Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Padraic Heaton, Casual Academic, University of Technology Sydney

Early this morning, millions of people around the world rushed to their Nintendo Switch to play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and immerse themselves anew in this game’s vast, mythical kingdom of Hyrule.

This fresh release, a sequel to 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, has been long awaited by Zelda fans around the globe, and the subject of breathless coverage in both specialist gaming media and the mainstream press.

So, why is this game such big news – even among those who don’t necessarily see themselves as “gamers”?

I’m a game design researcher focused on creating and developing systems that allow games to be played by anyone – and there cannot be a better example of that than The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

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Who is this game for?

This game situates itself in the action-adventure genre, but that descriptor only scratches the surface. It offers an unparalleled open world, both in size and detail, and is uniquely able to cater to a huge audience.

Want to explore and discover a breathtakingly beautiful world? This game has you covered. Want to absorb a rich story built up over many years? This game lets you do that. Want to test your mettle and take down tough foes? This game is for you.

From the limited game play footage already released, it’s obvious Tears of the Kingdom allows the player to use their critical thinking skills to overcome puzzles their own way.

Taken together, Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild suggest Nintendo is pioneering a model focused on inclusivity and approachability. Players can take things at their own pace. The open-world exploration, engaging storytelling, mind-bending challenges and serene atmosphere draw audiences ranging from franchise veterans to those completely new to games.

Accessibility and creativity combine to give players an unparalleled level of freedom. The puzzles around every corner of the kingdom of Hyrule make this game compelling for newcomers and old hands alike.

What is The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom?

Despite the franchise name, the game’s protagonist is the young knight Link (Zelda is the name of the princess he must help to set free). His task is to save the mythical kingdom of Hyrule by ridding it of the tyrannical overlord Ganon. In the previous game, Link must travel across the kingdom, seeking aid from the diverse species and tribes of the lands to uproot and vanquish Ganon.

From the promotional videos and early game play footage of the new game, we know Ganon has returned and Link must embark on a new adventure to defeat him.

To do so, players must navigate and explore new mysterious sky islands high above Hyrule, as well as the familiar sprawling landscapes of the previous game.

With the shift to the skies, Link has also received an updated suite of skills. He can now rewind time, ascend through ceilings, and – most importantly – combine items to create new and exciting weapons or vehicles.

This game allows you to combine real-world and in-game knowledge to literally invent your own solutions.

Why was Breath of the Wild such a, well, game-changer?

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild caused genre-defining waves when it was released in 2017, forcing many to rethink what an open world game is.

Most open world games at the time featured much more linear narratives, forcing players to experience the world one small area after another. Many blocked players from content until they have progressed further in the story. This denies players from the freedom and choice Breath of the Wild relishes in.

At its core, Breath of the Wild allows you to do what you want, when you want, without forcing you down a particular path. After brief tutorials, you’re off on your quest to find Ganon – but what you do between now and then is completely up to you. You can spend the entire time picking and cooking mushrooms, if you like.

Subtle environmental cues help deliver a gripping narrative, and there are plenty of side quests along the way. Players who want the story can seek it out, while those who’d rather skip it are free to wander around deserts, oceans, forests and plains on their own personal voyage.

Another reason this game garnered such a vast and loyal fanbase is it allows players to do as much or as little as they feel up to that day.

Had a hard week and just want to relax? You can take to the skies with your paraglider and soar around breathtaking landscapes or hop on your horse to explore the nooks and crannies of Hyrule. In the mood for a challenge? Try your hand at one of hundreds of expertly designed puzzles (many of which have more than one solution). Keen for some biffo? Battle one of Ganon’s minions or practise your skills with a new weapon.

Unplanned interactions between game characters, landscapes or puzzles abound. That’s how this game can keep surprising even those players who have sunk hundreds of hours into it.

“What would happen if I do this?” you ask. This game always has an answer.

What do we know so far about Tears of the Kingdom?

Building on the previous game’s focus on discovery, players in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be spending a lot of time exploring the mysterious sky islands floating high above the land, bringing both new challenges and stunning scenery.

Players will have a range of new abilities that focus on invention and experimentation. Using the new “fuse” ability, you can combine a weapon with items found throughout the game to create new possibilities. Found a spiky metal ball? Why not stick it to the end of your sword and see what it does?

The new “ultrahand” feature allows you to combine a huge variety of vehicle components and in-game objects to create vehicles. Found a wooden board drifting in the ocean? Attach some fans, a sail and voilà! You’ve got a powerboat.

This allows player to apply knowledge from the real world and the game world to come up with creative solutions.

This game is extremely approachable, yet has the depth to keep players interested for years to come.

Read more:
Art for trying times: how a philosopher found solace playing Red Dead Redemption 2

Padraic Heaton receives a research stipend as a part of his research at UTS.

– ref. Here’s why The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is big news – even among those who don’t see themselves as ‘gamers’ – https://theconversation.com/heres-why-the-legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-is-big-news-even-among-those-who-dont-see-themselves-as-gamers-205229

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

Peter Dutton needed to sketch a big picture in his Thursday night budget reply – to look like an alternative prime minister. He failed to do so.

With the Liberals rating parlously among those aged under 40, Dutton should have been speaking especially to these voters. But his address was more of the same from a Coalition that’s unable to refresh and regroup.

The bar was always going to be too high for Dutton. This week’s budget, whatever criticisms can be made of it and however things work out in the months ahead, has been an elusive target for the Liberals.

Dutton pointed to the formidable issues Australia is grappling with – very high inflation, a housing and rental crisis, crippling power bills, millions of people having gone backwards.

But he lacked prescriptions, let alone ones that were any more convincing than the government’s are.

He risked the government’s accusation of “punching down”, dividing those on welfare (who have benefitted from the budget) and working people on low wages. The cost-of-living relief “is targeted at Australians on welfare but at the expense of the many including Labor’s working poor”. The budget “hurts working Australians”, he declared; “worse, it risks creating a generation of working poor Australians”.

Dutton ticked off on budget items the Coalition agrees with or doesn’t oppose. But he left up in the air the fate of the $40 a fortnight rise in JobSeeker, arguing it would be better to raise the amount the unemployed could earn, rather than increasing the base rate. Interviewed later, he would not confirm the Coalition would support the $40 increase, but it is hard to see it opposing it when push comes to shove. Nevertheless, he has left himself vulnerable to obvious attack.

Dutton homed in on concern, which is likely to grow, about the looming large net migration influx (much of it a post pandemic “catch up”). Labor’s “big Australia approach” would worsen Australia’s cost-of-living and inflation problems, he said.

“Over five years, net overseas migration will see our population increase by 1.5 million people,” he said. “It’s the biggest migration surge in our country’s history and it’s occurring amidst a housing and rental crisis.”

Read more:
The day after the night before – Chalmers and Taylor on the budget

Yet Dutton did not say what his alternative would be – his statement a Coalition government would “sensibly manage migration” is a declaration of intent, not a policy.

He had plenty of familiar Coalition lines and sentiments. “Under a Coalition government I lead, your taxes will always be lower.” “Taxation is the killer of aspiration.” “Labor recklessly spends, carelessly cuts and inadequately saves.”

But his policy offerings were small beer: a ban on sports betting during the broadcasting of games; commitments on health; imposing a greater onus on big digital companies to stop scams and financial fraud; the restoration of the cashless debit card. A personal priority was a promise to double the size of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.

What was missing was any ambitious initiative on a central issue. While it’s still relatively early in the term, and Anthony Albanese showed the benefit of holding policy back, Dutton is in a different situation.

He is confronting a popular government, not one on the slide. And voters won’t be attracted to an opposition that can’t project what it stands for, or whose values are seeming out of sync with the times.

Notably, Dutton as yet is giving no commitment on one significant tax measure in the budget – the changes to the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax, due to yield $2.4 billion over the forward estimates. The government hopes for opposition support, rather than a haggle with the Greens, whose leader Adam Bandt on Thursday said his party would, if it had the opportunity, fight to make the companies “pay their fair share of tax”.

The Greens’ aggressive response to the budget has underscored the challenge ahead for Labor from an increasingly assertive electoral competitor.

This came in a week when the broader hostility between Greens and Labor exploded in the Senate.

The Greens sided with the Coalition to prevent the government bringing to a vote on Thursday legislation for its $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, the interest on which would finance social and affordable houses.

Read more:
No, the budget does not make further interest rate rises more likely

Senate leader Penny Wong lashed out at Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather (who last year won the Queensland seat of Griffith from Labor), accusing him of “prioritising media attention from stunts and obstruction over housing for women and kids fleeing domestic violence”.

“This man’s ego matters more than housing for women fleeing domestic violence and older women at risk of homelessness. What sort of party are you?” she said.

The Greens and Coalition also teamed up to ensure a longer Senate inquiry on family law legislation.

In response to the budget, predictably the Greens have delivered biting assessments, declaring it hasn’t gone far enough to help the needy.

Ahead of next year’s budget, this pressure from the left will just intensify.

Read more:
Budget 2023 at a glance: major measures, cuts and spends

The government’s economic inclusion advisory group, which was a major player in forcing the budget’s across-the-board (modest) rise in JobSeeker will produce another pre-budget report. That will inevitably urge further rises in welfare payments.

Assuming the government fell short of meeting the full recommendations, this would be manna for the Greens. And there’ll be a fresh round in the argument over the Stage 3 tax cuts. If these are not recalibrated, the Greens will have more ammunition.

Framing the 2024 budget, the government could be pulled between delivering more on welfare, keeping its promises on the tax cuts and, with an eye to the election due by May 2025, doing something substantial for middle Australia.

The last election, which added three more seats to the Greens’ lower house representation, bringing them to four, and boosted their Senate numbers from nine to 12, was a sharp reminder to Labor that the threat to it from the left is on the march.

It’s perhaps telling that budget week has seen the government rather complacent in the face of a weak opposition, but agitated by the minor party.

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

– ref. Grattan on Friday: Peter Dutton warns of threat to ‘working poor’ in budget reply lacking a big picture – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-peter-dutton-warns-of-threat-to-working-poor-in-budget-reply-lacking-a-big-picture-199110

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Greg Skulmoski, Associate Professor, Project Management, Bond University

Like most people I check my emails in the morning, wading through a combination of work requests, spam and news alerts peppering my inbox.

But yesterday brought something different and deeply disturbing. I noticed an alert from the American Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) about some very devious malware that had infected a network of computers.

The malware in question is Snake, a cyber espionage tool deployed by Russia’s Federal Security Service.

According to CISA, the Snake implant is the “most sophisticated cyber espionage tool designed and used by Center 16 of Russia’s Federal Security Service for long-term intelligence collection on sensitive targets”.

The stealthy Snake

The Russian Federal Security Service developed the Snake network in 2003 to conduct global cyber espionage operations against NATO, companies, research institutions, media organisations, financial services, government agencies and more.

So far, it has been detected on Windows, Linux and macOS computers in more than 50 countries, including Australia.

Elite Russian cyber espionage teams put the malware on a target’s computer, copy sensitive information of interest and then send it to Russia. It’s a simple concept, cloaked in masterful technical design.

Since its creation, Russian cyber spies have regularly upgraded the Snake malware to avoid detection. The current version is cunning in how it persistently evades detection and protects itself.

Moreover, the Snake network can disrupt critical industrial control systems that manage our buildings, hospitals, energy systems, water and wastewater systems, among others – so the risks went beyond just intelligence collection.

There are warnings that in a couple of years bad actors may gain the capability to hijack critical Australian infrastructure and cause unprecedented harm by interfering with physical operations.

Snake hunting

On May 9, the US Department of Justice announced the Federal Bureau of Investigation had finally disrupted the global Snake peer-to-peer network of infected computers.

The covert network allowed infected computers to collect sensitive information. The Snake malware then disguised the sensitive information through sophisticated encryption, and sent it to the spy masters.

Since the Snake malware used custom communication protocols, its covert operations remained undetected for decades. You can think of custom protocols as a way to transmit information so it can go undetected.

However, with Russia’s war in Ukraine and the rise in cybersecurity activity over the past few years, the FBI has increased its monitoring of Russian cyber threats.

While the Snake malware is an elegantly designed piece of code, it is complex and needs to be precisely deployed to avoid detection. According to the Department of Justice’s press release, Russian cyber spies were careless in more than a few instances and did not deploy it as designed.

As a result, the Americans discovered Snake – and crafted a response.

Snake bites

The FBI received a court order to dismantle Snake as part of an operation code-named MEDUSA.

They developed a tool called PERSEUS that causes the Snake malware to disable itself and stop further infection of other computers. The PERSEUS tool and instructions are freely available to guide detection, patching and remediation.

The Department of Justice advises that PERSEUS only stops this malware on computers that are already infected; it does not patch vulnerabilities on other computers, or search for and remove other malware.

Even though the Snake network has been disrupted, the department warned vulnerabilities may still exist for users, and they should follow safe cybersecurity hygiene practices.

Snake bite treatment

Fortunately, effective cybersecurity hygiene isn’t overly complicated. Microsoft has identified five activities that protect against 98% of cybersecurity attacks, whether you’re at home or work.

1. Enable multi-factor authentication across all your online accounts and apps. This login process requires multiple steps such as entering your password, followed by a code received through a SMS message – or even a biometric fingerprint or secret question (favourite drummer? Ringo!).

2. Apply “zero trust” principles. It’s best practice to authenticate, authorise and continuously validate all system users (internal and external) to ensure they have the right to use the systems. The zero trust approach should be applied whether you’re using computer systems at work or home.

3. Use modern anti-malware programs. Anti-malware, also known as antivirus software, protects and removes malware from our systems, big and small.

4. Keep up to date. Regular system and software updates not only help keep new applications secure, but also patch vulnerable areas of your system.

5. Protect your data. Make a copy of your important data, whether it’s a physical printout or on an external device disconnected from your network, such as an external drive or USB.

Like most Australians, I have been a victim of a cyberattack. And between the recent Optus data breach and the Woolworths MyDeal and Medibank attacks, people are catching on to just how dire the consequences of these events can be.

We can expect malicious cyberattacks to increase in the future, and their impact will only become more severe. The Snake malware is a sophisticated piece of software that raises yet another concern. But in this case, we have the antidote and can protect ourselves by proactively following the above steps.

If you have concerns about the Snake malware you can read more here, or speak to the fine folks at your IT service desk.

Read more:
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Greg Skulmoski works at Bond University and having it’s academics comment on the news elevates Bond University’s reputation.

– ref. It’s being called Russia’s most sophisticated cyber espionage tool. What is Snake, and why is it so dangerous? – https://theconversation.com/its-being-called-russias-most-sophisticated-cyber-espionage-tool-what-is-snake-and-why-is-it-so-dangerous-205405

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Munt, Associate Professor, Media Arts & Production, University of Technology Sydney

Iconoclastic film director Wes Anderson says of his films:

I always feel like any character from one of my movies could walk into another one of the movies and be at home there.

With the premiere of Asteroid City at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival next week, fans have been doing just that – walking themselves into faux Anderson movies.

TikTokers are creatively “Wes-Andersonifying” their everyday lives: at lunch, at the hotel pool or at the bookstore. The TikToks are all set to a score by Alexandre Desplat from The French Dispatch (2021).

It’s fun to see Anderson’s film style rolled out across diverse cultural and geographic borders. This syncs with the filmmaker’s affinity for global cinema. He draws inspiration from the films of Yasujirō Ozu, Satyajit Ray, Jean Renoir, Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and Jacques Rivette – to name just a few.

For Tiktok’s Anderson fans, here’s a “How To” by @andyyongfilms which shows a recipe for the film style: a title card (Futura font, with typewriter effect), symmetrical compositions, bright coloured or pastel outfits, retro props, an overhead shot plus a “whip-pan” camera movement. A few of the TikToks are highly polished, clearly from creators with a film education, such as The British Dispatch.

Read more:
Wes Anderson is one of cinema’s great auteurs: discuss

Reimagining a film style

The Anderson-inspired TikToks are playful ruminations on the question of “film style” today. Stanley Kubrick once said a film director is a “taste machine”, which Anderson revels in to excess.

Symmetry within the frame is perhaps the most obvious element of the Anderson film style and one easy to replicate in the TikToks. With an obsessive devotion to staging scenes in symmetry, Anderson breaks the “rule of thirds” for visual composition. In contrast, he pins his actors dead centre as shown in this video essay by Kogonada.

Working with his regular cinematographer Robert Yeoman, Anderson uses planar compositions to create graphic cinema which shares an affinity with illustration and painting.

His “planar” approach to staging means the camera remains perpendicular to the subject, which the rapid whip-pan camera movements maintain within a shot. Anderson stages his actors across the frame – like garments on a clothesline – and in depth. You can see this in the image from Asteroid City above.

This staging style is a departure from the mainstream visual style of film and television today which situates the camera at oblique angles to the actors, enhancing the layers of foreground, midground and background – closer to the way we see and experience the world.

In contrast, Anderson’s approach calls out the artificiality of cinema. He recalls historical film styles from early cinema theatricality to the pop-art cinema of the late 1960s, for example in the films of the late Jean-Luc Godard.

Colour is another aspect of Wes Anderson’s visual style, which spills across the TikToks. Like a handful of directors today, he still shoots on film (16mm and 35mm) but now uses digital tools to grade the colour of the images. The Euro-pastels from The Grand Budapest Hotel resurface in American shades for Asteroid City.

Read more:
Jean-Luc Godard has died. He redefined what film is, and leaves a staggering legacy

Where to next?

As a system in and of itself, the film style of Anderson is ripe for TikTok due to its boldness, clarity and repetition of techniques.

Film style operates at the level of the shot. We might recall signature shots such as Hitchcock’s “vertigo effect” (where the camera lens zooms into a subject as the camera moves away), Scorsese’s tracking shots, Nolan’s close-up shots of hands or Tarantino’s point-of-view shots from inside a car boot.

But these are isolated shots rather than Anderson’s obsessive, systematic repetition of stylistic choices within each film and across his oeuvre. On TikTok some shots are easier to craft that others, as @astonmartinf1 details in his analysis of the Wes Anderson Trend, noting the omission of camera movement in many of the videos which is a defining aspect of his film style proper.

In filmmaking, moving the camera is often expensive, separating the amateur from the professional. Anderson’s tracking shots are only feasible within an industrial filmmaking process. While the TikToks may be highly creative, they are made with slim resources a world away from the film budgets of Anderson, who enjoys Medici-like support from US billionaire Steven Rales.

Saying this, there are other aspects of the Wes Anderson style the TikToks could hijack on a budget, such as playfulness with the image aspect ratio and slow-motion photography. Aspect ratio is the relationship between the width and height of an image. TikTok is 9:16, an inverted ratio to our widescreen TVs.

As part of his film style, Anderson uses the Classical Hollywood ratio of 4:3 seen in The French Dispatch. Both ratios are designed for people (all those selfies) over landscapes, so creative opportunities here for TikTokers.

Anderson is also a fan of slow-motion to accentuate key dramatic moments in his films. Today’s smartphones shoot “slo-mo” well, and using TikTok and other basic editing apps the user can apply speed effects to their footage.

And as generative AI representations of film style wash across social media there’s a new set of questions altogether. Here’s Harry Potter as directed by Wes Anderson created by @panoramachannel with AI software Midjourney. But that’s another conversation.

Alex Munt 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. Wes Anderson has an obsessive, systematic repetition of stylistic choices. He’s perfect for this TikTok meme – https://theconversation.com/wes-anderson-has-an-obsessive-systematic-repetition-of-stylistic-choices-hes-perfect-for-this-tiktok-meme-204803

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Becky Freeman, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, University of Sydney

We’ve just revealed the extent of the close relationship between tobacco lobbyists and government, in the first Australian study of its kind.

Our study, published today, found about half of people involved in tobacco lobbying held positions in Australian governments before or after working for the tobacco industry.

This “revolving door” between tobacco lobbyists and government is a key political lobbying mechanism to influence public health policy.

So we urgently need to strengthen the rules and legislation around lobbying if we are to avoid industry influencing policies on issues such as tobacco control and vaping.

Read more:
The revolving door: why politicians become lobbyists, and lobbyists become politicians

What we did and what we found

We gathered information from sources including federal, state and territory government lobbyist registers, social networking platform LinkedIn, and Australian news media.

We identified 56 lobbyists representing tobacco companies (via lobbyist registers and archives) and another 73 current and former in-house tobacco lobbyists (via other means).

We found 48% of in-house tobacco company lobbyists and 55% of lobbyists acting on behalf of tobacco companies held positions in Australian state or federal governments before or after working for the tobacco industry.

Senior government roles included members of parliament, senators, chief or deputy chiefs of staff, and senior ministerial advisors.

Around half of the lobbyists had moved into or out of their government roles within a year of working for a tobacco company (56%) or as a lobbyist for one (48%).

We also documented how tobacco companies use third-party allies to indirectly lobby government – a form of lobbying that is poorly recorded on lobbyist registers and is not easily tracked.

For example, the Australian Retail Vaping Industry Association was created with funding from global tobacco company Philip Morris International and lobbied to weaken Australian vaping regulations.

Read more:
Politicians who become lobbyists can be bad for Australians’ health

Why is this a worry?

We’ve long suspected there has been a “revolving door” between government and the tobacco industry – whereby tobacco companies recruit people who have previously held senior government roles to lobby for them.

It’s a tactic common in the gambling, alcohol and food industries.

The aim is to learn about upcoming policies affecting their industries, and develop relationships with people of influence, with a view to shaping policy that favours their interests.

Our study, published today in the Sax Institute’s peer-reviewed journal Public Health Research and Practice, systematically catalogues for the first time how widespread this practice is.

Read more:
How to deal with fossil fuel lobbying and its growing influence in Australian politics

Out of sight

The movement of key people between government and tobacco industry roles without adequate transparency provides potential opportunities to influence policymaking out of sight.

This can lead to delayed, weakened, or suppressed implementation of tobacco control and anti-vaping reforms.

In Australia, tobacco industry interference tactics largely hinge on the industry’s new product pipeline – e-cigarettes (vaping products).

Examples of industry lobbying efforts to legalise the retail sale of nicotine vaping products recently include lobbying the federal government through submissions to legislative reviews, participating in inquiry hearings, making political donations, meeting privately with parliamentarians, funding third parties to lobby on their behalf, and sending unsolicited letters to ministers.

There is no suggestion any individual or organisation acted illegally, contravened employment guidelines or principles, or otherwise acted improperly – including in the performance of lobbying duties.

However, the “revolving door” is important for tobacco companies as it provides opportunities to influence policymaking out of public sight.

Examples from overseas suggest the prospect of a lucrative future career in the private sector can be enough to influence decisions that favour industry while still in office.

This can potentially undermine the quality and integrity of Australia’s democratic system.

Read more:
Lobbying regulations are vital to any well functioning democracy – it’s time NZ got some

What can we do about it?

1. Greater public disclosure

There needs to be more extensive public disclosure of all tobacco company employees and lobbyists – acting directly or via third-party allies. This information should be added to existing government registers, and also include detailed updates of activities and meetings

2. Enforce ‘cooling off’ periods

We need to extend and enforce “cooling off” periods – the minimum time required between switching from public to the private sector. These range from 12 to 18 months, depending on the role held in government. But our study showed these cooling off periods are not being enforced, and there are no serious sanctions.

3. Update and enforce the law

Transparency and integrity legislation must be updated and enforced. Adopting policies in line with international best practices, such as in Canada, to safeguard against the influence of tobacco companies in Australian policy making.

4. Recognise the ‘revolving door’

We need to recognise “revolving door” tactics as as part of the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The Australian government is a signator to this convention. It has committed to protecting public health from the vested interests of the tobacco industry by publishing guidance for public officials on interacting with the tobacco industry. However, lobbying through the “revolving door” is not explicitly recognised or outlined in this guidance.

We would like to acknowledge our co-authors on the study, Melissa Jones and Kylie Lindorff.

Becky Freeman is an Expert Advisor to the Cancer Council Tobacco Issues Committee and a member of the Cancer Institute Vaping Communications Advisory Panel. These are unpaid roles. She has received relevant competitive grants that include a focus on e-cigarettes/vaping from the NHMRC, MRFF, NSW Health, the Ian Potter Foundation, VicHealth, and Healthway WA; relevant research contracts from the Cancer Institute NSW and the Cancer Council NSW; relevant personal/consulting fees from the World Health Organization, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Department of Health, BMJ Tobacco Control, the Heart Foundation NSW, the US FDA, the NHMRC e-cigarette working committee, NSW Health, and Cancer Council NSW; and relevant travel expenses from the Oceania Tobacco Control Conference and the Australia Public Health Association preventive health conference.

Christina Watts has received funding from the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, NSW Ministry of Health, Cancer Council NSW, Cancer Institute NSW and the Minderoo Foundation.

– ref. We worked out how many tobacco lobbyists end up in government, and vice versa. It’s a lot – https://theconversation.com/we-worked-out-how-many-tobacco-lobbyists-end-up-in-government-and-vice-versa-its-a-lot-205382

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amanda Tattersall, Research Lead Sydney Policy Lab, Postdoctoral Fellow Geography, Host of ChangeMakers Podcast, University of Sydney

While the federal government was announcing its flagship Net Zero Authority, in the Victorian city of Geelong hundreds of people – including community groups, unions, faith organisations and business representatives – were preparing an announcement of their own this week.

Over the past six months Geelong has hosted one of Australia’s largest ever local “listening campaigns” relating to the climate transition. It’s part of the University of Sydney’s Real Deal for Australia project. The aim is to give local communities a real say in the changes they’re facing.

A report on actions to be taken, based on community feedback, was launched on May 10.

So what can this policymaking experiment teach the Net Zero Authority about how to plan Australia’s climate transition?

One clear message is that housing and its role in this transition is an overwhelming concern. Housing quality and security, cost of living and climate change are all linked by the impacts of extreme weather, energy costs and emissions, and unequal access to solar power. Job security is similarly entwined with climate policy.

But if climate is presented as a separate issue disconnected from these other sources of stress in daily life, people withdraw and see action on climate as too much to bear.

Transition works best as a cooperative process

The idea of transition is not new to Geelong. The Pyramid Building Society collapse in 1990 and the closures of the Ford factory and Alcoa aluminium smelter in the 2010s brought about big changes. For many, those transitions were done “to” Geelong not “with” Geelong.

Climate change is bringing another transition. How can we ensure people are not left behind this time?

Community-led research is an approach that has gained currency in recent decades. The term covers a wide range of methods, all based on the principle that communities should be at the centre of any research or policy process that is about them. As an editorial in the journal Nature has said:

Knowledge generated in partnership with the public and policymakers is more likely to be useful to society.

Rather than treating people as the subjects of policy, this approach involves communities in designing policy. It asks everyday people to guide the research process. They shape the questions asked, the methods of engagement, the analysis of data and the creation of research and policy outcomes.

Read more:
‘We know our community better than they do’: why local knowledge is key to disaster recovery in Gippsland

How does the Real Deal approach work?

The Sydney Policy Lab began the Real Deal for Australia project in 2019, following a period of divisive, polarised climate politics in Australia.

It aims to test whether community-driven policy solutions can provide an alternative strategy amid the uncertainties of the climate crisis. Real Deal projects have also begun in Western Sydney and the Queensland port city of Gladstone.

In the Real Deal approach, “relationships must precede action”. In practice, this process has involved building a network of national climate groups, unions and community organisations. Together, they have produced a distinctive approach to community-led research, outlined in a 2020 Real Deal Report.

Between September 2022 and March 2023, the Real Deal for Geelong team conducted 38 “table talks”. These small-group conversations were held in church halls, community centres, union meeting rooms and even a local pub. Achieving this level of participation wasn’t easy.

It makes time for communities to set the agenda and shape solutions that respond to their needs. In a world focused on quick outcomes, some Geelong leaders were sceptical about a drawn-out listening process. Engagement was complicated by post-lockdown exhaustion and interrupted by the Victorian state election and school holidays.

Despite the challenges, the power of this research involving 238 residents lay in how it was done. Local community members, supported by a team of researchers, led the process. It was unlike traditional “consultation” where so-called experts present pre-packaged policy solutions.

So what are the findings from Geelong?

The listening process found the path to net zero requires more than just creating new industries and new jobs. In Geelong, the biggest issue was anxiety about housing – 92% of participants mentioned it.

Housing was closely connected to climate. Poor housing stock, especially rental homes, was unable to handle increasingly erratic weather. There were stories of flooded homes after extreme weather events. The issue of mould alone was raised in 20% of the table talks. A participant from a local community service said:

In our organisation we have reports of substandard rental properties that experience leaks during extreme weather events and sewage coming up through plumbing as stormwater systems fail in older areas.

Housing is linked to both cost of living and climate change. For instance, people in rental homes couldn’t access cheaper, low-emissions electricity through rooftop solar systems.

Participants talked about a two-tier system: the wealthy could protect themselves with better homes, retrofitting and solar; the less well-off could not (as Tuesday’s federal budget recognised).

Read more:
Budget’s energy bill relief and home retrofit funding is a good start, but dwarfed by the scale of the task

The listening process also unearthed the importance of good housing as a source of security in a time of uncertainty. As the climate changes, insecure, expensive, inaccessible, poor-quality housing adds to people’s fear and instability.

In addition to housing, jobs, cost of living and quality care services were seen as vital in the transition to net zero.

How policy is made matters

The findings offer a very useful lesson for the Net Zero Authority. When planning for climate transition was connected to the other daily pressures people face, participants felt more certain of their agency. They became more convinced transformative change was possible.

As Australia steps up its investment in the transition, Geelong’s experience shows it matters how policy is made. When communities have a role in shaping the course of change, climate action can reduce the stresses in their lives instead of adding to them.

Geelong has shown that local and regional community-led approaches can be a powerful way to produce more holistic, just and popular transition policies.

Amanda Tattersall receives funding from Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation.

– ref. To get to net zero, policymakers need to listen to communities. Here’s what they can learn from places like Geelong – https://theconversation.com/to-get-to-net-zero-policymakers-need-to-listen-to-communities-heres-what-they-can-learn-from-places-like-geelong-205122

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leanne Mitchell, Churchill Fellow and PhD candidate, Charles Sturt University

Homelessness in Australia is getting worse. It’s no longer just city centres where people are forced to sleep rough, live in their cars or rely on temporary shelter. The most recent census shows outer suburbs and regional areas are feeling housing pressures like never before.

More often than not, communities in these areas just don’t know what to do. Increasingly, residents are asking small, stretched local councils to go beyond their traditional responsibilities of rates, roads and rubbish and do more to tackle homelessness.

Yet local government lacks the mandate or the money to do so. Often, the only tool at local councils’ disposal is enforcement of local laws on behaviour in public places.

And when councils do get involved in the problem of homelessness, it’s often too late. They are reacting when homelessness has reached crisis point, instead of working to prevent it.

Now, with the federal government developing Australia’s first National Housing and Homelessness Plan, there is growing recognition that state and federal governments must give their local counterparts a seat at the table. My new report on what local government can do to end homelessness suggests councils — more than 500 of them across the country — could be the missing link in efforts to solve the homelessness crisis.

As the closest level of government to the people, councils have a unique perspective on homelessness that other levels of government are just too far away to see. Executed properly, this national plan could be the biggest opportunity we have ever seen to not only address homelessness, but also for local councils to help prevent the problem at its roots.

Read more:
Homeless numbers have jumped since COVID housing efforts ended – and the problem is spreading beyond the big cities

Housing everyone isn’t a simple task

The causes and manifestations of homelessness are complex. We know from experience that it can’t be “fixed” by the action of one group. Collaboration in key.

We also know Australia needs more social and affordable housing. As of June 2022, there were 174,624 households on waiting lists for public housing, 13,724 for Indigenous housing and 41,906 for community housing. And the waiting lists don’t include everyone who needs housing.

But houses can’t be built overnight. Even with the best efforts to increase the supply of social housing, we will likely remain in deficit for a long time. This is why we need local government involvement to prevent homelessness in the first place.

Yet too often we see reluctant councils explaining that homelessness is not their issue to solve. But, when we see it on local streets, in public parks and other shared spaces, this is a flimsy argument.

Read more:
‘Getting onto the wait list is a battle in itself’: insiders on what it takes to get social housing

We can learn from the successes overseas

Prevention is tricky. It takes many partners and many types of effort to implement, and it is difficult to measure. But, as my report shows, we can learn from the successful efforts of local governments overseas.

For example, in less than ten years, Newcastle City Council in the UK has prevented homelessness in more than 24,000 households. It has achieved this by working with local government workers and services to identify the triggers leading to homelessness and the opportunities to intervene before a person loses their home.

And in US cities, including San Francisco, Washington DC and Baltimore, social workers and people with past experience of homelessness, mental ill-health and drug and alcohol use are successfully working in public libraries to help people at risk access support and services.

Identifying potential homelessness before it turns into crisis is something that well-connected and informed Australian council workers can do too. Working deeply in communities, they often know their customers and can see early warning signs.

Concerted efforts are needed to educate local council workers so they know how to connect into specialist services that might help someone find housing, get emergency funds to cover bills, or access health services. These actions could stop homelessness before it happens.

Read more:
Councils’ help with affordable housing shows how local government can make a difference

But, first, councils need to be part of the plan

The federal government seems to have taken on board recommendations from the 2021 parliamentary inquiry into homelessness in Australia and identified local government as an untapped resource and partner.

A national plan that recognises and defines the unique contribution that local councils can make to preventing homelessness, and puts some money behind it, could be a game-changer.

Local government does not have to be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, or the cleaning crew.

If councils are truly recognised, ready and resourced to take on this role in preventing homelessness, it might also reduce the amount of social, temporary and emergency housing needed further along the line. It might even bring about an end to homelessness in Australia.

Leanne Mitchell receives funding from the Winston Churchill Trust (Australia)

– ref. Why local councils are the missing link in Australia’s efforts to end homelessness – https://theconversation.com/why-local-councils-are-the-missing-link-in-australias-efforts-to-end-homelessness-205216

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Conley Tyler, Honorary Fellow, Asia Institute, The University of Melbourne

Two weeks ago something extraordinary happened: defence recommended more funding for diplomacy.

The Defence Strategic Review – the key planning document for defence policy – recommended more funding for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

It said that national defence requires “the reversal of a long-term reduction in diplomatic resources, increasing our diplomatic efforts in areas of core national interest. Our diplomatic capability must be resourced, directed and focused”.

This is part of an increasing understanding in policy circles that defence needs diplomacy and development. This forms part of an approach known as using “all tools of statecraft” or “all elements of national power” – the various instruments and levers through which Australia can exercise influence internationally to its advantage.

In Tuesdays’s federal budget, some steps were taken towards this with an increase to DFAT funding of $457 million.

After years of decrying the lack of investment in Australia’s diplomacy and development, it’s a positive to see some improvement.

What will the funding be used for?

The increase in funding will be used for measures like “maintaining support for an effective foreign service” (code for keeping the department running) and increased diplomatic engagement with Southeast Asia. There’s also a special measure for “enhanced strategic capability” in line with DFAT’s Capability Review.

The Capability Review was motivated by a sense that DFAT’s instruments of foreign policy had been “underfunded and, at times, marginalised” by successive governments over decades, according to one of the experts leading the review, Allan Gyngell, who sadly passed away last week.

While leading the Lowy Institute, he worked with colleagues to chart Australia’s diplomatic deficit and disrepair. One of his legacies is a focus on the importance of diplomacy and development as key parts of Australia’s engagement with the world through helping establish the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy and Defence Dialogue (AP4D). Another is the DFAT Capability Review.

Reports suggest the review includes recommendations to improve DFAT’s skills, expertise and tradecraft – including specialist knowledge of emerging areas and the ability to anticipate and prepare for future risks. The aim is to “build the high-performing and influential foreign service that Australia needs for the future”, that can “make Australia’s case and seek to avert shocks or conflict”.

The review seems to have led directly to the budget investment in lifting DFAT’s strategic communications capability and improving communications networks. I like to think Allan would be pleased to see growing recognition turning into some improved investment.

Read more:
Penny Wong said this week national power comes from ‘our people’. Are we ignoring this most vital resource?

The budget has also made a specific investment in development capability – the ability to plan, manage and evaluate international development programs. Concerns remain that the amalgamation of Australia’s independent aid agency AusAID with DFAT in 2013 led to a significant loss of experience. Consultations by the Development Intelligence Lab think tank identified development capability as a major hindrance to Australia’s development program.

This capability gap will be addressed by funding of $36.8m over four years for an “Australian Development Program Fit for Our Times” to strengthen areas such as program design, implementation, evaluation and accountability. It will be used to invest in people, skills and expertise to ensure Australia’s development program can meet the needs of priorities of partner countries. This was apparently a key point from consultations for Australia’s new international development policy. Further details will be available when the policy is released shortly.

This balances the news that overseas development assistance – after a boost in the October budget – only got a small increase in this budget. With a bigger economy, that means Australia’s aid will be at a historic low as a percentage of national income. Australia has now slid to near the bottom of the rankings of developed countries.

This suggests development should be next in line for some love. Australian Council for International Development chief executive Marc Purcell has called for “the government to demonstrate they will rebalance resources in development and diplomacy, in order to create the prosperous and stable region that they speak of wanting to see”.

Read more:
Steadying foreign aid budget signals the government takes development seriously

If the budget were $100, Australia would be spending $7 on defence, 7 cents on development, and a copper coin on diplomacy. So a focus on increasing diplomatic and development capability is welcome.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong said “the Albanese government’s approach in the budget will make Australia more influential in the world, by investing in all elements of our statecraft including diplomatic power, trade and development”.

The hope is that this budget is a step towards putting reality to the rhetoric of respecting and resourcing the different tools of statecraft.

Melissa Conley Tyler is Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue (AP4D), a platform for collaboration between the development, diplomacy and defence communities. It receives funding from the Australian Civil-Military Centre and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and is hosted by the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID).

– ref. After years of decline, the budget gives more money for diplomacy and development capability. What does this mean in practice? – https://theconversation.com/after-years-of-decline-the-budget-gives-more-money-for-diplomacy-and-development-capability-what-does-this-mean-in-practice-205224

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shannon Sandford, Lecturer, Griffith University

Phoebe Rook (Aisha Dee) is a 20-something starting work as communications specialist for the Family Violence Legal Service, a state-wide community centre providing free legal assistance for people escaping domestic and family violence in Victoria.

Tasked with raising the centre’s profile amid rumours of funding cuts, Phoebe is quickly confronted with her own assumptions of the policies and services used to protect victim-survivors.

While shadowing prickly lawyer Jenny (Mabel Li) at the magistrate’s court on her first day, Phoebe reads through a list of intervention orders.

“These people should be in jail!” she exclaims.

“Because jail has always worked so well at stopping violent behaviour,” Jenny drily responds.

The centre’s work in advocating on behalf of vulnerable people caught in cycles of abuse is urgent and vital. But as Phoebe settles into this new role, she is haunted by her complex past.

As Phoebe’s complicated relationships threaten to challenge her ethics, a series of gripping events attest to the ways violence is insidious and ingrained in systemic structures of power.

Safe Home, a new television series from SBS, is compelling, at times devastating, but always powerful in its commitment to articulating difficult truths around domestic and family violence with nuance, integrity and care.

Domestic and family violence in Australia

Safe Home offers an important critique of the assumptions and expectations that influence public understanding of domestic and family violence.

These abuses persist on endemic levels in Australia. On average, a woman is killed by an intimate partner every ten days. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates one in three women have experienced physical violence since they turned 15. These rates are even higher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and women from marginalised groups.

While the Australian government has recently launched a National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children, experts have emphasised the significant, long term funding needed to meet its goal to end violence against women “in one generation”.

Read more:
A new national plan aims to end violence against women and children ‘in one generation’. Can it succeed?

Telling stories of crisis

Safe Home makes a timely contribution to a growing body of television that addresses socio-political crises through unflinchingly honest storytelling.

The BBC’s adaptation of NHS doctor Adam Kay’s bestselling memoir This is Going to Hurt engages with the experiences of junior doctors who endure high levels of fatigue and mental health related issues amid a lack of resources and compensation for the difficult and necessary work they do.

Based on Stephanie Land’s memoir, Netflix’s limited series Maid centres on a young mother fleeing an abusive relationship who takes up work cleaning houses and critiques the class and economic structures that enforce social exclusion and poverty.

Safe Home was inspired by creator Anna Barnes’ experience working at community legal centres in Melbourne. The show depicts domestic and family violence with sensitivity and awareness. It is particularly authentic in its portrayal of victim-survivors who must navigate an exceedingly complex and overloaded system.

As Jenny explains to Phoebe, looming federal funding cuts threaten to eliminate a fifth of the Family Violence Legal Service’s budget – the equivalent of four lawyers. This would force the centre to decline walk-ins and limit their ability to manage the volume of cases they receive.

Against the backdrop of these precarious conditions, Safe Home deftly weaves stories of victim-survivors to highlight the blind spots, inequities and failures of the sector in providing adequate and urgent intervention.

Diana (Janet Andrewartha) struggles to leave her controlling husband Jon (Mark Mitchinson), a retired teacher well-regarded in their small town.

Ry (Tegan Stimson) falls into an unstable intimate relationship after escaping her mother’s verbal and physical abuse at home.

In perhaps the most heartbreaking story, Cherry (Katlyn Wong) risks losing her children after reporting her husband’s life-threatening violence to authorities because of a language barrier.

Read more:
New data shows 1 in 3 women have experienced physical violence and sexual violence remains stubbornly persistent

The personal becomes political

In these stories, the cultural, linguistic and economic diversity of victim-survivors who seek help is powerfully depicted.

We encounter the spectre of strategies used against victim-survivors: physical abuse, economic abuse, verbal threats and put-downs, control and coercion, love bombing and revenge porn.

We are confronted with perpetrators who evade common stereotypes to appear, on the surface, likeable, friendly, charming and sympathetic.

The situations faced by victim-survivors intersect with – and are exacerbated by – current crises surrounding housing, homelessness and the cost of living. These circumstances can force them to return or remain in dangerous situations.

Contrary to the show’s title, home is not safe for people experiencing domestic and family violence. But for many, it is preferable to being homeless, to losing access to their children, to becoming susceptible to other kinds of violence.

Telling stories is critical to humanise, to engender empathy, to bring awareness to issues often shrouded in silence. As Phoebe puts it, “We tell stories to change minds, to change legislation, and most importantly, to change behaviour”.

In Safe Home, the personal becomes political. The stories behind the case numbers sit in dialogue with the current crisis of domestic and family violence.

These are stories victim-survivors and those who advocate on their behalf know well, but the Australian public still struggles to understand.

Safe Home is on SBS and SBS On Demand from today.

If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732. In immediate danger, call 000.

Shannon Sandford 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. At times devastating, always powerful: new SBS drama Safe Home looks at domestic violence with nuance, integrity and care – https://theconversation.com/at-times-devastating-always-powerful-new-sbs-drama-safe-home-looks-at-domestic-violence-with-nuance-integrity-and-care-204910

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nathalie Wierdak, Teaching Fellow, University of Otago

Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, academics have expressed concern over the impact the artificial intelligence service could have on student work.

But educational institutions trying to safeguard academic integrity could be looking in the wrong direction. Yes, ChatGPT raises questions about how to assess students’ learning. However, it should be less of a concern than the persistent and pervasive use of ghostwriting services.

Essentially, academic ghostwriting is when a student submits a piece of work as their own which is, in fact, written by someone else. Often dubbed “contract cheating,” the outsourcing of assessment to ghostwriters undermines student learning.

Universities and other institutions have employed plagiarism-detection tools, such as Turnitin, in an effort to combat the more obvious forms of academic misconduct.

But contract cheating is increasingly commonplace as time-poor students juggle jobs to meet the soaring costs of education. And the internet creates the perfect breeding ground for willing ghostwriting entrepreneurs.

In New Zealand, 70-80% of tertiary students engage in some form of cheating. While most of this academic misconduct was collusion with peers or plagiarism, the emergence of artificial intelligence has been described as a battle academia will inevitably lose.

It is time a new approach is taken by universities.

Allowing the use of ChatGPT by students could help reduce the use of contract cheating by doing the heavy lifting of academic work while still giving students the opportunity to learn.

The risky business of ghostwriting

Universities have been cracking down on ghost writing to ensure quality education, to protect their students from blackmail and to even prevent international espionage.

Contract cheating websites store personal data making students unwittingly vulnerable to extortion to avoid exposure and potential expulsion from their institution, or the loss of their qualification.

Leer más:
ChatGPT is the push higher education needs to rethink assessment

Some researchers are warning there is an even greater risk – that private student data will fall into the hands of foreign state actors.

Preventing student engagement with contract cheating sites, or at least detecting students who use them, avoids the likelihood of graduates in critical job roles being targeted for nationally sensitive data.

ChatGPT as friend not foe

It is inevitable ChatGPT will increasingly become part of how students complete their assigned work. While changing the way assignments are completed – and assessed – there are a number of reasons why ChatGPT could also be harnessed as an educational tool.

ChatGPT still requires a certain level of engagement from students. They have to guide the AI through various stages of the research and writing process. By meticulously defining their research question, crafting precise prompts, critically assessing generated content and integrating it with their original thoughts, students retain control over their intellectual journey.

Leer más:
ChatGPT: Student insights are necessary to help universities plan for the future

Given the underworld associated with ghostwriting, artificial intelligence has the potential to bust the contract cheating economy. This would keep students safer by providing them with free, instant and accessible resources.

Using natural language processing and machine learning algorithms, ChatGPT fosters originality by offering students instant, personalised feedback. By stimulating creativity, broadening vocabulary and enhancing structural coherence, ChatGPT could cultivate an environment where students can flourish and develop their distinct style.

Finally, those who argue that artificial intelligence technologies like ChatGPT may contribute to the erosion of academic integrity overlook the game-changing potential of this sort of technology to refine citation practices. ChatGPT can provide students with style guides and citation generators. These tools can enable students to appropriately credit sources and circumvent plagiarism.

By inputting the relevant context, ChatGPT can assess the author backgrounds, considering cultural, political and ethical biases that may influence their views. In turn, ChatGPT can recommend alternative readings that offer a well-rounded array of viewpoints.

Levelling the playing field

Arguably, the most significant advantage of artificial intelligence tools lie in their potential to level the playing field for students.

Students from diverse backgrounds face several challenges, including navigating uncharted academic terrain, adapting to unfamiliar environments, and grappling with the pressures of independence. These obstacles are amplified for marginalised students and those attending underprivileged schools.

Leer más:
ChatGPT killed the student essay? Philosophers call bullshit

Academic integrity fundamentally hinges on promoting fairness in the educational process. However, ensuring equal access to resources and support for all students is a daunting task, particularly when confronted with large classes or students with varying academic preparedness.

ChatGPT can serve as a valuable tool in advancing academic integrity by granting all students access to the same resource for honing their writing skills and obtaining feedback on their work, irrespective of their backgrounds or academic prowess.

There needs to be more research on the learning opportunities offered by artificial intelligence programmes like ChatGPT. But it is here, and for a variety of reasons students are using it. Rather than banning ChatGPT and programmes like it, we should be using these tools to help students. In doing so, we would reduce the need for students to seek out other – potentially harmful – ways of completing their assessments.

Las personas firmantes no son asalariadas, ni consultoras, ni poseen acciones, ni reciben financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y han declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado anteriormente.

– ref. ChatGPT could have an upside for universities – helping bust ‘contract cheating’ by ghostwriters – https://theconversation.com/chatgpt-could-have-an-upside-for-universities-helping-bust-contract-cheating-by-ghostwriters-205004

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marc Cheong, Senior Lecturer of Information Systems, School of Computing and Information Systems; and (Honorary) Senior Fellow, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne

Whether it’s Facebook’s News Feed or TikTok’s For You page, social media algorithms are constantly making behind-the-scenes decisions to boost certain content – giving rise to the “curated” feeds we’ve all become accustomed to.

But does anyone actually know how these algorithms work? And, more importantly, is there a way to “game” them to see more of the content you want?

Optimising for engagement

In broader computing terms, an algorithm is simply a set of rules that specifies a particular computational procedure.

In a social media context, algorithms (specifically “recommender algorithms”) determine everything from what you’re likely to read, to whom you’re likely to follow, to whether a specific post appears in front of you.

Their main goal is to sustain your attention for as long as possible, in a process called “optimising for engagement”. The more you engage with content on a platform, the more effectively that platform can commodify your attention and target you with ads: its main revenue source.

One of the earliest social media feed algorithms came from Facebook in the mid-2000s. It can be summarised in one sentence:

Sort all of the user’s friend updates – including photos, statuses and more – in reverse chronological order (newer posts first).

Since then, algorithms have become much more powerful and nuanced. They now take myriad factors into consideration to determine how content is promoted. For instance, Twitter’s “For You” recommendation algorithm is based on a neural network that uses about 48 million parameters!

A black box

Imagine a hypothetical user named Basil who follows users and pages that primarily discuss space, dog memes and cooking. Social media algorithms might give Basil recommendations for T-shirts featuring puppies dressed as astronauts.

Although this might seem simple, algorithms are typically “black boxes” that have their inner workings hidden. It’s in the interests of tech companies to keep the recipe for their “secret sauce”, well, a secret.

Trying to “game” an algorithm is like trying to solve a 3D box puzzle without any instructions and without being able to peer inside. You can only use trial-and-error – manipulating the pieces you see on the outside, and gauging the effects on the overall state of the box.

Even when an algorithm’s code is revealed to the public – such as when Twitter released the source code for its recommender algorithm in March – it’s not enough to bend them to one’s will.

Between the sheer complexity of the code, constant tweaks by developers, and the presence of arbitrary design choices (such as explicitly tracking Elon Musk’s tweets), any claims of being able to perfectly “game” an algorithm should be taken with a pinch of salt.

TikTok’s algorithm, in particular, is notoriously powerful yet opaque. A Wall Street Journal investigation found it uses “subtle cues, such as how long you linger on a video” to predict what you’re likely to engage with.

So what can you do?

That said, there are some ways you can try to curate your social media to serve you better.

Since algorithms are powered by your data and social media habits, a good first step is to change these habits and data – or at least understand how they may be shaping your online experience.

1. Engage with content you trust and want more of

Regardless of the kind of feed you want to create, it’s important to follow reliable sources. Basil, who is fascinated by space, knows they would do well to follow NASA and steer clear of users who believe the Moon is made of cheese.

Think critically about the accounts and pages you follow, asking questions such as Who is the author of this content? Do they have authority in this topic? Might they have a bias, or an agenda?

The higher the quality of the content you engage with, the more likely it is that you’ll be recommended similarly valuable content (rather than fake news or nonsense).

Also, you can play to the ethos of “optimising for engagement” by engaging more (and for longer) with the kind of content you want to be recommended. That means liking and sharing it, and actively seeking out similar posts.

2. Be stingy with your information

Secondly, you can be parsimonious in providing your data to platforms. Social media companies know more about you than you think – from your location, to your perceived interests, to your activities outside the app, and even the activities and interests of your social circle!

If you limit the information you provide about yourself, you limit the extent to which the algorithm can target you. It helps to keep your different social media accounts unlinked, and to avoid using the “Login with Facebook” or “Login with Google” options when signing up for a new account.

3. Use your settings

Adjusting your privacy and personalisation settings will further help you avoid being microtargeted through your feed.

The “Off-Facebook Activity” setting allows you to break the link between your Facebook account and your activities outside of Facebook. Similar options exist for TikTok and Twitter.

Ad blockers and privacy-enhancing browser add-ons can also help. These tools, such as the open-source uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger, help prevent cookies and marketing pixels from “following” your browsing habits as you move between social media and other websites.

Read more:
Is your phone really listening to your conversations? Well, turns out it doesn’t have to

4. Get (dis)engaged

A final piece of advice is to simply disengage with content you don’t want in your feed. This means:

• ignoring any posts you aren’t a fan of, or “hiding” them if possible
• taking mindful breaks to avoid “doomscrolling”
• regularly revising who you follow, and making sure this list coincides with what you want from your feed.

So, hypothetically, could Basil unfollow all users and pages unrelated to space, dog memes and cooking to ultimately starve the recommender algorithm of potential ways to distract them?

Well, not exactly. Even if they do this, the algorithm won’t necessarily “forget” all their data: it might still exist in caches or backups. Because of how complex and pervasive algorithms are, you can’t guarantee control over them.

Nonetheless, you shouldn’t let tech giants’ bottom line dictate how you engage with social media. By being aware of how algorithms work, what they’re capable of and what their purpose is, you can make the shift from being a sitting duck for advertisers to an active curator of your own feeds.

The Conversation is commissioning articles by academics across the world who are researching how society is being shaped by our digital interactions with each other. Read more here

Marc Cheong is a member of the Twitter Moderation Research Consortium, made up of a “global group of experts studying platform governance issues”. He is also part of CrowdTangle’s Academics & Researchers program (Meta owns CrowdTangle).

– ref. Feed me: 4 ways to take control of social media algorithms and get the content you actually want – https://theconversation.com/feed-me-4-ways-to-take-control-of-social-media-algorithms-and-get-the-content-you-actually-want-204374

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Jucker, Lecturer in Atmospheric Dynamics, UNSW Sydney

The 2019-2020 bushfire season was devastating. Vast areas of pristine forest burned, many for the first time in memory. By some estimates, a billion native animals died up and down Australia’s east coast. Dozens of people died.

While Sydney’s skies are blue again, Australia’s Black Summer has kept scientists around the globe busy. The sheer size of these megafires produced startling effects. Recently, researchers found the huge volumes of smoke ate away at our protective ozone layer.

Now, new research by American scientists suggests the Black Summer fires were massive enough to influence the El Niño Southern Oscillation cycle. It’s one of the most important drivers of unusual weather over the entire globe – and one which Australians know intimately.

The three successive years of La Niña we just had? They could have been made more likely by the Black Summer fires. The reason, strangely enough, is the smoke.

But it’s important not to say the link is proven. While groundbreaking, this research relies on a single model. It’s too early to clearly say bushfire smoke can trigger La Niña.

Where there’s fire, there’s smoke

We’ve long known that the huge volume of ash blown high into the upper atmosphere by a big volcanic eruption can cool Earth’s surface for many months, or even years.

We also know volcanoes can influence the tropical Pacific, and thus affect whether an El Niño or a La Niña phase develops.

How? By blocking light. Particles of ash reduce how much light gets to the surface.

Volcanic ash gets blown high into the stratosphere, the part of the atmosphere just above the clouds where long-haul airplanes fly. Then, sunlight gets reflected before it reaches the ground, thus cooling the surface much like an umbrella can.

Is bushfire smoke the same as volcanic ash?

It’s tempting to equate smoke with ash, and assume a large enough bushfire would have similar effects to a volcano.

But there are important differences. Most obviously, a bushfire does not smell of rotten eggs.

That might sound unimportant, but the rotten egg smell – which comes from sulfur – indicates major differences in the composition of volcanic ash and bushfire smoke.

Different chemicals could mean very different responses to sunlight once in the atmosphere, which in turn could affect how much light is reflected.

Second, bushfires don’t explode.

A decent volcano erupts with enough force to blast smoke high into the stratosphere. Bushfires don’t have the same propulsive force.

Bushfire smoke is hot, though, and hot smoke rises well. Some of the smoke from the Black Summer fires reached the stratosphere, although after a much longer interval than for volcanic eruptions.

So, does a large bushfire have the same effect on climate as a volcano?

The American researchers begin by checking the similarities using climate model simulations. They found bushfire smoke does indeed shade the surface from sunlight in these simulations.

Read more:
Australia’s Black Summer of fire was not normal – and we can prove it

How much? Over a region of the south-eastern Pacific, about 150 terawatts of sunlight bounced back to space – the equivalent of about 100,000 coal power plants.

Clouds matter

The surprising finding is how it happens. In contrast to eruptions, bushfire smoke didn’t reflect the sunlight directly. Instead, clouds were responsible.

How does that work? This is where the magic of the climate system kicks in. Our atmosphere, oceans and lands are constantly interacting with each other.

In their simulations, Black Summer smoke was first blown eastward by strong winds in the atmosphere. Under specific conditions, some smoke particles can interact with droplets in clouds and make clouds thicker and brighter. One region where this can happen is the subtropical south-eastern Pacific.

The researchers were able to show the brightness of the clouds over this area increased considerably just around the time when the smoke particles arrived.

These brighter, whiter clouds reflected more sunlight back into space and shaded the surface underneath. The net effect: cooler seawater.

The effect was particularly important because of the timing. Smoke-whitened clouds emerged around our summer solstice in late December, which is the same time of year when the strength of the incoming sunlight peaks in the southern hemisphere.

How is this linked to La Niña?

Follow the chain: huge volumes of smoke blow east where they whiten clouds, cool the seawater, and cause less water to evaporate.

Surface winds carried this cooler, drier air over the tropical Pacific, where it cooled the ocean surface again, and made it harder for tropical storms to form.

A cooler sea surface in the tropical Pacific is a hallmark of La Niña, the cold phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation cycle.

That’s how this research was able to trace a link between Black Summer smoke and the rare back-to-back La Niña events in 2019-20 and 2020-21. As you know, we ended up having an even rarer triple La Niña in 2021-22, though the research period ends before this.

Is the link now proven? Not quite

This study offers a consistent physical explanation for how bushfires might influence the El Niño cycle.

It’s yet another example of how complex climate science can be, and how much we can still be surprised and challenged by what mother nature presents us.

But there are a few caveats to keep in mind.

For one, the ENSO cycle in the simulation was heading for a double La Niña even without the impact of the smoke. The simulation stops in the winter of 2021, which is before the real-world ENSO tipped into a third La Niña.

What does that mean? In short, we can’t know for sure if the effect of the bushfire smoke really did cause the triple La Niña.

Another caveat is the fact the study relied on a single climate model, and relies heavily on the representation of clouds in that model.

That’s a potential problem, because we know clouds – and especially their interactions with aerosols like smoke – are still the largest source of uncertainties and model errors.

To prove or disprove the link, we’ll have to simulate the impact of ballooning Black Summer smoke plumes across many different models.

Read more:
Smoke from the Black Summer fires created an algal bloom bigger than Australia in the Southern Ocean

Martin Jucker 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. Smoke from the Black Summer fires could have made the triple La Niña more likely – https://theconversation.com/smoke-from-the-black-summer-fires-could-have-made-the-triple-la-nina-more-likely-205292

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joelle Gergis, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science, Australian National University

One of the key findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Synthesis Report is that there are solutions available right now, across all sectors of the economy, that could at least halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

“The problem is getting worse,” explains Greg Nemet, a Canadian renewable policy expert and IPCC author. “But we’ve got solutions now that are so much more affordable than they were.”

After studying advances in solar technology, which has seen rapid expansion and price reductions, he’s optimistic about our capacity to avert the worst possible climate outcomes.

In this week’s episode of our climate podcast Fear and Wonder, we speak to Greg about the pace of change in the solar industry and whether it can be replicated for other technologies.

Read more:
Introducing Fear and Wonder: The Conversation’s new climate podcast

We also hear from fellow IPCC author and Algerian energy policy expert Yamina Saheb, about the emission reductions that are possible by adopting age-old sustainability concepts. She explains the idea of “sufficiency”, which aims to reduce the overall demand for energy, materials, land and water, while still delivering human wellbeing for all.

Finally, we ask Greg and Yamina about carbon dioxide removal, one of the most controversial technologies assessed by the IPCC. Is it the silver bullet solution we’ve all been waiting for, or should we be supporting the policy and technology options that are here with us now?

To listen and subscribe, click here, or click the icon for your favourite podcast app in the graphic above.

Fear and Wonder is sponsored by the Climate Council, an independent, evidence-based organisation working on climate science, impacts and solutions.

Dr Joelle Gergis has received funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources in the past. She currently receives funding from the Australian National University.

Michael Green 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. Fear and Wonder podcast: the solutions needed to address climate change already exist – https://theconversation.com/fear-and-wonder-podcast-the-solutions-needed-to-address-climate-change-already-exist-205114

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracy Woodroffe, Lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges, Charles Darwin University

A key part of the 2023 budget was a pledge to “achieve a better future” for Indigenous Australians through measures that would make a “practical difference”.

This included a particular focus on the Northern Territory, with a A$250 million commitment for Central Australia. Of this, more than $40 million was set aside to improve school attendance in these local communities.

While the emphasis on Indigenous students is welcome, it is important to acknowledge there has been no quick fix for Indigenous education to date, and the focus would be better placed on the education system as a whole.

“Indigenous deficit” – where Indigenous issues are framed as a “problem” that needs fixing – is a thriving industry. Here we see a lot of government money spent, but not enough long-term change or improvement for Indigenous Australians.

The budget papers

The budget papers included a glossy Empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people booklet. This eight-page document emphasises key principles, such as the need to work in partnership with the local community, the need for system-wide change of government organisations and an elevated First Nations voice in decision-making.

But actions speak louder than words. While local community partnership and an elevated voice may be achievable with substantial effort, system-wide change of any government organisation is very unlikely without a paradigm shift within the organisation.

The booklet also includes a section on Central Australia, which has been a national focus in recent months, with the reporting of a youth crime wave.

Read more:
Beneath the Alice Springs ‘crime wave’ are complex issues – and a lot of politics

This has indubitably prompted the government’s budget announcement of $40.4 million for On-Country Learning “to improve school attendance, engagement and learning outcomes” for students in Central Australian schools.

On-Country Learning is an approach to teaching that incorporates Indigenous knowledges, confirms ties to Country and Indigenous sovereignty, and implies more of a remote focus.

Culturally appropriate education

In a separate measure – included under “economic empowerment” – there is $38.4 million to support “culturally appropriate” education for First Nations children, “with a focus on remote areas”.

The idea that Indigenous students in remote areas struggle compared to their urban counterparts has been an ongoing issue – as reported annually in NAPLAN results. The more remote the students are, the greater difficulty there is with meeting the minimum literacy and numeracy standards of our westernised education system.

Often these debates fail to take into consideration how assessments can be culturally biased and how students in remote areas may not speak English as their first language.

Teachers need to be better educated

Both of the funding measures announced require teachers, the majority of who are non-Indigenous, to be educated about Indigenous Australia. Expert teachers who are confident and capable are needed to teach Indigenous content and in Indigenous contexts such as On-Country.

Unfortunately, many teachers feel under-confident and under-prepared. It could be argued perhaps Indigenous voices in education have not been heard or listened to. Indigenous academics have been striving for many years to change this.

Read more:
Is policy on Indigenous education deliberately being stalled?

The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership has also recently produced cultural competency resources for teachers.

Teachers need more training and support and there needs to be accountability within the education system. In other words, there must be ways of ensuring teachers achieve these skills, as required in the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

Urban vs remote

We also need to consider how Alice Springs, where the crime wave was reported, is categorised as “urban”.

So, where is the specific funding to support Indigenous education in urban settings? Much of the funding and research focuses on remote Indigenous issues and assumes Indigenous people living in cities are catered for by so-called mainstream systems in place for non-Indigenous people.

If events in Alice Springs are anything to go by, obviously this is not the case. More funding and research should be used to investigate and understand the Indigenous urban experience and improve Indigenous educational outcomes across all regions.

Read more:
First Nations students are engaged in primary school but face racism and limited opportunities to learn Indigenous languages

We need more Indigenous teachers

Another issue to consider is the lack of Indigenous teachers. These teachers already have Indigenous cultural understandings and perspectives required. The federal government-funded More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Teacher Initiative attempted to increase Indigenous teacher numbers but funding stopped in 2016.

About 3.2% of the Australian population identify as Indigenous, while roughly 2% of the teaching workforce identify as Indigenous.

The significance of these statistics changes for Northern Territory contexts where approximately 32% of the population identify as Indigenous. It is understood the proportion of Indigenous teachers in the NT is slightly higher than the rest of the country, but there are no publicly available official figures.

The NT Department of Education has a Remote Aboriginal Teacher Education program to increase teacher numbers in remote schools. There should also be focus on increasing Indigenous teacher numbers in urban areas.

More funds do not guarantee change

It is wonderful the federal government understands change is needed in Indigenous education and this can only be done with strategy and funding.

But success is not the provision of more funds.

This will depend on the the way this is used to make effective change. And this will not happen without deeper cross-cultural understandings and engagement.

In the article, the terms Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Indigenous, and First Nations have been used interchangeably.

Dr Tracy Woodroffe is an employee of Charles Darwin University. She was employed prior to that by the NT Department of Education and is currently a member of the Teacher Registration Board Quality Teaching Committee.
Dr Tracy Woodroffe, as a CDU employee, has received funding from the NT Department of Education for work associated with the RATE program.

– ref. The budget makes glossy announcements on Indigenous education, but real change requires more than just money – https://theconversation.com/the-budget-makes-glossy-announcements-on-indigenous-education-but-real-change-requires-more-than-just-money-205387

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

Inflation, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said, is “a tax on the poor”.

The great budget challenge for him and Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been to deliver help to Australians struggling with cost-of-living pressures without adding to inflation.

So has the government achieved that aim? While it’s too soon to be certain, given the vagaries that have beset economic forecasting in recent years, in my view the measures announced do not add to the prospect of the Reserve Bank of Australia raising interest rates further.

Read more:
Budget 2023: budgeting for difficult times is hard – just ask Chalmers

The RBA’s latest forecasts, published last week after it raised rates for the 11th time in 12 months, now assume no further rate rises will be needed for inflation to fall back to the central bank’s 2-3% target range by mid-2025. (RBA Governor Lowe has said taking this length of time is better than forcing inflation down quicker at the expense of job losses.)

This suggests the RBA will only raise interest rates in June or July if there’s new evidence that inflation is staying higher than expected.

How the budget may change the RBA’s view

The only price rises resulting from the budget are higher prices for smokers, with the tobacco excise to be increased by 5% a year over three years.

To avoid adding to inflation, the government has focused on budget measures that directly reduce costs of essential goods and services for those on lower incomes, notably household energy bills (some households will save $500 a year) and medical expenses (increasing bulk-billing incentives and reducing the cost of some medicines).

Treasury estimates these measures will directly reduce inflation by 0.75 of a percentage point in 2023–24.

What matters most is how they affect the Consumer Price Index’s “trimmed mean” measure of underlying inflation. This excludes the 15% of prices that climb the most and the 15% of prices that climb the least (or fall). The RBA often pays more attention to the trimmed mean than the headline CPI figure because it is less influenced by temporary factors.

Energy and medical prices may end up among the prices that fall and thus get excluded from the measure. So the trimmed mean measure may be less reduced than the headline number.

On a more positive note, the high profile of these price reductions may contribute more to moderating inflationary expectations. Because inflation, as Lowe has indicated with all his warnings about stagflation, is a lot about psychology.

What about those payments?

Households receiving higher support payments such as unemployment benefits, single parenting payment, youth allowance and rental assistance will have more money to spend.

Read more:
Budget 2023 at a glance: major measures, cuts and spends

But not much, and the measures are tightly targeted to those most in need. This contrasts with the cost-of-living relief measures of the previous government, whose temporary cuts to petrol excise and so-called “low and medium tax offset” provided greater benefits to the affluent.

Treasury expects these measures to only add modestly to aggregate demand. Total household spending is forecast to grow by 1.5% in 2023–24. This will not be a significant source of inflationary pressure.

Read more:
Budget spends big on support but won’t make much difference to poverty

The budget papers’ forecast for inflation by June 2024 is 3.25%, slightly less than the RBA’s forecast of 3.5%. The forecast by June 2025 is 2.75%, compared to the RBA’s 3%.

It remains to be seen if the RBA’s next set of forecasts will be closer to those of Treasury. These will be published in August, though the the bank may be guided by them before then.

If they are, then further rate rises will be less likely.

John Hawkins was formerly a senior economist at both the Reserve Bank and Treasury.

– ref. No, the budget does not make further interest rate rises more likely – https://theconversation.com/no-the-budget-does-not-make-further-interest-rate-rises-more-likely-205391

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Lycett, NHMRC Early Career Fellow, Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, Deakin University

Australians’ satisfaction with life as a whole is at its lowest level in 21 years, according to the latest Australian Unity Wellbeing Index survey, a collaboration between Deakin University and mutual company Australian Unity.

Each year since 2001, we survey a geographically representative sample of 2,000 Australians about how satisfied they are with their lives as a whole, along with their satisfaction with seven key life areas to compile an overall measure: the Personal Wellbeing Index.

Our survey was conducted in May and June of 2022, by which time inflation was exceeding 6% and the Reserve Bank of Australia had delivered the first two of ten consecutive interest rate rises. There have now been 11 since May 2022.

In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, we actually saw an improvement in satisfaction with life as a whole. The decline since likely reflects pressures like cost of living but also conforms with a longer-term trend since 2010.

Measuring personal wellbeing

Our composite measure, the Personal Wellbeing Index, incorporates seven life areas: standard of living, relationships, purpose in life, community connectedness, safety, health and future security. We combine these using an internationally regarded method to generate an index score out of 100.

This composite has been pretty stable over the survey’s 21 years, with average scores ranging between 74 and 77.

But small shifts are significant because we do not expect to ever see big ones. This is due, principally, to a type of “psychological homeostasis” whereby most people will ride out the highs and lows of their lives and maintain a relatively positive outlook regardless of the circumstances.

Read more:
5 charts on Australian well-being, and the surprising effects of the pandemic

Also, as an average, different factors can counterbalance each other. You can get a better sense of this from the following graph, which shows the constituent elements of the Personal Wellbeing Index.

This shows a long-term increase in feelings of personal safety but long-term declines in the average measures of health and purpose in life, with relatively steep declines since 2021 in standard of living, future security and community connectedness.

Wellbeing and low incomes

For Australia’s poor, 2020 unexpectedly had a silver lining when the federal government temporarily doubled JobSeeker payments. This likely explains the jump in wellbeing scores recorded in 2020 for those with household incomes of less than $30,000. But with those extra payments ending (in March 2021) and the increases in living costs since, the average wellbeing score for poor people has plummeted.

Differences by age

Those aged 76 and older reported the highest average wellbeing (78.7 out of 100), and those aged 18-25 the lowest – though not by much, with their score (72.5) being just below those aged 46-55 years (73.2).

The average wellbeing score for 18- to 25-year-olds was the lowest in 21 years. It likely reflects higher feelings of anxiety, stress, depression and climate worry (also measured in our survey) among this age group.

Creating a wellbeing economy

Given the ongoing uncertainties and cost-of-living pressures that we now face, there’s every reason to expect Australians’ wellbeing to now be even lower than when our survey was conducted.

It underscores the importance of considering wellbeing in policy decisions, particularly for groups that are struggling the most.

As Treasurer Jim Chalmers noted in his lengthy essay in The Monthly in February, we must “build something better” in the face of ongoing crises.

Kate Lycett receives research funding from NHMRC, The Victorian State Government and Australian Unity.

Georgie Frykberg, Mallery Crowe, and Tanja Capic 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. Australians’ satisfaction with life is at its lowest level in two decades – https://theconversation.com/australians-satisfaction-with-life-is-at-its-lowest-level-in-two-decades-205008

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark R Johnson, Lecturer in Digital Cultures, University of Sydney

Minecraft Legends has just been released, giving players another opportunity to return to the charming and blocky world of Minecraft.

The original Minecraft was first released in 2011, giving players a vast and open world constructed from cubes of various sorts in which to explore and build. The eponymous mining is central to the game, with players acquiring resources to craft into buildings and goods. Other parts of the game offer combat, secrets and even constructing complex programming-like mechanisms.

Minecraft is generally regarded as one of the most successful computer games ever made. Originally created by a handful of independent game developers, it was sold to Microsoft for US$2.5 billion (A$3.7 billion) in 2014. Since then, the game has continued to exert a massive force on gaming.

Minecraft has particular popularity among children and young people, although people of all ages enjoy the game.

It has also led to massive amounts of video content on sites like YouTube and Twitch. The Minecraft players who create these videos of their own play are sometimes so successful that they make full-time livings from it.

Minecraft spinoffs

The new Minecraft Legends is not the first additional Minecraft game we’ve seen. It is nothing new for massively successful media items to be “spun off” into others, and Minecraft is no exception.

Games like Minecraft: Story Mode and Minecraft Dungeons have also come to market in recent years. However, where the original game was critically acclaimed and is regarded as massively influential, these spin-offs receive mixed reviews. They have rarely been panned, but never come close to achieving the success, nor the regard, of the original.

Minecraft: Story Mode and Minecraft Dungeons sought to take the Minecraft world and the Minecraft fandom into new kinds of gameplay (narrative and “dungeon crawling”).

Minecraft Legends is another entry in this wider program. It represents another attempt to take a stunningly successful game and find new ways to engage players – and of course, make profit – from the existing popularity of a game world.

The Minecraft universe gained such a strong following and culture from the possibilities of its foundational ideas and what they offered players. Legends is trying to place these inside another game altogether. There is no doubt some will buy and play it purely because of the Minecraft label. Yet, this is not the same thing as creating something as enduring and influential as the original.

Diverging from the mines

These games struggle to capture high interest from Minecraft players precisely because they diverge so significantly from the original game.

They are also unable to capture new fans interested in the genre, but not the setting, precisely because of their Minecraft association. This is one of the difficult binds faced by a company trying to spin-off games in this way. Neither the original crowd, nor an imagined future body of consumers, are overly interested in what’s on offer. It’s too different from the original Minecraft for many of its players, and too much like it to bring new players onboard.

This struggle is not new. Many spin-off media properties that change in significant ways from the original find it difficult to find an audience.

Comparing the success of the 2004-2009 action-packed, space opera Battlestar Galactica to the general lack of interest in its 2010 urban-based and intrigue-focused spinoff, Caprica, is a classic example.

Prequels, sequels, “sidequels” and spin-offs are challenging things to handle. Trying to bring back existing audiences, and bring in new audiences, can be conflicting desires. So can trying to repeat a huge success while not repeating the exact content of the original.

Beyond the mines

Yet none of this inherently means the Minecraft world, setting and visuals cannot be usefully applied elsewhere.

I’m a judge on the global Generative Design in Minecraft competition. This is a computer programming contest that uses Minecraft to explore new kinds of AI-driven worlds and spaces in digital gaming.

The success of the competition in recent years has shown the suitability of Minecraft for projects far beyond its original intentions, or even beyond the game’s expanded scope in more recent years. Minecraft’s open “sandbox” world offers a fascinating area for exploring artificial intelligence techniques. This is especially true for the competition’s focus on building settlements and imagined societies.

Read more:
Tapping into kids’ passion for Minecraft in the classroom

Minecraft Legends is not going to recapture the impact of Minecraft nor, most likely, anything else close to it. What it does show is another iteration of a massive industrial and economic juggernaut attempting, with mixed success, to find new ways to profit from gamers already invested in the Minecraft world.

My own research and others’ have explored the increasingly profit-motivated nature of the “blockbuster” games industry. A game like Minecraft Legends demonstrates once again the increasing emphasis on trying to safely repeat past wins instead of innovating.

It is possible the impact of the original is so great that nothing like it can ever be replicated by Microsoft’s game developers – but that won’t stop them from trying.

Mark R Johnson 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. Minecraft Legends is a reminder that lightning rarely strikes twice in gaming – https://theconversation.com/minecraft-legends-is-a-reminder-that-lightning-rarely-strikes-twice-in-gaming-204907

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

Will the budget make inflation worse? Are its boosts to welfare payments just the first step for the Labor government? Could the projected one-off surplus be followed by another one or more? What (if any) of the budget measures will the Coalition oppose? There’s quite a bit about this budget that, as the saying goes, “only time will tell”.

In this podcast, Treasurer Jim Chalmers defends his budget from those economists who claim it will be inflationary, and strongly rejects suggestions it doesn’t have much for middle income Australians struggling with rising mortgage payments. Chalmers also promises that, given the current tight labour market, a priority in coming months will be finding ways to help more of the long-term unemployed into jobs.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor lists some of the measures the opposition supports but will not commit on the changes to the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax, despite the sector’s benign attitude to the cautious revamp.

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

– ref. The day after the night before – Chalmers and Taylor on the budget – https://theconversation.com/the-day-after-the-night-before-chalmers-and-taylor-on-the-budget-205431

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zahid Shahab Ahmed, Senior Research Fellow, Deakin University

The arrest this week of former Pakistan prime minister and cricket legend Imran Khan has triggered nationwide protests targeting military and other institutions, some of which have turned violent.

Pakistan’s political crisis has worsened significantly since Khan lost a no-confidence motion in parliament and was ousted from power last April. Since then, Khan’s populist rhetoric has stoked divisions in society, leading to extreme polarisation and the violent reactions we’ve seen this week.

Khan takes on the military

Khan began sowing these divisions even before he left office. Before his ouster, he had blamed Pakistan’s one-time close ally, the United States, for conspiring against his government and trying to push him from power.

His party, the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, has a long history of labelling its political opponents as Western slaves, so this narrative reverberated among his supporters.

Khan then shifted his anger towards the army and its then-chief, General Qamar Bajwa, claiming they were trying to bring down his government.

Khan and the military were once close. Soon after he rose to power in 2018, many of the leaders in his party claimed it was perhaps the first time a civilian government and the military establishment were on the same page in Pakistan.

But the relationship started to fray over the appointment of a new head of Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency, in 2021. Khan wanted the then-chief of the agency, General Faiz Hameed, to continue in the role, while the military wanted someone else.

Then, last November, Khan survived an assassination attempt at a political rally in Punjab province. A day later, he pointed the finger at three senior government figures as being behind the attack – the new prime minister, the interior minister and a senior intelligence official.

The military establishment issued a statement accusing Khan of fabricating the allegations. Khan responded immediately by saying that he stood by his allegations.

Read more:
Shooting of Imran Khan takes Pakistan into dangerous political waters

Graft allegations from the new government

While political violence has a long history in Pakistan, it has certainly increased in the wake of Khan’s populist attacks on the military and other institutions and the political polarisation that has ensued. The new government’s pursuit of Khan has also sparked anger among his supporters.

After removing Khan’s party from power last year, the Pakistan Democratic Alliance – an alliance of several other parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Pakistan People’s Party – formed a government and immediately began targeting Khan and his party officials in whatever ways possible.

Read more:
What’s the dispute between Imran Khan and the Pakistan government about?

In the so-called “Toshakhana case”, the government accused Khan and his wife of corruption for illegally keeping gifts given to them by other countries. The case refers to the Toshakhana department in the government responsible for storing expensive gifts given to public officials. Just last week, the Islamabad High Court found the case to be illegal and dismissed it.

Khan has faced a flood of other allegations, however, ranging from corruption to sedition. By some counts, he faces more than 100 cases around the country. There are elements of revenge politics here because Khan’s government had also targeted rival political leaders through corruption charges when it was in power.

The new government has made several attempts to arrest him in recent months. A small team from the federal police was sent to his house in Lahore in March, but faced heavy resistance from Khan supporters. A popular slogan emerged among Khan’s supporters:
“Khan is our red line”. It was a warning to the state not to arrest him.

Although the government has tightly controlled the mainstream media, Khan’s party has reached its supporters through social media to stoke dissent. And despite crackdowns on Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf leaders, party workers and Khan sympathisers for speaking out against the state on social media, the government hasn’t been able to control the simmering anger across the country.

Khan’s arrest sparks violence

This week, Khan was finally arrested on corruption charges related to another case involving the Al-Qadir University Trust. Khan is accused of using state funds to compensate a real estate giant, Malik Riaz, for land that would be used to build a new university called Al-Qadir.

Khan’s lawyers challenged the legality of the arrest, but the High Court upheld it. Doubts have remained over whether the authorities followed the proper procedures, however, so it was not surprising that Khan’s supporters reacted the way they have. Within hours of the arrest, party workers and supporters gathered in many major cities and began openly attacking key military buildings.

The headquarters of Pakistan’s army was attacked by a mob in Rawalpindi, as was the house of a corps commander in Lahore. This is unprecedented – the army headquarters have only ever been targeted by terrorists before.

The military was singled out due to Khan’s earlier allegations the army conspired to oust him from power and also the fact he was arrested by rangers and not the police.

So far, no one knows Khan’s exact location or whether he is under civilian or military custody. It is very likely the protests will continue – and with that, increasing levels of violence – until Khan is released.

Zahid Shahab Ahmed is a chief investigator in a research project called ‘Religious populism, emotions and political mobilisation’, funded by the Australian Research Council.

– ref. How Imran Khan’s populism has divided Pakistan and put it on a knife’s edge – https://theconversation.com/how-imran-khans-populism-has-divided-pakistan-and-put-it-on-a-knifes-edge-205392

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bekessy, Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning, Leader, Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group (ICON Science), RMIT University

The Albanese government has made bold environmental promises over the last year. Given the parlous state of nature in Australia, these commitments are important.

The promises include ending new extinctions, fixing national nature laws and protecting 30% of our land and waters. Achieving these goals requires a lot of money. So how does last night’s federal budget stack up?

Our collective expertise spans biodiversity conservation science and policy. In our view, the budget takes very small steps towards making good on the many government’s promises, but falls well short of what is needed.

Australia’s threatened species and ecosystems will not survive more funding neglect. It’s time to question our national priorities, and start funding the environment that sustains us.

A suite of big promises

First, let’s take a closer look at what the federal government said, ahead of the budget, it would achieve for Australia’s environment.

The government has promised to prevent any further species from becoming extinct. In the words of the government’s own report, “the challenges to the existence of the plants and animals that define Australia are bigger than ever”.

It will also strengthen national nature laws, otherwise known as the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. It follows a scathing independent review of the act in 2020.

As part of those reforms, the government pledged to establish a new national environmental watchdog to enforce the law and decide on project approvals and conditions.

And the Australian government has also promised to protect 30% of land and water by 2030, as well as restore 30% of degraded ecosystems, as part of a United Nations agreement it signed last year. This includes pledges to create ten new Indigenous Protected Areas and double the number of Indigenous Rangers.

So how far does the federal budget go to achieving the government’s ambitious conservation agenda?

Read more:
The historic COP15 outcome is an imperfect game-changer for saving nature. Here’s why Australia did us proud

Getting tough on environmental laws

The most promising budget announcement was A$121 million over four years to set up the new watchdog agency, to be known as Environment Protection Australia. A further $34 million will be spent on implementing national law reform and delivering a needed overhaul of conservation planning.

The new agency is sorely needed to address the national crisis of threatened species habitat loss in Australia. Research has found 93% of this destruction occurs without formal federal approval.

This is a good start, but the agency will need much greater funding, as well as independence, to function fearlessly as is intended. And it will only be effective if new environmental laws – currently being negotiated – give it the powers to prevent further biodiversity loss.

The budget also promises $51 million to create another new agency, Environment Information Australia. This body would provide high quality environmental data to support environmental regulation, planning and reporting.

This function is sorely needed to guide effective regulatory assessments and investments. There is also growing demand for biodiversity data for environmental accounting, business disclosures and the proposed Nature Repair Market.

However, the funding promised will only provide a basic data management and storage system. Far more is needed to fund the data collection necessary to fill the immense gaps in our biodiversity mapping and monitoring systems.

Read more:
‘Complete elation’ greeted Plibersek’s big plans to protect nature – but hurdles litter the path

What else for nature?

The budget allocates $262 million over four years to Commonwealth national parks and marine reserves. A significant portion will be spent maintaining and upgrading infrastructure.

Effective protected area management needs stronger investment and active conservation, including management of invasive species and restoring degrading environments.

Many of Australia’s existing protected areas are badly damaged by feral pests such as weeds, foxes and feral cats, as well as inappropriate fire regimes and more. The budget commitment is tepid relative to the scale of these challenges.

Our current Commonwealth reserve system is already under-managed and many species and ecosystems are being neglected. It’s crucial that expanding the reserve system does not exacerbate these existing problems.

The lack of funding for Commonwealth reserves means Indigenous Protected Areas must take on an even greater share of the burden when it comes to improving biodiversity. However, this will require a dramatic increase in resourcing.

The budget includes significant commitments to climate action, funding for the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences, a review of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, and further investment to improve water quality flowing into the Great Barrier Reef. All of these should deliver some benefits for biodiversity.

The budget also contains $28 million to develop a much-needed national climate risk assessment, which includes risks to biodiversity. But a far greater investment will be needed to adapt to these risks.

And $439.2 million was committed over five years to support programs that repair World Heritage properties, restore Ramsar wetlands and conserve threatened species and habitats. This is a continuation of existing funding for natural resource management.

Getting our priorities straight

Overall, the budget spending does not represent the substantial increase to existing funding needed to halt biodiversity declines or recover threatened species.

Research suggests Australia must spend $2 billion a year to save its 1,900 most imperilled species. And an additional $2 billion a year for 30 years could also restore 13 million hectares of Australia’s degraded land.

Meanwhile, the cost of adequately conserving our World Heritage areas and Ramsar wetlands is not yet known.

In light of this, the federal government’s budget investment is way off the mark.

The federal government could have scrapped the Stage 3 tax cuts, and redeployed the many billions of dollars a year to conserving species and ecosystems and properly funding Indigenous Protected Areas and ranger groups.

If it did that, Australia could recover all its threatened species by 2030 and have plenty left over for meeting national commitments to protecting and restoring degraded lands, and ensuring Indigenous people have more of a say over how Country is managed.

We endorse the government’s plans to strengthen Australia’s environment protection laws. But it must increase, by an order of magnitude, spending on threatened species and damaged ecosystems.

This is not a trade-off between the environment and the economy. Roughly half our GDP relies on natural systems. And nature has enormous benefits for the health and wellbeing of people and communities.

We must seriously examine our national priorities, and demand that Australian governments invest our national wealth in the species and ecosystems we depend on.

Read more:
Australia could ‘green’ its degraded landscapes for just 6% of what we spend on defence

Sarah Bekessy receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Ian Potter Foundation and the European Commission. She is a Lead Councillor of the Biodiversity Council, a Board Member of Bush Heritage Australia, a member of WWF’s Eminent Scientists Group and a member of the Advisory Group for Wood for Good.

Brendan Wintle has received funding from The Australian Research Council, the Victorian State Government, the NSW State Government, the Queensland State Government, the Commonwealth National Environmental Science Program, the Ian Potter Foundation, the Hermon Slade Foundation, and the Australian Conservation Foundation. Wintle is a Board Director of Zoos Victoria and a lead councillor of the Biodiversity Council.

Rachel Morgain receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Ian Potter Foundation, the Hermon Slade Foundation, the Ross Trust, the Australian Government, the Victorian Government, the Nature Conservancy and the Australian Conservation Foundation. She works and consults with NRM Regions Australia.

– ref. If the budget ditched the Stage 3 tax cuts, Australia could save every threatened species – and lots more – https://theconversation.com/if-the-budget-ditched-the-stage-3-tax-cuts-australia-could-save-every-threatened-species-and-lots-more-205305

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kylie Walker, Visiting Fellow, Australian National University

Australian innovation has the capacity to protect us – our environment, our digital world, our borders and our health. All of these are focuses of this year’s federal budget.

But the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sector has been sounding the alarm for years that our research system is in crisis. Reviews in progress – including the Universities Accord, National Science and Research Priorities, and the Australian Research Council – are an opportunity to examine and respond to systemic problems.

Read more:
Teaching and research are the core functions of universities. But in Australia, we don’t value teaching

However, they don’t take a whole-of-sector view to designing a research and innovation system that is not only functional but harmonious, and which makes the best use of Australian talent.

While we wait for these reviews to be complete, here’s where the 2023-24 budget stands in terms of Australia’s science, technology and innovation sectors in my assessment as the CEO of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).

More STEM degrees

The Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator will see A$3.4 billion over a decade to translate disruptive new technologies – such as hypersonic research and quantum decryption – into defence capability.

The nuclear submarine workforce will be bolstered by $128.5 million for 4,000 new places for tertiary STEM education. This is necessary to meet our commitments under AUKUS. We’ll never say no to more STEM degrees in this engineer-poor, rapidly innovating world.

This budget also aims to make safer online spaces with a welcome $7.9 million for combating misinformation and disinformation via the Australian Communications and Media Authority, and $101.6 million for cybersecurity.

Read more:
Australia needs a robust cybersecurity overhaul – not whack-a-mole bans on apps like TikTok

But here, too, is a miss in the education and career pathways to train, support, and continue to develop Australia’s digital workforce. We’re already behind our OECD counterparts – Australia trains an insufficient number of engineers, with just 8.5% of Australian university graduates receiving engineering degrees compared with over 12% in Canada and over 23% in Germany. Our engineering and technology workforce is studded with gaps in areas such as civil engineering, telecommunications and mining, to name just a few.

The National Quantum Strategy, Australian Centre for Quantum Growth, and national artificial intelligence (AI) centre are a necessary trio to keep pace with this rapidly transforming field.

Read more:
Australia has a National Quantum Strategy. What does that mean?

Small business is supported to commercialise research through the $392 million Industry Growth Program, adding to the already-committed Australia’s Economic Accelerator program. This will continue to build a positive commercialisation environment and lead to more of Australia’s world class research becoming world class innovations.

En route to a net zero superpower

In a decarbonising global economy, Australia has the potential to be a clean energy superpower. We are home to leading minds in most of the key technologies that will drive the clean energy revolution – next-generation batteries, computing power, machine learning and clean hydrogen to name a few. We have abundant critical minerals, sun and wind.

The new Net Zero Authority is an important step towards the urgent need to decarbonise and transform our domestic and export energy markets. But to achieve this bold transformation, government investment in research and development must match innovation-leading nations like Japan, Germany and the United States.

Read more:
Australia finally has a Net Zero Authority – here’s what should top its agenda

We need a coherent plan for clean energy research, development and deployment, with the backing to realise the vision. To keep the top tech and innovation minds here, we must invest around 3% of our gross domestic product (GDP) in research and development (R&D).

Direct government spend on R&D currently sits at 0.49% of GDP – its lowest level since 2014, leaving researchers competing for scraps. By contrast, visionary investment prioritises creating and applying new knowledge over the long term, and invests in building Australia’s new economy.

We need a structural review of R&D funding now to future-proof the system.

What’s missing from the budget for STEM

Research funding grants have flatlined: inflation means their real value is falling. As we await Universities Accord outcomes, the government has avoided supporting the full cost of teaching STEM degrees. Nothing has been announced to address urgent STEM professional shortages, and to support STEM workforce diversity.

Likewise, there’s silence on much-needed industry bodies – a National Engineering Council and the National Indigenous STEM Professional Network.

International STEM collaboration is more important than ever, but has taken a hit with a $25 million reduction to the Global Science and Technology Diplomacy Fund. The fund was planned to support international collaboration in advanced manufacturing, AI and quantum computing, hydrogen production, and emerging applications of RNA vaccines and therapies to improve health outcomes.

In our region, and across the globe, collaborative and diplomatic relationships in STEM are essential.

We are yet to leverage Australia’s true capacity to grow a thriving R&D economy that supports our health, wealth, wellbeing and sustainability, and grows our stature as an innovative and future-focused, inclusive international leader.

Every budget has winners and losers. Next year, the reviews of our STEM sector will be complete, the government will have been in power for two years, and the window for game-changing investment will be shrinking.

My hope is that Australia’s long-term future as a safe and resilient nation will be the winner. We need a comprehensive and well funded plan to drive national progress and prosperity through research and development.

Kylie Walker’s organisation receives funding from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, and is CEO at the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

– ref. Amid a STEM crisis, here’s what the 2023 budget promises for Australian science and innovation – https://theconversation.com/amid-a-stem-crisis-heres-what-the-2023-budget-promises-for-australian-science-and-innovation-205204

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

The quality and performance of our housing have big impacts on the environment, cost of living and our health and wellbeing. The 2023-24 federal budget’s announcement of $1.6 billion for energy-saving upgrades to housing recognises the broad importance of retrofitting Australian homes.

Until now, much of the focus in Australia has been on improving the quality and performance of new housing. Recent changes to the National Construction Code improve minimum standards for new housing for the first time in more than a decade.

But more than 10.8 million existing dwellings fall short of the quality and performance needed for a low-carbon and affordable future. We must urgently shift our attention to delivering a deep retrofit – including solar panels, double glazing and other insulation – of the homes 99% of us live in. This would not only be good for the environment and reduce living costs, it would also improve our health and wellbeing and help increase the reliability of the energy grid.

Most of our existing houses were built before minimum performance standards were adopted. Houses built before 1990 typically perform at a level of 1-3 stars on the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) (0 being worst, 10 best), compared to the 7 stars required of homes built after this October in most states.

Improving a house from 1 to 5 stars would reduce the energy needed for heating and cooling by about 70% in the Melbourne climate zone. And that means the household’s energy bills and emissions would be much lower too.

All this means the budget announcements are a welcome, but long-overdue, move to start a retrofit revolution in Australia.

What was announced?

The 2023-24 budget includes:

• $3 billion in rebates that directly reduce energy bills for over 5 million households

• $1.3 billion to set up the Household Energy Upgrades Fund, which will provide $1 billion to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to finance home energy upgrades for around 110,000 households

• $300 million to co-fund 60,000 social housing retrofits with the states and territories

• $36.7 million to expand and upgrade NatHERS to apply to existing homes, which will give households better information for decisions on energy upgrades and renting or buying homes

• expand and modernise the Greenhouse Energy Minimum Standards (GEMS) to cover more products.

This funding will help make our existing housing more energy-efficient and cheaper to run.

It’s a start but much more is needed

Much of the budget is focused on providing short-term relief for vulnerable households facing rising energy bills. But the bigger, long-term challenge is to help existing housing become more sustainable, affordable and liveable.

The cash rebate on energy bills is a short-term fix. The money could be better spent on prevention rather than cure. Retrofitting goes to the heart of the problem – ageing, energy-guzzling homes – and is a responsible use of taxpayer money.

The benefits of retrofitting a house outlive the current residents. It should be seen as an investment in the national housing stock rather than a handout to individual households. A cash rebate to reduce energy bills does nothing to improve housing performance.

The expansion of NatHERS to better account for existing housing is a welcome incentive to upgrade these homes. We need to make sure, though, that the information provided is robust, reliable and accessible to all households. Households need practical information about the cost-efficient retrofit actions they can take.

In other parts of the world, such as the United Kingdom and Europe, information about a home’s performance must be disclosed at point of sale or lease. This helps households make informed decisions. It also provides better data to governments about the quality and performance of the housing stock.

In Australia we have very poor data about our existing housing. We are developing policy and support with one hand tied behind our back.

The scale of the retrofit challenge is huge

Another key issue is the scale and urgency of the retrofit task we face. The budget announcement will make only a small dent in the work to be done. If we assume the performance of most of our existing homes is below-par, that means we will need to deliver deep retrofit to more than 45 homes every hour between now and 2050.

Upgrading 110,000 private homes and 60,000 social housing units is better than nothing, but we clearly need to scale up this work well beyond these numbers. This will require much more ambition and coordination from all levels of government.

We must also focus more on those who are most vulnerable, such as private renters on low incomes. Low-cost loans are good – if you qualify and have the means to repay them. What will those on the lowest incomes or without access to resources do?

We also need to make sure these loans don’t simply fund technology upgrades when there are cheaper and simpler things to do first, such as sealing gaps and cracks.

Scaling up is more than just a matter of providing support to households. We need to strengthen and develop retrofit capacity across the building industry to ensure demand can be met.

The industry needs certainty about the commitment of all levels of government to assist and sustain a low-carbon retrofit industry over time. This will allow the industry to plan and invest in capacity. This approach would help bolster the struggling construction industry while feeding into Australia’s wider net-zero ambitions.

Trivess Moore has received funding from various organisations including the Australian Research Council, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Victorian Government and various industry partners. He is a trustee of the Fuel Poverty Research Network.

Ralph Horne receives funding from various organisations including the Australian Research Council, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Victorian Government and various industry partners.

– ref. Budget’s energy bill relief and home retrofit funding is a good start, but dwarfed by the scale of the task – https://theconversation.com/budgets-energy-bill-relief-and-home-retrofit-funding-is-a-good-start-but-dwarfed-by-the-scale-of-the-task-205380

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kondo-Francois Aguey-Zinsou, Professor of Chemistry, University of Sydney

It sounds like a lot. Kickstarting green hydrogen in Australia with A$2 billion to subsidise early production and making the energy-dense gas competitive. A goal of up to a gigawatt of electrolyser capacity within seven years.

Two years ago, the hydrogen announcement in Tuesday night’s federal budget might have been more significant. But since then, Russia’s war on Ukraine has driven ever-faster moves to shore up energy security by going green. France, for instance, will invest $14.6 billion in hydrogen. The United States is offering tax credits equivalent to over $4 per kilo of green hydrogen produced.

Since Labor took office, they’ve spruiked Australia as a renewable energy superpower. On solar and wind that’s true – we’re world leaders. But solar and wind are mature technologies. Green hydrogen is not. We’re still working out the best way to do it.

That means you can’t simply allocate $2 billion and expect an entirely new industry to be created. One reason is we don’t have the pipeline of expertise yet – green hydrogen engineers or experts in the electrolysers which crack water to produce hydrogen and oxygen. It will take time and investment to develop local capabilities.

Isn’t green hydrogen steaming ahead?

On paper, yes. There are now many projects across Australia, with different levels of progress and ambition. Iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest is betting heavily on green hydrogen with his Fortescue Future Industries company.

It could work – and work well. As coal and gas come out of our power production and cheap solar and wind rush in, we could use cheap daytime energy to crack water and produce hydrogen.

But it’s not guaranteed. It’s not like iron ore, where we have the advantage of large regions of red earth full of ore. There’s nothing special about hydrogen. You don’t have to dig it up. As long as you have access to the technology, the know-how and water, you can make it.

Across the US, Japan, Korea, China and the European Union, everyone is racing ahead. They see the long game – hydrogen will be useful, but only if it’s cheap and safe. That’s why they’re all heavily subsidising the industry.

Why are subsidies needed? Because the technology is still relatively new. Solar cells have been perfected over 40 years. While electrolysers – the key production technology – are well known, they’re currently too expensive. Storage, too, has to get better so we can safely use this flammable gas.

Labor’s $2 billion in subsidies is necessary. You can see the need clearly in the fact that, to date, these startup companies don’t have anyone to buy their product as yet. That’s one reason why South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas is in Germany at the moment, pitching his state’s product.

4 Reasons why there’s more to it than subsidies

Subsidies are important. Many industries in their infancy rely on them. In fact, Australia’s place as the top liquefied natural gas exporter came about from early subsidies. But they’re not enough by themselves.

What we need is a high-level strategy, hashing out how to actually make this happen.

Here are some key problems we have to solve to make green hydrogen a reality in Australia:

1. Get expertise out of academia. To date, almost all hydrogen experts work in universities. Like me, they may consult to industry. But there’s still a big gap to overcome to ensure the green hydrogen industry has in-house expertise to make their product a commercial reality.

2. Build an ecosystem. Let’s say you want to install a large electrolyser. Who is able to certify that it meets Australian standards? Who is able to test it works under Australian conditions? It’s not as simple as install this machine and churn out green hydrogen at $2 a kilogram. The whole ecosystem needs to be built.

3. Create a domestic market. If we don’t have domestic buyers, it’s hard to jump to export volumes.

4. Make sure it’s safe. Storing a flammable gas is something we’re still figuring out. One answer is to convert it to ammonia for shipping and back to hydrogen at the other end. But the work is still being done. A better answer may to be start accelerating the development of solid state hydrogen storage.

Read more:
What will power the future: Elon Musk’s battery packs or Twiggy Forrest’s green hydrogen? Truth is, we’ll need both

Is it still worth it?

Yes. There’s a lot of scepticism about the need for green hydrogen. But in tackling climate change, we will need it. Fuel cell cars, buses and trucks don’t have to rely on batteries which slowly degrade over time.

Green hydrogen will also be needed to decarbonise industries such as steelmaking.

And we will probably need green hydrogen as a way to store energy long term. Once it’s stored, you can keep it indefinitely and use it when you need it. It could be a good complement to solar, wind and storage. Plus, green hydrogen can produce heat for industrial processes.

Like it or not, Australia is in a race to secure part of this new market. We export gas and coal, but their time is ending. Think of how Taiwan went early to secure a lead in making the silicon chips on which so much of the world’s economy relies.

If we want to be competitive, we have to act decisively and fast. Yes, the budget announcement is a step forward. But a step doesn’t win a race.

Read more:
Green hydrogen is coming – and these Australian regions are well placed to build our new export industry

Kondo-Francois Aguey-Zinsou is director of H2potential an hydrogen advisory firm. He receives funding supporting his research from Government grant schemes including the ARC. He is affiliated with the University of Sydney as a Professor where he develops hydrogen technologies.

– ref. Green hydrogen funding is a step forward – but a step doesn’t win the race – https://theconversation.com/green-hydrogen-funding-is-a-step-forward-but-a-step-doesnt-win-the-race-205390

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Swerissen, Emeritus Professor, La Trobe University

The 2023-24 federal budget takes a step in the right direction for aged care, with a much-needed pay boost for workers in the sector.

But there are major medium- to long-term challenges to overcome from cost increases. Despite a royal commission, major commitments from a new government and significant additional funding, around two-thirds of residential aged providers and one-quarter of home care providers are losing money.

If we’re going to have a functioning aged-care system in a decade or two that meets the needs of the ageing population, we need to consider bold reform to make it fit for purpose.

What’s the problem?

Around 60% of government aged care funding is spent on residential care. Impersonal, large scale, “big box” aged-care institutions still dominate the system.

But older people in residential care are still getting less than the mandated three hours and 20 minutes of care per day. Only around $12 a day is spent on food. The commitment to have a registered nurse in all residential-care facilities won’t be met in the time period promised.

Read more:
Quality costs more. Very few aged care facilities deliver high quality care while also making a profit

Not surprisingly, most people want care at home instead. There has been a massive increase in the number of home care packages in response. This part of the aged-care industry has proven much more profitable.

Even so, home care packages for more older people with more complex needs remain cumbersome and inefficient. Administrative costs are high, funding is too low for people with very complex needs and there are risks with the rapid introduction of new providers and the “uberisation” of services through new online platforms.

A new government Support at Home program is due to reform and replace the existing home care packages, home support program, respite care and short-term restorative care program. But it has again been delayed – now until 2025. There are ongoing concerns about the design and implementation of the program.

A major underlying problem for aged care is that workers are undervalued. Pay is not competitive with the disability and health-care sector and providers struggle to get staff. Career structures, supervision and training are all underdone.

What’s in the budget for aged care?

The Fair Work Commission determined that wages for direct care workers should be increased by 15%. The budget includes $12.4 billion for aged care, mainly to fund pay increases for 250,000 aged-care workers in residential and home care.

Daily payment rates for aged-care residents will increase by 17.6% to cover pay increases and inflation and an additional 9,500 home care packages will be introduced over the next year.

This year’s federal budget is a step in the right direction, particularly in improving pay rates for aged-care workers. But the medium to longer term future for aged care remains bleak without significant further reform.

What’s missing from the budget?

Demand will increase dramatically as the number of people over 80 grows, the availability of informal carers decreases and community expectations increase. And there are continuing concerns about the way services are designed, organised and delivered.

Estimates suggest Australia will need to increase aged-care spending by $10 billion a year to implement the aged care royal commissions recommendations.

It would need to double to around 3% of GDP to be in line with high-quality aged care in comparable OECD countries.

Read more:
More funds for aged care won’t make it future-proof. 4 key strategies for sustainable growth

Current funding is a complicated and unsustainable mix of Commonwealth government payments, means-tested user contributions and capital contributions for residential care.

Commonwealth payments are generated from general revenue. Effectively this is a pay-as-you-go model where today’s taxpayers meet the costs. Inevitably that means growth in spending is an ongoing political balancing act in the hurly burly of the annual budget process. There is no guarantee growth funding will be provided in the medium to longer term.

What are the alternatives?

There are alternatives, but none of them are likely in Australia.

A social insurance model like the transport accident, workers’ compensation and superannuation schemes could be introduced to fund aged care, at least in part. That would mean workers (and potentially their employers) would contribute to their potential future aged-care costs during their working lives. Social insurance models exist in Germany, Japan, Korea and the Netherlands.

In Australia, there have been calls for a superannuation levy on contributions to fund future aged-care costs. But this would fly in the face of the federal government’s intention to make it clear that the purpose of superannuation is to provide a decent retirement income rather than using it as a piggy bank to fund health and aged care.

An other alternative is wealth taxes to pay for aged care. The current capital contribution schemes for residential care (Refundable Accommodation Deposit and Daily Accommodation Payment schemes) are an inefficient, inequitable and half baked model. More equitable, targeted universal estate taxes could be introduced to fund aged care, but that would raise the politically uncomfortable spectre of death duties.

The most palatable option to provide future growth funding for aged care would be the introduction of an aged-care levy as part of the general tax mix. A 1% levy, similar to the Medicare levy, would raise around $8 billion a year.

While Treasury generally opposes hypothecated levies, levy revenue already partially funds health and disability care. It would be reasonably easy to introduce (and popular with the community) for aged care.

Read more:
Overseas recruitment won’t solve Australia’s aged care worker crisis

Hal Swerissen 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. The aged-care budget delivers for workers but meeting our future needs will require bold funding reforms – https://theconversation.com/the-aged-care-budget-delivers-for-workers-but-meeting-our-future-needs-will-require-bold-funding-reforms-205021

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Shortis, Lecturer, RMIT University

The day after Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States in 2017, women took to the streets in protest. In varying states of fury and disbelief, millions of women and their supporters participated in the first Women’s March. The seas of pink hats in streets across America, and the world, attempted to reclaim power and agency from a man who, the day before, had become one of the most powerful men in the world – and who had bragged, openly and unashamedly, about assaulting women.

To date, 26 women have accused the former and once again aspiring president of abuse. Overnight, for the very first time, five years after that first protest, Trump has been held accountable to one of them.

Jean E. Carroll first made her accusations against the president public in her 2019 memoir. Carroll described meeting Trump at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan the mid-1990s, where Trump had attacked and, she alleged, raped her in a dressing room.

The president accused her of fabricating the story in order to promote her book, and in response, she sued for defamation. Carroll sued him again in late 2022, this time over posts Trump had made on social media. This time, she won.

In New York – also the site of Trump’s recent indictment in a separate criminal case – a jury unanimously agreed that Trump was liable for sexual abuse and battery, and that he had also defamed Carroll. Importantly, the jury stopped short of finding Trump had raped her. Nevertheless, it did recommend she be awarded US$5 million (A$7.4 million) in damages – $2 million for the abuse, and $3 million for defamation.

Predictably, Trump has responded with all-caps fury on his struggling social media platform, Truth Social. The former president claims this verdict is yet another part of a wide-ranging conspiracy against him, and that he will, of course, fight it.

There’s no doubt he will, or that he will almost certainly use his tried-and-true tactics of delaying cases and threatening countersuits. Because it is Trump, this case will no doubt be folded in under the tent of the circus we have become so inured to since he first rode down the golden escalator in 2015.

Read more:
What does Trump’s indictment mean for his political future – and the strength of US democracy?

Even then, as he announced his campaign for the presidency nearly a decade ago, Trump cavalierly spoke about sexual abuse, making the racist and false claim that Mexico was sending drugs, criminals and rapists to the United States. The incredulity that greeted that claim, and later, the recording of Trump saying that he could “grab ‘em by the pussy” whenever he wanted, still lingers. How could such a man be elected president of the most powerful country in the world? Today, the question isn’t all that different – could he do it again?

It is certainly possible that the second time around, the accusations of abuse and criminal misconduct – and now the finding of a jury in New York that Trump is liable for at least some of it – will hurt him politically. There is a creeping sense that the multitude of criminal and civil cases the former president is facing, and has managed to hold off for most of his life, are finally closing in; that a pincer movement of state, federal and civil suits might finally signal the end of his political career.

But, as always with Trump, there is much more at stake than his individual political fate. In 2017, millions of women took to the streets to protest the new president. They were also reacting to something much bigger – to an ongoing misogynist and racist assault on women’s rights and autonomy that, in the years since, Trump and the political movement that supports him have deliberately enabled.

In fact, much of the support that swept Trump into power in the first place was predicated on his promise to give conservatives the Supreme Court, as part of a generational project to undermine and overturn Roe v Wade – the 1970s court decision that protected women’s rights to abortion.

Read more:
US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade – but for abortion opponents, this is just the beginning

Many of the women and their supporters marching in 2017 knew that Trump’s gleeful boasting about abusing women and the broader, longstanding efforts to undermine women’s rights and autonomy, were two sides of the same coin.

Trump’s ability to get elected even in the face of 26 accusations of sexual assault were enabled by the structural conditions of American politics and culture. Those same structural conditions allowed the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade in the face of overwhelming democratic opposition, and continue to allow states to pass draconian and oppressive laws preventing women and minorities access to health care.

E. Jean Carroll’s victory over Trump is a significant one. But it is only one part of a much bigger fight against the racism and misogyny of American politics – a fight that is about, and has always been about, much more than just one obscene old man.

Emma Shortis is a member of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN).

– ref. You might think Trump being found liable for sexual abuse and defamation would derail his re-election campaign. But it’s not that simple – https://theconversation.com/you-might-think-trump-being-found-liable-for-sexual-abuse-and-defamation-would-derail-his-re-election-campaign-but-its-not-that-simple-205381

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kristopher Nielsen, Adjunct Research Fellow and Clinical Psychologist, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

Something is not working in our approach to mental health in Aotearoa New Zealand. According to Statistics New Zealand, more than a quarter of the population can be described as having poor mental wellbeing, and this proportion is increasing.

Problems are particularly prevalent in young people, with 23.6% of those aged 15-24 years reporting high or very high levels of psychological distress, according to the 2021/22 New Zealand Health Survey – up from only 5.1% in the 2011/12 report.

There are many likely (and familiar) contributing factors, including COVID-19 and the associated social disruption, stress due to the rising cost of living, and inequity and marginalisation on the basis of identity.

Other plausible factors include existential concern over the climate crisis, overburdened and underpaid teachers, social media and the crumbing mental health system.

But there is a less obvious factor that may conceivably be contributing to the mental health crisis, particularly in young people: the paradoxical effects of heightened mental health awareness.

Defining the problem

Young people are more aware than ever of mental illness, largely due to explicit efforts in recent decades to raise awareness about mental health and mental disorders, including through the reach of social media.

But some recent research has questioned whether this increased awareness is as beneficial as it may first seem. While greater awareness can mean “more accurate reporting of previously under-recognised symptoms”, it may also cause “some individuals to interpret and report milder forms of distress as mental health problems”.

Read more:
Road to nowhere: New Zealanders struggle to get the help they need, 2 years on from a funding boost for mental health services

People may then seek professional help, as they have been advised to do, but find such help is often unavailable. This in turn can lead to a very real increase in distress. And it may discourage more traditional and less clinical forms of coping such as talking with friends and family or making positive lifestyle changes.

It is also plausible that greater awareness and acceptance of mental health difficulties may lead people to see those issues as an inevitable part of who they are – as simply part of their brain chemistry.

Such a view could result in the loss of a sense of personal agency over psychological challenges, creating a sense of hopelessness about the possibility of positive change.

Mental health and identity

None of this is entirely surprising. The notion of “concept creep” has been used to describe “the gradual semantic expansion of harm-related concepts such as bullying, mental disorder, prejudice, and trauma”.

Consider how terms such as “trauma” and “bullying” have grown in usage but become less specific in meaning as topics of public conversation. Anecdotally, this is what we seem to be seeing with public understanding of mental disorder – including the assumption that mental health problems are simply part of someone’s identity.

Read more:
The impact of childhood and teenage anxiety disorders on later life – new research

None of this suggests we should stop talking about such an important topic. Rather, we need to think very critically about how we talk about mental health and mental disorder – shifting from thinking in terms of mental health awareness to mental health literacy.

This means discussing what does count as a mental health problem – and also what doesn’t. For example, some people clearly experience genuinely problematic levels of anxiety. But, at the same time, anxiety is a normal and healthy human emotion. Where exactly do we draw the line?

Read more:
Is ‘climate anxiety’ a clinical diagnosis? Should it be?

Personal agency and hope

To answer questions like this we need to really understand what we mean by the concept of “mental disorder” in the first place.

Exploring how we should best think about mental disorders, why they count as disorder, and how we might best seek to explain them, is the central topic of my new book: Embodied, Embedded, and Enactive Psychopathology: Reimagining Mental Disorder.

The book proposes a new way of approaching this complex but vital topic. It acknowledges mental disorders are influenced by factors across the brain, body and environment. However, it also preserves a sense of agency and hope – seeing mental health problems as things we can have influence over.

The question of how we should best think about mental disorder is more than simply an academic or philosophical quandary. It has very real implications for health policy, for what our systems of care should look like and for how individuals understand the mental health challenges they or their loved ones may face.

Ultimately, how we think about mental disorder matters a great deal.

Kristopher Nielsen 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. Increased mental health awareness is one thing – but New Zealanders need greater mental health literacy too – https://theconversation.com/increased-mental-health-awareness-is-one-thing-but-new-zealanders-need-greater-mental-health-literacy-too-205286

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice, The University of Melbourne

There were four major changes for health care in the 2023-24 budget: prioritising primary care, funding to strengthen Medicare, cheaper access to common medicines, and new funding to keep the digital health system going. Many of these changes were foreshadowed in recent weeks.

The big news on budget night was a tripling of the bulk-billing incentive, a key plank to strengthen Medicare.

This payment was introduced in 2004 to encourage GPs to bulk bill pensioners, health care card holders and children. It provides an additional amount, of around A$7 to over $10 depending on GP location, on top of the ordinary Medicare rebate when the service is bulk billed.

But bulk billing has since declined, from about 90% of attendances in early 2022 to about 80% a year later. Bulk billing is unevenly distributed and in some low-income areas (bulk-billing deserts) fewer than 50% of people have all their GP attendances bulk billed. This causes uncertainty and people missing out on care.

A tripling of the bulk-billing incentive – described as the biggest investment in Medicare in 40 years – is hoped to stem, and possibly reverse, the decline.

However it’s unclear whether it will increase bulk billing. Practice owners could simply pocket the increased incentive for patients who are already bulk billed, leaving bulk billing rates unchanged. Or GPs could use the increased revenue from their existing bulk-billed patients to reduce their hours of work, rather than bulk billing more patients.

1. Primary care is now a priority

The most important change in the budget for health was symbolic: the government talked about primary care. Typically, health budgets are focused on hospitals, with primary care an afterthought, or worse: the target of budget cuts.

The 2023 budget starts the process of the primary care rebuild, modernising the system in response to the transition to a population with more people with multiple chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and depression.

In the lead up to the budget, Health Minister Butler emphasised the centrality of primary care to the health system. In addition to the rhetoric, this budget allocates real money to create a new foundation for primary care.

2. Funding the plan to strength Medicare

The second change is to fund what has been long discussed. Health Minister Butler signalled the focus on primary care as one of his first acts when he appointed the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce, which I was a member of.

The taskforce report, released late last year, sets out an ambitious blueprint for change. This budget includes the first down payment, of more than $1 billion new money in a full year.

Read more:
New Medicare reforms won’t fix everything but they start to tackle the system’s biggest problems

A key challenge for primary care policy is the reliance on fee-for-service payments. The budget addresses this by modernising the way the government pays for primary care in two critical ways:

Patient enrolment

First, it introduces the concept of enrolment into the Australian primary care world.

Long part of primary care systems internationally, and regarded as one of the key “building blocks” for good primary care, enrolment involves a patient identifying a preferred GP as their main source of care.

Patient enrolment, dubbed MyMedicare, will mean the practice or GP has responsibility for the patient between visits, and therefore introduces a long-term relationship between patient and practitioner.

Team-based health care

The Strengthening Medicare Taskforce also recommended more multi-disciplinary or team-based primary care, involving nurses, physiotherapists and a range of other health providers and administrative supports. This is a somewhat back-to-the-future initiative as the 21st-century iteration of the Whitman government’s community health program.

The budget provides a significant increase in the workforce incentive program, which provides grants to practices to employ nurses, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and allied health professionals.

The program recognises that care for people with multiple chronic conditions requires the skills of a range of professions. Importantly, many general practices have already recognised this and are already providing team-based care.

The increased funding in this budget will reward that past behaviour, making these practices more viable, as well as encouraging an expansion in other practices.

3. Extended prescription dispensing length

The third budget change, announced in April, reduces prescription costs for medications by extending prescription quantities to two rather than one month’s supply for many common medications.

Despite the tears and histrionics of the Pharmacy Guild – the lobby group of pharmacy owners – the expert Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee recommended this modest change five years ago.

It doubles the amount of medication that may be dispensed under a single prescription, reducing patient co-payments and dispensing fees paid to pharmacists. It reduces government outlays by about $400 million a year and shows the government is prepared to take on a powerful stakeholder, despite the guild’s threats, big political donations and local campaigns.

4. Digital health time bomb

Finally, the budget addresses a time bomb left by the previous government: digital health.

The Strengthening Medicare Taskforce identified contemporary digital health capacity as essential for a modern health system. Yet peculiarly, the previous government did not provide funding for the Digital Health Agency and My Health Record on an ongoing basis. It was due to expire on June 30 2023.

Read more:
My Health Record is meant to empower patients – but with little useful information stored, is it worth saving?

Some $250 million has been allocated in a full year simply to keep the lights on and My Health Record ticking over.

Although the current functionality and support for My Health Record leaves much to be desired, closing it down without replacement was never an option.

What’s missing?

The obvious omission relates to mental health. Although funding has been provided for more budget time bombs – programs which otherwise would have ended – and funding for additional places in psychology courses, mental health reform is still a work in progress.

The discontinuation of the COVID-related temporary extension of the Better Access program from a limit of ten to a limit of 20 mental health visits prompted predictable criticism, even though the program was demonstrably inequitable. The government has recognised this gap, titling its mental health budget announcement “laying the groundwork”.

Overall, the health component of the 2023-2024 budget is well crafted. It signals a new priority for primary care and provides a new foundation for funding reform for the future.

Read more:
Seeing a psychologist on Medicare? Soon you’ll be back to 10 sessions. But we know that’s not often enough

Stephen Duckett is Chair of the Board of Directors of Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network and was a member of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce

– ref. Health budget has big changes – reviving our worn-out Medicare fee-for-service system and boosting bulk billing – https://theconversation.com/health-budget-has-big-changes-reviving-our-worn-out-medicare-fee-for-service-system-and-boosting-bulk-billing-204527

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice, The University of Melbourne

There were four major changes for health care in the 2023-24 budget: prioritising primary care, funding to strengthen Medicare, cheaper access to common medicines, and new funding to keep the digital health system going. Many of these changes were foreshadowed in recent weeks.

The big news on budget night was a tripling of the bulk-billing incentive, a key plank to strengthen Medicare.

This payment was introduced in 2004 to encourage GPs to bulk bill pensioners, health care card holders and children. It provides an additional amount, of around A$7 to over $10 depending on GP location, on top of the ordinary Medicare rebate when the service is bulk billed.

But bulk billing has since declined, from about 90% of attendances in early 2022 to about 80% a year later. Bulk billing is unevenly distributed and in some low-income areas (bulk-billing deserts) fewer than 50% of people have all their GP attendances bulk billed. This causes uncertainty and people missing out on care.

A tripling of the bulk-billing incentive – described as the biggest investment in Medicare in 40 years – is hoped to stem, and possibly reverse, the decline.

However it’s unclear whether it will increase bulk billing. Practice owners could simply pocket the increased incentive for patients who are already bulk billed, leaving bulk billing rates unchanged. Or GPs could use the increased revenue from their existing bulk-billed patients to reduce their hours of work, rather than bulk billing more patients.

1. Primary care is now a priority

The most important change in the budget for health was symbolic: the government talked about primary care. Typically, health budgets are focused on hospitals, with primary care an afterthought, or worse: the target of budget cuts.

The 2023 budget starts the process of the primary care rebuild, modernising the system in response to the transition to a population with more people with multiple chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and depression.

In the lead up to the budget, Health Minister Butler emphasised the centrality of primary care to the health system. In addition to the rhetoric, this budget allocates real money to create a new foundation for primary care.

2. Funding the plan to strength Medicare

The second change is to fund what has been long discussed. Health Minister Butler signalled the focus on primary care as one of his first acts when he appointed the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce, which I was a member of.

The taskforce report, released late last year, sets out an ambitious blueprint for change. This budget includes the first down payment, of more than $1 billion new money in a full year.

Read more:
New Medicare reforms won’t fix everything but they start to tackle the system’s biggest problems

A key challenge for primary care policy is the reliance on fee-for-service payments. The budget addresses this by modernising the way the government pays for primary care in two critical ways:

Patient enrolment

First, it introduces the concept of enrolment into the Australian primary care world.

Long part of primary care systems internationally, and regarded as one of the key “building blocks” for good primary care, enrolment involves a patient identifying a preferred GP as their main source of care.

Patient enrolment, dubbed MyMedicare, will mean the practice or GP has responsibility for the patient between visits, and therefore introduces a long-term relationship between patient and practitioner.

Team-based health care

The Strengthening Medicare Taskforce also recommended more multi-disciplinary or team-based primary care, involving nurses, physiotherapists and a range of other health providers and administrative supports. This is a somewhat back-to-the-future initiative as the 21st-century iteration of the Whitman government’s community health program.

The budget provides a significant increase in the workforce incentive program, which provides grants to practices to employ nurses, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and allied health professionals.

The program recognises that care for people with multiple chronic conditions requires the skills of a range of professions. Importantly, many general practices have already recognised this and are already providing team-based care.

The increased funding in this budget will reward that past behaviour, making these practices more viable, as well as encouraging an expansion in other practices.

3. Extended prescription dispensing length

The third budget change, announced in April, reduces prescription costs for medications by extending prescription quantities to two rather than one month’s supply for many common medications.

Despite the tears and histrionics of the Pharmacy Guild – the lobby group of pharmacy owners – the expert Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee recommended this modest change five years ago.

It doubles the amount of medication that may be dispensed under a single prescription, reducing patient co-payments and dispensing fees paid to pharmacists. It reduces government outlays by about $400 million a year and shows the government is prepared to take on a powerful stakeholder, despite the guild’s threats, big political donations and local campaigns.

4. Digital health time bomb

Finally, the budget addresses a time bomb left by the previous government: digital health.

The Strengthening Medicare Taskforce identified contemporary digital health capacity as essential for a modern health system. Yet peculiarly, the previous government did not provide funding for the Digital Health Agency and My Health Record on an ongoing basis. It was due to expire on June 30 2023.

Read more:
My Health Record is meant to empower patients – but with little useful information stored, is it worth saving?

Some $250 million has been allocated in a full year simply to keep the lights on and My Health Record ticking over.

Although the current functionality and support for My Health Record leaves much to be desired, closing it down without replacement was never an option.

What’s missing?

The obvious omission relates to mental health. Although funding has been provided for more budget time bombs – programs which otherwise would have ended – and funding for additional places in psychology courses, mental health reform is still a work in progress.

The discontinuation of the COVID-related temporary extension of the Better Access program from a limit of ten to a limit of 20 mental health visits prompted predictable criticism, even though the program was demonstrably inequitable. The government has recognised this gap, titling its mental health budget announcement “laying the groundwork”.

Overall, the health component of the 2023-2024 budget is well crafted. It signals a new priority for primary care and provides a new foundation for funding reform for the future.

Read more:
Seeing a psychologist on Medicare? Soon you’ll be back to 10 sessions. But we know that’s not often enough

Stephen Duckett is Chair of the Board of Directors of Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network and was a member of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce

– ref. Health budget has big changes – reviving our worn-out Medicare system and boosting bulk billing – https://theconversation.com/health-budget-has-big-changes-reviving-our-worn-out-medicare-system-and-boosting-bulk-billing-204527

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Diana Zhang, Fulbright and Scientia PhD Scholar, UNSW Sydney

In 1991, the world was shocked to learn actor Michael J. Fox had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

He was just 29 years old and at the height of Hollywood fame, a year after the release of the blockbuster Back to the Future III. This week, documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie will be released. It features interviews with Fox, his friends, family and experts.

Parkinson’s is a debilitating neurological disease characterised by motor symptoms including slow movement, body tremors, muscle stiffness, and reduced balance. Fox has already broken his arms, elbows, face and hand from multiple falls.

It is not genetic, has no specific test and cannot be accurately diagnosed before motor symptoms appear. Its cause is still unknown, although Fox is among those who thinks chemical exposure may play a central role, speculating that “genetics loads the gun and environment pulls the trigger”.

In research published today in ACS Central Science, we built an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can predict Parkinson’s disease with up to 96% accuracy and up to 15 years before a clinical diagnosis based on the analysis of chemicals in blood.

While this AI tool showed promise for accurate early diagnosis, it also revealed chemicals that were strongly linked to a correct prediction.

More common than ever

Parkinson’s is the world’s fastest growing neurological disease with 38 Australians diagnosed every day.

For people over 50, the chance of developing Parkinson’s is higher than many cancers including breast, colorectal, ovarian and pancreatic cancer.

Symptoms such as depression, loss of smell and sleep problems can predate clinical movement or cognitive symptoms by decades.

However, the prevalence of such symptoms in many other medical conditions means early signs of Parkinson’s disease can be overlooked and the condition may be mismanaged, contributing to increased hospitalisation rates and ineffective treatment strategies.

Read more:
Drooling is a common symptom of Parkinson’s. Could a workout for the swallowing muscles help?

Our research

At UNSW we collaborated with experts from Boston University to build an AI tool that can analyse mass spectrometry datasets (a technique that detects chemicals) from blood samples.

For this study, we looked at the Spanish European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study which involved over 41,000 participants. About 90 of them developed Parkinson’s within 15 years.

To train the AI model we used a subset of data consisting of a random selection of 39 participants who later developed Parkinson’s. They were matched to 39 control participants who did not. The AI tool was given blood data from participants, all of whom were healthy at the time of blood donation. This meant the blood could provide early signs of the disease.

Drawing on blood data from the EPIC study, the AI tool was then used to conduct 100 “experiments” and we assessed the accuracy of 100 different models for predicting Parkinson’s.

Overall, AI could detect Parkinson’s disease with up to 96% accuracy. The AI tool was also used to help us identify which chemicals or metabolites were likely linked to those who later developed the disease.

Read more:
Does methamphetamine use cause Parkinson’s? And what do pizza boxes have to do with it?

Key metabolites

Metabolites are chemicals produced or used as the body digests and breaks down things like food, drugs, and other substances from environmental exposure.

Our bodies can contain thousands of metabolites and their concentrations can differ significantly between healthy people and those affected by disease.

Our research identified a chemical, likely a triterpenoid, as a key metabolite that could prevent Parkinson’s disease. It was found the abundance of triterpenoid was lower in the blood of those who developed Parkinson’s compared to those who did not.

Triterpenoids are known neuroprotectants that can regulate oxidative stress – a leading factor implicated in Parkinson’s disease – and prevent cell death in the brain. Many foods such as apples and tomatoes are rich sources of triterpenoids.

A synthetic chemical (a polyfluorinated alkyl substance) was also linked as something that might increase the risk of the disease. This chemical was found in higher abundances in those who later developed Parkinson’s.

More research using different methods and looking at larger populations is needed to further validate these results.

Read more:
Bad dreams in children linked to a higher risk of dementia and Parkinson’s disease in adulthood – new study

A high financial and personal burden

Every year in Australia, the average person with Parkinson’s spends over A$14,000 in out-of-pocket medical costs.

The burden of living with the disease can be intolerable.

Fox acknowledges the disease can be a “nightmare” and a “living hell”, but he has also found that “with gratitude, optimism is sustainable”.

As researchers, we find hope in the potential use of AI technologies to improve patient quality of life and reduce health-care costs by accurately detecting diseases early.

We are excited for the research community to try our AI tool, which is publicly available.

This research was performed with Mr Chonghua Xue and A/Prof Vijaya Kolachalama (Boston University).

Diana Zhang completed this research while undertaking a Fulbright Future Scholarship funded by the Kinghorn Foundation. She is supported by a Scientia PhD and RTP scholarship from the University of New South Wales.

William Alexander Donald receives funding from the Australian Research Council (FT200100798).

– ref. Here’s how a new AI tool may predict early signs of Parkinson’s disease – https://theconversation.com/heres-how-a-new-ai-tool-may-predict-early-signs-of-parkinsons-disease-205221