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LATAM flight 800 ‘just dropped’ in mid-flight, injuring dozens. An expert explores what happened, and how to keep yourself safe

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Doug Drury, Professor/Head of Aviation, CQUniversity Australia

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On Monday, LATAM Airlines flight 800 from Sydney to Auckland experienced what officials are describing as a “technical fault” that meant the Boeing 787-9 Dreamlinerjust dropped” without any warning.

The aircraft pitched downward very quickly, causing some passengers and crew members who were not wearing seatbelts to hit the ceiling, and leaving at least 50 people injured. The flight landed without further incident and the injured passengers and crew were transferred to local hospitals.

So what happened? And should air passengers be concerned?

The short answer is there’s no need to worry – if anything, it seems the plane’s safety systems worked as intended. The real takeaway from the story is you should always wear your seatbelt while seated, just like the cabin crew have been telling you.

Keep perspective

When we plan a trip, we usually have adventure or work on our minds as we wing our way to our destination. We think about what types of activities we’ll do, like hiking or water sports, and where we can find great meals.

Most of us never think about what is happening up front in the cockpit as we watch a movie or enjoy the in-flight meal. We generally don’t feel the need to worry about the flights as we feel confident we’ll get to our destination without a problem. Airline incidents are rare when you consider how much travelling is taking place around the globe.




Read more:
Could climate change have played a role in the AirAsia crash?


On peak travel days, there can be more than 16,000 planes in the air at any time. There are around 4 billion air travel passengers each year, and the number is expected to double by 2035 by some estimates.

The vast majority of these flights pass without incident. However, when an emergency does occur it receives a lot of attention – a lot more attention than the far more frequent crashes or other accidents that happen on our roads, for example.

So when you do hear about an incident on a plane, the first thing to do is keep it in perspective.

What happened on LATAM 800?

Authorities have not released a lot of detail on the cause of the incident, beyond saying it was a “technical fault”. As LATAM Flight 800 originated in Australia, the transportation investigation teams from Australia, New Zealand, Boeing and LATAM will scrutinise the incident to better understand what happened.

Modern airliners have redundant systems for flight-critical controls. If one fails, it can be transferred to the backup automatically or manually by the flight crew.

One passenger stated that one of the pilots said his instruments went blank, he lost control briefly, and the backup system returned the aircraft back to normal operations.

If the aircraft experienced a sudden loss of electrical power – from a generator failure, for example – it would cause the autopilot to fail as well. This could have caused the aircraft to abruptly change its flight configuration and descend rapidly.

Whatever happened in this case, it seems the redundant systems on the 787, which includes six backup generators, were able to rapidly return all systems to normal.

Wear your seatbelt

LATAM 800 is an example of why we should always wear seatbelts when we are seated on an airplane. While technical faults of this kind are rare, turbulence is a much more common occurrence that can lead to injuries for unsecured passengers.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has reported that, in the United States, 30 passengers and 116 crew members were hospitalised due to in-flight injuries caused by turbulence between 2009 and 2021.

Crew members are most susceptible due to the nature of their job. The Federal Aviation Administration states the annual cost to the global aviation industry due to turbulence injuries is US$100 million.

Climate change and turbulence

With climate change heating up our atmosphere every year, we can expect more turbulence. Wind speeds at the altitudes where most aircraft fly are increasing, causing more turbulence.




Read more:
What is air turbulence?


This type of turbulence is known as “clear air turbulence” and is difficult to predict or see with current aircraft technologies. Researchers have found that severe clear air turbulence over the North Atlantic increased by 55% from 1979 to 2020.

For airlines, more turbulence will mean more wear and tear on aircraft. But for travellers, the bottom line is clear: always follow the safety instructions from the cabin crew, and keep your seatbelt fastened at all times when seated.

The Conversation

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

ref. LATAM flight 800 ‘just dropped’ in mid-flight, injuring dozens. An expert explores what happened, and how to keep yourself safe – https://theconversation.com/latam-flight-800-just-dropped-in-mid-flight-injuring-dozens-an-expert-explores-what-happened-and-how-to-keep-yourself-safe-225554

PNG police investigate bomb threat at Goroka courthouse in Highlands

By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby

Papua New Guinea police in Eastern Highlands are investigating a bomb threat that was sent via an email to the Goroka courthouse yesterday morning.

Goroka police station commander Chief Inspector Timothy Pomoso confirmed the incident and threat.

According to information received by the PNG Post-Courier, the email from someone by the name of “Adams Jailer” stated in the email that a “bomb will detonate at Goroka Court house today”.

The email also said: “I am innocent, justice not served.”

The threat added: “You don’t believe me, try mock me and see”.

The email was signed off as “Kumul” — a bird of paradise in Tok Pisin.

Chief Inspector Pomoso said: “Someone sent a threatening email that there’s a bomb planted at the Goroka courthouse.”

“Police were deployed including our local task force and criminal investigation division units to clear the courthouse area by first removing everyone out.

“We are investigating,” he added.

More than a month ago, a bomb threat was also sent to another organisation which was attended to by police in Port Moresby.

The emailed bomb threat
The emailed bomb threat. Image: PNG Post-Courier

A senior police officer said that a new trend of sending threats electronically was now occurring in Papua New Guinea.

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

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Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

We studied two decades of queer representation on Australian TV, and found some interesting trends

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Damien O’Meara, PhD Candidate, Media and Communications, Swinburne University of Technology

IMDB

Television is experiencing a boom of queer representation, and Australian series are no exception. Our new study reveals how trends in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and nonbinary (gender and sexually diverse) scripted stories have developed onscreen over the 2000s and 2010s.

In the 1970s and ‘80s, Australia was considered relatively radical in its representations of gender and sexually diverse people. We’re credited with the first positive portrayal of a gay man, Don Finlayson (Joe Hasham), in the soap opera Number 96 (1972–77).

We also portrayed the first lesbian kiss, between Vicki Stafford (Judy Nunn) and Felicity Baker (Helen Hemingway) in the pilot episode of The Box (1974–77), two weeks before the UK’s first televised lesbian kiss.

Australian TV drama The Box (1974) became the first in the world to show a lesbian kiss.
Youtube

By the 1990s, queer character appearances shifted to predominantly once-off stories in medical and crime dramas. But things have changed substantially since then.

Gay and bisexual men

Between 2000 and 2019, Australian-scripted television represented gay men more regularly than bisexual men. Specifically, our research found 44 series featuring gay men and only three featuring bisexual men.

Similar to trends in US television throughout the 2000s, many of these examples focused on characters “coming out” as gay – a popular storytelling device.

While bisexual coming-out narratives were rare, one notable exception was the character Sammy Lieberman (Thom Green) in Dance Academy (2010–13), who rejects labels others try to put on him.

Sammy Lieberman in ABC’s Dance Academy came out as bisexual.
IMDB

Although we found a prominence of coming-out narratives, we also saw an increase in already out characters. Previously, gay and bisexual men were commonly written into one-off storylines in which coming out seemed like the only available narrative. Now they’re often shown with complex lives and other sources of drama.

The avoidance of gay intimacy onscreen remains prominent; we noted a tendency to use camera movements and cuts to avoid showing gay sex scenes. But some series are pushing these boundaries. For instance, season three of Please Like Me included a meaningful and critically acclaimed sex scene between Josh (Josh Thomas) and Arnold (Keegan Joyce).




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Lesbian and bisexual women

While there is a significant number of lesbian and bisexual women in Australian scripted television, they appear in fewer series overall compared with gay and bisexual men. Of a total 38 series, we found 32 with lesbians and 15 with bisexual women. Nine of the series included both.

Trends for lesbian and bisexual women often focus on characters who are assured of their sexuality, or who engage in temporary exploration as a “passing phase”. Coming-out narratives are rare for these women.

For example, Charlie Buckton (Esther Anderson) in Home and Away (1988–) temporarily explores attraction to out lesbian Joey Collins (Kate Bell). The relationship isn’t mentioned again after Joey is written out and Charlie returns to dating men.

Alongside this theme of temporary attraction is a troubling trend of unnamed bisexuality, wherein we identified bisexual women, but the bisexuality wasn’t clearly named.

That said, we do note instances where this is due to a resistance to labels. As Bridget (Libby Tanner) tells Bea (Danielle Cormack) in Wentworth (2013–21): “Fuck the labels.”

Prison drama Wentworth had several lesbian and bisexual woman characters.
IMDB

There are also several examples of lesbian and bisexual women raising families. In 2003, a two-part episode of Blue Heelers (1994–2006) focuses on a custody dispute between a lesbian couple and their sperm donor. These stories often incorporate themes of same-sex IVF and adoption, reflecting legal changes in Australia throughout the decades.

However, in All Saints (1998–2009), Charlotte Beaumont (Tammy Macintosh) – who is originally written as a lesbian and later rewritten as bisexual – becomes pregnant after sleeping with a man.

Transgender and non-binary people

Until recently, and with rare exceptions, out gender-diverse characters have been largely invisible in Australian scripted television.

We found eight series with transgender women, three with transgender men, and one with a non-binary person. Within our study, only one of these characters appeared before 2010.

Most transgender storylines included some focus on self-identity, with the character either coming out or asserting their identity with others. Some stories also included romantic attraction, although almost all were in a heterosexual framing. One exception was Chris (Harvey Zielinski) in Starting From… Now (2014–16) – a trans man who is pansexual.

From 2018 onwards, all gender-diverse characters were portrayed by out actors who aligned with their identity. Before this, only Robyn Ross (Carlotta) in Number 96 and Chris in Starting From… Now were played by out transgender actors.

The emergence of queer story worlds

Australian scripted television has moved away from representing solitary gay or lesbian figures, and towards more inclusive representations that portray queer characters belonging to a shared community. We found increasing instances of these characters appearing in regular, recurring and one-off stories in the same series.

We also found an increase in series that are set in queer story worlds. Outland (2012) was the first Australian series to feature an entirely gay and lesbian ensemble of characters.

Similarly, Starting From… Now is a web series that follows a group of lesbian women living in Sydney’s Newtown. The final two seasons were picked up by SBS in 2016 and, along with Wentworth, contribute significantly to the number of lesbian and bisexual women appearing onscreen.

The queer story world has been featuring even more from 2020 onward, in particular through digital-first and pilot initiatives for talent from underrepresented communities. These initiatives are giving more opportunities to queer creatives, resulting in series such as Iggy & Ace 5eva (2021) and All My Friends Are Racist (2021).

The appearances of gender and sexually diverse stories in Australian television continue to change. We hope our research can provide a starting point for further analysis of these decades and those to come.




Read more:
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The Conversation

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

ref. We studied two decades of queer representation on Australian TV, and found some interesting trends – https://theconversation.com/we-studied-two-decades-of-queer-representation-on-australian-tv-and-found-some-interesting-trends-224645

Art of the moment: experiencing Marina Abramović and Laurie Anderson at the Adelaide Festival

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Speck, Emerita Professor, Art History and Curatorship, University of Adelaide

Andrew Beveridge/Adelaide Festival

Ruth Mackenzie is the new artistic director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts, and for her first Adelaide gig she has brought in two heavyweights: performance artist Marina Abramović and avant-garde artist and musician Laurie Anderson. Both were major events, very much of the moment.

The Marina Abramović Institute’s Takeover featured nine performance artists over three days.

To begin at the beginning, audience members are instructed to arrive at 11am each day. We are ushered into a compelling virtual presentation, where Abramović inducts us into being a participative community.

She tells us performance is the most difficult of the art forms, that you need to abandon time and surrender to the moment. Then she runs the audience through a series of Tibetan breathing exercises to make us attuned to reading the mysteries and personal language of performance artists.

Durational performance

Mike Parr’s Portrait of Marina Abramović is the most extreme. A blind painting event, his eyes remain closed for the entire 12 hours. His aim was to paint four black squares, one on each side of a constructed white cube gallery space, in homage to Russian constructivist painter Kazimir Malevich’s 1915 Black Square.

Like Malevich, Parr says his blind painting is the creation of nothingness with a view to a rebirth. But he departs from Malevich: Parr is currently driven by the reality of the shocking events in Gaza, as set out in the painted text which starts on the walls of the show: “free Palestine” and “Gaza is a Warsaw ghetto”.

You can just see the word 'Gaza' from behind red paint.
Mike Parr’s work started with words looking at the war in Gaza.
Andrew Beveridge/Adelaide Festival

These sentiments are amplified in his “vision” statement distributed at the performance. His impassioned text says:

the Jewish diaspora rise up to join hands, to relinquish the obscene policies of its political leadership […] to demand justice, freedom, prosperity for the Palestinian people and an end to the oppression and antisemitism of the apartheid.

Over the next 12 hours, Parr paints four black squares – at times from perilously high up on a ladder – to be covered with red paint in homage to Abramović’s former Yugoslavian communist background, then covered again with black. The painted squares, complete with drips of red paint running down to the floor, remained after the performance for viewers to ponder their meaning, along with a video of the entire event.

Place and Country

Less sensational but equally demanding was the durational performance by Collective Absentia, a Bangkok-based group in a work entitled Our Glorious Past, Our Glorious Present, Our Glorious Future: Our Glorious Spring.

A man sits with a covered head.
One performer meditated on non-violent forms of resistance to ongoing political events in Myanmar.
Andrew Beveridge/Adelaide Festival

A member of their collective sat with his head covered and immobile in the middle of a passage-way, meditating on non-violent forms of resistance to ongoing political events in Myanmar.

All attendees at the event had to walk past and around this performance. Most stopped and connected with the sentiment of non-violent forms of resistance. One person even sat directly opposite the performer and meditated.

Christian Thomson’s postcolonial performance, Wait in Gold, involved him slowly and methodically pinning gold painted native daisies to every item of his exterior clothing so that he transforms from human into a larger flower form connected to Country. In this moving performance, he is responding to the denial of a voice as a result of the 2023 referendum outcome, and seeking refuge in the safety of Country.

A man covered in gold flowers.
Christian Thomson seeks refuge in the safety of Country.
Andrew Beveridge/Adelaide Festival

In Indonesian performance artist Melati Suryodarmo’s absorbing durational work, Amnesia, she slowly covers a large black board with a set of chalk markings. At each mark made, she utters “I’m sorry”.

The mark making is interspersed with her taking off her black shirt, placing it with other discarded shirts, and sewing a new one to put on. At other times she abandons mark making and moves across the floor, writhing as if in deep remorse, again uttering “I’m sorry”.

A woman draws counting marks on a wall.
Indonesian performance artist Melati Suryodarmo’s absorbing durational work, Amnesia.
Andrew Beveridge/Adelaide Festival

The promotional material accompanying her performance points to the work as an inner exploration of “untold narratives and forgotten realities of the past”. Her felt emotion in the performance is deeply persuasive, but I kept wondering about the amnesia from which Suryodarmo is recoiling: is it a deeply personal journey, or more?




Read more:
Marina Abramović retrospective celebrates the grand dame of performance art – but questions the genre’s future


Encounters with AI

In a different vein, Laurie Anderson’s exhibition I’ll be your mirror is an encounter with AI. Taking phrases from her song O Superman and her late husband Lou Reed’s song I’ll be your mirror, Anderson has generated intriguing text which hangs in five panels in the Adelaide Circulating Library, the city’s original lending library.

A large text and two portrait photographs inside a library.
I’ll be your mirror uses AI building off songs from Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed.
Roy VanDerVegt/Adelaide Festival

The AI generated conversations between Anderson and Reed, who passed away in 2013, oscillate between the surreal and the eerie with phrases such as

There’s a mirror in the room
And when I look at night
It reflects nothing back to me.

The Bible is on display and open at Psalms 84-88, but hanging above the Bible is AI generated text based on biblical phrases, displayed as Genesis 1: 26-31.

A section from that text reads:

Some nights now Noah dreams he sees his boat leave the dock
It’s just another day on planet Earth
Only this time it’s with an animal friend.

As an adjunct to the exhibition of 21st century textual artefacts set amid 19th texts, Anderson held a virtual public conversation with the machine generating gurus she worked in Adelaide – the takeaway message being what machines generate depends on the input.

The exhibition is utterly intriguing, but novice viewers need an introduction to what they are about to encounter.




Read more:
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The Conversation

Catherine Speck, with Joanna Mendelssohn, Catherine De Lorenzo and Alison Inglis, has received funding from the ARC to investigate Australian art exhibitions.

ref. Art of the moment: experiencing Marina Abramović and Laurie Anderson at the Adelaide Festival – https://theconversation.com/art-of-the-moment-experiencing-marina-abramovic-and-laurie-anderson-at-the-adelaide-festival-223455

Australia’s restrictive vaping and tobacco policies are fuelling a lucrative and dangerous black market

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Martin, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Deakin University

Australia currently has the most restrictive tobacco and vaping policies in the developed world. Australian smokers are taxed at one of the highest rates among comparable nations, with taxes set to further increase at rate of 5% per year. Meanwhile, Australia is the only country to have a prescription model for accessing vaping products.

These policies have begun to attract international attention. The UK government, for example, recently announced increased taxes on tobacco and vaping products, while the Labour opposition has vowed to emulate Australia’s prescription model if it wins this year’s election.

Australia’s policies have been backed by some medical experts as a means to drive down and eventually eliminate smoking and vaping. There has been much alarm around youth vaping, in particular.

While arguably well-intentioned, the increasing taxes and restrictions on cigarettes and vaping products have resulted in an unintended and dangerous outcome – the rise of a lucrative and expanding black market for these products.




Read more:
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Tobacco ‘war’ unfolding in Victoria

Emerging black markets tend to attract established organised crime groups, which have the capacity to use violence to enforce contracts, collect debts and threaten competitors.

Over the past six months, for instance, there have been more than 40 firebombings of stores selling illicit tobacco and vapes across Victoria. In October, police said the killing of Melbourne man in a drive-by shooting was also linked to the underworld war over illegal tobacco products. Reports of standover tactics and extortion targeting tobacco shop owners are also on the rise.

According to police, this serious criminal activity is being committed at the behest of rival criminal networks who are engaged in a “turf war” for control of the lucrative trade.

Since October, police have searched almost 70 stores believed to be involved in the illegal tobacco trade, seizing more than 100,000 vapes with an estimated street value of A$3.2 million, along with 3.2 million cigarettes.

While most of the violence associated with the black market appears to be taking place in Victoria, this is a national problem. Last month in Sydney, health authorities seized over 30,000 vapes and 118,000 cigarettes with a estimated street value of $1.1 million.

These numbers may sound impressive, but they represent a drop in the ocean of the total black market. Authorities estimate the size of the illicit vape market could be worth up to $500 million in Victoria alone.

The economics of the black market

The black market for illicit tobacco and vaping products has been driven by economic forces on both the supply and demand side.

On the demand side, smokers are disproportionately concentrated among lower socio-economic groups. Many are unable or unwilling to pay the ever-increasing prices for cigarettes.

People who vape are also largely rejecting the government’s prescription model, with 87% reporting they source their vapes illegally.

Vaping rates are on the increase, particularly among younger adults.
Shutterstock

This demand is only likely to increase as cigarette prices increase further and prescription vapes become even less appealing with the introduction of new flavour restrictions.

On the supply side, economic models suggest traffickers of illicit products are attracted to opportunities that present the lowest risks and highest rewards.

Similar to drugs like cocaine, the importation of illicit tobacco offers attractive profits. The difference is that while importing large quantities of cocaine can lead to substantial prison sentences, the penalties for the importation of illicit tobacco are not as severe.

Vapes are similarly low risk and highly profitable. They can be purchased wholesale from China for as little as $2.50 and sold “on the street” in Australia for more than ten times that amount.

The limits and dangers of prohibition

These economic realities suggest it is unlikely law enforcement agencies will be able to effectively tackle the black market under current government settings.

The Australian Border Force is already stretched beyond capacity tackling the booming illicit drug market. So, even if eight out of ten consignments of illicit vapes are intercepted at the border (an unrealistically high proportion on the best of days), the two that make it through are sufficient for traffickers to make a profit.

And while law enforcement agencies have made inroads with arrests of black marketeers and seizures of their products, these are often quickly replaced so trafficking operations can continue unabated.




Read more:
How bad is vaping and should it be banned?


As previous examples of prohibition on alcohol and other drugs have demonstrated, the dangers of black markets extend beyond systemic violence. Other harms include the influx of inferior and adulterated products, which can pose even more health risks than legal tobacco products. Young people also have greater access to vapes as black market retailers ignore restrictions on sales to minors. (It should be noted, though, that many retailers may be doing so under duress.)

Added to this is the risk of criminalisation of consumers. A teenager in NSW was recently arrested, for example, following an altercation with police over his possession of a vape.

Then there is the lost tax revenue from tobacco goods sold under the counter, which the Taxation Office estimated at $2.3 billion in 2021-22.

The Australian public and policymakers, as well as other countries considering emulating our policies, need to be mindful of these risks and the implacable economic forces that are driving the black market.

Australia’s tobacco and vaping policies have transformed two largely legal and peaceful markets into increasingly dangerous and uncontrolled ones. The situation could even get worse in the absence of meaningful legislative reform, enhanced multi-agency cooperation, nationally consistent policy platforms and the winding back of some restrictions.

As the history of prohibition has taught us time and again, there is a “sweet spot” in restricting the sale of harmful products – one that limits access and reduces harm, but is not so onerous as to create a large black market. The violence unfolding on our streets suggests our current tobacco and vaping polices are failing to strike this balance.

The Conversation

Dr Martin has received funding from the Australian Institute of Criminology and the National Health and Medical Research Centre for research into illicit markets.

David Bright receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Institute of Criminology.

ref. Australia’s restrictive vaping and tobacco policies are fuelling a lucrative and dangerous black market – https://theconversation.com/australias-restrictive-vaping-and-tobacco-policies-are-fuelling-a-lucrative-and-dangerous-black-market-225279

Pacific journalist Barbara Dreaver challenges TVNZ chief over job cuts

Pacific Media Watch

Television New Zealand’s chief executive has been challenged by the public broadcaster’s Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver at a fiery staff meeting over job cuts and axing of high profile programmes, reports The New Zealand Herald.

Writing in his Media Insider column today, editor-at-large Shayne Currie reported that Dreaver, one of TVNZ’s most respected and senior journalists, had made the challenge over the planned layoffs and axing of shows such as the current affairs Sunday and consumer affairs Fair Go.

Dreaver reportedly asked chief executive Jodi O’Donnell if she would apologise to staff — “apparently for referring to her watch during an earlier staff meeting on Friday”.

“TVNZ would not confirm specific details last night, but it is understood O’Donnell pushed back during yesterday’s meeting, along the lines that perhaps she might also be owed an apology,” wrote Currie, a former Herald managing editor.

“One source said she talked at one stage about the response she had been receiving.”

Media Insider quoted a TVNZ spokeswoman as saying: “We expect sessions like this to be robust, but to give all TVNZers the opportunity to be free and frank in their participation, we don’t comment on the details of these internal meetings to the media.”

Dreaver told 1News last night: “We need really strong leadership and we expect to get it. And I’m quite happy to call out and challenge it [and] my own bosses when we don’t get that, just as I would a politician or any other person who deserves it.”

A ‘legend, icon, queen’
Media Insider
reported that in a social media post today, Sunday journalist Kristin Hall had described Kiribati-born Dreaver as a “legend, icon, queen” for her Pacific reporting.

In November 2022, Dreaver was named Reporter of the Year at the New Zealand Television Awards and in 2019 she won two awards at the Voyager Media Awards for her coverage of the Samoa measles outbreak.

In this year’s New Year Honours, Dreaver was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to investigative journalism and Pacific communities.

Yesterday’s TVNZ meeting came amid a strained relationship between the TVNZ newsroom and management over the way the company has handled the announcement of up to 68 job cuts, as least two-thirds of them journalists.

The shock news followed a week after the US-based Warner Bros Discovery announced that it would be closing its entire Newshub newsroom at the end of June.

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Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

PNG MP Allan Bird on death threats: ‘Picking on me isn’t a smart thing to do’

By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist

Papua New Guinea’s rising voice as opposition candidate for prime minister, East Sepik Governor Allan Bird, has pushed back after addressing recent death threats.

Bird told RNZ Pacific he has declined police protection and is opting to use his own security after his nomination as opposition candidate for prime minister resulted in alleged threats to his personal safety.

“I was informed about 10 days ago of the threats against my life. I’ve heard a few more threats are in fact active,” he said.

“So I thought, probably the best way to declare it would be to put it out in the public domain.”

He said three senior government ministers informed him about the death threats and were no longer contacting him, due to concerns his phone was “being monitored”.

Bird was confident in his security to keep him safe and said whoever was behind the threats had picked on the wrong person.

“My people served with the allied forces in the Second World War. So my grandfather did that. He was uneducated. So picking on me is not a smart thing to do.”

RNZ Pacific has contacted the PNG police for comment after Bird accused authorities of illegally monitoring his phone and looking for dirt to charge and arrest him.

“I have nothing to hide. So, apparently, they haven’t found any dirt.”

PNG riots aftermath
“I do understand that they’re trying to connect me as one of the masterminds behind the Black Wednesday day events in Port Moresby.”

He said it would be “almost impossible because I was out of the country prior to that happening. And then I understand they’re looking now at all my travel allowances, so they’re looking at that to see what they can find.”

Regarding the threats, he said: “I’m not too stressed. These are some of the things you expect in PNG, otherwise you wouldn’t be in PNG.”

Bird said he did not trust the country’s police and declined their offer for protection, opting to use his own personal security instead.

“If things get pretty bad in the capital, I will just go back home. But for now, I’m just keeping a low profile, not really moving around, just restricting movements.”

He addressed sceptics who criticised him for attempting to boost his profile to become PNG’s next prime minister.

Bird said he had accepted the nomination as candidate out of “respect to his colleagues.”

‘Asked by my caucus’
“I didn’t put my hand up. I was asked by my caucus.”

He said, the country needed change, even if it was at the expense of his safety.

“Who wants to run around with security guards all the time?

“Whoever gets into the hot seat, whether it’s me or someone else, in all seriousness and honesty will soon to have to deal with these problems, the problems that are begging for solutions, and these are personal criticisms of Prime Minister Marape.”

He said supporters of the nation’s current leader James Marape lacked proper education and said it was “like a cult following”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

As the air-raid sirens sound, I am studying Ukrainian culture with new fervour. I’m far from alone

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasiya Byesyedina, PhD Candidate, Department of Government and International Relations, Sessional Teacher and Student Writing Fellow, University of Sydney

I’m an Australian-Ukrainian researcher and I moved back to Kyiv from Sydney in 2022 after the full-scale Russian invasion. My life in a war zone has given me the chance to witness firsthand Russia’s brutality and Ukraine’s limitless bravery.

In late 2022, Russians began targeting critical infrastructure in major cities. Many residents were left without access to electricity, heat and water. My cousins spent most of their school days in shelters.

I spent many winter nights writing my dissertation by candlelight, while searching for Wi-Fi and mobile hotspots and hot meals for my grandma and mother. The sounds of air-raid sirens and missile explosions were as ubiquitous as the sounds of birds chirping in Australia.

In the past year, Russian attacks on large cities have intensified in frequency and volume. Last month, for example, my family woke to a massive explosion. The impact of the missile was so close that my bedroom walls were shaking.

I ran outside to witness the horrendous scene. An apartment building just next to ours was engulfed by flames. Shocked residents were covered in soot, clenching their cats and dogs while watching their homes burn.

Four people died in the strike. A few days later, Anastasiya Nosova, the godmother of a friend who lived in the building, died in intensive care. On March 6, Anastasiya’s father Yurii also died, becoming the sixth victim of the attack.




Read more:
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Challenging Putin’s notions of Ukrainian identity

Ukrainians are understandably fatigued by Russia’s war. According to a poll in September 2023, just 60% of respondents believed the country should continue fighting until it won – a 10% decrease from a year earlier – while 30% favoured negotiations with Russia.

Despite this exhaustion, Ukrainians remain deeply committed to safeguarding and fortifying their national identity in the face of Russian attempts to erase it.

I research the ways in which Ukraine’s various forms of identity, such as religion, collective memory, language and education, have changed during times of unrest. The study and conservation of Ukrainian identity matters now more than ever because it directly challenges Russian President Vladimir Putin’s chauvinistic and derogatory ideology of Russkiy mir (“Russian world”), which has fuelled his justification for the invasion.

In 2021, Putin published an essay on the “historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians”, foreshadowing his imperial ambitions for Ukraine. For example, he conveniently distorts language to challenge Ukrainian sovereignty by referring to it as a “periphery” state, from the Old Russian word okraina.

In reality, the name “Ukraine” means “country” or “piece of land” in Ukrainian, which clearly connotes sovereignty.

Guardians of Ukrainian language

In its attempts to erase Ukrainian identity, Russia is specifically targeting the use of the Ukrainian language in the regions it now illegally occupies.

Following the invasion, Russia’s Ministry of Enlightenment began developing and introducing “classic Ukrainian” textbooks in these regions. However, Russia has fabricated a language that is not Ukrainian in any shape or form. It is presented and taught as a Ukrainian dialect of the Russian language.

What this means is that Russia has actively rewritten the Ukrainian language in a way that mimics the Russian language, erasing the understanding of Ukrainian as a language of its own. As such, Russia is blatantly detaching Ukrainian children from their roots.




Read more:
In Russia’s war against Ukraine, one of the battlegrounds is language itself


This is not a new effort. There is a long history of oppressive Russification policies, dating back to the Russian empire (1793-1917), that aimed to destroy Ukrainian nationalism. In 1876, for example, Tsar Alexander II banned book publications in the Ukrainian language.

When Ukraine became a part of the Soviet Union in 1922, the new government mandated the Russian language be used in administrative, educational and social spaces. While Ukrainian language was still taught in schools, Russian was the dominant language of instruction.

Since the invasion in 2022, I have observed everyday Ukrainians becoming new custodians of the Ukrainian language. My neighbours, friends and family who have spoken Russian their whole lives have made efforts to practise and relearn Ukrainian with great vigour.

Across the unoccupied regions of the country, around 71% of Ukrainians now report using Ukrainian in their daily lives, up from 64% in 2021.

Furthermore, Ukrainians have changed the way they value the Ukrainian language. Those who considered Ukrainian as their native language grew from 57% in 2012 to 76% in 2022. And 83% believe Ukrainian should be the only official language.

These efforts to speak the language in social and private spaces should not be overlooked because this is a conscious practice of reasserting Ukrainian identity to actively reverse some effects of Russian colonialism.

A cultural rebirth

Ukrainian perceptions of cultural self-worth have also changed, signalling a departure from a culture once dominated by Russian history, philosophy, literature and the arts.

For instance, Ukrainians have made changes in their home libraries. Since 2022, I have witnessed many Kyiv bookstore initiatives for customers to recycle Soviet-era and Russian literature. Last year, I recycled an entire dusty shelf of family-owned, Soviet-era literature that propagated Russian imperial rhetoric and misconceptions of history and Ukraine.

In 2023, two-thirds of Ukrainians reported being more interested in Ukrainian history than before the war, opting for books in Ukrainian instead of Russian.

A revival of Ukrainian culture has also taken place in the arts. For instance, the patriotic 1875 song Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow has made a viral comeback thanks to a new variation by Ukrainian musician Andriy Khlyvnyuk. It has inspired Ukrainians to sing a song that was once banned under Soviet rule.

A Latvian film of people around the world singing Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow.

And last year, a children’s animated film, Mavka: The Forest Song, was released. It tells the story of Ukrainian forest mythology based on a 1918 play written by the poet Lesya Ukrainka.

The official trailer for Mavka: The Forest Song.

Memorialising Ukrainian heroism

Every morning at 9am sharp, I hear the Ukrainian national anthem echo through my neighbourhood. All Ukrainians share a minute of silence to remember and reflect on the loss of Ukrainian life in the war.

Military farewell and burial ceremonies also take place every single day in cities across Ukraine. Last month, my neighbours gathered to farewell Oleksiy Zahrebel’nyy, a Ukrainian soldier who died in battle.

There are many other ways in which the war and acts of bravery are being memorialised to reaffirm Ukrainian historical narratives and identity. For instance, Ukrainians have appealed to their local authorities to change the names of streets to commemorate fallen soldiers. Last year, my neighbourhood changed a street from “Marshal Yakubovsky” (marshal of the Soviet Union) to “Heroes of Mariupol”, commemorating the soldiers who died in one of the bloodiest battles in the war.

Similarly, the artist Volodymyr Manzhos (Waone Interesni Kazki) has painted murals across Ukraine and Europe depicting acts of Ukrainian bravery and Russian aggression. Ukrainians have also become enthusiastic collectors of postage stamps illustrating Ukrainian heroism and events from the war.

Such examples demonstrate how Ukrainians are creating new national narratives that challenge the Soviet history that has long dominated society. This, in turn, is writing a new history for the country for future generations.

The Conversation

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

ref. As the air-raid sirens sound, I am studying Ukrainian culture with new fervour. I’m far from alone – https://theconversation.com/as-the-air-raid-sirens-sound-i-am-studying-ukrainian-culture-with-new-fervour-im-far-from-alone-224508

Can earth-covered houses protect us from bushfires? Even if they’re a solution, it’s not risk-free

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan March, Professor of Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne

Helitak430/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

As extreme fire weather becomes more common across ever larger areas of Australia, we need new options for living with the risk of bushfire. Underground or earth-sheltered housing is one possibility. While still unusual, these homes are being built in bushfire-prone areas.

But before we embrace this form of housing as a widespread solution to increasing bushfire risks, we need to consider its complexities. Things to weigh up include the challenges of designing and building these homes, their costs and occupants’ behaviour. We also have limited real-world evidence of how such homes perform in bushfires.

A broader question is whether we should allow more people to live in bushfire-prone areas. If we let that happen it will lead to more deaths and injuries.




Read more:
Australian building codes don’t expect houses to be fire-proof – and that’s by design


What does building such homes involve?

Earth-sheltered houses are often built into slopes, but can be built on flat ground, either by excavating or by mounding earth over the building. In Australia, concrete is generally used for the building structure to provide enough strength to allow soil to cover the roof and walls. The earth-covered areas can be vegetated.

Because of the amount of earth in contact with the exterior, care is needed to ensure the building is watertight and structurally sound.

The house usually has one main wall of windows facing away from the earth-covered side to provide natural light. To meet building regulations for ventilation, these buildings include rear windows in light wells or vents.

One advantage of earth-sheltered buildings is that their internal temperature remains quite stable. They use much less energy – up to 84% less for cooling and up to 48% less for heating – to maintain comfortable temperatures. (These figures are for all climates, compared to buildings with black roofs.)

These buildings can also offer greater opportunities for improved aesthetics (as the home blends into the landscape), landscaping, productive gardens and recreation. These benefits can offset having limited windows and constraints on building layouts.




Read more:
How ‘Earthships’ could make rebuilding safer in bushfire zones


What about bushfire resistance?

Bushfires present complex risks. Earth-sheltered buildings are likely to be a useful but somewhat expensive and limited niche solution on challenging legacy sites where housing already exists.

Few such buildings have been subjected to fires so we have limited evidence of their efficacy. However, it is clear they can be engineered to resist the main ways bushfires attack buildings: heat, flames and embers.

Since earth largely covers the building, the most vulnerable parts are windows and other openings. These can be designed to resist heat and flame, depending on the modelled levels.

Bushfire-resistant measures are estimated to add costs of between $53,000 and $273,000 (2020 values) compared to a typical home construction, depending on the site. Glass is often a key component. Because they are highly susceptible to heat, the cost of windows that can withstand a worst-case fire is often prohibitive.

An earth-shelter build usually costs much more than standard once one adds up the engineering, excavation, concrete and construction costs.

Most earth-sheltered structures rely on one side of the building having large windows to admit enough natural light inside. This window side is typically oriented downhill towards views, with the rear built into the slope. Bushfires increase speed and intensity when moving uphill, so the window side usually receives the most intense bushfire attack.

On sites with limited space, this challenge is often difficult to resolve. Sometimes the only solution is to remove large amounts of natural vegetation. This is done at the expense of ecological goals. The loss of plants whose roots bind the soil could also increase landslip risks.




Read more:
How our bushfire-proof house design could help people flee rather than risk fighting the flames


Should people even be in high-risk places?

While it is possible to engineer a bushfire-resistant structure with a low risk of destruction, that doesn’t eliminate the risks created by people themselves.

Human factors greatly increase risks, even in well-designed bushfire-resistant structures. Poor maintenance or later modification can put a property at risk. Examples include unsafe storage of gas bottles and fuel, woodpiles, and modification of or failure to secure doors, windows or shutters.

Residents may also modify vegetation around an earth-covered home in ways that increase risks. They might, for example, plant highly flammable species, or allow fuel loads to build up, including mulch they might have laid down.

Despite education campaigns, warnings and alerts, people continue to put themselves in many risky situations before and during bushfires. Reasons include alert fatigue, expenses of evacuation, dangers while driving, being in unfamiliar locations such as holiday houses, retrieving children, protecting livestock and pets, or protecting underinsured or uninsured property. If more people live in bushfire-prone areas, there will be more bushfire-related deaths and injuries among both residents and bushfire responders.

The psychological impacts on people affected by extreme fires are significant. Nearly three-quarters suffered anxiety for two years after Australia’s 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires. Even if a structure survives, the emotional burdens of isolation while under duress, loss of communications and the heat, smoke, darkness and noise of extreme fires are powerful and underestimated.

Yet people’s differing levels of awareness and ability are often ignored as a factor in bushfire risk.




Read more:
Before we rush to rebuild after fires, we need to think about where and how


There’s a wider context to consider

It makes little sense to put more people in bushfire-prone locations that will likely become riskier over time. Solutions such as earth-sheltered buildings may be part of a suite of ways to reduce risks in existing bushfire-prone residential areas.

However, at a wider scale, building low-density housing in bushfire-prone areas is unnecessarily risky. It also conflicts with the compelling need to build at much higher densities in existing areas to house Australia’s growing population. Higher-density housing will allow better and more affordable access (because of economies of scale) to services, infrastructure, jobs and public transport.

The Conversation

Alan March receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

ref. Can earth-covered houses protect us from bushfires? Even if they’re a solution, it’s not risk-free – https://theconversation.com/can-earth-covered-houses-protect-us-from-bushfires-even-if-theyre-a-solution-its-not-risk-free-216449

Indigenous fire management began more than 11,000 years ago: new research

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Rowe, Research Fellow, James Cook University

Wildfire burns between 3.94 million and 5.19 million square kilometres of land every year worldwide. If that area were a single country, it would be the seventh largest in the world.

In Australia, most fire occurs in the vast tropical savannas of the country’s north. In new research published in Nature Geoscience, we show Indigenous management of fire in these regions began at least 11,000 years ago – and possibly as long as 40,000 years ago.

Fire and humans

In most parts of the planet, fire has always affected the carbon cycle, the distribution of plants, how ecosystems function, and biodiversity patterns more generally.

But climate change and other effects of human activity are making wildfires more common and more severe in many regions, often with catastrophic results. In Australia, fires have caused major economic, environmental and personal losses, most recently in the south of the country.




Read more:
In a bad fire year, Australia records over 450,000 hotspots. These maps show where the risks have increased over 20 years


One likely reason for the increase of catastrophic fires in Australia is the end of Indigenous fire management after Europeans arrived. This change has caused a decline in biodiversity and the buildup of burnable material, or “fuel load”.

Infographic showing the process of extracting and analysing a sediment core.
How sediment coring works.
Emma Rehn, Haidee Cadd, Kelsey Boyd / Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage

While southern fires have been particularly damaging in recent years, more than two-thirds of all Australia’s wildfires happen during the dry season in the tropical savannas of the north. These grasslands cover about 2 million square kilometres, or around a quarter of the country.

When Europeans first saw these tropical savannas, they believed they were seeing a “natural” environment. However, we now think these landscapes were maintained by Indigenous fire management (dubbed “firestick farming” in the 1960s).

Indigenous fire management is a complex process that involves strategically burning small areas throughout the dry season. In its absence, savannas have seen the kind of larger, higher-intensity fires occurring late in the dry season that likely existed before people, when lightning was the sole source of ignition.

We know fire was one of the main tools Indigenous people used to manipulate fuel loads, maintain vegetation and enhance biodiversity. We do not know the time frames over which the “natural” fire regime was transformed into one managed by humans.

A 150,000-year record of fire and climate

To understand this transformation better, we took an 18-metre core sample from sediment at Girraween Lagoon on the outskirts of Darwin. Using this sample, we developed detailed pollen records of vegetation and charcoal, and paired them with geochemical records of climate and fire to reveal how fire patterns have changed over the past 150,000 years.

Now surrounded by suburbs, Girraween Lagoon (the “Place of Flowers”) is a significant site to the Larrakia and Wulna peoples. It is also where the crocodile-attack scene in the movie Crocodile Dundee was filmed.

The lagoon was created after a sinkhole formed, and has contained permanent water ever since. The sediment core we took contains a unique 150,000-year record of environmental change in Australia’s northern savannas.

The core records revealed a dynamic, changing environment. The vegetation around Girraween Lagoon today has a tall and relatively dense tree canopy with a thick grass understory in the wet season.




Read more:
People once lived in a vast region in north-western Australia – and it had an inland sea


However, during the last ice age 20,000–30,000 years ago, the site where Darwin sits now was more than 300 km from the coast due to the sea level dropping as the polar ice caps expanded. At that time, the lagoon shrank into its sinkhole and it was surrounded by open, grassy savanna with fewer, shorter trees.

Photo of a collection of clear tubes filled with dark sediment.
Sediment cores retrieved from Girraween Lagoon.
Michael Bird / James Cook University

Around 115,000 years ago, and again around 90,000 years ago, Australia was dotted with gigantic inland “megalakes”. At those times, the lagoon expanded into a large, shallow depression surrounded by lush monsoon forest, with almost no grass.

When human fire management began

The Girraween record is one of the few long-term climate records that covers the period before people arrived in Australia some 65,000 years ago, as well as after. This unique coverage provides us with the hard data indicating when the natural fire regime (infrequent, high-intensity fires) switched to a human-managed one (frequent, low-intensity fires).

The data show that by at least 11,000 years ago, as the climate began to resemble the modern climate that established itself after the last ice age, fires became more frequent but less intense.

Frequent, low-intensity fire is the hallmark of Indigenous fire regimes that were observed across northern Australia at European arrival. Our data also showed tantalising indications that this change from a natural to human-dominated fire regime occurred progressively from as early as 40,000 years ago, but it certainly did not occur instantaneously.

Photo showing green shoots of plant life springing up in a burnt landscape.
Vegetation recovering after a human-ignited ‘cool’ fire.
Cassandra Rowe / James Cook University

Unlocking Girraween’s secrets with modern scientific techniques has provided unprecedented insights into how the tropical savannas of Australia, and their attendant biodiversity, coevolved over millennia under this new Indigenous fire regime that reduced risk and increased resources.

The rapid change to a European fire regime – with large, intense fires occurring late in the dry season – abruptly regressed patterns to the pre-human norm. This ecosystem-scale shock altered a carefully nurtured biodiversity established over tens of thousands of years and simultaneously increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Reversing these dangerous trends in Australia’s tropical savanna requires re-establishing an Indigenous fire regime through projects such as the West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement managed by Indigenous land managers. By implication, the reintroduction of Indigenous land management in other parts of the world could help reduce the impacts of catastrophic fires and increase carbon sequestration in the future.

The Conversation

Cassandra Rowe receives funding from the Australian Research Council

Corey J. A. Bradshaw receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Michael Bird receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

ref. Indigenous fire management began more than 11,000 years ago: new research – https://theconversation.com/indigenous-fire-management-began-more-than-11-000-years-ago-new-research-225263

We looked at all the recent evidence on mobile phone bans in schools – this is what we found

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marilyn Campbell, Professor, School of Early Childhood & Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology

Mobile phones are currently banned in all Australian state schools and many Catholic and independent schools around the country. This is part of a global trend over more than a decade to restrict phone use in schools.

Australian governments say banning mobile phones will reduce distractions in class, allow students to focus on learning, improve student wellbeing and reduce cyberbullying.

But previous research has shown there is little evidence on whether the bans actually achieve these aims.

Many places that restricted phones in schools before Australia did have now reversed their decisions. For example, several school districts in Canada implemented outright bans then revoked them as they were too hard to maintain. They now allow teachers to make decisions that suit their own classrooms.

A ban was similarly revoked in New York City, partly because bans made it harder for parents to stay in contact with their children.

What does recent research say about phone bans in schools?

Our study

We conducted a “scoping review” of all published and unpublished global evidence for and against banning mobile phones in schools.

Our review, which is pending publication, aims to shed light on whether mobile phones in schools impact academic achievement (including paying attention and distraction), students’ mental health and wellbeing, and the incidence of cyberbullying.

A scoping review is done when researchers know there aren’t many studies on a particular topic. This means researchers cast a very inclusive net, to gather as much evidence as possible.




Read more:
Why a ban on cellphones in schools might be more of a distraction than the problem it’s trying to fix


Our team screened 1,317 articles and reports as well as dissertations from masters and PhD students. We identified 22 studies that examined schools before and after phone bans. There was a mix of study types. Some looked at multiple schools and jurisdictions, some looked at a small number of schools, some collected quantitative data, others sought qualitative views.

In a sign of just how little research there is on this topic, 12 of the studies we identified were done by masters and doctoral students. This means they are not peer-reviewed but done by research students under supervision by an academic in the field.

But in a sign of how fresh this evidence is, almost half the studies we identified were published or completed since 2020.

The studies looked at schools in Bermuda, China, the Czech Republic, Ghana, Malawi, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. None of them looked at schools in Australia.

A young boy looks at his smart phone in class.
We looked at 22 studies where phones had been banned in schools around the world.
RDNE Stock Project/ Pexels, CC BY

Academic achievement

Our research found four studies that identified a slight improvement in academic achievement when phones were banned in schools. However, two of these studies found this improvement only applied to disadvantaged or low-achieving students.

Some studies compared schools where there were partial bans against schools with complete bans. This is a problem because it confuses the issue.

But three studies found no differences in academic achievement, whether there were mobile phone bans or not. Two of these studies used very large samples. This masters thesis looked at 30% of all schools in Norway. Another study used a nationwide cohort in Sweden. This means we can be reasonably confident in these results.

Mental health and wellbeing

Two studies in our review, including this doctoral thesis, reported mobile phone bans had positive effects on students’ mental health. However, both studies used teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of students’ wellbeing (the students were not asked themselves).

Two other studies showed no differences in psychological wellbeing following mobile phone bans. However, three studies reported more harm to students’ mental health and wellbeing when they were subjected to phone bans.

The students reported they felt more anxious without being able to use their phone. This was especially evident in one doctoral thesis carried out when students were returning to school after the pandemic, having been very reliant on their devices during lockdown.

So the evidence for banning mobile phones for the mental health and wellbeing of student is inconclusive and based only on anecdotes or perceptions, rather than the recorded incidence of mental illness.

A person with painted nails and rings holds a mobile phone.
Some studies on the impact of mobile phone bans on mental health are based on parent and teacher perceptions – not students’ own views.
Priscilla Du Preez/Unsplash, CC BY

Bullying and cyberbullying

Four studies reported a small reduction in bullying in schools following phone bans, especially among older students. However, the studies did not specify whether or not they were talking about cyberbullying.

Teachers in two other studies, including this doctoral thesis, reported they believed having mobile phones in schools increased cyberbullying.

But two other studies showed the number of incidents of online victimisation and harassment was greater in schools with mobile phone bans compared with those without bans. The study didn’t collect data on whether the online harassment was happening inside or outside school hours.

The authors suggested this might be because students saw the phone bans as punitive, which made the school climate less egalitarian and less positive. Other research has linked a positive school climate with fewer incidents of bullying.

There is no research evidence that students do or don’t use other devices to bully each other if there are phone bans. But it is of course possible for students to use laptops, tablets, smartwatches or library computers to conduct cyberbullying.

Even if phone bans were effective, they would not address the bulk of school bullying. A 2019 Australian study found 99% of students who were cyberbullied were also bullied face-to-face.




Read more:
Banning mobile phones in schools: beneficial or risky? Here’s what the evidence says


What does this tell us?

Overall, our study suggests the evidence for banning mobile phones in schools is weak and inconclusive.

As Australian education academic Neil Selwyn argued in 2021, the impetus for mobile phone bans says more about MPs responding to community concerns rather than research evidence.

Politicians should leave this decision to individual schools, which have direct experience of the pros or cons of a ban in their particular community. For example, a community in remote Queensland could have different needs and priorities from a school in central Brisbane.

Mobile phones are an integral part of our lives. We need to be teaching children about appropriate use of phones, rather than simply banning them. This will help students learn how to use their phones safely and responsibly at school, at home and beyond.




Read more:
School phone bans seem obvious but could make it harder for kids to use tech in healthy ways


The Conversation

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

ref. We looked at all the recent evidence on mobile phone bans in schools – this is what we found – https://theconversation.com/we-looked-at-all-the-recent-evidence-on-mobile-phone-bans-in-schools-this-is-what-we-found-224848

Prefabricated and build-to-rent houses could help bring rents down

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ameeta Jain, Associate Professor, Deakin Business School, Deakin University

This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here.


Australia’s rental vacancy rate has hit a historic low of close to zero. The latest estimate from SQM Research is 1.1%. The latest estimate from the property listing firm Domain is 0.7%.

As would be expected with hardly any of Australia’s rental properties vacant and available for rent, rents have soared – at first in 2022 only for newly advertised properties, and later for properties in general as measured by average rents.

The Bureau of Statistics measure of average capital city rents climbed 7.3% throughout 2023. It would have climbed by more – by 8.5% – had the bureau not taken account of the increased rent assistance in the May budget, which depressed recorded rents by 1.2%.

Demand surged while new supply sank

Vacancy rates have fallen and rents have climbed because the demand for living space has surged; at first in the aftermath of lockdowns as Australians sought accommodation with fewer housemates and more home office space, and later as borders reopened and Australia’s population swelled.

At the same time, the number of dwellings completed dived in response to shortages of both labour and materials.

Before COVID about 50,000 new dwellings were completed per quarter. Since then, completions have rarely exceeded 45,000.



Tweaking tax concessions would do little to help

While the Australian Greens are pressing the government to wind back capital gains tax concessions and limit negative gearing in order to wind back home prices, there’s little reason to think the changes would do much to reduce rents.

Half of all Australian landlords negatively gear by making a net loss on rental income in order to profit later from concessionally taxed capital gains. Attacking these tax concessions would be likely to cause some of them to reconsider being landlords.

But if they sold, more renters would be able to buy and stop renting, leaving the balance of renters and properties for rent little changed.

Rent assistance and caps won’t much help either

While there is popular support for increasing rent assistance, and while it has materially cut rents paid over the past year, it won’t create more rental properties.

Very big increases in rent assistance might even lift rents further by increasing the amount renters are able to pay. However, the effect is unlikely to be big because Commonwealth rent assistance is restricted to welfare recipients.

Rent caps or freezes don’t increase supply either, and run the risk of encouraging a black market in bidding to pay rents over the legally sanctioned cap.

What’s needed is more homes, in the right places

The government’s new Housing Australia Future Fund and associated agreements are intended to support the delivery of 20,000 new social and 20,000 new affordable homes over the next five years.

Separately, the Commonwealth and the states have agreed to an ambitious target of 1.2 million “new well-located homes” over the next five years, up from 918,200 over the past five years.

The Commonwealth has set aside A$3 billion for “performance-based funding” to the states paid at the rate of $15,000 for each new well-located home they deliver in excess of their share of 1 million new homes in five years.




Read more:
National Cabinet’s new housing plan could save renters billions


If the states and territories are able to deliver 1.2 million homes over five years rather than 1 million, Grattan Institute analysis suggests rents will be 4% lower than they would have been.

NSW is displaying the sort of initiative that will be needed. The state is allowing developers of projects worth more than A$75 million to build taller buildings with more accommodation as long as they use 15% of the floor space for affordable housing.

NSW is also allowing denser development within 400 metres of 31 train stations.

Build-to-rent would help

In Australia, most rental properties (even apartments) are owned by individual so-called “mum and dad” investors.

Overseas in the United States and Europe, they are more likely to be owned by corporations who build entire blocks to lease.

These corporations are more concerned about long-term returns than individual owners who want the flexibility to sell, so they tend to offer long-term leases on better terms.

In last year’s budget the government offered build-to-rent tax rules which the Property Council of Australia says could create thousands of extra homes.

On one hand, they are unlikely to be homes for low-income renters. Developers require commercial returns. On the other hand, an increasing number of renters have high incomes.

The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute says while in 1996 households with incomes worth $140,000 a year or more in today’s dollars accounted for only 8% of renters, by 2021 they accounted for 24%.

Pre-fabs could also help, and more apprentices

Another thing that would help is encouraging the use of prefabrication to cut construction times and costs, using locally sourced materials.

Prefabricated homes were used to house migrants after the second world war. More recently they have been used to house NSW flood victims.

They will still require skilled builders and tradespeople, who are in short supply. Only about half of enrolled apprentices complete their training, and the dropout rate has been climbing.

The government has announced an in-depth review of Australia’s system of apprenticeship support. It’s due to report later this year.

It might also help to prioritise the migration of tradespeople. It’s hard to build more homes in the right places, but that’s what we need.




Read more:
The government’s Help to Buy scheme will help but it won’t solve the housing crisis


The Conversation

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

ref. Prefabricated and build-to-rent houses could help bring rents down – https://theconversation.com/prefabricated-and-build-to-rent-houses-could-help-bring-rents-down-223839

Mother’s little helper: interviews with Australian women show a complex relationship with alcohol

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maree Patsouras, PhD Candidate, Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University

Syda Productions/Shutterstock

Men have historically, and still do, drink more than women. But in recent years there has been an uptick in women’s drinking, particularly among women in their late 30s through to their 60s.

This is concerning, as no level of alcohol is considered safe for our health, and women are especially susceptible to alcohol’s long-term health harms (for example, cancer and heart disease).

We’ve also seen the emergence of the “wine mum” in popular culture and greater social acceptance of women’s drinking.

But women still drink differently to men, and there are some important reasons why – particularly for women who juggle both paid work and motherhood.

In 2022, we conducted interviews with 22 Australian working mothers aged 36 to 51, to learn more about their daily lives and the role alcohol played. Most of the women were middle-class professionals. Many were partnered to men, some were single, and all had school-aged children they looked after alongside their jobs.

We’ve recently published two new papers exploring what we found.

Modern working mothers

Now, more than ever, women are entering the workforce and developing careers. At the same time, many also have to meet the demands of having children. While we like to think we’re moving towards a more equal society, women are still expected to do the majority of childcare and domestic duties.

This means many women are having to do “double shifts” of paid and unpaid labour, increasing the chance they’re stressed, and limiting how much time they have to relax, unwind, and pursue hobbies. This is where alcohol comes in.




Read more:
‘Oh well, wine o’clock’: what midlife women told us about drinking – and why it’s so hard to stop


Most women we talked to felt over-committed because of their competing roles. Whether they had partners or not, they were often taking on the “default” caregiver role. This involved tasks such as getting kids ready for school, cooking, cleaning, and organising appointments.

At the same time, their jobs could be mentally or emotionally stressful, such as working in health care or project management.

And it wasn’t uncommon for these two worlds to overlap. For example, some women talked about needing to send emails or make calls from home outside work hours, or feeling there was an expectation for them to take time off work to take kids to appointments.

Many women were fatigued, and they felt a sense of guilt at not being able to commit fully to either role. As Mia, a full-time employed, partnered mother said:

You’ll spend your life feeling compromised, doing a half job as a parent, and a half job as a worker.

A woman in the kitchen with two children talking on the phone.
For many women, work and home life overlaps.
Onjira Leibe/Shutterstock

When participants talked about drinking alcohol, it was something accessible they could do alongside their home duties. For example, a glass of wine while cooking dinner was almost ubiquitous. Drinking helped women manage busy days, and the amount they drunk was not always something they had the capacity to be mindful of. As Caroline, a full-time employed, separated mother explained:

We don’t sit down and stand around like the boys do drinking, with the beer cans round our feet. We drink a glass of wine while we cook tea […] while we’re sitting doing the kids’ homework or arguing with them about, ‘where’s your sock? Where’s your library book?’ […] it makes it very easy to think ‘I’ve only had one glass of wine’ when you’ve had three or four, because you’re not mindful of what you’re doing.

Many of the women we talked to also described feeling under-supported. This included at work, where they felt there wasn’t always enough flexibility to accommodate their parental obligations, and at home, where their partners were not always around to share the workload.

These stresses and pressures meant alcohol became a “prize” or “reward” for getting through the day. And when participants felt particularly stressed or under-supported (which was often), the reward of a drink at the end of the day was all the more important. According to Penelope, a part-time employed, separated mother:

I think that I reach out to drinking at the end of the day because I’m really quite overwhelmed, or quite exhausted mentally and physically from the day.




Read more:
Did you look forward to last night’s bottle of wine a bit too much? Ladies, you’re not alone


What about the pandemic?

Things became even more complicated during the COVID pandemic. Women suddenly took on “triple shifts” – mothering, working and home-schooling – leaving many feeling even more overwhelmed. As Belle, a partnered mother who worked part time, said:

We were all working and trying to home school, and it was just so awful […] so I guess my girlfriends were going through that too, the ones with kids, and they were all definitely drinking a lot more.

A woman at a kitchen bench drinking a glass of red wine.
The chaos of the pandemic left working mothers feeling even more overwhelmed.
Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock

Alcohol was classified as an “essential service” during lockdowns (bottle shops remained open while many other retail stores closed), and against this backdrop, participants felt it became even more normalised. They talked about seeing media depictions and advertising of alcohol, including online memes that made wine out as a way to cope with the pandemic. Belle said:

Everyone would send each other little memes of women just drinking, and it definitely became […] a socially acceptable way of getting through that really shit time.

Hobbies and exercise activities they would previously turn to to relieve stress were often restricted because of the pandemic. As such, alcohol became one of the few things left. Many women we talked to were either drinking more, more often, or felt an increased desire to drink, especially during the height of the pandemic and when they were home-schooling.




Read more:
Women are drinking more during the pandemic, and it’s probably got a lot to do with their mental health


To understand why and how modern working mothers drink alcohol, it’s also important to consider how the alcohol industry targets women, often framing alcohol as a symbol of relief and relaxation among busy working mothers.

But it’s equally important to realise being a modern working mother is tough, especially as traditional gender expectations of women as carers persist. Almost 60 years ago, the Rolling Stones sang about “mother’s little helper” in reference to women using substances to manage everyday life.

Until we see changes in the way women are supported at work and home, alcohol may continue being “mother’s little helper” for many working mothers.

The Conversation

Maree Patsouras receives funding from an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship and the Australian Research Council.

Cassandra Wright receives salary funding from the Australian Research Council. She also receives funding from the Medical Research Future Fund, Northern Territory Motor Accident Compensation Commission, Music NT and Menzies School of Health Research internal grant scheme.

Emmanuel Kuntsche receives funding from La Trobe University, the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Australian Research Council (ARC), and the University of Bayreuth Centre of International Excellence “Alexander von Humboldt”. Emmanuel Kuntsche serves as that Secretary of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD).

Gabriel Caluzzi receives funding via the Australian Research Council and the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation.

Sandra Kuntsche receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

ref. Mother’s little helper: interviews with Australian women show a complex relationship with alcohol – https://theconversation.com/mothers-little-helper-interviews-with-australian-women-show-a-complex-relationship-with-alcohol-225285

Strange rock formations beneath the Pacific Ocean could change our understanding of the early Earth

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Lamb, Associate Professor in Geophysics, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

NASA, CC BY-SA

Our world may seem fragile, but Earth has been around for a very long time. If we ventured far back into the past, would we reach a time when it looked fundamentally different?

The answer lies in some of the earliest extensive relics of Earth’s surface, found in a remote corner of southern Africa’s highveld – a region known to geologists as the Barberton Greenstone Belt.

The geological formations in this region have proved difficult to decipher, despite many attempts. But our new research has shown the key to cracking this code lies in geologically young rocks laid down on the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of New Zealand.

This has opened up a new perspective on what our planet looked like when it was still young.

Our work began with a new, detailed geological map (by Cornel de Ronde) of part of the Barberton Greenstone Belt. This has revealed a fragment of the ancient deep seafloor, created some 3.3 billion years ago.

There was, however, something very strange about this seafloor, and it has taken our study of rocks laid down in New Zealand, at the other end of the Earth’s long history, to make sense of it.




Read more:
Earth’s early evolution: fresh insights from rocks formed 3.5 billion years ago


We argue that the widely held view of the early Earth as a hotter place, free of earthquakes and with a surface so weak it was unable to form rigid plates is wrong.

Instead, the young Earth was continually rocked by large earthquakes, triggered as one tectonic plate slid beneath another in a subduction zone as part of plate tectonics – just like New Zealand today.

Landscape of Barberton Makhonjwa mountains in southern Africa
The geological formations of the Barberton Greenstone Belt have proved difficult to decipher.
Shutterstock/Instinctively RDH

Jumbled rocks

Geologists have long found it hard to interpret the ancient rocks of the Barberton Greenstone Belt.

Layers that formed on land or in shallow water – for example, beautiful crystals of barite that had crystallised as evaporites, or the remains of bubbling mud pools – are found sitting on top of rocks that accumulated on the deep seafloor. Blocks of volcanic rock, chert, sandstone and conglomerate lie topsy turvy and jumbled up.

A block of black chert found in the Barberton Makhonjwa mountains.
Blocks of black chert can be found in the Barberton mountains.
Shutterstock/Beate Wolter

We realised this map looked remarkably similar to a geological map (by Simon Lamb) made of the aftermath of much more recent submarine landslides. These were triggered by great earthquakes along New Zealand’s largest fault, the megathrust in the Hikurangi subduction zone.

The bedrock is made of a jumble of sedimentary rocks, originally laid down on the seafloor off the coast of New Zealand some 20 million years ago. This region lay on the edges of the deep oceanic trench, where the Pacific tectonic plate is sliding down in a subduction zone triggering frequent large earthquakes.


A sketch profile through the New Zealand subduction zone
This sketch profile through the New Zealand subduction zone shows how the bedrock in the shallow shelf region is sliding down into deeper water, where huge blocks pile up on top of each other.
Simon Lamb, CC BY-SA

The rocks in New Zealand are the key to reading the geological record in the Barberton Greenstone Belt.

What was once thought to be untranslatable turns out to be a remnant of a gigantic landslide containing sediments deposited both on land or in very shallow water, jumbled with those that accumulated on the deep seafloor.

A detail of a new map by Cornel de Ronde of the Barberton Greenstone Belt shows jumbled rocks with the remains of underwater landslides consisting of huge slide blocks.
This detail of a new map by Cornel de Ronde of the Barberton Greenstone Belt shows jumbled rocks with the remains of underwater landslides consisting of huge slide blocks. We think it is the inevitable consequence of one tectonic plate sliding beneath another in a subduction zone, periodically rocked by great earthquakes.
Cornel de Ronde, CC BY-SA

The importance of this lies in the fact that New Zealand’s geological record is uniquely created by the profound effects of large earthquakes in a subduction zone. This is still happening today, most recently in November 2016, when the magnitude 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake set off vast submarine landslides and debris avalanches that flowed down into deep water.

We found the oldest record of these earthquakes, hidden in the highveld of southern Africa.

The key to other mysteries

Our work may have unlocked other mysteries, too, because subduction zones are also associated with explosive volcanic eruptions.

In January 2022, Tonga’s Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted with the energy of a 60 Megaton atomic bomb, sending a vast cloud of ash into space. Over the next 11 hours, more than 200,000 lightning strikes flashed through this cloud.

In the same volcanic region, underwater volcanoes are erupting an extremely rare type of lava called boninite. This is the closest modern example of a lava that was common in the early Earth.




Read more:
Origin of life: lightning strikes may have provided missing ingredient for Earth’s first organisms


The vast amounts of volcanic ash found in the Barberton Greenstone Belt may be an ancient record of similar volcanic violence. Perhaps the associated lightning strikes created the crucible for life where the basic organic molecules were forged.

Hidden deep in the south-west Pacific are echoes of our planet not long after it was created. They provide unexpected clues about the origins of the world we know today, and possibly life itself. The key to this turns out to be the subduction of tectonic plates.

The Conversation

Simon Lamb receives funding from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

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

ref. Strange rock formations beneath the Pacific Ocean could change our understanding of the early Earth – https://theconversation.com/strange-rock-formations-beneath-the-pacific-ocean-could-change-our-understanding-of-the-early-earth-223718

Albanese and NT governments to spend $4 billion over a decade to tackle Indigenous housing

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

A $4 billion ten-year agreement between the federal and Northern Territory governments that aims to see up to 270 houses built annually in remote Indigenous communities will be unveiled by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday.

The federal government is contributing $2.1 billion, of which about $844 million is new money.

While most of the funding is for new houses, the Commonwealth is committing $120 million over three years to match the NT government’s annual investment for housing and infrastructure upgrades in homelands.

Albanese will make the announcement when he visits the community of Binjari near Katherine. The federal cabinet is meeting in Darwin on Wednesday.

A partnership agreement will be set up, to support the delivery of the housing, between the two governments and Aboriginal Housing NT, the NT’s peak First Nations housing body, and Aboriginal Land Councils.

Albanese said in a statement released ahead of the announcement the “landmark agreement” would help close the gap between Indigenous and other Australians.

“The Northern Territory has the highest level of over-crowding in the country which we are working to halve by building 270 houses each year,” the Prime Minister said.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney described the agreement as “an historic investment”. “Increasing housing supply will ease overcrowding which we know is a major barrier to closing he gap,” she said.




Read more:
New commissioner will focus on vexed issue of Indigenous children in out-of-home care


Northern Territory Chief Minister Eva Lawler said the agreement would “achieve unprecedented housing outcomes across the Territory. The commitment to build 2700 homes in ten years means new homes for more than 10,000 people.

“This is a game changer for the Territory, as this investment goes straight into the hands of our remote communities and Territory businesses.”

The closing the gap national target on housing is to increase the proportion of Indigenous people living in appropriately sized, not overcrowded, housing to 88% by 2031. There has been improvement but it is not on track.

Since the failure of the Voice referendum the Albanese government is looking to roll out practical measures on closing the gap. The housing announcement follows a $700 million Remote Jobs program aimed at creating 3000 jobs over three years.

The NT government faces an election this year. It has been plagued with problems, including the high rate of crime in the territory and internal scandals.

The Conversation

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

ref. Albanese and NT governments to spend $4 billion over a decade to tackle Indigenous housing – https://theconversation.com/albanese-and-nt-governments-to-spend-4-billion-over-a-decade-to-tackle-indigenous-housing-225466

Government’s aged care report proposes older Australians pay more but eschews a levy

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

A government-instituted taskforce has proposed older Australians should pay more of the cost of their aged care, while steering clear of politically fraught options such as a levy or touching the family home to help finance the sector.

Under the recommendations from the Aged Care Taskforce, refundable accommodation deposits (RADs) would eventually be phased out, replaced by a rental-only model. A co-contribution-for-service model for home care would be established.

The taskforce, chaired by Aged Care Minister Anika Wells and with representation from the sector, was charged with examining how funding can be put on a more sustainable basis.

The report says with an ageing population more funding will be needed from both government and participants in the home and residential care sectors.

It contains no costings and the government has not provided its response.

A Royal Commission into the sector under the Morrison government favoured a levy to assist with aged care funding but the commissioners were split over the model. The Albanese government does not want to stir that hornet’s nest.

The report says that over the next 40 years, the number of people over 80 is set to triple to more than 3.5 million.

Government spending on aged care as a proportion of GDP is projected to grow from 1.1% in 2021-22 to 2.5% in 2062-63.

It is estimated that $37 billion investment (in today’s dollars) would be needed to build the extra aged care rooms required in 2050.

Over the decade to 2030 additional investment of about $5.5 billion would be needed to refurbish and upgrade existing aged care rooms, increasing to $19 billion by 2050.

“Current funding arrangements will not deliver the required amount of capital funding,” the report says.

The demand for home care has been increasing strongly: over the next 20 years an average annual increase of 44,000 participants is forecast, totalling nearly two million older people using home care by 2042, compared with about one million now.

“To meet this demand, the home care sector will need to be financially stable and administratively efficient,” the report says.

There are three components in relation to residential care funding: for the care itself, for living costs (food, cleaning, laundry, etc), and for accommodation.

In residential care, the government should continue to focus on care costs, “with a significant role for resident co-contributions in non-care components,” the report says.

At present the government pays for most of the care component (some 94%) and the report suggests taking this to 100%. It wants the daily living component that residents pay boosted, subject to a safety net.

Backing its case for more user-pays, the taskforce says older people are wealthier than in earlier generations, while the tax burden “is being shared among an increasingly smaller group of people as the proportion of the working age population declines”.

“It is appropriate older people make a fair co-contribution to the cost of their aged care based on their means,” the report says.

The report says aged care providers are on average losing $4 per resident a day on daily living costs. They have little flexibility to get more revenue for this.

“There is therefore a critical need for increased funding towards everyday living expenses. The Taskforce believes this should be largely paid for through greater resident co-contributions to ensure sustainability, but with a strong means tested safety net for those who cannot pay a higher rate, such as full-rate pensioners with no other income or assets.”

For residents to meet their daily living costs the taskforce recommends a Basic Daily Fee and a supplement.

The Basic Daily Fee already exists – the taskforce is recommending this continues but with the supplement increased to meet the full cost of everyday living expenses and also means tested so that wealthier residents contribute more towards everyday living.

The taskforce is critical of Refundable Accommodation Deposits, under which people pay an amount which is refundable when they die or leave.

“Phasing out RADs would improve simplicity and equity for residents and reduce liquidity risks for providers.

“RADs create inequity between residents based on how they pay for their accommodation. Wealthier residents who can afford a RAD receive their deposit back in full when they leave care and make no direct contribution to their accommodation costs, while DAP [Daily Accommodation Payment] payers make a significant annual contribution.

“Phasing out RADs will mean all incoming residents will pay using a rental model, making outcomes for residents more consistent, and fees easier for older people to understand.”

The taskforce says that after an independent review in 2030, by 2035 the sector should no longer accept RADs, moving to a rental model. That would be subject to the review finding there was appropriate financial sustainability for the sector and care was affordable for consumers.

In the near term, providers should retain a portion of the RAD to make an immediate improvement in the sector’s financial sustainability, the report recommends.

The Conversation

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

ref. Government’s aged care report proposes older Australians pay more but eschews a levy – https://theconversation.com/governments-aged-care-report-proposes-older-australians-pay-more-but-eschews-a-levy-225462

Oppenheimer’s triumph, a stunning First Nations performance, and lots of sparkles: 5 experts on the 2024 Oscars

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

Like most biopics, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer – which won seven awards, including the big one, Best Picture – seems kind of silly, an exercise in dress up. We watch “serious” actors like Robert Downey Jr. (who won Best Supporting Actor) and Cillian Murphy (Best Actor) go to extraordinary lengths to essentially imitate real life people, inevitably failing to be 100% true to life.

Similarly, the narrative – tracing the involvement of J. Robert Oppenheimer in the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb that would eventually devastate Hiroshima and Nagasaki – plods along in a way true story narratives often do.

There’s none of the precision and wit that often characterise genre films, their entanglement with questions of narrative and aesthetic form necessitated by their highly formulaic nature.

Yet Oppenheimer winning Best Picture is no travesty; in fact, it makes a lot of sense.

It works well as an engaging exercise in image and sound, a viscerally charged and hypnotic spectacle shimmering on the big screen shot in glorious 70mm film.

Typically for a Nolan film, it is pretentious and heavy-handed, and seems to think it is more important than it actually is. But as a fun romp through the 1950s – that perennially fetishished period in American cinema and culture – it works splendidly.

It was certainly not the best film nominated, nor the best film of 2023, but it does work as a piece of cinema.

There’s something refreshing about this fact alone: the Academy has eschewed the tedium of the usual didactic, message-driven cinema that has dominated recent years and have rewarded a technically and formally accomplished work, something that actually considers its medium and effectively works within it.

Ari Mattes




Read more:
Oppenheimer? Barbie? Past Lives? An expert’s pick for the Oscars 2024 best picture winner


On the red carpet: red pins and black gowns

Awards ceremonies are often taken as opportunities to make political statements through dress. At the Oscars, these statements usually take the form of subtle pins or ribbons. In 2021, multiple attendees wore blue #withrefugees ribbons in support of Ukraine following the Russian invasion.

This year, in response to the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, numerous attendees, including Billie Eilish (in Chanel) and Finneas O’Connell, Ava DuVernay (in custom Louis Vuitton), Ramy Youssef (in a chic black thobe by Zegna), Mahershala Ali, Riz Ahmed and Mark Ruffalo donned red Artists4Ceasefire pins.

Other statements are made through design itself.

For Lily Gladstone, the first Native American to be nominated in the Best Actress category, this meant wearing a chic black Gucci column dress featuring a stunning midnight blue train with beading by Indigenous Mohawk, Cree & Comanche artist Joe Big Mountain of Ironhorse Quillwork.

Despite the political nature of these examples, the Academy Awards is conventionally a rather conservative affair. This year was no different. The dominant colour choice for all genders was black, sparkles abounded, and silhouettes were chic, albeit predictable.

Some of the standouts in this sea of monochrome predictability were ensembles by Jonathan Anderson at Loewe. Greta Lee oozed easy elegance in a black and white draped gown straight from the Fall 2024 runway, Celine Song continued her commitment to tailoring in a sharp skirt and blazer, and Andrea Riseborough broke through the shine and shimmer with a long-sleeved plaid dress unlike anything else on the red carpet.

Other highlights included Sandra Hüller in custom Schiaparelli, with sharply winged sleeve detail reminiscent of a gown by Gilbert Adrian worn by American socialite Millicent Rogers in 1947, Emma Stone in mint green Louis Vuitton with a peplum that recalled the exuberant sleeve detailing of her Best Costume Design award-winning costumes in Poor Things, and Wim Wenders in the same Yohji Yamamoto outfit he modelled on the catwalk back in January.

Harriette Richards

The power of First Nations voices

In a truly historic moment, the Oscars included a powerful performance by Osage musician and composer Scott George with the Osage Tribal Singers performing Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People) from Killers of the Flower Moon.

Wahzhazhe is a song for public consumption, not for ceremonial purposes, and with it George is the first Native American man to receive an Oscar nomination for best original song, losing out to Billie Elish.

The Oscars requires music be submitted for consideration in written form. However, the Osage do not generally keep written music — rather, it is kept in memory. George told Billboard it took “three or four days” to write the work down in musical notation.

Killers of the Flower Moon was nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Actress for Piegan Blackfeet and Nez Perce actor Lily Gladstone who plays Mollie Burkhart. Unbelievably, Gladstone is the first Native American woman to be nominated for best actress in a leading role, but unfortunately missed out on the Oscar, to Emma Stone of Poor Things.

Indigenous communities globally were waiting with bated breath – but regardless of no Oscar, everyone was excited to see her nominated.

Stories like Killer of the Flower Moon, about the “Reign of Terror” where dozens of Osage were brutally murdered, need to be told so that they don’t get to be forgotten. It is both overdue and exciting to see more Indigenous peoples taking leading roles in films, and the success of Killers of the Flower Moon should make Hollywood pay attention that people want these stories to be told.

Even without winning big at these Oscars, Killers of the Flower Moon includes a wonderful cast of Native American actors including Tantoo Cardinal who plays Lizzie Q, mother to Gladstone’s character Mollie Burkhart, and her sisters who are played by Cara Jade Myers (Anna), JaNae Collins (Reta) and Jillian Dion (Minnie).

– Bronwyn Carlson




Read more:
An Oscar win for Lily Gladstone would be a huge step for Native Americans in an industry that has reduced them to stereotypes


Four nominees for Most Impassioned Speech

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Da’Vine Joy Randolph gave the first acceptance speech at this year’s Oscars ceremony, awarded Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Holdovers, and she led it with thanks to God.

The ceremony’s 45 second limit on acceptance speeches gives more opportunities for meaningful comment to the presenters than the winners.

Host Jimmy Kimmel’s opening roast was generous towards the Barbie movie, a nod to its gender-inclusive feminism that drew loud applause. He unloaded on Donald Trump near the show’s end, to politically aligned chuckles. More striking, the In Memoriam section led with a cameo from Alexei Navalny that epitomised what polemic can put at stake to move us.

I counted four nominees for the Most Impassioned Acceptance Speech.

Cord Jefferson (Best Adapted Screenplay for American Fiction) advocated that movie financiers be more ready to take risks by backing less experienced movie-makers.

Jonathan Glazer (Best International Feature Film) positioned his film about Auschwitz, The Zone of Interest, as a call for an end to the mutual dehumanisation that sustains the long war in Israel and in Palestine.

Mstyslav Chernov (Best Documentary) wished he had never had the cause to make a film so successful as 20 Days in Mariupol, his response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

These were passionate and heartfelt speeches, while Randolph’s was passionate, heartfelt and mesmerising.

For the rest, it was largely acceptances by the numbers. There were variously entertaining, grandiose, self-deprecating and anecdote-rich versions of “thank you” from people who make it their life’s work to imbue set-piece moments with meaning.

Tom Clark




Read more:
The Zone of Interest: new Holocaust film powerfully lays bare the mechanisms of genocide


Powerful songs and memorising performances

Ryan Gosling’s performance of I’m Just Ken, written and produced by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, was the definite standout Best original Song of the 2024 Oscars.

I’m Just Ken was one of two songs nominated from Barbie, alongside Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell’s What Was I Made For. They were joined by Becky G’s The Fire Inside from Flamin’ Hot, Jon Batiste’s It Never Went Away from American Symphony, and Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People) from Killers of the Flower Moon.

Becky G celebrated her Mexican American heritage with a passionate performance of The Fire Inside, accompanied beautifully by a choir of Latino children and a blazing visual backdrop.

Jon Batiste’s mesmerising performance of It Never Went Away from American Symphony brought home the deep love and devotion he has for his wife, Suleika Jaouad.

Billie Eilish’s ballad What Was I Made For ultimately won the award for best original song. Her performance was emotional, with her co-writer and producer brother, Finneas O’Connell, accompanying her on the piano. A beautiful orchestral arrangement that brought flair and gravitas to the stage.

Scott George and the Osage Tribal Singers performance of Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People) from Killers Of The Flower Moon was a powerful statement of the strength of what energy collective singers and percussion bring to a performance.

But as the Oscars performances reminded us, sometimes the intimacy of quiet drama sends the loudest message.

– Alison Cole




Read more:
A truly international slate: your guide to the 2024 Oscar nominees for best documentary


The Conversation

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

ref. Oppenheimer’s triumph, a stunning First Nations performance, and lots of sparkles: 5 experts on the 2024 Oscars – https://theconversation.com/oppenheimers-triumph-a-stunning-first-nations-performance-and-lots-of-sparkles-5-experts-on-the-2024-oscars-221493

Question for PNG foreign minister Tkatchenko – what does the defence pact mean for West Papua?

ANALYSIS: By Ali Mirin

Papua New Guinea and Indonesia have formally ratified a defence agreement a decade after its initial signing.

PNG’s Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko and the Indonesian ambassador to the Pacific nation, Andriana Supandy, convened a press briefing in Port Moresby on February 29 to declare the ratification.

The agreement enables an enhancement of military operations between the two countries, with a specific focus on strengthening patrols along the border between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

According to Tkatchenko as reported by RNZ Pacific citing Benar News, “The Joint border patrols and different types of defence cooperation between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea of course will be part of the ever-growing security mechanism.”

“It would be wonderful to witness the collaboration between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, both now and in the future, as they work together side by side. Indonesia is a rising Southeast Asian power that reaches into the South Pacific region and dwarfs Papua New Guinea in population, economic size and military might,” added the minister.

In recent years, Indonesia has been asserting its own regional hegemony in the Pacific amid the rivalries of two superpowers — the United States and China.

Indonesia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi reiterated Indonesia’s commitment to bolster collaboration with Pacific nations amid heightened geopolitical tensions in the Indo-Pacific region during the recent 2024 annual press statement held by the minister for foreign affairs at the Asian-African Conference in Bandung.

Diverse Indigenous states
The Pacific Islands are home to diverse sovereign Indigenous states and islands, and also home to two influential regional powers, Australia and New Zealand. This vast diverse region is increasingly becoming a pivotal strategic and political battleground for foreign powers — aiming to win the hearts and minds of the populations and governments in the region.

Numerous visible and hidden agreements, treaties, talks, and partnerships are being established among local, regional, and global stakeholders in the affairs of this vast region.

The Pacific region carries great importance for powerful military and economic entities such as China, the United States and its coalition, and Indonesia. For them, it serves as a crucial area for strategic bases, resource acquisition, food, and commercial routes.

For Indigenous islanders, states, and tribal communities, the primary concern is around the loss of their territories, islands, and other vital cultural aspects, such as languages and traditional wisdom.

The crumbling of Oceania, reminiscent of its past colonisation by various European powers, is now occurring. However, this time it is being orchestrated by foreign entities appointing their own influential local pawns.

With these local pawns in place, foreign monarchs, nobility, warlords, and miscreants are advancing to reshape the region’s fate.

The rejection by the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) to acknowledge the representation of West Papua by the United Liberation for West Papua (ULMWP) as a full member of the regional body in August 2023 highlights the diminishing influence of MSG leaders in decision-making processes concerning issues that are deemed crucial by the Papuan community as part of the “Melanesian family affairs”.

Suspicion over ‘external forces’
This raises suspicion of external forces at play within the Melanesian nations, manipulating their destinies. The question arises, who is orchestrating the fate of the Melanesian nations?

Is it Jakarta, Beijing, Washington, or Canberra?

In a world characterised by instability, safety and security emerges as a crucial prerequisite for fostering a peaceful coexistence, nurturing friendships, and enabling development.

The critical question at hand pertains to the nature of the threats that warrant such protective measures, the identities of both the endangered and the aggressors, and the underlying rationale and mechanisms involved. Whose safety hangs in the balance in this discourse?

And between whom does the spectre of threat loom?

If you are a realist in a world of policymaking, it is perhaps wise not to antagonise the big guy with the big weapon in the room. The Minister of Papua New Guinea may be attempting to underscore the importance of Indonesia in the Pacific region, as indicated by his statements.

If you are West Papuan, it makes little difference whether one leans towards realism or idealism. What truly matters is the survival of West Papuans, in the midst of the significant settler colonial presence of Asian Indonesians in their ancestral homeland.

West Papuan refugee camp
Two years ago, PNG’s minister stated the profound existential sentiments experienced by the West Papuans in 2022 while visiting a West Papuan refugee community in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

During the visit, the minister addressed the West Papuan refugees with the following words:

“The line on the map in middle of the island (New Guinea) is the product of colonial impact. These West Papuans are part of our family, part of our members and part of Papua New Guinea. They are not strangers.

“We are separated only by imaginary lines, which is why I am here. I did not come here to fight, to yell, to scream, to dictate, but to reach a common understanding — to respect the law of Papua New Guinea and the sovereignty of Indonesia.”

These types of ambiguous and opaque messages and rhetoric not only instil fake hope among the West Papuans, but also produce despair among displaced Papuans on their own soil.

The seemingly paradoxical language coupled with the significant recent security agreement with the entity — Indonesia — that has been oppressing the West Papuans under the pretext of sovereignty, signifies one ominous prospect:

Is PNG endorsing a “death decree” for the Indonesian security apparatus to hunt Papuans along the border and mountainous region of West Papua and Papua New Guinea?

Security for West Papua
Currently, the situation in West Papua is deteriorating steadily. Thousands of Indonesian military personnel have been deployed to various regions in West Papua, especially in the areas afflicted by conflict, such as Nduga, Yahukimo, Maybrat, Intan Jaya, Puncak, Puncak Jaya, Star Mountain, and along the border separating Papua New Guinea from West Papua.

On the 27 February 2024, Indonesian military personnel captured two teenage students and fatally shot a Papuan civilian in the Yahukimo district. They alleged that the deceased individual was affiliated with the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNB), although this assertion has yet to be verified by the TPNPB.

Such incidents are tragically a common occurrence throughout West Papua, as the Indonesian military continue to target and wrongfully accuse innocent West Papuans in conflict-ridden regions of being associated with the TPNPB.

Two West Papuan students who were arrested on the banks of Braza River
Two West Papuan students who were arrested on the banks of Braza River in Yahukimo . . . under the watch of two Indonesian military with heavy SS2 guns standing behind them. Image: Kompas.com

These deplorable acts transpired just prior to the ratification of a border operation agreement between the governments of the Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

As the security agreement was being finalised, the Indonesian government announced a new military campaign in the highlands of West Papua. This operation, is named as “Habema” — meaning “must succeed to the maximum” — and was initiated in Jakarta on the 29 February 2024.

Agus Subiyanto, the Indonesian military command and police command stated during the announcement:

“My approach for Papua involves smart power, a blend of soft power, hard power, and military diplomacy. Establishing the Habema operational command is a key step in ensuring maximum success.”

Indonesian military commander General Agus Subiyanto
Indonesian military commander General Agus Subiyanto (left) with National Police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo (centre) and Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto while checking defence equipment at the TNI headquarters in Jakarta last Wednesday. Prabowo (right) is expected to become President after his decisive victory in the elections last week. Image: Antara News.

The looming military operation in West Papua and its border regions, employing advanced smart weapon technology poised a profound danger for Papuans.

A looming humanitarian crisis in West Papua, PNG, broader Melanesia and the Pacific region is inevitable, as unmanned aerial drones discern targets indiscriminately, wreak havoc in homes, and villages of the Papuan communities.

The Indonesian security forces have increasingly employed such sophisticated technology in conflict zones since 2019, including regions like Intan Jaya, Yahukimo, Maybrat, Pegunungan Bintang, and other volatile regions in West Papua.

Consequently, villages have been razed to the ground, compelling inhabitants to flee to the jungle in search of sanctuary — an exodus that continues unabated as they remain displaced from their homes indefinitely.

On 5 April 2018, the Indonesian government announced a military operation known as Damai Cartenz, which remains active in conflict-ridden regions, such as Yahukimo, Pegunungan Bintang, Nduga, and Intan Jaya.

The Habema security initiative will further threaten Papuans residing in the conflict zones, particularly in the vicinity of the border shared by Papua New Guinea and West Papua.

There are already hundreds of people from the Star Mountains who have fled across to Tumolbil, in the Yapsie sub-district of the PNG province of West Sepik, situated on the border. They fled to PNG because of Indonesia’s military operation (RNZ 2021).

According to RNZ News, individuals fleeing military actions conducted by the Indonesian government, including helicopter raids that caused significant harm to approximately 14 villages, have left behind foot tracks.

The speaker explained that Papua New Guineans occasionally cross over to the Indonesian side, typically seeking improved access to basic services.

The PNG government has been placing refugees from West Papua in border camps, the biggest one being at East Awin in the Western Province for many decades, with assistance from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

How should PNG, UN respond?
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007, article 36, states that “Indigenous peoples, in particular those divided by international borders, have the right to maintain and develop contacts, relations and cooperation with their own members as well as other peoples across borders”.

Over the past six years, regional and international organisations, such as the Melanesian Spearheads groups (MSG), Pacific islands Forum (PIF), Africa, Caribbean and Pacific states (ACP), the UN’s human rights commissioner as well as dozens of countries and individual parliaments, lawyers, academics, and politicians have been asking the Indonesian government to allow the UN’s human rights commissioner to visit West Papua.

However, to date, no response has been received from the Indonesian government.

What does this security deal mean for West Papuans?
This is not just a simple security arrangement between Jakarta and Port Moresby to address border conflicts, but rather an issue of utmost importance for the people of Papua.

It concerns the sovereignty of a nation — West Papua — that has been unjustly seized by Indonesia, while the international community watched in silence, witnessing the unfurling and unparalleled destruction of human lives and the ecological system.

There is one noble thing the foreign minister of PNG and his government can do: ask why Jakarta is not responding to the request for a UN visit made by the international community, rather than endorsing an ‘illegal security pact’ with the illegal Indonesia colonial occupier over his supposed “family members separated only by imaginary lines”.

Ali Mirin is a West Papuan from the Kimyal tribe of the highlands that share a border with the Star Mountain region of Papua New Guinea. He graduated last year with a Master of Arts in International Relations from Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia.

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Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

USP staff vote in favour of strike action over ‘just and fair’ pay rise

By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist

A secret ballot by members of the Association of University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and USP Staff Union have voted in favour of strike action at the institution.

Unofficial results in the poll last Wednesday showed 63 percent in favour, above the needed majority threshold.

AUSPS general secretary Rosalia Fatiaki said staff missed out on salary adjustments in 2019 and 2022.

Fatiaki said the union had not pushed USP at the time to adjust the salaries because they were told the university was in a financial crisis.

The regional university gave staff a two percent pay rise in October 2022, January 2023, and January this year.

However, Fatiaki said it was “way below” the increase needed to match the cost of living in Fiji and unions had not been consulted.

“The management has refused to negotiate salary adjustment and that is what the secret ballot was for,” she said.

USP not engaged
“We now demand that the university be just and fair to staff by looking and negotiating salary adjustments with the union.”

Fatiaki said USP used to contribute an additional two percent above the national minimum for its superannuation contribution to senior staff but this was reduced to the minimum during the covid-19 pandemic and had not returned which the union was demanding.

She said USP had not engaged with the union but had cited financial reasons for withholding pay.

University of the South Pacific (USP) vice-chancellor and president, professor Pal Ahluwalia.
USP’s vice-chancellor Professor Pal Ahluwalia . . . both campus unions hope he will “come to the table”. Image: USP

Fatiaki said this was despite more students being on the USP roll.

She said the union was now waiting on Fiji’s Labour Ministry to advise the on next course of action.

“We have not received a confirmation from [the ministry], they have acknowledged the receipt of the secret ballot results and they are yet to formally provide us that confirmation. So we are awaiting for that and we are expecting that to come through today (Friday).”

Fatiaki said she hoped vice-chancellor Professor Pal Ahluwalia would “come to the table” and take staff grievances seriously.

‘Going round and round’
“We are going round and round and round,” she said.

“Rather than [Professor Ahluwalia] coming to tell us ‘no we can’t, we will not [meet the unions demands]’, he’s sending the representatives to come and talk to us and then they go [and] back to him.

“Now it’s time for him to come to the table and deal with the issues.”

She said staff dissatisfaction with Professor Ahluwalia was not a reason for the strike.

However, she said union members had expressed concerns about the vice-chancellor’s leadership because of “numerous unresolved issues”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Taking the Treaty out of child protection law risks making NZ a global outlier

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic O’Sullivan, Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University

Australia, Canada and New Zealand share similar colonial stories. Historically, New Zealand has been the most interested of the three in thinking about how the universal human rights of equality, dignity and culture might gradually challenge the colonial order.

Australia hasn’t traditionally taken such issues as seriously, as the defeat of last year’s Voice to Parliament referendum suggested. It struggles to address the consequences of its stolen generations practices, while Canada struggles with the consequences of its residential schools legacy.

Both nations’ policies were intended to “breed out” the original inhabitants of those lands. New Zealand used “native schools”, among other measures of assimilation.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) offers an alternative non-colonial vision, however. While always contested, it has sometimes made New Zealand a leader in Indigenous-state relations.

But in the past month, modest policy developments in Australia, and a significant constitutional development in Canada, have highlighted the extent to which New Zealand is becoming an outlier in international Indigenous policy thinking.

Amending the Oranga Tamariki Act

As part of their coalition agreement, the National and ACT parties will remove section 7AA from child protection agency Oranga Tamariki’s governing legislation.

The section came into force in 2019, allowing “strategic partnerships” with iwi (tribes) and other Māori organisations to improve child care and protection.




Read more:
Care and protection, or containment and punishment? How state care fails NZ’s most vulnerable young people


In part, it was a response to successive independent reports finding fault with Oranga Tamariki’s ability to care effectively for children at risk, especially Māori children. Last month, the Ombudsman reported 109 “formal deficiencies” in the agency’s work between 2019 and 2023.

Some might argue section 7AA still gave the state too much power, especially when the agency continues to do such a poor job. But without the section, Māori will again be left without recourse within the act to challenge that state power.

Australia and Canada change course

Meanwhile, the Australian government has this year announced it will establish a National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People. According to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese:

Indigenous children are almost eleven times more likely to be in out-of-home care than non-Indigenous children. The National Commissioner will focus on working with First Nations people on evidence-based programs and policies to turn those figures around.

It’s a simple ambition that won’t change overall power relationships. And it doesn’t have the far-reaching implications of the Supreme Court of Canada finding Indigenous peoples have an “inherent right of self-government, which includes jurisdiction in relation to child and family matters”.

But the notion that evidence counts, and that Indigenous people have a say in what constitutes that evidence, provides a sharp contrast with the current New Zealand government’s plan to remove reference to the Treaty from the Oranga Tamariki Act.




Read more:
Do the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi really give Māori too much power – or not enough?


NZ as outlier

In Australia, some of the evidence Albanese referred to can be found in Safe & Supported: the national framework for protecting Australia’s children. Developed by the federal and state governments, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives and the non-government sector, it sets out various policies and priorities.

These cover the primary role of families, communities and cultures in effective care, holistic support services, and addressing the causes of abuse and neglect. Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act aimed to foster the same things.

Like Australia and New Zealand, Canada retains its colonial outlook. But its acknowledgement of the right of self-government – with reference to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – shows New Zealand is increasingly out of step on Indigenous policy.

Canada says its Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis Children, Youth and Families aims to contribute to the “implementation” of the UN declaration by offering a pathway to just and effective policy.

The province of Québec objected to this federal law on the basis it weakened its own powers. However, Canada’s Supreme Court found against Québec. The national Assembly of First Nations said this paves the way to rebuild their role, as the people who preceded the modern state, in caring for children at risk.

Right to self-determination

The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States were initially the only UN members to vote against it (11 abstained).

Over time, however, all four countries have come to agree with the rest of the world that the declaration didn’t create any new or special rights. It simply recognised that human rights belong to Indigenous peoples as much as to anybody else.

When New Zealand changed its position in 2010, then National Party leader and prime minister John Key said:

My objective is to build better relationships between Māori and the Crown, and I believe that supporting the declaration is a small but significant step in that direction.




Read more:
The state removal of Māori children from their families is a wound that won’t heal – but there is a way forward


Yet in 2023, National’s coalition agreement with NZ First confirmed the previous government’s rejection of the 2019 He Puapua report on how New Zealand might implement the UN declaration.

Importantly, the declaration is not binding on member countries. But its essential premise is that Indigenous peoples have the same right to self-determination as others.

By repealing section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act, and removing the requirement that Maori agencies are involved in decision making, the presumption that child care and protection policy should work equally well for Māori people is diminished.

This also weakens New Zealand’s commitment to the UN declaration’s insistence that Indigenous peoples have:

the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct peoples and shall not be subjected to […] violence […] including forcibly removing children of the group to another group.

Repealing section 7AA sets back New Zealand’s efforts to uphold those rights, at a time when similar countries are taking steps in the opposite direction.

The Conversation

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

ref. Taking the Treaty out of child protection law risks making NZ a global outlier – https://theconversation.com/taking-the-treaty-out-of-child-protection-law-risks-making-nz-a-global-outlier-225443

Sydney Biennale invites us to celebrate our collective resistance in dark times

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christiane Keys-Statham, PhD Candidate, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University

The 24th edition of the Biennale of Sydney, titled Ten Thousand Suns, is an explosion of joy and creative energy across seven venues, including the sails of the Opera House and White Bay Power Station.

This iteration, led by co-artistic directors Inti Guerrero and Cosmin Costinas, includes the work of 96 artists from 45 countries. Guerrero and Costinas proposed an overarching theme of “celebration” for this edition: celebration not only as an event or social practice, but a method of creative and collective resistance in dark times.




Read more:
Explainer: what is a biennale?


The post-industrial sublime

The debut of White Bay Power Station as the Biennale’s new venue and a site for ongoing cultural production is certainly worth celebrating. The Biennale is the first test event at White Bay, Sydney’s newest arts and culture precinct.

The imposing internal spaces provide space for ambitious, celebratory and experiential works. There is Dylan Mooney’s portrait of dancer and activist Malcolm Cole dressed as Captain Cook for Mardi Gras in 1988, and Kaylene Whiskey’s Kaylene TV, an interactive work in the form of a giant television set.

Kaylene TV , 2023 mixed media installation. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain with generous assistance from the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. Courtesy the artist, Iwantja Arts and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery. 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns , White Bay Power Station. Photo by Daniel Boud.

The building’s history as a site of extractive industries is addressed in some works, such as Monira Al Qadiri’s video work, Crude Eye.

Others connect more closely to the curatorial themes of resistance, cultural hybridity and joy, like Andrew Thomas Huang’s suspended sculpture, The Beast of Jade Mountain: Queen Mother of the West, a powerful depiction of the Chinese deity Xiwangmu.

Andrew Thomas Huang, The Beast of Jade Mountain: Queen Mother of the West ( 西王母 ), 2023 – 2024. Polymer, steel, automotive paint. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from Terra Foundation for American Art. Courtesy the artist. 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns , White Bay Power Station. Photo by Daniel Boud.

The challenge for artworks displayed in sites such as White Bay is in the dialogue with the architecture itself. Here, artworks must compete with the visual impact of these spaces and their heritage machinery. This produces an overwhelming sense of the post-industrial sublime: a feeling of awe experienced in the huge and now-defunct “cathedrals of power”.

Curators working in post-industrial spaces often deal with this issue by programming large-scale, immersive installations or works responding directly to the building’s architecture.

Darrell Sibosabo’s Ngarrgidj Morr (the proper path to follow) is an illuminated reframing of traditional riji (pearl shell) designs from Bard Country in Western Australia. These shells have been ceremonially carved and worn for thousands of years. Through his large-scale light works, Sibosabo reiterates Aboriginal culture is alive, pulsing with energy and adaptive to change.

Darrell Sibosado Galalen at Gumiri, 2023 LED light installation. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. Courtesy the artist and N.Smith Gallery, Sydney. 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, White Bay Power Station. Photo by Daniel Boud.

This work simultaneously responds to the building’s scale and connects to the curatorial premise of celebrating cultural practices maintained and reimagined by artists around the world.

Conversations across works and venues

Celebrating multiple perspectives and worldviews, the curators’ expanded notion of art encompasses works by unknown makers, such as the delicate work on amate (tree bark) paper by unrecorded Mexican artists, on display at UNSW Galleries.

The artists have used traditional paper-making practices originating in Mayan and Aztec cultures, banned by Spanish colonisers. This practice continued in secret among at Indigenous communities such as the Otomi, who now create these depictions of cut-out spirits for a commercial market.

Resilience is felt clearly in these works, dissolving the boundaries between collection items collected or stolen as part of colonial museum practices, and artworks continuing cultural practices.

Sibosabo’s work engages across venues in dialogue with the pearl shell collection items at Chau Chak Wing Museum, highlighting the unbroken connections between contemporary art and traditional Indigenous practices.

Also at Chau Chak are enduring celebrations of queer communities and their resistance. Martin Wong’s enigmatic and dreamy visions of urban erotica and William Yang’s candid photographs of young Indigenous dancers celebrate the survival of queer creativity and strength.

Serwah Attafuah, Between this World & the Next, 2023 – 24, installation view. 24th Biennale of Sydney: Ten Thousand Suns, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 2024. Digital 3D render , e-waste, wood, enamel, image courtesy and © the artist. Photograph: Hamish McIntosh.

Feminist world-making is a joyful focus across multiple venues. VNS Matrix at White Bay celebrate their anarchic, collective and anti-capitalist practice. Kubra Khademi at UNSW Galleries creates a feminist universe that refutes the patriarchal order with humour and subversion. Serwah Attafuah at the Museum of Contemporary Art draws us into a surreal cyberscape, extending the curatorial themes of celebration and resistance into the future.

Joy and imagination

The risk in curating so many works in one show, under such a broad theme, is that individual artworks can be contorted to fit within a generalised framework.

The Biennale falls into this trap at times, particularly in venues such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where the sheer amount of artwork on display makes viewing challenging and the curation occasionally feel heavy-handed and didactic.

Another issue is the de-politicisation of individual works, which, when placed together with artworks from other parts of the world, can lose their contextual power of protest. Individual issues and social injustices can become neutralised as they are combined under one broad theme.

Installation view, Ten thousand suns, 24th Biennale of Sydney 2024, Art Gallery of New South Wales, featuring art by Pacific Sisters (foreground ) and Robert Gabris (wall) photo. © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Christopher Snee.

There is occasionally a failure to acknowledge the complexity of artistic responses to trauma and the violent interruption of cultural practices. However, the fact that we are now facing a dark future – with climate chaos well underway and colonialism carrying on in many parts of the world – means we are desperately in need of inspiration and continuing hope.

The artists of the Sydney Biennale provide many strategies for communal strength, joy and imagination to carry us through the dark times ahead, and audiences are sure to join the carnival.




Read more:
Bundanon’s Tales of Land & Sea: three exhibitions working in harmony to discuss loss, migration and colonisation


The Conversation

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

ref. Sydney Biennale invites us to celebrate our collective resistance in dark times – https://theconversation.com/sydney-biennale-invites-us-to-celebrate-our-collective-resistance-in-dark-times-223721

Bell Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is side-splittingly funny – yet some of the magic is lost

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirk Dodd, Lecturer in English and Writing, University of Sydney

Matu Ngaropo and Ahunim Abebe in Bell Shakespeare s A Midsummer Nights Dream. Photo by Brett Boardman

Shakespeare’s delightful A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a perennial favourite – and the production run by the Bell Shakespeare company (first prepared in 2021 but hindered by COVID lockdowns) is a swift and pared-back reimaginging of the play.

It follows the comedy of four lovers – Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius – who are lost in a forest and get tricked by the fairies, King Oberon, Queen Titania and the impish Puck.

The play also features the bumbling mechanicals – a carpenter, a weaver, a bellows-mender, a tinker, a joiner and a tailor – who meet in the forest to rehearse a play to perform at the upcoming wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Athens, Theseus and Hippolyta.

This play within a play, performed at the end, has always brought the house down with sidesplitting laughter, and this show is no exception. It must have been just as hilarious during the play’s first performance, if it’s true that Shakespeare wrote it to be performed at an aristocrat’s wedding.

Finally, Shakespeare for the whole family

Bell Shakespeare promotes the show as “fast, funny and family-friendly”. This is welcome news for theatregoing parents. Few of Shakespeare’s plays are suitable for children, despite there being a significant market for Shakespeare-related books and activities designed for young people.

My two boys received a storybook version of Shakespeare’s plays from family members some years ago, but it’s a delicate operation to tell bedtime stories about the fratricide in Hamlet, the domestic violence of Othello, or the romantic suicides of Romeo and Juliet.

Certainly, Shakespeare’s delightful comedies lend themselves more readily to the young. So taking Bell Shakespeare’s promo at its word, I took my son Heathcliff, aged 9 (who contributes to this review) to the show.

Powerful presence onstage

Seasoned playgoers will be thoroughly impressed by the vibrant and engaging performances of the cast, who make Shakespeare’s language (and their connections to it) ring as clear as a bell. This is harder to achieve than it sounds.

The delightful charisma of Matu Ngaropo as Nick Bottom (the weaver) positions him as a type of leading man. A galvanising force, Ngaropo combines refined flamboyancy and outrageous sensitivity to keep the audience firmly in his pocket.

Matu Ngaropo was a galvanising force onstage.
Brett Boardman

Ella Prince is subtle in their rendering of Puck, the sprightly spirit – so watchable in their intriguing silences and confusion when manipulating mortals.

Richard Pyros gives a commanding performance as Oberon: fastidious and curious, with a propensity for bellowing through the forest. Imogen Sage also shows tremendous range by delivering a sultry Titania, a restrained Hippolyta, and a librarian-esque Quince.

Ella Prince as Puck, Imogen Sage as Titania and Richard Pyros as Oberon in Bell Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights Dream.
Brett Boardman

Finally, the four comic lovers: Hermia (Ahunim Abebe), Helena (Isabel Burton), Demetrius (Mike Howlett) and Lysander (Laurence Young), give feisty performances wholly committed to the verse.

A subtle set and costumes

This is Bell’s national touring play for 2024, and the set design by Teresa Negroponte centres around a dilapidated wooden construct that looks like the roof of an old barn tipped on its side.

But despite this dynamic set (which might double as the shipwreck from The Tempest), there are no leaves or any sort of greenery to help indicate most of the play is set in a forest – no sylvan milieu.

The set, which resembled a rundown wooden barn, didn’t effectively depict the play’s setting in a forest.
Brett Boardman

Indeed, this production seems, in several instances, to presuppose the audience’s familiarity with the play. This can prove confusing for newcomers to Shakespeare.

The costumes are intriguing and subtle if you know the play, but may also be too realistic – too bland and “everyday”. This made it difficult for young people to recognise the kings, queens and fairies.

For example, there was nothing fairylike about the fairies, whose costumes were almost always plain black, with no hint of glitter or sparkles in sight.

As Heathcliff commented: “They all changed into black clothes and called themselves fairies […] I didn’t know they were meant to be fairies until the second half […] they looked more like ghosts.”

“Thou shall wear not black costumes for fairies,” he added.

With actors needing to double (and sometimes triple) character roles, they quickly don a new coat, scarf or hat. But again, these distinctions may be too subtle for newcomers to recognise.

Laurence Young and Ahunim Abebe played Lysander and Hermia, two of the four comic lovers.
Brett Boardman

Heathcliff’s highlights

While the acting proved second-to-none, many typical features of this famous play were absent. Heathcliff found the play “entertaining, but not laugh-out-loud funny”.

His favourite parts were the “horse’s head”, the slow-motion sequences, the fake swords used in the ridiculous staging of Pyramus and Thisbe at the play’s end, and “the man playing the princess” (with hairy chest exposed) – which he thought was funny but a bit odd.

Yet, the performance of Pyramus and Thisbe at the end delivered on its promise. Many of the audience members doubled over in stitches, throwing their heads back with laughter.

I’ll remember this show for the many exemplary renditions of the famous characters, but while Shakespeare’s script is itself family-friendly, the play can be confusing when many of its typical features are pared back to the bone.




Read more:
Friday essay: 50 shades of Shakespeare – how the Bard sexed things up


The Conversation

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

ref. Bell Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is side-splittingly funny – yet some of the magic is lost – https://theconversation.com/bell-shakespeares-a-midsummer-nights-dream-is-side-splittingly-funny-yet-some-of-the-magic-is-lost-223655

Opposition MP Allan Bird claims his ‘life under threat’ after PM nomination

RNZ Pacific

A Papua New Guinea MP who is being touted by the opposition as the next prime minister of the country says “my life is under threat”.

East Sepik governor Allan Bird said that since his nomination, he had been advised of this by a deputy police commissioner, who said they were monitoring the situation.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Bird claimed “senior government ministers” told him his phones had been illegally tapped.

“All the apparatus of state have been put on full alert to hunt down the most dangerous criminal in PNG: his name is Allan Bird,” he wrote on Facebook.

“This is not the country I was born into, this is not the country the founding fathers envisioned.”

He said “reliable sources” had told him various state institutions had been instructed to try and find anything illegal on him, and charge and arrest him.

Last week, Bird told RNZ Pacific the country needed to decentralise power to deal with its challenges.

He said PNG had “very serious challenges”.

“Anyone who fixes these problems will be hated just like Sir Mekere [Morauta] did 25 years ago. Doing what needs to be done is not pretty, but it has to be done. Someone has to be willing to do the hard things.

“Many countries have problems, but not many countries have all those challenges all at the same time. PNG does so right now.

“If the problems aren’t fixed quickly then they will continue to get worse. Most of our people experience these problems every day now. It’s a struggle for survival.”

Part of Governor Bird's FB posting about threats
Part of Governor Bird’s FB posting about threats to his life on 9 March 2024. Image: Screenshot APR

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A trip to the coast, a dip in the pool, and a snow-chilled drink: how ancient Romans kept cool in summer

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lily Moore, PhD Candidate in Classics and Archaeology, The University of Melbourne

The State Hermitage Museum

The dog days of summer are upon us. Or so the ancient Romans named the dies caniculares that followed the rise of the “dog star” Sirius which the ancients believed to signal the oncoming sweltering heat and drought of summer.

As succinctly summarised by Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger “summer returns, with its heat; and we must sweat”.

Summer is that time of year in which the soporific heat of the sun reverberates down upon bodies languorously lying out in the open air of the public pool, park or beach, a cold drink in hand as one tries to beat the heat.

These summer rituals and attempts to stay cool are not unique to us. Such traditions can be traced back thousands of years to the ancient Romans.

A trip to the coast

Like many Australians who flock to the coast and seek solace from the heat of the city streets over the summer, the ancient Romans (those who could afford it) escaped to their vacation villas at the coastal hotspots situated along the southern Italian peninsula.

Ancient Roman ruins, baths in a cave.
This spot still looks nice for a holiday home today.
Shutterstock

These summer homes signalled an increase in luxury and wealth among a rapidly growing Roman upper class during the early first centuries BCE and CE. The coast became the go-to destination spot and social pleasure ground for the wealthy who sought leisure and licentiousness during their annual holidays.

These coastal villas were invariably constructed for the pleasures of the Roman elite, ingeniously designed to follow a series of architectural principles to generate maximum airflow and help the inhabitants stay cool during the blistering heat of summer.

In his architectural treatise, Vitruvius noted houses should be built “in reference to the sun’s course” with rooms occupied during the summer months following a northern or northeastern aspect to avoid the oppressive heat but still allow maximum light and comfort.




Read more:
From washing machines to computers: how the ancients invented the modern world


A dip in the pool

As they are for many of us during summer, public baths were an integral part of everyday life in ancient Rome. This social practice originated sometime during the middle republic (roughly the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE), becoming an essential daily routine for those at almost all levels of society and intrinsic to the fabricated design of the city.

Roman baths afforded a shared space for social interaction, the rooms humming with the titillations of current gossip and news shared among friends, as well as offering a commonplace location for social networking, drinking and relaxing, and engaging in various exercises in the pursuit of health.

Two women bathe
Public baths: great for keeping cool – and sharing gossip.
Tate, CC BY-NC-SA

This social mingling was not without its annoyances. In a fit of moral angst, Seneca the Younger proclaimed against “the enthusiast who plunges into the swimming tank with unconscionable noise and splashing” – this vexatious figure perhaps not unfamiliar to those of us who frequent the local pool.

A body fit for summer

Seneca further complained that his contemporaries lived in a state of excessive luxury by requiring the ability to swim and tan concurrently.

The Romans were no strangers to the ostentatious social currency of the summer tan. In an epigram addressed to one of his patrons embarking on a summer vacation, the poet Martial mirthfully implored him to “inhale the fervid rays of the sun at every pore” so his “pale-faced friends” would “envy the colour” of his tan.

Sculpture of a toned male torso.
Even ancient Romans strove for a ‘summer body’.
Getty Museum

The arrival of summer invariably brings to mind the perennial cultural fixation of the “summer body”: impeccably groomed, sun-kissed and surreptitiously toned. Like us, ancient Romans had the option of attending the public baths for a bit of exercise, followed by a steam, sauna and hot water swim, finished off with a refreshing swim in the cold pools of the frigidarium.

Optional was a dose of depilation: body hair removal was all the rage for much of the Roman Empire and was offered at the public baths, along with massages and body oiling.

A nice cool drink

Presentations of luxury extended into other summertime proclivities such as imbibing chilled or frozen drinks. The Romans concocted the summertime favourite of an iced drink – a “device of ingenious thirst” – by storing snow in underground chambers.

Certain varieties of wine were also chilled or watered down with frozen snow.

Boy with a Floral Garland in His Hair
Perhaps the boy in this painting from ca. 200-230 C.E. was having a nice cool summer drink?
Brooklyn Museum

Writers such as Vitruvius and Seneca noted that this penchant for iced drinks was a signifier of excessive opulence and wealth. Indeed, as a symbol of his performative grandeur, the Emperor Nero not only consumed cold drinks but was purportedly accustomed to baths cooled with snow during the summer.

Cold water was thought to be medically beneficial for those suffering in the heat. Roman encyclopaedist Celsus recommended those who suffered from a “weak head” in the sun to run it under a stream of cold water.

While you lay by the pool working on your summer tan, or perhaps gossip with a friend over an icy drink at your beach side vacation spot, know you are engaging in time-honoured traditions dating back thousands of years. This summer, let’s do as the ancient Romans did. Frosé, anyone?




Read more:
A newly uncovered ancient Roman winery featured marble tiling, fountains of grape juice and an extreme sense of luxury


The Conversation

Lily 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.

ref. A trip to the coast, a dip in the pool, and a snow-chilled drink: how ancient Romans kept cool in summer – https://theconversation.com/a-trip-to-the-coast-a-dip-in-the-pool-and-a-snow-chilled-drink-how-ancient-romans-kept-cool-in-summer-214461

Stop treating Bougainville lightly, Sir Puka warns Marape

PNG Post-Courier

Opposition spokesperson for Bougainville affairs Sir Puka Temu has warned the Papua New Guinea government not to take the Bougainville ratification process lightly and has called for an urgent leadership meeting.

He urged Prime Minister James Marape and his Minister for Bougainville Affairs, Manasseh Makibato, convene an urgent meeting between the two governments.

Sir Puka said that the government’s inability to ratify the referendum results last year went against the understanding set out in the Era Kone Covenant and the Wabag Roadmap by both the Autonomous Bougainville government (ABG) and the government of PNG.

“Prime Minister James Marape and the Minister for Bougainville Affairs need to come out clearly on when they will ratify the referendum results in Parliament and give their assurance that they will not fail on their part of the agreement,” Sir Puka said.

“The ratification is the responsibility of the national government and not the ABG’s.

“The people of Bougainville did their part by peacefully conducting the referendum and engaging in meaningful dialogue with the national government on when to ratify the results.

“The Marape/PANGU-led government have already failed their end of the bargain to ratify the results in 2023. And they are continuing to fail the people of Bougainville by delaying their decision on when the results will be ratified.

PM ‘not serious’
“It is evident the Prime Minister and his government are not serious about Bougainville, as there was no mention of it in the first sitting of Parliament this year had it not been for a question without notice from the Member for North Bougainville Francesca
Semoso.

“If the government were serious about ratifying the results, they would have made the ratification a priority of theirs on the first sitting of Parliament.

“Yet the government has opted to adjourn Parliament to May 28 nearly halfway through the year, and even then, the ratification of the results are not guaranteed to be a business of the Parliament.

“With the ABG presidential elections set for next year, the people and leaders of
Bougainville are running out of time.”

Sir Puka said Marape had had more than five years to ratify the referendum results, yet there had been many promises and little action.

“James Marape is in fact the post-referendum prime minister – it is his leadership that will coincide with the future of Bougainville, and he must not take that status lightly,” Sir Puka said.

Now that Marape had exhausted his international trips over the last two
years, he should pay serious attention to the pressing issue domestically.

‘Delaying and distracting’
The leaders and people of Bougainville would soon catch on to Marape-led government’s approach of “delaying and distracting”.

“ABG President Ishmael Toroama and his leaders have been very diplomatic, very
patient, and understanding throughout this ongoing process, however, Mr Marape must not think that this considerate treatment will last forever.

“I also appeal to the four Bougainvillean MPs in government to critically assess if Mr Marape is doing all he can in his powers to fulfill the results of the referendum.

“Three of you are in PANGU Pati yet the party leader and your fellow colleague PANGU MP and Minister for Bougainville Affairs are causing rifts and not results.

“The people of Bougainville have decided, and regardless of the ratification process that continues to be delayed, those results will still be there in history. The ball is in the government’s side of the court to guide this process or stand by and watch if they take too long.”

Sir Puka also said he would ask to meet President Toroama to formally discuss the opposition’s alternative policies and position regarding Bougainville as the shadow minister.

Republished with permission.

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Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Hundreds of tariffs to go from July 1 in biggest unilateral tariff cut in decades

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

The Albanese government will abolish almost 500 so-called “nuisance” import tariffs from July 1.

Items set to become tariff-free include toothbrushes, hand tools, fridges, dishwashers, clothing, and menstrual and sanitary products. The tariff on such products is 5%. The cost to the budget has not yet been announced, partly because the plan is subject to consultations.

The decision will be the centrepiece of a speech Treasurer Jim Chalmers will make to a business audience in Sydney on Monday. Later, in another speech this week, Chalmers will set out some directions for the May budget.

The government says this is “the biggest unilateral tariff reform in at least two decades”, hailing it as a gain for productivity.

“It will cut compliance costs, reduce red tape, make it easier to do business, and boost productivity,” the government said in a statement, adding these tariffs do not protect Australian businesses.

The reforms were an important step in simplifying Australian trade, and would particularly assist small and medium-sized firms.

“After successive trade agreements, most goods are now imported duty-free. This means that businesses spend time and money proving their imports are eligible for existing tariff preferences and concessions, a compliance cost they often pass on to consumers, ” the statement said.

Cheaper toothbrushes, tools and tampons

Chalmers said: “Tariff reform will also provide a small amount of extra help with the cost-of-living challenge by making everyday items such as toothbrushes, tools, fridges, dishwashers and clothing just a little bit cheaper”.

The changes will scrap 14% of Australia’s total tariffs, streamlining about $8.5 billion worth of annual trade. Businesses will save more than $30 million in compliance costs each year, on the government’s estimate.

A Productivity Commission report in 2020 defined nuisance tariffs as

tariffs that raise little revenue, have negligible benefits for producers, but impose compliance burdens

It said the administrative costs of collecting these tariffs amounted to $11 million to $20 million per year.

The government gave the following list of examples of products set to see the removal of the 5% customs duties and what revenue the tariffs currently raise annually:

  • Washing machines with annual imports worth over $490 million, raise less than $140,000 in revenue per year

  • Fridge-freezers with imports worth over $668 million – less than $28,000

  • Tyres for agricultural vehicles, tractors or other machines with imports worth over $102 million – less than $10,000

  • Protective footwear with imports worth $160 million – less than $112,000

  • Toothbrushes with imports worth over $84 million – less than $22,000

  • Menstrual and sanitary products with over $211 million worth of imports – less than $3 million

  • X-ray film with over $160,000 in imports – less than $200

  • Chamois leather with $100,000 in imports – less than $1,000

  • Pyjamas with almost $108 million in imports – less than $120,000

  • Fishing reels with over $50 million in imports – less than $140,000

  • Rollercoasters with over $16 million in imports – less than $40,000

  • Dodgem cars with over $2 million in imports – less than $15,000

  • Ballpoint pens with imports worth over $57 million – less than $95,000

  • Toasters with imports worth over $49 million – less than $1,000

  • Electric blankets with imports worth over $31 million – less than $5,000

  • Bamboo chopsticks with over $3 million in imports – less than $3,000.

Removing tariffs on menstrual and sanitary items will align tariff policy settings with changes previously made to the GST.

The government said consultation on the proposed initial reforms is underway, with submissions open on the Treasury website and closing on April 1.

“The tariffs identified have been selected because their abolition will deliver benefits for businesses without adversely impacting Australian industries or constraining Australia in sensitive FTA negotiations,” the government said in its statement.

The full list of abolished tariffs will be finalised and provided in the May budget.




Read more:
How a secret plan 50 years ago changed Australia’s economy forever, in just one night


Chalmers said:“This is meaningful economic reform that will deliver meaningful benefits to businesses of all sizes around Australia.

“These tariffs impose a regulatory burden on Australian businesses and raise the costs of imported goods but they do little to protect our workers and businesses because they apply to goods that are mostly already eligible for duty-free importation.

“These tariff reforms will be better for businesses, better for consumers and better for the economy.”

Trade Minister Don Farrell said: “With one in four Australian jobs trade-related, and 27% of Australia’s economic output supported by trade, the importance of trade to Australia’s national wellbeing cannot be overstated.

“Trade that is simple, fast, and cost-effective can boost Australia’s international competitiveness, help create jobs, and reduce cost of living pressures.”

The Whitlam government began the journey to cut protection by cutting tariffs 25% across-the-board. The Hawke-Keating governments in the late 1980s and early 1990s undertook comprehensive tariff reductions and the elimination of import quotas.

The Howard government cut most tariffs to no more than 5% and many to zero.

The Conversation

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

ref. Hundreds of tariffs to go from July 1 in biggest unilateral tariff cut in decades – https://theconversation.com/hundreds-of-tariffs-to-go-from-july-1-in-biggest-unilateral-tariff-cut-in-decades-225444

Mediawatch: Apocalypse now for NZ news – take 2?

Television New Zealand’s proposals to balance its worsening books by killing news and current affairs programmes mean New Zealanders could end up with almost no national current affairs on TV within weeks.

It is a response to digital era changes in technology, viewing and advertising — but also the consequence of political choices.

“I can see that I’ve chosen a good night to come on,” TVNZ presenter Jack Tame said mournfully on his stint as a Newstalk ZB panelist last Wednesday.

The news that TVNZ news staff had been told to “watch their inboxes” the next morning had just broken.

It was less than a week since Newshub’s owners had announced a plan to close it completely in mid-year and TVNZ had reported bad financial figures for the last half of 2023.

The following day — last Thursday — TVNZ’s Midday News told viewers 9 percent of TVNZ staff — 68 people in total — would go in a plan to balance the books.

“The broadcaster has told staff that its headcount is high and so are costs,” said reporter Kim Baker-Wilson starkly on TVNZ’s Midday.

On chopping block
Twenty-four hours later, it was one of the shows on the chopping block — along with late news show Tonight and TVNZ’s flagship weekly current affairs show Sunday.

“As the last of its kind — is that what we want in our media landscape . . . to have no in-depth current affairs show?” said Sunday presenter Miriama Kamo (also the host of the weekend show Marae).

Consumers investigator Fair Go — with a 47-year track record as one of TVNZ’s most popular local shows — will also be gone by the end of May under this plan.

TVNZ staff in Auckland
People at TVNZ’s building in central Auckland. Photo: RNZ/Marika Khabazi

If Newshub vanishes from rival channel Three by mid year, there will be just one national daily TV news bulletin left — TVNZ’s 1News — and no long form current affairs at all, except TVNZ’s Q+A and others funded from the public purse by NZ on Air and Te Mangai Paho.

Tellingly, weekday TVNZ shows which will carry on — Breakfast and Seven Sharp — are ones which generate income from “partner content” deals and “integrated advertising” — effectively paid-for slots within the programmes.

TVNZ had made it known cuts were coming months ago because costs were outstripping fast-falling revenue as advertisers tightened their belts or spent elsewhere.

TVNZ executives had also made it clear that reinforcing TVNZ’s digital-first strategy would be a key goal as well as just cutting costs.

Other notable cut
So the other notable service to be cut was a surprise — the youth-focused digital-native outlet Re: News.

After its launch in 2017, its young staff revived a mothballed studio and gained a reputation for hard work — and then for the quality of its work.

It won national journalism awards in the past two years and reached younger people who rarely if ever turn on a television set.

Reportedly, the staff of Re: News staff is to be halved and lose some of its leaders.

The main media workers’ union E tū said it will fight to save jobs and extend the short consultation period.

Some staff made it plain that they weren’t giving up just yet either and would present counter-proposals to save shows and jobs.

In a statement, TVNZ said the proposals “in no way relate to the immense contribution of the teams that work on those shows and the significant journalistic value they’ve provided over the years”.

Money-spinners
But some were money-spinners too.

Fair Go and Sunday still pull in big six-figure live primetime TV audiences and more views now on TVNZ+. Its marketers frequently tell the advertisers that.

TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnell knows all about that. She was previously TVNZ’s commercial director.

So why kill off these programmes now?

Jodi O'Donnell, new TVNZ chief executive
TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnell . . . “I’ve been quite open with the fact that there are no sacred cows.” Image: TVNZ

Mediawatch’s requests to talk to O’Donnell and TVNZ’s executive editor of news Phil O’Sullivan were unsuccessful.

But O’Donnell did talk to Newstalk ZB on Friday night.

“I’ve been quite open with the fact that there are no sacred cows. And we need to find some ways to stop doing some things for us to reduce our costs,” O’Donnell told Newstalk ZB.

“TVNZ’s still investing over $40 million in news and current affairs — so we absolutely believe in the future of news and current affairs. But we have a situation right now that our operating model is more expensive than the revenue that we’re making. And we have to make some really tough, tough decisions,” she said.

“We’ll constantly be looking at things to keep the operating model in line with what our revenue is. Within the TVNZ Act it’s clear that we need to be a commercial broadcaster, We are a commercial business, so that’s the remit that we need to work on.

“Our competitors these days are not (Newstalk ZB) or Sky or Warner Brothers (Discovery) but Google and Meta. These are multi-trillion dollar organisations. Ninety cents of every dollar spent in digital news advertising is going offshore. That’s 10 cents left for the likes of NZME, TVNZ, Stuff and any of the other local broadcasters.”

Jack Tame also pointed the finger at the titans of tech on his Newstalk ZB Saturday show.

Force of digital giants ‘irrepressible’
“Ultimately the force of those digital giants is irrepressible. Trying to save free-to-air commercial TV, with quality news, current affairs and local programming in a country with five million people . . .  is like trying to bail out the Titanic with an empty ice cream container. I’m not aware of any comparable broadcast markets where they’ve managed to pull it off,” he told listeners.

But few countries have a state-owned yet fully-commercial broadcaster trying to do news on TV and online, disconnected from publicly-funded ones also doing news on TV and radio and online.

That makes TVNZ a state-owned broadcaster that serves advertisers as much as New Zealanders.

But if things had panned out differently a year ago, that wouldn’t be the case now either.

What if the public media merger had gone ahead?
A new not-for-profit public media entity incorporating RNZ and TVNZ — Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media (ANZPM)  — was supposed to start one year ago this week.

It would have been the biggest media reform since the early 1990s.

The previous government was prepared to spend more than $400 million over four years to get it going.

Almost $20 million was spent on a programme called Strong Public Media, put in place because New Zealand’s media sector was weak.

“Ailing” was the word that the business case used, noting “increased competition from overseas players slashed the share of revenue from advertising.”

But the Labour government killed the plan before the last election, citing the cost of living crisis.

The new entity would still have needed TVNZ’s commercial revenue, but if it had gone ahead, would that mean TVNZ wouldn’t now be sacrificing news shows and journalists?

Tracey Martin has been named as the head of a new governance group.
Tracey Martin who had been named as chair of the board charged with getting ANZPM up and running . . . “Nobody’s surprised. Surely nobody is surprised that this ecosystem is not sustainable any longer.” Image: RNZ/Nate McKinnon

“Nobody’s surprised. Surely nobody is surprised that this ecosystem is not sustainable any longer. Something radical had to change,” Tracey Martin — the chair of the board charged with getting ANZPM up and running — told Mediawatch.

“I don’t have any problem believing that (TVNZ) would have had to change what they were delivering. But would it have been cuts to news and current affairs that we would have been seeing? There would have been other decisions made because commerciality . . . was not the major driver (of ANZPM),” Martin said.

“That was where we started from. If Armageddon happens — and all other New Zealand media can no longer exist — you have to be there as the Fourth Estate — to make sure that New Zealanders have a place to go to for truth and trust.”

What were the assumptions about the advertising revenue TVNZ would have been able to pull in?

“[TVNZ] was telling us that it wouldn’t be as bad as we believed it would be. TVNZ modeling was not as dramatic as our modeling. We were happy to accept that [because] our modeling gave us a particular window by which to change the ecosystem in which New Zealand media could survive to try and stabilise,” Martin told Mediawatch.

The business case document tracked TVNZ revenue and expenses from 2012 until 2020 — the start of the planning process for the new entity.

By 2020, a sharp rise in costs already exceeded revenue which was above $300 million.

And as we now know, TVNZ revenue has fallen further and more quickly since then.

“We were predicting linear TV revenue was going to continue to drop substantially and relatively quickly — and they were not going to be able to switch their advertising revenue at the same capacity to digital,” Martin said.

“They had more confidence than we did,” she said.

The ANZPM legislation estimated it as a $400 million a year operation, with roughly half the funding from public sources and half from commercial revenue.

TVNZ’s submission said that was “unambitious”.

TVNZ CEO Simon Power addressing Parliament's EDSI committee last Thursday on the ANZPM legislation.
Then TVNZ CEO Simon Power addressing Parliament’s EDSI committee last year on the ANZPM legislation. Image: Screenshot/EDSI Committee Facebook

“If the commercial arm of the new entity can aid in gaining more revenue to reinvest into local content and to reinvest into public media outcomes, all the better,” the chief executive at the time Simon Power told Mediawatch in 2023.

“It was a very rosy picture they painted. They had a mandate to be a commercial business that had to give confidence to the advertisers and the rest of New Zealand but they were very confident two years ago that this wouldn’t happen,” she said.

In opposition, National Party leader Christopher Luxon described the merger as “ideological and insane” and “a solution looking for a problem”.

He wasn’t alone.

National Party MP Melissa Lee
Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee . . . Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver

But if that was based on TVNZ’s bullish assessments of its own revenue-raising capacity — or a disregard of a probable downturn ahead, was that a big mistake?

“I won’t comment for today’s government, but statements being made in the last couple of days about people getting their news from somewhere else; truth and trust has dropped off; linear has got to be transferred into the digital environment . . . none of those things are new comments,” Martin told Mediawatch.

“They’re all in the documentation that we placed into the public domain — and I asked the special permission, as the chair of the ANZPM group, to brief spokespersons for broadcasting of the Greens, Act and National to try and make sure that everybody has as much and as much information as we could give them,” she said.

Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee said this week she was working on proposals to help the media to take to cabinet.

“I don’t give advice to the minister, but I would advise officials to go back and pull out the business case and paperwork for ANZPM — and to look at the submissions and the number of people who supported the concept, but had concerns about particular areas,” Tracey Martin told Mediawatch.

“Don’t let perfection get in the way of action.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Prabowo says democracy ‘messy and costly’, calls for improvement

Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto discusses democracy (in English) at the Mandiri Investment Forum on March 5. Video: Kompas TV

By Dani Prabowo in Jakarta

Indonesia’s Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto — the man expected to become President after his decisive win in last month’s elections — says democracy in the country is still messy and very costly.

Prabowo said he was still not satisfied with the implantation of democracy in his homeland.

He said there was a need for improvement to democracy in the future.

“Let me testify that democracy is really very, very exhausting. Democracy is very, very messy, democracy is very, very costly,” Prabowo said during a speech in English at the Mandiri Investment Forum last week.

The speech was broadcast online on the Kompas TV YouTube channel last Tuesday.

“And we are still not satisfied with our democracy. There is a lot of room for improvement”, he said.

Prabowo also said he appreciated the participation of the Indonesian people in the 2024 elections which reached 80 percent.

Participation ‘not bad’
According to Prabowo, the electoral participation in Indonesia was not bad — especially when compared to other countries that adhere to a democratic system but where voter participation did not reach 50 percent.

“In our elections, voter participation reached 80 percent. An average of 80 percent. That isn’t bad,” he said.

“Bearing in mind many countries, democratic countries, sometimes the turnout is less than 50 percent.”

The presidential candidate referred to his experience in the 2024 elections where, because of the vast size of Indonesia, he could not visit all the existing provinces.

Of the 38 provinces in the country, Prabowo said he had only been able to visit around 26.

However, he promised that after the elections he would visit the rest of the provinces that he had never visited.

“But after this election I still have to go to and visit those provinces (which I’ve not yet visited). Because I promised [them] that I will visit,” he added.

Prabowo has faced criticism in the Melanesian provinces of West Papua region by indigenous people seeking self-determination because of his troubled human rights record in both Papua and Timor-Leste.

Translated by James Balowski for Indoleft News. The Kompas author is unrelated to Minister Prabowo. The original title of the article was “Prabowo: Demokrasi Sangat Berantakan dan Mahal, Ada Banyak Ruang untuk Perbaikan”.

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Chlöe Swarbrick to replace NZ’s outgoing Green Party co-leader James Shaw

RNZ News

Outspoken MP Chlöe Swarbrick will be the Green Party’s new co-leader alongside Marama Davidson, as climate change specialist James Shaw steps down.

Last month, Shaw said he would be stepping down from his duties as co-leader in March.

Dunedin-based activist and conservationist Alex Foulkes had put his hand up too for the role but announced on Sunday that he had conceded defeat. Swarbrick received 169 votes from party delegates, Foulkes received no votes.

Speaking to media today, Swarbrick, the MP for Auckland Central, thanked both Davidson — who could not be at the conference because she had covid-19 — and Shaw.

She said the Greens were a party that would speak for all voices in New Zealand, and believed it could make changes for the better of all in New Zealand, sharing finite resources “justly and equitably” as well as protecting the environment.

“We know our environment is not an endless resource to keep drawing from — we know there is enough to go around.”

She said the Green Party “care a lot about whakapapa”, and described Shaw as a “giant” whose shoulders the Green Party stands upon.

‘No-one stands alone’
“We know as the late great Efeso Collins put it, that: ‘No-one stands alone, no-one succeeds alone, and no-one suffers alone’.

“James Shaw is one of those giants who have contributed decades to our movement, his enduring legacy of the Zero Carbon Act and establishing the Independent Climate Change Commission will hold this and all future governments to account on the scientific non-negotiables of a liveable planet.

Greens elect Chloë Swarbrick as new co-leader. Video: RNZ News

“We can take world-leading climate action that also improves people’s lives. We can provide a guaranteed minimum income for all, we can protect our oceans, we can have functional public transport, we can invest properly in our public services and housing, education and health-care, if we have the political courage to implement the tax system to do so.

“And the Greens have that political courage.”

Swarbrick also praised Davidson: “I have been inspired by her strength, the clarity of her conviction and her embodiment of our Green values every single day . . . ”

Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw
Chlöe Swarbrick praises co-leader Marama Davidson (pictured0, who could not attend today’s conference due to covid-19, and outgoing co-leader James Shaw. Image: RNZ/Angus Dreaver

Swarbrick criticised the government’s 100-day plan and said, as Green co-leader, she was equally as comfortable marching in the streets as she was in Parliament.

“The Greens’ see you, we hear you and we will represent you in the halls of power.”

Democracy can work better
Change would “require human cooperation on a scale we have never seen before”, she said: “Democracy can work better for all of us.

“Politics belongs to those who show up, and we need everyday people to not leave politics to the politicians or we’ll get what we’ve got”.

The Greens were concerned about a drift to the right side of politics in New Zealand, she said.

Change would not come “from top down vested interest”, she said.

“Legacy politics is not working to serve people and the planet.”

Swarbrick said both the “red and blue” parties were tying up votes in a duopoly, and not serving voters effectively: “I believe we are the leading voice on the left.”

In a statement earlier today, Swarbrick thanked the party’s members and reiterated the Greens’ vision for the future.

Decent life for all
“Aotearoa can be a place where everyone has what they need to live a decent life, and our natural world is restored and protected, on a foundation honouring te Tiriti o Waitangi. That is the Greens’ vision, and one we work to see realised every single day.”

Shaw said there was no-one else he would rather take his place as co-leader than Swarbrick.

“Ever since I first sat down to coffee with her after her mayoral campaign in 2016 she has struck me as a remarkable leader with an extraordinary belief in the power of people to make a difference.

“Her passion and strength is second to none, and alongside Marama, will lead the Greens to make even more of a difference in the future.”

Davidson said it was fantastic to be have Swarbrick by her side, leading their biggest caucus.

“Chlöe is an incredible MP, colleague, and friend. She has proven time and time again her unique ability to mobilise communities to push for the change Aotearoa needs,” Davidson said in a statement.

“It has never been more important for there to be a strong voice for an Aotearoa that works for everyone, where everyone is supported to live good lives, in warm dry homes, and where we take bold action to cut pollution and protect native wildlife,” she said.

‘Fighting for the future’
“Chlöe and I will be in communities up and down Aotearoa working with people to build an unprecedented grassroots movement fighting for the future Aotearoa deserves.”

Alex Foulkes
Dunedin-based activist and conservationist Alex Foulkes . . . only challenger. Image: RNZ News

Foulkes, who admitted defeat in the co-leadership race, congratulated Swarbrick and said she would do an incredible job.

“I am confident Chlöe and Marama will lead the party from strength to strength.

“I have enjoyed the debate with Chlöe and the party members and would like to commend and thank the party staff for the efficient organisation of the election and the members for their engagement and respectful, intelligent, and thoughtful questions throughout this process.”

He described her as “one of the most talented politicians in Aotearoa New Zealand”, and said he never expected to win against her.

“Indeed, someone suggested to me that I had more chance of spotting the fabled South-Island kokako than winning this election.”

However, he said his goal in contesting was to discuss and debate policies. Last month, he put forward a radical manifesto, outlining his vision.

Who is Chlöe Swarbrick?
Ranked third on the party list, the Auckland Central MP appeared to be the popular choice from when Shaw made his announcement.

After losing the mayoral race in 2016, she joined the Green Party.

Winning the Auckland Central seat in 2020 and becoming the country’s youngest MP in 42 years, she has proven her popularity from early on.

She is the first Green MP ever to hold on to a seat for more than one term after winning again in the 2023 elections.

Swarbrick denied leadership ambitions in 2022, when more than 25 percent of delegates at the party’s annual general meeting voted to reopen Shaw’s position.

She has regularly registered in preferred prime minister polls ahead of the party’s co-leaders.

Last year, she had to apologise to Parliament a week after saying in the debating chamber Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had lied — a breach of parliamentary rules.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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‘Not complicated’ over killing children, Swarbrick tells Gaza ceasefire rally

Asia Pacific Report

About 5000 protesters calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israeli’s genocidal  war on Gaza took today part in a rally in Auckland’s Te Komititanga Square and a march up Queen Street in the business heart of New Zealand’s largest city.

This was one of a series of protests across more than 25 cities and towns across Aotearoa New Zealand in one of the biggest demonstrations since the war began last October 7.

Many passionate Palestinian and indigenous Māori speakers and a Filipino activist condemned the Israeli settler colonial project over the destruction caused in the occupation of Palestinian lands and the massive loss of civilian lives in the war.

The most rousing cheers greeted Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick who condemned the killing of “more than 30,000 innocent civilian lives” — most of them women and children with International Women’s Day being celebrated yesterday.

“The powers that be want you to think it is complicated . . .,” she said. “it’s not. Here’s why.

“We should all be able to agree that killing children is wrong.

“We should all be able to agree that indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians who have been made refugees in their own land is wrong,” she said and was greeted with strong applause.

“Everybody in power who disagrees with that is wrong.”

‘Stop the genocide’
Chants of shame followed that echoing the scores of placards and banners in the crowd declaring such slogans as “Stop the genocide”, “From Gaza to Paekākāriki, this govt doesn’t care about tamariki. Free Palestine”, “Women for a free Palestine”, “Unlearn lies about Palestine”, “Food not bombs for the tamariki of Gaza”, “From the river to the sea . . . aways was, always will be. Ceasefire now.”

Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick addressing the crowd
Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick (third from left) addressing the crowd . . . “killing children is wrong.” Image: David Robie/APR

Three young girls being wheeled in a pram held a placard saying “Yemen, Yemen, make us proud, turn another ship around”, in reference to a protest against the New Zealand government joining a small US-led group of nations taking reprisals against Yemen.

The Yemeni Houthis are blockading the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestine to prevent ships linked to Israel, UK or the US from getting through the narrow waterway. They say they are taking this action under the Genocide Convention.

Swarbrick vowed that the Green Party — along with Te Māori Pati — the only political party represented at the rally, would pressure the conservative coalition government to press globally for an immediate ceasefire, condemnation of Israeli atrocities, restoration of funding to the Palestine refugee relief agency UNRWA, and expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.

Meanwhile, as protests took place around the country, national chair John Minto of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) declared on social media from Christchurch that “[Prime Minister] Christopher Luxon and [Foreign Minister] Winston Peters can’t find the energy to tweet for an end to Israel’s genocidal starvation of Palestinians in Gaza”.

He added that Israel continued to turn away humanitarian convoys of desperately needed aid from northern Gaza.

“But PM Christopher Luxon has been silent while FM Winston Peters has been indolent.”

Palestine will be free"
Palestine will be free” . . . three friends show their solidarity for occupied Palestine. Image: David Robie/APR

Death toll rising
Al Jazeera reports that the death toll is ris­ing as Is­rael in­ten­si­fies at­tacks on Rafah in southern Gaza, and also in cen­tral Gaza.

Three more children have died of malnutrition and dehydration at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, according to health officials, taking the total confirmed toll from starvation to 23.

The US military has denied responsibility for an airdrop of humanitarian aid that Gaza officials say killed five people and injured several others when parachutes failed to open while Israeli forces again opened fire on aid seekers in northern Gaza.

President Joe Biden’s plan of a temporary port for maritime delivery of aid has been widely condemned by UN officials and other critics as an “election year ploy”.

Dr Rami Khouri, of the American University of Beirut, said the plan was “a ruse most of the world can see through”. It could give Israel even tighter control over what gets into the Gaza Strip in the future while completing “the ethnic cleansing of Palestine”.

"All children are precious"
“All children are precious” . . . a child and her mother declare their priorities at the protest. Image: David Robie/APR

Protesters stop US lecturer
Wellington Scoop reports that students and activist groups at Victoria University of Wellington yesterday protested against a lecture by the US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Dr Bonnie Jenkins.

Dr Jenkins is a senior official in charge of AUKUS implementation, a military alliance currently between Australia, UK and USA.

About 150 people, mostly students from groups including Justice for Palestine, Student Justice for Palestine-Pōneke (SJP), Stop AUKUS and Peace Action Wellington rallied outside the university venue in Pipitea to protest against further collaborations with the US.

A peaceful protest was undertaken inside the lecture hall at the same time.

An activist began by calling for “a moment of silence for all the Palestinians killed by the US-funded genocide in Gaza”.

He then condemned the weapons that the US was sending to Gaza, before eventually being ejected from the lecture theatre.

Shortly after, another activist stood up and said “Karetao o te Kāwana kakīwhero!” (“Puppets of this redneck government”) and quoted from the women’s Super Rugby Aupiki team Hurricanes Poua’s revamped haka: “Mai te awa ki te moana (From the river to the sea), free free Palestine!”

"You don't have to be a Muslim"
“You don’t have to be a Muslim to support Palestine – just be human” . . . says this protester on the eve of Ramadan. Image: David Robie/APR

Video on ‘imperialism’
Dr Jenkins was ushered away for the second time. Subsequently a couple of activists took to speaking and playing a video about how AUKUS represented US imperialism.

When organisers later came in to announce that Dr Jenkins would not be continuing with her lecture, chants of “Free, free Palestine!” filled the room.

“For five months, Aotearoa has been calling for our government to do more to stop the genocide in Gaza. And for years, we have been calling our governments to stand against Israel’s occupation of Palestine,” said Samira Zaiton, a Justice for Palestine organiser.

“We are now at the juncture of tightening relations with settler colonies who will only destroy more lives, more homes and more lands and waters. We want no part in this. We want no part in AUKUS.”

Dr Jenkins’ lecture was organised by Victoria University’s Centre for Strategic Studies, to address “security challenges in the 21st century”.

Valerie Morse, an organiser with Peace Action Wellington, said: “Experts on foreign policy and regional diplomacy have done careful research on the disastrous consequences of involving ourselves with AUKUS.

“Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa is not a nuclear testing ground and sacrifice zone for US wars.”

"When silence is betrayal"
“When silence is betrayal” . . . motorcycle look at today’s rally. Image: David Robie/APR
The Israeli military's "murder machine"
The Israeli military’s “murder machine” . . . “there’s no good reason for bombing children”. Image: David Robie/APR
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The Great Barrier Reef’s latest bout of bleaching is the fifth in eight summers – the corals now have almost no reprieve

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Terry Hughes, Distinguished Professor, James Cook University

For the fifth time in just the past eight summers – 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and now 2024 – huge swathes of the Great Barrier Reef are experiencing extreme heat stress that has triggered yet another episode of mass coral bleaching.

Including two earlier heating episodes – in 1998 (which was at the time the hottest year globally on record) and 2002 – this brings the tally to seven such extreme events in the past 26 years.

The most conspicuous impact of unusually high temperatures on tropical and subtropical reefs is wide-scale coral bleaching and death. Sharp spikes in temperature can destroy coral tissue directly even before bleaching unfolds. Consequently, if temperatures exceed 2°C above the normal summer maximum, heat-sensitive corals die very quickly.

Reef Health Update (8 March 2024) Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

What is coral bleaching?

Bleaching happens when marine heatwaves disrupt the relationship between corals and their “photosynthetic symbionts” – tiny organisms that live inside the corals’ tissues and help power their metabolism.

Severe bleaching is often fatal, whereas corals that are mildly bleached can slowly regain their symbionts and normal colour after the end of summer, and survive.

Before 1998, coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef was infrequent and localised. But over the past four decades, bleaching has increased in frequency, severity and sptial scale, as a result of human-induced climate heating.




Read more:
We just spent two weeks surveying the Great Barrier Reef. What we saw was an utter tragedy


“Mass coral bleaching” refers to bleaching that is severe and widespread, affecting reefs at a regional scale or even throughout the tropics triggered by rising global sea temperatures.

The Great Barrier Reef consists of more than 3,000 individual coral reefs. It’s the same size as Japan or Italy, and extends for 2,300km along the coast of Queensland. Widespread coral deaths during extreme heatwaves, affecting hundreds of millions of coral colonies, far exceed the damage typically caused by a severe cyclone.

How bad is 2024?

Heat stress this week is reaching record levels on large parts of the Great Barrier Reef.

Climate scientists can measure the accumulation of heat stress throughout the summer by using a metric called “degree heating weeks” (DHW), which factors in both the duration and intensity of extreme heat exposure. This measures how far the temperature is above the threshold that triggers mild bleaching (1°C hotter than the normal summer maximum), and how long it stays above that threshold.

The same DHW exposure can result either from a long, moderate heatwave or from a short, intense peak in temperatures. The 2023–24 summer has been a slow burner on the Great Barrier Reef – sea temperatures have not been as extreme as during previous bleaching events, but they have persisted for longer.

As a general rule of thumb, 2–4 DHW units can trigger the onset of bleaching, and heat-sensitive species of coral begin to die at 6–8 DHW units. So far this summer, according to the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, heat stress on the Great Barrier Reef has climbed to 10–12 DHW units on many individual reefs, and has been north and south compared to the central region. Heat stress will likely peak in the next week or two at levels above all previous mass bleaching and mortality events since 1998, before falling as temperatures drop.

Coral bleaching is typically very patchy at the enormous scale of the Great Barrier Reef. In each of the previous events since 1998, 20–55% of individual reefs experienced severe bleaching and coral deaths, whereas 14–48% of reefs were unharmed.

Given the near-record levels of heat stress this summer, we can expect heavy losses of corals to occur on hundreds of individual reefs over the next few months.

What’s the longer-term outlook?

This latest, still-unfolding event was entirely predictable, as ocean temperatures continue to rise due to global heating.

Three of the seven mass bleaching events so far on the Great Barrier Reef coincided with El Niño conditions (1998, 2016 and this summer), and the remaining four did not. Increasingly, climate-driven coral bleaching and death is happening regardless of whether we are in an El Niño or La Niña phase. Average tropical sea surface temperatures are already warmer today under La Niña conditions than they were during El Niño events only three or four decades ago.

The Great Barrier Reef is now a chequerboard of reefs with different recent histories of coral bleaching. Reefs that bleached in 2017 or 2016 have had only five or six years to recover before being hit again this summer – assuming they escaped bleaching during the 2020 and 2022 episodes.

Clearly, the gap between consecutive heat extremes is shrinking – we are vanishingly unlikely to see another 14-year reprieve like 2002 to 2016 again in our lifetimes, until global temperatures stabilise.

Ironically, the corals that are now prevalent on many reefs are young colonies of fast-growing, heat-sensitive species of branching and table-shaped corals – analogous to the rapid recovery of flammable grasses after a forest fire. These species can restore coral cover quickly, but they also make the Great Barrier Reef more vulnerable to future heatwaves.




Read more:
Concern for the Great Barrier Reef can inspire climate action – but the way we talk about it matters


Attempts to restore depleted coral cover through coral gardening, assisted migration (by harvesting larvae) and assisted evolution (rearing corals in an aquarium) are prohibitively expensive and unworkable at any meaningful scale. In Florida, coral nurseries suffered mass deaths due to record sea temperatures last summer.

The only long-term way to protect corals on the Great Barrier Reef and elsewhere is to rapidly reduce global greenhouse emissions.

The Conversation

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

ref. The Great Barrier Reef’s latest bout of bleaching is the fifth in eight summers – the corals now have almost no reprieve – https://theconversation.com/the-great-barrier-reefs-latest-bout-of-bleaching-is-the-fifth-in-eight-summers-the-corals-now-have-almost-no-reprieve-225348

All female Air Niugini crew fly out to Cairns on International Women’s Day

PNG Post-Courier

Papua New Guinea’s national airline flight from Port Moresby to Cairns today was operated by an all female Air Niugini crew in recognition of International Women’s Day.

With the day’s theme of “Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress”, the national airline continues its progress in equal participation for all women within the organisation, whether it be on the ground or in the sky.

The flight was under the command of Captain Beverly Pakii (inset) with First Officer Chantilly Padigaga. and assisted in the cabin by Jarmilah Mileng, Mimijanna Mabone and Magdalene Lapana.

In January, Captain Pakii became the first female pilot in Air Niugini and Papua New Guinea to captain a jet aircraft after attaining her command on a Fokker jet aircraft.

With this achievement, it enabled her to command or captain flights on the Air Niugini domestic and international network that are operated by Fokker 70 and Fokker 100 aircraft.

Her first commercial flight was on January 4 this year on a Fokker 100 aircraft flight from Port Moresby to Lae and return.

Republished with permission.

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Kaniva News: Nobles’ letter demanding PM resign over royal memo takes Tonga back to dark ages

Tonga has been locked in a political standoff between the country’s King Tupou VI and Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni Hu’akavameiliku which erupted into a heated row in Parliament this week with two MPs being suspended. Here Kaniva News editor Kalino Latu gives his recent reaction to an ultimatum by the Tongan nobles.

EDITORIAL: By Kalino Latu, editor of Kaniva Tonga

Tonga’s nobles have demanded the Prime Minister and his Minister of Foreign Affairs resign immediately in order to assuage King Tupou VI’s disappointment with their ministerial roles.

The letter, which was purportedly signed by Lord Tu’ivakanō, described Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku’s refusal to accept the King’s show of power as very concerning and intimidating the peace of the country.

“We are the king’s cultural preservers (‘aofivala). Therefore, we propose that you and your government respect the king’s desire,” the letter read in Tongan.

“The king has withdrawn his confidence and consent from you as Defence Minister as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism Fekitamoeloa ‘Utoikamanu.

“We urge you to resign immediately from the Ministry of Defence as well as Fekitamoeloa ‘Utoikamanu to resign from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tourism”.

The letter demanded a response from the Prime Minister no later than February 27.

The letter came after the King said earlier this month in a memo that he no longer supported Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku as the Minister for His Majesty’s Armed Forces and Hon. Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Tourism.

PM still confident
Responding, the government said the Prime Minister was still confident in the Minister of Foreign Affairs and that the King’s wish clashed with the Constitution.

While the King’s nobles are free to express their opinion on the issue, some people may think that the lack of references to the Constitution to support their argument in their letter was more provoking and inciting than what they allege Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku has done.

This is because the Prime Minister said he was responding according to what the related clause in the Constitution said about His Majesty’s concerns. It is the Constitution which ensures that those who make decisions are making them on behalf of the public and will be held accountable to the people they serve.

Some people may see that the nobility’s departure from the constitution and citing the Tongan practice of faka’apa’apa’i e finangalo ‘o e tu’i (respecting the King’s wish) means the nobles are urging us to dump Tonga’s Constitution and live by the law of the jungle in which those who are strong and apply ruthless self-interest are most successful.

Our Tongan tradition of faka’apa’apa (respect the King no matter what) has no clear system of rules, limits and boundaries for us to follow, which leaves the door open for the powerful to practice immorality and unlawful activities.

Since the King’s memo was leaked to the public, some have argued that it was explicitly unconstitutional. There is nothing in the Constitution to say that the King has to show that he gives his consent or has confidence in a ministerial nominee proposed by the Prime Minister before he appoints them.

Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku
Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku . . . under royal pressure. Image: Kaniva News

However, some argued that there was nothing wrong with the King expressing his wish as he did to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The problem with this kind of attitude is that it urges the King to publicly show his disagreement with the Constitution whenever he wants.

Breaching royal oath?
The King could be seen in such a situation to be breaching his royal oath which, according to the Constitution, clause 34, says: “I solemnly swear before Almighty God to keep in its integrity the Constitution of Tonga and to govern in conformity with the laws thereof.”

The word “integrity” included in the Constitution is worth mentioning here.

It is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as: “The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles that you refuse to change”.

Some people may believe that for the King to have integrity in the constitution, he must have a strong sense of judgment and trust in his own accord.

To keep the Constitution honest the King must desist from saying things to the public which are not written in the Constitution and may cause concern and confusion.

The best example was his memo. It has caused a stir among the public but what was most concerning is that no one knows what was the reason behind the King’s withdrawal of his consent and confidence in the Prime Minister and his Minister of Foreign Affairs.

We have previously seen His Majesty make several wrong decisions which are said to have been influenced by his Privy Councillors or his nobility members, including Lord Tu’aivakanō’s abortive advice to dissolve the government in 2017.

Do the right thing
The nobility must do the right thing and advise the King according to the Constitution and not our old fashioned cultural practices.

It was the Tu’ivakano government which hired Commonwealth Legal Consultant Peter Pursgloves to review our 2010 constitution, which he said was the “poorest written Constitution” among all Commonwealth countries.

The Tu’ivakanō government vowed to follow Pursglove’s report and made significant changes to the Constitution which was said to have been agreed by the King in 2014.

When the ‘Akilisi Pohiva government ousted the Tu’ivakanō government in late 2014 they processed the Pursglove report and submitted it to Parliament through six new bills to be approved. However, it was the same people in the Tu’ivakanō government who strongly opposed the submission from the Opposition bench. They went further and falsely accused Pōhiva of secretly trying to remove some of the King’s powers.

Critics argued that this was because of the nobility’s long-time hatred against Pōhiva because of his tireless campaign to remove the executive power of the King and give it to a democratic government.

The nobles later apologised and withdrew their accusation against Pōhiva in the House after months of debates and public consultations. They finally said they wanted to support the submission after Pōhiva revealed in the House his government  has lodged an application for a judicial review of the decision made by Lord Tu’ilakepa to block the new bills.

That submission has yet to be approved by the House and the nobility has a duty to push for it to be approved. This would bring Tonga a more democratic system that would help keep the King and the government at peace.

The nobles must refrain from using cultural practices to resolve our constitutional issues as that would send us back to the dark ages.

This editorial was published by Kaniva Tonga on February 29 and is published by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

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Palestine supporters picket RNZ studios and call for ‘truth’ on Gaza

Pacific Media Watch

About 25 pro-Palestinian protesters picketed the Auckland headquarters of Radio New Zealand today in the second of two demonstrations claiming that media is providing biased coverage of Israeli’s war on Gaza that is now in its fifth month.

Last week protesters directed their criticism at Television New Zealand which never reported the picket.

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) secretary Neil Scott called on RNZ and other media to “tell the full truth” about the Israeli genocide in Gaza that has so far killed 30,800 people, mostly women and children.

At least 20 people — mostly babies and children — have been reported by Palestinian health authorities as having starved to death in the past week.

Scott said news media were providing “one-sided propaganda” in their reportage.

The protest came amid mounting criticism around the world over Western media coverage of the war and growing reports by media monitoring and research agencies of bias.

Protesters also picketed several media offices in Australian cities today, condemning coverage by the public broadcaster ABC.

‘Selective’ news
In a street placard headlined “Silence is complicity”, the protesters said that New Zealand media “selectively chooses” what was reported and broadcast BBC news feeds that were ‘inaccurate and misleading”.

“The media sculpts information to create public perceptions rather than informing people of the facts,” Scott said.

He said that news media refused to tell New Zealanders about Palestinian rights such as the “right of the occupied to fight occupation”, and that the occupier — Israel — was obligated to provide for the needs of the people under occupation, such as food, water and health.

A Palestinian "silence is complicity" placard
A Palestinian “silence is complicity” placard outside the foyer of the RNZ House in Auckland’s Hobson Street today. Image: APR

Scott also said Palestinians had the right not to be arrested and held without charge, trial or conviction — and a large number of Palestinian detainees were being held under “administrative detention”, effectively Israeli hostages.

Israel is holding more than 8200 Palestinian prisoners, more than 3000 of them without charge.

Scott said that there had been more than 20 weeks of rallies and vigils against the war in New Zealand, “averaging 25 rallies and events per week”, but they had been barely covered by media.

In Sydney, high profile Australian-Lebanese broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf, who has publicly challenged the ABC over its coverage and was ousted for perceived sympathy for the Palestinian plight, said she was “incredibly humbled and moved” by the demonstrations in front of ABC studios.

She has taken legal action against the ABC and the Federal Court on Thursday ordered mediation between her and the ABC management.

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TVNZ plans to axe Fair Go, Sunday, midday and night news in restructure

RNZ News

Television New Zealand is proposing to axe its long-running and award-winning current affairs programme Sunday, hosted by veteran broadcaster Miriama Kamo.

It is part of plans to cut dozens of jobs at the public broadcaster.

Staff were learning which programmes will be affected at a series of meetings today.

TVNZ said a proposal had been presented to Sunday staff which could result in cancellation of the programme.

The show was named Best Current Affairs Programme at the Voyager Media Awards and the New Zealand Television Awards last year.

It first aired in 2002 and has run for more than two decades, showcasing a mix of New Zealand stories and reports from overseas.

One award-winning investigation looked into the 2008 Chinese poisoned milk scandal, and how patients were treated at Porirua Hospital.

Veteran journalists like John Hudson, Janet McIntyre and Ian Sinclair have contributed to the show.

News bulletins may be canned
RNZ understands the 1News Midday and Tonight bulletins may also be canned, and consumer affairs programme Fair Go could to be cut too.

Its understood four out of 10 roles at youth platform Re: News are set to go — head of Re: News, head of content, production manager, and a journalist.

TVNZ's Sunday show
TVNZ’s Sunday show . . . named Best Current Affairs Programme at the Voyager Media Awards and the New Zealand Television Awards last year. Image: TVNZ screenshot APR

Its understood four out of 10 roles at youth platform Re: News are set to go — head of Re: News, head of content, production manager, and a journalist.

The remaining five staff will have a change in reporting line, reporting to TVNZ digital news and content general manager Veronica Schmidt.

RNZ has been told there will be a shift away from social media in a bid to drive more traffic to the Re: News website. Its documentary series funded by NZ On Air is also set to be canned.

The digital media platform was launched in 2017 as a current affairs platform aimed at audiences under-served by mainstream news.

It produces documentary videos, articles and podcasts particularly relevant to youth, Māori, Pasifika, rainbow communities, and migrant and regional audiences.

The platform won four awards at last year’s Voyager Media Awards, including best news, current affairs or specialist publication; video journalist of the year; best video documentary series; and best original podcast — seasonal/serial.

On average, Re: News receives more than a million video views each month.

Difficult choices
TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnell said in a statement that difficult choices had to be made to ensure the broadcaster remained sustainable.

It comes just a week after rival Newshub announced it had proposed to axe its entire news operation of 300 staff.

A hui for all news and current affairs staff is due to be held at 1pm, following the individual programme meetings.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, speaking at a press conference in Whangārei, said he was concerned about reports of job cuts and that it was a “pretty tough time if you’re a TVNZ employee”.

Luxon said consumers are consuming news in different ways and advertising and revenue models are changing.

He said it was a pretty tough time for people working in the media but he had travelled the country and many other sectors were doing it tough.

Media companies needed to evolve and innovate in order to adapt, he said.

Fair Go
Fair Go is one of New Zealand’s longest running and most popular television series.

The consumer affairs show, which investigates complaints from viewers, first aired in April 1977 and is just shy of its 47th birthday.

During a 2021 interview with RNZ’s Afternoons programme, original host and creator Brian Edwards said he was inspired by a BBC programme called That’s Life.

“One particular segment was on consumers and I think that was the germ of the idea, that we could do a programme in New Zealand where we could look at protecting people right there in their normal daily lives from rip offs and scams by various people and it it just soared from the beginning. I mean, it was tremendous,” Edwards said.

“I suppose my main function was to grill the villains, and because I’m a really quite unpleasant person, this fit in my my personality very well.”

Well-known presenter Kevin Milne hosted the show for almost three decades, from 1983 to 2010.

“It was beautifully set up, really, and it didn’t require any change as much and still hasn’t, you know, 44 years later,” he told Afternoons during the same interview.

‘Good deal of cynicism’
“I remember that there was a good deal of cynicism in the early days from the newsroom journalists who thought that because there was an element of entertainment on the show that you couldn’t call it real journalism, which was nonsense because it ended up leading the way in terms of investigative journalism.”

The show broke new ground, Milne said.

“It’s hard to believe now that back then, at the time when Brian set up those programmes, most broadcasters never named names. I can remember now hearing news stories which could say a well-known department store in Lambton Quay appeared in court this morning. No mention [of name], and when Fair Go started up, it was decided it would name names.”

Edwards said that was an “absolutely critical” aspect of the show.

“The thing would have been pointless I think, if you couldn’t name names. The thing was to expose the wrong doers if you like . . . what was the point in in doing that if you couldn’t name names?

“And I think we probably, together, our team, won some battles there and being able to do that. It took a while and I think there was a degree of nervousness by the broadcaster and eventually it turned out all right.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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Insurance is the latest weapon financial abusers use against their partners. Here’s how we fix it

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Fitzpatrick, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, UNSW Sydney

Shutterstock

They knew we had separated. Why did they let him cancel the policy and refund him the money without giving me a call to let me know the house and contents were no longer insured, or not do it before speaking to me first?

These are the words of Maddy (not her real name). Her experience of domestic and family violence was compounded by the acts of the insurance company she thought would give her financial protection.

Maddy’s former partner cancelled their home and contents insurance with a simple phone call. He received a refund of the premiums she had paid just a few months earlier. She didn’t know – not until well after he threatened to burn down the house with Maddy and the children in it.

If he had followed through with his threat I would have been punished too and made to pay the mortgage for a house that we couldn’t live in and not be able to rebuild because insurance wouldn’t cover it.

Maddy is one of the women who described how insurance is being misused as a weapon of financial abuse, for my second Designed to Disrupt report. Their personal accounts highlight the need for systemic change.




Read more:
Banks put family violence perpetrators on notice. Stop using accounts to commit abuse or risk being ‘debanked’


Insurance as a weapon

General insurance is designed to provide financial protection from unexpected events. It’s supposed to be an affordable way to repair or replace an asset that is lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed.

But too often, victim-survivors of domestic and family violence find they don’t have the coverage they thought. They may be left without a car, or a home, and with no or limited means to pay to restore their financial safety and economic security.

A man pointing out terms in some paperwork to a woman
Domestic violence victim-survivors can find they have less insurance coverage than they thought, or none at all.
Shutterstock

There is limited data about the extent of the problem. But through desktop research and consultation with those with who’ve experienced it, and with consumer advocates and industry, we found the biggest issue is with joint policies.

Financial abusers exploit general insurance policies and procedures to deny access to information, cancel policies, interfere with the claims process, and to steal, limit or withhold payouts to the victim-survivor.

They aim to exert control by leaving their partner with no money, damaged or irreparable property and assets, and the accompanying emotional toll.

Differing policies and procedures

While some insurers have specialist teams to deal with these sorts of cases, there is a lack of standardised practices across the industry.

Results of our survey reveal wild variations in data between companies, with the number of domestic violence and financial abuse cases reported ranging from 11 to more than 2,000 in the 2021–22 financial year.

This means some victim-survivors will receive support that is empathetic and understands the affects of trauma, with flexibility for individual solutions. Others continue to struggle with dismissive or judgemental staff, risks to their safety, or compounding financial hardship.




Read more:
Higher unemployment and less income: how domestic violence costs women financially


We asked whether any insurance company used modelling to estimate the risk or extent of property damage related to domestic and family violence. None did.

Yet it has been estimated that “consumption costs” (such as replacing damaged property, defaulting on bad debts, and the cost of moving) of partner violence against women and their children in 2021–22 could be $3.5 billion, including $202 million in damaged and destroyed property. Most of these costs are borne by victim-survivors and family and friends.

What needs to happen?

To address these issues with joint policies, three changes are needed:

  • close the loopholes that enable perpetrators to cancel insurance policies without the knowledge or consent of victim-survivors

  • introduce a “conduct of others” clause as a standard part of every insurance contract, enabling victim-survivors to make a claim when perpetrators deliberately damage property

  • modernise the law so insurance products can be redesigned with features that protect against financial abuse.

The silhouette of a woman looking down in a dark room
Financial abuse through insurance can compound the negative affects of domestic and family violence.
Shutterstock

As a starting point, every general insurer should denounce financial abuse in their terms and conditions – following the lead of the Australian banking industry. So far, 14 banks have adopted this recommendation and are refusing to tolerate misuse of their products as a tactic of coercive control.

These changes would build on the significant progress the general insurance industry has made to support victim-survivors and drive greater consistency. The General Insurance Code of Practice sets a benchmark for self-regulation, and detailed guidance outlines better customer service practices for those experiencing domestic and family violence. All insurers are required to have a domestic and family violence policy, and some insurers have set up specialist teams and provided extra training.

The law also needs to be modernised because it’s stifling changes that would give victim-survivors better protection.




Read more:
When care becomes control – financial abuse cuts across cultures


The Insurance Contracts Act was written in 1984, just ten years after the first modern women’s refuge was established in Australia and well before domestic and family violence became an urgent national conversation.

Despite calls in 2004 and 2021 for the law to address cases in which a victim-survivor was denied a claim because of a wilful act or other breach by the perpetrator, legislation remains unchanged. Yet this type of behaviour is one of the most common ways insurance is used in family violence.

Two insurers, AAMI and Suncorp, have introduced a “conduct of others” clause to provide flexibility to pay a claim in these cases, even where there is no legal requirement to do so.

While these are positive moves, it’s slow progress. It’s time Australian insurers and regulators addressed this gap.

The Conversation

Catherine Fitzpatrick is Founder and Director of Flequity Ventures, a social enterprise which aims to disrupt financial abuse and gender bias through more flexible, safe and equitable product and service design. She received funding from the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety to write the Designed to Disrupt report and continues to be affiliated. She is a former bank executive with roles managing customer complaints including those related to general insurance, domestic violence support and government relations. She has previously been engaged by the Insurance Council of Australia to provide guidance on safety by design in insurance.

ref. Insurance is the latest weapon financial abusers use against their partners. Here’s how we fix it – https://theconversation.com/insurance-is-the-latest-weapon-financial-abusers-use-against-their-partners-heres-how-we-fix-it-224632

Let’s not kid ourselves that private investors or super funds will build the social housing we need

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Coates, Program Director, Economic Policy, Grattan Institute

t_rust/Getty

This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here.


Treasurer Jim Chalmers is leading a push to get private investors to help build more social and affordable housing. But we shouldn’t kid ourselves about where the money will come from.

The defining feature of social and affordable housing is a big rental subsidy for the tenant, which no private investor will ever volunteer to pay. In the end, government – that is, taxpayers – will always foot the bill.

The sooner we accept this, the better. Wishful thinking that private investors will wear the cost of rental discounts risks making the limited government subsidies available for housing less effective.

We need more social housing

Social housing – where rents are typically capped at 30% of tenants’ incomes – makes a big difference to the lives of many vulnerable Australians.

Yet Australia’s stock of social housing – currently about 430,000 dwellings – has barely grown in 20 years, during which time the population has increased by 33%.

A stagnant stock means there is little “flow” of available housing to catch people going through hardship, who then face prolonged, agonising waits while struggling to afford to keep a roof over their head.

But it’s expensive

The main reason our social housing stock has stagnated is the expense.

Social housing offers a big rental discount, or subsidy, to tenants.

In Australia, the gap between the subsidised rent and the private market rent is about $15,000 per rental per year.

Because the subsidy to tenants is ongoing, the cost to governments is ongoing. That means that every extra 100,000 social housing dwellings costs an extra $1.5 billion every year.

The same goes for subsidised “affordable” housing, where rents are typically set at 20-25% below the market rate, and which are available to many low- and some middle-income earners.

If the tenant is getting a discount on the market rate, the government will pay for that somewhere along the line.

Private investors won’t wear the subsidy gap

Australia has $3.5 trillion of superannuation savings – the fourth-largest retirement savings pool in the world – but practically none of it is invested in Australian housing. The Treasurer wants to change that.

He’s talked a big game about encouraging private capital, including super funds, to invest specifically in social and affordable housing.

But no super fund should forego returns for its members by paying the subsidy gap for social or affordable housing out of members’ pockets.

It would be incompatible with superannuation funds’ core objective – maximising returns for their members – which funds are obligated by law to prioritise.

Private investors prefer affordable to social housing

If we make encouraging private investment in social and affordable housing the goal, we risk misallocating the scarce government subsidies we have.

Most super funds, and other investors, would typically prefer to invest in affordable, rather than social housing.

Doing so lets investors finance more homes for any given quantity of government housing subsidies that are available, while taking on less-disadvantaged tenants who are seen as less risky.

We’ve been here before: the National Rental Affordability Scheme spent $3.1 billion channelling subsidies to private investors for affordable housing.

Grattan Institute estimates suggest the scheme paid an extra $1 billion in windfall gains to investors, above and beyond the cost of the discounted rents offered to tenants, who typically weren’t the most needy.

Super funds could make social housing more expensive

Super funds can help finance the construction of new social housing via loans to community housing providers – as four major funds have recently agreed to do.

But these loans are likely to be on fully commercial terms.

They are deals attractive to federal and state governments worried about taking on more debt.

But they are also likely to make social housing more expensive to deliver because governments can borrow at lower rates than the returns sought by funds.

Governments can’t avoid their responsibility

Ultimately, governments have to foot the bill for social and affordable housing. And our priority should be social, rather than affordable housing, since its targeted at people at serious risk of becoming homeless.

The sooner that truth is acknowledged, the sooner we can get on with funding subsidies and the less time we will waste on trying to coax private investors into being something they’re not.

The best way to boost funding for social housing would be to double the size of the Housing Australia Future Fund from $10 billion to $20 billion




Read more:
The Greens were right to pass Australia’s Housing Future Fund bill – the case for further delay was weak


The government-owned fund uses borrowed money to invest in stocks and bonds and uses the income to cover the social housing subsidy gap.

It makes use of the higher return the government can get from investing than from retiring debt, in the same way as the government’s Future Fund.

Doubling the size of the Housing Australia Future Fund could support the building of up to an extra 30,000 social dwellings over the next five years.

Coupled with a further big boost to Commonwealth Rent Assistance, it could really help low-income renters.

The Conversation

Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments, $4 million from BHP Billiton, and $1 million from NAB. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and contribute to funding Grattan Institute’s activities. Grattan Institute also receives funding from corporates, foundations, and individuals to support its general activities, as disclosed on its website.

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

ref. Let’s not kid ourselves that private investors or super funds will build the social housing we need – https://theconversation.com/lets-not-kid-ourselves-that-private-investors-or-super-funds-will-build-the-social-housing-we-need-224635

80% of Australians think AI risk is a global priority. The government needs to step up

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Noetel, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, The University of Queensland

Alliance Images/Shutterstock

A new nationally representative survey has revealed Australians are deeply concerned about the risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI). They want the government to take stronger action to ensure its safe development and use.

We conducted the survey in early 2024 and found 80% of Australians believe preventing catastrophic risks from advanced AI systems should be a global priority on par with pandemics and nuclear war.

As AI systems become more capable, decisions about how we develop, deploy and use AI are now critical. The promise of powerful technology may tempt companies – and countries – to race ahead without heeding the risks.

Our findings also reveal a gap between the AI risks that media and government tend to focus on, and the risks Australians think are most important.




Read more:
Demand for computer chips fuelled by AI could reshape global politics and security


Public concern about AI risks is growing

The development and use of increasingly powerful AI is still on the rise. Recent releases such as Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude 3 have seemingly near-human level capabilities in professional, medical and legal domains.

But the hype has been tempered by rising levels of public and expert concern. Last year, more than 500 people and organisations made submissions to the Australian government’s Safe and Responsible AI discussion paper.

They described AI-related risks such as biased decision making, erosion of trust in democratic institutions through misinformation, and increasing inequality from AI-caused unemployment.

Some are even worried about a particularly powerful AI causing a global catastrophe or human extinction. While this idea is heavily contested, across a series of three large surveys, most AI researchers judged there to be at least a 5% chance of superhuman AI being “extremely bad (e.g., human extinction)”.

The potential benefits of AI are considerable. AI is already leading to breakthroughs in biology and medicine, and it’s used to control fusion reactors, which could one day provide zero-carbon energy. Generative AI improves productivity, particularly for learners and students.

However, the speed of progress is raising alarm bells. People worry we aren’t prepared to handle powerful AI systems that could be misused or behave in unintended and harmful ways.

In response to such concerns, the world’s governments are attempting regulation. The European Union has approved a draft AI law, the United Kingdom has established an AI safety institute, while US President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order to promote safer development and governance of advanced AI.




Read more:
Who will write the rules for AI? How nations are racing to regulate artificial intelligence


Australians want action to prevent dangerous outcomes from AI

To understand how Australians feel about AI risks and ways to address them, we surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,141 Australians in January and February 2024.

We found Australians ranked the prevention of “dangerous and catastrophic outcomes from AI” as the number one priority for government action.

Australians are most concerned about AI systems that are unsafe, untrustworthy and misaligned with human values.

Other top worries include AI being used in cyber attacks and autonomous weapons, AI-related unemployment and AI failures causing damage to critical infrastructure.

Strong public support for a new AI regulatory body

Australians expect the government to take decisive action on their behalf. An overwhelming majority (86%) want a new government body dedicated to AI regulation and governance, akin to the Therapeutic Goods Administration for medicines.

Nine in ten Australians also believe the country should play a leading role in international efforts to regulate AI development.

Perhaps most strikingly, two-thirds of Australians would support hitting pause on AI development for six months to allow regulators to catch up.




Read more:
I used to work at Google and now I’m an AI researcher. Here’s why slowing down AI development is wise


Government plans should meet public expectations

In January 2024, the Australian government published an interim plan for addressing AI risks. It includes strengthening existing laws on privacy, online safety and disinformation. It also acknowledges our currently regulatory frameworks aren’t sufficient.

The interim plan outlines the development of voluntary AI safety standards, voluntary labels on AI materials, and the establishment of an advisory body.

Our survey shows Australians support a more safety-focused, regulation-first approach. This contrasts with the targeted and voluntary approach outlined in the interim plan.

It is challenging to encourage innovation while preventing accidents or misuse. But Australians would prefer the government prioritise preventing dangerous and catastrophic outcomes over “bringing the benefits of AI to everyone”.

Some ways to do this include:

  • establishing an AI safety lab with the technical capacity to audit and/or monitor the most advanced AI systems

  • establishing a dedicated AI regulator

  • defining robust standards and guidelines for responsible AI development

  • requiring independent auditing of high-risk AI systems

  • ensuring corporate liability and redress for AI harms

  • increasing public investment in AI safety research

  • actively engaging the public in shaping the future of AI governance.

Figuring out how to effectively govern AI is one of humanity’s great challenges. Australians are keenly aware of the risks of failure, and want our government to address this challenge without delay.

The Conversation

Michael Noetel has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Medical Research Future Fund, Sport Australia, Open Philanthropy, and the National Health and Medical Research Council. He is a director of Effective Altruism Australia.

Alexander Saeri has received funding from the Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund and the FTX Future Fund. He is affiliated with Good Ancestors Policy.

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

ref. 80% of Australians think AI risk is a global priority. The government needs to step up – https://theconversation.com/80-of-australians-think-ai-risk-is-a-global-priority-the-government-needs-to-step-up-225175

Personal trauma and criminal offending are closely linked – real rehabilitation is only possible with justice system reform

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katey Thom, Associate professor, Auckland University of Technology

New Zealand’s justice system is failing. The country has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the OECD, and over 56% of people with prior convictions are reconvicted within two years.

Some 52% of people in prison identify as Māori, while 91% of people in prison have experienced mental distress, and over 50% addiction. Many are affected by poverty and have been victims of sexual and physical violence.

Recent moves by the government to abolish funding for cultural reports at court sentencing further threaten the most vulnerable by removing information from judges to help create an appropriate rehabilitation pathway.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Our new research shows a “trauma-informed” justice system can better support people and their families to move from experiences of incarceration, mental distress and addiction into recovery and wellbeing.

This approach would mean taking into account the impacts of trauma across a wide spectrum that includes neurological, biological, psychological, spiritual, social and cultural wellbeing.

Simply put, a trauma-informed approach acknowledges what has happened to someone rather than identify what is wrong with them.




Read more:
Changes to NZ’s parole laws to improve rehabilitation could lead to even longer prison times


Our study, He Ture Kia Tika (Let the law Be Right), aimed to identify how New Zealand can improve outcomes for people experiencing mental distress and/or addiction while in the criminal justice system.

Our team interviewed 45 individuals who had been in the system. They were now thriving in the community and free of criminal behaviour. We looked at what factors contributed to their success.

We also talked with six kaupapa Māori community and peer-led providers who help support people on their recovery journeys.

What a trauma-informed system would look like

For Māori, a trauma-informed approach considers the importance of the wider community, acknowledges inter-generational and historical trauma, and incorporates te ao Māori (a Māori world view) to heal.

It also respects the autonomy of individuals and their families, and creates opportunities for them to feel empowered to make decisions about their own lives and livelihoods.

While the research included people across a number of ethnicities, most of the participants appreciated the healing they received from tikanga-led (customs and traditional values) approaches.

Time and again, participants shared how hapori (community) are already delivering what they need – localised, culturally safe, trauma-informed services that aim to support people to find their recovery pathway.

By prioritising kaupapa Māori and lived experience, grassroots community initiatives are making a real and lasting difference to people coming out of the justice system.




Read more:
Ending legal aid for cultural reports at sentencing may only make court hearings longer and costlier


New Zealand’s Matariki Court allows an offender who has pleaded guilty to participate in a culturally appropriate rehabilitation programme. Ngahau Davis, head of Te Mana o Ngapuhi Kowhao Rau, which supports adults going through the Matariki court, explained it this way:

Everybody wants to punish people – you’ve done wrong – but nobody is asking the question why.

This approach does not mean ignoring the offending behaviour. In fact, our research underscores that the road to recovery and wellbeing is hard. It involves deep work to heal and restore balance from harms that have occurred.

Another research participant, Carly, shared how she tried and failed over many years to get support through official channels – either justice or health – for ongoing addiction and mental distress. Finally, she took drastic action.

I woke up one morning, and I just wanted to die. I had a knife on me, so I walked into a dairy and held up the dairy worker at knifepoint. I climbed over the counter and said, “I’m coming over. I don’t want anything from you.” I took a packet of cigarettes, left the dairy, walked around the corner, and waited for the police to come. Then, I asked them to take me to prison.

During the sentencing, Carly revealed, she and the judge were “both crying”. The judge acknowledged she had been trying to get help for a long time. But from a legal perspective, the only option was to send her back to prison.

Carly is one of our research participants who has kindly shared her story with the researchers.

Change at every level

As a starting point, the government needs to meet its responsibilities to te Tiriti o Waitangi-Treaty of Waitangi. Both the legal and health systems have failed to provide justice or equity for Māori.

Our research shows the impact of people being deprived of access to the basic needs of housing, food, school and connection to their culture and communities. If we took eradicating poverty seriously, we would undoubtedly see more whānau and communities thriving.

There is also a lack of recognition of tikanga, as well as other ways of knowing and being, that are important to Māori.

Shane White, operations manager at Hoani Waititi Marae told us:

The government chased us hard to run a tikanga programme. Their want is for them not to re-offend. Our want is for them to be good Māori – to be part of their whānau, to be part of their hapū, to be down on the marae, and to have belonging, love and laughter. He won’t bother reoffending because he has a life now.

The comment illustrates the power of a trauma-informed justice system – to move the goalposts from simply “stopping offending” to supporting people realise their full potential, with the capacity to connect with whānau and contribute meaningfully to their communities.

A trauma informed approach has the power to transform not just the way our justice system understands and responds to clients, but to imbue people with agency and self-determination as they move into well-resourced pathways of recovery and wellbeing.

By reframing the justice system’s approach to its most vulnerable clients, and acknowledging the power of trauma and poverty in their lives, the courts and associated agencies can offer meaningful and sustained support to those who need it most.

The Conversation

Katey Thom and Stella Black, alongside our wider rōpū, received funding from the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation for this research.

Stella Black received funding from the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation for this research project.

ref. Personal trauma and criminal offending are closely linked – real rehabilitation is only possible with justice system reform – https://theconversation.com/personal-trauma-and-criminal-offending-are-closely-linked-real-rehabilitation-is-only-possible-with-justice-system-reform-224627

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