Apple already knew how to engage with its audience – and how to encourage extraordinary levels of hype when launching a product.

Early reviews for the iPhone were almost universally glowing, applauding Apple’s attention to detail and style. The only problem flagged was network connectivity – and this was an issue with slow speeds on phone carrier networks, rather than the device itself.

Consumers’ appreciation of the iPhone’s style was no surprise. It was indicative of an emerging trend towards smartphones with large-format screens (but which still reflected the form of a phone). The Nokia N95 was another such example that hit the market the same year.

The original iPhone offered wifi, supported 2G EDGE connectivity and had internet download speeds below 500Kbps (compared to multi Mbps speeds today).

It was also limited to 4GB or 8GB models. This might sound pitiful compared to the 1TB options available today, but it’s enough to hold hundreds of songs or videos and was revolutionary at the time.

The Apple assembly line

The iPhone 3G was rolled out across the globe in July 2008, with significantly improved data speeds and the addition of the Appple App Store. Even though it offered a mere 500 apps at launch, the app store marked a significant improvement in phone functionality.

And just as users started getting used to 3G, it was superseded by the 3GS about a year later.

This cycle of regularly pushing out new products was critical to Apple’s success. By releasing regular updates (either through whole product iterations, or more minor functionality improvements) Apple managed to secure an enthusiastic audience, eager for new releases each year.

Also, since older products would often be passed down within families, Apple’s product pipeline helped it establish a multi-generational user base. This pipeline continues to operate today.

New approaches to old ways

The iPhone family has delivered size, speed and storage improvements over its 15-year history. Some of its “new” features weren’t necessarily new to the market, but Apple excelled at delivering them in highly integrated ways that “just worked” (as founder Steve Jobs would say).

In 2013, the iPhone 5S introduced touch ID, which allowed users to unlock their phones with a fingerprint. While this had first been introduced with the Fujitsu F505i back in 2003, Apple delivered a robust implementation of the feature. Of course, it wasn’t long before enterprising individuals learnt how to bypass the mechanism.

The iPhone 8, released in 2017, brought with it the face ID feature. This still had weaknesses, but was at least immune to being unlocked with a photo.

Beyond security, the iPhone series has also produced year-on-year improvements in camera technology. While the original model sported a paltry two-megapixel camera, later models featured multiple lenses, with resolution boosted to 12 megapixels – rivalling many digital cameras on the market.

Wireless charging was introduced with the iPhone 8 (although preceded by Samsung as early as 2011). And the bezel-less design of the iPhone X, released in 2017, built on features found in the Sharp Aquos S2 from the same year.

Controversy

Nonetheless, the iPhone has not been without problems. The introduction of the iPhone 7 in 2016 saw the removal of the standard 3.5mm headphone socket – and many weren’t happy.

While an adaptor was initially provided for customers to connect their regular headphones, it was only free for about two years. After that it had to be purchased. In 2016 there were indications of a spike in wireless headphone sales. Perhaps somewhat conveniently, Apple launched its AirPods (wireless Bluetooth earbuds) at the same time.

A similar change came in 2020 with the release of the iPhone 12. Arguing consumers had a multitude of spare devices – and perhaps trying to ride on the green re-use agenda – Apple removed chargers from the unboxing experience.

Users still received a charge cable, but it was a USB-C to lightning cable, whereas previous iPhone chargers would have a USB-A socket (the standard USB port).

The justification iPhone users would have a box full of old chargers overlooked the fact that none of them would be likely to support the newer and faster USB-C cable.

So you could use your old USB-A to lightning cable and charger to charge your shiny new phone, but you’d be limited to slower charging speeds.

Future

If the past 15 years are anything to go by, it’s likely the iPhone will continue with annual product releases (as we write this article many will be anticipating the iPhone 14 due later this year).

These models will probably bring improvements in speed, weight, battery life, camera resolution and storage capacity. However, it’s not likely we’ll be seeing many groundbreaking innovations in the next few years.

The latest iPhones are already highly sophisticated mini computers, which means there’s limited scope for fundamental enhancement.

Perhaps the most radical change will be the shift from Apple’s proprietary lightning connection to USB-C charging, thanks to a new European Union directive. And while a common power connector standard is widely considered a positive move, Apple wasn’t convinced:

We believe regulations that impose harmonisation of smartphone chargers would stifle innovation rather than encourage it.

As display technologies evolve, Apple may turn to the clam-shell phone design, with a fully foldable display screen.

Samsung has already brought this to the market. But Apple, in true fashion, will likely wait until the technology (particularly the glass) has evolved to deliver an experience in line with what iPhone users have come to expect.

While we can’t predict what the iPhone will look like in another 15 years (although some have tried), it’s likely the demand for Apple products will still be there, driven by Apple’s strong brand loyalty.

Read more:
New USB-C charger rule shows how EU regulators make decisions for the world

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

– ref. The iPhone turns 15: a look at the past (and future) of one of the 21st century’s most influential devices – https://theconversation.com/the-iphone-turns-15-a-look-at-the-past-and-future-of-one-of-the-21st-centurys-most-influential-devices-183137

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Phillimore, Executive Director, John Curtin Institute of Public Policy, Curtin University

Just before the Western Australian state election in March 2021, the then leader of the Liberal Party did an unusual thing. He conceded defeat – but then asked voters to stop premier Mark McGowan’s Labor Party from achieving “total control” of the state.

The appeal failed spectacularly. McGowan won 53 of the 59 seats in the legislative assembly and a majority for the first time ever in WA’s upper house, the legislative council.

The Liberals, shattered, were reduced to just two seats in the assembly. The Nationals, with a grand total of four seats, became the official opposition, and a Nationals MP, Mia Davies, was elected opposition leader. The question immediately arose: could parliament operate effectively in these extraordinary circumstances? Would sufficient democratic scrutiny be applied to the government?

Just over a year later, the federal election provided another crushing blow to the WA Liberals. The party lost not only four lower house seats and a senate seat to Labor, but also the seat of Curtin to independent Kate Chaney.

Read more:
Swing when you’re winning: how Labor won big in Western Australia

WA has 122 state and federal MPs. Currently, 89 of them – almost three-quarters – are Labor. Less than six years ago, the comparable figure was 41, or a third. By contrast, the Liberals have just 19 MPs or 16% of the total, compared to 64, or just over half, six years ago. Perhaps we need to take the fears of “total control” seriously?

Senator Linda Reynolds, the former Liberal defence minister, seems to think so. She recently argued that “without substantial change, we risk condemning Western Australia to a one-party state and the WA Liberals to an electoral abyss”.

So far, so good?

Everyone would agree democracy works best when a strong opposition can keep the government accountable. So what is happening in WA? Is democracy in danger?

So far, the answer would appear to be no. Take parliament. Parties with a majority of MPs can, in principle, run roughshod over their opponents in parliament. In practice, most don’t. While governments will occasionally force through legislation or resist pressure to reveal information, rules and conventions enable non-government parties to participate in debates and committees, and to scrutinise the executive about its actions and proposed legislation.

Governing parties know one day they will be in opposition, and parliament should at the very least let the opposition have its say, even if the government prevails.

Despite the vast disparity in numbers, this attitude seems to be holding up in WA. Question time is still operating, unchanged. The parliamentary schedule continues to allow non-government MPs to bring forward debates on matters of public importance, private members’ business and grievances.

Read more:
Governments usually win a second term. But could the new Labor government be an exception?

Estimates hearings continue to be held, as are meetings of parliamentary committees. As in the past, the opposition chairs one committee in the assembly, two in the council, and the joint audit committee. The deputy Liberal leader chaired a prominent select committee inquiry into sexual harassment in the resources sector.

Of course, with so few seats, the workload of non-government MPs is very large. The government has a majority on most committees – but this was true in previous parliaments. One potential area of concern is that the standing committee on education and health – the two areas of greatest expenditure – has only Labor members.

Clearly, the government is not going to lose any votes on the floor of the house. Overall, though, the structures and operations of parliament look much the same as before.

Under scrutiny

But given the huge imbalance of resources and power within the political system, it is important other players keep the government under scrutiny. WA retains a full complement of independent integrity agencies – ombudsman, auditor-general, information commissioner, corruption and crime commissioner.

The auditor-general’s office has been particularly active. It recently produced a transparency report on the progress of major government projects, arguing the government could and should update parliament more regularly on whether these projects are on time and on budget – and vowing to do this itself, if government refused.

Read more:
Below the Line: Has Australia’s political landscape changed forever? – podcast

Another crucial player is the media. WA’s press and broadcasting landscape is dominated by Seven West Media, which owns the state’s only daily newspaper and its most popular TV station. While Mark McGowan received generally positive coverage for his handling of the pandemic, his government has not escaped media criticism, on hospitals and health in particular. Other media outlets have also been active in scrutinising government.

A Coalition fightback?

With the federal election out of the way, what might we look forward to in WA politics? Three things are worth noting.

First, the WA Liberal Party holds its annual conference in July. This will be an important indicator of whether it has done the thinking it needs to turn its fortunes around.

Second, a state by-election is due soon after a Nationals MP, Vince Catania, resigned his marginal seat of North-West Central. If Labor were to win, the number of non-government MPs would fall from six to five – a much bigger deal than Labor increasing its representation from 53 to 54.

Intriguingly, if the Liberal Party managed to win North-West Central (which is not completely out of the question, as they have held the seat in the past), then they and the Nationals would each have three MPs and would need to work out who would be the official opposition.

Third, no election is due in WA, state or federal, for almost three years. (The state poll is in March 2025, followed by a likely federal poll two months later.) Can Liberal and National MPs maintain their diligence in parliament? Can their parties form a viable alternative government? And can Labor avoid the malaise that commonly strikes second-term governments in WA, where no party has won a third term since 1989?

It seems inconceivable that Mark McGowan and Labor could lose office in 2025. But can he govern well in the meantime? And can the non-government parties, the integrity watchdogs and the media keep him and his government on their toes? For democracy’s sake, let’s hope so.

John Phillimore worked as an adviser to state Labor governments in Western Australia in the 1980s and between 2001 and 2007. He was also a member of a Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform for the current Western Australian Government, which reported in June 2021.

– ref. Does Labor have ‘total control’ in Western Australia? – https://theconversation.com/does-labor-have-total-control-in-western-australia-185873

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Isaac Alan Robert Kerr, PhD Candidate for Palaeontology, Flinders University

Long ago, almost up until the end of the last ice age, a peculiar giant kangaroo roamed the mountainous rainforests of New Guinea.

Now, research published by myself and colleagues suggests this kangaroo was not closely related to modern Australian kangaroos. Rather, it represents a previously unknown type of primitive kangaroo unique to New Guinea.

The age of megafauna

Australia used to be home to all manner of giant animals called megafauna, until most of them went extinct about 40,000 years ago. These megafauna lived alongside animals we now consider characteristic of the Australian bush – kangaroos, koalas, crocodiles and the like – but many were larger species of these.

There were giant wombats called Phascolonus, 2.5-metre-tall short-faced kangaroos, and the 3-tonne Diprotodon optatum (the largest marsupial ever).
In fact, some Australian megafaunal species, such as the red kangaroo, emu and cassowary, survive through to the modern day.

The fossil megafauna of New Guinea are considerably less well-studied than those of Australia. But despite being shrouded in mystery, New Guinea’s fossil record has given us hints of fascinating and unusual animals whose evolutionary stories are entwined with Australia’s.

Palaeontologists have done sporadic expeditions and fossil digs in New Guinea, including digs by American and Australian researchers in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

It was during an archaeological excavation in the early 1970s, led by Mary-Jane Mountain, that two jaws of an extinct giant kangaroo were unearthed. A young researcher (now professor) named Tim Flannery called the species Protemnodon nombe.

The fossils Flannery described are about 20,000–50,000 years old. They come from the Nombe Rockshelter, an archaeological and palaeontological site in the mountains of central Papua New Guinea. This site also delivered fossils of another kangaroo and giant four-legged marsupials called diprotodontids.

Read more:
Meet the giant wombat relative that scratched out a living in Australia 25 million years ago

An unexpected discovery

Flinders University Professor Gavin Prideaux and I recently re-examined the fossils of Protemnodon nombe and found something unexpected. This strange kangaroo was not a species of the genus Protemnodon, which used to live all over Australia, from the Kimberley to Tasmania. It was something a lot more primitive and unknown.

In particular, its unusual molars with curved enamel crests set it apart from all other known kangaroos. We moved the species into a brand new genus unique to New Guinea and (very creatively) renamed it Nombe nombe.

Our findings show Nombe may have evolved from an ancient form of kangaroo that migrated into New Guinea from Australia in the late Miocene epoch, some 5–8 million years ago.

In those days, the islands of New Guinea and Australia were connected by a land bridge due to lower sea levels – whereas today they’re separated by the Torres Strait.

This “bridge” allowed early Australian mammals, including megafauna, to migrate to New Guinea’s rainforests. When the Torres Strait flooded again, these animal populations became disconnected from their Australian relatives and evolved separately to suit their tropical and mountainous New Guinean home.

We now consider Nombe to be the descendant of one of these ancient lineages of kangaroos. The squat, muscular animal lived in a diverse mountainous rainforest with thick undergrowth and a closed canopy. It evolved to eat tough leaves from trees and shrubs, which gave it a thick jawbone and strong chewing muscles.

The species is currently only known from two fossil lower jaws. And much more remains to be discovered. Did Nombe hop like modern kangaroos? Why did it go extinct?

As is typical of palaeontology, one discovery inspires an entire host of new questions.

Strange but familiar animals

Little of the endemic animal life of New Guinea is known outside of the island, even though it is very strange and very interesting. Very few Australians have much of an idea of what’s there, just over the strait.

When I went to the Papua New Guinea Museum in Port Moresby early in my PhD, I was thrilled by the animals I encountered. There are several living species of large, long-nosed, worm-eating echidna – one of which weighs up to 15 kilograms.

There are also dwarf cassowaries and many different wallaby, tree kangaroo and possum species that don’t exist in Australia – plus many more in the fossil record.

We tend to think of these animals as being uniquely Australian, but they have other intriguing forms in New Guinea.

As an Australian biologist, it’s both odd and exhilarating to see these “Aussie” animals that have expanded into new and weird forms in another landscape.

Excitingly for me and my colleagues, Nombe nombe may breathe some new life into palaeontology in New Guinea. We’re part of a small group of researchers that was recently awarded a grant to undertake three digs at two different sites in eastern and central Papua New Guinea over the next three years.

Working with the curators of the Papua New Guinea Museum and other biologists, we hope to inspire young local biology students to study palaeontology and discover new fossil species. If we’re lucky, there may even be a complete skeleton of Nombe nombe waiting for us.

Isaac Alan Robert Kerr receives funding from the Royal Society of South Australia.

– ref. This giant kangaroo once roamed New Guinea – descended from an Australian ancestor that migrated millions of years ago – https://theconversation.com/this-giant-kangaroo-once-roamed-new-guinea-descended-from-an-australian-ancestor-that-migrated-millions-of-years-ago-185778

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Strangio, Professor of Politics, Monash University

Renewal or decline? These are the competing narratives that now surround Daniel Andrews’ Victorian Labor government, with five senior ministers exiting cabinet as a preliminary to leaving parliament at November’s state election.

The resignations of this quintet – deputy premier James Merlino, Lisa Neville, Martin Foley, Martin Pakula, and Richard Wynne – is the equivalent of the loss of one quarter of the cabinet.

Another seven ministers have either voluntarily resigned from cabinet or been pushed out during the course of this term of government. This is indisputably a high ministerial turnover.

Yet in another way, this rush to the door is unremarkable. The Andrews administration is already the second longest serving Labor government in Victorian history and at November’s poll will be asking the electorate to extend its tenure to 12 years.

If Andrews were to remain premier until the end of 2026 (which seems more unlikely given the events of the past week) only the post-Second World War Liberal behemoth Henry Bolte would have survived longer in office.

That kind of longevity brings wear and tear.

Read more:
A new Treaty Authority between First Peoples and the Victorian government is a vital step towards a treaty

A taxing profession

Though there is public cynicism about politicians, theirs is a taxing profession.

The five cabinet members who are departing politics in November have a combined total of nearly one hundred years of experience in parliament.

Ministerial responsibilities are particularly demanding and during the COVID-19 pandemic became even more onerous.

There is then an argument that turnover in the composition of cabinet is a good thing. It does bring opportunity for rejuvenation.

Rejuvenation depends, of course, on whether there are still existing reserves of talent on the backbench of Andrews’ ageing government to cover the departures.

Goodbye James Merlino, hello Jacinta Allan

Of all the changes to the composition of the Andrews government in the wake of last week’s ministerial resignations, the most significant was Jacinta Allan’s replacement of Merlino as deputy premier.

There are two types of deputy: the loyal lieutenant and the leader in waiting. Merlino was the former – he did not covet the premiership himself.

From all accounts, he also had the necessary skill set to provide an effective foil to Andrews. Andrews is a dominating force within his own government and is not shy of treading on toes.

By way of contrast, as demonstrated when he was acting premier for an extended period during 2021, Merlino was more consultative in style and had a calming influence.

Andrews and Merlino were from different factions and there was an expectation that faction chiefs would insist on the preservation of that arrangement.

However, in a dramatic assertion of his authority, Andrews pre-empted the factions and his parliamentary colleagues by publicly anointing Allan (who, like the premier, is a member of the Socialist Left faction) as Merlino’s replacement.

Presented with a fait accompli, the Labor Caucus dutifully assented to Allan’s elevation.

Andrews’ nomination of Allan as deputy premier is full of meaning. He will have done so in the knowledge (and expectation) she will be a different mould of deputy than was Merlino; she will be more than a loyal lieutenant.

Instead, Allan is now recognised as the heir apparent to Andrews. This was, in short, a succession plan; Andrews is trying to create the conditions for a Labor dynasty that outlasts him.

Speculation grows about Daniel Andrews’ own future

Indeed, one of the by-products of the spate of departures from the government and the installation of Allan as deputy premier is that speculation will inevitably grow about Andrews’ own future.

This is likely to be a talking point in November’s election campaign.

Having towered over the Victorian political landscape since his election as premier in November 2014, managing expectations about Andrews’ future exit will be a challenge but also an opportunity for the government.

Looking ahead to November’s election, of all the things that will threaten Labor’s continuing grip on office probably the most dangerous will be an “it’s time” factor.

That is electorate fatigue with a government that will be asking for more than a decade in office. Unquestionably, Andrews will be the focal point of that problem for Labor.

Front and centre in everything the government does, and his prominence especially heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic when he became a figure of national curiosity, there is a risk Andrews will have worn out his welcome with a public that may hanker for life after Dan.

Remaking an ageing government

Jacinta Allan’s heir apparent status and an understanding that Andrews is likely to depart some time during a third term may actually become a means for Labor to mitigate the “it’s time” effect.

The recognition that Allan is in line to become Victoria’s second woman premier (behind Joan Kirner) can also further burnish the government’s handsome record of promoting women to senior leadership roles.

The hardest thing for an ageing government is to remake itself.

On balance, last week’s developments in Spring Street represent the first step towards Victorian Labor performing that elusive feat.

Read more:
Victoria’s $5.4bn Big Housing Build: it is big, but the social housing challenge is even bigger

Paul Strangio 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 5 senior ministers quitting Victoria’s Andrew’s government a sign of renewal – or decline? – https://theconversation.com/is-5-senior-ministers-quitting-victorias-andrews-government-a-sign-of-renewal-or-decline-185857

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Senior Research Fellow, Western Sydney University

Initial data from the 2021 census released this week shows Australia continues to become more culturally diverse.

Almost half of us have at least one parent born overseas (48.2%), and almost a quarter of us (24.8%) speak a language other than English at home.

Just over a quarter of us (27.6%) report being born overseas, and of those, India has risen to become the second-most common overseas country of birth after England.

The growing number of first-generation migrants means Australians’ ancestry will change significantly over the next decade. Australia will continue to change and look different, and we must ensure our institutions and policies reflect this.

That work, by governments and policymakers, should begin now so they can gain trust and maximise the belonging of these communities. Research shows feelings of belonging lead to better socioeconomic outcomes.

It’s likely there would have been substantially more immigration were it not for the COVID pandemic and subsequent restrictions and lockdowns. Some 84% of the one million new migrants arrived before the virus did.

Australia’s future

Three bits of data stuck out to me from this initial census data release:

• India surpassed New Zealand and China in becoming the second-most common overseas country of birth

• the number of people born in Nepal grew by 123.7% compared to 2016, the second largest increase in country of birth

• the number of people who are either born overseas or have a parent born overseas is greater than half (51.5%).

These data show the changing face of Australia and our global links.

They also reveal suburban clusters in the major cities where ethnic groups have a critical mass, median incomes are higher than the state and national average, and tertiary education rates are on the rise (examples include Girraween and Castle Hill in NSW).

Such figures show social class is an important factor when looking at data on migrant populations. In areas with a higher percentage of working class migrants and resettled refugees, such as those mentioned towards the end of this article as more impacted by COVID, household incomes are lower and hence they require more consideration for future planning needs.

The top five sources of ancestry haven’t changed since the last census: English (33%), Australian (29.9%), Irish (9.5%), Scottish (8.6%) and Chinese (5.5%).

But given the big changes in country of birth data, Australians’ ancestry will look very different over the next decade.

This will have policy and planning implications across schooling, housing and local government services.

It will translate into the need for our diversity to be reflected in all aspects of society, including professions, media, decision-making roles and government.

These data also show Australia is as multicultural, if not more, than countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Data from the 2016 census in Canada, which is known to be multicultural, shows 21.9% of people there are immigrants, with the largest share being from South Asia.

2018 data shows 14% of the UK population was from a minority ethnic background. In the city of London, this figure was 40% in 2018.

According to 2020 data, nearly four in ten Americans identify with an ethnic group other than white.

COVID disproportionately affected migrant communities

Australia would have received more migrants were it not for the COVID pandemic, which shut borders from early 2020.

We would have had more tourists, and more people arriving on work and student visas. Census data shows the pandemic led to an 80% decrease in the number of overseas visitors. This affected the economy, particularly in sectors such as tourism, hospitality and higher education.

We also received less relatives of overseas-born Australians, for example on family-sponsored visas. This can have impacts on childcare, care of elderly relatives and mental health.

Read more:
The 2021 Australian census in 8 charts

Some areas with a high percentage of migrants were heavily affected by COVID and pandemic restrictions.

Census data reveals, for example, 71.6% of people in the Western Sydney suburb of Merrylands have both parents born overseas. And in the nearby local government area of Liverpool, 65.5% of people have both parents born overseas.

Western Sydney was an area disproportionately affected by COVID infections and deaths over the last two years. It was also subject to strict COVID restrictions and a heavy police and even military presence.

In Flemington, Melbourne, the site of a public housing tower lockdown in 2020, 47.1% of people have both parents born overseas. Somalia and Ethiopia feature in the top five countries of birth.

In Dandenong, south-east of Melbourne, 75.4% of people have both parents born overseas. The area has also suffered disproportionately more COVID deaths.

We don’t yet know the full extent of COVID impacts on these areas though. Further census data is due to be released in October featuring employment and work commute data for these areas which will be important to look at for COVID impacts.

Sukhmani Khorana has received funding from the Australia Research Council, the Australia-India Council, and conducts contracted research for migrant and refugee-focused organisations in Western Sydney.

– ref. Census data shows we’re more culturally diverse than ever. Our institutions must reflect this – https://theconversation.com/census-data-shows-were-more-culturally-diverse-than-ever-our-institutions-must-reflect-this-185575

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Watson, Senior Lecturer in Disability and Inclusion, Deakin University

The Netflix sci-fi horror series Stranger Things is vividly soaked in 1980s nostalgia, famously catapulting Kate Bush’s 1985 song Running up that Hill to the top of the music charts in 2022.

In season four, series creators the Duffer Brothers introduce viewers to Pennhurst Mental Hospital for the criminally insane (which was also mentioned in season one). Viewers follow teenage sleuths Robin and Nancy into Pennhurst, where they are granted permission to speak with Victor Creel, imprisoned because he is thought to have brutally murdered his family.

Although the Pennhurst Mental Hospital portrayed in Stranger things is fictitious, the location was inspired by the Eastern Pennsylvania State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic. Later named the Pennhurst State School and Hospital and located in the woods of Chester County, Pennsylvania, it was founded in 1908 and shut down in 1987. More than 10,000 people with intellectual disability and mental illness lived at Pennhurst, many spending their entire lives within its walls.

The real Pennhurst has become a tourist attraction, like dozens of empty asylums around the world, including some in Australia. But as we seek out thrills, we shouldn’t forget these institutions held real people and their stories.

Read more:
People with disability are more likely to be victims of crime – here’s why

Pennhurst, then freedom

Pennhurst was a place of segregation, power, abuse, neglect and torture, fuelled by society’s perception that people with intellectual disability were a dangerous threat to social order.

At the dawn of the 19th century’s eugenics movement, people with intellectual disability existed on the lowest rung of the human hierarchy. Ultimately, they were removed from the human gene pool through institutionalisation and sterilisation.

In 1987, in response to the disability rights movement’s loud call for de-institutionalisation and after groundbreaking litigation brought by a resident and her family, the State of Pennsylvania closed Pennhurst’s doors. The courts agreed those in state care had a constitutional right to appropriate treatment and education. More than 1,000 Pennhurst residents began lives of worth and value in the community.

In 2010, the state of Pennsylvania sold the site. Today, Pennhurst exists as a “dark tourism” destination. Pennhurst Asylum entertains visitors with “jump scares” around a narrative of depraved criminality, that simultaneously erases and evokes the inhumane treatment of the people who called Pennhurst home.

Real people, real stories

To those who lived there and their supporters, Pennhurst is more than the horrors of its past and the commercialisation of its future.

For Dennis Downey and James Conroy, editors of Pennhurst and the Struggle for Disability Rights, Pennhurst represents “one of the great, if unrecognised, freedom struggles of the twentieth century”, fanning the flames of the global de-institutionalisation and independent living movements.

Following Pennhurst’s closure, most Western nations began closing institutions. This independent living movement was a precursor to the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability.

Article 19 of the convention obliges signatory nations to ensure “the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others”. And Article 12 asks signatory nations to recognise that all citizens, regardless of disability, have “legal personhood” and therefore should enjoy autonomy and respect.

The convention charges signatory nations with an unequivocal obligation to firmly make the traumatic experiences of institutionalisation a thing of the past, while acknowledging and preserving the stories of trauma as narratives of dignity and respect.

Read more:
Over 1,000 Australians with cognitive disability are detained indefinitely each year. This shameful practice needs to stop

A global ghost tour

Pennhurst is one of many “haunted” tourist attractions worldwide inspired by traumatised lives of people with disability.

A hemisphere away, high on a hill, overlooking the rural town of Ararat in Western Victoria, Australia, stands Aradale Lunatic Asylum, location of the notorious J-Ward.

During its years of operation from 1867 to 1993, it was home to more than 10,000 people with disability. Like Pennhurst, the past two decades have seen a transformation of Aradale into a tourist attraction, exploiting the very real and horrific life experiences of the people who called it home.

Thrill-seekers can join the Aradale ghost tour and be haunted by such ghostly “tickling, strange smells, banging sounds, shadows, and other spooky sensations”.

Tours and “paranormal investigations” also operate at the former Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum, in Beechworth, Victoria. Tours of Sydney’s Gladesville Mental Hospital, formerly Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum, are currently on hold due to COVID.

Shuttered institutions that were once home to people with disabilities in the United States, Norway, Austria and South Korea are regularly grouped into terrifying online itineraries.

Acknowledge and preserve their stories

Dark tourism operators sell thrilling customer experiences – but the stories of people with disability who lived behind the walls of institutions like Pennhurst and Aradale are much darker.

By relying on offensive and misguided portrayals of people with disability as horrifying, dangerous and criminal, operators exploit the ways residents were treated for commercialised entertainment.

Ironically, London’s Bethlem Hospital (from which the word “bedlam” originated) reportedly ran tours for curious visitors to gawk at residents until 1770. But today, the Bethlem Museum of the Mind houses archives and art “to support the history of mental healthcare and treatment”. An upcoming exhibition explores how “experiences of trauma, mental distress, contact with mental health services and everyday life can shape and disrupt a person’s sense of home”.

Netflix and filmmakers like the Duffer Brothers have an opportunity to acknowledge and preserve the stories of institutionalised communal trauma. A simple dedication to Pennhurst residents could even be added to a Stranger Things episode or opening credits. It could educate a generation of world citizens about the crimes of the past and the intrinsic personhood of all of humanity.

Read more:
Jimmy Savile: how the Netflix documentary fails to address the role institutions play in abuse

Joanne Watson 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. By naming ‘Pennhurst’, Stranger Things uses disability trauma for entertainment. Dark tourism and asylum tours do too – https://theconversation.com/by-naming-pennhurst-stranger-things-uses-disability-trauma-for-entertainment-dark-tourism-and-asylum-tours-do-too-185581

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Hamilton, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences, University of New England

A friend introduces their partner as “my current husband”. Another jokes about marriage as a life sentence. Everyone laughs, no one is surprised.

The sentiments at the heart of these asides are pervasive and familiar to many people in (or who have had) heterosexual relationships. There is now a term for this negativity: “heteropessimism”.

Heteropessimism is a new word for an intuitive, possibly very old, concept in white Western culture. Coined in 2019 by writer Asa Seresin, heteropessimism is an attitude of disappointment, embarrassment or despair at the state of heterosexual relations – specifically about being in one.

Seresin’s definition is useful because this pessimism is accompanied by the paradoxical practice of sticking with heterosexuality in its current forms, even as it is judged to be “irredeemable”.

Seresin now uses the term “heterofatalism” to emphasise how dire, hopeless, and lacking in visions for an alternative, this attitude is.

So what is heteropessimism?

Heteropessimism describes a negative attitude that pervades heterosexual culture, within many of the men and women who co-create it.

Heteropessimism does not necessarily imply violent or harmful relationships, overt sexism, abuse or even a hierarchy. In fact, many heteropessimistic relationships likely start with real desire for romantic, sexual and intimate connection.

Heteropessimism describes something more mundane. It’s a pervasive disappointment, ambivalence, if not doubt, about the quality of the lived heterosexual experience.

It is either unhappily ever after, or living with compromises that are fundamentally unsatisfactory. While life can be a little disappointing at times, the problem with heteropessimism is the negativity stifles thinking about how things could be different.

It is easy to find examples of heteropessimism in culture. Stories that highlight the power of female friendship or sisterly love (from Sex and the City to Frozen), often do so by comparing it to the disappointments of heterosexual romance.

Out of a sense of anger and frustration about the monotony and violence of it all, the queer internet has turned heteropessimistic culture into jokes. The Instagram account Hets Explain Yourselves is a growing archive of heteropessimism memes (on clothing, greeting cards, masks, mugs, bumper stickers) without a compelling vision for change.

Meanwhile, writer Andrea Long Chu claims heterosexuality is on the verge of collapse, held together with “sticky tape and crossed fingers”.

The persistent desire to keep it together is clearest in a show like Married at First Sight. In MAFS, there is no space for exploring or developing a new kind of heterosexual relation. There is only time for a man and a woman to say hello and be stuck together with matrimonial glue.

So, why are heterosexuals so pessimistic about heterosexuality?

Many couples feel resentful in relationships with unequal caring responsibilities. This imbalance was given a new clarity during COVID.

Rising living costs also compel compromises. One partners’ career is prioritised over the other’s, work hours increase and it takes multiple jobs to sustain a household. All this increases relationship pressure.

Read more:
Married at First Sight – a ‘social experiment’ all but guaranteeing relationship failure

Even if some couples negotiate happier and more equitable relationships, we can’t ignore the ubiquity of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. This is the darkest and far too often fatal expression of dissatisfaction with the heterosexual ideal.

Although heteropessimism might manifest as a personal or private feeling, Asa Seresin says “heterosexuality is nobody’s personal problem”.

On one hand, pessimism works like cynicism. It thwarts an examination of the other forces shaping intimate relations – misogyny and normative gender roles, economic stresses and the moral and emotional pressures of monogamy.

On the other, pessimism diverts attention from the lack of cultural encouragement to imagine alternatives beyond the nuclear family household.

For an interview as part of our research, author Sophie Lewis identifies this fatalism as especially acute amongst straight women in heterosexual relationships. Lewis observes many women seem to see “no alternative to their trajectory” within heterosexuality. This kind of dissatisfaction is “unaccompanied by political experimentation and response”.

Where do we go from here?

There are established alternative ways of living and loving in other cultures and LGBTQAI+ communities. These include expanded kinship arrangements with friends or family, platonic or romantic polyamorous relationships, or even just good relationship therapy.

But a feature of heteropessimistic culture is that proponents are radically disinterested in, even hostile to, such possibilities.

Although heteropessimism as a concept is useful in raising awareness of an enduring cultural problem, pessimism can’t help solve it. We need other visions for heterosexuality that are neither straightforward, nor particularly straight.

We hope for new forms of liberation that don’t rely on the binary opposition of heterosexual versus LGBTQAI+. We want them to recognise all kinds of desire and breathe optimism into relationships by emphasising equality, freedom, consent, creativity, kindness and respect.

Transmedia consultant, Daz Chandler, from the Parallel Effect https://www.paralleleffect.com/ worked on the podcast project and also assisted with the writing of this piece. The authors of this article received funding from the Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry to seed their research. https://freilich.anu.edu.au/

Christina Kenny, Felicity Joseph, and Matt Allen 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. What is ‘heteropessimism’, and why do men and women suffer from it? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-heteropessimism-and-why-do-men-and-women-suffer-from-it-182288

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ayesha Scott, Senior Lecturer – Finance, Auckland University of Technology

Cost of living is – and should be – on everyone’s mind. But how we are managing increasing costs could impact us well into retirement.

As cost-of-living pressures continue to increase with record inflation and rising interest rates for mortgages, increasing numbers of New Zealanders are withdrawing money from their KiwiSaver accounts to survive.

According to last September’s Financial Market Authority’s KiwiSaver Annual Report, financial hardship withdrawals were up 42.8% from 2020.

For New Zealanders struggling to survive in 2022, saving for retirement is likely far from their minds.

It is also these New Zealanders for whom safeguarding retirement savings is arguably the most important, as they are less likely to enter retirement owning their home.

Worrying about retirement

The Financial Services Council’s Money & You report gave insight into how many of us are worried about our retirement savings – namely, being able to afford one at all.

Around 64% of Kiwis worry they won’t be able to afford retirement, while 70% think they’ll need to work past age 65.

Read more:
How New Zealanders miss out on hundreds of thousands in retirement savings

So while withdrawals, fees and fund switching due to stockmarket volatility are important savings topics, there is one (admittedly unpleasant) question we all need to ask ourselves. Is our KiwiSaver balance building up fast enough to provide for our retirement?

For the average New Zealander, the short answer is no. We are not on track. That’s before we take into consideration the possibility of future financial shocks, like high inflation.

The gap between retirement and reality

The average KiwiSaver balance is $29,022, as of December 31 2021.

This figure is relatively uninformative by itself.

The Retirement Commission (formerly the Commission for Financial Capability) asked actuaries Melville Jessup Weaver (MJW) to dig into the numbers and provide some context, namely to break down the figures by age and gender.

Unsurprisingly, there is a large gender disparity in KiwiSaver funds – another important topic that has received considerable media coverage since it was revealed.

But there is a more general and pressing concern: the limited savings of people in their 40s.

Why this age group? Put simply, these individuals face high household expenditure with kids at home and, if they’re homeowners, increasing interest rates on their mortgage repayments. If they’re paying rent, that’s likely to be going up as well.

This age group also has less time to benefit from KiwiSaver’s compounding returns before retirement and, despite NZ Super being seemingly guaranteed, retirement is far enough away for a little uncertainty to be prudent.

Read more:
The coming storm for New Zealand’s future retirees: still renting and not enough savings to avoid poverty

This group was also already in the workforce for KiwiSaver’s inaugural year, with our current 41-year-old aged 27 in 2007.

Calculating a clearer picture

To gain a better understanding of what is facing this cohort, we need to do two things: first, estimate their KiwiSaver balance at age 65 (using Sorted’s KiwiSaver Calculator) and, second, calculate if this will be enough for retirement.

The average KiwiSaver balance for a 40-something is $36,833 ($32,987 for women, $43,068 for men). Assuming the average wage (to be conservative, let’s use figures from 2017) and investment in a balanced fund, a 43-year-old with a current average balance of $33,331 is projected to have $151,820 by 65. For a 48-year-old with current average balance of $40,335 in a balanced fund, Sorted projects $121,350 by 65.

But is this enough?

The New Zealand Retirement Expenditure Guidelines 2021 are the basis of Sorted’s retirement calculator. Our retirement options are “metro” versus “regional” living, and “no-frills” versus “choices” expenditure.

Let’s assume our average Kiwis are city-slickers (“metro”) and hope for a comfortable standard of living with a few luxuries thrown in (a “choices” lifestyle). Those in regional areas and/or planning to live (very) frugally are likely to spend less in retirement.

This calculation does not factor in other income (such as savings outside KiwiSaver, or working past 65) or having a partner, and we’re (optimistically) living until 90 years old.

After the weekly (singles) NZ Super payment of $463 combined with KiwiSaver funds, our 43-year-old is projected to be $392 per week short of the $1,029 they’ll need per week in retirement. Our 48-year-old is projected to be $427 per week short.

Those considering a more frugal lifestyle ($726/week) are still short after NZ Super and KiwiSaver: $89/week for our 43-year-old and $124/week for those currently aged 48.

Save now or work longer

Kiwis are right to think they are not on track to afford their retirement and that they may be working well past retirement age.

Depending on your personal circumstances, you may or may not be the average Kiwi. It doesn’t matter. We all need to cope with today’s cost-of-living pressures while making sure we’re saving enough for tomorrow. On average, what we are doing now isn’t enough.

Read more:
Fewer than 1% of New Zealand men take paid parental leave – would offering them more to stay at home help?

It didn’t have to be this way.

While we can’t go back in time and introduce KiwiSaver in the early ’90s like Australia, raising the baseline savings rate from 3% would help. This is not a new idea, with the Commission for Financial Capability recommending a graduated increase in 2016.

Unlike our employee-employer contribution mix where New Zealand employers match their employees’ 3%, Australians also enjoy an employer-paid scheme (currently a 10% rate, by 2025 it’ll be 12%). The current average balance for a 40-something Australian is about $125,000.

But what you can do now is take stock of your own financial situation. Regardless of age, you should do the above calculations yourself. Then, do something about it.

Individuals can contribute to KiwiSaver at a higher rate of 4%, 6%, 8% or 10% and choose the best fund type for their circumstances to ensure that money is working for them. Your future retired self will thank you.

Ayesha Scott receives research funding from the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and AUT Business School. She collaborates with Good Shepherd NZ and BNZ on non-KiwiSaver research projects, around healthy financial relationships and economic harm. Ayesha has consulted for KiwiSaver providers in the past, as an independent expert reviewer.

– ref. A $400-a-week shortfall: people in their 40s face a bleak retirement on KiwiSaver’s current trajectory – https://theconversation.com/a-400-a-week-shortfall-people-in-their-40s-face-a-bleak-retirement-on-kiwisavers-current-trajectory-185576

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

Australians are becoming more fearful in an insecure world, and want to see the country armed up, favouring more defence spending and the planned acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines.

Three quarters of Australians say it is likely China will become a military threat to Australia in the next 20 years, according to the 2022 Lowy Institute’s Poll. This is an increase of 29 points since 2018.

Moreover, for the first time a majority (51%) would favour Australian military forces being used if China invaded Taiwan and the United States intervened. This was an eight-point rise since 2019 when the question was last asked.

Just over half (51%) say Australia should boost defence spending – a 20-point rise since 2019. Seven in ten favour the plan to acquire nuclear-powered submarines. More than six in ten support the American military being based in Australia.

Defence Minister Richard Marles, who is acting prime minister, on Tuesday announced the government is extending the terms of the Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Campbell, and the ADF’s vice chief, Vice Admiral David Johnston, by two years. The government has also asked the CDF to extend the term of the Chief of Joint Operations, Lieutenant General Greg Bilton.

Marles said the extensions were because it was “a time which is as strategically complex as any since the end of the Second World War in terms of our national security and the needs of our defence procurement”.

In his preface to the poll, Lowy executive director Michael Fullilove writes:
“Australians are increasingly concerned about the potential for great power competition to spill over into confrontation.

“In 2022, Australians report feeling unsafe, and as the potential for conflict in our region feels more possible, support for Australia’s alliance with the United States has returned to a record high.”

Nearly seven in ten (68%) believe Russia’s foreign policy poses a critical threat to Australia’s vital interest in the next decade – a 36-point increase since 2017. Russian foreign policy tops the list of threats to Australia’s vital interests, narrowly ahead of China’s foreign policy (65% – up 29 points since 2017).

In general, anxiety about Russia, China and a war over Taiwan have overtaken Australians’ concerns about COVID-19 and climate change.

The poll was conducted March 15-28 with a sample of 2006. It is the 18th in the Lowy Institute’s annual series and is authored by Natasha Kassam.

In the election campaign the Coalition tried to make national security and fears about China an issue to its advantage but this backfired when it came under attack for having been unable to head off the China-Solomons security pact.

The poll found 88% of people were concerned about China potentially opening a military base in a Pacific Island country.

While there has been a 11-point (to 58%) fall in confidence in US President Joe Biden since 2021, this is still 28 points above the confidence expressed in President Donald Trump in 2020 (30%).

On climate change, there is overwhelming support for federal government subsidies for renewable technology (90%), committing to a more ambitious emissions target for 2030 ((77%), and Australian hosting a United Nations climate conference (75%). Nearly two thirds (65%) support reducing coal exports, and banning new coal mines (63%).

COVID has receded but not disappeared as a threat in the minds of Australians. Only just over four in ten (42%) see COVID as a critical threat to Australia’s interests, 17 points down on 2021 and 34 points down on 2020.

More than six in ten people (62%) are optimistic about Australia’s economic performance in the world over the next five years, but this is a 17-point fall from 2021.

With Anthony Albanese’s visiting Paris later this week, in the poll 49% blame both Australia and France for the tensions in the relationship over the cancellation of the submarine contract; 35% say Australia is more to blame, while 12% blame France more.

Making his announcement about the defence chief, Marles said the Albanese government “is putting a premium on continuity. This applies to strategic advice and the timely and effective delivery of key procurements including through the AUKUS framework. Australia cannot afford any further delay in the next generation of submarines.”

Marles announced new chiefs of the navy, army and air force.

Navy: Rear Admiral Mark Hammond.

Army: Major General Simon Stuart.

Air Force: Air Vice-Marshal Robert Chipman.

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. Australians favour more defence spending in Lowy poll, as Labor extends ADF chief Angus Campbell’s term – https://theconversation.com/australians-favour-more-defence-spending-in-lowy-poll-as-labor-extends-adf-chief-angus-campbells-term-185878