Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Mortlock, Adjunct Fellow, UNSW Sydney

Tropical cyclone Ilsa has been downgraded to a category-three cyclone as it moves southeast through Western Australia. The storm first made landfall as a category-five cyclone, passing near Port Hedland around midnight.

Ilsa smashed into the largely uninhabited Pilbara region (the country’s most cyclone-prone region) at record-breaking speeds. It has delivered Australia’s highest ten-minute sustained wind speed record at landfall: about 218 kilometres per hour. The previous record of 194km per hour came from tropical cyclone George in 2007.

So, does this new speed make Ilsa a particularly menacing disaster? The science of reporting on cyclone wind speeds is highly complex – and it can be easy to misconstrue the figures without some context.

Record-breaking sustained wind speeds

As Ilsa continues to move inland, it looks likely the storm will be further downgraded before it passes into the Northern Territory – and potentially over Alice Springs – later today and tomorrow.

Ilsa made landfall about 100km north of Port Hedland, which hosts the world’s largest export site for iron ore. But a red alert prompted most vessels to be moved farther west in advance, so it only caused minor destruction.

Analysis by James Knight at Aon’s Reinsurance Solutions expects in general it will cause only minor damage due to the remoteness of where it has hit.

Apart from the ten-minute sustained record mentioned above, Ilsa had a one-minute sustained record of 240km per hour, and a three-second sustained record of 295km per hour.

It’s usually the latter, more intense gusts, that cause the most damage in tropical cyclone events. When it comes to making potential damage assessment for insurance purposes, firms will often model damage associated with a three-second sustained wind speed.

But there are several challenges that come with recording and making predictions about cyclone wind speeds.

Read more:
Cyclone Freddy was the most energetic storm on record. Is it a harbinger of things to come?

How are tropical cyclone winds recorded?

The Bureau of Meteorology maintains a national wind recording database, which uses instruments called anemometers. These measure wind speeds at locations across the country, and are often placed in flat areas, such as near airports.

Their specific placement is very important, because wind can change form as it moves over and through certain types of terrain.

Generally, when we report wind speed we’re referring to atmospheric wind gust, or wind speeds at least ten metres off the ground, which we also call “open terrain” wind speed.

However, wind passing closer to the ground, where the topography varies, will often be higher than winds passing directly above. Wind will speed up, for instance, if it’s squeezed between two hills.

We know from post-cyclone damage surveys that wind speeds can vary significantly from one side of a hill to another. So aspect and slope are very important.

As far as disaster modelling goes, this is no small issue as it can skew recordings. It’s quite possible there would have been wind gusts from Ilsa that exceeded what has been reported so far.

Australia lacks a sufficiently dense network of anemometers set up for long-term testing. If we want to gain insight into the frequency and intensity of extreme cyclone wind speeds over time, we’ll need a national quality-controlled network that has better spatial coverage.

The equipment we have, although it’s designed to withstand extreme conditions, can get knocked around and thrown offline – introducing data gaps in the time series.

Accurate and consistent data points are crucial if we want to record and predict the kinds of extreme winds we might experience during future tropical cyclones. And while the efforts of independent storm chasers and university groups do go some way, taking measurements from different sources can introduce a lot of uncertainty in the overall process.

Cyclone intensity will increase

Since 1975, there have been 48 category-five tropical cyclones to hit Australia – an average of about one per year. Shile Ilsa sets a new record for the strongest sustained wind gust at landfall, category-five tropical cyclones have been occurring with some regularity overall.

It’s worth mentioning Ilsa formed pretty late in the cyclone season. Although the Bureau of Meteorology says cyclones can form any time of the year, its very rare for this to happen outside of April.

Historical trends and climate change projections suggest the number of landfalling cyclones in our region will decrease over time. This has been consistent with real-world data, and puts Australia at odds with other regions of the world, where cyclone frequency is increasing.

However, most climate models also predict a greater proportion of these cyclones will be of a higher strength. The current scientific consensus is we’ll experience these events less often, but when we do, they will be more intense.

Read more:
Anatomy of monster storm: how Cyclone Ilsa is shaping up to devastate the WA coast

Thomas Mortlock works for Aon Reinsurance Solutions.

– ref. Cyclone Ilsa just broke an Australian wind speed record. An expert explains why the science behind this is so complex – https://theconversation.com/cyclone-ilsa-just-broke-an-australian-wind-speed-record-an-expert-explains-why-the-science-behind-this-is-so-complex-203835

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

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s hope for a bipartisan approach on the Voice to parliament referendum has crumbled.

Late last year, the National party declared it would oppose the proposed model, while the Liberal party did the same earlier this month.

Nationals Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the current Voice model “lacks detail”, “divides us along the lines of race”, and that it’s “a way to push people into feeling guilt for our nation’s history”.

And Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said “it is divisive and won’t deliver the outcomes to people on the ground”.

If these words sound familiar, that’s because in the late 1980s, the Coalition used the same arguments to oppose the creation of another First Nations advisory body, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).

Indeed, the Coalition has a long-held opposition to an empowered Indigenous advisory body, and Dutton is parroting a well-rehearsed Coalition songbook.

The Coalition’s battle against ATSIC

Over the past 40 years, cooperation between the major parties on Indigenous affairs has been a complicated matter.

Even the ostensibly bipartisan approach to the 1967 referendum – which succeeded in altering the constitution to enable the Commonwealth to make laws for Indigenous people – concealed partisan differences.

Read more:
The 1967 referendum was the most successful in Australia’s history. But what it can tell us about 2023 is complicated

Gough Whitlam’s policy of self-determination became self-management under the Coalition in the late 1970s. Bipartisanship deteriorated further in the late 1980s after the Aboriginal affairs minister in the Hawke Labor government, Gerry Hand, announced the need to recognise and legislate Aboriginal self-determination.

Hand’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) Bill would establish a national commission and regional councils across the country to monitor programs, develop policy and advise the minister. This was styled as a revolution in Aboriginal affairs.

In the 40 hours of parliamentary debates over the bill, clear ideological lines were drawn.

Hand said it was about giving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people access to all levels of government to ensure the right decisions were made about their lives. It was about a new partnership and an attempt to right the wrongs of history.

Opposing it, the Coalition argued it would divide the nation rather than unite it, that it constituted a “black parliament”, that it was a racial law, and that it would not overcome Indigenous disadvantage.

The Liberals and Nationals rejected what they called the “symbolism, separatism and perpetual guilt” of the appeal to history.

But it was Hand’s suggested preamble that worried the Coalition most. It acknowledged the distinct status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as prior occupants and original owners of the land. It aimed to provide them with:

full recognition and status within the Australian nation to which history, their prior ownership and occupation of the land, and their rich and diverse culture, fully entitle them to aspire.

The parliamentary debates reveal the Coalition’s visceral rejection of the preamble, which it called a “gross irresponsibility”.

In 1989, then MP John Howard declared the establishment of ATSIC an act of “sheer national idiocy”. Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Christopher Miles declared his party’s intention to abolish ATSIC if it proceeded as Hand had envisaged.

When the ATSIC bill finally passed, it was stripped of the preamble, and self-determination had been removed from its wording.

What’s happened since ATSIC?

As it turns out, the abolition of ATSIC became a bipartisan affair. In 2004, Prime Minister Howard declared the ATSIC Act would be repealed, after Labor leader Mark Latham announced his decision to do the same if elected to office. Latham suggested a reconstituted body, but Howard declared no intention of replacing it.

While there has been some cooperation on Indigenous policy since, bipartisanship around an advisory body has been a slippery proposition.

Disagreements emerged in 2017 when Labor backed the Referendum Council’s recommendation of a constitutionally enshrined Voice to parliament. Then Liberal leader, Malcolm Turnbull, rejected it.

Bipartisanship cropped up again when Liberal and Labor leaders agreed in 2018 to a restart on the referendum through a parliamentary committee, to find common ground on Indigenous recognition.

Given this history, it’s not surprising two of the main sticking points for the Coalition around the Voice proposal are that it will be permanent, and that it will have a voice to parliament and the executive (the cabinet and government departments).

The last time an Indigenous body advised the executive was when the Keating government sought to legislate native title following the Mabo decision. ATSIC mobilised a large group of Indigenous organisations to present their case to Keating’s Mabo Ministerial Committee.

Then, in a series of intense negotiations with Keating following his draft native title bill in 1993, they salvaged some rights in the face of their near extinguishment.

The resulting Native Title Act was declared by the then Liberal leader, John Hewson, as a “millstone around our country’s prosperity” and a recipe for division.

Read more:
Grattan on Friday: the high cost of the Liberals’ Voice rejection – for both Peter Dutton and the party

This week, Howard resurfaced to defend Dutton’s position on the Voice referendum, declaring Dutton had not betrayed the Liberal party.

Howard was speaking a truth – the Coalition’s position on the Voice is entirely consistent with their partisanship in this area of Aboriginal policy since the 1980s.

Everything they now argue to support their “no” vote to the Voice they have long maintained.

Alison Holland receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DP230100714 – Policy for Self-Determination: the Case Study of ATSIC) with Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt, Associate Professor Daryl Rigney, Dr Kirsten Thorpe and Lindon Coombes.

– ref. Dutton’s ‘no’ vote reflects 40 years of Coalition partisanship on the Voice – https://theconversation.com/duttons-no-vote-reflects-40-years-of-coalition-partisanship-on-the-voice-203660

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Humphery-Jenner, Associate Professor of Finance, UNSW Sydney

Sydney-based startup MilkRun made a big splash with its promise to deliver groceries within ten minutes, raising more than A$85 million from some of the biggest names in Australian venture capital, including Atlassian billionare Mike Cannon-Brookes.

MilkRun’s co-founder and chief executive Dany Milham had already found success with fast-delivering mattress company Koala. Less than a year ago he was confidently predicting MilkRun would be bigger than Coles or Woolworths within ten years.

Today the company is finished, with more than 400 staff made redundant.

It has joined a lengthening list of platform delivery companies that have done their dash in the Australian market. This include three other local startups promising 10-minute deliveries – Send in May 2022, Voly in November 2022, and CoLab which went into voluntary administration last week. British-owned Deliveroo shut down its Australian operations in November 2022, while German-owned Foodora exited in 2018.

Read more:
Deliveroo’s exit from Australia shows why gig workers need more protection

In an email to staff, Milham attributed MilkRun’s end to the slowing economy:

Economic and capital market conditions have continued to deteriorate, and while the business has continued to perform well, we feel strongly that this is the right decision in the current environment.

Certainly the effect of things like inflation increasing operating costs (including debt) as well as curbing discretionary spending can’t have helped.

But even in the best of conditions, MilkRun faced an uphill climb.

Could Milkrun ever make money?

Milkrun was, obviously, not profitable. This was not a problem per se. Many startups lose money for years before becoming immensely profitable. For example, Amazon, founded in 1994, didn’t have its first profitable year until 2003.

Some startups require significant scale to be profitable. Others forego profit to grow market share. Presumably the big name-venture capital firms that poured money into MilkRun – Cannon-Brookes’ private investment company Grok Ventures, Airtree Ventures (which invested in Canva), and New York-based Tiger Global Management – saw such potential.

But what was that potential, exactly? How could MilkRun ever scale to become profitable? Was there really a big enough market for super-quick grocery delivery? Or were they swept along by the mania for delivery ventures that came with the pandemic, lockdowns and the surge in online ordering in 2020 and 2021?

MilkRun commenced during the pandemic – the perfect time for “last mile” deliveries. But by mid-last year, with lockdowns of thing of the past, the numbers didn’t look great.

It was still losing at least $10 on each delivery. Though that was much better than the $40 loss it had initially been making, Milham’s plan to soon become profitable would involve, in June 2022, dropping MilkRun’s 10-minute delivery pledge – undermining its key branding point.

Costs would have gone up anyway

Even without the unexpected economic hit of inflation over the past year, MilkRun faced escalating costs.

To grow market share, it would have to expand out from the high-density, affluent inner-city areas. Operating in more suburban areas, with longer distances and more dispersed customers, would compound “last mile” delivery costs.

Any hint of profitability would also inevitably arouse competition from the major supermarkets, whose thousands of suburban stores and supply chains positioned them to compete in the express delivery market any time they chose.

The cost of MilkRun’s “dark store” distribution network, set up when rents were suppressed by closed borders, were also likely to increase.

Narrow path to profitability

Perhaps MilkRun’s goal was to grow market share until drone delivery became viable or other business lines (such as alcohol delivery) and profit opportunities arose. But, on present unit economics, even in ideal conditions, this was a tall ask in a post-pandemic world.

Arguably the writing has been on the wall for about year, with MilkRun reportedly unable to persuade any investors to sink more money into the company.

Venture capitalists know many of the startups they fund will fail. They will back an idea early on, when a path to profitability is unclear. But they will not keep pumping in more money if a path does not materialise.

It is easy to be a “Monday expert”, decrying decisions from a position of perfect hindsight. But MilkRun always had a challenging business model, something ever more apparent as the world emerged from lockdowns, demand subsided, cost of living pressures increased and business costs rose.

Mark Humphery-Jenner is on the Investment Committee of Sydney Angels. He does not have any direct financial interest with any companies mentioned in this article.

– ref. MilkRun’s demise is another nail in the 10-minute grocery-delivery business model – https://theconversation.com/milkruns-demise-is-another-nail-in-the-10-minute-grocery-delivery-business-model-203757

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Booth, Associate Professor of Human Geography, University of Tasmania

Most communities along the northwest coast of Western Australia appear to have dodged a bullet after Cyclone Ilsa made landfall overnight. While some structures, such as the Pardoo Roadhouse, were damaged, the destruction was less than we feared.

But unfortunately, there will be a next time. Climate change is predicted to bring increasingly severe and frequent weather events and disasters.

As those in recently flooded regions of New South Wales and Queensland know, it takes a long time to rebuild and recover from disasters. And alarmingly, our resilience is being undermined by the housing crisis, underinsurance and inadequate planning.

The problems can conspire to worsen inequality. It means vulnerable populations are hit hardest when disaster strikes.

Read more:
Is your neighbourhood underinsured? Search our map to find out

Disasters, housing and underinsurance

The cost of housing is driving many people into financial stress. With little if any money to spare, many Australians are likely not to have insurance. This leaves them extra vulnerable should disaster hit.

Renters are among those least likely to have insurance. This means they may struggle to pay for alternative accommodation if their home is affected by a disaster.

Research I’ve co-authored has revealed tragic story after tragic story of people realising too late they were not insured, or their level of insurance was too low to cover the cost of rebuilding their lives after disaster.

A national housing shortage means options can be limited for both renters and homeowners looking for alternative accommodation after their homes are damaged in a disaster.

Increasing housing supply may address some of these issues. However, inadequate planning can lead to housing developments in disaster-prone areas such as floodplains. It can also lead to environmental degradation that can increase exposure of homes and communities to disasters.

For example, coastal ecosystems such as the mangroves of northern Australia can reduce the impact of storms. They slow the speed and size of waves and stabilise soil and sediments and can offer some protection to nearby settlements.

But development for housing or infrastructure near coastal regions can put these ecosystems at risk.

Insurance for such homes and communities may become unaffordable or unattainable as disasters worsen.

Add in the tyranny of distance faced by people living in remote and rural Australia, and we see increasing numbers of people and communities at risk from the social and financial impacts of disasters in the era of climate change.

Failing to address this mix can worsen inequality

If left unaddressed, our current housing crisis coupled with climate change could see more and more people living in the kinds of shanty towns and tent cities seen around the time of the Great Depression.

We risk turning back the clock on gains made in improving urban liveability. This will further stretch the embattled social service sector and the capacity of governments to ensure community resilience.

A key aspect of resilience is lowering the gap between rich and poor, recognising that people and communities recover better if they can work together.

So any action we take needs to be focused on social equity and involve coordination across the three tiers of government.

Planning needs to respond to the relationship between disasters, housing, and insurance.

This includes a systematic and equitable effort to relocate communities out of high-risk areas. It means protecting ecosystems that in turn help to protect communities.

It also means ensuring new housing is safe, affordable, insurable and located in safe places, designed to withstand local risks.

Read more:
Underinsurance is entrenching poverty as the vulnerable are hit hardest by disasters

Kate Booth has received funding from the Australian Research Council (DP170100096). She is a member of the Planning Institute of Australia.

– ref. Cyclone Ilsa: how disasters, the housing crisis and underinsurance can conspire to worsen inequality – https://theconversation.com/cyclone-ilsa-how-disasters-the-housing-crisis-and-underinsurance-can-conspire-to-worsen-inequality-203753

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland

Australians are jetting back out into the world again. The numbers are still below pre-pandemic levels, but almost 1.1 million Australians left the country in December last year – compared to 1.3 million in December 2019. According to information provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, passport applications smashed records in 2022, averaging more than 250,000 each month in the second half of the year.

International travel is a safe, positive experience for most people, but unfortunately things do go wrong for some travellers. Trouble, when it comes, can involve anything from lost passports and small-scale theft to serious welfare problems, hospitalisation and arrests.

In these cases, DFAT’s consular service will be expected to do what it can to assist. But where does personal responsibility begin and end when we leave our shores? What should we expect from our government, and what can we do ourselves to minimise the risks?

Travellers behaving badly

As a former head of the consular service in the early 2000s, I know the caseload involving overseas Australians is not limited to major, news-grabbing situations, like the recent kidnapping of an Australia-based academic by a criminal gang in Papua New Guinea, or the impact of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria on Australians and their families.

These were serious situations requiring intensive work from our diplomats, but there is much more to the job than that.

From June 2021-22, an average of four Australians died overseas every day, while an average of two Australians were arrested every day – on matters ranging from immigration breaches to drugs crime, theft and fraud.

In total, nearly 16,000 Australians turned to their local Australian overseas mission that year for help in “crisis cases” – more than triple the number in 2018-19 before the pandemic. COVID-related repatriations arranged by DFAT were counted separately – there were more than 62,000 of these in the past three years.

Carrying an Australian passport means we can rely on a consular service to provide support in these situations. But expectations have grown among travellers in recent decades, partly because of the speed of our communications and the instant public feedback we receive via social media.

While most Australians are self-reliant travellers, there are still many not living up to their side of the bargain. Most importantly, there are still too many not taking out appropriate travel insurance. Others disregard official travel warnings and then turn to the government for help when things go wrong.

Then there are those whose expectations are just inappropriate – asking officials to arrange opera tickets or look after their pets, for example.

More seriously, expectations can be very hard to manage in arrest cases overseas. Some Australians are shocked their citizenship doesn’t come with a “get out of jail free card”. But we are all subject to local laws and authority, no matter what notions we might have about the standards of justice that apply in some countries.

At any given time, there are between 300 and 400 Australians imprisoned overseas. Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, there are real limits to what the Australian consular service can do in these cases.

The service will check periodically on the welfare of prisoners overseas, guide them towards local legal representation and monitor their trials. But that’s about it. This applies to foreigners imprisoned in Australia, too.

To be sure, there is occasionally a case that is clearly so arbitrary or unjust, our government calls for the release of the individual. This was the case for Sean Turnell, who was imprisoned in Myanmar for political reasons until being released last year. But unlike Turnell, most Australian prisoners overseas probably have a case to answer.

Three ways to stay safe

1) Be informed about where you are going

Australians have a responsibility to know what’s happening at their planned destinations. The conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere have impacted many travellers, as have major weather events and natural disasters.

With international flights returning to normality over the last year, DFAT’s COVID repatriation program has largely wound up. Travellers once again need to look to their own resources – or their travel insurance policies – to ensure they get home.

The government’s Smartraveller website is a reliable source of up-to-date information on everything from emerging health risks to cultural and legal issues in specific countries to the local security situation. They have recently launched a fresh advertising campaign in an effort to highlight the importance of avoiding trouble in the first place.

2) Stay in touch with family back home

The consular service deals with hundreds of “whereabouts” inquiries each year. And if disaster strikes when you are travelling somewhere, your family and friends will be worried.

In each of the major consular disaster responses I was involved in, including the September 11 attacks and the 2002 Bali bombings, there were people who caused their loved ones untold grief by not letting them know they were safe.

In my recent book, The Consul, I recount the story of one Australian who worked on an upper floor of the World Trade Center in New York, but took ten days to let his family know he had actually been in London when the attacks took place.

3) Buy good travel insurance

If there’s one thing travellers really should do, it’s to take out travel insurance. Most people think about insurance as a way of covering themselves for flight cancellations or for the theft of personal items. But if you get sick or are injured overseas – or even in the case of a death – insurance is critical. The Australian government cannot just step in and pay for a medical evacuation.

From my time as consular chief, I know that some Australians were forced to sell their homes to cover their medical costs overseas. People also often find themselves under-insured, or are surprised to learn that certain activities, such as adventure sports, are not covered.

Young people are the least likely to take out insurance. Travel industry surveys indicate about 12% of travellers below the age of 30 do not intend to take out insurance, and the number is higher for those heading to destinations in the developed world regarded as “safe”. It really doesn’t work like that though – hospitalisation in the United States without insurance can mean financial disaster.

It doesn’t take much to minimise the risk of difficulties turning into disasters overseas.

Read more:
Relief as Australian Sean Turnell to be released from prison in Myanmar, but more needs to be done

Ian Kemish is a former senior Australian diplomat who served as head of the Australian consular service from 2000 to 2004. His book The Consul was published by UQP in 2022.

– ref. Travelling overseas? Here’s what the embassy will – and won’t – do to help if you get in trouble – https://theconversation.com/travelling-overseas-heres-what-the-embassy-will-and-wont-do-to-help-if-you-get-in-trouble-198589

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Murphy, Senior Lecturer, Astrophysics, The University of Queensland

Finding life on other planets might well be the holy grail of astronomy, but the hunt for suitable host planets that can sustain life is a resource-intensive task.

The search for exoplanets (planets outside our Solar System) involves competing for time on Earth’s biggest telescopes – yet the hit rate of this search can be disappointingly low.

In a new study published today in Science, I and my international team of colleagues have combined different search techniques to discover a new giant planet. It could change the way we try to image planets in the future.

Imaging planets is no small feat

To satisfy our curiosity about our place in the universe, astronomers have developed many techniques to search for planets orbiting other stars. Perhaps the simplest of these is called direct imaging. But it’s not easy.

Direct imaging involves attaching a powerful camera to a large telescope and trying to detect light emitted, or reflected, from a planet. Stars are bright, and planets are dim, so it’s akin to searching for fireflies dancing around a spotlight.

It’s no surprise only about 20 planets have been found with this technique to date.

Yet direct imaging is of great value. It helps shed light on a planet’s atmospheric properties, such as its temperature and composition, in a way other detection techniques can’t.

HIP99770b: a new gas giant

Our direct imaging of a new planet, named HIP99770b, reveals a hot, giant and moderately cloudy planet. It orbits its star at a distance that falls somewhere between the orbital distances of Saturn and Uranus around our Sun.

With about 15 times the mass of Jupiter, HIP99770b is a real giant. However, it’s also more than 1,000℃, so it’s not a good prospect for a habitable world.

What the HIP99770 system does offer is an analogy to our own Solar System. It has a cold “debris disk” of ice and rock far out from the star, akin to a scaled-up version of the Kuiper Belt in our Solar System.

The main difference is that the HIP99770 system is dominated by one high-mass planet, rather than several smaller ones.

Searching with the light on

We reached our findings by first detecting hints of a planet via indirect detection methods. We noticed the star was wobbling in space, which hinted at the presence of a planet in the vicinity with a large gravitational pull.

This motivated our direct imaging efforts; we were no longer searching in the dark.

The extra data came from the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft, which has been measuring the positions of nearly one billion stars since 2014. Gaia is sensitive enough to detect tiny variations of a star’s motion through space, such as those caused by planets.

We also supplemented these data with measurements from Gaia’s predecessor, Hipparcos. In total, we had 25 years’ worth of “astrometric” (positional) data to work with.

Previously, researchers have used indirect methods to guide imaging that has discovered companion stars, but not planets.

It’s not their fault: massive stars such as HIP99770 – which is almost twice the mass of our Sun – are reluctant to give up their secrets. Otherwise-successful search techniques can rarely reach the levels of precision required to detect planets around such massive stars.

Our detection, which used both direct imaging and astrometry, demonstrates a more efficient way to search for planets. It’s the first time the direct detection of an exoplanet has been guided through initial indirect detection methods.

Gaia is expected to continue observing until at least 2025, and its archive will remain useful for decades to come.

Mysteries remain

Astrometry of HIP99770 suggests it belongs to the Argus association of stars – a group of stars that moves together through space. This would suggest the system is rather young, about 40 million years old. That would make it roughly one-hundredth of the age of our Solar System.

However, our analysis of the star’s pulsations, as well as models of the planet’s brightness, suggest an older age of between 120 million and 200 million years. If this is the case, HIP99770 might just be an interloper in the Argus group.

Now that it’s known to host a planet, astronomers will aim to further unravel the mysteries of HIP99770 and its immediate environment.

Read more:
A ‘next-generation’ gamma-ray observatory is underway to probe the extreme Universe

Simon Murphy receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He contributed to this research whilst at the University of Sydney, as well as at the University of Southern Queensland, where he now works as an ARC Future Fellow.

– ref. Astronomers have directly detected a massive exoplanet. The method could transform the search for life beyond Earth – https://theconversation.com/astronomers-have-directly-detected-a-massive-exoplanet-the-method-could-transform-the-search-for-life-beyond-earth-203752

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lyria Bennett Moses, Professor in the Faculty of Law and Justice at UNSW; Director of the UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation, UNSW Sydney

Australia has joined other countries in announcing a ban on the use of TikTok on government devices, with some states and territories following suit. The rationale was based on security fears and, in particular, the risk the platform will be used for foreign interference operations by China.

TikTok is a video-sharing platform operated by ByteDance, a company headquartered in Beijing, but incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Data is allegedly stored in the US and Singapore.

Like similar sites, TikTok’s privacy policy indicates an expansive approach to the collection and use of personal information. It can collect information from users and third parties (such as advertisers), and it can draw inferences about its users’ interests.

All of this information can then be shared with TikTok’s partners and service providers to, among other things, personalise content and advertising.

The policy also says information will be shared when there is a legal requirement to do so. China’s national intelligence law obliges citizens and organisations to support, assist and cooperate with national intelligence efforts, which could include ByteDance sharing people’s TikTok data.

While TikTok denies it would hand over data in such circumstances, there are reports that data from American users has been accessed by China-based employees. TikTok has also censored content that is politically sensitive in China.

The problem with focusing on only one app

While the Australian government’s response can be explained through this logic, questions remain.

Given the ban only affects government devices, couldn’t the same people be susceptible to foreign interference through their use of TikTok on personal devices?

What about other apps, such as Facebook, that collect significant amounts of user data – are these more secure than TikTok? Even if other digital platforms don’t have connections with China, couldn’t they share or sell data to other entities, such as advertisers, data brokers or business partners? And mightn’t those third parties have connections with China? Or other countries with similar laws?

A final point: foreign interference can take place on a range of digital platforms. Russia has run information campaigns designed to influence US elections using platforms such as YouTube, Tumblr, Google, Instagram, PayPal, Facebook and Twitter.

In other words, the problem of digital security and foreign interference is bigger than just one app or the use of government devices.

Indeed, the Department of Home Affairs notes that foreign interference activities are not only directed towards government, but also academia, industries, the media and other communities (which is actually everyone).

Banning TikTok on government devices does eliminate one risk, but the broader pool of risks remain both in government and beyond.

Read more:
Why was TikTok banned on government devices? An expert on why the security concerns make sense

A new, more effective cybersecurity strategy

The government is currently developing a new cyber security strategy to replace the one put in place by the previous government just three years ago.

A discussion paper on the new strategy was released earlier this year, with submissions due this week.

This process will hopefully result in a more holistic strategy on how to manage the cybersecurity and foreign interference concerns that led to the TikTok ban.

Rather than the whack-a-mole tactical response of banning one app at a time, the strategy could provide clarity on how the government will manage issues around weak security on mobile apps (particularly used by people in sensitive sectors), as well as the potential for this to be an entry point for foreign interference.

This could include such things as:

• educating people on digital security and foreign interference

• streamlined reporting channels for data breaches, foreign interference attempts, cybercrime, bugs and vulnerabilities

• developing or recommending the use of appropriate standards on cybersecurity, which could include references to international standards in areas such as information security and data governance

• strengthening cooperation between government and platforms and civil society

• targeted prohibitions, which may include bans on apps that could share data with countries that might then use it for foreign interference.

This kind of strategic approach, particularly on the education side, would give Australians better tools to arm themselves against foreign interference online, which as Home Affairs emphasises, is the “best defence” available.

A stronger privacy act could help, too

Another relevant policy development is the government’s review of the Privacy Act, which is the primary Australian law on data protection.

Changing the rules about how data is collected and used by platforms could provide less fodder for those running foreign interference operations. This could include banning unfair uses, such as targeted messaging based on a psychological profile. If the platforms don’t facilitate these uses, it becomes more difficult for foreign governments to use these tools for manipulation.

Enhancing funding for the primary data regulator, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, could also strengthen enforcement across the board.

Read more:
Proposed privacy reforms could help Australia play catch-up with other nations. But they fail to tackle targeted ads

What is needed is a strategy, not tactics

These two reform initiatives exist within a maze of others, including inquiries or proposals relating to online privacy, digital platform services, the influence of international digital platforms, electronic surveillance, and digital economy regulation.

Beyond Australia, at the United Nations level, some questions about whether international law can be applied to cyberspace have been resolved, while others remain open. Australia’s position on these issues could also be clarified.

Ultimately, what is needed is a strategy, rather than tactics, and better coordination of relevant policies across government. The TikTok example also highlights a truism that we shouldn’t think in terms of privacy or security, but rather privacy and security.

While there is an occasional need to choose between these two values (for example, when government agencies surveil those suspected of a crime, terrorism or espionage), in the vast majority of situations security is enhanced when the privacy of personal information is protected.

For example, the more personal information a foreign agent can access about citizens working in sensitive areas, the better it can target espionage and influence operations. If social media companies are restricted in how they collect, use and share Australians’ data, we can take significant steps towards protecting everyone from foreign interference and other harms.

We need all the policies and associated agencies (cyber, privacy, education, platform regulation, international relations, national security and more) working together if we are to meet the current challenges. It may make sense to ban TikTok on government devices, but we need to address this problem more than one app at a time.

Lyria Bennett Moses receives funding from the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre; the UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation receives funding from Allens. Within the last year, Lyria has done research for the Department of the Treasury, the Australasian Institute for Judicial Administration, and the NSW Information and Privacy Commission. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Gradient Institute, the Executive Committee of the Australian Chapter of the IEEE’s Society for the Social Implications of Technology, the NSW Information and Privacy Advisory Committee, and Standard Australia’s Committee IT-043 (Artificial Intelligence). She also engages with and presents for a wide variety of bodies, including not for profits and politically-active organisations. The work on this article represents her own views and do not necessarily align with the positions taken on these issues by any of the above.

– ref. Australia needs a robust cybersecurity overhaul – not whack-a-mole bans on apps like TikTok – https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-a-robust-cybersecurity-overhaul-not-whack-a-mole-bans-on-apps-like-tiktok-203158

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Dahlen, Professor of Midwifery, Associate Dean Research and HDR, Midwifery Discipline Leader, Western Sydney University

With the days becoming noticeably shorter, winter is on its way in the Southern Hemisphere.

Most pregnant women are aware of the recommendations around getting vaccinated against influenza (flu) and pertussis (whooping cough). However, COVID is still relatively new, meaning women who have never been pregnant before may be unaware of the current recommendations and research.

Like the flu and whooping cough, COVID can strike at anytime over the course of the year – as shown by the ongoing reports of COVID cases and deaths in Australia.

However, viruses that cause respiratory conditions thrive in cold, dry conditions, and our bodies change how they respond to disease. We will likely stay indoors more in closed spaces that are heated – making the air drier – and not well ventilated.

It all makes for a worrying mix for expectant parents – and some will also be worried about vaccines.

1 in 10 pregnant women are vaccine hesitant

We are following more than 6,000 Australian women in the Birth in the Time of COVID-19 study who were pregnant or gave birth during the first two years of the pandemic. We also sent them follow-up surveys at two months, six months, 12 months and 24 months after giving birth.

This sample included more respondents who could read and write English and were born in Australia than the general population and were generally more socioeconomically advantaged than average. So the real level of hesitancy about COVID vaccines may be higher.

Our latest findings reporting on 2,144 responses to questions on vaccine uptake, published in the journal BMJ Open show around one in ten pregnant women and just over one in 13 postnatal women were hesitant to get a COVID vaccination.

Those who expressed hesitancy during pregnancy were more likely to live in a state other than New South Wales, were younger (aged under 30), did not have a university education and earned less than A$80,000. They were also more likely not to have pregnancy risk factors and were generally less satisfied with life.

Concerns about taking any medication when pregnant are common and understandable.

So what does the evidence say?

Women might worry there is not enough information on safety yet. But real-life data shows no evidence of a negative impact on fertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm birth or other problematic pregnancy outcomes, and no negative impact on newborns or via breastfeeding.

We also know most side effects are mild and go away within a couple of days.

But getting COVID when pregnant and unvaccinated leads to a higher risk of severe illness which can require hospital admission and, sometimes ventilation for breathing assistance. The baby may have a higher risk of premature birth (before 37 weeks of pregnancy), stillbirth or admission to the hospital newborn unit.

COVID vaccination protects the mother and can provide some protection to babies by transferring antibodies through the placenta (during pregnancy) or through breast milk (during breastfeeding).

New research from the Doherty Institute shows pregnant women mount a strong immune reponse to COVID and vaccination provides an advantage by inducing cells that fight the infection.

What do pregnant women need to know now winter is coming?

If you are trying to become pregnant, you do not need to delay vaccination or avoid becoming pregnant after vaccination.

For pregnant women, there are special considerations that need to be discussed so informed decisions can be made.

Advice from the Department of Health and Aged Care is that if you are pregnant, you should have two COVID vaccine doses (called the primary course). If your immunity is severely compromised, you should receive a third dose of a COVID vaccine.

An mRNA vaccine such as Pfizer is recommended as part of the primary course. If you can’t have Pfizer, you can have Novavax. The original Moderna vaccine is no longer available in Australia.

While research has shown the Pfizer vaccine is safe if you are pregnant and/or breastfeeding, there is less data available on Novavax in pregnancy.

What if you’re already vaccinated?

If you are pregnant and have previously been vaccinated then you can have a booster dose, six months after your last vaccine dose or most recent COVID infection. Recommendations for booster doses if you are pregnant are now the same as for non-pregnant people of the same age. Discuss this with your health provider.

As of earlier this year, pregnancy is no longer considered a risk factor for severe illness for those who have already had their primary COVID vaccinations plus a booster, provided they do not have any special medical risks.

To book a COVID vaccine or booster dose, use the health Service Finder or text “Hey Eva” a callback service for Easy Vaccine Access.

Read more:
Sepsis is serious during pregnancy, but thankfully it is still rare

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

– ref. Pregnant this winter? Here’s how to prepare for COVID and get vaccinated – https://theconversation.com/pregnant-this-winter-heres-how-to-prepare-for-covid-and-get-vaccinated-202985

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natasha Ward, Lead Researcher, RMIT University

In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, a totem is a spiritual emblem from the natural world, such as a plant or animal. The totem is gifted to an individual by a parent or elder, usually around the time of their birth. Some people have several totems.

The connection is mutually beneficial: the totem is a protector of the person, who in turn shows their respect for the totem by caring for it.

We wanted to find out if totemic species, when gifted to schools by Traditional Custodians, could generate care for threatened species – while also embedding cultural awareness and Indigenous knowledge in the Australian science curriculum.

We ran a pilot program to test the idea and build an evidence base. The program was successful. Care for the totemic species increased and students expressed enthusiasm for this approach. And there were other benefits too.

Read more:
First Peoples’ knowledge of ‘mysterious fairy circles’ in Australian deserts has upended a long-standing science debate

Caring for the matted flax-lily

The matted flax-lily (Dianella amoena) is culturally significant to the Wurundjeri people. The berries and leaves are used for food and tea, weaving and making whistles to deter snakes.

But the species is critically endangered in Victoria and listed as endangered nationally. After land clearing for urban development, it is thought only 1,400 plants remain.

Students in all year levels at Carlton North Primary School in Melbourne worked with Uncle Dave Wandin, a Wurundjeri Elder, to create habitat for the flax-lily and learn about the species.

The program sought to embed both Indigenous and Western knowledge in a balanced and holistic way. Over ten weeks, the biology curriculum addressed sustainability and the environment, incorporating interactive and outdoor activities.

In one activity, students helped to construct a grassland ecosystem habitat with plantings of the flax-lily. Other activities included interactive food web role play, scientific drawing, seed planting, learning about Indigenous land management and the use of native ingredients in modern baking.

Connecting to nature

We used surveys of students, teachers and parents to understand the outcomes of the program.

After participating in the program, students had a better understanding of the matted flax-lily and its ecology. They also felt more connected with nature and indicated that they had learned about the Traditional Custodians and the importance of the totemic species. One student said:

I really enjoyed science this term (and) I feel much closer to our Indigenous culture than I ever have.

Students told the lead teachers that they wanted to bring the blue-banded bee back and plant native species in their own gardens:

I never knew about the matted flax-Lily and that it was going extinct and now I’m planning to plant some in my backyard!

Teachers also told us they felt better equipped to teach students about traditional ecological knowledge in a culturally appropriate manner. The main educators in the program thought the approach could be extended to other disciplines, including engineering, art and mathematics.

Parents and guardians also felt positive, referencing their child’s high engagement as well as their own interest in learning more about Indigenous culture and totemic species. One parent stated their child started to ask regularly if they could “plant native plants because of how important they are”.

Students went beyond the project team’s expectations and began to take care of the garden themselves, protecting their species during break times at school, showing the garden to their families and teaching them about the different species within it.

Overall, the program improved student engagement with nature and science. This permeated through to parents and guardians.

Weaving into the curriculum

Our research has the potential to improve teaching of Indigenous content across Australia. The program shows how Indigenous science can be embedded into the existing curriculum in a holistic way.

Student engagement with nature and science also increased along with personal feelings of connection and responsibility to the environment.

Additional benefits included the creation of habitat for threatened species. Imagine if every school in Australia contributed in this way to the conservation of biodiversity?

There’s also evidence that children playing in biodiverse schoolyards have improved cognitive function and reduced behavioural issues. Finally, greening our schoolyards can provide a critical cooling function.

Key to the program’s success was recognition of the time commitment from teachers and Wurundjeri Elders and recompensing them appropriately. This was crucial for facilitating deep involvement.

The school curriculum is already crowded with many competing demands. Expecting that an additional body of material can be incorporated without appropriate time and resources would have been impractical. Likewise, the time and knowledge of Traditional Owners is in high demand, so adequate provision of resources was an important feature of the program.

Further, embedding the material into an existing subject school-wide meant the program did not impose further demands on the curriculum. Instead, it was an efficient and effective way to deliver the material.

This also generated a sense of the topic being “core” to the curriculum, rather than an optional “add-on”. This alignment of the program with existing curriculum and the fact that the budget – while critical – was modest, mean it is entirely feasible to imagine implementation of similar programs in many other schools.

We hope that the program will be picked up and implemented in other schools across Australia. Ideally, the concept of totemic species will ultimately become integrated into the Australian curriculum.

The authors would like to acknowledge Emily Gregg, Benjamin May, Dave Wandin, Michael Harrison, Marnie Pascoe, Fiona McConachie and Alex Kusmanoff for their contribution to the research that underpins this article. Thanks also to the principal, staff, students and parents of Carlton North Primary School for supporting the project.
Visit our website to download the Totemic Species in Schools resources, including the program curriculum, findings factsheet, and evaluation survey.

Read more:
Indigenous spiritual teaching in schools can foster reconciliation and inclusion

Natasha Ward research cited in this article was undertaken by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub with funding from the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program (Phase 1).

Bradley J. Moggridge is affiliated with the University of Canberra, is a Governor with WWF Australia and a Member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists

Georgia Garrard receives funding from the Australian Research Council. Research cited in this article was undertaken by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub with funding from the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program (Phase 1). She is chair of Birdlife Australia’s Research and Conservation Committee, a member of Zoos Victoria’s Scientific Advisory Committee and a member of the Sustainable Subdivisions Framework advisory group for the Council Alliance for a Sustainable Built Environment.

Sarah Bekessy receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Ian Potter Foundation and the European Commission. Research cited in this article was undertaken by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub with funding from the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program (Phase 1) and the Victorian Department of Land, Water, Environment and Planning. 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.

– ref. Connecting to culture: here’s what happened when elders gifted totemic species to school kids – https://theconversation.com/connecting-to-culture-heres-what-happened-when-elders-gifted-totemic-species-to-school-kids-202386

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catharine Coleborne, Professor of History, School Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, University of Newcastle

This article is the first in our series on big ideas for the Universities Accord. The federal government is calling ideas to “reshape and reimagine higher education, and set it up for the next decade and beyond”. A review team is due to finish a draft report in June and a final report in December 2023.

There is a persistent idea that a generalist degree, such as a Bachelor of Arts, is less likely to land you a job when compared to a specific qualification. This is personified by the stereotypical arts student as a directionless young person who has chosen to explore sprawling and eclectic subjects with no clear outcomes.

This was reinforced by the introduction of the Job-ready Graduates package in 2020, which made most arts and humanities subjects more expensive to study from 2021. The cost of a Bachelor of Arts degree rose by 113%. (Incidentally, Universities Australia called for Job-ready Graduates to be scrapped this week, noting, “price signals as a driver of student choice simply do not work”.)

Either way, the idea a generalist degree just leads to overqualified graduates serving coffee Reality Bites-style is not only wrong, it is also a misguided understanding of what we need from graduates today and in the future.

Read more:
The universities accord could see the most significant changes to Australian unis in a generation

Arts degrees do lead to jobs

Research shows social science and humanities graduates are getting jobs after their studies.

The 2022 Graduate Outcomes Survey found almost 73% of humanities, culture and social sciences graduates were working in a range of government, non-government and business roles within several months of graduating.

This was an increase of 15% on the previous year, and was noticeably better than the overall average increase of just under 10%.

Why are we so fixated on ‘vocations’?

Since the 19th century, “work” has been understood through types of “occupations” that were undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life, with opportunities for improvement and promotion, and potentially framed as “careers”.

But the idea individuals train to learn a set of skills or knowledge that prepares them for one stable career is outdated.

What US professor Frank Parsons (considered the father of careers counselling) called “choosing a vocation” in 1909 has been supplanted by employers who want people who are good at problem-solving and analytical thinking, have digital skills, and can demonstrate leadership, initiative and resilience.

Read more:
The inequity of Job-ready Graduates for students must be brought to a quick end. Here’s how

A new definition of ‘employability’

We also need to reposition our understanding of “employability” by considering the uncertain future university graduates are heading into.

Along with the pandemic and climate change, we face increased global conflict, and important questions about how to support displaced peoples around the world and in our own region. There is also growing anxiety about what artificial intelligence will mean for our lives and workplaces.

Research shows our society will need the skills, deep knowledge and understanding to reframe what it means to create cohesive multicultural and diverse communities. It will need to support all lives – including the very young and the aged – with meaning and purpose in order to forge humanity’s future.

To do this, we should reimagine the future workforce through values, competencies and skills, not “professions”.

The rapid social change we are undergoing means future graduates will need to be highly flexible. Vocational degree training as we have understood it could leave students stranded and without the critical capability to understand how to adapt to new roles. For example, leaders in the profession of social work have predicted the vocational degree may need to be replaced by agile skills.

This is where the generalist degree comes in

This is why the generalist degree has a big part to play in the emerging higher education landscape for graduates. Humanities, social science, general science, technology and creative industries fields such as design can deliver adaptable, flexible mindsets.

Generalist graduates learn to argue, debate, discuss, engage with ideas, write and present.

These degrees also offer the so-called “soft skills” such as emotional intelligence, communication and teamwork.

A bold idea

What if the upcoming Universities Accord decided that generalist degrees, not vocational qualifications, were the future for university learning in Australia?

This could see more public-private partnerships to increase work experience and practical opportunities during study. This could create experiences in the community, industry and government.

In doing this, we should embrace the possibility of the broad curriculum that is offered by arts, humanities, social science and science degrees, but insist on elevating their transferable skills to set students up for a lifetime of work and learning.

However, a shift towards revaluing – and even elevating – generalist degrees will require a radical unpacking of degree structures, ways of teaching and learning, fee structures and models.

More students in Australia could be encouraged to expand their learning in a wide range of areas, but specialise and choose pathways by their second and third year of studies, with postgraduate credentials to follow.

Read more:
Labor’s promised universities accord could be a turning point for higher education in Australia

Valuing young peoples’ choices

Recent history tells us human adaptability will help us face future threats.

Young people want to engage in learning that will prepare them for futures we don’t yet see. Valuing the generalist degree – with graduates able to enjoy learning, develop the courage to think, reflect, interpret, evaluate, humanise, respond and create – will give young people confidence and a sense of their own agency.

Such a model could be world-leading.

Catharine Coleborne 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. Why arts degrees and other generalist programs are the future of Australian higher education – https://theconversation.com/why-arts-degrees-and-other-generalist-programs-are-the-future-of-australian-higher-education-203046

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Wilkins, Professorial Fellow and Deputy Director (Research), HILDA Survey, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne

It has long been known that incomes in Australia are more evenly distributed than in the United States.

But Australia has been thought to be a less equal society than many European ones, sitting somewhere in the middle between the United States and countries such as France.

We can measure income equality using the so-called Gini coefficient, which gives a score of 0 to a country in which incomes are completely evenly distributed and a score of 1 to a country in which one person has all the income.

The OECD gives the US a score of 0.375, Australia a score of 0.32 and France a score of 0.29.

But we’ve done work using a broader measure of income that incorporates all taxes paid, all company profits and (importantly) in-kind benefits such as health and education. And we’ve found the positions of Australia and France are reversed.

The US has an even less equal distribution of incomes under this measure (0.49 compared to 0.375), France a somewhat less changed distribution (0.33 compared to 0.29), and Australia a more equal distribution (0.28 compared to 0.32), making Australia the most equal country of the three in terms of income broadly defined.

We can show this in another way, comparing the share of broadly defined national income going to the top 10% of income earners.

On this measure, the US is easily the least equal of the three, with high earners getting 39% of national income. In Australia and France they get about 25%.

The US is also the least equal of the three, with Australia and France almost tied, when comparing the share of broadly defined income going to the bottom 50%.

In Australia and France, the bottom 50% get the most, at around 29%. In the US, the least, at 19%

We used a method pioneered by researchers in the US and Europe that combines household survey data, administrative tax data and national accounts data to create what are known as distributional national accounts.

Compared with previous measures of inequality, it fully accounts for the effects of Australia’s system of in-kind government provision of services such as health and education, all company profits (including those not paid out as dividends) and all taxes including income tax, company tax and the goods and services tax.

Although we find Australian incomes are much more evenly distributed than previously thought, they have gotten less equal in the past three decades.

Since 1991, the average incomes of Australia’s top 1% – and the top 0.1% in particular – have grown far faster than the average incomes of the bottom 90%.

Read more:
Who gets what? Who pays for it? How incomes, taxes and benefits work out for Australians

We also find a persistent gender gap in incomes, even when we account for income sharing in households, and for government spending on education, health, housing and social programs. Broadly measured, female economic wellbeing remains below that of males.

Our approach, described in full in our paper and guided by previous studies for France and the US, leaves room for refinement.

But it is enough to make clear that standard measures that leave out components of income and don’t account for taxes and benefits don’t tell the full story.

Roger Wilkins receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Nicolas Herault receives funding from the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the French National Research Agency.

Matthew Fischer-Post 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. Unequal? Our analysis suggests Australia is a more equal society than has been thought – https://theconversation.com/unequal-our-analysis-suggests-australia-is-a-more-equal-society-than-has-been-thought-202950

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Marriott, Professor of Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

As it stands in Aotearoa New Zealand, beneficiary fraud (fraud by people on benefits) is largely dealt with under the Crimes Act, while tax evasion is prosecuted under the Tax Administration Act. This, among other factors, means beneficiaries engaging in financial fraud face significantly stiffer penalties than professionals doing the same.

This inconsistency in how fraud is handled in New Zealand underscores the strong case for ensuring financial crimes are treated the same. Sentencing guidelines are a good place to start.

To be fair, sentencing is more of an art than a science. The art is balancing consistency with fairness, alongside all the aims of sentencing: deterrence, denouncing the behaviour, holding offenders accountable, providing for the interests of the victim and, in some cases, protecting the community, assisting in rehabilitation, and providing reparation.

It probably goes without saying that the combination of these objectives creates a system that is multi-faceted and complex. What may be less clear is that the complexity generates the potential for inconsistencies in sentencing decisions. Sentencing guidelines could help.

Creating clarity in a complex system

Sentencing guidelines provide guidance to judges on the length and type of sentence that is appropriate for a particular offence. Typically they provide a sentencing range with some, usually limited, opportunity to depart from this range. Guidelines prescribe sentences based on the seriousness of the current offence, while considering any prior offending.

Read more:
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This approach to sentencing is not unheard of in New Zealand. Guideline judgements exist for a range of serious offences, including aggravated robbery, sexual violation, grievous bodily harm and various categories of manslaughter. These guidelines primarily deal with offending that is likely to result in a sentence of imprisonment.

But this limited approach is problematic because inconsistency is more likely to occur at lower levels of offending. This is also where there is less transparency of sentencing outcomes as there is generally less media, and therefore public, attention on these cases.

There have been efforts to establish sentencing guidelines across the spectrum of offences. Nearly 17 years ago, the Law Commission raised the idea of an independent sentencing council to develop sentencing guidelines in New Zealand.

The council came close to a reality. A bill establishing the council passed in 2007 and subsequently received royal assent the same year. But the legislation was never introduced after the change of government in 2008. It was repealed in 2017.

Minimising inconsistency across all sentencing

Research has identified inconsistencies in sentencing practice in New Zealand for many years. Findings include that the type of offender, the location of the court and/or the individual judge may influence the sentence handed down.

Sentencing guidelines can minimise these inconsistencies in sentences. Guidelines also offer a range of other benefits including:

• increased transparency

• efficiency gains, as sentencing guidelines generate a single source reference for a judge

• improving public trust and engagement in the sentencing process

• removing the politicisation of sentencing, whereby judges may feel pressure – or may wish to – move in response to the prevailing political or public mood.

We have seen this in action. In 2008, Justice Graham Panckhurst wrote:

sentence levels, and therefore the prison population, have increased in response to popular demand.

The increased visibility that sentencing guidelines can bring is important for addressing either the presence of, or the potential for, institutional bias.

Independence of the judiciary is essential. And at least some level of discretion is necessary, to ensure that the judiciary can consider all relevant factors when making sentencing decisions. However, where there is complete discretion, there will be disparities.

Some of the clearest illustrations of these disparities can be seen in how we respond to financial fraud.

The disparity in financial fraud

Historically, there have been clear differences in the numbers of investigations and prosecutions, and severity of sentences, for tax evaders and benefit fraudsters. That said, this is changing. A similar number of tax evaders and benefit fraudsters are now prosecuted in New Zealand.

But there are still stark differences in how different types of financial fraud are dealt with.

My research, to be published later this year, found that between 2018 and 2020, most benefit fraud cases were prosecuted under the Crimes Act (83%) with 17% charged under the Social Security Act 1964. This situation reversed for tax cases, where 84% were prosecuted under the Tax Administration Act and 16% were prosecuted under the Crimes Act 1961.

The Crimes Act provides for harsher sentences than the Tax Administration Act. This is despite the tax offences typically comprising higher average values of offending.

Sentencing guidelines cannot address inconsistencies of treatment prior to sentencing, such as the use of different charging legislation, or even choices about who is, or is not, investigated or prosecuted.

However, guidelines can limit discrepancies in the sentence. Moreover, they can provide an opportunity for greater public engagement, as justification is typically required when sentences are outside the specified range.

With this in mind, there is a strong case to revisit introducing sentencing guidelines in New Zealand for financial fraud – and potentially many other offences.

Perhaps the strongest argument for sentencing guidelines is that of fairness. To the extent that sentencing guidelines can minimise the potential for different outcomes for offenders who commit similar offences, they can positively contribute to the justice system.

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

– ref. We need consistency in how we treat financial crimes. Sentencing guidelines are a good place to start – https://theconversation.com/we-need-consistency-in-how-we-treat-financial-crimes-sentencing-guidelines-are-a-good-place-to-start-203395

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Podger, Honorary Professor of Public Policy, Australian National University

You may have read this week that Australia’s super tax breaks are excessively generous (“well beyond any plausible purpose”) and that their costs unsustainable.

The claim came from a Grattan Institute report, Super savings. But is it realistic?

The figures quoted – A$45 billion a year or 2% of GDP “and set to exceed the cost of the age pension” – are derived from Treasury’s Tax Expenditures Statement and the government’s 2021 Retirement Income Review.

The benchmark for these estimates involves the income tax rate that is applied to ordinary income. Yet very few countries actually tax retirement savings in anything like that way.

$45 billion per year, but compared to what?

Grattan itself doesn’t suggest employers’ super contributions and super fund earnings should be taxed like ordinary income.

If all its recommendations for scaling back “tax breaks” were accepted, the breaks it claims to be concerned about would still exceed $30 billion a year and still be on track to cost more than the age pension.

A better benchmark would be the arrangement in most member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in which savings are taxed at standard marginal rates on entering or leaving the system and untaxed while growing in the system, known technically as a TEE or EET regime.

In most cases, tax is applied only on leaving the system, an “EET” regime.

In 2017, the Treasury prepared a parallel calculation of superannuation tax expenditures using a TEE benchmark, meaning contributions taxed at full marginal rates with both earnings and withdrawals untaxed.

It found that instead of the tax break for employer contributions costing $16.9 billion per year and the low rate on fund earnings costing $19.25 billion, the first cost $16.9 billion and the second cost minus $9.45 billion (because Australia taxes fund earnings at 15% instead of zero), cutting the total cost by $30 billion.

Had the Treasury used the EET benchmark, which exempts contributions and earnings and taxes only withdrawals, its measure of total tax expenditure on super would almost certainly have been negative (largely because our super system is not yet mature and we don’t yet have big retirement incomes to tax).

In fact, our present system has a similar impact to the EET system common among OECD countries, even though it is achieved differently.

Making it harder for high earners to save

Without offering a clear benchmark for comparison, it is impossible to properly assess the Grattan Institute’s specific proposals.

Two would probably not shift the current regime too greatly away from the EET benchmark common in the OECD, although neither is essential. One is a more progressive tax on contributions.

The other is extending the 15% tax on fund earnings pre-retirement to presently exempt earnings in retirement (though this should probably be balanced by a reduction in the rate).

But another, a tightening the annual cap on pre-tax contributions from $27,500 to $20,000 and the cap on post-tax contributions from $110,000 to $50,000, has the potential to undermine super’s role in spreading lifetime incomes for middle and high income earners.

The government’s review that, for all but low-income workers, a retirement income of 65-75% of pre-retirement income was needed to provide a reasonable balance between living standards in working life and retirement.

Read more:
Super has become a taxpayer-funded inheritance scheme for the rich. Here’s how to fix it – and save billions

The average mandated contribution rate in the 35 OECD countries with specific pension contributions delivering this level of income maintenance is 18.2%.

For those not eligible for any age pension (likely to be around 40% of retirees in the future), in one form or another, that is probably the level of savings they should be setting aside, though as the government’s review noted many retirees have significant savings from outside superannuation.

That means the Grattan Institute’s proposed $20,000 cap might cut in too soon, at about $100,000 a year, which is hardly a top income amongst those in their fifties, particularly amongst public servants and academics (many of whom are already contributing 15-20%).

The things Grattan missed

By continuing to focus on the taxation of super, Grattan is failing to focus on the desperate need to put in place the final piece of Australia’s retirement income system – to help people convert their accumulated savings into secure incomes that maintain living standards and meet the risks of old age.

The Institute is right to highlight that too much of superannuation savings are being passed on in inheritances rather than used in retirement, with the real risk of exacerbating inequality amongst future generations.

Too many retirees are skimping in retirement and leaving more in inheritances than they want to because of fear about future risks including long lives and health and aged care costs.

Read more:
Yes, women retire with less, but boosting compulsory super won’t help

Sensible proposals are being developed for a “covenant” requiring funds to offer products in retirees’ best interests, including those that help them manage risks. But they are yet to be implemented.

I suspect that implementation of the covenant will identify major challenges, including market failures that make it hard for funds to offer value-for-money indexed annuities and to identify what is in their members’ best interests given the complexities of the age pension income and assets tests.

It is very likely that the government will need to simplify the means tests and consider ways to encourage the provision of indexed annuities including the option of selling government-created annuities.

Now there’s an agenda Grattan might usefully focus upon.

Andrew Podger 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. Super tax concessions don’t cost $45 billion a year and won’t cost more than the pension – https://theconversation.com/super-tax-concessions-dont-cost-45-billion-a-year-and-wont-cost-more-than-the-pension-203655

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne

At the March 25 New South Wales state election, Labor won 45 of the 93 lower house seats (up nine since the 2019 election), the Coalition 36 (down 12), the Greens three (steady), independents nine (up six) and the Shooters zero (down three).

These results are pending a recount in Ryde, which the Liberals provisionally won by just 50 votes against Labor (50.05-49.95).

Labor won nine seats more than the Coalition, but owing to the large crossbench, they are two seats below an outright majority (47 seats). But Labor will have no trouble governing with support from the Greens and left-leaning independents.

Read more:
NSW Labor unlikely to win majority after flopping on pre-poll votes

Labor was unlucky in the close seats, winning all their seats by at least a 51.6-48.4 margin (Penrith was the closest Labor seat), while the Liberals won two seats by narrow margins: Ryde and Holsworthy (a 50.4-49.6 Liberal margin there).

While independents were up six, there were only two new independents, in Wakehurst and Wollondilly, where independents gained from the Liberals. The three Shooters elected in 2019 all successfully recontested as independents, as did former Liberal Gareth Ward in Kiama.

Statewide primary votes were 37.0% Labor (up 3.7% since 2019), 35.4% Coalition (down 6.2%), 9.7% Greens (up 0.1%), 1.8% One Nation (up 0.7%), 1.5% Shooters (down 1.9%) and 14.6% for all Others (up 3.6%). Others includes 8.7% for independents (up 3.9%). The ABC’s estimate of the statewide two party vote is currently 53.9-46.1 to Labor, a 5.9% swing to Labor.

There are many seats where Labor and the Liberal or National candidates did not finish in the top two, and there is currently no Labor vs Coalition two party count in those seats. The electoral commission will eventually give us an official statewide two party count that will include these seats, but for now the ABC’s estimate is what we have.

NSW is the only Australian jurisdiction that uses optional preferential voting, rather than the compulsory preferential voting used federally. ABC election analyst Antony Green says the Liberals won four seats that they would have lost under compulsory preferential – two to Labor and two to independents. So optional preferential probably cost Labor a majority.

Labor gained Camden, East Hills, Monaro, Parramatta, Penrith, Riverstone and South Coast from the Coalition. Most of these gains were the result of double digit swings to Labor, but there were only 2% swings in East Hills and Penrith. On the pre-election pendulum, Labor missed out on two seats they should have taken given the statewide swing: Upper Hunter and Goulburn.

How did the polls go?

The table below compares the polls taken during the final two weeks of the election campaign to the results. Each poll is listed with its fieldwork dates, sample size, primary vote estimates for Labor, the Coalition, the Greens and all Others, and Labor’s two party estimate.

The final row in the table is the actual election results, using the ABC’s two party estimate. Bold numbers in the polls’ estimates are where they came within 1% of the election result.

Newspoll was the only pollster that gave Labor a lead on primary votes, with the other polls all showing a primary vote tie. While Morgan was closest on two party votes, they understated the major parties’ votes and overstated the Greens. Freshwater was very close on both Labor and the Greens, but overstated the Coalition.

I believe Newspoll was the best pollster, as it was reasonably close on the two party measure and correctly gave Labor a primary vote lead over the Coalition.

Resolve’s final poll had independents at 8%, close to the result of 8.7% for independents. Resolve has been too high for independents prior to the close of nominations, but their final polls have been accurate on the independent vote as they use actual candidate lists.

Resolve has generally been Labor’s best pollster both federally and in state polls since Labor won government in the May 2022 federal election. However, their final NSW and Victorian polls understated Labor, and other polls were better.

Animal Justice a chance to win final upper house seat

The NSW upper house has 42 members with 21 up every four years so members serve eight-year terms. All 21 are elected by statewide proportional representation with optional preferences, so a quota is 1/22 of the vote or 4.5%.

With nearly all votes initially counted, the ABC has Labor on 8.12 quotas, the Coalition 6.63, the Greens 2.00, One Nation 1.27, Legalise Cannabis 0.79, the Liberal Democrats 0.75, the Shooters 0.68, Animal Justice 0.47 and Elizabeth Farrelly 0.28.

Eight Labor, six Coalition, two Greens and one One Nation will be elected, and it is very unlikely that Legalise Cannabis, the Liberal Democrats or Shooters will be passed on preferences. The contest is between the Coalition and Animal Justice for the final seat.

Below the line (BTL) votes are not included in the initial count. The check count includes these votes, but is only at 59% of the initial count’s total votes so far. The major parties do relatively badly on BTL votes and minor parties well. The ABC is including BTL votes already in the check count in its totals.

By extrapolating the likely behaviour of the remaining BTL votes, analyst Kevin Bonham expects the Coalition will have 6.599 quotas and Animal Justice 0.475 when the check count is finished, provided there are no major errors in the initial count, so the Coalition’s seventh candidate would be 0.124 quotas ahead.

If this occurs, the Coalition will probably win the final seat, but Animal Justice has some chance. A Coalition win would hold the left to an 11-10 win on the 21 seats up for election, and a 21-21 overall tie, while an Animal Justice win would give the left a 22-20 overall majority.

The NSW upper house is expected to be finalised next week, when the “button” is pressed to electronically distribute preferences.

UK local elections and other international politics

I wrote for The Poll Bludger on April 6 about the May 4 English local elections, which Labour is expected to win easily. The May 14 Turkish elections and October New Zealand election were also covered.

Adrian Beaumont 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. Labor two seats short of a majority in final NSW lower house results, plus a polling critique – https://theconversation.com/labor-two-seats-short-of-a-majority-in-final-nsw-lower-house-results-plus-a-polling-critique-203499

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eleanor K. Sansom, Research Associate, Curtin University

The European Space Agency’s JUICE mission (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) is launching today at 10:15pm AEST from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana.

JUICE will be targeting three water-rich worlds – Jupiter’s moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto – to check out potential habitats and evidence of past alien life, both on and below the surface. There’s an excellent reason why these worlds in particular are the mission target – they might be habitable for life as we know it.

The moons of Jupiter

Although we have just one moon lighting up our night skies, Jupiter has at least 92. Some, including the four Galilean moons (the largest Jovian moons) formed alongside Jupiter nearly 4.5 billion years ago in the early Solar System. Others have been drawn in and captured by this massive planet, adding to the collection over time.

These moons are made of hugely diverse materials, and some are thought to have conditions favourable for life, or could have in the past.

Fewer than ten interplanetary missions have ever flown past Jupiter, with only two NASA missions stopping to orbit the planet and investigate further: the Galileo mission between 1995 and 2003, and the current Juno mission, launched in 2011. These are the only two to have also made dedicated passes of the moons, gathering valuable information for upcoming missions.

Life as we know it

The Galilean moons are of particular interest. The second smallest, Io, may not be habitable, but has some of the largest active volcanoes in the Solar System (with eruptions that can be seen from Earth!).

The other three, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto, are all thought to have large bodies of liquid water under their icy surfaces, and maybe even thin atmospheres.

Ganymede’s liquid iron core also gives it a magnetic field, the only known moon in the Solar System to have one. Our own magnetic field protects Earth’s atmosphere from the harsh solar winds, shielding us from solar radiation. These are factors we associate with fostering and protecting life on Earth.

We only know of life on Earth, so when we go looking for where life might exist (or once existed) elsewhere, we’re looking for factors we consider essential to life as we know it.

Watery or icy worlds are the first targets, as we know life on Earth originated in and around water. A rocky surface with warmish temperatures would be even more ideal. Jupiter itself is a complete write-off: the crushing pressures, toxic gases, freezing temperatures and lack of a stable surface would never support life as we know it. But the big, icy moons have good protection deep under the ice, potentially liquid water, and elements like carbon and oxygen.

JUICE will use its suite of science instruments to check out the thicknesses of the moons’ icy crusts, what they’re made of, and look for subsurface liquid water. On Europa in particular, it will look for evidence of organic molecules.

Read more:
The search for life beneath the ice: why we’re going back to Europa

An extremely efficient journey

After its launch, the solar-powered JUICE will take nearly eight years to get to Jupiter. The spacecraft will use minimal propulsion, instead using other planets to give it speed and set its course.

These manoeuvres are called “gravity assists”. This essentially means JUICE will fly purposefully toward a planet, just missing it, in order to get pulled in by its gravity and “slingshot” past the other side. It may take time, but it is extremely efficient.

Juice’s first gravity assist in 2024 will go around both Earth and our Moon – the first time this has ever been done. Other gravity assists will take it around Venus in 2025, and Earth (only) in 2026 and 2029, before being kicked out to Jupiter for an arrival in mid-2031.

What happens when JUICE meets Jupiter?

Fun fact: it will be the first spacecraft to orbit a moon other than our own!

Usually a spacecraft will orbit the main planet (in this case Jupiter) and merely flyby the moons as it loops past. JUICE will start like this, flying by Callisto, Europa and Ganymede a total of 35 times during its three-year tour of the moons. It will briefly meet NASA’s Europa Clipper mission around Europa, complimenting this mission nicely.

But in 2034, JUICE will actually switch its orbit from around Jupiter to go around Ganymede. This will give it an exceptional view, and nearly a year to study this fascinating moon, probing its internal, surface and atmospheric systems.

Of particular interest is the magnetic field. Ganymede is one of only three rocky bodies in our Solar System known to have one (Earth and Mercury being the other two). Questions JUICE will be able to investigate are not just the basic question of what is creating Ganymede’s magnetic field, but also what happens to it as Ganymede travels through the larger field produced by Jupiter itself, and how their complex interactions influence auroras on both Jupiter and Ganymede.

JUICE will also get a chance to study Jupiter itself, looking into characteristics of giant gas planets that might be universal. Could Jupiter be the key to understanding other solar systems, and the hundreds of exoplanets we have discovered orbiting other stars?

So, we might be waiting a while for JUICE’s arrival at Jupiter, but it will be well worth the wait. Could any of these moons have once supported alien life, and what might we learn about our own Earth, its early oceans, and the conditions needed to spawn life?

Eleanor K. Sansom receives funding from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research and is supported by the Space Science and Technology Centre at Curtin University and the Australian Research Council (DP230100301).

– ref. The much-anticipated JUICE mission to Jupiter launches today. Here’s what it might discover – https://theconversation.com/the-much-anticipated-juice-mission-to-jupiter-launches-today-heres-what-it-might-discover-203669

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jeff Borland, Professor of Economics, The University of Melbourne

Despite warnings of a global economic downturn, Australia has again defied the odds with its official unemployment rate remaining steady at 3.5% in March.

Behind that number though, plenty happened. The total number of people in jobs grew by 53,000. The increase of 116,600 in employment in the past two months surpasses anything seen since the middle of 2022, when the unemployment rate first hit 3.5%. It seems there is still plenty of strength in labour demand.

The only reason Australia doesn’t have an even lower unemployment rate is that labour-force participation rose by about the same amount as employment – 51,500. In fact, the similar size of increases in employment and labour-force participation in the past two months, together with continued high vacancy rates, suggests employment growth now depends on new entrants to the workforce.

Another month with low unemployment is another month of the benefits that brings. Low unemployment means higher GDP, with more of the nation’s available labour supply being used to produce output.

It also means greater equity. Groups that have the most difficulty getting into work see the biggest boost in employment when unemployment is low.

With these benefits in mind, you might expect that making unemployment as low as possible would be a constant policy objective for government. Yet I don’t believe that has been the case in recent times.

Instead, the focus has been on achieving the target rate of inflation. Since that target was adopted, in the early 1990s, attention to unemployment has progressively declined.

Too much fear of inflation

Certainly, there has been concern when the rate of unemployment has threatened to rise above 5% or 6%, as it did with the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008, and with the onset of COVID-19 in 2020.

But apart from those times, we haven’t seriously attended to how low the rate of unemployment should be, or designed policy to seek that objective. By not thinking more seriously about the rate of unemployment, Australia missed the opportunity to push the rate lower in the 2010s.

In economics, it’s standard to regard full employment as the lowest unemployment rate possible without labour demand causing excessive wage growth and inflation.

This number – known as the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment, or NAIRU – is a matter of debate. Prior to the pandemic it was generally thought the unemployment rate couldn’t get lower than about 5% without being likely to cause wage inflation.

Read more:
Vital Signs: Australia’s 5% jobless rate is not full employment; pushing up interest rates would be wrong

But during 2021-22, with the stimulus from fiscal policy to deal with COVID-19, the rate of unemployment fell to its current level, 3.5%, without accelerating wage inflation.

We need a new unemployment target

What is needed now, therefore, is a rebalancing of macroeconomic policy objectives. We need a full employment target, expressed as a level or acceptable range of unemployment or labour underutilisation, to accompany the existing inflation target.

A full employment target will force governments to engage with what is the minimum rate of unemployment possible to sustain; and increase accountability for taking action to achieve that goal.

Choosing the target needs to balance the benefits of a lower rate of unemployment for national output and equity, against the potential inflationary consequences of trying to push unemployment too low.

It needs to draw on a wide variety of indicators of labour market outcomes; beyond just the NAIRU, which ignores the output and distributional benefits of low unemployment.

Underemployment counts too

Ideally, the target should also be constructed recognising that the policy problem is broader than unemployment. What should motivate policy is people not being able to work the hours they want or are willing to work.

Unemployment is part of this. But increasingly so is underemployment. By 2022, about 45% of extra hours that could have been worked in the Australian labour market were due to workers being underemployed.

Read more:
Technically unemployment now begins with a ‘3’. How to keep it there?

Hence, whatever way the full employment target is expressed, it needs to take account of the variety of types of labour underutilisation.

Finally, along with aggregate full employment target, we also need specific policy action for groups who require extra assistance. Even with the current low rate of unemployment, some groups are still missing out on employment opportunities to an unacceptable level – such as First Nations people, those with a disability, and people living in disadvantaged regions.

Jeff Borland receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. With unemployment steady at 3.5%, inflation fears shouldn’t stop Australia embracing a full employment target – https://theconversation.com/with-unemployment-steady-at-3-5-inflation-fears-shouldnt-stop-australia-embracing-a-full-employment-target-203415

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanna Mendelssohn, Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne

After media outlets breathlessly described the late John Olsen as a “genius”, I found myself humming The Chasers’ Eulogy Song.

This is perhaps a bit unfair, but the hyperbole surrounding Olsen’s death seems to have crowded out any assessment of his real and lasting achievements as an artist. There is a danger here.

Hyperbole invites a reaction, which is not always kind. It is still hard to have a dispassionate discussion on the merits (and otherwise) of Norman Lindsay, an artist often called a genius in his lifetime.

John Olsen and Australian art

To understand Olsen, and his importance to Australian art, it is important to give some context. He emerged from that generation of Australians whose childhood was coloured by the deprivations of the second world war, and whose adolescent experience was of an expanding, changing Australia.

War meant that he finished school as a boarder at St Josephs Hunters Hill, while his father fought in the Middle East and New Guinea and his mother and sister moved to Yass in rural New South Wales.

His ability to draw meant that he escaped the tedium of a clerical job by becoming a freelance cartoonist while moving between a number of different art schools, including Julian Ashtons, Dattilo Rubio, East Sydney Tech and Desiderius Orban’s studio. As with other young artists of his generation, he was especially influenced by the experimental approach and intellectual rigour of John Passmore.

He found visual stimulation in Carl Plate’s Notanda Gallery in Rowe Street, a rare source of information on modern art at the time. Rowe Street was the creative hub for many artists, writers and serious drinkers who later became known as “The Push”. The informal exposure to new ideas on art, literature, food, wine and great conversation was more effective than a university. He learned about Kandinsky, Klee, the beauty of a wandering line, the poetry of Dylan Thomas and T.S. Eliot.

Olsen’s first media exposure was as the spokesman for art students protesting at the rigid conservatism of the trustees judging the Archibald Prize. There were no complaints about the Wynne Prize, which had exhibited his work.

The ‘first’ Australian exhibition of Abstract Expressionism

The friendship between Olsen and fellow artists William Rose, Robert Klippel, Eric Smith and their mentor John Passmore, led to the exhibition Direction 1 in December 1956.

An art critic’s over enthusiasm led to it being proclaimed as the first Australian exhibition of Abstract Expressionism, and its artists as pioneers of modern art. As a consequence, Robert Shaw, a private collector, paid for Olsen to travel and study in Europe. This was a transformational gift, coming at a time before Australia Council Grants, when travel was expensive.

He travelled first to Paris, then Spain where he based himself in Majorca and supported himself by working as an apprentice chef. The fluid approach to learning he had acquired in Sydney was enhanced in Spain. He saw, and appreciated the Tachiste artists, but took his own path, remembering always Paul Klee’s dictum that a drawing is “taking a line for a walk”.

That Spanish experience was distilled in the exuberant works he painted after his return to Sydney in 1960. Spanish Encounter paid tribute to the impact of this culture that continued to intrigue him, its energy and its apparent irrationality.

But he also found himself enjoying the “honest vulgarity” he found in the Australian ethos, leading to a series of paintings which incorporated the words you beaut countryin their title. Olsen’s confident paintings of the 1960s easily place him as the most influential Australian artist of that decade.

Five Bells and landscape

In 1972, Olsen was commissioned to paint a giant mural for the foyer of the concert hall at the Sydney Opera House. Salute to Five Bells takes its name from Kenneth Slessor’s poem of death on the Harbour, but is more about elements of subterranean harbour life.

The heroic scale of the work meant that he worked with a number of assistants to paint the dominant blue ground. When the mural was unveiled in 1973, it received a mixed response. It was too muted in tone to cope with the Opera House lighting, too sparse in content, too decorative.

In the following years, Olsen turned towards painting the Australian landscape and the creatures that inhabited it. In 1974, he visited Lake Eyre as the once dry giant salt lake flooded to fill with abundant life. He made paintings, drawings and prints of the abundance – both intimate views and overviews from flying over. Lake Eyre and its environs was to be a recurring motif in the art of his later years.

While these works were commercially successful, and many were acquired by public galleries, Olsen was no longer seen as being in the avant garde. He was, however, very much a part of the art establishment and his art was widely collected.

A man of his generation

The aerial perspective of many of his later decorative paintings could seem to have echoes of Aboriginal art. Indeed, when the young Abdul Abdullah first saw Olsen’s paintings in 2009 he at first assumed Olsen was an Aboriginal artist.

It was therefore a surprise to many when in 2017 Olsen mounted a trenchant attack on the Wynne Prize after it was awarded to Betty Kunitiwa Pumani for Antara, a painting of her mother’s country.

Despite some visual similarities to his own approach to landscape he claimed her painting existed in “a cloud cuckoo land”. In the same interview, he attacked Mitch Cairns’ Archibald-winning portrait of his wife, Agatha Gothe-Snape, as “just so bad”.

Read more:
From gum trees to cities to sweeping deserts: how 125 years of the Wynne Prize traces Australia’s shifting relationship to our landscape

While it is not unusual for the radical young to become enthusiastic reactionaries in prosperous old age, there was a particular lack of grace in Olsen’s response to artists who were not a part of his social circle or cultural background. He was in this very much a man of his generation, with attitudes and prejudices that reflect the years of his youth.

Looking at Olsen’s paintings of the 1950s and ‘60s is a reminder that there was a time in Australia when brash young men could prove their intellectual credentials by quoting Dylan Thomas while making a glorious multi-coloured paella in paint.

Joanna Mendelssohn has in the past received funding from the Australian Research Council

– ref. From radical to reactionary: the achievements and legacy of the influential artist John Olsen – https://theconversation.com/from-radical-to-reactionary-the-achievements-and-legacy-of-the-influential-artist-john-olsen-203677

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

This week, the High Court of Australia handed down a significant ruling in an immigration case that could affect hundreds of similar visa cases handled by the Department of Home Affairs.

Specifically, the ruling may call into question the legality of decisions the department has made since 2016 when it has rejected appeals for ministerial intervention in specific visa cases.

What was the case about

The High Court decision involved two individuals who sought to have the minister for immigration personally intervene in their cases and grant them permanent visas to remain in Australia.

Their requests were rejected by the Department of Home Affairs on the basis that their cases did not meet the criteria for a referral to the minister.

The first appellant, Martin Davis, is a citizen of the United Kingdom who had lived in Australia for around 16 years on temporary visas. His application for a permanent partner visa was refused by Home Affairs and in a subsequent review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The second appellant, who was referred to as DCM20 in the case, is a citizen of Fiji who had lived in Australia on a series of temporary visas for almost 20 years. She applied for a permanent visa, which was refused. Her application for review to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal was also unsuccessful.

Both Davis and DCM20 requested the immigration minister exercise their personal power under section 351 of the Migration Act 1958 to override the decisions by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and grant them permanent visas.

According to this section of the Migration Act, the minister may grant a visa if they think it is “in the public interest”, but they are not required by law to consider every request. This power is exercised by the minister personally.

The minister receives many requests to personally intervene in such visa cases. Last month, for instance, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles intervened when a Perth family had their visas refused on the basis their son did not meet certain health criteria, as he was born with Down syndrome. The minister granted them permanent residency.

Guidelines will now need to be reviewed

In 2016, the minister published guidelines for department officials to use when reviewing such requests for ministerial intervention.

The guidelines say only to refer cases to the minister in cases where there are “unique or exceptional circumstances”. This includes compassionate circumstances.

Davis and DCM20 argued there were unique and exceptional circumstances that warranted intervention in their cases, pointing to their long periods of residence in Australia and the fact Australian relatives were dependent upon their care.

In both cases, a departmental officer decided their circumstances were not unique or exceptional, as required by the guidelines, and refused to refer their cases to the minister.

Howver, the High Court ruled that the decisions made by the department were unlawful because the power to intervene or not intervene in such cases must be exercised by the minister personally.

In these two cases, a departmental officer, in effect, made the decision not to intervene, not the minister.

Read more:
Why one man with ‘god-like’ powers decides if Novak Djokovic can stay or go

What are the potential implications of the ruling?

The immigration minister will not only now have to revisit the current guidelines, but also all decisions made using those guidelines since 2016.

A document released under the Freedom of Information Act shows that hundreds of requests for ministerial intervention were made every year under these guidelines for the period from 2017–2020. The minister personally intervened and granted around 1,000 visa cases over that time.

However, the document does not show how many cases were never referred to the minister for consideration. There could potentially be hundreds of
people who were affected.

The minister will also likely have to review other guidelines under the Migration Act, where he has a personal intervention power.

For instance, the minister has personal discretion under section 48B of the Act. This allows asylum seekers who have been refused a protection visa to apply for a subsequent visa if the minister considers it “in the public interest” to do so.

But, as mentioned previously, the current ministerial guidelines require the department to consider whether “exceptional circumstances” exist for a case to be referred to the minister.

Statistics show the minister has only intervened in less than 10% of these requests by asylum seekers in the last 10 years.

Asylum seekers who arrive by boat are also barred from applying for any visa unless the minister personally allows them to. The High Court ruling could affect decisions made by the department not
to refer these cases to the minister, as well.

The minister still has vast powers to deny cases

The court was clear that the minister maintains broad discretion as to how and when to exercise their power to intervene in a case. The minister may consider all of these cases again and come to the same conclusion as the department.

The minister’s power is “non-compellable”, meaning they do not have to consider every case that is referred to them. And if they do consider a case, they have very broad discretion as to how to exercise their power in the public interest.

These have been described as “god-like powers”. Once a minister exercises their powers properly, the courts will rarely intervene.

Decisions made by the minister using these powers involve serious decisions and affect vulnerable people. The decision of the High Court is at least an opportunity for the government to review the ministerial intervention process to have a clearer, fairer and more transparent system.

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

– ref. Explainer: High Court ruling in immigration case could impact hundreds of visa decisions since 2016 – https://theconversation.com/explainer-high-court-ruling-in-immigration-case-could-impact-hundreds-of-visa-decisions-since-2016-203676

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cherine Fahd, Associate Professor, Visual Communication, University of Technology Sydney

Oliver breastfeeding. Oliver at five dressed in a tutu. Oliver at ten with his pet mouse in his vest pocket, an exquisite re-staging of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Lady with an Ermine from 1489.

These portraits of Oliver, the son of Catherine Opie, one of the world’s leading photographic artists, are among the highlights of Binding Ties, the first Australian survey exhibition of Opie’s work at the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne.

All three Oliver portraits use the art historical device of construing the sitter’s identity through allegory. Opie is expert in bringing out photography’s antecedents in the old masters or what we now call legacy media.

Drama and emotion

In the large-scale oval portraits of Opie’s friends and artistic peers, painterly references are repeated photographically. Sharp contrast of light and shadow – the chiaroscuro effect made famous by Caravaggio – creates drama and emotional effect.

In the magnificent Thelma and Duro (2017), an older African American couple are royally illuminated in black space, their eyes staring out of the frame in opposite directions as though they were at odds with each other. Thelma’s fingertips press hard on top of Duro’s right hand, his left hand free to assume the mannerist poise of a Renaissance prince.

In the oval portrait of Rocco (2012) we can see the trace of transition scars beneath “Tender Hearted”, the large breastplate tattoo that runs across the sitter’s chest. Rocco’s portrait visually mirrors the Opie self-portrait in which “Pervert” has been cut into her skin, a scarification ritual that brings out the innate capacity of the human epidermis to record change across time.

Skin is on display in many of the Opie portraits, less as a metonym of race than as a thing that captures our difference from each other and ourselves as we wear and tear and toughen our way through life. Whether acne, stretchmarks and rosacea, or the piercings, tattoos and facial hair in which we electively dress our nakedness, Opie’s camera regards scars as signs of human dignity turned out for shared yet intimate apprehension.

For this reason, it is best to skim the didactic panels that point us towards symbolic meanings and simply look at the people and scenes before us in the way that Opie would have encountered them.

Dykes, drag and trans portraits

At the centre of the exhibition are the iconic portraits Opie created in the 1990s among her queer community in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Photographed against her signature brightly coloured backgrounds are leather dykes, drag performers and transgender friends, including her long-time collaborator Pig Pen.

Opie and her friends resist normative sexuality, gender stereotypes and the binary of gender categories. They use gesture, posture, dress and adornment to assemble ever-shifting identities for her camera.

While it would be easy to view these works with the casualness of contemporary understandings of queer sexuality and gender fluidity, these portraits were made in the 1990s when AIDS was the primary cause of death for Americans aged 25 to 44.

Like the earlier work of Robert Mapplethorpe and Nan Goldin, Opie’s portraits took a leading role in bestowing agency to the queer community by allowing them to see themselves as they wanted to be seen.

History and iconography

It is commonly thought that the most powerful portraits are made by photographers who know their subjects intimately.

While Opie’s photographs of her friends and family support this theory, how do we explain the portraits of high-school footballers that are among the most powerful in the Heide survey? These sweaty young athletes decked out in grid-iron armour with exposed midriffs and burgeoning six-packs are not obviously Opie’s fellow travellers but they each also testify to the ongoingness of transition.

Other iconic inclusions are the three classical self-portraits that command the middle gallery. Saturated in art historical references and Christian iconography, each portrait subverts the traditions it exemplifies.

In Self-Portrait/Pervert (1994), Opie plays with the sumptuary codes of wealth and prestige by facing the camera half-naked, her head covered in a leather BDSM hood. The ornate tattoo across her bleeding chest is stylistically linked to the decorative floral curtain behind her, while her strong arms display 23 surgical needles pinned through her skin like ornamental jewellery.

In Self-Portrait/Cutting (1993), the artist’s back, also bleeding from a childlike drawing etched into her skin, shows a stereotypical family scene in which the stick figures roles of mother and father are taken by two mothers. Rather than celebrating rainbow families, the scarification records the deep grief Opie felt at the demise of her long-term relationship and with it her domestic hopes.

The next year we see her as Bo (1994), her mustachioed male alter-ego. Then, precisely ten years later, her familial longings are realised in the double portrait of Opie breastfeeding her immaculate son in Self-Portrait/Nursing (2004).

A bit of everything

The Heide exhibition has tried to capture Opie’s 40-year oeuvre by including a bit of everything. There are seascapes with surfers from 2003 and more recent large-scale photographs of monuments and sunsets, some of them deliberately blurred.

There are several landscapes of a swamp (look out for the hidden owl) and three stop motion animations that are political responses to global issues of the day.

None of these capture the aura of Opie’s portraits. Her gift is to photograph people. She has a way of lighting her subjects, making them glisten, appear electric or serene but always human. Given this is Opie’s first survey show in Australia, a more in-depth approach focusing on continuity rather than novelty might have been warranted.

The most puzzling and unconvincing inclusion is The Modernist (2017), a grainy black-and-white film made up of 852 still frames that casts the now middle-aged Pig Pen in the unappealing role of an arsonist hell-bent on destroying the modernist architectural icons of LA. An odd exercise in ambivalence about artistic success, the film is at odds with Opie’s unassuming mastery of documentary photography and portraiture.

There is no doubt that Opie is a multifaceted artist. But given how much work was not on display, the spaces dedicated to the film, the surfers and the animations might have been better used to show more photographs from the oval portrait series or more domestic scenes with Opie’s family.

For not much more than the price of an Uber to and from Heide, you can purchase the artist’s monograph from the bookstore and explore the full breadth of the human photographic connections that have made her such a celebrated artist and recorder of life as transition.

Lee Wallace receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a project with Annamarie Jagose on the couple, an investigation of commitment and durability in the era of marriage equality.

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

– ref. Binding Ties explores celebrated artist Catherine Opie’s world of transitions – https://theconversation.com/binding-ties-explores-celebrated-artist-catherine-opies-world-of-transitions-202723

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Nott, Professor of Physical Geography, James Cook University

Residents along Western Australia’s northwest coast are bracing for Tropical Cyclone Ilsa, which is expected to be one of the most destructive storms to strike the region in more than a decade.

The Bureau of Meteorology says Cyclone Ilsa has intensified and is now classed as a category-four system. It’s forecast to cross the WA coast between Port Hedland and Bidyadanga Thursday night or Friday morning.

Tropical cyclones are huge low-pressure systems that form in tropical waters. They can bring extreme winds, heavy rain and damaging waves, destroying infrastructure and the environment and causing injury and death.

Let’s take a look at how Cyclone Ilsa developed, and what we can expect from cyclones in this region in future.

Why did Cyclone Ilsa intensify?

Tropical Cyclone Ilsa is the first system of category-four or higher to cross Australian shores since Cyclone Trevor crossed the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria in 2019.

Ilsa formed off the Northern Territory coast before tracking southwest towards Western Australia’s Kimberley region. It developed quickly on Tuesday into a category-two system, which involves wind gusts between 125 km/h and 164 km/h.

The cyclone intensified to a category-four storm on Thursday, which involves winds gusts between 225 km/h and 279 km/h. This was due to two main factors: high sea-surface temperatures and favourable conditions in the upper atmosphere.

Tropical cyclones (TCs) require sea-surface temperatures above 27℃. This provides warm, moist air that generates a massive amount of energy and fuels the cyclone.

Upper atmospheric conditions influence wind speed. Air is drawn in toward the centre of a tropical cyclone. In the Southern Hemisphere, the air spirals upwards in a clockwise direction then moves outwards to the upper troposphere, away from the storm. This air is known as “outflow”.

Cyclone Ilsa’s path led it into a region where the upper level wind was relatively light, which enhanced outflow.

As air moved outwards, more wind or “inflow” was drawn toward the centre of the system from the sea surface, bringing warmth and moisture. This enabled Cyclone Ilsa to rapidly intensify.

Australia’s cyclone capital

Northwest WA is Australia’s most cyclone-prone region. Records since 1970 show about 75% of severe cylones to make landfall in Australia occur in this region.

But why? It comes down to two things: the high sea surface temperatures in this part of the Indian Ocean, and the orientation of the coast.

Tropical cyclones tend to move polewards and, in the Southern Hemisphere, often curve southeast. The coast of northwest WA is oriented northeast/southwest, and so perfectly aligned to intercept these cyclones.

Several intense tropical cyclones have developed in the warm waters off northwest WA in recent years. However, the number to reach land in this region has been lower than average. That’s because mid- to higher-level atmospheric winds that steer tropical cyclones have directed many of them away from the WA coast.

What about climate change?

Climate change is expected to change tropical cyclone patterns. The overall number is expected to decrease, but their intensity will likely increase, bringing stronger wind and heavier rain.

More intense tropical cyclones are expected because higher sea-surface temperatures will make the atmosphere more warm and moist. Cyclones thrive in such conditions.

But the general frequency of tropical cyclones is expected to reduce under climate change in most ocean basins, including the Indian Ocean.

Tropical cyclones usually form when there’s a large difference between temperatures at Earth’s surface and the upper atmosphere. As the climate warms, this temperature difference is likely to narrow.

Research last year showed the annual number of tropical cyclones forming globally decreased by about 13% during the 20th century compared to the 19th.

The activity of tropical cyclones in any one ocean basin over a year is measured by what’s known as the “Accumulated Cyclone Energy” or ACE Index.

The index is calculated by measuring the cyclone’s wind speed every six hours squaring it, then adding these values together.

A study has shown the index values for cyclone activity in the Southern Indian Ocean have decreased significantly since 1990.

I specialise in reconstructing long-term natural records of extreme events. Research by myself and colleagues has shown tropical cyclone activity along the WA coast is at its lowest level since approximately 500 CE – about 1,500 years ago.

Read more:
Cyclone Seroja just demolished parts of WA – and our warming world will bring more of the same

We’re not off the hook

Tropical cyclones maintain energy over warm water, and lose energy once they move over land or over cooler oceans.

Cyclone Ilsa is expected to weaken overnight on Friday as it moves east into the Northern Territory.

Climate change will lead to fewer tropical cyclones overall. But those that do occur will be more intense and damaging. So unfortunately, WA can expect regular cyclone impacts even as the climate warms.

Read more:
Tropical cyclone frequency falls to centuries-low in Australia – but will the lull last?

Jonathan Nott 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. Anatomy of monster storm: how Cyclone Ilsa is shaping up to devastate the WA coast – https://theconversation.com/anatomy-of-monster-storm-how-cyclone-ilsa-is-shaping-up-to-devastate-the-wa-coast-203678

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Thorburn, Translational Fellow Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame Australia

The intent of the proposed First Nations Voice to Parliament is to elevate and amplify our input across the nation into laws, policies and programs that will impact on Indigenous Australians.

One crucial question is how exactly the Voice process will collect the input of local and regional Voices and transfer them all the way to federal parliament.

The question of the design of these representational systems is crucial. Opposition leader Peter Dutton, in his announcement last week that the Liberal Party is against the proposal, branded the current plan a “Canberra Voice”.

But while we disagree this is a reason to oppose the Voice entirely, this stance does highlight the question of how the Voice can be truly representational of the many people who deserve to be heard.

Read more:
The Voice: what is it, where did it come from, and what can it achieve?

The Kimberley region in Australia’s northwest is a long, long way from Canberra. Indigenous people here want reassurance that our Voice will carry to the national capital, and that our uniqueness as a region will be respected.

Regional and remote voices are often unheard

The Voice co-design report recommends:

local and regional Voices would provide advice to all levels of government to influence policy and programs, and advise the non-government sector and business.

But governments’ effectiveness in delivering solutions on the ground in remote Indigenous communities has been patchy at best.

Aboriginal communities in remote New South Wales were left without food and medical supplies during the pandemic. And in the Kimberley, Aboriginal communities and organisations were excluded from COVID-related planning and decision-making processes.

The impact of the recent floods in the central Kimberley was made even more catastrophic by a lack of coordinated planning across local, state and federal agencies.

Hundreds of people living along the Fitzroy River were left homeless by the disaster, and their trauma was compounded by pre-existing levels of overcrowding in the remote town of Fitzroy Crossing.

Politics in the Kimberley

The cultural and political landscape of the Kimberley is rich and complex. More than 93% of the region is now covered by 41 native title determinations. Most of these determinations reflect distinct land areas, language groups and histories – and each has its own legally constituted organisation.

The big question for this region – and other remote areas across Australia – is how a Voice to parliament can capture the diversity of aspirations held by different Indigenous groups in ways that respect Indigenous political organisation, and which are genuinely inclusive and representative.

This question is not a new one. Indigenous people in Australia have a long history of enduring governments’ attempts to incorporate Indigenous input into local and regional development priorities.

As such, the Kimberley now has a decades-long history of calls for a proper form of regional representation. Various models of regional governance have been proposed, and some delivered, since the late 1970s.

But if the Voice referendum results in a yes vote, it will be the first time any such regional governance frameworks will be implemented on a permanent basis.

Stability in this regard would be welcomed by regional leaders. But the very permanence of these models makes it even more crucial that their design reflects local and regional ways of working, and draws on the existing evidence showing what works, and what doesn’t.

In recent decades, the problem has not been that Indigenous people don’t have the opportunity to “advise” governments. Rather, it is that the mechanics of actually delivering solutions on the ground in remote Indigenous Australia have been far from straightforward.

There are no incentives for multitudinous agencies – across local, state and government jurisdictions – to identify program duplication or to invest thought or resources in minimising the burden their demands for consultation place upon remote communities.

Meanwhile, remote communities, certainly in the Kimberley, are falling through the gaps in terms of service delivery. Many people are suffering ongoing issues with basic needs such as housing, water and electricity.

This is clearly a failure of delivery rather than consultation, given it should be obvious to everyone that communities want safe and functional homes to live in.

How the proposed Voice could draw on regional representation

Australia already has many First Nations organisations working as regional entities. Some of them are ongoing, such as the Torres Strait Regional Authority, and the Murdi Paaki Regional Assembly in northwestern NSW.

How the Voice will interact with the existing regional mechanisms is not yet clear. But, as delegates at the Uluru dialogues in 2017 made clear, it should follow a principle of subsidiarity, whereby a central Voice authority should perform only those tasks that cannot be done at a more local level.

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

What is certain is if the Voice is to prove its worth, it will need to prioritise practical outcomes and reduce bureaucratic duplication across all levels of government that are delivering programs to Indigenous Australians.

A mechanism that allows for clear articulation of aspirations from the ground is only one side of the equation. The other is a coordinated response from all levels of government to those aspirations.

Kathryn Thorburn currently receives funding from the Commonwealth Department of Education’s Emerging Priorities Program.

Stephen Kinnane is a part-time Research Coordinator with the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre which receives funding from the National Indigenous Australians Agency. He is affiliated with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) Foundation, is a Director of Magabala Books, Broome, is a member of the Indigenous Working Party of the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ANU) and is a scholar with the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences.

Joe Ross 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. People in the Kimberley have spent decades asking for basics like water and homes. Will the Voice make their calls more compelling? – https://theconversation.com/people-in-the-kimberley-have-spent-decades-asking-for-basics-like-water-and-homes-will-the-voice-make-their-calls-more-compelling-202606

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Beckett, Senior Lecturer (Food Science and Human Nutrition), School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle

Personal bests, competition wins, new challenges – athletes, and particularly endurance athletes, tend to want to push themselves hard to perform. So it makes sense that there is a big interest in sports supplements, like running gels and protein powders.

We all need macronutrients: carbohydrates, proteins and fats that give us energy and build structures like muscles and other cells in our bodies.

When we are very physically active, like long-distance runners, cyclists or triathletes, our need for both energy and building blocks for muscles and other cells increases because of the extra work our bodies are doing.

So supplements – such as sports gels or protein powders – that contain these macronutrients might make sense. But can they do anything that food can’t?

Read more:
Stop hating on pasta – it actually has a healthy ratio of carbs, protein and fat

What is in sports gels?

Sports gels (also known as energy gels) are essentially carbohydrate supplements. They contain simple sugars like maltodextrin, fructose, and glucose. These sugars don’t need much digestion to be absorbed and used as energy. Sugars are the easiest form of energy for our bodies to use.

During long periods of exercise our stored sources of energy get depleted. Our blood sugar drops and we use the glycogen stored in our muscles. So during long bouts of exercise, athletes like long-distance cyclists and runners as well as players in extended length “stop and start” type sports, such as soccer need to replace these stores.

The research into the benefit of carbohydrate supplementation during exercise isn’t new. It dates back as far back as the 1924 Boston Marathon.

The gel forms are a bit more modern, taking off in the 1980s and 1990s. For some people and sports, they have replaced the sweet drinks used previously. Gels have the advantage of being a more concentrated form than a drink, which means less to carry and less to ingest for the same carbohydrate kick.

What about protein powders?

Protein powders are exactly what the name suggests. They are typically casein or whey (proteins found in milk) but can come in plant-based forms too.

Protein won’t give you the quick energy boost that sugars do, even though protein and carbohydrates have the same energy value (meaning gram for gram they have the same amount of calories).

This is because proteins are more complicated for the body to break down and use. But protein is not just important for energy. It provides important building blocks for most of our body’s structures, including our muscles. This is why protein powders are popular with weight lifters and other power-based athletes.

But can food do the same thing?

Plenty of foods are rich in carbohydrates and proteins. Honey, dried fruits, bananas and even those half-time orange wedges are all potential carbohydrate sources for athletes.

Consuming carbohydrates in these forms has been shown to have the same benefits as gels during exercise.

For protein, milk, eggs and meats are all great sources.

Food sources also have the added benefit of being complex, which means they have other good things in them in addition to the macros, including vitamins and minerals, and bioactive compounds which promote good health.

Foods that are whole (unprocessed) or minimally processed are the most cost-effective means to obtain a mix of nutrients needed for rest and recovery after exercise, as well as during. They might taste a bit better too.

Read more:
Ozempic helps weight loss by making you feel full. But certain foods can do the same thing – without the side-effects

Why supplement then?

But, the supplements do have some benefits. They are highly concentrated, meaning you can get a lot in quickly, with less to carry and less chance of feeling overly full.

So they are but are generally considered by athletes as more convenient and are also linked to less gut discomfort (like cramps and diarrhoea).

The processed and packaged nature also means you know exactly what and how much you are getting, which might be important for some athletes to keep track of.

Any downsides of macro supplements?

Macro supplements can be expensive, and they can use a lot of packaging. The huge variety of products on the market also means products could contain lots of other ingredients (for better and for worse). Some sports gels contain stimulants like caffeine or preservatives like salts. Some protein powders contain added sugar.

And like all supplements, they are not without their risks.

Highly concentrated sports gels can cause stomach upsets and excessive protein supplementation can damage other organs, such as the kidneys.

Macro supplements can also make dehydration worse because the body will need to shift water to deal with these concentrated products.

Blocks and chews and bars can be even more concentrated, but have a more complex composition.

Read more:
Nope, coffee won’t give you extra energy. It’ll just borrow a bit that you’ll pay for later

The science is also a bit sexist

The vast majority of studies on sports gels have used males, and the same benefits may not be seen in females. This is due to sex differences between males and females in how readily carbohydrates are used as energy, with females oxidising more fat and less carbohydrate, compared to males, during endurance exercise.

Ultimately, whether or not supplements or foods are the right choice for you during sports and exercise is going to come down to your preferences, budget, needs and the length and intensity of your exercise or sport.

For casual, short or low intensity sporting pursuits, supplements might be overkill, but for activities of high intensity or long duration, they can have benefits.

Emma Beckett has received funding for research or consulting from Mars Foods, Nutrition Research Australia, NHMRC, ARC, AMP Foundation, Kellogg, and the University of Newcastle. She also works for Nutrition Research Australia. She is a member of committees/working groups related to nutrition or the Australian Academy of Science, the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Nutrition Society of Australia.

Patrice Jones has received funding for research or consulting from the Victorian Government, Nutrition Research Australia, Victoria University, the Australian Academy of Science, NIH Fund, and the University of Newcastle. She is a member of committees related to nutrition/physiology: Nutrition Society of Australia, Australian Physiological Society. She is affiliated with the Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University and Nutrition Research Australia.

– ref. Running gels and protein powders can be convenient boosts for athletes – but be sure to read the label – https://theconversation.com/running-gels-and-protein-powders-can-be-convenient-boosts-for-athletes-but-be-sure-to-read-the-label-200730

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya Hill, Senior Curator (Astronomy), Museums Victoria, and Honorary Fellow, The University of Melbourne

On Thursday 20 April, the Ningaloo region of Western Australia will experience a total solar eclipse. Eclipse chasers from around the world are converging on the town of Exmouth in hopes of experiencing the profound awe of standing in the Moon’s shadow as it quickly races by.

Only a narrow path across Earth, which includes Exmouth and Barrow Island WA, eastern parts of East Timor and also parts of Papua in Indonesia, will experience totality – when the Moon fully blocks the light of the Sun.

Can we see the eclipse in other parts of Australia?

Across the rest of Australia, we will get a partial solar eclipse. Exactly how much of the Sun is covered by the Moon, as well as the timing of the eclipse, depends on your location. The farther away from the path of totality, the shallower the eclipse will be.

Comparing Australian capital cities, Darwin will experience the deepest partial eclipse – with 85% of the Sun’s diameter hidden by the Moon. For Hobart, located at the other end of the country from Ningaloo, just 13% of the Sun’s diameter will disappear behind the Moon.

During a partial eclipse, there is nothing to notice or clue you in that an eclipse might even be happening. Even when 90% or more of the Sun’s diameter is obscured by the Moon (known as the eclipse magnitude) you might only notice a very slight dimming of daylight. More so, the colours and light around you may look a little strange.

The local circumstances for the eclipse across Australian capital cities are provided in the tables below. To find out what’s happening in your location, you can use timeanddate.com
or an online Google map created by French amateur astronomer Xavier Jubier (note that all times will need to be converted from UTC).

What is a ‘hybrid’ eclipse?

Technically, this solar eclipse is a special type, known as a hybrid eclipse. It begins over the Indian Ocean as an annular eclipse, where the Moon is slightly too small to completely block the Sun and a ring of sunlight shines out from around the dark Moon. This happens when the Moon’s antumbral shadow hits Earth (see diagram).

By the time the Moon’s shadow reaches land, it will become a total eclipse – the Moon now appears large enough to completely block the Sun, and it is the Moon’s umbral shadow that falls on Earth.

It’s incredible that such an eclipse occurs, because it means Earth is situated in the sweet spot between the umbral and antumbral shadows. Parts of Earth are in the umbral shadow, while the curvature of the planet is enough to make other places sit slightly farther away, so that the antumbral shadow falls there.

Don’t forget about eye safety!

Most importantly, a solar eclipse requires special precautions to observe it safely. Never look directly at the Sun because it can cause serious and permanent eye damage.

You can observe a solar eclipse safely by protecting your eyes with certified eclipse glasses or view the Sun indirectly by creating a pinhole camera to project a tiny image of the Sun onto a wall, the ground or a piece of paper.

Just remember this is a projection technique – do not look at the Sun through any pinholes.

Observing the totality

For those fortunate to be in Exmouth, the eclipse will begin at 10:04am, and totality will occur at 11:30am, producing an eerie twilight. For just 58 seconds, eclipse observers will be plunged into the Moon’s shadow for an awe-inspiring experience.

What’s most amazing is totality reveals a part of the Sun we don’t normally see. The Sun’s magnificent corona – its outer atmosphere – extends millions of kilometres into space and can be seen dancing and shimmering.

It’s also possible to see planets and bright stars during totality, if you can tear your gaze away from the shimmering corona. There are currently four planets in our daytime sky and all will be revealed – Saturn and Jupiter sitting above the Sun, with faint Mercury and bright Venus below it.

That brief moment of totality, when the Sun is completely covered by the Moon, is the only time to safely watch the eclipse directly. All too quickly, the Moon will move on and it will be time to shield your eyes again.

Australia, get ready for more

Remarkably, this eclipse is the first of five total solar eclipses to occur over the next 15 years in Australia.

What’s more, many of the upcoming eclipses will see totality pass over highly populated areas:

• July 22 2028 – totality will cross from the Kimberley, WA, through the Northern Territory, southwest Queensland, New South Wales, and pass directly over Sydney.

• Nov 25 2030 – totality will occur across South Australia, northwest NSW and southern QLD.

• Jul 13 2037 – totality will cross southern WA, southern NT, western QLD, passing directly over Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

• Dec 26 2038 – totality occurs over central WA, SA, and along the NSW/Victoria border.

For some Australians there will be no need to travel the world to experience totality, when you have the chance to see it from your own backyard.

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

– ref. A ‘hybrid’ solar eclipse is about to be visible in Australia. Here’s when and where you can see it – https://theconversation.com/a-hybrid-solar-eclipse-is-about-to-be-visible-in-australia-heres-when-and-where-you-can-see-it-203338

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Krishanu Roy, Senior Lecturer in Engineering, University of Waikato

In the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle, New Zealand is again talking about “building back better”. But how do we build back better when we don’t necessarily understand what “better” means? Or how to achieve this across a country with significantly different risk profiles?

At its most basic level, build back better is an opportunity to rebuild homes and other buildings in a way that is responsive to future risks and sustainability needs. To achieve this, we need to address knowledge gaps around building within a circular economy. A circular economy is one that swaps the typical cycle of make, use, dispose in favour of re-using and recycling as much as possible.

A sustainable building in the circular economy model will minimise emissions and its impact on climate and natural resources across its entire life cycle. This life cycle includes the manufacturing of materials and construction, passive lifetime emissions, maintenance, as well as end-of-life requirements (deconstruction).

At the University of Waikato, our research is focused on material choices, both for long-term rebuild as well immediate emergency relief. We approach this from a structural engineering perspective and consider light steel, light timber, fiber reinforced polymers and concrete. We work alongside industry to develop know-how around deconstruction for light steel and timber structures.

The research will contribute to best practice guidelines and circular economy adaptation. Here’s why this is important.

Embracing a circular economy

The construction and demolition industry in New Zealand produces around 50% of all waste. According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s 2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction, the sector accounts for more than 34% of energy demand globally and around 37% of energy and process-related carbon dioxide emissions. The report concludes that the building and construction sector are not on track to achieve decarbonisation by 2050 – the international deadline for achieving net zero energy emissions.

The New Zealand government has committed to the circular economy model in its plans to deal with waste.

Read more:
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they need to focus on building materials

But building back better isn’t simply about using sustainable materials and construction methods, and incorporating features that enable lower emissions during the “living phase” of a home.

Buildings need end-of-life considerations built into the design and construction, so they can be easily repurposed or deconstructed with minimal energy and then recycled, reused or disposed of in a manner that doesn’t send emissions through the roof.

Presently, we’re building sustainable homes on the premise of being carbon neutral by 2050, but they also need to be built on the premise of being carbon neutral at the end-of-life in 50 years.

We are not even close to achieving that. A report from building research institute BRANZ determined the climate impact of a new-build standalone house exceeds the 1.5℃ climate targets by a factor of 6.7 during its life cycle. This shows the substantial work needed to achieve carbon neutrality of new homes.

Modular buildings and new materials beckon

The solution to this issue may lie in modular homes and the development of new materials.

Quick and easy to make, modular homes provide fast options to house displaced people. They are also valuable for community wellbeing after the trauma of natural disasters. Finally, modular homes offer exciting opportunities for sustainability. They can be easily reconfigured to adapt to changing needs, for example, with the addition or removal of modules.

However, without careful design and know-how, modular homes and the foundations under them will not necessarily provide resilient and sustainable structures into the future.

The most challenging aspect of modular homes is the connection between the structures and their foundations. Therefore, it’s critical for resilient structures that the connections are designed carefully. Throughout the design process, those in charge need to consider the structure’s deconstruction or disassembly at the end of its life.

Read more:
How ‘net-zero’ and ‘passive’ houses can cut carbon emissions — and energy bills

That said, modular homes are also not the cure all for the entire building industry. The global need for sustainable and resilient buildings is a driver for the development of new construction materials, such as the plasterboard substitutes saveBOARD and Neocrete, a low-emission concrete.

These products offer low-emission building options, which use recycled materials in manufacturing and provide an alternative to high-emission materials. But, due to a lack of strict regulations around adopting new materials and a lack of awareness in the industry, adoption has been slow.

Identifying the missing data

In New Zealand, we have different risk profiles across the regions, depending on the likelihood of earthquakes and natural hazards like flooding, landslides, and wildfires – as well as the intensification of those hazards due to climate change.

The location risk profile dictates the best materials, but to utilise new materials, we need local testing data which are very limited as of yet.

Read more:
We can’t afford to just build greener. We must build less

If we’re really committed to building back better, then we need to do the research and incorporate the evidence into the building code, design standards and information for construction practitioners.

This could mean a “passport” for new materials based on local testing. The passport would incorporate details on the potential to recycle and reuse, a disassembly guide and a sustainability record (in essence, an environmental declaration).

The adaptation of the circular economy approach to the “build back better” strategy for buildings will be essential in reducing the risk of future catastrophes, as well as the impacts on climate and natural resources. Setting up a clear guideline for this strategy will be a pivotal early step in helping the industry define and oversee its efforts towards these objectives, which are currently lacking.

Krishanu Roy 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. ‘Build back better’ requires a framework that focuses on the full life of a house – from materials to its end of life – https://theconversation.com/build-back-better-requires-a-framework-that-focuses-on-the-full-life-of-a-house-from-materials-to-its-end-of-life-203325

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Boivin, Professor, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

It’s not called the Third Pole for nothing. The Tibetan Plateau forms the major portion of a vast upland area of ice and glaciers that covers some 100,000 square kilometres of Earth’s surface.

It is a cold, arid and unforgiving landscape that couldn’t be more different from the warm plains and valleys that gave rise to our species.

Yet, for thousands of years the Tibetan Plateau has been occupied by Homo sapiens. It has seen the establishment of agricultural societies, and the growth of religions, kingdoms and even empire.

How humans managed not just to subsist but to thrive in this high-altitude landscape is a question that has challenged researchers for decades – and one that has captivated us too.

We know part of the answer lies in Tibetan genes, and a unique adaptation that enables people living in the region to use oxygen more efficiently, avoiding the potentially lethal effects of hypoxia (the condition that arises from a lack of oxygen).

But just as important as avoiding hypoxia was finding enough food in the plateau’s unpredictable, freezing and hyper-arid environment.

Our research, published today in Science Advances, set out to look more closely at early Tibetan diets. To do this, we examined ancient dental plaque, a rich source of dietary information.

Our results show one food in particular may have been crucial to sustained human occupation and expansion across the Tibetan Plateau: milk.

The benefits of not brushing

Without dentists, ancient people often accumulated thick layers of plaque – also known as calculus – on their teeth. Using a new method called palaeoproteomics, scientists can investigate the food proteins that became trapped and preserved in ancient people’s dental plaque.

Palaeoproteomics allows us to look at types of food, such as milk, that aren’t visible through traditional archaeological approaches, and to identify specific individuals who were consuming them.

Our study analysed all available human skeletal remains on the plateau: a total of 40 individuals, dating to between 3500 and 1200 years ago, from 15 widely dispersed sites.

Our work yielded fascinating results. Preserved in the teeth of many of these people were fragments of proteins derived from milk products. The protein sequences showed the milk originated from domestic herd animals: sheep, goat and probably yak.

We could see dairy foods were consumed by a wide swathe of Tibetan Plateau society, including adults and children, elites and everyday people. Dairy was even present in the earliest Tibetan Plateau skeletons we looked at.

In fact, we found dairy was being consumed as far back as 3,500 years ago – pushing evidence for dairying on the plateau back 2,000 years earlier than records in historical sources, such as the 8th- and 9th-century Tongdian encyclopedia.

Evidence for dairying now corresponds with the earliest evidence for domesticated herd animals on the Tibetan Plateau, which suggests dairying and pastoralism spread together in this region.

Pushing beyond the cultivation boundary

Our results showed another interesting pattern: all the milk peptides we identified came from ancient individuals in the highest altitude parts of the plateau. These were the most inhospitable areas, where growing crops was difficult.

In the southern-central and southeastern valleys, where farmable land was available, we did not recover any dairy proteins from people’s calculus.

Dairy, it seems, was vital to human occupation of the parts of the plateau that lay beyond the reach of even frost-tolerant crops. This is a vast area, as less than 1% of the Tibetan Plateau supports crop cultivation.

In the lower-lying areas, long-term habitation has been sustained by cultivating plant foods. But across most of the plateau, the primary mode of subsistence has been pastoralism.

Dairy-free? Not an option

While dairy would eventually become central to Tibetan cuisine and culture, our results suggest it was initially adopted out of necessity. It allowed people in the Tibetan Plateau’s most extreme environments to turn the energy locked inside alpine meadow grasses into a protein-rich, nutritional food that was endlessly renewable – because animals weren’t killed to acquire it.

Dairying opened up the Tibetan Plateau to the spread and sustained growth of human populations, which ultimately enabled the emergence of substantial cultural complexity.

In one of Earth’s most inhospitable environments, then, it would appear dairy-free was not an option.

Future work on the plateau will be vital to understanding how the human adoption of pastoralism and dairying reshaped Tibet’s landscapes. And just as critically, it will shed light on what human-induced climate change means for the future of the ecosystems present-day herders rely on.

Read more:
How midnight digs at a holy Tibetan cave opened a window to prehistoric humans living on the roof of the world

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

– ref. How milk tamed the Third Pole: research reveals a 3,500-year history of dairy consumption on the Tibetan Plateau – https://theconversation.com/how-milk-tamed-the-third-pole-research-reveals-a-3-500-year-history-of-dairy-consumption-on-the-tibetan-plateau-203586

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Pillar, Research Development Manager, Telethon Kids Institute

Reports have emerged from around Australia of waitlists of up to two years to receive a diagnostic assessment for neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Assessment delays can create additional stress for families who are already worrying their child may be developing differently.

These waiting times are a symptom of the significant strain our health systems are under. System reform will take time, and in the meantime, there are many children who require urgent support.

But supporting your child doesn’t need to be put on hold while you wait for assessment.

Read more:
New national autism guideline will finally give families a roadmap for therapy decisions

Why are waitlists so long?

Diagnostic assessments are an important part of the clinical pathway for children developing differently.

Diagnoses can provide parents and carers with a deeper understanding of their child. A diagnosis allows the child, their family and the supporting health professionals to benefit from all the information we have about that diagnosis, to understand how best to support the child going forward.

One reason why our diagnostic systems are currently under so much strain is because of expanding diagnostic boundaries. The criteria for autism and ADHD have changed over time, meaning more children meet criteria for these conditions than before.

Another reason is that our health, disability and education systems often require a formal diagnosis for a child to receive support. This further increases demand for diagnostic assessments.

Often, long waitlists result in children and families not getting timely access to crucial early therapy services. Delays can mean that many of the best opportunities to support children’s development early in life are missed, which can further entrench developmental disability and disadvantage.

However, importantly, there are many beneficial things that families can do in the meantime to pave the way for the future.

Read more:
From deficits to a spectrum, thinking around autism has changed. Now there are calls for a ‘profound autism’ diagnosis

3 things families can do

While a diagnosis may help a child access support services, they are still able to access services without a diagnosis.

If a parent is worried about their child’s development, then it is important they continue to seek out support services while the child is on a diagnostic waitlist.

A GP is typically the best person to consult in the first instance. They can then refer the child and family to public or private therapy services. However, private service options may involve out-of-pocket expenses, which can create inequity in access to services.

Parents can also take steps to:

1. Build connections with their child

A key part of all early supports is nurturing the connection parents have with their child. All children benefit from having frequent, meaningful time set aside to connect with their primary caregivers.

During this special connection time, parents might focus on slowing down, approaching their child with curiosity, being open to following their child’s special interests, and trying a variety of communication strategies (including words, gestures or using pictures) to support communication.

Parents needn’t feel pressure to spend all their time engaging with their child – but any time that can be dedicated to this will be time well spent.

2. Gather information to support diagnosis

Diagnoses of ADHD and autism are based on the observation of certain behaviours. A clinician will be able to observe some of these behaviours in their assessment, but they will also rely on information from parents about how their child usually behaves or interacts in different situations.

Parents can support this process by noting examples of the patterns of behaviours they’ve observed. These might include special interests, repetitive activities, social interactions, emotional regulation, sensory preferences or how their child communicates.

It is important parents don’t only note what a child finds difficult, but also their strengths and interests. Sometimes, the things a child is particularly good at can tell us just as much as their challenges.

3. Prioritise family wellbeing

While parents are often proactive in seeking support for their child, they can sometimes neglect their own need for support. Parents are the most important person in a child’s life, and parental capacity and wellbeing can have a significant influence on their child’s outcomes.

While waiting for a diagnosis, parents should start to plan how they are also going to get the support they need. This can include staying connected within the community and making time for activities that bring them and their family joy.

Read more:
Wondering about ADHD, autism and your child’s development? What to know about getting a neurodevelopmental assessment

Looking beyond diagnosis

When parents seek out a diagnosis for their child, they want help to support their child’s development. But long waits for assessment and diagnosis can present barriers between Australia’s health, education and disability systems and the help families need. The long waiting lists to receive a diagnostic assessment are at odds with what we know about the importance of early intervention.

Recent clinical trials have shown how providing support to babies and parents at the first sign of developmental concern can lead to positive developmental outcomes for children.

This approach prioritises acting quickly over diagnostic clarity, and makes it more likely children and families receive support during critical times in brain development.

As Australia seeks to reform our early childhood development system, the need of families to receive prompt support should be front of mind.

Sarah Pillar works for CliniKids at the Telethon Kids Institute.

Andrew Whitehouse is the Director of CliniKids at the Telethon Kids Institute. He receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council, and the Autism CRC.

– ref. Autism and ADHD assessment waits are up to 2 years’ long. What can families do in the meantime? – https://theconversation.com/autism-and-adhd-assessment-waits-are-up-to-2-years-long-what-can-families-do-in-the-meantime-203232

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wanglin Ma, Associate Professor of Economics, Lincoln University, New Zealand

New Zealand is in an unusual position in the developed world when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. About half of all emissions come from agriculture, and almost a quarter can be attributed to biological emissions (nitrous oxide and methane) from the dairy sector.

The latest synthesis report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in March highlights the challenges climate change presents for New Zealand. And it clearly illustrates the benefits of cutting emissions sooner rather than later.

How did we get here?

Dairy farming in New Zealand was traditionally characterised as a pasture-based and low-input system.

However, in recent times, dairy farmers have intensified production, largely by using more fertiliser and supplementary feed (palm kernel expeller, silage and concentrate) to improve farm performance. Dairy farming has also expanded into less naturally suited regions, which has required greater inputs.

This increase in the use of supplementary feed has occurred not only to feed a growing dairy cow population, which has almost doubled since 1990 to 6.4 million, but also to accommodate more intensive farming systems.

Dairy farming is by far the largest consumer of supplementary feed. In 2022, New Zealand used around 5.8 million tonnes of grain and feed. Imports far exceeded domestic production (3.7 million compared with 2.1 million tonnes, respectively).

Dairy cows consumed around 75% of the total grain and feed. In comparison, the poultry sector and people consumed 12% and 9% of the total, respectively.

New Zealand’s capability to import feed from other countries promotes dairy farming intensification, directly contributing to climate change.

Profit versus planet

It may seem that supplementary feed is being used to increase production and profitability within the sector and that what we are faced with is a classic trade-off between financial performance and the environment (emissions to air and water) and other factors such as animal health and welfare.

Our research on New Zealand’s experience with feed-use intensification suggests dairy farmers who use more supplementary feed are more technically efficient than those who use less. This means they are able to produce more output for each unit of input. This contributes to higher production of milk solids (by 6.3% to 14.2%) and revenue (by 6.3% and 15.6%).

Read more:
A new farming proposal to reduce carbon emissions involves a lot of trust – and a lot of uncertainty

There are other benefits associated with supplementary feed which may encourage its use. For example, supplementary feed helps fill feed deficits (periods when there is not sufficient pasture growth) so that milking cows maintain energy intake and production. Supplementary feed can also be used to improve the health of dairy cows and milk quality.

But our further research shows that while feed-use intensification boosts production, costs also rise significantly (by 10.9% to 24.3%). This ultimately leads to a reduced profit margin (by 7.4% to 17.4%).

Significant changes ahead

Dairy farm profitability is jointly determined by the price and output of milk solids and the costs and quantity of production inputs such as feed. As price-takers, dairy farmers can neither directly control the variations in input prices (such as feed prices) nor influence the price of milk.

To increase profitability, farmers must increase the production of milk solids while managing inputs more efficiently. However, other operating expenses increase when systems become more reliant on supplementary feeds. These increases are generally larger than the increases in milk-solids production, thereby reducing profit, on average.

Not all supplementary feeds are equal. Palm kernel expeller (PKE) is widely used as a supplement feed by dairy farmers and it has been shown to embody high emissions (0.51kg CO₂-equivalent per kg of dry matter) compared with other feeds.

New Zealand is the biggest importer of PKE in the world. In 2022, imports were higher than in the previous three years, at more than 2 million tonnes.

Around 54% of PKE used on dairy farms was imported from Indonesia and Malaysia. It is widely claimed that exporting PKE to New Zealand has contributed to deforestation in supplying countries, increasing emissions and risks from climate change. Other concerns have also been raised, for example around PKE’s impacts on animal health.

Read more:
Palm kernel product imported for use on dairy farms may actually be harmful to cows

The dairy industry is well aware of these challenges and much effort has been put into encouraging farmers to adopt practices that can save them money while reducing overall emissions. These often focus on maximising the yield from pasture and using less carbon-intensive feeds such as homegrown feeds or byproducts of food and drink production.

The reason why there hasn’t been more progress may be in part because farmers are “locked in” to the current systems through what economists call path dependency. Investments have been made in both human and physical capital, and for many farms, debts have to be serviced. Therefore it is not a case that simply reducing the level of supplementary feed will reduce emissions and maintain profitability.

Reversing the trends requires significant changes to both management practices and physical infrastructure. High fertiliser prices, stricter regulations and the pricing of emissions may encourage this transition, but it may also be time to rethink the role supplementary feed has in our dairy systems.

Alan Renwick has received funding for projects with MPI, MBIE and DairyNZ

Kathryn Blackman Bicknell and Wanglin Ma 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. Why using more fertiliser and feed does not necessarily raise dairy farm profits but increases climate harm – https://theconversation.com/why-using-more-fertiliser-and-feed-does-not-necessarily-raise-dairy-farm-profits-but-increases-climate-harm-202333

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

Last month the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report.

It showed global temperatures are now 1.1℃ above pre-industrial levels. This warming has driven widespread and rapid global changes, including more frequent and intense weather extremes that are now impacting people and ecosystems all over the world.

But when an extreme weather event hits, how certain can we be that it was made more likely by climate change? How do we know it wasn’t just a rare, naturally-occuring event that might have happened anyway?

Fear & Wonder is a new podcast from The Conversation that takes you inside the UN’s era-defining climate report via the hearts and minds of the scientists who wrote it.

The show is hosted by Dr Joëlle Gergis – a climate scientist and IPCC lead author – and award-winning journalist Michael Green.

In this episode, we’re delving into one of the major shifts in the public communication of climate change – the attribution of extreme weather events to climate change.

Although in the past we knew climate change was making extreme weather more likely, advances in climate modelling now allow scientists to pinpoint the influence of natural and human-caused factors on individual weather extremes.

We speak to climatologist Dr Friederike Otto about a rapid attribution study of a heatwave in Toulouse, France, as it unfolded in 2019. We also hear from climatologist Professor David Karoly to help us understand how climate models actually work, while Professor Tannecia Stephenson explains how global models are then used to develop regional climate change projections over the Caribbean island of Jamaica.

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: how scientists attribute extreme weather events to climate change – https://theconversation.com/fear-and-wonder-podcast-how-scientists-attribute-extreme-weather-events-to-climate-change-203559

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joel Gilmore, Associate Professor, Griffith University

After more than five decades, the last operating units of the Liddell coal-fired power station will close this month. The station’s owner, AGL, is Australia’s largest carbon polluter. Liddell’s closure will reduce the company’s emissions by 17%.

Liddell, in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, is Australia’s oldest coal station. It started operations in the early 1970s – about the same time the Datsun 180B was released, and before the Sydney Opera House officially opened!

In the same way a Datsun 180B was a great car in its day, Liddell was the cheapest and most reliable electricity generation technology in the 1970s and 1980s (at least if you ignore the long-term costs of carbon).

But like all coal-fired power stations in Australia, Liddell’s performance declined as it aged. It became unreliable and inefficient. One unit of the station closed last year, leaving three operating.

Governments must act to make sure our electricity grid doesn’t fall short when coal plants close. But the demise of facilities such as Liddell means Australia has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to become a global energy superpower.

Life after Liddell

AGL announced the decision to close Liddell in 2015. Virtually no one in the energy industry argued against the move, but it triggered endless political debate.

Some politicians are still railing against Liddell’s retirement. Federal Nationals leader David Littleproud this week said the closure should be delayed to prevent supply problems, and suggested Australia should have an urgent conversation about building nuclear energy.

But closing Liddell is unlikely to cause the lights to go off in NSW. For now, the state has enough remaining capacity to ensure reliable supply.

In the eight years since the decision to close Liddell, large-scale renewable capacity in NSW has ramped up, as has new rooftop solar.

Plenty of new “firming” capacity is also being developed – that is, flexible energy capacity to be activated if renewables aren’t producing energy or electricity demand suddenly increases. Projects under construction in NSW include the Kurri Kurri and Tallawarra gas-fired power stations, the Waratah “super battery” and the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project.

When electricity consumption in NSW is at its highest, about 14,000 MW of power is required. Without Liddell, about 13,500 MW of coal, gas and hydro generation is available.

Add in existing wind and solar capacity, plus energy that can be imported from Victoria and Queensland via transmission lines, and total generation capacity in NSW looks to be more than enough.

However, the reliability of some of this remaining capacity – namely, remaining coal-fired power stations – is becoming less certain. That’s why the energy industry is looking past Liddell, to the closure of the Eraring coal plant in 2025, and others to follow.

Read more:
Global coal use in 2022 is reaching an all-time high, but Australia is bucking the trend

All eyes on Eraring

Modelling by the Australian Energy Market Operator shows the closure of Eraring puts pressure on remaining electricity supply. However, it says the market would still meet the grid “reliabilty standard”, even if no new projects are developed.

Under that standard, expected unserved energy needs (leading to blackouts) should be no more than 0.002% of total energy used in a region. The standard assumes that while the occasional blackout is inconvenient, eliminating them completely is unfeasible because it would require building expensive power stations that are rarely used.

Blackouts could become more common, if extreme weather hits or coal units fail – which happened at Queensland’s Callide C power station in 2021. But blackouts are still far more likely to be the result of a power line problem in your street than a lack of generation capacity.

Over to the Minns government

No electricity supply shortfalls are projected for Australia in the near-term. But to ensure the clean energy transition happens smoothly, we should develop new renewable energy and firming capacity ahead of coal closures.

The earlier-than-expected closure of coal units remains a possibility – as occurred with Victoria’s Hazelwood coal station due to unaffordable repair costs.

We have previously recommended a “waiting room” for capacity that can be brought quickly into the market when required. Batteries and pumped hydro would be developed ahead of coal closures, and brought into the market as soon as coal exits.

The NSW Minns Labor government can also bring forward investment through an existing policy called the NSW Energy Roadmap. This involves asking the Australian Energy Market Operator to enter into long-term contracts to underwrite new renewable energy and firming projects, to help reduce the financial risks proponents face.

One tender round is already under way, but this could be accelerated. Given the global energy crunch, it may be worth commissioning projects now, even if delivery is not required until later. This is a much better way to manage reliability than, for example, the NSW government using taxpayer money to buy Eraring – an option NSW Labor left on the table ahead of last month’s state election.

In the longer term, construction of renewable generation must dramatically scale up to ensure energy reliability and meet emissions reduction targets.

This will be challenging. But we can take heart from news this week that under the federal Albanese government, renewables projects are being approved at twice the rate of previous years.

Read more:
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A new era

There’s more work to be done to make sure the electricity grid can withstand coal plant closures.

Many new transmission lines must be built to carry electricity from renewables generators to the grid. And the ongoing development of renewable energy zones – clusters of large-scale renewable energy projects – will make establishing new projects quicker and simpler.

Importantly, local communities and First Nations people must be engaged and consulted throughout the transition.

But while adjusting to the exit of coal brings challenges, nuclear power in Australia is unlikely to be the answer.

Australia has world-class wind and solar resources – enough to eventually produce clean, cheap energy for ourselves and for export. Technologies such as batteries, hydrogen and hydro will fill the gaps when needed.

Producing energy from emerging nuclear technologies in the form of “small modular reactors”, as proposed by Littleproud, will be still be more than twice the cost of Australian renewable energy firmed by batteries or other storage technologies, even under the most ambitious scenarios. This gives Australia a global competitive advantage.

Liddell’s closure is an historic moment in the Australian energy landscape. Now, with tweaks to existing policies, the new NSW government can increase reliability, lower electricity prices and get on the path to net-zero.

Read more:
Batteries won’t cut it – we need solar thermal technology to get us through the night

Joel Gilmore is an Associate Professor at Griffith University and the GM, Policy and Regional Energy at Iberdrola Australia, which develops renewable projects and batteries.

Tim Nelson is an Associate Professor at Griffith University and the EGM, Energy Markets at Iberdrola Australia, which develops renewable projects and batteries. He is also a Climate Councillor.

– ref. Farewell Liddell: what to expect when Australia’s oldest coal plant closes – https://theconversation.com/farewell-liddell-what-to-expect-when-australias-oldest-coal-plant-closes-203548

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Wayland, Associate Professor, University of New England

Death is a part of life, an adage usually reserved for those who physically exist in our lives – family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances. So what happens when a profound death experience happens on the screen? Is that still a legitimate experience of mourning?

This week, the popular TV show Succession had a significant “on screen” death – where even the cast filming the scene spoke as if the response to the trauma had a very real feeling.

In the same way as the cast, social media reactions to the sudden and unexpected death of a person with a complex character, after four seasons of growing to understand them, can feel like the death of someone you actually know.

The research behind this phenomenon can be found as far back as the 1970s when early understandings around the death of a main character on children’s television served to provide real world insight into the irreversibility of death as a universal experience.

Over time, as popular culture and television became more nuanced, the diversity of the ways in which death occurred in fictional programs began to replicate the complexity of “real” loss in our lives. Via television, we get access to catastrophic loss, multiple casualty events, loss after significant illness – as well as seeing how death impacts the people left behind.

In the most recent episode of Succession, we also see what happens when a death occurs involving a person where their character or relationship to others is strained. We see ways in which grief is not always a byproduct of love.

Why does this grief feel real from an armchair perspective?

Death on screen can also act as a trigger or a reminder of the losses we have endured.

When a show realistically portrays grief in its purest form, the emotive or reflective reaction can unlock our own grief. Engaging with the small screen is an overt act of escapism, often for entertainment. We might be switching on a program with the intention of relaxation, only to be met with trauma and sadness.

When a sudden loss is brought into our lounge rooms, or via the devices on our laps, we experience shock, confusion and anger about the abruptness of an event, just like the feelings we can experience when loss happens suddenly in our real lives.

Read more:
Far from the ‘ludicrously capacious’: what the fashion of Succession tells us about the show – and about society

Safe reporting of sudden and traumatic death on fictional TV shows is not covered by media reporting guidelines. Warnings prior to a scene, or consistent information at the end of an episode about seeking additional support, might be minimal.

Recent research identifies multiple contexts related to warnings where TV shows may note that an episode will explore death, however, the complexity of how this might be portrayed is limited.

What is this grief called?

While there is no rulebook for grief, reacting emotionally to a small screen death can bring about concerns that we look silly or that we lack awareness of the distinction between reality and fiction. This form of parasocial grieving, described as having feelings attached to a pseudo-relationship, does feel real, does have consequences and does need space to be managed.

We don’t all watch the same shows, we don’t all respond to the death of a character the same way, we might even struggle to understand why people have the reactions they do when a TV death occurs. I would encourage you to pause for a moment and remember the ones that did get under our skin.

In 1985, Australian viewers lived through the death of Molly from A Country Practice, where the final image of a mother’s end-stage cancer diagnosis played out while watching her daughter fly a kite.

Teens watching Sarah Michelle Gellar stumble across the sudden untimely death of her mother in Buffy the Vampire Slayer shaped many feelings when there is a catastrophic loss without warning.

In the last decade, the sudden death of Patrick from Offspring had people legitimately calling in sick from work the next day.

The global reaction to the Red Wedding scene in Game of Thrones had forums on Reddit unpacking why so many characters were murdered and sharing the impact of the sights and sounds of blood and murder and traumatic grief.

We engage in a social contract when we connect to a TV show. We expect to be removed from our real life and engage in the viewing of other spaces. Death in those spaces – and the reactions to that loss – can feel as if they break that contract.

Sarah Wayland 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. Can death on the screen feel the same as a ‘real’ one? – https://theconversation.com/can-death-on-the-screen-feel-the-same-as-a-real-one-203549

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

Over the past two days there’s been controversy over whether Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should accept an invitation to attend the NATO summit in Lithuania in July, with reports suggesting he will not.

Albanese’s office is yet to confirm whether the prime minister, who is currently on leave, will attend the meeting.

But the debate is a reminder that politicians and the public must recognise the value of such opportunities.

Why is the NATO summit a big deal?

NATO – the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – is a 31-nation collective defence pact that includes most members of the European Union as well as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Turkey.

Under treaty, an invasion of any NATO member is treated as an invasion of all. This is of great comfort, especially for smaller countries with a threatening neighbour. In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland has become a member and Sweden has applied to join.

Read more:
Finland, NATO and the evolving new world order – what small nations know

Why has Albanese been invited?

While Australia isn’t a member of NATO, it has a good relationship with the organisation. Australia is one of NATO’s “partners across the globe”, with permanent observer status.

Australia was a key partner during the long Afghanistan mission, with Australia seen as important in helping NATO meet its goals. Prime ministers Rudd and Gillard both attended NATO summits during this period.

There are currently two factors that make Australia a higher priority for NATO.

First, Australia is viewed as making a significant contribution to efforts to support Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. When I introduced myself to Ukraine’s youngest member of parliament, the first thing he said was thanks for Australia’s contribution of Bushmaster armoured vehicles. Australia is also working with France to manufacture ammunition.

Second, there is greater NATO focus on Indo-Pacific security issues. The 2022 NATO Strategic Concept mentioned issues around the threat from China for the first time. Australia is an obvious partner to NATO in Indo-Pacific security.

Griffith University’s Susan Harris Rimmer saw the invitation for Australia to attend the NATO summit in 2022 as a significant step reflecting NATO’s intent to focus on China and Indo-Pacific security.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speaks about NATO’s Indo-Pacific partners, including Australia, in very positive terms:

We may be oceans apart. But our security is closely connected. And we share the same values, interests and concerns. This includes supporting Ukraine.

The case for attending

All this means there is a strong case for attending if possible. NATO is an important gathering of world leaders. As ANU’s John Blaxland puts it, the chance to “press the flesh” with world leaders is part of the “process of building relationships with key heads of states of important partner nations”.

For Australia to be taken seriously, it needs to show up. And given Australia’s location, the reality is that Australians are usually the ones who have to do the travelling. If we were to wait for all the NATO leaders to visit Australia, it would literally take decades.

It is clear Albanese recognises this. He attended last year’s NATO summit in Madrid not long after the election, saying “it was important that Australia be represented”.

The danger of negativity

Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Birmingham has urged Albanese to attend this year’s summit, which he said would “demonstrate Australia’s 100% commitment to the rules-based order, our democratic partners and the defence of Ukraine”.

But it’s worth noting that last year, others had a different response. After Albanese went to the Madrid summit, his travel schedule was criticised by Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor, Shadow Immigration Minister Dan Tehan and National Party Leader David Littleproud. He faced negative commentary and news outlets keeping track of how many days he had been out of the country.

As he returned from the NATO summit and visiting Ukraine, Albanese was forced to defend his travel. He described criticism comparing this to his predecessor Scott Morrison’s trip to Hawaii during the 2019-20 bushfires as “beyond contempt”.

Supporting our leaders to have international impact

At this point it is not clear whether Albanese will attend the NATO summit. He is currently on leave, and acting prime minister Penny Wong said she would not announce Albanese’s schedule.

If media reports he will not attend turn out to be true, I hope the only reason would be a simple scheduling conflict. Albanese has a range of upcoming travel commitments, including the coronation of Charles III in the UK and the G7 meeting in Japan, both in May. He will host leaders of the “Quad” nations in Australia, and there is speculation about trips to India, the US and China.

For the national interest, it is important that both the public and political opponents support our leaders in engaging internationally as a key part of their role to promote Australia’s interests and represent us on the world stage.

As Albanese said in response to criticism of his travel in 2022, “we can’t separate international events from the impact on Australia and Australians”. This connection needs to be widely understood.

Melissa Conley Tyler is Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue (AP4D) which receives funding from the Australian Civil-Military Centre and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

– ref. Anthony Albanese should attend the NATO summit if he can. Here’s why – https://theconversation.com/anthony-albanese-should-attend-the-nato-summit-if-he-can-heres-why-203675

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

Professor Marcia Langton holds the Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, and was co-author (with Professor Tom Calma) of the Indigenous Voice Co-design Process report to the Morrison government. She has been a fighter for rights and progress for Indigenous Australians for decades, and she’s one of those at the centre of the yes campaign for the Voice. Her own voice is always forthright and formidable.

Langton admits she isn’t “entirely confident” where the referendum stands at the moment but is more positive as the debate continues. “I’ve been gauging the response of the general public by reading a lot and having a look at the social media, and I think most people can see that this is a very simple and modest proposition and that it will make a difference. And what I’m seeing more and more is most people realising, yes, well, why don’t Indigenous people have a say about policies and the laws that affect them?

“They realise when they think about it that this has gone on for too long, where all of these laws and policies that seem to be universally ineffective in closing the gap, and causing more suffering, have been imposed on us by non-Indigenous people. […] I think most people are still very embarrassed about the Northern Territory intervention initiated by John Howard.”

While Langton admits she doesn’t agree with Julian Leeser’s preference to alter the proposed wording of the constitutional change, she believes Leeser – who has quit the opposition frontbench to campaign for the yes case – has shown “integrity and decency of the kind that most Australians aspire to. You can see from the response that he’s getting from across the political spectrum that he’s now even more respected for his stance.”

One key issue in the debate about the Voice is how extensive will be the issues on which it would be able to make representations.

Langton says a point “widely misunderstood […] is that the voice will be a statutory body. And like any other statutory body, it should be treated according to the standards of non-discrimination. If no other statutory body is restricted on the basis of race or gender or age in making representations to government, then to restrict the Voice in making such representations could be seen as racially discriminatory.”

A key question being asked is how people will be selected to represent their communities. Langton says: “We have to accommodate an already existing Indigenous governance landscape. So across the country we have an enormous number of existing bodies, none of which have any assured way of advising governments. None of them are provided with a formal way to advise governments. I’ll give you two examples.

“One is the Torres Strait Regional Authority. And the other is the ACT Indigenous elected assembly. Now, indeed, both of them can give advice to the state governments, and that’s a good thing. But they don’t sit in an integrated framework. […] We developed a set of principles for the creation of such bodies as the Indigenous voice arrangements.

“Those principles are:

• Empowerment
• inclusive participation
• cultural leadership
• community-led design
• non-duplication and links with existing bodies
• respecting long-term partnerships
• transparency and accountability
• capability driven data
• evidence based decision making.

“Those are the principles, and it was our preference that those principles be legislated so that each body that is created, should we be successful, complies with those principles.”

A major point for debate around The Voice is whether it will deliver practical outcomes. Langton illustrates by example.

“As for the kinds of problems that the Voice would be able to tackle much more effectively than governments, I give you the case of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first people to respond effectively, long before governments did so, were the Indigenous health organisations […] The Indigenous community-controlled health sector leaders had dealt with two epidemics in recent history and one in particular had a very high mortality rate. So in response to that, the Indigenous health sector wrote an epidemic plan, and that was about ten years old, but it was easily revised to become the pandemic plan. So they went straight into action when we began to hear the news from overseas about COVID-19.”

“So who was first to close their borders? Not the states and territories. It was the Aboriginal landowners on advice from the Indigenous health sector that closed their borders to stop travel in and out of Aboriginal lands to keep their populations safe.

“Because the most vulnerable populations to COVID-19 were the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations with pre-existing health burdens such as chronic diseases, diabetes, kidney disease and so on.

“We expected, you know, an enormous death toll in the Indigenous community, we expected at least 3% of the indigenous population to contract the disease. 27,701 cases was the prediction.

“But because the Indigenous health sector rushed to implement the pandemic plan and set up a national taskforce with public health advisories that went out across our media sector, translated into at least 18 languages, we were able to stop the deaths. And so in the first year of the pandemic, I think we had one death as opposed to 27,000. And so we were the most successful group in the world, I would argue, in preventing COVID-19 from taking lives. So up until January 2021, there were only 148 cases of COVID among Indigenous people nationwide, 15% hospitalisations, one case in ICU and no deaths. And there were no deaths in remote communities and no cases associated with the Black Lives Matter marches because of our public health advisories.

“So I think that’s, you know, a very good example, of why Indigenous people in control of their own affairs is much more effective than governments. And we can see the terrible mistakes that governments across the country made, even though they were advised by the very best of our epidemiologists, is because they don’t have the reach into the local population that our Indigenous health sector has.”

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

– ref. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Professor Marcia Langton on the Voice’s powers and potential – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-professor-marcia-langton-on-the-voices-powers-and-potential-203672

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Montgomery, Senior Lecturer in General Practice, The University of Western Australia

Last week, without warning, the federal government significantly restricted the subsidy for an important and safe asthma medicine for children. A short document explained to prescribers what had changed, but gave no reasons.

The medicine, fluticasone propionate 50mcg, is a metered-dose inhaler, more commonly known by the brand names Flixotide Junior or Axotide Junior. It’s one of the the lowest dose medicines of its type available, and until April 1 the government had subsidised nearly 80,000 of these puffers each year.

However, the new change will make it harder to afford, especially for vulnerable families, who already suffer the greatest burden of asthma.

Read more:
What causes asthma? What we know, don’t know and suspect

The importance of asthma prevention

When a child has asthma, inflammation and sensitivity causes airway narrowing, which makes it hard to breathe.

About one in ten Australian children has long-term asthma. It can cause frightening breathlessness, poor school participation, and sometimes hospitalisation. Rarely, and tragically, children die from asthma.

Children with persistent or severe asthma symptoms need medicines to reduce airway inflammation. “Inhaled steroids” are the safest and most effective treatments. In fact, the World Health Organisation has included them on its List of Essential Medicines for Children.

These medicines reduce the risk of severe flares of symptoms, especially in children with a history of such flares. The aim is to use the lowest effective dose, yet it is the subsidy of low dose fluticasone which the new policy affects.

How medicine subsidy decisions work

To be sold in Australia, all prescription medicines must be registered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which assesses the safety and efficacy of the medicine.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) is a list of medicines our government helps to pay for. This scheme caps the cost of dispensed medicines at about A$30 for most people, and about A$7 for people with concession cards.

To get a drug on the list, the manufacturer needs to convince the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) the medicine is cost-effective.

Having this sort of process – a single major payer, and well-qualified decision-makers – is a good thing. It’s a reason Australia has much more affordable medicines than the United States. This usually benefits both patients and health authorities.

Read more:
Passive smoking, synthetic bedding and gas heating in homes show the strongest links to asthma

The new rules

Previously, any doctor could prescribe low dose fluticasone for a child with asthma under the PBS. But as of April 1, this is no longer true.

The new PBS rules are complicated.

First, no one over the age of six will get any government subsidy to help with the cost of this medicine.

Second, the PBS will only subsidise it for children under the age of six if a paediatrician or lung specialist has started the medicine, and if the prescriber has first contacted the PBS for approval.

The PBS has not spelled out why this change was made, either on their website or when pressed by journalists.

Generally, if the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee and a manufacturer can’t agree on a medicine’s price, the medicine will stay off the PBS, and will remain unsubsidised. Alternatively, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee may place restrictions on the population for whom the medicine is subsidised.

In this case, given no safety or effectiveness concerns have been raised, and the change coincided with a scheduled price-reduction date, the new restrictions may be simply about money – the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee and the manufacturer not agreeing on a price.

What does it mean for families?

In children over the age of six, several alternative medicines can be prescribed.

But in children under five, there are no good alternatives, with no other age-appropriate low-dose steroid inhalers approved by the TGA.

In the under-five age group, GPs now have three options if they think their patient needs inhaled steroids:

1. prescribe fluticasone 50mcg on a private script

2. refer to a child or lung specialist

3. prescribe other medicines “off label” (in a way not approved by the TGA), which will often involve higher-dose steroids.

All of these are problematic.

The use of private scripts will mean families need to pay whatever their local pharmacy charges them. At many pharmacies we expect the price to be around $11 to $28 per inhaler, but there are no guarantees all pharmacies will provide the medication at this cost.

The use of private scripts will certainly hurt families who rely on concessions or safety nets, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds who are disproportionately affected by asthma.

Requiring referral to a specialist also has many detrimental consequences. There are already bulging waitlists for these services, leading to delays in care. In many parts of Australia there are no bulk-billing specialists, which makes it hard for vulnerable families to access these services.

GPs will feel obliged to refer cases they previously would have been able to manage, which may erode the community’s trust in GPs.

The decision adversely impacts the interests of so many Australian kids, especially those from our most vulnerable populations who already suffer disproportionately from asthma. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee and the manufacturer should work together to reconsider it.

Read more:
The price of PBS medicines is coming down. But are we helping the right people?

Brett Montgomery has no relationship with the manufacturer of the medicines discussed in this article (GSK). Brett is a member of the guidelines committee for the Australian Asthma Handbook, which is an unpaid role. The Australian Asthma Handbook is a project of the National Asthma Council Australia. The National Asthma Council Australia has received funding from GSK for some activities, but is not a sponsor of the Handbook. Brett writes here in an individual capacity rather than on behalf of any organisation.

Louisa Owens is affiliated with the National Asthma Council of Australia and Asthma Australia. Louisa has no relationship with the manufacturer of the medicines discussed in this article (GSK). Loiusa is a member of the guidelines committee for the Australian Asthma Handbook, which is an unpaid role. The Australian Asthma Handbook is a project of the National Asthma Council Australia. The National Asthma Council Australia has received funding from GSK for some activities, but is not a sponsor of the Handbook. Louisa is also a member of the Professional Advisory Council for Asthma Australia. Louisa writes here in an individual capacity rather than on behalf of any organisation

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

– ref. New asthma medicine restrictions will hurt the poorest children the most – https://theconversation.com/new-asthma-medicine-restrictions-will-hurt-the-poorest-children-the-most-203424

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

TikTok allows video up to 10 minutes, but says surveys show almost half its users are stressed by anything longer than a minute. An Instagram video can be up to 90 seconds, but experts reckon the ideal time to maximise engagement is less than 15 seconds. Twitter doubled the length of tweets in 2017 to 280 characters, but the typical length is more like 33 characters.

It’s easy to get sucked into short and sensational content. But if you’re worried this may be harming your attention span, you should be. There’s solid evidence that so many demands on our attention make us more stressed, and that the endless social comparison makes us feel worse about ourselves.

For better mental health, read a book.

Studies show a range of psychological benefits from book-reading. Reading fiction can increase your capacity for empathy, through the process of seeing the world through a relatable character. Reading has been found to reduce stress as effectively as yoga. It is being prescribed for depression – a treatment known as bibliotherapy.

Book-reading is also a strong marker of curiosity – a quality prized by employers such as Google. Our research shows reading is as strongly associated with curiosity as interest in science, and more strongly than mathematical ability.

And it’s not just that curious minds are more likely to read because of a thirst for knowledge and understanding. That happens too, but our research has specifically been to investigate the role of reading in the development of curious minds.

À lire aussi :
Too many digital distractions are eroding our ability to read deeply, and here’s how we can become aware of what’s happening — podcast

Tracking reading and curiosity

Our findings come from analysing data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth, which tracks the progress of young Australians from the age of 15 till 25.

Longitudinal surveys provide valuable insights by surveying the same people – in this case a group of about 10,000 young people. Every year for ten years they are asked about their achievements, aspirations, education, employment and life satisfaction.

There have been five survey cohorts since 1998, the most recent starting in 2016. We analysed three of them – those beginning in 2003, 2006 and 2009, looking at the data up to age 20, at which age most have a job or are looking for one.

The survey data is rich enough to develop proxy measures of reading and curiosity levels. It includes participants’ scores in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment tests for reading, mathematics and science ability. There are survey questions about time spent reading for pleasure, time reading newspapers or magazines, and library use.

To measure curiosity, we used respondents’ answers to questions about their interest in the following:

• learning new things
• thinking about why the world is in the state it is
• finding out more about things you don’t understand
• finding out about a new idea
• finding out how something works.

We used statistical modelling to control for environmental and demographic variables and distinguish the effect of reading activity as a teenager on greater curiosity as a young adult. This modelling gives us confidence that reading is not just correlated with curiosity. Reading books helps build curiosity.

Gloom and doom-scrolling

Does this mean if you’re older that it’s too late to start reading? No. Our results relate to young people because the data was available. No matter what your age, deep reading has benefits over social-media scrolling.

The short-term dopamine rush of scrolling on a device is an elusive promise. It depletes rather than uplifts us. Our limbic brain – the part of the brain associated with our emotional and behavioural responses – remains trapped in a spiral of pleasure-seeking.

Studies show a high correlation between media multitasking and attention problems due to cognitive overload.
The effect is most evident among young people, who have grown up with social media overexposure.

US social psychologist Jonathan Haidt is among the researchers warning that high social media use is a major contributor to declining mental health for teenage girls:

Boys are doing badly too, but their rates of depression and anxiety are not as high, and their increases since 2011 are smaller.

Why this “giant, obvious, international, and gendered cause”? Haidt writes:

Instagram was founded in 2010. The iPhone 4 was released then too — the first smartphone with a front-facing camera. In 2012 Facebook bought Instagram, and that’s the year that its user base exploded. By 2015, it was becoming normal for 12-year-old girls to spend hours each day taking selfies, editing selfies, and posting them for friends, enemies, and strangers to comment on, while also spending hours each day scrolling through photos of other girls and fabulously wealthy female celebrities with (seemingly) vastly superior bodies and lives.

In 2020 Haidt published research showing girls are more vulnerable to “fear of missing out” and the aggression that social media tends to amplify. Since then he’s become even more convinced of the correlation.

Social media, by design, is addictive.

With TikTok, for example, videos start automatically, based on what the algorithm already knows about you. But it doesn’t just validate your preferences and feed you opinions that confirm your biases. It also varies the content so you don’t know what is coming next. This is the same trick that keeps gamblers addicted.

Tips to get back into books

If you are having difficulty choosing between your phone and a book, here’s a simple tip proven by behavioural science. To change behaviour it also helps to change your environment.

Try the following:

• Carry a book at all times, or leave books around the house in convenient places.

• Schedule reading time into your day. 20 minutes is enough. This reinforces the habit and ensures regular immersion in the book world.

• If you’re not enjoying a book, try another. Don’t force yourself.

You’ll feel better for it – and be prepared for a future employer asking you what books you’re reading.

Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.

– ref. Why reading books is good for society, wellbeing and your career – https://theconversation.com/why-reading-books-is-good-for-society-wellbeing-and-your-career-200447