Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
Jan van Eyck, The Ghent Altarpiece, 1432. Virgin Mary detail.Wikimedia Commons
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is unquestionably the senior saint within the Christian tradition. Yet we know remarkably little about her. In the New Testament, there is nothing about her birth, death, appearance or age.
Outside of the accounts of the birth of Jesus that only occur in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, she is specifically mentioned at only three other events in the life of her son.
She is present at a wedding where Jesus turns water into wine; she makes an attempt to see her son while he is teaching; and she is there at his crucifixion. Indeed, Mary is mentioned more often in the Qur’an than in the New Testament.
The gospel of Matthew is the only one to tell us Mary was pregnant before she and Joseph had sex. She was said to be “with child from the Holy Spirit”. In proof of this, Matthew quoted a prophecy from the Old Testament that a “virgin will conceive and bear a son and he will be called Emmanuel”.
Matthew was using the Greek version of the Old Testament. In the Greek Old Testament, the original Hebrew word “almah” had been translated as “parthenos”, thence into the Latin Bible as “virgo” and into English as “virgin”.
Whereas “almah” means only “young woman”, the Greek word “parthenos” means physically “a virgin intacta”. In short, Mary was said to be a virgin because of an accident of translation when “young woman” became “virgin”.
Guido Reni, Education of the Virgin. Wikimedia Commons
2. She was a perpetual virgin
Within early Christian doctrine, Mary remained a virgin during and after the birth of Jesus. This was perhaps only fitting for someone deemed “the mother of God” or “God-bearer”.
Saint Ambrose of Milan (c.339-97 CE) enthusiastically defended the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary:
Blessed Mary is the gate, whereof it is written that the Lord hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut after birth; for as a virgin she both conceived and brought forth.
The Lateran Council of 649 CE, a council held in Rome by the Western Church, later declared it an article of faith that Jesus was conceived “without seed” and that Mary “incorruptibly bore [him], her virginity remaining indestructible even after his birth” . All this in spite of the Gospels’ declaration that Jesus had brothers and sisters (Mark 3.32, Matthew 12.46, Luke 8.19).
Virgin and Child tempera on panel painting by Antonio Veneziano, circa 1380. Museum of Fine Arts Boston
3. She was immaculately conceived
Within Western theology, it was generally recognised from the time of Saint Ambrose that Mary never committed a sin. But was her sinlessness in this life because she was born without “original sin”? After all, according to Western theology, every human being was born with original sin, the “genetic” consequence of the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
The growing cult of devotion to the Virgin Mary in the medieval period led to fine-grained theological divisions on the issue. On the one hand, devotion to Mary led to the argument that God had ensured Mary did not have “original sin”.
But then, if Mary had been conceived without sin, she had already been redeemed before the redemption brought about by the death and resurrection of Jesus her son.
The Catholic Church only resolved the issue in 1854. Pope Pius IX declared
that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception… was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.
4. She ascended into heaven
The early centuries of the Christian tradition were silent on the death of Mary. But by the seventh and eighth centuries, the belief in the bodily ascension of Mary into heaven, had taken a firm hold in both the Western and Eastern Churches.
The Eastern Orthodox Greek Church held to the dormition of Mary. According to this, Mary had a natural death, and her soul was then received by Christ. Her body arose on the third day after her death. She was then taken up bodily into heaven.
For a long time, the Catholic Church was ambiguous on whether Mary rose from the dead after a brief period of repose in death and then ascended into heaven or was “assumed” bodily into heaven before she died.
Belief in the ascension of Mary into heaven became Catholic doctrine in 1950. Pope Pius XII then declared that Mary
was not subject to the law of remaining in the corruption of the grave, and she did not have to wait until the end of time for the redemption of her body.
The Assumption of the Virgin by Luca Giordano, circa 1698. Wikimedia Commons
5. She is a sky goddess
The consequence of the bodily ascension of Mary was the absence of any bodily relics. Although there was breast milk, tears, hair and nail clippings, her relics were mostly “second order” – garments, rings, veils and shoes.
In the absence of her skeletal remains, her devotees made do with visions – at Lourdes, Guadalupe, Fatima, Medjugorje, and so on. Like the other saints, her pilgrimage sites were places where she could be invoked to ask God to grant the prayers of her devotees.
But she was more than just a saint. In popular devotion she was a sky goddess always dressed in blue. She was the goddess of the moon and the star of the sea (stella maris).
She was the goddess of the moon and the star of the sea. Wikimedia Commons
She was related to the star sign Virgo (not surprisingly) – the Queen of Heaven and Queen of the angels.
Philip C. Almond 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.
Until the mid-19th century, Christmas was a time for drunkenness and debauchery.
Men dressed like women, women dressed like men, servants dressed like masters, boys dressed like bishops, everyone else either dressed as animals or wore blackface – all to subvert the godly order in the safety of anonymity.
Christmas was a carnival of drink, cross-dressing, violence and lust during which Christians were unshackled from the ethical norms expected of them the rest of the year.
No wonder the Puritans wanted it banned.
The Origins of Christmas Revelry
It was not until the 4th century that the Church of Rome recognised December 25 as the date to celebrate the birth of the messiah. And it did so knowing well that there were no biblical or historical reasons to place Christ’s birth on that day.
There is some evidence the Romans worshipped Sol Invictus, their sun god, on December 25. But what the Romans really celebrated during the month of December was Saturnalia, an end of harvest festival that concluded with the winter solstice. As historian Stephen Nissenbaum pointed out in his acclaimed The Battle for Christmas, the early Church entered into a compromise: in exchange for widespread celebration of the birth of Christ, it permitted the traditions of Saturnalia to continue in the name of the saviour.
Gambling, as seen here in a fresco from Pompeii, was a hallmark of the Roman celebration of Saturnalia. Wikimedia Commons
Gift-giving, feasting, candles, gambling, promiscuity and misrule were the hallmarks of Saturnalia. Add to this the holly, the mistletoe and (much later) the tree, and we have a Christmas inclusive of a variety of pagan traditions.
But as time went on, Church leaders became increasingly disillusioned by the way the carnival that was Saturnalia simply carried on under a thin veneer of Christian piety.
The 16th century bishop Hugh Latimer lamented that many Christians “dishonoured Christ more in the 12 days of Christmas than in all the 12 months besides.”
Lords and Ladies of Misrule
In early modern England, it was common practice to elect a “Lord of Misrule” to oversee Christmas celebrations. Revellers under the auspices of the “Lord” marched the streets dressed in costume, drinking ale, singing carols, playing instruments, fornicating and causing damage to property.
One account from Lincolnshire in 1637 relates how the revellers decided the Lord must have a “Christmas wife,” and brought him “one Elizabeth Pitto, daughter of the hog-herd of the town.” Another man dressed as a vicar then married the lord and lady, reading the entire service from the Book of Common Prayer, after which “the affair was carried to its utmost extent.” Had they not carried the matter so far, the account continues, “probably there would be no harm.” As it was, “the parties had time to repent at leisure in prison.”
“December was called […] the Voluptuous Month” for a reason, wrote Reverend Increase Mather in 1687. Young men and women often took advantage of the moral laxity of the Christmas season to engage in late-night drinking and sex.
Not surprisingly, such seasonal merrymaking resulted in higher than usual birth rates in the months of September and October, as well as real rather than burlesque marriages.
Wassailing
Even Christmas charity was far from innocent. Gifting, this hallmark of the season, was rarely given freely, but demanded with threats of mischief or violence.
In the practice known as “wassailing” during the 17th and 18th centuries, roving bands of poor men and boys asserted their Christmas right to enter the houses of the prosperous and claim the finest food and drink, singing:
We’ve come here to claim our right,
And if you don’t open up your door,
We will lay you flat upon the floor.
Though most wassailing ended without violence, the occasional stone was thrown through the window of an uncharitable lord. To the lord who was generous, the goodwill of the wassailers could be hoped for the rest of the year.
Domesticating Christmas
Ultimately, the efforts of Puritans to ban Christmas failed. The irreligious revelry that marked Christmas past was too deeply entrenched in Western culture. But where the forces of religion failed, the forces of the market would soon succeed in taming Christmas. The sordid behaviour of Christmas past would be substituted for another type of irreligion: consumerism.
Still, much of the sordid underbelly of Christmas past remains. That family member who always has a bit too much to drink, the overeating, the regretful rendezvous with a colleague at the office party – all telltale signs our oldest Christmas traditions are alive and well.
James A. T. Lancaster 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.
New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. You can sign up to NZ Politics Daily as well as New Zealand Political Roundup columns for free here.
More moves to tighten the New Zealand’s borders may be needed on top of the decision to delay the start of the self-isolation scheme for Australian travellers, a professor of public health says.
Instead of travellers being allowed to self-isolate from January 17 the change will take effect from the end of February.
For those who had booked to come home to New Zealand from Australia from January 17, the government would work with airlines to ensure some MIQ space was available, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said at a media update.
Air New Zealand has already cancelled about 120 flights, mostly from across the Tasman, as a result of the changes.
The rapid spread worldwide of the omicron variant of covid-19 is the main reason for the policy rethink.
It is among changes announced today that include a vaccine rollout for five to 11 year olds from January and a reduction in the time to wait for booster shots — from six months to four months.
Public health experts welcome change The changes are being welcomed by public health experts, with Professor Nick Wilson from Otago University saying that the delay in self-isolation was the most important.
He said temporarily turning down the tap on international travellers from countries with the worst omicron outbreaks (at least for two to three months) may also be needed.
New South Wales officials over the weekend noted omicron was now likely the dominant strain in the state’s third outbreak, in which today alone it recorded more than 3000 cases.
But Professor Wilson said the government may also need to:
insist on rapid antigen tests at the airport for international travellers coming into Aotearoa;
make more improvements to MIQ facilities in terms of ventilation and avoiding shared spaces such as exercise areas; and
re-design the alert level system so that it can rapidly eliminate any outbreaks of the omicron variant that arise in the community.
“While there is still a lot of uncertainty around the omicron variant, especially the risk of severe disease, it is wise to try to keep it out of NZ as long as possible and until more is known about this variant,” Professor Wilson said.
No clear evidence of lower severity Dr Matthew Hobbs, a senior lecturer in public health at the University of Canterbury, said he was concerned that a recent study from Imperial College London showed no clear evidence that omicron had lower severity than delta.
“Though it will be disappointing for many, through reviewing and postponing current border reopening plans, New Zealand has bought itself some much needed time while it works out how much of a problem omicron could be — like the last time we closed the Trans-Tasman bubble,” he said.
“It also provides us with a few more crucial months to get the booster shots up and roll out the paediatric vaccines.”
Dr Hobbs suggested the vaccination requirement for arrivals could be raised to three doses to reduce the risk of Omicron coming to New Zealand.
“More broadly, we also need to shift our domestic focus to a global perspective. The root of this issue is that the world isn’t doing enough to stop the spread of covid-19,” Dr Hobbs said.
“Wealthy countries around the world continue to hoard vaccines. This ultimately gives the virus more opportunities to replicate and mutate.
“Omicron should act as the wake-up call to ensure worldwide equitable vaccine delivery before even more concerning variants emerge.”
Omicron would ‘reach NZ quickly from Australia’ Professor Michael Plank, from Te Pūnaha Matatini and the University of Canterbury, said the rapidly growing omicron outbreak in New South Wales and its spread to other Australian states meant it would almost certainly get into the community in New Zealand within weeks if the country went ahead with border reopening plans in January.
“Delaying reopening plans to the end of February gives us a chance to keep omicron out until the majority of adults have received their third dose of the vaccine,” he said.
“Increasing the MIQ stay to 10 days and shortening the pre-departure test period from 72 to 48 hours are sensible ways to reduce the risk of the highly transmissible Omicron variant leaking out of MIQ. Adding a requirement for a rapid test on the day of the departure would be a useful extra measure.
“Hopefully these measures will keep omicron contained at the border. But if omicron does find its way into the community, the government has said it intends to use the red level of the traffic light system to try and control its spread.
“It’s unlikely this would be sufficient to prevent rapid spread of the variant if community transmission became established.
“Rolling out booster doses as quickly as possible is therefore essential to minimising the risk that omicron overwhelms our healthcare system.”
Hipkins also noted in the announcement today that the variant would spread quickly if it was in the community, and that public health advice suggested that soon every case coming into our border will be the omicron variant.
28 new covid-19 community cases The Ministry of Health reported today there are 28 new cases of covid-19 in the community, and no new omicron cases in Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ).
In a statement, the ministry said of the new cases, 21 were in Auckland, five in Bay of Plenty, and two in Taranaki.
There are 57 cases in hospital, 10 in North Shore, 25 in Auckland, 19 in Middlemore, one in Northland, and two in Waikato. Seven cases are in ICU or HDU (one in North Shore; two in Auckland; three in Middlemore, one in Northland).
The ministry has also revealed that a recent returnee who left Middlemore Hospital without discharge, after being transferred from MIQ, also took their young child with them.
The child was transferred in the ambulance with the parent because it meant they could not be left unattended in managed isolation due to their age.
Police are currently investigating the incident which happened early on Monday morning.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. The public health comments in this report were put together by the Science Media Centre. Professor Michael Plank is partly funded by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet for research on mathematical modelling of covid-19.
It’s that time of the year again, and besides the new COVID-era concerns about retail supply chains comes the age-old question: what’s the best educational toy to buy for the child (or grandchild) in your life?
There’s a vast range of toys that claim to stimulate learning, or foster creativity, or boost kids’ STEM skills. The US$94.7 billion global toy market offers a bewildering amount of choice, while parenting blogs warn against “one and done” toys, Instagram influencers make us feel like we don’t measure up, and kids, being kids, pester us for whatever their friends have, or they’ve just seen on YouTube.
But here’s a simple truth: you know your child (and your budget) better than anyone. And here’s some reassuring advice: it doesn’t matter whether you choose a prescriptive toy such as a chemistry set or science kit, or an “open-ended” toy such as building blocks or plastic bricks. Any toy can be educational when you play with your children and talk to them about what they are doing and learning.
All you need to consider is what toys your child already has, what age they are, and what you think they would most enjoy playing with next.
Each year, the Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, inducts toys into its hall of fame. This year, sand was recognised, following in the illustrious footsteps of the stick, which was inducted in 2006.
The full list includes Cabbage Patch dolls, Battleship, Risk, The Settlers of Catan, Mahjong and billiards, as well as the piñata, American Girl Dolls, Masters of the Universe and the Fisher-Price Corn Popper. One of my personal favourites, Uno, made it in 2018, and of course Lego is there, having been added in 2015.
Lego: one of the classics. Aedrian/Unsplash, CC BY-SA
Lego is in fact a good place to start! The blocks are good for a wide age range, and you can either buy highly prescriptive kits that involve closely following a plan, or general sets containing random blocks for building something totally new and improvised. Or, if you prefer, you can buy various other types of blocks on the market, such as wooden or magnetic ones.
Regardless of the specific type, playing with blocks encourages children to plan, construct and experiment with their engineering creations. And, crucially, they can learn even more if you help them along the way.
Parent power
While the children are playing with their blocks, parents or carers can play with them and engage them in conversation about the form and structure they are creating. Try using positional and relational language to extend their vocabulary by posing questions such as:
do you think we can build this tower so it’s as high as the table?
how many blocks are around the base of this building?
what shape of blocks do we need to build a fence around this house? Or could we use other materials?
what are you going to put at the top of the structure?
Talking with your child while they are playing helps them articulate their ideas and build their vocabulary. It introduces them to mathematical concepts such as numbers, space and measurement, and scientific processes such as observing, estimating, planning and problem-solving. It’s a wonderful chance to share ideas and talk with one another.
Any toy is educational if you play and learn together. Getty Images
In a similar way, I am an advocate for games such as Uno and board games that involve meeting a goal, whether it be getting rid of all your cards, or racing around a board. This lets children experience winning and losing, and gives them a chance both to plan and strategise, and contend with chance elements such as the roll of a dice. Snakes and Ladders and Ludo both involve counting and numbers, and the element of chance. They can often inspire children to make up their own games as well.
Then, of course, there are toys and materials designed specifically to foster learning about STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). But these aren’t the only ways to boost these skills.
Being an effective STEM learner is important and relevant to the modern world. STEM learning gives young children a chance to indulge their natural curiosity about the world around them, investigate concepts, use critical and creative thinking in systematic ways, and acquire skills and confidence.
This brings us back to the sticks and sand, and of course the box the toys arrived in, not to mention the packaging of any new appliances you might have bought yourself as a Christmas present!
The fact that kids so often end up playing with cardboard boxes – turning them into a cubby house, racing car or fortress – is testament to the fact anything can be a good toy with the right mindset. What really counts is the opportunity to play and talk with your child. This will equip them with knowledge, skills and confidence that will stand them in good stead at any age.
Nicola Yelland receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Minderoo Foundation.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Blair Williams, Research Fellow, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership (GIWL), Australian National University
Lukas Coch/AAP
It has been a momentous year in Australia as the #MeToo movement made its way across the globe and into Australian federal politics.
After years of silence and rumours, federal parliament was forced to grapple with its “man problem”.
It feels like we have seen history being made, but will 2021 result in permanent change?
2021: a momentous year
Grace Tame, a survivor of child sexual assault, set the tone for 2021 when she was named Australian of the Year in January for her role in raising public awareness about the impacts of sexual violence. A few weeks later, inspired by Tame, former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins said she was raped by a colleague in a ministerial office in March 2019 (the man accused denies any sexual activity took place).
Grace Tame adressed the National Press Club in March. Mick Tsikas/AAP
Higgins’ bravery was followed by other accusations. Within the the space of a month, former Attorney-General Christian Porter was accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in 1988 (a claim he strenuously denies) and Liberal MP Andrew Laming of harassing women (a claim he also denies). Video also surfaced of staffers masturbating on the desks of women MPs.
The government’s initial response was not encouraging. In fact, Higgins said she was distressed by Morrison’s “continued victim-blaming rhetoric”.
On March 15, more than 100,000 Australians participated in the March4Justice rallies to protest sexual assault and harassment in politics, while calling for an end to gendered violence. As an organiser of the Canberra contingent, I witnessed palpable anger but saw hope in the overwhelming desire for change.
But the public anger and ensuring debate had its faults. As Indigenous Studies Professor Bronwyn Carlson has rightly observed, “there is a noticeable silence in Australia when victims of violence are Indigenous”.
Not just parliament
Elite private schools also came under fire for what is known as the “misogyny pipeline” – whereby privileged boys follow a trajectory from expensive single-sex private schools to elite universities and then powerful professions, where they circulate with each other and reinforce their values.
In February, former private school student Chanel Contos spearheaded a petition demanding sexual consent education in Australian schools, inspiring over 5,000 victim-survivors to anonymously share stories of teenage sexual assault.
A common thread in these events is the abuse of power and entitlement in the hands of elite white men.
A fundamental shift?
Given all these shocking revelations and sustained public attention and debate, has there been a fundamental shift in the way we talk about gender, inequality, and sexual violence?
Parliament – especially under the Coalition – has certainly faced a reckoning this year, but it is very hard to argue there has been concrete change as a result (yet).
The Morrison government held a national summit on violence against women in September. Lukas Coch/AAP
Prime Minister Scott Morrison claims to take these issues seriously, yet he has made some serious blunders, from begrudgingly empathising with Higgins only after his wife convinced him to “think about [it] as a father first”, to responding to the March4Justice protests by stating protesters should be grateful they weren’t “met with bullets”.
Even during his address at the Women’s Safety Summit, he came under fire for retelling survivors’ private disclosures of sexual assault. This was criticised as looking like an attempt to seem genuine, by using other people’s trauma.
Parliament’s big opportunity
Morrison has created new ministerial positions, such as Women’s Safety Minister and Women’s Economic Security Minister. He has also launched multiple inquiries into parliamentary work culture, including the recently released review by Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins.
The Set the Standard report was handed down at the end of November. It revealed that one in two of those currently working in parliament have experienced bullying, sexual harassment, or sexual assault.
The report contains 28 independent, expert recommendations to improve the culture at parliament and make it safe and healthy for those who work there. This includes targets to increase gender balance among parliamentarians, a new office of parliament staffing and culture and a code of conduct for parliamentarians and their staff.
But it remains to be seen if they will be implemented. Jenkins’ previous report on sexual harassment, Respect@Work, was ignored for more than a year after its release, before the Morrison government announced it would only agree to half the recommendations.
What’s in store for 2022?
The fundamental shift has occurred outside parliament. People in power are not controlling the agenda or the public attitude when it comes to gender equality and violence against women. Higgins and Tame, along with many women journalists, activists, and advocates, are now shaping public conversation and have inspired people across Australia to push for change.
As in our efforts to combat climate change, we are moving on, whether the government is with us or not.
More protests are expected ahead of the federal election. Mick Tsikas/AAP
So, what’s in store for 2022? The organisers of the March4Justice protests have announced first anniversary marches on February 27 to put further pressure on this government in the lead-up to the federal election. If the government fails to implement recommendations from Set the Standard, expect this to be an election flashpoint.
However, identifying and acknowledging the problem is just the first step, and one that is still currently very much in progress as more allegations come to light.
The next stage is to create a more inclusive, diverse, and respectful workplace for everyone at parliament house – this will flow on to the laws that are made and the policy responses provided.
Making this happen is not easy, but it’s not a mystery either. Implementing every single recommendation from the Set the Standards report is the obvious place to start.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, family or domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000. International helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org.
Blair Williams 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.
If you’re heading to the beach this summer, the thought of sharks might cross your mind. I don’t mean wondering whether a shark will take you for dinner (that’s very, very unlikely) but rather, how these remarkable creatures are faring in the marine ecosystem.
I recently led the first complete assessment of all species of sharks, rays and ghost sharks in Australian waters. My team and I found while most species are secure, about 12%, or 39 species, are threatened with extinction.
No country has a higher diversity of sharks than Australia. That means we have a special responsibility to protect them from threats such as fishing and damage to their marine habitat.
To prevent shark extinctions on our watch, Australia must invest far more heavily to close vast knowledge gaps and ensure threatened species are protected and recovered.
The research examined all species of sharks, rays and ghost sharks found in Australian waters, including the bluespotted fantail ray, pictured. Simon Pierce
Ancient ocean dwellers
Sharks are an ancient lineage of fishes that have roamed the oceans for around 450 million years. They occupy tropical, temperate and polar marine waters, while a small number have adapted to live in freshwater.
Sharks and their relatives, rays and ghost sharks, are known as cartilaginous fishes. Some 328 of the world’s cartilaginous fishes – comprising one-quarter of the world’s total – occur in Australian waters, including the sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters. Of these, 138 are found nowhere else on Earth.
Globally, sharks face a dire conservation crisis. About 32% of species are threatened with extinction and less than half are assessed as “Least Concern” (not at risk of extinction).
The main threats around the world are overfishing combined with inadequate management such as a lack of fishing regulations, weak protections for threatened species and poor implementation of international agreements.
Australia’s relatively better position is a result of a long history of ocean policy and fisheries management. Australia also has extensive areas with only limited or no fishing pressure as well as a representative network of marine parks.
But some regions, particularly waters off Australia’s southeast, have experienced high levels of fishing pressure which threaten some species.
Other threats to sharks in Australian waters include shark control measures in some states, habitat degradation, aquaculture and climate change.
Sharks rays and ghost sharks are known as cartilaginous fishes. Pictured: the threatened Melbourne Skate. Ian Shaw
What the research found
The research I led examined the national status of Australian sharks.
The news is a lot brighter than the global situation. Of all sharks occurring in Australian waters, 70% were assessed as “Least Concern”.
But we identified 39 Australian shark species threatened with extinction. And worryingly, most lack the protection or conservation plans needed for their populations to recover.
For example, only nine of the species are listed as threatened under Australia’s federal environment law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
We identified five species where the data is robust enough to pass the threatened species nomination process, and recommend federal authorities consider these species for immediate listing. They consist of:
greeneye spurdog
eastern angelshark
whitefin swellshark
narrow sawfish
Australian longnose skate.
However, this still leaves a group of under-studied threatened species at risk of slipping through the cracks, because not enough data exists to support official listing nominations. We identified 12 species facing this predicament.
For example, we assessed three species of small rays from southeast Australia, known as stingarees, as vulnerable to extinction due to commercial fishing. The species’ decline has been recorded since the late 1990s. However, nominations to be listed as threatened under federal law will require more data, particularly contemporary catch levels and trends.
As with many other species we identified, there is currently no mechanism – or dedicated funding – in place to ensure such data is collected.
Colclough’s Shark, a rare threatened shark at risk of falling through the cracks. Nigel Marsh
How to save Australian sharks
Major investment is needed to recover Australia’s threatened sharks. Using the mean estimated cost of recovering a threatened fish species and accounting for inflation, I calculate the cost at about A$114 million each year.
The figure represents about 0.3% of the national defence budget – a benchmark against which the costs of environmental action are often compared.
More broadly, financial investment in threatened species in Australia has been shown to be inadequate.
Recent federal funding announcements include A$100 million to protect oceans and $57 million linked to the national threatened species strategy. This comes nowhere near the level of investment required.
Australia urgently needs a dedicated, adequately resourced fund with the aim of recovering and delisting threatened species. Such a fund should support the recovery planning process – in contrast to current federal government moves to scrap recovery plans for nearly 200 threatened species.
Our research is a call to action to secure all Australia’s sharks. It provides a benchmark from which changes can be measured, and hopefully will help guide management to prevent extinctions.
Peter Kyne received funding from the Marine Biodiversity Hub, a collaborative partnership supported through funding from the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program (NESP). He is lead author of The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021 discussed in this article. He currently receives funding from Charles Darwin University and the Australian Marine Conservation Society.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrei Lux, Lecturer in Leadership and Course Coordinator (Management and International Business), Edith Cowan University
Shutterstock
Left-brain or right-brain? Creative or critical? Analytic or holistic?
We love to divide the world into simple dichotomies. You’ve probably heard that right-brain dominant people are supposed to be more logical, while left-brain people are more creative. But there’s actually no scientific evidence to support that idea.
What we do know, however, is that some of us are more “analytic” while others are more “holistic” in our dominant cognitive approach.
In my latest research with colleagues Steven Grover and Stephen Teo, I have developed a short survey to measure these individual differences in thinking style.
Knowing your own and others’ cognitive style is essential for mutual understanding and informed decisions. Learning how you and those around you process information can help you to become a more effective communicator, strategist and leader.
Analytic thinkers focus on individual objects, assigning them to categories based on their attributes. Holistic thinkers consider the context as a whole, focusing on the relationships between objects.
For example, when asked to describe a dining table, an analytic thinker might say it is made of dark wood and can seat six people. A holistic thinker may instead explain it is a space for getting together and sharing a meal.
While analytic thinkers seek to understand cause and effect by examining the characteristics and motivations of individuals, holistic thinkers examine the wider circumstances and the interactions between people.
Analytic thinkers tend to categorise statements as being true or false. Holistic thinkers often transcend contradictions and find truth in even opposing ideas. Both approaches are valuable, particularly if we acknowledge our cognitive biases and appreciate diverse perspectives as complementing our own.
No, you weren’t born that way
None of us are born as analytic or holistic thinkers. We learn these patterns from our environment. We have access to both analytic and holistic cognitive approaches, but a dominant and socially reinforced preference emerges through our interactions with others.
Think of these thinking styles as sets of cognitive tools to interpret and deal with the challenges of daily life.
These tools were developed long ago, based on how people in different cultures interacted with one another and what they believed was important.
The precepts of analytic thinking were formulated in ancient Greece around 200-500BCE, with philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle seeking to understand the world through logic, inference and the discovery of rules.
The principles of holistic thinking were established in ancient China around the same time. Prominent Chinese philosophers such as Confucius, Mencius and Laozi advanced an understanding of the world based on harmony, balance and the acceptance of inevitable cyclical change.
The concept of yin and yang in Chinese philosophy expresses the way opposing forces may actually be complementary, interconnected and interdependent. Shutterstock
These social contexts led to the development of two very different cognitive approaches.
So how come Westerners aren’t all analytic thinkers, and Easterners aren’t all holistic thinkers?
Well, as people have moved between places, jobs and social circles over the past 2000 years these mental toolkits have been picked up, shared and embraced along the way. It’s essentially no different to how potatoes were introduced to the Irish and coffee to Italians in the 16th century.
The result is that there now tends to be more cultural diversity within societies than between them – including in thinking styles.
We’ve made the Holistic Cognition Quiz to help you understand your own unique thinking style.
It’s likely to show that you use a mixture of analytic and holistic approaches, with one that’s more dominant. Building self-awareness by better understanding how you think will help you work to your strengths and appreciate the strengths of others.
Andrei Lux works for Edith Cowan University and is a Director of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management. He has received funding from Macquarie University.
Much to the delight of children (and maybe some adults), Santa arriving in shopping centres all around Australia signals the beginning of Christmas shopping.
Santa has become a mainstay of shopping centres in December, driven by nostalgia and commerce.
But who is this jolly fat man, in a bright red suit, promising to deliver on the wishes of children, and why can we always expect him to visit Aussie shopping centres in December?
A brief history of Santa
Historian Adam English, linked the character of “Santa Claus” to Saint Nicholas, the fourth century Greek bishop of Myra. The name Santa Claus evolved from “Sinter Klaas”, a shortened form of Sint Nikolaas, Dutch for Saint Nicholas.
The earliest known painting of Santa Claus is that by Robert Weir (1837). Weir depicted Santa as elf-like, wearing a red cape and boots, exiting a fireplace.
Robert Walter Weir, St. Nicholas, ca. 1837, oil on wood. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1977, Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Cartoonist, Thomas Nast in 1866 constructed the modern version of Santa we know today, a round man-like gnome, with a white beard, dressed in a bright red suit.
Harp Week, 2001. Santa Claus by Thomas Nast. Harp Week, 2001. Santa Claus by Thomas Nast
The shopping centre Santa
Retailers began to leverage the “invented tradition” of Christmas in the early 1800s. The earliest usage of Santa for commercial purposes, perhaps the first, was on a flyer for a New York jewellery store in the mid-1820s.
Stephen Nissenbaum, in his book The Battle for Christmas, suggested this image of Santa was reproduced in a variety of printed forms and then in 1841, an innovative shopkeeper from Philadelphia created a life-size model of Santa. It wasn’t long until “live” Santa Claus’ began appearing on street corners.
At around the same time, some stores began to use “live” Santa Claus’ in their window displays and toy departments and by 1910, the presence of a “live” Santa became a requirement for any department store.
Desperate to attract shoppers, from around the end of November, Santa’s Workshops, Grottos and Winter Wonderlands miraculously started appearing in shopping centres. Their appearance signals the start of Christmas shopping, extended trading and gift giving.
The business of Santa, has become a viable business model, that creates positive experiences in shopping centres and employment for mostly older, retired men. One organisation, Scene to Believe, reports to hiring up to 500 Santas each year. Companies like Santa for Hire , The Real Santa provide Santa Claus impersonators to hundreds of shopping centres throughout Australia, New Zealand and North America. The Santa Claus Conservatory provide training for potential Santa Claus “candidates”.
The nostalgia of Santa
Nostalgia has always been a relevant emotion at Christmas. I recall my father taking me to the John Martins’ Christmas Pageant in Adelaide during the 1970s. I have friends that still drag their adult kids to centres to “re-create” that moment in time. Nostalgia however has become a commodity, that can be bought and sold. Nostalgic marketing emerged from the 1970s and is employed to connect consumers to their past.
Many adults would remember their childhood, visiting the famous Myer Melbourne Christmas Windows, which have been entertaining families for 66 years. Since 1933, Adelaide’s Christmas Pageant, the largest public parade in the southern hemisphere, has drawn over 300,000 people to the CBD.
Hence, the consumer rituals connected with Christmas, like department store Christmas windows, pageants and Santa photos, aim to persuade us to reminisce on the past, experience a sense of nostalgia, and lure us into the tradition of Christmas shopping.
The future for Santa
Facing the prospect of continued COVID-19 social distancing requirements, centre management may need to eventually consider virtual experiences.
Post-COVID Claus may come fully equipped with augmented reality experiences, VR elf outfits and Instagram-friendly photo opportunities, a virtual reality “Magic Mirror” that allows visitors to become one of Santa’s elves and a “Naughty or Nice O’Meter”.
Last Christmas, Centennial, which runs a national portfolio of US shopping malls, replaced their traditional Santa sets with interactive augmented reality encounters, and a new crop of video-chat companies, like Talk to Santa and Welcome Santa, are giving families the chance to connect with Santa from the comfort of their own smart devices.
Just as shoppers have moved online because of COVID-19, Santa is bound to follow, for those shoppers wary about physical contact.
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.
Boxed wine is one of Australia’s most extraordinary contributions to the wine industry, also known as cardboardeaux, bag-in-box (BiB) or more commonly, goon (from flagon).
Australian winemaker Thomas Angrove patented the design for a one-gallon polyethylene bladder in a cardboard box in 1965, inspired by the ancient method of storing wine in goat skins. The first model required drinkers to cut a corner of the plastic bag and reseal it with a special category peg (used to transport battery acid).
History of goon
Once a tap was designed in the 1970s goon climbed quickly to make up about 50% of wine sales in Australia. In the days when restaurants sold “house wine”, goon was known for being economical above anything else, and convenient, associated more with families on a budget and people on low incomes.
Wine in the ‘70s was still perceived as for special occasions and casks may have helped change that. Thirty years later, between 2004-2014, there was a 30% drop in cask sales but a 40% increase in bottled wine during the same decade. As domestic sales had been dropping, the cask concept (and its contents) were also being exported.
Goon has come a long way from its origins and reputation. The visual appeal of the box and the bag has evolved, along with the narrative the wine label communicates about history, geography, identity.
As the environmental benefits of wine in a box have become more important to new consumers, the quality of its contents has also improved. Jilly Wine Company’s Chateau Cardboard Red at $71 for 3 litres, is a long way from the one gallon packs of table white, table red, port, sweet sherry and muscat launched in 1965.
There are good reasons why Australians love goon, and there are strong reasons for the love to grow.
Whether going on a picnic or camping, goon is infinitely easier to transport than glass. It suits a lifestyle.
Lighter packaging also reduces carbon dioxide emissions since most of this during the wine production process is in transportation.
Market research showed cask wine sales jumped by 21% in the four weeks to April 2020. Bernd Juergens
Sustainability
A life cycle analysis of bag-in-box packaging shows it is also more sustainable than glass bottles.
While the plastic – the bag and spigot – can present issues with disposal, the ratio of raw material to the volume of content, manufacturing process, light weight package and transport make it a better choice on environmental grounds, which is why goon is becoming a more popular and global choice.
Pandemic
Market research showed cask wine sales jumped by 21% in the four weeks to April 2020, explained by a combination of people being housebound and concerned about money.
Once purchased, if you are drinking in moderation, you can avoid going out for wine for longer, which during COVID restrictions was safe and convenient.
Longevity
Contrary to popular opinion, goon is not only the choice of people who might want to drink a lot. The vacuum-sealed bag keeps the wine fresh for up to six weeks after it’s opened.
Goon doesn’t necessarily equate to cheap wine or a three day growth. The raw material used to produce it also costs less than glass packaging. Apart from Iceland and Norway, Australia has the highest alcohol tax rates among OECD countries. There is a range of implications for wine pricing.
Wine is both associated with wealth and status (an expensive bottle) and with being poor (goon); age corresponds the same way. What does a teenager know about how fruity lexia or moselle should taste besides sweet? But there is a gap in that argument that spins on a combination of factors – quality, environment, nostalgia, cost, lifestyle. “It took a monumental shift in perceptions of wine to make screwcaps popular and mainstream”, according to professor of wine marketing at the University of South Australia Larry Lockshin.
The average wine consumer associates boxed wine with cheap wine, a stereotype worth dismissing. It’s time our secret love was not so secret anymore.
A life cycle analysis of bag-in-box packaging shows it is also more sustainable than glass bottles. oleschwander
Culinary cringe
Like macadamias, settlers in Australia may be more honest about their love of goon now that it is growing in popularity elsewhere. Boxed wine accounts for about 50% of the wine consumed in Australia, and Norway and Sweden. The French have been boxing Bordeaux since 1997, and 44% of the wine sold in French supermarkets comes in a box.
Youth and nostalgia
Goon hymns, goon-of-fortune and goon bag pillows are still in reach but the quality of wine has matured with us. Brisbane author Edwina Shaw drew on her personal experience in the novel Thrill Seekers (2019)
Our crusade. We wanted to be the coolest, and that meant being able to drink everyone else under the table. So we made a pact to drink a four-litre cask of wine a day, each, until we won. Moselle… We weren’t just any old drinkers – we were the “Goon Babies”.
When I arrived in Brisbane in 1984, the Goon Babies were legends; funny, intelligent, creative thrill-seekers. Shaw’s book also traces self-destruction and loss. I understand the irony of writing in such a cavalier way about the goon we could afford as students. But it would be snobby and ageist to suggest packaging alone maketh the wine or the issues that might drive us to drink, or that alcohol problems are the preserve of the poor and young.
Gen X goon drinkers are now in their 40s and 50s, and many of us won’t be able to stomach Moselle. We have to come to terms with the fact wine in a bag also can’t be aged.
But, as Colin Alevras, sommelier at New York restaurant DBGB’s put it, “The wine bottle is late-18th century technology. It’s time to move on”.
Adele Wessell 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.
New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. You can sign up to NZ Politics Daily as well as New Zealand Political Roundup columns for free here.
Public policy has a number of biases. One is that certain real or alleged emergencies require (or seem to require) an urgent policy intervention. The result is a consortium of elected politicians, bureaucrat officials, and expert technocrats get on board, and assume a drivers’ role in a society which would otherwise develop in a more organic, laisse-faire, way. ‘Bottom-up’ dynamism – with enabling policymaking – gives way to ‘authority knows best’ executive mandating.
What rarely happens is any communication of criteria – or a likely date – when the drivers may give way to the people, allowing the reestablishment of the previous (albeit imperfect) democratic norm of people driving their own futures. What should happen is when the intervention has clearly succeeded – or clearly failed – then the executive authorities discontinue their state of intervention.
This century the classic cases are the Anglo-American military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, whereby no criteria of success of failure were communicated. As a result, these interventions dragged on indeterminably, ushered in many adverse unintended consequences – eg the rise of Islamic State, and the present Afghanistan famine – and in the end failed in the most ignominious manner.
The worst biases are those which maintain – indeed extend – these indefinite and increasingly untenable interventions; take the Obama extension of the Afghanistan intervention narrative, and the Johnson escalation of the Vietnam War.
Another case type is the ‘opening of the books’ type of exercise whereby incoming governments claim to have been blindsided by revelations that a country was on the verge of bankruptcy. This happened in Aotearoa New Zealand in 1984 and again after the 1990 election.
Another example was the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. This was particularly interesting in that it brought out the ‘Queen’s Question’, whereby Queen Elizabeth herself asked a gaggle of pre-eminent economists at the London School of Economics why they hadn’t seen the crisis coming. With their tails between their legs, the gaggle eventually responded by admitting to a “collective failure of imagination” on the part of the mainstream economics’ profession. The Queen’s question brought out an admission of collective professional negligence. If only we had more journalists with the perspicacity of our beloved Queen.
Most of the alleged ‘black swan’ (ie blindsiding) events actually turn out to be ‘grey rhinos’, more akin to ‘elephants in the room’ that were unseen by the professional seers because, while easily visible, were nevertheless slightly camouflaged.
An interesting public health example was ‘Zika’ in early 2016. This issue seemed to come out of nowhere, when a mosquito-borne virus that was actually endemic in some Pacific countries, suddenly hit the headlines because it was linked to a few cases in microencephaly in infants in northern Brazil. Soon enough, the clamour from public health technocrats in the ‘global north’ was that the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games should be cancelled forthwith. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed; someone pointed out that the mosquito problem was much worse both in the north, and in summer. The Olympic Games were eventually (and successfully) held in the cool of Rio’s winter; not a mosquito was sighted. Further, the outbreak of microcephaly had been short-lived; and Dengue – Zika’s cousin – has probably been the bigger ongoing problem.
Scientists with narrow-vision – as is the nature of specialist scientific scholarship – can have no idea of the systemic consequences of a majorly interventionist and indefinite public health shutdown.
The 2020 Pandemic
Authority troikas – politicians plus bureaucrats plus technocrats – like to be blindsided by ‘black swan’ events that they (as insiders) could never have predicted. Such blindsiding gives them an enemy; and an opportunity to strut their stuff by waging war on that enemy. The first principle of political rule is to create a ‘blindsided’ narrative that displaces an alternative ‘negligent’ narrative.
Omicron Variant. Image via WIKIMEDIA.ORG.
In the present Covid19 pandemic, the world’s authorities claim to have been blindsided by the Wuhan virus, then again blindsided by the transfer of the centre of the epidemic from China to the European Union (before identifying covid as a narrative-fitting enemy, they had hoped it would somehow go away, as SARS in 2003 seems to have done). Then the troika was blindsided by the Alpha-variant a year ago. Then more vociferously blindsided by ‘Delta’ (which flared up in India in May having already existed for many months), and extremely blindsided by the less severe ‘Omicron’ variant. Each case of blindsiding enables the authorities to renew the ‘surprise enemy at the gates’ narrative, and to deflect attention from the authorities’ failure to envisage a way out of the pandemic.
(It should be noted that various pronouncements have been made that ‘there is no evidence that Omicron is less severe than Delta’. Those who have studied statistics – or courtroom dramas – will understand that ‘no evidence’ is journalistic shorthand for ‘not enough evidence to conclude for sure’. A jury who believes that it’s only 90% certain that a defendant is guilty is required to acquit, leading to a headline that an accused person was exonerated. In the Omicron case, the charge is that Omicron is less severe than Delta, and the jury can – until more information is available – be only 90% sure that Omicron is less severe. In a courtroom context 90% certainty represents 10% doubt; thus 90% certainty is not ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.)
In this pandemic – as any other form of military or quasi-military siege – the trick is to emphasise the wickedness and trickiness of the enemy, and not the negligence associated with an unprepared and vulnerable population. So expert mainstream scientists – as part of the troika – must go along with the ‘tricky enemy’ narrative; and play down the alternative ‘unprepared population’ narrative. While playing out this mainstream narrative, populations at risk become increasingly vulnerable to an eventual exposure to ‘the enemy’.
Fortunately, at least in properly functioning democracies, there will be other scientists around to contest the ruling narrative. Sadly though, often not enough scientists take a ‘critic and conscience’ approach. This is because scientists’ careers and reputations are generally more safely secured through conforming rather than questioning; sadly, this applies to ‘independent’ academic scientists almost as much as to government-contracted scientists.
However, the covid science – as per the nature of science – was never uncontested. In particular a number of Swedish scientists early on presented a very different narrative to the monopoly ‘scientific’ narrative we have become used to. Likewise, initially a number of British scientists (who had Boris Johnson’s ear) favoured an approach that emphasised the preparedness of the population (and voluntary measures) over the ‘pull-up-the-drawbridge’ strategy favoured by modellers who knew little about immunity while knowing plenty about contagion. Basically, those British scientists who agreed with the Swedish scientists came to be ignored as an official global narrative developed.
Ignore it if it doesn’t fit the narrative. Even if you are a scientist.
We hear almost nothing about Sweden in 2021. And that’s telling. Further, we are now hearing much more about smaller European countries that – while affected in 2020 – then barely rated a media mention. We have heard much of late however about Austria, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway; even Finland’s present covid outbreak made it to the Al Jazeera news last weekend.
But, tellingly, not Sweden. Nor Japan, an acknowledged enigma that is now virtually covid-free, unlike South Korea which is more highly vaccinated and more highly afflicted.
If scientists ignore Sweden – because it doesn’t fit the prevailing narrative – then they are being intellectually dishonest.
Yet our scientists – if not our media – are aware of Sweden. Rod Jackson (RNZ 13 Dec 2021, Epidemiologist weighs in on decision day) acknowledged that “cases were going up again” even in Sweden; meaning that he knows Sweden has been largely free of Covid19 consequences for many months. (And Sweden was an early recipient of the new Omicron covid strain; we should be watching it closely.) Indeed the ‘beginning of the end’ happened in Sweden in about March this year, whereas in New Zealand (and in Sweden’s neighbour, Denmark) as late as last month we were only at the ‘end of the beginning’ (to use Churchillian phraseology). Since March 2021, Sweden has had significantly less covid, and significantly fewer covid restrictive mandates, than its neighbours.
One important aspect of the preference for being blindsided over having to admit to negligence, is that academic risk-taking becomes asymmetric. A technocrat with an overly-cautious refrain, such as New Zealand’s Michael Baker, can seem to be a wise guru for much of the time, and is unlikely to suffer any professional consequence if his pessimistic predictions prove to be unfounded. On the other hand, an epidemiologist (or seismologist) who makes an incorrect optimistic prediction may suffer significant professional reprobation. (Seismologists in Italy who failed to adequately forecast the 2009 L’Aquilla earthquake were convicted and imprisoned before being exonerated; see Why Italian earthquake scientists were exonerated, Science, 10 Feb 2015.)
From Omicron (the ‘little-O’ variant of covid) to Omega (‘big-O’)
Melbourne-based epidemiologist Tony Blakely, on One News 17 Dec 2021, said that while “it might be heresy”, Omicron might just be the way out of the pandemic. He said much the same again on RNZ this morning (ref. Omicron outbreak gathers pace in New South Wales). In both interviews, he started out by largely following the usual narrative; but, when given the opportunity and when able to present it as alternative scenario, he expressed his optimism about Omicron being an opportunity rather than a nemesis. (And note Dr Blakely’s sense that he needed to mention the ‘h-word’ as a qualifier for a perfectly sensible opinion.)
We as a ‘north global’ population – ie citizens of western liberal-democracies – have largely swallowed a narrative given to us without context. An important part of the covid context is that coronaviruses have been around for a long time, and that the SARS-Cov2 coronavirus is likely to have a future history much like the past history of the others. Another important part is that, in history, all respiratory viruses that get into the community eventually normalise, with or even without the help of vaccines that may accelerate the normalisation process.
What is needed is versions of the virus (including the trick-versions that form the basis of vaccinology) which are more transmissible and less dangerous. (We note that vaccines – especially the Pfizer vaccine – has been highly transmissible; in less than a year perhaps a quarter of the world’s population has ‘caught’ the vaccine.) A more transmissible virus – or vaccinogen – is able to displace a less transmissible virus from the ecosystem. (Indeed, from the point of view of Neanderthal humans, ‘modern’ African humans were more transmissible, thereby largely displacing Neanderthals; and fully displacing Neanderthal phenotypes. Refer Our Neanderthal Ancestry, 3 March 2021.)
Whether Omicron is good news or bad news depends on the pathology (ie behaviour) of that virus strain. If it is both less nasty and more transmissible then that must be a good thing. What we need in our official covid narrative is a story about how the Covid19 pandemic ends. And there is really only one story – more transmissible and less malign agents displacing the besieging enemy.
This process may involve several steps. An Omicron displacing a Delta does not need to be nice; it only needs to be less nasty than Delta. Omicron could be an important step in the process. Other steps will be vaccines. Future ‘mutants’ are likely to be even more transmissible and even less wicked. When the Omega variant of covid eventually arrives, we should already be living normally, and it will circulate much as coronavirus OC43 does today.
If we were properly prepared, with a more optimistic and less-controlling narrative – a narrative that imagines an endpoint and the transition to that endpoint – then we might just be treating Omicron as the ‘beginning of the end’ instead of the ‘end of the beginning’ (or instead of simply ‘the end’ as it may seem to some overly-sensitised souls).
For New Zealand, the question really is when rather than whether Omicron should circulate in New Zealand. The better answer may be sooner rather than later, because it is now summer, because New Zealand’s people are at peak immunity from vaccination, and because New Zealand’s people risk becoming further naïve to a whole suite of respiratory viruses if we wait until late 2022 and 2023.
We can already see that New South Wales – with Omicron – is experiencing less-adverse pathology than Victoria, with Delta. If Omicron gets into Victoria, the situation in Victoria is unlikely to be worse than it is now, and may indeed become quickly better. We should watch New South Wales with anticipation rather than with fear, focussing on the numbers of people there who get seriously ill with confirmed Omicron.
The coronavirus pandemic is bad enough. The present pandemic of fear may be worse. We need to be able to visualise a way out. Omicron gives us the chance to do just that; even if it turns out that Omicron itself is not the agent that takes us out.
——-
Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
It takes up to 6 km for women from Milampipi and Kaisia villages in the mountainous hinterlands of Papua New Guinea’s Nabak local government in Nawaeb district, Morobe province, to reach the nearest roads by foot.
For more than 40 years they have had to do this before they could catch a vehicle to sell their garden produce in the markets in Lae city 21km away.
For the women — especially mothers — the struggle is real. They have walked for six to seven hours, climbing steep rugged mountains, crossing dangerous fast flowing rivers with heavy loads of vegetables, bananas, taro and sweet potatoes to reach Situm or Hobu to get on a PMV (public motor vehicle).
November 7, 2021, is a day the villagers will never forget –– on that day, the first PMV truck nicknamed “Dignity” drove into the village for the first time to bring the mothers and their produce to markets.
That was made possible after the national government, through the Department of National Planning and Monitoring, with Nawaeb and Finschhafen districts allocating funds, initiated the construction of the Nawaeb-Finschhafen Highway this year.
The road will link rural villages in the two districts to the provincial capital, also enabling some of the best organic coffee to reach market.
One mother, Wangeng Akundi, was emotional and shedding tears of joy when she put her bilums (string bags) packed with garden foods and sako (vegetable) on the truck for the first time.
Walking for years with heavy loads She says that for years, they had walked long distances with their heavy loads.
“Sometimes we also carry our babies on top of the loads to seek medical services in Situm or Lae,” she adds.
“We are thankful to Anutu (God) for the road access that has reached us and now we will just get on a PMV and travel to Lae for our marketing.”
John Kamsi, a person living with a disability, says it takes him longer to reach the main roads to seek medical services.
“I am very happy with the new road,” he said.
A mother of one, Sandra Yaling, says: “We’re very happy with the new road, because some of us put our lives and the lives of our children at risk many times just to get to the nearest road.
“The main things that we need are cooking oil, soap and salt.”
Real struggles for food PMV owner Eric Piving, whose vehicle was the first to bring the women and children with their produce to Bumayong and Igam markets, says many times he felt sorry for the mothers.
They had to walk long distances with their foodstuffs to sell and meet their basic household needs.
“We’ve dreamed for a road into the villages and now it has happened,” he says.
He said many times people see them selling their produce at the markets, without knowing the real struggles they have to go through to bring those food items to the market.
“Since first the Lutheran missionaries came to Finschhafen and took the same route towards Nawaeb, then to parts of Morobe — the new highway should be named Miti Highway’, which means ‘God’s Word highway’),” Piving says.
“We thank the government and our local MPs for their support.”
Nawaeb MP Kennedy Wenge told the PNG Post-Courier that the District Development Authority allocated K100,000 (NZ$43,000) each year to support the new stretch of road from Hobu to Momolili.
K280 million allocated for road “The Department of National Planning and Monitoring allocated K280 million (NZ$120 million) in 2020 and has continued funding the road that will connect Lae-Nawaeb and Finschhafen,” he says.
“I want our people to appreciate what the districts and the national government have committed and support the work. The Nawaeb to Kabwum road will also take shape once K100 million (NZ$43 million) funding is made available.”
Wenge says the villages also produce high tonnes of coffee and the road will assist them greatly in terms of accessing markets.
More than 2000 people from villages in Nawaeb will benefit from the road. Apart from road Wenge, says he is also ensuring maintenance on rural airstrips so people can transport their coffee and garden produce to the markets in Lae.
That is to support villagers gaining some income.
Republished with permission from the PNG Post-Courier.
A woman puts a rock under the “Dignity” PMV wheel to support it climbing a steep hill on the new Nawaeb-Finschaffen highway. Image: PNG Post-Courier
The interim President of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) provisional government, Benny Wenda, has condemned Indonesia for the arrest and torture of eight students, and appeals to Melanesian countries to support their plea.
The eight West Papuan students were arrested by Indonesian police for peacefully demonstrating with banners and hand-painted Morning Star flags in Jayapura, capital of the Indonesian-ruled province of Papua, on 1 December 2021.
They have been charged with treason, and may face 25 years in prison.
In an interview with 96.3 Buzz FM, Wenda said that this happened when West Papua celebrated its 60th year anniversary, which is significant for all West Papuans.
“The event is celebrated globally. Official celebrations took place in Netherlands, in United Kingdom, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu,” he said.
“The university students peacefully raised their flags, marched and chanted withdrawal of the military and demanded self-determination.
“Just last month, I asked the Indonesian government to allow my people to express themselves because we always respect their independence on August 17 annually,” Wenda said.
‘Call for respect and release’ “We have called for respect and are not happy with this arrest.
“We are also asking the international community to monitor the situation.”
Amnesty Indonesia has already called for the immediate release of the students. These students have been fed up with the military operations, internal displacements, murders and bombings.
Wenda also said that recently an elderly woman, Paulina Imbumar, who leads prayers, was arrested, and a request had been sent to the police station to release her.
The chair of the Vanuatu West Papua Association, Job Dalesa, said it was very sad to hear such actions taken.
He added that it was an independent human rights flag and the students were portraying their stand.
Dalesa called on the people of Vanuatu to unite in prayer for the people of West Papua.
“We will appeal to Indonesia to stop such actions,” he said.
The Vanuatu Daily Post contacted the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) headquarters in Port Vila for comments on the situation. However, there was no immediate response.
Kizzy Kalsakau and Jason Abel are Vanuatu Daily Post reporters. Republished with permission.
The Waitangi Tribunal has released a scathing ruling of the New Zealand government’s covid-19 response and vaccine rollout, saying Māori were put at risk.
The tribunal held an urgent hearing early this month, and released its findings today.
The tribunal says cabinet’s decision to go against official advice and not prioritise Māori in the vaccine rollout breached the Treaty principles of active protection and equity.
The government has said it instead opted for a whānau-centred approach.
The tribunal, in its report, said it could not understand why it would go for this against all expert advice.
While accepting a shift to the traffic light system was necessary, it found the rapid transition put Māori at risk.
The decision also put Māori health providers under extreme pressure on limited resources — pressure created by a delayed rollout, and years of chronic underfunding by the state.
It also said the Crown did not consistently engage with Māori to the fullest extent practicable on its pandemic response, a breach of the principle of partnership.
Better support recommended It recommended better ethnicity data collection, better resourcing and support for Māori providers and communities, and a more equitable rollout for booster shots and paediatric vaccines.
Māori Council national secretary Peter Fraser described the Waitangi Tribunal report as “vindication”.
Fraser told RNZ Morning Report it was a strong ruling that showed the Crown had to uphold its Treaty obligations during a pandemic.
“We want to give credit to the tribunal, they took urgency.”
He said the “exceptional report” of more than 140 pages was put together in a couple of weeks before Christmas.
“It’s absolutely vindicated the Māori Council.”
He said he expected a difference in the paediatric vaccine rollout and booster programme.
Hopeful about new Māori Health Authority “We are hopeful about the Māori Health Authority and we wish it was up and running now.”
Interim Māori Health Authority chief executive Riana Manuel … “we expend a lot of our time getting our people out of that misinformation mode.” Image: Andrew McRae/RNZ
Interim Māori Health Authority chief executive Riana Manuel said the report’s findings were not surprising.
She told Morning Report that she had been on the frontline during the pandemic, vaccinating and swabbing communities for nearly two years.
“We knew that if we didn’t prioritise Māori, we were going to be having to do what we’ve done for the last five months, which is try and get our people back online to getting them vaccinated.”
She said Māori were exposed to lots of misinformation while they waited for access to the vaccine, which had increased hesitancy.
“The problem is, though, like everybody else, we expend a lot of our time getting our people out of that misinformation mode and getting them back into those clinics.
“If we can learn to take the politics out of health and actually focus on what health requirements are … it’ll bring us back to what we need to do, what the right thing is to do.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Aile Tikoure, an activist from the pro-independence Palika Party, says many Kanaks boycotted the referendum because France refused to postpone it until next year, despite the covid pandemic.
“No, no I haven’t voted. Instructions were clear from the party, I didn’t vote,” he says.
“I don’t consider this as an act of war. The government didn’t speak to the Kanaks — that is no respect for our fight.
“They still haven’t understood us after 30 years of dialogue that this country would be nothing without us. They want to do this without us. It’s an insult. We feel left out from any political discussion.”
Boycott was ‘a victory’ Another pro-independence activist, Florenda Nirikani, says the boycott was a victory.
“I would say it’s a victory from the performance of our Kanak community and a good performance — the word has been followed at 56 percent,” she says.
“Now that victory is over we are at a stage where people are asking what do we do now?
“We are at a stage of questioning. Two days after the referendum there a lot of people that ask me well what do we do now. We were prepared for the 97 percent that said no.
“We are here to say we Kanaks are proud that the level of absence in the referendum was a good victory.”
Florenda Nirikani does not expect to see violence as a result of the referendum result.
However, pro-independence activists have made it clear that there will be no negotiating with the current Macron government. The French presidential elections are due in April.
Pro-independence activist Florenda Nirikani … “No, things have stayed calm and I don’t think we will see violence.” Image: RNZ
No talking to French officials “No, things have stayed calm and I don’t think we will see violence. However, in the days or the weeks to come there will be some questioning from the activists.
“There has been a word out not to talk to a single French government official so negotiations will not happen between Kanaks and the current French government.
“[French Overseas Minister Sebastien] Lecornu [has been] here in New Caledonia last week. The customary Senate has refused to meet with him and some customary officials have boycotted meetings.
“The position expressed is that no Kanak represententatives will meet with the current government,” Nirikani says.
Negotiations between the Kanaks and French state are not expected to resume before next year’s French presidential election.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Fiji’s Health Ministry is concerned that people are not taking the new omicron variant of the coronavirus seriously.
Fiji reported two cases of the variant more than two weeks ago — both patients had arrived in the country from Nigeria on November 25.
Health Secretary Dr James Fong said more than 70 countries had reported cases of omicron and it was probably in most countries, even if it had not yet been detected.
He said if there was an outbreak in Fiji, it could again overwhelm the health system.
Dr Fong said vaccines alone would not get any country out of the crisis, and that nations must prevent the spread of omicron with mask wearing, hand washing, and social distancing.
“I anticipate that if we are looking at a third wave right now, based on what’s happening at the moment, we are looking at early next year — probably around the January to February period,” he said.
“We’re concerned that people are dismissing omicron as mild. Surely, we have learned by now that we underestimate this virus at our peril.
Risk of overwhelming health systems “Even if omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems.
“Vaccines alone will not get any country out of this crisis. Countries can — and must — prevent the spread of omicron with measures that work today.
“It’s not vaccines instead of masks. It’s not vaccines instead of distancing. It’s not vaccines instead ventilation or hand hygiene. Do it all. Do it consistently. Do it well.”
Dr Fong also said the evidence suggested a small decline in the effectiveness of vaccines against severe covid-19 disease and death, and a decline in preventing mild disease or infection.
“If a variant is transmissible enough, stringent border and community measures will only delay the inevitable entry and spread of current and future variants of the covid-19 virus, especially as the omicron variant is also spreading into some of our travel partner countries,” Dr Fong said.
“To protect ourselves, our loved ones and our country, we must all get vaccinated when it is our turn.
“And even with our high vaccination levels, we must maintain covid-safe habits: mask wisely by carrying a well-fitted mask when you leave your home and wear the mask properly in public indoor spaces, public service vehicles and outdoor crowded spaces.
Sharp reminder for caution “Open windows to improve ventilation; avoid poorly ventilated or crowded spaces; 2-metre physical distancing and ensure you are wearing a mask if you cannot maintain distance; cough or sneeze into a bent elbow or tissue, wash your hands frequently with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitiser.
“The discovery of omicron is a sharp reminder to ourselves that the key to avoiding future restrictions and lockdowns is for us all to remain cautious about how we engage in the greater freedom we will enjoy.
“Whilst the easing of restrictions is needed to facilitate livelihoods, we must ensure that together with vaccination, we continue to observe our covid-safe measures and avoid contained spaces and crowds.”
Dr Fong said following the delta outbreak in Fiji, it was understandable that many would feel the urge to relax and celebrate now that case numbers were low, especially during the festive season.
“And many of us have let our guards slip. We are all human.
“But this must stop as vaccination and the Covid Safe measures are the only way to safely navigate our way through the pandemic while facilitating socio-economic recovery and well-being.”
19 new cases in community Dr Fong confirmed 19 new cases of covid-19 in the community.
This brings the total number of active cases to 116, including two cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, he said. Seven of the latest cases were recorded last Thursday while 12 on Friday.
Dr Fong said there were seven covid patients in hospital in critical condition.
He said with Fiji’s international open to tourists, the public is being urged to take Omicron seriously.
“The threat of cases coming in through our borders will always be there for as long as the word pandemic is applied throughout the world. And the only that we can protect ourselves is ensuring good adherence to our covid health measures.”
There are no deaths to report and the toll remained at 697, Dr Fong said.
“We have recorded 612 covid-19 positive patients who died from serious medical conditions they had before they contracted covid; these are not classified as covid-19 deaths,” he said.
“For this second wave, there have been 52,553 cases recorded, with 71 percent of the cases from the Central Division, 28 percent from the Western Division, and 1 percent of the cases from the Eastern and Northern Divisions.
“Our national 7-day rolling average is 5 daily cases calculated for 13 December 2021.”
Close to 92 percent of Fiji’s adult population is fully vaccinated, Dr Fong said.
He said 38,321 children aged 12-17 are also fully vaccinated against covid-19 while 57,697 have received their first dose.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Loughran, Principal Researcher and Electromagnetic Energy Program Manager, ARPANSA, and Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Wollongong
Shutterstock
You’ve probably seen the UV index in the day’s weather forecast, and you know it tells you when you need to cover up and wear sunscreen.
But where does that number come from? We produce it at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA).
It’s our job to help keep Australia safe from all kinds of radiation, and that doesn’t just mean nuclear reactors and mobile phone signals – it also means radiation from the Sun.
Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, accounting for about 80% of cancers diagnosed in Australia each year. Most skin cancers are caused by exposure to UV radiation from the sun.
What is the UV index?
The UV index tells you how much ultraviolet radiation is around at ground level on a given day, and its potential to harm your skin.
UV radiation is a component of sunlight that can cause tanning and sunburn in the short term. In the longer term, too much exposure to UV can cause cataracts and skin cancer.
In 2002, the World Health Organization devised the UV index in an effort to make people around the world more aware of the risks.
The index boils down several factors into a single number that gives you an idea of how careful you need to be in the sun. A score of 1 or 2 is low, 3–5 is moderate, 6 or 7 is high, 8–10 is very high, and 11 and above is extreme.
What is UV radiation?
The Sun showers Earth with light at a huge spectrum of different wavelengths, and each wavelength can have a slightly different effect on human skin.
An important part of the spectrum is ultraviolet or UV radiation: light with wavelengths too short for our eyes to see, from around 400 nanometres to 10 nanometres.
There are two important kinds of UV radiation: UV-A, with wavelengths from 400–315 nanometres, and UV-B with wavelengths from 315–280 nanometres. (Shorter wavelengths are called UV-C, but are mainly blocked by the atmosphere so we don’t need to worry about it.)
UV-A and UV-B both contribute to skin damage, ageing and skin cancer. But UV-B is the more dangerous: it is the major cause of sunburn, cataracts and skin cancer.
ARPANSA has a network of sensors around Australia measuring sunlight at different wavelengths to determine the UV index, with the information available online in real time.
Real-time data shows how the UV index rises and falls over the course of the day. ARPANSA
This data is combined with other information about location, cloud cover and atmospheric conditions to produce maps and forecasts of the UV index for the whole country.
How are UV levels different around the world?
The UV index you see reported is usually the daily maximum – that’s the highest it will be all day.
How high it gets depends on lots of factors, including your location, the time of year, the amount of cloud cover, and ozone and pollution in the atmosphere.
The index tends to be higher closer to the Equator and at high altitudes, as the sunlight has to pass through less air before it reaches the ground.
People often experience the sun in Australia as particularly harsh, compared with places in North America or Europe. In a British summer, for example, the maximum UV index might be between 6 and 8. In an Australian summer it can range from 10 to 14.
The Bureau of Meteorology produces UV index forecast maps every day. Bureau of Meteorology
There are a few reasons for this. One is that Australia’s cities are closer to the Equator than many big cities in Europe and North America.
Another is that Earth is very slightly closer to the Sun in the southern hemisphere’s summer than the northern summer, meaning the sunlight is a few percent brighter.
A third reason is the “hole” in the ozone layer. The layer of ozone in the upper atmosphere, which absorbs some UV-B, is thinner towards the South Pole. This was caused by the use of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs, and it has been improving since they were banned by an international agreement in 1987.
And finally, the air in Australia generally has less smoke, dust and other small particle pollution than many places in the northern hemisphere. While this makes the air nicer to breathe, pollution does absorb or block some UV radiation.
Is UV changing over time?
We know UV levels have increased in recent decades.
In Australia, a study in 2011 found the average UV index had increased by 2–6% between the 1970s and the period 1990–2009, due to depletion of the ozone layer. A NASA study found similar results for 1979–2008.
It’s harder to say what will happen in the future, as there are several uncertain factors.
We expect the ozone layer to slowly recover from the impact of CFCs, which is likely to reduce UV levels.
However, we also expect less fossil fuel will be burned, which would mean less air pollution and higher UV levels. On the flip side, we may also have more bushfires due to climate change, which would mean more air pollution and lower UV.
Clouds are also likely to behave differently due to climate change, but we’re not sure exactly how.
Researchers in Japan found reductions in clouds and tiny particles in the air are expected to have a bigger impact than the recovery of the ozone layer, which would mean UV levels are likely to go up overall.
The future of UV levels depends on what happens to the ozone layer, cloud cover, and atmospheric pollution.
Regardless of the long-term trends, we’ll still be measuring the daily levels and letting the public know the important sun protection times. So keep an eye on the forecasts and remember to cover up, wear sunscreen, sunglasses and a broad-brimmed hat, and stick to the shade when the index is 3 or above.
The author would like to thank Dr Stuart Henderson, Assistant Director EMR and UVR Exposure Assessment at ARPANSA, for contributing valuable information and expertise.
Sarah Loughran receives funding from The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC). She is the Principal Researcher and EME Program Director at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA). She is also affiliated with the University of Wollongong, is currently a member of the Scientific Expert Group at the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).
Four secessionist delegates holding the proposed flag for Western Australia in 1934.State Library of WA
For nearly two years, Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan has sealed his state off from the rest of the world to pursue a hugely popular zero-COVID strategy.
Now the state is inching closer to reopening its borders to the world in late January or early February, when 90% of the adult population is double-vaccinated.
The pandemic has tested the strength of the federation in many ways, but no state or territory has sealed itself off from the rest of the country as WA has.
McGowan’s strong stance on borders has reminded many of the long streak of separateness that has defined WA throughout history and placed it at odds with its eastern neighbours.
The distance from its sister states (and, before federation, sister colonies) helped make WA a late and somewhat reluctant member of the Commonwealth of Australia. This feeling of separateness remains today, although formal secession, once a dream of WA residents, is still a fantasy.
Reluctance, then acceptance, of federation
By the 1890s, the campaign to unite the Australian colonies was gaining momentum. A depression in the eastern colonies bolstered the argument that all Australians would benefit from a common market.
Western Australians were far from convinced. The discovery of gold had led to a rapid growth of WA’s population and wealth. Western Australians worried their prosperity would be undermined by greater competition with the eastern states.
WA did not hold a referendum on federation in 1898 and 1899 when the other colonies did. But public sentiment soon shifted. The Gold Rush had sparked an influx of colonists from eastern Australia to the goldfields around Kalgoorlie, and pressure from these “tothersiders” saw the WA parliament reluctantly agree to a referendum.
More than half of the “yes” vote in the 1900 referendum came from easterners working in the goldfields.
It took only five years, however, for the WA legislative assembly to tire of federation. In 1906, it passed a resolution in favour of WA’s withdrawal from the Commonwealth that did not lead anywhere.
The real impetus for an actual secession movement came during the Great Depression. Western Australians became increasingly resentful of protectionist tariffs imposed by the Commonwealth government on foreign imports. This protectionism seemed to benefit manufacturers in New South Wales and Victoria at the expense of primary producers like them.
In 1930, a Dominion League took wing in WA. The league was a pressure group whose aim was to make their state autonomous from Canberra. WA would instead be a “dominion” of the British Empire in the same way Australia and Canada were.
The Dominion League persuaded the Nationalist government led by James Mitchell to submit a referendum for secession to WA voters.
A meeting of the Dominion League for the secession movement, 1934. State Library of WA
The referendum took place on April 8 1933, at the same time as a state election. By a majority of two to one, Western Australians voted in favour of secession.
Voters also elected a Labor state government, and the premier, Philip Collier, was confronted by popular sentiment that was overwhelmingly in favour of separation from Canberra. He could not stop a loyal WA delegation petitioning the British parliament for secession in 1935.
The route the secessionist delegation favoured was an imperial act of parliament. This would amend the Australian Constitution, which had been enshrined in an act of the UK parliament.
The British parliament, however, rejected the state’s petition. It maintained that its own 1931 Statute of Westminster had given Australia dominion autonomy. So the only way WA could achieve independence would be with Canberra’s consent.
The Dominion League was bitterly disappointed, and got a modicum of revenge in 1937 by voting out the most prominent local advocate of federation, Senator George Pearce.
In the longer term, the federal parliament helped turn around the mood for separation in WA. It did this, in part, by promoting financial aid to WA and other smaller states through the Commonwealth Grants Commission.
A souvenir envelope marking the celebration of the secession referendum in 1933. Wikimedia Commons
WA battles with Canberra over resources
From the 1930s onward, WA often clashed with Canberra and the eastern states.
One fight was over a 1938 decision of the Lyons government to stop the Japanese-led development of iron ore deposits at Yampi Sound, off Australia’s northwest. To do so, the Lyons government completely prohibited the sale of any Australian iron ore to foreign countries.
Throughout the 1950s, WA governments campaigned to modify the federal iron ore embargo. Finally, in 1959, the WA government led by Premier David Brand and Charles Court, the minister for industrial development, took unilateral action. It decided to advertise a public tender for the development of deposits at Mount Goldsworthy, a mining area that used Port Hedland as its outlet.
This started a chain of events that eventually persuaded the Menzies government to relax the embargo in 1960. The end of the embargo allowed the development of what would become Australia’s greatest export industry.
Then, in the 1960s and ‘70s, Canberra’s stipulation of minimum prices for WA mineral exports enraged the state government.
Court, WA premier from 1974-82, also campaigned against the Whitlam government’s plan to bypass WA by developing the oil and gas resources of the North West Shelf through a sovereign oil company.
In this context, a “Westralian” secession movement was revived with the financial backing of mining magnate Lang Hancock. It harked back to the rhetoric of the secessionist movement of the 1930s, but failed to translate an anti-Canberra sentiment into a concrete outcome like the 1933 secession plebiscite.
As recently as 2017, a group of WA Liberals revived a proposal to make the state an independent nation.
Since then, WA and the Commonwealth have frequently been at loggerheads, most recently over Clive Palmer’s challenge to WA’s closed borders during COVID (which the Morrison government backed for months until realising McGowan’s stance had overwhelming public support).
Today, distance and hard borders are being hailed as potential saviours of the west from the pandemic and the interminable lockdowns in the eastern states. After closing itself off for nearly two years, WA seems finally ready to reopen, although those long-harbored secessionist dreams will likely never die.
David Lee receives funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for a history of the Department of Trade.
Guilt has perhaps always been part of selecting and giving gifts for children at Christmas. However, in 2021, after two years of increased screen time for children thanks to COVID, parents may be experiencing even more uncertainty around what to buy.
But what if the power of play could counter some of these fears?
The importance of play is well recognised. Play holds developmental power to facilitate communication, increase personal strengths, foster emotional well-being and enhance social relationships.
This can be true of digital gifts as well as more traditional presents. Here are some ideas for screen-based toys that are good for both a child’s development and easing parental guilt.
Screen time – is there such a thing as too much?
Firstly, let’s address the key concern many parents have: can too much screen time harm a child’s development? The answer lies in knowing and balancing the risks and benefits of screen time.
A recent University of Colorado Boulder study of nine and ten year-olds found even when kids spend five hours a day on screens, “it doesn’t appear to be harmful”. The study also suggests screen time can improve social relationships.
While parents should make sure their children are using screens in appropriate ways, our early research suggests lengthy time on screen is not likely to yield dire consequences.
Research also indicates the type of screen time is important. This suggests active engagement (such as playing a game or doing an activity) may be beneficial, whereas prolonged periods of passive screen time (such as watching TV or YouTube) could be detrimental.
There are international and Australian recommendations on how much screen time is suitable for children, which vary depending on age.
Parental supervision is an important part of healthy screen time for younger children. www.shutterstock.com
Guidelines also advise negotiating clear boundaries for screen time, limiting sedentary screen time, and incorporating physical activity and social relationships.
For children, this may mean sharing a family device, having clear boundaries about usage and a parent supervising.
Ultimately, screens are a part of modern life – children need to learn how to navigate them. Modelling healthy screen time as well as selecting developmentally appropriate digital toys or platforms for play are two ways parents can assist children in developing a healthy relationship with screen time.
Digital toys across age groups
Babies and toddlers
Video-chatting is the only recommended form of screen time for babies and toddlers. Digital devices and apps may assist parents when used together with their baby or toddler, to maintain relationships with friends and family.
Apps on a parent’s device, such as Baby Karaoke can help parents to remember and sing along to nursery rhymes and children’s songs. Joining together with your child in playful rhythm and rhyme time in the first 1,000 days supports many aspects of brain development.
Pre-schoolers (3-5 years)
Screen time, when supervised by a parent and part of a balanced healthy family lifestyle, can support children’s developing imagination, creativity, and storytelling.
Apps and digital games like Osmo, where players use objects in the real world to interact with the digital world on their device, can develop communication, social and problem-solving skills.
School-age (5-9 years)
Apps and digital games that support learning, social skills and creativity are recommended for school-age children.
App ideas include Stop Motion, where children use physical toys such as Lego minifigures or plasticine models to create short animated movies. Khan Academy for Kids allows children to read books, create and draw, solve puzzles and play games that promote social skills.
Pre-teens (9-12 years)
Pre-teens may be starting to conduct a significant part of their social life online. Supporting their developing sense of digital citizenship is a crucial step and should be considered when choosing digital gifts.
Minecraft allows players to choose what they want to do. www.shutterstock.com
So, digital games that promote learning, hold positive messages, and allow for a sense of achievement are recommended for pre-teens. As a parent of two pre-teens, Kate shares that two current favourite apps in her house are the drawing/art app Procreate and the meditation, ambient sounds and bedtime stories app Calm.
Other ideas include learning a new skill like a musical instrument with apps like Simply Piano or Simply Guitar. Heads Up! allows you to play charades online, while popular video game Minecraft promotes creativity. Finally, work together as a family to remember, preserve and write family stories using Story Corps.
Teenagers (13-18 years)
Screen time can be included in the healthy lifestyle of teenagers. Digital activities that foster interests and hobbies, and enhance social connections are an important consideration for development, health, and well-being.
As a parent of a teenager, Judi shares that the current favourite at her house is the virtual reality headset Oculus Quest 2, which enables social connection through VRChat, Altspace and meditation with TRIPP and Nature Treks .
Other ideas include getting out in nature for a family treasure hunt adventure using Geocaching . Or host a trivia party with family or friends using Sporcle. Games like Spore allow players to design their own species by evolving microscopic organisms into their own creations.
What to bear in mind
If you’re doing your own searches, use terms like “creative apps for preschoolers” and use a review site like Common Sense Media to check your choice. And consider physically active screen time choices.
It’s important to incorporate physical activity with screen time. www.shutterstock.com
There is also virtual reality, which enables enjoyment, exploration and experiencing through multi-modes including movement (Beat Saber), art-making (Tilt Brush), and immersive experiences (Wander).
So, pause for a moment this Christmas when considering a digital gifts for children and ask yourself three things:
1) Is there a physical component?
2) Will this gift be used together within a relationship?
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.
Images of happy families, joyous celebrations and perfectly wrapped presents. Must be Christmas, right? While these cues can be linked to eager anticipation and enthusiasm, they can also remind us of stress, obligations, planning and interpersonal conflicts.
Celebrations with family and friends can be marred by bickering and disagreement. They can also be amplified by the social awkwardness of re-entering the busy public world after nearly two years of COVID restrictions.
As people around the world begin to emerge from their cocoons, many will experience anxiety and some loneliness. Lost loved ones, limited travel opportunities, and family rifts can trigger intense self-reflection and an ever-compounding sense of uncertainty about what happens next.
You may be hoping mindfulness meditation is the silver bullet to get you through the bittersweet festive season. But this may not be the answer to all your troubles.
Hold the hype
Not everyone agrees on a definition of mindfulness. But it’s generally considered the quality of directing attention to one’s experience in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and without judgement. Meditation refers to a broad set of practices that aim to direct attention on a particular object or experience.
Mindfulness meditation brings the qualities of mindfulness to the practice of meditation, usually sitting somewhere quiet, eyes closed, observing the breath.
There has been a lot of hype about mindfulness and meditation. While mindfulness meditation shows considerable promise, it’s not the magic cure-all some make it out to be.
Mindfulness meditation cannot fix systemic societal issues like racism, financial inequality, poor working conditions, human rights abuses or lack of access to medical care.
Encouraging individuals to use mindfulness meditation may provide a means to societal change such as greater awareness of inequality or a greater commitment to looking after our planet and one another. But simply inserting meditation into a dysfunctional context likely won’t do much to fix things and could make things worse.
One example of such a mis-step is Amazon’s ZenBooths, which were meant to offer stressed workers a space to practice mindfulness meditation. But they did nothing to address the issues that led to the stress in the first place.
Likewise, mindfulness meditation over the holidays won’t make disagreements between you and your family over social or political views go away.
Meditating may, however, make it easier for you to recognise the common humanity among people you disagree with. Meditation focused on cultivating positive emotional qualities is associated with less judgement and more compassion.
Just don’t wait until Christmas lunch to give it a try.
While mindfulness meditation techniques can be used in the moment, these techniques typically rely on skills learned or acquired during a formal, regular meditation practice.
Looking for Christmas joy?
Amid the bickering and stress, you may also be searching for some extra holiday cheer. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee mindfulness meditation will result in the sudden experience of overwhelming peace, joy or tranquillity.
Surveys of people who practice meditation regularly indicate these experiences are not uncommon. However, other research shows over 25% of regular meditators experience unpleasant events such as increased anxiety or depression, or difficulty thinking clearly or making decisions.
It is also incredibly common for the minds of beginning mediators to wander off and for them to feel frustrated, sometimes leading them to assume meditation doesn’t work. A wandering mind is not a sign of failed meditation but of being human.
The good news is mindfulness meditation training programs are fairly reliable in creating modest decreases in anxiety, depression, and distress, as well as increases in well-being.
So, with a developed mindfulness meditation practice, you may find you are a bit less likely to be distressed by the last minute rush to buy presents or arguments with distant relatives.
Before you jump in, consider what else you have going on. If you’ve not dealt with past trauma, have serious untreated illness, or are really struggling to get by, make an appointment with a clinician.
If none of those are true for you, consider finding an experienced meditation teacher, reputable centre, or a trusted practice group.
Don’t expect too much of yourself or the practice. Start small and try to keep an open mind. Maybe try a guided practice like the one below.
Try this ten-minute guided meditation.
Start now, before the bickering
Now is the time to get started. Don’t wait until you’re in the middle of a a family feud, feeling the exhaustion of your 15th trip to the shopping centre, or the frenzied tidying and preparation in the remaining hours before everyone arrives at your house.
If you try it now, before your stress levels ratchet up to 11, you’ll know if it might help you. And then, on the big day(s), you can use the tricks you have learned.
You might focus on one thing you really like about the family member you’re arguing with. You might try to remind yourself that all the disgruntled customers ahead of you in the shopping centre parking lot are likely overwhelmed by the same things you are. Or you might just take a few deep breaths and try to recognise that no matter what is happening (good or bad), it won’t last forever.
Meditation won’t make your holidays perfect but, if it works for you, it might make them a bit less stressful and perhaps, a little more meaningful.
Nicholas T. Van Dam has received funding from the Three Springs Foundation Pty Ltd to establish the Contemplative Studies Centre at the University of Melbourne. He is a fellow of the Mind and Life Institute.
After the long COVID-induced lockdowns of 2021, I’m more excited than usual for a joyous gathering at Christmas, where four generations of our family will sit around our much-used dining table for dinner.
The table is large, heavy, with parts made of blackwood and once belonged to my great grandparents in the 1880s. It’s been part of many family celebrations and is accompanied by a grand old sideboard, also made of blackwood and decorated for the festive season.
Blackwood’s main claim to fame is its magnificent dark and durable timber. It has been prized since colonial times and is still widely used for high quality, bespoke furniture that often becomes family heirlooms. It has also been used for making boats, musical instruments, inlaid boxes and high value veneers.
But today, I’ll introduce you to the tree – a stunning native wattle with large Christmas-green, leaf-like phyllodes (modified leaf stalks) and masses of showy pale lemon flowers that bloom from late winter to late summer.
Versatile and mighty
Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) can live for over 150 years, and its range extends from South Australia and Tasmania through to northern Queensland. It’s often found in the understorey of giant eucalypts in Australia’s east-coast forests, though the tree is hardy and adapts well to diverse conditions, making it popular in urban gardens.
Depending on soil type and rainfall, it can become an imposing tree 40 metres tall, with a trunk diameter of up to 1.5m. Under tougher conditions, it may grow to only 10m in height, often with a spreading canopy. While it’s not drought resistant, blackwood can be quite tough and tolerates wet soils, even salty coastal winds.
Acacia melanoxylon often grows among the understory of eucalypt forests. John Robert McPherson/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA
Blackwood is also resistant to fungal pathogens, such as Phytophthora and Fusarium species, which decimate many other native plants such as banksias and many eucalypts. The reasons for its resistance are unclear, but it’s possible that like some other acacias, chemicals released from the roots can reduce pathogen growth.
One reason Blackwood timber is so dark is because it contains high levels (up to 20%) of tannins, the dark staining chemicals you see after you’ve drained your daily dose of tea and coffee.
These tannins were also useful to Indigenous people. Tannins are toxic to fish and wood and bark with high tannin content was, and is, used for fishing. Blackwood extract can also be used as a painkiller.
Blackwood’s spreading root system is another reason the tree is so tough. In mountainous habitats, its roots often help consolidate soil on steep slopes, preventing landslides. I’ve seen large blackwood trees carried downhill by a landslide, but the roots held the soil together and the trees continued growing when the soil settled.
But the same, strong root system can cause problems in the urban environment, by cracking paths and blocking old leaky pipes.
Like many native trees, the tree is adapted to bushfires. The tough leathery phyllodes can slow the movement of bushfires, providing a barrier which might help stop fires from spreading in a fire smart garden. The phyllodes remain green and have a low flammability all year round, so while the tree is usually killed by fire, it may still have a place in gardens where fire is a risk.
A curious feature of blackwood is how its young, feathery foliage can grow alongside the mature, harder ones, as shown in this picture. SAplants/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA
The seed of blackwood can persist in the soil and leaf litter of a forest for many years and, after a bushfire strikes, may regenerate even if few trees were present beforehand.
Blackwood has been widely planted across Australia and in many other parts of the world for its timber and has become a weed in parts of Africa, South America and California, as well as Western Australia.
And it spreads easily. When blackwood seeds are harvested by birds and insects, they don’t digest the seed, giving it free transport and dispersal.
Blackwood can also develop suckers – new growth that sprouts from the roots; aptly named because they exploit a plant’s root system. These tend to develop if roots are damaged or disturbed, and can be difficult to control.
Blackwood is popular in gardens and parks all over the world. John Robert McPherson/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA
But for those planting it in gardens or parks, there are many benefits. Like all wattles, blackwood is a nitrogen fixer thanks to its root bacteria, which take in nitrogen from the atmosphere and add it to depleted soils.
Its discarded flowers, phyllodes and fruits can help create a thick mulch, which is often weed free. Alongside the benefit of added nitrogen, it can really improve the quality of soils on a local scale in gardens, windbreaks or plantations over time.
Blackwood is highly recommended as an agroforestry tree. It’s still actively logged in Tasmania, and my agroforestry colleague Rowan Reid warns that with the lack of research and incentives for growing blackwood on farms in Australia, we might soon be in the sad position of importing our blackwood timber from more innovative overseas growers.
At the end of our family dinner, the table will be cleared and the cutlery and crockery returned to the blackwood-veneered and polished sideboard – our own family heirloom.
I wonder about its future, and who might be using it to share Christmases. Just as I wonder about the future of Australian blackwood, and its role in future climates, fires and agroforestry. It will undoubtedly persist, but will it be significant and appreciated?
Gregory Moore 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.
Florence brings together lovely art and music and simple but meaningful puzzles. Annapurna Interactive/Mountains Studio
This year’s Digital Australia report found, as a country, Australians spent more time playing digital games than watching free-to-air TV during the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns.
Whether you’re new to playing or you’re a seasoned gamer, what better way to celebrate Australia’s love for games than by exploring some of the best home-grown games you can play this summer.
Here are five of my most recommended Australian games, from beautiful story-based experiences you can sink into alone, to hilarious multiplayer games perfect for playing with family and friends.
Florence (2018), Mountains Studio
Available on Android, iOS, PC and Nintendo Switch, Mountains’ Florence is a gorgeous game I return to time and time again.
As you play you get to see inside Florence’s life, learning her hopes and dreams and watching her fall in love with a cello player named Krish. The game design brings together puzzles and narrative in a cohesive manner, which adds meaning and engages you in the story.
If you like personal stories, well-developed characters you really care about, lovely art and music, and simple but meaningful puzzles, you’ll love Florence.
Fruit Ninja VR2 (2021), Halfbrick Studios
Back in 2010, Queensland-based Halfbrick Studios released Fruit Ninja and, just like my two year old, had us all cutting up pieces of fruit. The premise of Fruit Ninja was simple: cut up the fruit, don’t cut the bombs.
On December 3, Halfbrick opened early access to Fruit Ninja VR2, a virtual reality version of Fruit Ninja where you can travel around a gorgeous zen-like world, cutting up virtual fruit. As well as your trusty sword you can now use ranged weapons like a bow to shoot fruit far away. The early access mode of this game means it is still in development, so you might experience a few bugs, but the bonus is you get to play it early.
If you like the idea of cutting up fruit in a zen world and not your kitchen (and you have a compatible VR headset), Fruit Ninja VR2 might be a great choice. You’ll need a Steam VR compatible headset to play early access, and Halfbrick will be announcing a release date soon for Oculus users.
Crossy Road (2014), Hipster Whale
In Melbourne-based Hipster Whale’s quirky 8-bit arcade style game Crossy Road (available on Android, iOS and online) your goal is to help cute cube-shaped characters to cross the road, avoiding various obstacles along the way.
The endless arcade style of the game makes it easy to jump in and start playing and lets you play as long as you like. Interesting things to cross, like train tracks and rivers, keep the game engaging and the fast-paced levels ensure you are never bored while crossing the road.
You can unlock many more characters and situations as you play and Crossy Road is perfect if you like arcade-style games like Frogger and cute, stylised aesthetics.
Rooftop Renegade (2022), Melonhead Games
Expected to be released in early 2022 on PC and consoles (just in time to end your summer) Adelaide based studio Melonhead Games’ first game Rooftop Renegade is a fast-paced neon-studded experience. I’ve been lucky enough to get to test Rooftop Renegade early: the game’s aesthetics drew me in immediately and the speed of the gameplay added a level of intensity that made my heart pump.
Playing as Svetlana, the coolest hoverboarder you’ve ever seen (who can also travel through time), you need to speed across various locations to collect time crystals before you’re stopped by the evil Globacorp.
If you’re into speed running across rooftops and avoiding obstacles across gorgeous neon backdrops, Rooftop Renegade is a great pick for you. The game also has the ability to play in a multiplayer split screen mode, making it a solid choice to play with family and friends when it’s released.
Untitled Goose Game (2019), House House
Available on PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One, Melbourne-based studio House House’s Untitled Goose Game is a multi-award-winning goose simulator experience.
In Untitled Goose Game you play as a super cute but highly annoying goose, whose sole goal is to walk around a quaint English-style village and annoy as many people as possible. You can honk, run, duck, flap your wings and move objects around with your beak purely to annoy.
Another great choice to play with others, Untitled Goose Game has single player and local multiplayer modes. I am yet to show Untitled Goose Game to someone without them laughing within the first few minutes. I recommend the multiplayer because playing this game with someone else is hilarious.
In Australia, we are lucky to have a variety of AAA and indie game companies who are releasing interesting and unique titles all the time.
Whatever type of game you like to play, there’s bound to be an Australian title that will take your fancy and let you support our homegrown talent this summer.
Susie Emery is an International Women in Games Ambassador.
While the Omicron strain of Covid19 was first sequenced in South Africa, it was found independently in the Netherlands in November. So, while Netherlands was one of the European countries which caught the latest sudden European wave (mainly featuring Delta), most likely the Omicron strain was already spreading there; indeed the main constraint on the growth of Omicron in Netherlands was probably Delta. By now, it seems that Omicron may have already largely displaced Delta. Based on excess deaths, the current wave of infections began in the Netherlands in early September, starting as a Delta wave.
Just as the Omicron panic reached its crescendo in Netherlands, the actual data shows a sharp decline in covid cases, following a similarly fast increase. Hospital admissions are also falling in Netherlands.
Coincident with the spike in cases was a spike in excess (Delta) deaths. For the deaths to be coincident with cases, it means that there was a prior undiagnosed beginning to the spike in cases. Netherlands has always been a country reluctant to surveillance test for Covid19, so we can assume that many early Omicron cases were never counted, just as numbers of early-wave Delta cases were not counted.
My interpretation of the very recent sharp fall in cases is that Omicron is displacing Delta, and because Omicron is less severe than Delta, many Omicron cases are either completely asymptomatic, or mild ‘cold’ symptoms that have not triggered a covid test.
Why the political panic when known cases are falling sharply? My guess is that it’s politics. When things go wrong, Prime Ministers prefer to claim that they were blindsided by something quite unexpected than to admit to having been negligent. Hence, in Netherlands especially, the Omicron scare has all the appearance of being overcooked; of being a politically convenient (or manufactured) crisis.
South Africa
Chart by Keith Rankin.
South Africa had a winter wave of covid cases from June to August 2021; a mix of the Beta and Delta variants. October was comparatively quiet, though increased deaths at the end of October suggest at least one region remained covid active. Then the Omicron variant appeared in early November, evidently from Botswana. The sharp rise in cases in South Africa – Omicron – almost certainly began about a week into November, three weeks ahead of what shows on the chart. It’s unlikely that the rise in excess deaths in late November was due to Omicron – it’s just a bit too soon.
Certainly, by December the authorities were sensitised to look for Covid19 amongst deaths, with particular reference to Omicron. But so far covid deaths in South Africa remain very low, despite it now being seven weeks since Omicron has been there. Despite South Africa having a ‘young’ population, it clearly has a covid-vulnerable population, looking at previous waves.
In early December, the rate of discovery of Omicron significantly exceeded Omicron’s rate of transmission. We note now that case numbers in South Africa seem to have peaked.
United Kingdom
Chart by Keith Rankin.
In the United Kingdom – Covid19, mainly Delta – has been significantly present since June. Deaths have been low (by 2020 standards) and stable, at about three per million people per day. That looks now to be down to two per million per day (equivalent to 10 daily covid deaths in New Zealand).
This December, it looks as though a rapid escalation of cases – Omicron cases – has been taking place. But much of this represents the rate of discovery, not the rate of transmission. Quite possibly many of the November cases were also Omicron, and many cases of Omicron in November will not have been notified because they were too mild to have triggered a test. Severe cases of Omicron should already be showing in the death data, but they are not. This suggests that relatively few cases of this variant are severe.
As in the Netherlands, I cannot help but feel that there is a lot of unnecessary hype about Omicron in the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing a major political scandal over his staff’s 2020 Christmas Party. Omicron is a convenient if untidy distraction.
Reflection
The biggest concern, I would argue, is that the populations of ‘the west’ are now close to a ‘critical threshold’ (or ‘tipping point’) of anxiety over the pandemic (see The straw that broke the camel’s back for the idea of a ‘critical threshold’ or ‘critical state’). (‘Critical state’ theory is very important for the understanding and prediction of major earthquakes.)
It looks likely that Omicron is evolutionarily superior to Delta because, in the vast majority of cases, it is not creating severe illness in its human hosts. If this is correct, Omicron is not merely ‘coldlike’ as has been described; rather it is a ‘cold’ virus, as is former-pandemic coronavirus OC43.This should be being hailed as good news, and not as an invitation for the human species to go mad with fear. Omicron is dealing to Delta, methinks. Sometimes the solution to a virus is a virus; that’s ecology.
——-
Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
How to stop ‘the normal principles of taxation’ destroying our economy and begin changes to create a citizen economy (Part A)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Taxation is the mechanism for redistribution of wealth to combat inequality and for redirecting resources to build a society. But our current tax principles though largely hidden or not understood by ordinary people, lie at the root of all our current inequality and struggling economy. Struggling at least for ordinary people. This article shows our current tax principles are central to our economic problems. Understand and fix tax and we are on a path to greater economic security and wealth for all, a ‘citizens economy’.
Those normal principles are helping create three of the main problems we are facing in our society:
tax avoidance,
inequality, generating poverty (including the housing affordability crisis),
environmental damage, and the resulting multiple related crisis’s. (e.g climate).
These three problems show the current ‘normal principles of taxation’ are sending the wrong economic signals to the economy and distorting it away from its primary purpose, the supply of goods and services to meet our society’s wants and needs. But there is a simple reset of the principles that removes the structural drivers currently creating these problems. And a reset is essential to fix these problems as new taxes or laws will just be lipstick on a pig if we don’t fix the underlying structural drivers.
This relatively easy reset does not require any international agreement or loss of autonomy for New Zealand.
NOTE: For your convenience, we have structured this long-form report into five sections. Part A continues below. But you can download the full analysis via this PDF, without cost, which contains Part A, Part B, C, D, and E.
To summarise the five parts:
In Part A we look at six ways the existing normal principles of taxation are damaging the long term economy and subsequently our society. They show the basic principles of economics are being undermined by the normal principles of taxation. I then identify the two main actions of a reset that will fix this damage.
Part B in this series details the full range of required tax reset ideas (e.g. get rid of damaging GST) and goes through the impacts from the full reset and how many of those challenges actually put the economy on a more sustainable and stronger growth base, with more competition.
Part C in this series covers aspects of the Pandora Papers and how it is the ownership structures of companies and trusts that are creating moral and economic problems just like the normal principles of taxation do. I raise some basic questions about how we should/could change the powers of, or scope, in which these entities are formed and operated. It is only in the structural permission about how they work that we can stop the economic problems we currently have.
Part D in this series examines beneficial impacts and reasons why the capital revenue distinction must go. Including how it will operate and impact business.
Part E in this series details impacts on various sectors of the New Zealand economy.
What are ‘the normal principles of taxation’?
At a very high level, income is identified by having three features:
It comes in
It is periodic (not one-offs)
It has the character of income in the hand of the person who receives it.
From these base features principles arose. They have been adapted and interpreted through case law of a capital/revenue distinction. That can be defined as:
Capital is not taxed but revenue is, so some businesses try to label items as capital to reduce their tax bill. A lot of the Pandora Papers covers this type of ‘legal’ activity.
A sale of a farm, as a one off, is generally capital and not subject to tax. You would expect that to be reinvested somewhere rather than used to live off. But the sale of produce from the farm (periodic – used to live off) is taxable.
Expenditure incurred to gain that ‘income’ should be deducted before tax is paid. Money spent to gain income is not really income that can be taxed.
So you get gross income and net income.
Expenditure incurred can’t be questioned.
Costs to run a business can’t be questioned for taxation because it is up to the owners how to run the business regardless of the consequences or how sensible they are.
These are enough principles for my purposes; but inherent and inseparable in these principles are some values:
tax is a cost, and
it is legitimate and necessary for efficiency to minimise that cost. Like you would with any other cost.
But there is the catch in this, tax is not a normal cost.
Why are these ‘normal principles of taxation’ a problem?
Here are six points that explain why the principles send the wrong economic signals to the whole economy and undermine economic growth.
1. They undermine comparative advantage and encourage monopoly
(Small businesses with lower costs should have an advantage in price over big firms. But larger firms use costs to reduce their tax to give them an advantage.)
Business is supposed to be efficient and reduce costs, to be competitive. The theory goes, by driving down costs you drive down price which is better for satisfying consumers wants and needs. This is more efficient and only business can do this as government is wasteful and costly.
But this same efficiency driver on a micro business level sees tax as a cost that a business gets nothing for on a balance sheet.So to avoid tax, a dead cost, the ‘normal principles of taxation’ allow them to grow other costs to not only prevent having to pay tax, but also to do things that drive up the price of their goods and services so they gain more profit.
We all know and experience the marketing techniques that large business use to keep their profits high, or how they run anti-competitive practises to undermine competitors. e.g. run an airline along the routes of a competitor so they don’t grow and move into their high cost routes. And these techniques cost a lot. They rely on big data from loyalty cards, slick advertising, changing superficial designs with new releases, glamorous shops, etc. And they rely on access to debit financing. These are just ‘normal’ large business practises based on behavioural/marketing psychology and finance.
So large businesses don’t mind incurring these costs because they will reduce the ‘dead cost’ taxation they have to pay. And it is a big saving, 28% on every dollar spent. So consumers/taxpayers in having a reduced tax are actually helping large companies pay for techniques to make us pay more money for their goods or services. So we pay twice for their supplied good or service – once on the high/‘discounted’ price and second through the tax subsidy.
Small businesses simply can’t afford to run the same techniques or access debt finance in the way a large firm can. Their whole pricing structure is done differently; they reduce their costs and run a tight ship. These economic rules simply don’t apply to large business because the normal principles of taxation turn costs into an asset for them – a tool to drive out smaller competitors while driving up price.Small firms can’t compete against these large firms no matter how good the quality or price they charge for their good or service.
Another perverse result is large businesses become less concerned about quality and service in part because like any large bureaucracy they have to wear a few problems. But also in part because large businesses not only compete on price and quality, but compete through ‘cost accrual competition’. The ability to accumulate costs that work to their advantage over smaller competitors. And it is profitable and relatively easy and ‘legal’, but it shifts a large business’ focus away from innovation and building quality or low price, and into a focus on gimmicks and primal manipulations to trick us to buy. And it reduces competition as smaller firms can only compete by reducing costs and there is a limit to that.
We can see this most easily in fast food and retail where there has been a slide into franchise. The Chemist Warehouse is one of the most recent. Costs on the floor are tight but the marketing, site location rental, management fees, executive salaries, advertising, debt financing are all high cost. In a generation the smaller owner run businesses taking pride in their business are largely gone from New Zealand.So many small businesses struggle and fail because it’s hard to find niches to escape the larger firms relying on costs and turnover to drive their pricing. Cost efficiency is no longer a key economic driver for a large business; ‘cost accrual competition’ through saving tax is the easiest way to wealth.
In addition larger businesses are more likely to spend on vanity expenses because it still reduces their tax bill so it gives them an advantages over smaller competitors.e.g. take a lease on property in prestigious locations, purchase on finance or lease luxury cars, still get a 50% deduction for business ‘entertainment’ expenses – meals and lunches, tickets and who knows what else.
‘The normal principles of taxation’ remove the natural competitive advantage of a low cost business supplying the same goods and services. These smaller business are normally New Zealand owned and operated.And to catch that advantage all businesses have to follow that high cost model, and treat tax as a cost to be minimised, leading to larger and larger businesses leading to monopoly capitalism. Cost accrual competition is a powerful economic tool and we the taxpayer are subsiding it to only some people’s advantage.
2. They undermine redistribution of wealth (tax) and the resulting economic stimulus
Almost all businesses do not create wealth, they simply accumulate wealth.And to accumulate they rely on the education and health systems to support access to employees and customers. They also rely on infrastructure, courts, police etc in which to do business. Tax minimisation, avoidance and evasion, undercuts the process of redistribution of wealth which pays for the supply of these services and therefore it undercuts the provision of the services the business needs to function with.
Redistribution by taxation also supports demand across the economy which in turn supports business accumulation of wealth. The ‘tax is a cost to be minimised’ attitude comes from the normal principles of taxation, but tax helps promote the multiplier effect which benefits the entire economy. The principles need to change so that no business has an incentive, and mechanism provided by the principles, to minimise tax, as it works against the long term supply of goods and services, within the economy.
Tax is like no other cost as it is not fixed. The principles calculate it as a relative cost based on what income is left over after costs. So on a micro economic level a business see’s an advantage to run up costs to minimise payment of tax. But on a macro economic level that minimisation is damaging the economy in which it functions. Tax minimisation is actually an act of self harm by a business in the long term. The normal principles of taxation are creating the problem.
3. They subsidise risk taking and provide no choice for taxpayers on doing that.
By allowing business to deduct expenses to reduce their income that is liable for tax; it makes the New Zealand taxpayer subsidise the provision of that good or service through sacrificing tax collected. And as said before the saving is not always passed on, prices are held high and profit maximised so consumers are not getting the benefit of the subsidy. The normal principles of taxation allow no choice for society on making this subsidy. e.g. huge amounts of investment resources can be used to subsidise the business of taking rich people on tourism flights to space. Would people vote for that choice, over lifting more children out of poverty? But there is no vote, we have no choice, and it is tax revenue we could have.
The entrepreneur who has the knowledge to make these choices about what costs to incur should take the risk for those choices. Choices and risks should not be subsidised by taxpayers or government as that is not their role.
If the people or the elected representatives decide to subsidise an activity that is okay. And that is very different from a blanket subsidy as happens currently under ‘the normal principles of taxation’.
4. They punish innovation or the efficient use of resources
If two businesses supply the same good or service but one does it at a higher cost than the other, why should the lower cost company pay more tax? This is not good economic policy.
The Lazy Inefficient company B has more expenses ($100)so only pays $14 in tax but the efficient/innovative company A ($50 in expenses) pays $14 more tax at $28.
The normal principles of taxation are sheltering poorly performing companies, and punishing well performing companies. And the taxpayers through having less tax collected are subsidising the inefficient poorly performing company.
And the principles allow more investment income to be made available to this poorly performing company. i.e. wasting scare investment capital. (If B did not get the tax subsidy and had to also pay $28 in tax like efficient company A, then Lazy inefficient B would only get $8 to reinvest).
To those who say the high cost of B could be due to the quality service they provide. Yes, and that will mark them out from their competitors, and that quality should sell them.But there is no way for the blunt instrument of taxation to tell the difference of quality to wasteful spending; so it shouldn’t. If customers don’t want that business’s ‘quality’ then that is a market signal. There is no reason for the taxpayers to subsidise a business’s choices on quality as the entrepreneur might be right or wrong and there is no way to tell, except by the customer.
More can be said on this example but it does not change the fundamental point that the wrong economic signals are being sent. e.g. Company A could have less customers and be price matching to Company B to maximise their profit rather than passing on the savings from innovation to their customers. Company B becomes a tool to make customers pay more as its existence takes up some demand, which slows the introduction of potential new competitors. This is another reason to have B out. This shows tax is only part of fixing the economy but a very very important part.
5. They subsidise environmental damage or resource waste by creating an externality
Of course not all companies have high cost structures because they run anti-competitive practise, or have vanity expenses, or they are just seeking tax minimisation. Some businesses, are just very costly to undertake and there is nothing inefficient about that, e.g. mining.
But should the costs to run those enterprises be subsidised by the taxpayers taking a reduced tax collection? The high costs of those business choices should be borne by the risk taking entrepreneur with the knowledge to take those risks.
For example, if you do the Hump Ridge track you see some great wooden viaducts used to bring out the timber from a milling operation. The devastation of the local forest was complete but the business as reported never made a profit as its costs were so high and the sales income never fully came in. New Zealand got nothing of substance out of this destructive exploitation. Yes workers got wages and scrimped a life of remote hardship. The directors would have got income along the way. Yes there is now some tourism value but it’s probably not much more than if it was left. Overall, the value of the forest asset was wasted without profit. The ecological and cultural value lost can’t be quantified.
The same destruction and waste occurred in the areas around the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ in the inner Whanganui. All over New Zealand subsistence businesses were supported by ‘the normal principles of taxation’ for people to eke out an existence to the detriment of traditional Maori life and culture, the environment, and their own lives. The ‘normal principles of taxation’ were one of the systems within colonial exploitation that allowed profits to be stripped back overseas without as much redistributive effect from an effective taxation. The principles were a tool to strip value out of the new nation as the costs of exploitation were offset to the income.It is a tool in a class system that strips income away from the redistribution/taxation process.
Colonial legacy justification and creation of an externality
Yes, you can argue that this sort of tax subsidy for business was necessary to enable economic activity in new lands. And that is the colonial argument. From where we stand today we can see the waste and destruction of that legacy and thinking. Our climate and environment is imperilled because of it. But it’s still happening, that structure is still in existence within the normal principles of taxation, and it is helping drive environmental damage and climate change. The rules were made through judge law to favour the wealthy to help drive their, or their class’s, wealth. This reset will at least make the full cost fall on the risk takers and they will at least be more careful in future because the cost will fall on them fully.
Ongoing impact
If income from a businessactivity almost matches the cost of the activity, then very little tax is paid. So when the good is being sold the price does not reflect the cost of society’s human and physical infrastructure that was required to support that activity. Because tax was reduced this cost is not calculated into that sale price. i.e. a seller will work for the highest price but if the cost of production is subsidised, the threshold for the sale price is being subsidised and the true cost is not reflected in the price resulting in false economic signals being sent to producers. The normal principles of taxation are creating an externality of the cost of society.
A business must fully contribute from its income back to society through paying tax or there is no point in society letting the business be in existence. Like the purchase of the viaducts, or the mill boilers, tax is just a cost that should be factored in and you can’t avoid it.
Each business or activity needs to be viable in its own right so it has a cost that reflects if it is a high cost activity. Current loss offsetting hides a costly activity and dissuades companies funding research or looking for alternatives to get around high costs. Subsidising by tax undermines that drive for innovation.
Environmentally damaging activities like mining are one such activity where if the cost of tax was not able to be avoided, a higher price would generate more focus on recycling, or innovation to find alternatives. See more comment under heading ‘Different sectors have different impacts’
It is no longer appropriate for our business community to be molly coddled and subsidised by socialising their costs onto the New Zealand taxpayer, the government, and the environment.
6. The ‘normal principles of taxation’ are helping cause an international destabilisation problem.
President Xi in China is crushing democracy in Hong Kong as he see’s it as a vehicle to undermine China. But he is fighting the wrong enemy. As a former colony of Great Britain Hong Kong follows the basic outline of ‘the normal principles of taxation’. And most of the tax principles were set through english case law by judges who arguably have acted in their own or their class’s economic interest when making decisions that set precedent. As a colony these tax principles facilitated economic value being stripped away from the colony and the lands near it to the benefit of the ‘mother country’. In the post colonial world we still see these tax principles being used to strip value out of countries with little tax paid, and then into tax havens for the use of the billionaire owners of Google, Amazon, Microsoft and others.
China has become the factory of the world as large multinational companies moved manufacturing there for cheap resources and low regulation. President Xi wants the work and business to stay so it will give stability and economic strength to China. He was recently reported on CNNAug 18, 2021 by Laura He as pushing on China’s rich to redistribute wealth. So he can see problems in his nation but he is asking business people bound by a tax system to act outside that system. His quest for security by taking on democracy and the Uyghur people means he is no longer walking with his people as a leader, using the wisdom of the crowd to guide his nation but is leaning into an inherently unstable autocratic leadership model. And he is adding fuel to the cold war that leaders in the US, UK and Australia, seem willing to hype up in a new alliance. He has chosen the wrong enemy; it is the colonial based tax structure that is undermining China’s security, e.g Transfer Pricing and Thin Capitalisation are able to undermine revenue and the ability to grow domestic based businesses in a way that spreads wealth. That has to be dealt with by simple consistent rules as suggested here that do not favour multinationals, as the current normal principles of taxation do. Democracy needs to be decoupled from exploitive capitalism and a tax reset will help do that.
And the ‘west’ is also struggling with conflict and polarisation in society, driven through culture war issues like immigration, climate change, vaccines, and abortion rights. In the ‘west’ the culture wars are facilitated through a dysfunctional 4th estate and poor quality democratic processes. These culture wars have some urgency for ordinary people, ‘taking our jobs, taking our opportunities’, but theses are just the scapegoats for the very real economic struggle many are experiencing. It’s about the economy getting polarised. Ultimately the western nations have the same enemy as China in the poor functioning of the tax system. The tax system is helping build monopolies, facilitating tax avoidance, and undermining local businesses. We are all poorer.
The normal principles of taxation are well overdue for a complete overhaul so they build each nation’s economy and redistribute wealth, and that is the purpose of taxation, not to concentrate wealth and build tax havens.
Note: The need for international trade by New Zealand will not be impacted by these changes but it may, or may not, modify it. And with the supply chain disruption brought by the Covid-19 Pandemic, it makes it an excellent time to bring in changes that will ameliorate the disruption we are already experiencing. It will help our nations build back on to a more sustainable path.
How shall we reset ‘the normal principles of taxation’?
In the media and policy world the strongest reset theme for taxation is greater transparency and sharing of information from other jurisdictions (especially tax havens) so tax can be claimed. This is all essential work that needs to be done but transparency and sharing information does not remove the structural problems created by the principles. And the current principles have created a complex set of rules that are an administrative burden.
And the creation of new taxes like wealth taxes will not deal with the structural drivers of wealth concentration.As the Pandora papers show the normal principles of taxation are a major driver of wealth concentration and tax avoidance.
I propose a structural reset that uses existing economic understandings which therefore won’t destabilise the economy, and it works alongside the existing market forces, sending appropriate signals to the economy.
The two main reset actions are:
Remove deductibility for all expenses except for domestic salary and wage payments.
2. No capital revenue distinction for non-individuals.
This is supported by:
A very broad legislative definition of ‘income’ to ensure everything that comes in is taxed regardless of traditional capital revenue distinctions. Even to include related party loans (with an exception for 3rd party loans – perhaps a strict list of who can be a 3rd party). The Pandora papers show this is essential regardless of even this reset. Because the current normal principles of taxation allow a company to make income but then through a series of entities turn it into a loan to be made back to the company or another related party and a ‘loan’ is not taxable. Part C, in this series, gives an example.
No grouping of companies for tax purposes. Companies are separate legal entities and will be treated that way for tax.
The original intention of grouping was to prevent tax avoidance but it has now been twisted to be a major tax minimisation technique. i.e. Company tax rates in the past had a progressive structure. To avoid paying the higher rates a company created lots of sub companies and spread the income out so each paid an amount just below the high tax rate. This was then stopped by the requirement to group the companies so they did pay the higher rates of tax. But then for anti-competitive purposes parent companies began to run subsidiary companies – not to make a profit but to make a loss (the exact opposite of what companies should be set up for in an economy). Using ‘cost accrual techniques’ and low income. e.g. run a small airline at a loss to compete with a budget airline to preserve their other profitable routes. Grouping then allowed their losses to be offset against the income of their profitable routes so less tax was paid. If a situation arose where the loss company was no longer needed the losses could be retained but limited liability remained as a protection for the parent company. A long time ago the progressive tax rates on companies were removed and company tax was made a flat tax rate but nobody got rid of this ability to group companies. The companies wanted it kept. It is overdue to get rid of grouping.
Without a capital revenue distinction and strict application of entity status, shifting assets between separate legal entities will generate taxable income because their status as a separate legal entity now becomes important for tax purposes. With less advantage in having separate legal entities, companies will become bigger which will improve transparency and reduce the ability to avoid tax or scrutiny.This reset will work with international trends to improve transparency. With more potential exposure to risk, behaviour and focus will change.
A company to trade in New Zealand must be required to have a company registered and based in New Zealand through which all its activities are subject to tax that are ‘sourced’ from New Zealand. And they must have a New Zealand bank account. An asset in New Zealand can’t be owned by a foreign based organisation in a tax haven as the risk of tax avoidance is too high. If there is not a base in New Zealand, e.g internet sales, then work must be done with banks on how sales can be caught for tax or punishments if not.This is already a tax issue and not created by this reset.
In ‘Part D (of this series) – Beneficial impacts for all with no capital/revenue distinction and less tax minimisation’ I go through more discussion of these points. In particular how taxing disposals of cash accumulations is not double tax but sends a beneficial push into quality and price for goods and services.
Economic policy and tax principles alignment
This reset does four main actions:
1. It removes the structural drivers for all the six economic problems listed above. Obviously other actions need to be taken in addition to tax for issues like international relations. This reset does not restrict actions but better supports them.
2. It stops almost all tax avoidance techniques based on currently ‘legal’ processes. Nobody is telling business how to run their business or control what they do. The choices are all still with the business, it is just the consequences and risks that will be fully carried by the chooser.
3. It removes any incentive to waste or damage the environment, or any assets, as all costs will be fully carried by the producer. Because things will cost more, the throw away culture will not be structurally supported by the tax system. Note – things are costing more now but with no quality improvement. Quality has the chance to come back.
4. It redirects investment capital to producing goods and services to meet the needs of society. With interest no longer deductible for tax there will less demand to debt finance. Finance will therefore be freed up for investment in actually producing goods and services. Yes some capital will be taken up to hold assets like land but that is a good investment at the moment. The purpose of debt financing is largely cost accrual competition. Part B of this series has more on the potential positive changes in how investment may occur.
But is this economically viable? We must look at the numbers.
For contrast from the Inland Revenue website 2017 annual report –
Total tax in 2017 was $69.2b and Individuals paid 48% ($33.2b) plus GST 26% ($17.9b) = 74% of total tax was paid by you and me.
Taxation under a reset calculation – A soft transition calculation
The existing tax rate of 28% could be used or a lower rate of 15%. But if we aim to increase taxation because it is sorely needed for social purposes, and to pay down debt, and we don’t want to cause too much business disruption, then the following is an option.
Businesses claimed they had $83.5b income over expenses for the 2017 year.
If we initially taxed all companies at 10% of total income, no deductions for costs (except domestic salary and wages). And indexed to go up in future years. This will give a massive boost to small business.
$644.2b x 10% = $64.42b tax.
As business had $83.5b over costs it means there is income available to pay the $64.42b tax. They would have to shift profit expectations and likely no dividends.Impacts will depend on the individual business. If we add in the Individuals tax, and ‘other’ ($37.1b) tax paid that year (I leave out GST as it must be dropped – as it damages the economy) we would have: a total tax for 2017 of $101.2b
The amount of 10% should be indexed to go up 1% every one, or two or so years, until it reaches 15% or 20% or whatever the government of the time decides. The 10% rate is too low for the urgent needs of climate change and human need. (The cost is higher now because actions were not taken earlier, and business in aggregate has not supported taking action sooner, in fact they hindered action).
Other taxes?
This increase in tax collected is without any new wealth tax or capital gains tax, and with a reduction of the headline tax rate. But there may be other reasons to do new taxes. In times of war. Or environmental crisis. Or a housing crisis. Tax is so low at the moment and the social needs so pressing, plus the debt must be paid down, that the amount of tax to be paid must go up.
Easier compliance
Another reset benefit is it could be possible/investigated to require all money deposits to a non-individual to go through one bank account with an instant deduction for 10% tax. A credit can come back once a salary or wage payment is made in the Inland Revenue employer account. This means no provisional tax or due dates to worry about. A great compliance saver for small business. Obviously all bank accounts would have to be linked to an IR number to prevent avoidance but if all non-individuals bank accounts were automatically subject to tax, thenthat removes some temptation to avoid tax liability.
The economy context
This reset is still only income that is being taxed; something that has ‘come in’. So money is there. Any realised capital gains would also be taxed because they would have ‘come in’. But as there are avoidance techniques for companies to delay gains coming in I am not expecting much to be collected under this category, initially. But a rising tax rate might persuade them to come forward earlier. But we could use the ‘risk free rate of return method’ to calculate this ‘income’. But that would be at least 15%. Other options to capture unrealised gains are being discussed in the wider media.
If large businesses say they will go out of business, then that shows just how dependent they are on the tax subsidy.So are they truly viable?The slow introduction of a lower but more effective rate would give them time to adapt to moving away from debt financing, and high cost structures. But there are many more effective ways to achieve this change. I don’t expect them to move away from their marketing techniques but they would pay that cost without being subsidised by taxpayers. Issues with marketing and consumer protection can be dealt with separately but those actions will be undermined by the current tax system. Actions will be more effective with a tax reset.
To stick to the concept of government spending being less than 30% of GDP reduces our ability to create wealth through the multiplier effect.A demand driven economy will bring better economic growth that actually satisfies people’s needs. The only risk to a demand driven economy is how to control pricing and inflation, (I propose an article on this at a later time). We tried supply side economics and we have poverty, housing shortages, housing inflation, a struggling health sector, and an education system beholden to overseas students.
Perfect timing
The recent talk about inflation and stagflation in part due to supply chain disruption make it the perfect time for the reset to happen as it will reduce business sector demand. All large businesses will be strongly focused on reducing their high cost business structure which will reduce demand and take pressure off inflation. Recall that a lot of business sector demand is micro business churn to drive price and demand up for their product or service. It is not growing the economy except in an incidental sense.Innovation, exports or savings are not being driven in the macro sense by that spending. By contrast small businesses with the lower tax rate will be opening up, increasing competition. I talk about inflation in Part B of this series but will require a further analysis.
Summary – we must reset ‘the normal principles of taxation’
This reset is not about political sides or ideas. It is about making the economy work as it is supposed to, meeting people’s wants and needs.
If we believe in markets with businesses competing on price and quality then this tax reset must be done because the current tax system undermines that, or
If we see the economic system is failing and people are falling through the cracks then this tells us one of the main reasons why and how to fix it.
The current tax system is breaking the economy and society. We are a frog in a pot that’s been on the stove for a while.
Further evidence the tax system is broken is seen in the US which has the same basic principles of our system and many of their largest companies aren’t paying much tax, e.g.Amazon, Honeywell, Halliburton, IBM, Fedex, Nike, US steel, Chevron, Delta. These companies are even managing through globalisation to avoid capital gain taxes. So we can’t just rely on new taxes to solve the existing problems. The foundation, ’Income tax’ must be fixed and this reset is how to do it so the big companies pay their fair share.
Minimising tax is big business for every large firm. For the cost of a small team of accountants they can structure finances to avoid billions or hundreds of millions of dollars in tax. The purpose of tax is to redistribute wealth but ‘the normal principles of taxation’ are discouraging redistribution so economies and societies are struggling, with small businesses disadvantaged and people’s wants and needs not being met.
The reset here retains largely the same tax system with all business treated the same. But the reset strips the rules down so there is nowhere to hide or shift the money. Because it is in the rules where the loopholes are found. And the rules/legislation are written with the normal principles of taxation firmly in mind, and with considerable input from those accountants who are deeply embedded in tax orthodoxy. The business sector has had a significant input into developing tax law and the business sector likes lots of red tape rules as it offers lots of loopholes.
In this reset you can’t shift money between income (subject to tax) to capital (not subject to tax). A person can’t reduce their tax by claiming expenses real or imagined. There are no losses or capital losses. I suspect the reason why we don’t have a capital gains tax in New Zealand is the fear of capital losses undermining future government revenue along with complexity of the law – but this reset shuts down those fears.
With this reset the tax system becomes much simpler and more transparent. This is why stripping the rules back, as is proposed in this reset, is actually the only way to get a truly broad based low rate income tax system.
About the author: Stephen Minto lives in Wellington with his two children. He worked for New Zealand Inland Revenue Department for approximately 33 years and is now enjoying no longer being bound by public service etiquette of being non-political.
New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. You can sign up to NZ Politics Daily as well as New Zealand Political Roundup columns for free here.
The festive season reinforces something parents and carers already know – many children today have a lot of toys.
In the United States, children receive more than US$6,500 (A$9,073) worth of toys between the ages of two and 12. Here in Australia, the toy industry is worth more than A$3.7 billion annually. Lockdowns have resulted in online toy sales growing by 21.4% during 2021, with the online toy industry now growing faster than the overall online retail sector.
The number of toys in Australian households is likely to increase when Christmas gift giving starts in earnest.
Here are some ideas for dealing with existing toys, as well as the upcoming influx of new ones.
The problem with having too many toys
Spaces with lots of toys are overstimulating and impact the ability for babies, toddlers and younger children to learn and play creatively.
The more toys, the more confusing for kids. www.shutterstock.com
Similar to cluttered pantries or office spaces, which make it hard for adults to focus, having too many toys around the house can make it difficult for children to concentrate, learn, and develop important skills around play.
Research shows fewer toys at a time leads to better quality playtime for toddlers, allowing them to focus on one toy at a time, build concentration skills, and play more creatively.
The other issue with having lots of toys “in play” is that we tend to place less value on them. By reducing the number of toys, adults can help children develop appreciation and gratitude.
What to do if you have too many toys
De-cluttering is easier said than done, but organising toys has many benefits for children and adults alike.
Fewer toys that are well organised leads to a calmer, less stressful environment which also reduces overstimulation in children and contributes to better behavioural regulation.
Reducing the number of toys can also increase opportunities for children to build frustration tolerance and having to focus on one or two toys at a time can improve problem solving skills as well as developing independent play experience and creativity.
Organising toys can also help parents and carers improve general structure and routine in the home, which is great for everyone!
How to organise toys
A good first step is to conduct an inventory of all the toys in your house. Divide toys into “keep and play”, “keep and store” (toys that are sentimental, family heirlooms or part of a collection that can be put in storage) and “give-away or sell”.
Toys that are “keep and play” should be organised in ways that allow children to clearly see and easily access them.
Put two-thirds of these toys away in storage. Every month, rotate the number of toys available ensuring you have an interesting selection of “social” and “solo play” toys available and try to include “good” toys.
Rotating toys can help with space issues and importantly it keeps the novelty alive.
Is there such a thing as ‘good’ toys?
With such a huge variety of toys available, the choice can be overwhelming. But when you are thinking about buying toys, there are some features that make certain toys better than others.
“Good” toys are those that are appropriate for the child’s age and developmental level. If you are not sure if a toy is suitable in this regard, seek advice from staff in specialist toy stores or consult child development websites such as raisingchildren.net.au and earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au.
Toys that help a child develop and keep them occupied do not need to be expensive. www.shutterstock.com
Toys should stimulate learning and keep a child’s interest at the same time and they should be safe and durable. In addition, toys should be able to stand the test of time (think Lego) and ideally be used in a variety of different ways over the years.
We recognise that with more than 17% of Australian children living in poverty, there are also many families who do not have the problem of having too many toys.
Good toys don’t have to be expensive. While Australians spend millions each year on toys, it’s worth remembering simple, everyday household items – cardboard boxes, saucepans and cooking implements, buckets and tubs, cardboard tubes, plastic containers and stacking cups – make excellent toys for younger children.
Parents may find it useful to categorise good toys. This ensures when you are organising toys, children have access to a variety of toys suitable for different types of learning and play development.
Here are five ways to categorise toys:
1. manipulative/functional toys – these include construction and building toys, puzzles, stacking and nesting, brain-teasers, dressing toys, beads, blocks, bath toys, and sand and water toys. Manipulative toys are important for helping develop fine and large motor skills, dexterity and coordination, which are vital for drawing, writing, dressing and more.
2. active toys – including various outdoor toys, climbing equipment, sports equipment and ride-on toys. Active toys are great for general physical activity and motor skills development.
3. learning toys – these include board and card games, books, and specific-skill toys such as letter identification and shape and colour sorters.
4. creative toys – such as arts and craft materials, musical toys and instruments including digital music and drawing apps.
5. make-believe – including dress ups and role play (costumes, clothing, hats, masks and accessories), stuffed toys, puppets, dolls, transportation toys.
What to do with toys you don’t need
It can be hard parting with beloved toys, those that have been part of a special collection or even just trying to clear out toys that have accumulated over the years. Many people find it emotionally challenging to give away toys and prefer to keep and pass them on to children and family members.
Keep your toys organised to facilitate better play. www.shutterstock.com
There are many charitable organisations that will be pleased to find new homes for good quality toys – The Salvation Army, Save the Children and Vinnies – all welcome toy donations, especially at this time of year. Also search “toy donation” in your area to find local organisations and make sure what you are giving is in good condition (if it’s a puzzle, make sure it has all the pieces!).
Online platforms selling used items or secondhand dealers are other options which will give your treasures a second life.
Finally, as we head into Christmas with Australians tipped to spend more than $11 billion on gifts, it’s worthwhile having the list of “good” toys handy so you can easily answer friends and relatives when they inevitably ask “what can we get the kids for Christmas?”.
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.
“Kondo-ing” (de-cluttering) has become all the rage. But languages are hoarders that hang onto every used bit of clothing, threadbare cushion or musty old piece of luggage. You never know, these might be useful one day.
Christmas is a great reminder of how important it is to hang onto some old stuff – decorations stowed in closets, dusty words lingering in our brains. At Christmas, we drag out boxes of tinsel, baubles and fairy lights. We also trot out words, meanings and even grammar that we stopped using in our everyday language long ago.
So, let’s unpack this dusty box of Christmas lexical curiosities. We’ll toll trolls, blaze yules, graze mules, and then finish with a Christmas cracker of a linguistic joke (well, it’s no worse than any other you’ll hear this holiday season!)
This Christmastide, may God keep you t(r)olling
Untangling and dusting off these lexical curiosities – like those Christmas lights we haphazardly stowed the year before – takes some work. We needn’t go further than the lyrics of our favourite carols to see this. For example, the puzzling line (in Deck the Halls) that instructs us to “troll the ancient yuletide carol”.
Trolls sound scary. If they’re not leaving offensive messages on the internet, they’re giants living in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. But the gentle trolling we do at Christmas has a different (French) origin. It entered English in the 14th century meaning “to stroll” – but taking a few twists and turns, as words can do, it eventually arrived at another meaning “to sing merrily in full voice” (think of those rousing trolly-lollies).
The references to “yuletide” and “the blazing yule before us” are equally bewildering. Tide here has nothing to do with flows of water, but preserves the original meaning “season” or “time”. Yule like tide is one the oldest English Christmas words (8th century), but its meaning has shifted dramatically – from the original name for December or January (and presumably the pagan festivities around then), its meaning morphed into “Christmastide” a century later.
For some of the linguistic origins of Christmas words, we need look no further than the yuletide carols. Shutterstock
The opening line of the carol “God rest you merry, gentlemen” also dusts the cobwebs off some linguistic junk. Basically, it’s a good wish and means something like “happiness to you gentlemen”. It doesn’t help that the verb rest here has nothing to do with “relaxing” but means “keep”; what’s more it appears in a grammatical form that no longer exists. The old subjunctive signalled non-real events, such as wishing. This job is now done by other verbs (like may) – so, a more modern version would be “May God keep you merry, gentleman!”.
But even merry isn’t terribly common these days. Putting aside euphemistic references to alcohol-induced states of cheerfulness, we usually only encounter merry in carol lyrics like this one, and of course in the expression Merry Christmas (and perhaps also Robin Hood’s band of merry men).
Away in the manger…the little Malteser lay down his sweet head
Whenever untangling and dusting off our Christmas curiosities gets too hard, we can turn the task over to kids. They often refashion these yuletide curiosities into something that seems a bit more reasonable. “Tolling the yuletide carol” has a much jollier image than “trolling” it, and “get dressed, you married gentlemen” would seem like good advice. Certainly a “grazing mule before us” makes a lot more sense than that “blazing yule”.
But it probably wasn’t children who “decked the halls with Buddy Holly”. In fact, adults are responsible for a lot of remodelled Christmas expressions, and they’ve been doing it for centuries.
Look at mistletoe. It has absolutely nothing to do with toes, though this seems quite reasonable when you look at the plant, especially hanging as decoration. In fact mistletoe grew out of misteltan, the plant name combined with earlier tan (“twig”).
Despite their appearance, reindeer have nothing to with reins (“harness”). Reindeer was the original Viking word for this animal hreinn combined with deer, which simply meant “creature” (so (h)reindeer was one of those redundant compounds like oaktree).
Words we’ve purloined from other languages are especially prone to these linguistic makeovers. Look what we’ve done to Kris Kringle – it’s come a mighty long way from the German dialect word Christkindel (“Christ child”).
Christmas is the reindeer’s time to shine, but their name actually has nothing to do with reins. Shutterstock
Plum puds sans plums, and boxing days without boxes
We sometimes find a cracked bauble or two in our box of lexical curiosities, but we’re loath to toss them out. We just keep using them or find new uses for them. Plum puddings don’t have plums in them anymore – the dried plums were replaced by raisins, but we’ve kept the name.
As foodie John Ayto describes, traditional Christmas fare had all sorts of “plum” dishes, even plum broth and plum porridge. Occasionally modern plum puddings become plump puddings – time will tell whether this catches on.
So what about Boxing Day with no boxes (unless you’ve been to those post Christmas sales). In the 17th century, Christmas boxes were earthenware containers taken around on the first weekday after Christmas. The purpose was to collect money for the workers and, like piggy banks, they were then broken and the money distributed.
Clearly the events around this seasonal payment have changed dramatically and box now refers to a day not a container – the day has shifted too, and fixed on the December 26.
Our box of Christmas curiosities is overflowing, but we refuse to Kondo any of it! We so want to dazzle you with stories about hark, a’wassailing, noel – even the unappetising though intriguing historical links between the words pudding and botulism.
Instead, we ask you to pull on the end of our Christmas cracker, and share in a daggy linguistic joke:
What do we call Santa’s little helpers?
Subordinate clauses
We wish you a conjubilant holiday, meaning one “filled with good cheer but most especially the good cheer that comes from being in the company of others”.
Kate Burridge receives funding from the ARC Special Research Initiative SR200200350 Metaphors and Identities in the Australian Vernacular.
Howard Manns receives funding from the ARC Special Research Initiative SR200200350 Metaphors and Identities in the Australian Vernacular.
Christmas is coming – meaning Australians are about to enter our most dangerous time of year for fatal drownings.
The eight days from Christmas Day to New Year’s Day are the deadliest period for drowning, with 201 lives lost over the past 15 years, according to my new analysis.
Using coronial data from the Royal Life Saving Society – Australia, my analysis shows a further 28 people drowned on Australia Day during the same 15 year period. My findings back up previous research, which found people are twice as likely to drown in Australia on a public holiday than any other day.
But the danger isn’t limited to major holidays. January 10 inexplicably emerged from my analysis as a key date, with 32 people drowning over the past 15 years – more than on any other single day of the year.
The sadly predictable spikes in preventable drownings mean many river rescue divers and surf life savers have come to dread summer.
The personal toll of preventable drownings
The Murray River is Australia’s leading river drowning black spot.
For more than 40 years, Peter Wright OAM, a volunteer rescue diver with the Corowa Rescue Squad, has performed the harrowing task of retrieving bodies – including children – from the river:
I have this feeling of dread as summer approaches. I find myself avoiding going near the river, as seeing people behaving badly or irresponsibly really gets to me […] I know it’s not if, but when we will be called to search the river for the next drowning victim […] The look of abject grief and disbelief on the faces of relatives and the noise of wailing families haunts me to this day.
‘Don’t panic, keep your head up’: Volunteer divers Stuart Dye and Peter Wright’s stories of avoidable drownings in the Murray River. Royal Life Saving Society – Australia.
The number of people who get into trouble at the beach spikes on public holidays. With an average of 20 rescues per day across the year in 2020/21, the period from Christmas Day to New Year’s Day sees this figure increase almost six-fold, with an average of 116 rescues per day.
According to Chris Jacobson, National Surf Life Saving Australia’s chair of lifesaving and a volunteer surf lifesaver of 20 years:
Surf lifesavers are constantly on the go attending to numerous rescues during this period, in particular on Australia Day. We see people not swimming between the flags, ignoring lifesavers, drinking and overestimating their abilities, which therefore requires our members to go to their aid.
Do you know how to spot a rip at the beach? Surf Life Saving Australia.
5 factors driving more summer drownings
So why are Australians more likely to drown in summer, particularly on public holidays? And how can you be safer this summer?
Australia Day aftermath: a beer-filled raft beside the Murray River at Albury. Amy Peden, Author provided
Alcohol
Alcohol is a leading risk factor for drowning. It impairs reaction time, impacts the effectiveness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and can result in risk-taking behaviour.
Our breathalysing research at rivers – which are the leading location for drowning in Australia – found the average blood alcohol concentration (BAC) for adult river users was significantly higher on the Australia Day public holiday, with an average BAC of 0.175%. That’s more than three times the legal limit for driving a car.
Several river users also registered BACs in excess of 0.350%, seven times the legal limit.
Drinking beside inland waterways is a key reason why so many people drown in them. Royal Life Saving Society.
Participation and exposure
More people in and around the water means more people at risk of drowning.
Our research shows higher numbers of people visit aquatic locations on holiday periods during summer, including the Australia Day public holiday. This is also sadly evidenced in the rescue and fatal drowning data.
Warmer temperatures
This deadly period for drowning often coincides with hot temperatures. Warmer weather drives people to seek out water to cool off, but are also linked to higher blood alcohol concentrations.
The Christmas school holidays also coincide with this high-risk period and a number of public holidays.
Visitors who don’t know local conditions
In a normal, non-COVID summer, many Australians travel on their summer break, including to unfamiliar aquatic locations.
Our research shows visitors have increased drowning risk on public holidays compared to other days: 2.5 times the risk for people travelling within their own state, and 2.3 times the risk for those visiting other states or territories.
How to stay safer by the water this summer
Check conditions of the river before you get in, observe how fast the current is going
Ask locals about the safest place to swim in a river
Swim between the red and yellow flags at the beach
Avoid alcohol around water
Always supervise young children in, on, or around the water
Always wear a life jacket when boating or using watercraft
Don’t drive, ride or walk through floodwaters, and don’t let children play in floodwaters
Learn CPR so you have the skills to act in an emergency.
Those simple steps can save lives – and avoid so much needless pain, as volunteer rescue diver Peter Wright says:
A drowning affects so many people. Not just the family but all those involved in the recovery, the police, ambulance and divers. It is often more difficult to cope with the pain-filled reactions of a family when you recover their loved one, than the task of diving in totally black, fast-running, snag-filled water, feeling for that lost individual. I just wish that people took water safety more seriously.
Amy Peden is an honorary Senior Research Fellow with Royal Life Saving Society – Australia and is the co-founder of the UNSW Beach Safety Research Group. She receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council.
The holidays are coming and chaos is upon us. You may be navigating crowded parking lots in the heat, shuffling from one holiday party to the next, not to mention trying to avoid recently arrived relatives. Amid this chaos, you might experience time a bit differently.
You might forget what day it is. New Year’s Eve might sneak up on you when Christmas felt like it was just yesterday. And before you know it, the holidays are over, the trays of mangoes are gone, and the relatives have packed up and left.
That’s not the only way your sense of time may be a bit distorted over summer.
While sitting around and reflecting on past holiday seasons, you might find last Christmas feels just like yesterday. In fact, it might feel more recent than something that happened a few months ago.
While it might seem like there’s a temporal vortex every December, these distortions make sense when you understand how the mind perceives time.
How does the mind perceive time?
The mind can’t perceive time directly. We don’t have watches, hourglasses, or calendars in our heads. Fortunately, the mind is quite good at approximating things it can’t measure directly.
Our vision does this regularly. We can’t measure depth with our eyes, but we can approximate how far away objects are using various cues in our environment. Objects further away are smaller in our visual fields, less textured, and move less than objects closer to us. While this isn’t perfect, it serves us well enough for us to navigate our environments.
Our minds do something similar with time. We use cues from both our environment and our memory to indicate how much time has passed.
There are often a number of cues in our environments that signal what day it is. If you work 9 to 5, working or commuting only happens on weekdays; going out for brunch or playing tennis during the daytime only occurs on weekends. Our minds combine each of these cues to give us a sense of what day it is.
A long, lazy brunch might tell you it’s the weekend. Shutterstock
Many of these cues are disrupted when we go on holidays. We’re no longer working, which means the events that normally signal to our minds it’s a weekday are gone.
Several of the things we do on holidays, such as going to parties and having big dinners with our relatives, are things we usually only do on weekends, but can occur any day of the week on holidays.
This disrupts our mind’s reference points for what day it is. This is why the holiday period might feel like one long weekend even though you know that’s not the case.
There are many cases where we lack external cues to give us a sense of how much time has elapsed. Fortunately, we can use our memory to fill in the gaps.
You don’t need a memory scientist to tell you that more recent memories tend to be more vivid and detailed than older memories. So, the vividness of a memory is another cue we use to figure out how long ago an event occurred.
I might see somebody who looks familiar but I can’t recall their name or how I met them. It’s probably safe for me to say I didn’t meet them very recently.
Using memory to gauge time would work consistently if memories always got worse as time progresses.
However, there are circumstances where memory for an event can improve with time. A great deal of experimental research has found memories for certain events improve when we return to the conditions in which the memories were formed.
This is because we form memories by linking various aspects of an event – the location, the people at the event, the music we were hearing – together in our minds. When we attempt to remember something, we use various aspects of the event to retrieve the others, much like using a Google search.
In the holiday season, we often return to the circumstances where previous holiday memories were formed. We’re often surrounded by the same people, eating the same foods, and hearing the same holiday songs.
Pavlova anyone? You probably ate that last year too. Shutterstock
This gives our minds additional cues to retrieve memories from past holiday seasons, such as gifts you may have received or arguments that happened over the dinner table.
So, you might find yourself remembering a lot more memories from past holidays in greater detail and vividness than before. Because the mind uses vividness as a basis for time perception, this might have the effect of last Christmas season feeling like it was just last week, instead of a year ago.
If your sense of time goes a bit haywire over the holidays, don’t worry. When you return to the structure of your daily life, your sense of time and memories will go back to normal.
Adam Osth receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
As international air travel rebounds after COVID-19 restrictions, greenhouse gas emissions from aviation are expected to rise dramatically – and with it, scrutiny of the industry’s environmental credentials.
As the climate change threat rapidly worsens, can aviation make the transition to a low-carbon future – and perhaps even reach net-zero emissions? The significant technological and energy disruption on the horizon for the industry suggests such a future is possible.
But significant challenges remain. Achieving a net-zero aviation sector will require a huge collaborative effort from industry and government – and consumers can also play their part.
Build back better
The aviation sector’s progress in cutting emissions has been disappointing to date. For example, in February last year, research on the world’s largest 58 airlines found even the best-performing ones were not doing anywhere near enough to cut emissions.
The scheme relies on carbon offsetting, which essentially pays another actor to reduce emissions on its behalf at lowest cost, and doesn’t lead to absolute emissions reduction in aviation. The scheme also encourages alternative cleaner fuels, but the level of emissions reduction between fuels varies considerably.
Governments have generally failed to provide strong leadership to help the aviation sector to reduce emissions. This in part is because pollution from international aviation is not counted in the emissions ledger of any country, leaving little incentive for governments to act. Aviation is also a complex policy space to navigate, involving multiple actors around the world. However, COVID-19 has significantly jolted the aviation and travel sector, presenting an opportunity to build back better – and differently.
Griffith University recently held a webinar series on decarbonising aviation, involving industry, academic and government experts. The sessions explored the most promising policy and practical developments for net-zero aviation, as well as the most significant hurdles.
COVID-19 has significantly jolted the aviation sector. Steven Senne/AP
Nations soaring ahead
Some governments are leading the way in driving change in the aviation industry. For example, as a result of government policy to make Sweden climate-neutral by 2045, the Swedish aviation industry developed a roadmap for fossil-free domestic flights by 2030, and for all flights originating from Sweden to be fossil-free by 2045.
Achieving fossil-free flights requires replacing jet fuel with alternatives such as sustainable fuels or electric and hydrogen propulsion.
The United Kingdom is finalising its strategy for net-zero aviation by 2050 and a public body known as UK Research and Innovation is supporting the development of new aviation technologies, including hybrid-electric regional aircraft.
Australia lacks a strategic framework or emissions reduction targets to help transition the aviation industry. The Emerging Aviation Technology Program seeks to reduce carbon emissions, among other goals. However, it appears to have a strong focus on freight-carrying drones and urban air vehicles, rather than fixed wing aircraft.
Some governments are leading the way in driving change in the aviation industry. Zhao Xiaojun/AP
Building tomorrow’s aircraft
Low-emissions aircraft technology has developed substantially in the last five years. Advancements include electric and hybrid aircraft (powered by hydrogen or a battery) – such as that being developed by Airbus, Rolls Royce and Zero Avia – as well as sustainable aviation fuels.
Each of these technologies can reduce carbon emissions, but only battery and hydrogen electric options significantly reduce non-CO₂ climate impacts such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx), soot particles, oxidised sulphur species, and water vapour.
For electric aircraft to be net-zero emissions, they must be powered by renewable energy sources. As well as being better for the planet, electric and hydrogen aircraft are likely to have lower energy and maintenance costs than conventional aircraft.
This decade, we expect a rapid emergence of electric and hybrid aircraft for short-haul, commuter, air taxi, helicopter and general flights. Increased use of sustainable aviation fuel is also likely.
Although electric planes are flying, commercial operations are not expected until at least 2023 as the aircraft must undergo rigorous testing, safety and certification.
Electric planes exist, but the route to commercialisation is long. Pictured: a solar powered aircraft prototype flies near the France-Italy border. Laurent Gillieron/EPA
Overcoming turbulence
Despite real efforts by some industry leaders and governments towards making aviation a net-zero industry, significant strategic and practical challenges remain. Conversion to the commercial mainstream is not happening quickly enough.
To help decarbonise aviation in Australia, industry and government should develop a clear strategy for emissions reduction with interim targets for 2030 and 2040. This would keep the industry competitive and on track for net-zero emissions by 2050.
Strategic attention and action is also needed to:
advance aircraft and fuel innovation and development
update regulatory and certification processes for new types of aircraft
enhance production and deployment of new aviation fuels and technologies
reduce fuel demand through efficiencies in route and air traffic management
create “greener” airport operations and infrastructure
build capability with pilots and aerospace engineers.
The emissions created by flights and itineraries can vary substantially. Consumers can do their part by opting for the lowest-impact option, and offsetting the emissions their flight creates via a credible program. Consumers can also choose to fly only with airlines and operators that have committed to net-zero emissions.
Net-zero aviation need not remain a flight of fantasy, but to make it a reality, emissions reduction must be at the heart of aviation’s pandemic bounce-back.
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.
Summer in Australia is synonymous with seafood, from fish and chips at the beach to prawns on the barbie. But how do we know if the seafood is sustainable – that is, harvested from healthy stocks with minimal negative environmental impacts?
More than one third of the world’s fisheries are being harvested at unsustainable levels according to the latest figures from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Research shows public awareness of the problem is growing. But 62% of the seafood Australians eat is imported, which can make it hard to determine the food’s provenance.
While comprehensive sustainable seafood guides like the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s Good Fish are readily available, we know some people find them daunting and time-consuming to use. To make it simpler, we’ve put together five tips for better seafood-buying, focusing on holiday favourites.
Oyster farms like this one in Merimbula, NSW, are often classed as sustainable. Shutterstock
5 ways to ensure you’re buying sustainable seafood this summer
Eat farmed Australian prawns. Much intensive prawn farming overseas has been linked to the destruction of coastal habitats, and some Australian wild-caught prawns have bycatch issues, meaning rare species like dugongs and turtles are accidentally caught by trawling. By contrast, Australian prawn farming is done in tanks on land, often making it a more sustainable industry.
Eat wild-caught Australian rock lobster. This year, lobster prices are much lower than usual due to export issues. Australia’s rock lobster fisheries are generally sustainably fished as opposed to imported lobster.
Eat farmed Australian oysters and mussels. It’s hard to go wrong here – fresh local oysters and mussels are widely available in stores and restaurants and are usually sustainable. Imported options are not widely available and usually tinned.
Eat farmed Australian barramundi. Locally farmed barramundi is the most commonly available sustainable fish species. Some wild-caught Australian barramundi fisheries have issues with bycatch while imported farmed barramundi have recurring issues with disease.
When in doubt, pick fresh Australian seafood. Australian fisheries are better managed than most others around the world, making local fish usually the better choice.
Data taken from the Good Fish Guide.
What to watch out for
My team and I recently examined more than 50,000 seafood products from southeast Queensland supermarkets, restaurants and other outlets and found only 5% could be classed as sustainable.
If you’re buying seafood to cook at home, you’re most likely to find sustainable options at speciality seafood outlets, which we found were more likely to stock Australian products. While some sustainable options are available in major supermarkets, they skew much more heavily to imported seafood.
We know there are a lot of salmon lovers out there – it was the most commonly found seafood product in our survey. Nearly all salmon sold in Australia is farmed Atlantic salmon produced in Tasmania. Unfortunately, this salmon is currently classified as “Say No” by the Good Fish guide due to significant environmental impacts.
On a positive note, the Tasmanian salmon industry is working to address these well-documented problems and the potential for improvement is high. It’s worth checking sustainable seafood guidelines frequently, as sustainability changes over time.
The Good Fish guide lists more options such as sustainable abalone (wild and farmed), mullet, mudcrabs and whiting.
Australia’s farmed prawns are typically regarded as more sustainable than imported prawns and many wild-caught options. Shutterstock
What about eating out?
Australia has no regulations requiring origin and species labels on cooked seafood. That means that when you buy flake, it could actually be a critically endangered species like the hammerhead or school shark.
This is not a problem we can solve as individual seafood lovers. A 2014 Senate inquiry found the exemption for cooked seafood should be removed, but it did not become law.
To fix this, the government should introduce laws to improve seafood transparency and sustainability, especially in restaurants and cafes. This would make Australia world leaders in this area, given many major countries do not have mandated country-of-origin labelling for cooked seafood.
While we work towards a national solution, it’s important we vote with our wallets to buy sustainable seafood wherever possible. This will encourage the industry we want to see and avoid unnecessarily trashing our oceans.
Tia Vella contributed to this article
Carissa Klein receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
This article is part of a series explaining how readers can learn the skills to take part in activities that academics love doing as part of their work.
A few more brushstrokes and the student gasped with excitement. There in the dirt was a small, bronze statue of a calf, revealed for the first time in 3,000 years. The discovery could have been yours! In this article, I dip into the many opportunities for you to take part in an archaeological dig both locally and abroad.
Places on these digs are not confined to university students. There are opportunities for you to become involved in the fascinating world of archaeology both locally and abroad. You can make a useful contribution in many ways and have enormous fun doing it.
A volunteer found this statuette of a small bronze calf, which would have shone like gold, at a dig in Israel. It was found in a Canaanite temple at Khirbet el-Rai, identified as biblical Ziklag, in a joint Hebrew and Macquarie University excavation. Photograph: Gil Davis, Author provided
What is archaeology?
Archaeologists in popular imagination are like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft seeking powerful lost artefacts and unimaginable wealth. You don’t need me to tell you this is the stuff of fantasy. Gone too are the days (hopefully!) when real archaeologists just wanted to find palaces and temples and significant objects to stuff in museums.
The reality is more absorbing and less dangerous. The questions that interest us nowadays involve understanding how people lived and interacted with their landscape. What did they eat, drink, wear and believe, and what tools and technologies did they use? This comes under the rubric of “material culture”.
ACU Professor Gil Davis excavates a grave at Tel Akekah, Israel, in a joint project with Tel Aviv University. Photograph: Benjamin Sitzmann, Author provided
Excavation is the essential part, but it is destructive. We excavate the minimum area possible to answer specific research questions. We leave the remainder for future archaeologists with different questions and even better technologies.
Uncovering architectural remains and artefacts is vital, but only if we can interpret the finds. To do so, we need to employ a wide range of specialisations, many of them scientific.
To take a case in point, a team in Israel was excavating the site of Ramat Rachel, which was the administrative centre of the Persians just outside Jerusalem. It was complete with a palace and pleasure gardens traditionally kept by Eastern potentates – think the Garden of Eden full of exotic species. No plants have survived from 2,500 years ago, of course, but the walls in the garden were plastered annually, and in the plaster was microscopic evidence of pollens and phytoliths (the mineralised remains). Bingo!
How does a dig work?
A typical dig in the Middle East, Europe and the United Kingdom will start with a survey to identify what is likely to be found and the most promising areas to excavate. This includes plotting surface finds.
Just as sultanas in a cake mix will come to the surface, ubiquitous broken sherds of pottery litter the ground. Diagnostic elements can be identified, giving a snapshot of what lies beneath. Geophysical surveying reveals the outline of subterranean structures.
Volunteer Michaela Gill unearths a pot at Khirbet el-Rai, Israel, a joint excavation between Hebrew and Macquarie universities. Photograph: Sophie Gidley, Macquarie University, Author provided
The dig director(s) then decides where to dig in 5m-by-5m squares. Each square has a supervisor and a few people to help dig and record the finds.
What you can do (and why you will learn to hate buckets)
Those squares don’t dig themselves. First you get down to the levels of interest by removing all the topsoil. It’s usually filled with tree roots and rocks. Mattocks, spades and an endless supply of buckets are the go.
This is where (your?) labour comes in. Most digs need volunteers to do the hard yakka. The dig supplies the equipment, training and supervision; the volunteers do the work.
Volunteers removing soil in a bucket line at Tel Azekah, Israel, on a joint Tel Aviv and Macquarie University excavation. Photograph: Benjamin Sitzmann, Author provided
Soon the team reaches the levels of interest. The work becomes more careful, turning to trowels and brushes. The volunteers become adept at identifying and recording finds and levels.
Fit people don’t need a gym on a dig. Others less physically able will contribute to light duties, logistics, recording and preparing meals.
A dig draws on a wide range of expertise including geophysics, surveying, photography, computing, pottery, lithics, biology, zoology, archaeometallurgy, chemistry and isotopic analysis. There is always call for volunteers able to offer specialised skills. People with medical and allied health training are especially welcome, as are people who can speak a local language.
Australian sites are handled differently as they mostly deal with understanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander use of land and historical (post-European settlement) sites. Research questions are usually linked to cultural heritage management.
The way the sites present does not lend itself to excavating in squares and is more to do with plotting surface finds such as campsites spread out over a wide area. Nonetheless, volunteers are usually welcome and specialised skills and knowledge are prized.
Be mentally prepared. It’s tough work in the dirt with long hours and very basic, shared accommodation. Hats and sunscreen are essential – but not whips. Usually, you pay for the privilege of participating, though the dig will supply your accommodation, food and transport.
There are endless opportunities to volunteer but finding them takes a bit of sleuthing on the net. Some countries provide a contact point.
Some of the pottery unearthed at Khirbet el-Rai, Israel, and restored by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Photograph: Israel Antiquities Authority, Author provided
For digs in Australia, it is best to inquire at the universities that offer archaeology to find out which digs they are doing and whether they accept volunteers.
Finally, if you’re serious about becoming an archaeologist, especially if you are studying it, many organisations place volunteers. Here’s a guide courtesy of the Australian Archaeological Association.
A dig offers a unique experience. Volunteer archaeologists know they’re doing something worthwhile. You challenge yourself in many ways, work in a team and create amazing friendships with like-minded people.
As you gain experience, you become more valuable. You could then be employed as a supervisor and not have to pay.
Many volunteers become archaeology junkies who can’t wait to spend their next holiday digging up the dirt.
Gil Davis 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.
The figure includes first doses, second doses and boosters, as well as third doses intended for those who are immune compromised.
The doses include both the Pfizer — the main vaccine deployed in New Zealand — and AstraZeneca vaccines.
MidCentral and Hutt Valley have also reached 90 percent first doses for Māori, becoming the fourth and fifth district health board (DHB) areas to reach the mark.
However, nationally, the second dose rate for Māori remains at 77 percent.
Canterbury continues to lead the way overall, with 98 percent of eligible people having had a first dose and 94 percent being fully vaccinated.
New Zealand has a population of five million.
55 new community cases, 13 omicron cases in MIQ The ministry reported 55 new community cases of covid-19 in New Zealand today and five more cases of the omicron variant in recent international arrivals.
The new omicron cases in MIQ take New Zealand’s total to 13.
Four of these cases remain in managed isolation. One person has now recovered and has been released.
The recovered case arrived from London via Singapore on December 7. This case tested positive on day one and was closely managed in MIQ, the ministry said in a statement.
The person was never in the community while infectious.
Of the new community cases, 41 are in Auckland, with the remainder spread between Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Indonesia has strongly criticised the United Nations in response to cases of human rights violations in Papua being cited in the UN’s 2021 annual report.
“Unfortunately the report neglects to highlight human rights violations happening in advanced countries, such as cases of Islamaphobia, racism and discrimination as well as hate speech,” said Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah.
According to Faizasyah, almost 32 of the countries reported on were developing countries.
Nevertheless, he said, Indonesia condemned all forms of intimidation and violence which target human rights activists.
“Indonesia does not give space to the practice of reprisals against human rights activists as alleged and everything is based on a consideration of the legal stipulations,” said Faizasyah.
Speaking separately last Wednesday, Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, warned Indonesia that it must stop threats, intimidation and violence against human rights defenders in West Papua.
Lawlor cited Veronica Koman, a human rights and minority rights lawyer who is in self-exile in Australia.
Koman still facing threats She said that Koman was still facing censure and threats from Indonesia and its proxies who accused her of incitement, spreading fake news and racially based hate speech, spreading information aimed at creating ethnic and separatist hatred, and efforts to separate Papua from the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).
These accusations are believed to be directed at Koman in reprisal for her work advocating human rights in West Papua.
“I am very concerned with the use of threats, intimidation and acts of reprisal against Veronica Koman and her family, which seek to undermine the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the legitimate work of human rights lawyers,” said Lawlor.
Previously, UN Secretary-General António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres cited Indonesia as one of 45 the countries committing violence and intimidation against human rights activists.
This was included in a report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCR) which cited Indonesia over violence and intimidation in Papua.
On 26 June 2020, the OCHCR also highlighted the criminalisation and intimidation of human rights activists in the provinces of Papua and West Papua.
One of the focuses was alleged intimidation against Wensislus Fatubun, an activist and human rights lawyer for the Papua People’s Assembly.
“He has routinely prepared witness documents, and analysis about human rights issues in West Papua for the UN. Wens Fatubun has worked with the special rapporteur on healthcare issues in Papua during visits,” said Guterres.
A committee has been set up in New Caledonia to support the re-election of French President Emmanuel Macron although he is yet to announce whether he will again seek office next April.
The committee is headed by the mayor of Noumea Sonia Lagarde, who said Macron’s support for New Caledonia had been “flawless”.
More than 96 percent voted against independence in last Sunday’s vote, which was boycotted by the pro-independence camp because of the impact of the pandemic.
She said that if New Caledonians voted in three referendums to stay with France, it was due to Macron’s commitment.
However, in both the previous referendums in 2018 and 2020 contested by the pro-independence supporters, the defeat in the plebiscites was narrow, with only 10,000 votes separating the two sides last year.
In 2017, in the decisive second round of the last presidential election, Macron secured 53 percent of New Caledonia’s votes against 47 percent for Marine Le Pen of the National Rally.
In the mainly anti-independence Southern Province, only 46 percent voted for Macron.
In the first round, he came a distant third behind Francois Fillon and Le Pen, with just 13 percent support.
French military vehicle vandalised A French military truck has been destroyed in an arson attack in the north of New Caledonia.
Prosecutors say two individuals carrying a canister of petrol entered a parking area in Poindimie and set the truck alight.
Another vehicle had been doused with petrol but the two were chased away by an officer on guard before they could set it on fire.
He used an extinguisher to prevent the rest of vehicle park catching fire.
Prosecutors say investigators are being sent from Noumea to track down the two suspects.
If caught and convicted, they risk jail terms of up to 10 years.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Armed conflict in West Papua continues to claim lives, displace tens of thousands of people and cause resentment at Indonesian rule.
But despite ongoing calls for help, neighbouring countries in the Pacific Islands region remain largely silent and ineffectual in their response.
This year, Indonesia’s military has increased operations to hunt down and respond to attacks by pro-independence fighters with West Papua National Liberation Army (WPNLA) which considers Indonesia an occupying force in its homeland.
Since late 2018, several regencies in the Indonesian-ruled Papuan provinces have become mired in conflict, notably Nduga, Yahukimo, Intan Jaya, Puncak Jaya, Maybrat as well as Pegunungan Bintang regency on the international border with Papua New Guinea.
The ongoing cycle of violence has created a steady trickle of deaths on both sides, and also among the many villages caught in the middle.
Identifying the death toll is difficult, especially because Indonesian authorities restrict outside access to Papua.
However, research by the West Papua Council of Churches points to at least 400 deaths due to the conflict in the aforementioned regencies since December 2018, including people who have fled their villages to escape military operations and then died due to the unavailability of food and medicine.
‘Some cross into PNG’ “We have received reports that at least 60,000 Papuan people from our congregations have currently evacuated to the surrounding districts, including some who have crossed into Papua New Guinea,” says Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman, president of the Fellowship of Baptist Churches of West Papua.
West Papuan villagers flee their homes due to the armed conflict in Maybrat regency, September 2021. Image: RNZ Pacific
The humanitarian crisis which Yoman described has spilled over into Papua New Guinea, bringing its own security and pandemic threats to PNG border communities like Tumolbil village in remote Telefomin district.
Reverend Yoman and others within the West Papua Council of Churches have made repeated calls for the government to pull back its forces.
They seek a circuit-breaker to end to the conflict in Papua which remains based on unresolved grievances over the way Indonesia took control in the 1960s, and the denial of a legitimate self-determination for West Papuans.
But it is not simply the war between Indonesia’s military and the Liberation Army or OPM fighters that has created ongoing upheavals for Papuans.
This year has seen:
more arbitrary arrests and detention of Papuans for peaceful political expression;
treason charges for the same;
harassment of prominent human rights defenders;
more oil palm, mining and environmental degradation that threatens Papuans’ access to their land and forest;
a move by Indonesian lawmakers to extend an unpopular Special Autonomy Law roundly rejected by Papuans; and
a terror plot by alleged Muslim extremists in Merauke Regency in Papua’s south-east corner.
Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman … the Indonesian president and vice-president have “turned a blind eye and heart to the Papua confict”. Image: RNZ Pacific
Not only the churches, but also Papuan customary representatives, civil society and the pro-independence movement have been calling for international help for many years, particularly for an intermediary to facilitate dialogue with Indonesia towards some sort of peaceful settlement.
Groups frustrated with Jakarta The groups have expressed frustration about the way that Jakarta’s defensiveness over West Papua’s sovereignty leaves little room for solutions to end conflict in the New Guinea territory.
On the other hand, Indonesian government officials point towards various major infrastructure projects in Papua as a sign that President Joko Widodo’s economic development campaign is creating improvements for local communities.
Despite the risks of exacerbating the spread of covid-19 in Papua, Indonesia recently held the National Games in Jayapura, with President Widodo presiding over the opening and closing of the event, presenting it as a showcase of unity and development in the eastern region.
“The president and vice-president of Indonesia while in Papua did not discuss the resolution of the protracted Papua conflict. They turned a blind eye and heart to the Papua confict,” says Reverend Yoman.
Beyond the gloss of the Games, Papuans were still being taken in by authorities as treason suspects if they bore the colours of the banned Papuan Morning Star flag.
Regional response At their last in-person summit before the pandemic, in 2019, Pacific Islands Forum leaders agreed to press Indonesia to allow the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into Papua region in order for it to present them with an independent assessment of the rights situation in West Papua.
Advocating for the UN visit, as a group in the Forum, appears to be as far out on a limb that regional countries — including Australia and New Zealand — are prepared to go on West Papua.
However even before 2019, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights office had already been trying for years to send a team to Papua, and found it difficult securing Indonesia’s approval.
That the visit has still not happened since the Forum push indicates that West Papua remains off limits to the international community as far as Jakarta is concerned, no matter how much it points to the pandemic as being an obstacle.
Indonesian military forces conduct operations in Intan Jaya, Papua province. Image: RNZ Pacific
The question of how the Pacific can address the problem of West Papua is also re-emerging at the sub-regional level within the Melanesian Spearhead Group whose full members are PNG, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia’s Kanaks.
The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) is looking to unlock the voice of its people at the regional level by applying again for full membership in the MSG, after its previous application had “disappeared”.
The ULMWP’s representative in Vanuatu, Freddy Waromi, this month submitted the application at the MSG headquarters in Port Vila.
No voice at the table The organisation already has observer status in the MSG, but as Waromi said, as observers they do not have a voice at the table.
“When we are with observer status, we always just observe in the MSG meeting, we cannot voice our voice out.
“But with the hope that we become a full member we can have a voice in MSG and even in Pacific Islands Forum and even other important international organisations.”
ULMWP representative in Vanuatu Freddie Waromi … “with the hope that we become a full member we can have a voice in MSG.” Image: RNZ Pacific
Indonesia, which is an associate member of the MSG, opposes the ULMWP’s claim to represent West Papuans.
“They’re still encouraging them (the MSG) not to accept us,” Waromi said of Jakarta.
He said the conflict had not abated since he fled from his homeland into PNG in 1979, but only worsened.
“Fighting is escalating now in the highlands region of West Papua – in Nduga, in Intan Jaya, in Wamena, in Paniai – all those places, fighting between Indonesian military and the National Liberation Army of West Papua has been escalating, it’s very bad now.”
Vanuatu consistently strong Vanuatu is the only country in the Pacific Islands region whose government has consistently voiced strong support for the basic rights of West Papuans over the years. Other Melanesian countries have at times raised their voice, but the key neighbouring country of PNG has been largely silent.
The governor of PNG’s National Capital District, Powes Parkop, this month in Parliament lambasted successive PNG governments for failing to develop a strong policy on West Papua.
Governor Powes Parkop of Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District … “We have adopted a policy that is shameful and unethical.” Image: Johnny Blades/RNZ Pacific
He claimed that PNG’s long silence on the conflict had been based on fear, and a “total capitulation to Indonesian aggression and illegal occupation”.
“We have adopted a policy that is shameful and unethical,” he said of PNG’s “friends to all, enemies to none” stance.
“How do we sleep at night when the people on the other side are subject to so much violence, racism, deaths and destruction?
“When are we going to summon the courage to talk and speak? Why are we afraid of Indonesia?”
Parkop’s questions also apply to the Pacific region, where Indonesia’s diplomatic influence has grown in recent years, effectively quelling some of the support that the West Papua independence movement had enjoyed.
Time is running out for West Papuans who may soon be a minority in their own land if Indonesian transmigration is left unchecked.
Yet that doesn’t mean the conflict will fade. Until core grievances are adequately addressed, conflict can be expected to deepen in West Papua.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The Papuan people have rejected the investigation team formed by the Indonesian state through the Attorney-General’s Office (AGO) to investigate alleged gross human rights violations in Paniai on 8 December 2014.
“To this day Indonesia has never solved any cases of gross human rights violations in the land of Papua, especially not the bloody Paniai case,” said Papuan activist Andi Yeimo about the massacre when Indonesian troops killed five teenagers and wounded 17.
“So, we the people of Paniai and the families of the victims are [instead] hoping for a visit by the United Nations High Commissioner [on Human Rights] to see for themselves the evidence and facts on the ground in Karel Gobai, the location of the shootings.”
Yeimo believes that the Indonesian government is incapable of resolving cases of gross human rights violations and the Papuan people are asking for the United Nations to visit Papua.
“We already know that the government talks nonsense. Indonesia once offered four billion [rupiah] (NZ$419,000) in money as compensation. But we, the families of the victims, rejected this evil attempt outright,” he said.
In relation to a UN visit to Papua, Yeimo said that 85 countries had already urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Papua.
But Indonesia had used the covid-19 pandemic situation as grounds to prevent the visit.
Indonesian ‘distractions’ “Domestically, Indonesia [tries] to distract the Papuan people’s focus with the agenda of Otsus (the extension of special autonomy), the creation of new autonomous regions, the National Sports Week and military operations in West Papua,” said Yeimo.
“All students, youth, religious figures, state civil servants and all OAP (indigenous Papuans) unite now, take part in rejecting the [investigation] team formed by the state. We Papuans all know that Indonesia has never taken responsibility for its actions.”
Earlier, Amiruddin, the head of the investigation team into gross human rights violations, said he hoped that the newly formed team of investigators would be able to work transparently.
“The Attorney-General’s move to form the Paniai incident investigation team is a good move”, said Amiruddin in a press release.
Notes from Indo Left News: On 8 December 2014, barely two months after President Joko Widodo was sworn in as president, five high-school students were killed and 17 others seriously wounded when police and military opened fire on a group of protesters and local residents in the town of Enarotali, Paniai regency. Shortly after the incident, while attending Christmas celebrations in Jayapura on December 28, Widodo personally pledged to resolve the case but seven years into his presidency no one has been held accountable for the shootings.
New Zealand’s longest covid-19 hospitalisation in Auckland and Northland during the first three months of the current outbreak was 61 days, and an overwhelming majority of patients were Māori or Pacific.
Figures from the Northern Region Health Coordination Centre (NRHCC) released to RNZ News under the Official Information Act (OIA) show 704 people with covid-19 were admitted to hospital between August 17 and November 18, 2021.
“There were 309 Māori patients, 295 Pacific patients, 36 Asian and the rest [64] were of other ethnicities,” Counties Manukau District Health Board chief executive Margie Apa said in the OIA response.
Responding to questions about the response in a statement, a Ministry of Health spokesperson said “protecting Māori and Pacific wellbeing has been an integral part of the ongoing covid-19 response”.
They said the ministry recognised the vulnerability of these communities, “especially given larger family sizes and complex health needs”.
They highlighted how the ministry had redirected $36 million to each of the Māori and Pacific health responses in this current outbreak.
“In addition to providing funding, we remain committed to working with a range of experts, providers, and partners to ensure our response continues to protect Māori and Pacific communities and keeps them safe from covid-19,” the spokesperson said.
‘Unfortunate but predictable’ National Māori Pandemic Group co-leader Dr Sue Crengle said the proportion of Māori and Pacific in the figures was unfortunate but “predictable, given what we know … about how Māori and Pacific communities and whānau are likely to be more vulnerable to transmission of the virus, and also more vulnerable to more severe outcomes”.
National Māori Pandemic Group co-leader Dr Sue Crengle … “we haven’t had a pandemic on this scale since 1918.” Image: RNZ
She said officials could have learnt and acted faster given the pandemic had been going for more than a year when this outbreak started. But she did note: “we haven’t had a pandemic on this scale since 1918”.
Crengle said there should have been “forward thinking” earlier on.
Apa said there were a total of 870 “patient events” – the difference between this number and the total patient count was because of things like patient transfers between hospitals.
The vast majority — 513 — were unvaccinated, with 124 people having had one jab, and 67 were fully vaccinated.
More than half of admissions (479) were for up to two days, compared with only 73 hospitalisations of 10 days or more.
However, 50 patients ended up in intensive care, seven of them being placed on a ventilator, and on 16 occasions people spent 10 days or more there – including two people who spent 950 hours there, which equated to almost 40 days.
Church deacon One of those two patients would have been a 50-year-old man, who was a deacon at the Assemblies of God Church of Sāmoa and died in Middlemore Hospital in October.
A caveat of the data in this story was that some people had not been discharged by November 18 – the limit of the OIA request scope.
NHRCC forecasting of “specific hospitalisation predictions” only happened first on October 8, 2021 — more than two-and-a-half months into the outbreak — with the earliest predictions beginning November 9, 2021.
In a graph provided separately by the NHRCC communications team, there were at least three days where intensive care admissions met or were higher-than predicted between November 9 and December 10.
Overall hospitalisations in the same period were always below what NHRCC predicted. NHRCC predicted there would be just under 40 people in hospital in its catchment by 28 December.
Its “specific hospitalisation predictions” did not include modelling on the use of ventilators.
“The use of ventilators is a clinical decision made in response to a patient’s condition and while there are thresholds for use and pathways of care we have not modelled the expected use,” NHRCC said.
More hospitalisations In contrast to NHRCC, Te Pūnaha Matatini researcher and covid-19 modeller Professor Michael Plank said there had been more hospitalisations than originally expected.
He thought that was likely down to the fact people were being hospitalised “for a shorter stay” so “they have a relatively small impact on the number of beds”.
Dr Plank said intensive care admissions were hard to predict and “to be honest, we haven’t spent a lot of time trying to model that”.
RNZ is awaiting national figures which have been requested from Ministry of Health.
An OIA request to the ministry for national figures was transferred to the NRHCC, a collective of the Northland and Auckland District Health Boards working together on the covid-19 response. National figures have been asked for again.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The United Nations says Indonesia must immediately drop charges and look into threats, intimidation and reprisals against human rights defender Veronica Koman and her family.
Veronica Koman, a human and minority rights lawyer, is in self-imposed exile in Australia.
However, she still faces several charges in Indonesia for alleged incitement, spreading fake news, displaying race-based hatred and disseminating information aimed at inflicting ethnic hatred.
The charges were believed to have been brought against her in retaliation to her work advocating for human rights in West Papua.
Veronica Koman was among five other human rights defenders mentioned in the UN Secretary-General’s 2021 annual report on cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, said.
She has faced threats, harassment and intimidation for her reporting on West Papua and Papua provinces, for providing reports to UN human rights mechanisms, and for attending UN meetings, for which she was questioned by security forces.
“This case highlights how human rights defenders are often targeted for their cooperation with the United Nations, which is fundamental to their peaceful and legitimate work in the protection and promotion of human rights,” Lawlor said.
Explosive boxes thrown Acts of intimidation and threats against Koman’s family have also been reported this year, most recently on November 7, when unidentified individuals threw two small explosive boxes inside the garage of her parents’ home in West Jakarta.
The boxes reportedly contained threatening messages, including one stating “we will scorch the earth of wherever you hide and of your protectors.”
Another box addressed to Koman, delivered to the home of a family member, contained a dead chicken and a message saying that anyone hiding her “will end up like this”.
“I am extremely concerned at the use of threats, intimidation and acts of reprisal against Veronica Koman and her family, which seek to undermine the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the legitimate work of human rights lawyers,” Lawlor said.
“I urge the Indonesian government to drop the charges against her and investigate the threats and acts of intimidation in a prompt an impartial manner and bring the perpetrators to justice,” Lawlor said.
“Impunity for violations against human rights defenders has a chilling effect on civil society as a whole.”
The Special Rapporteur will continue to monitor the case and is in contact with the Indonesian authorities on the matter.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
